More Silly Arguments
Very often while sitting in a Protestant church, I will hear a non-trivial amount of C.S. Lewis references. It's not every day, but over some unspecified interval, there will easily be more references to Lewis during a sermon than church fathers like Augustine or founding theologians like Luther. These social dynamics are quite interesting. While Protestant lament the idea of a saint, they exalt figures like Lewis, Billy Graham, or any other apologist or charismatic preacher who's "defended the faith." Apologists like Lewis provide believers with stock arguments that can be used against "those skeptics seeking to undermine their beliefs." These arguments are not analytical instruments used to interrogate the internal validity and consistency of their belief system, they are often simple platitudes to be memorized without any critical interrogation into their merit. One in particular that I've heard woven into a few sermons, is Lewis's "Argument ...