Bad criticism that is wrong shouldn’t bother you because…

“Bad criticism that is wrong shouldn’t bother you because it’s wrong or incorrect. But if the criticism is accurate and we get defensive; the reasonable reaction is to use it to grow and correct false beliefs.”

Cameron Bertuzzi from @capturingchristianity

Late last year I went on a Capturing Christianity apologetics binge and what I found really interesting about it was I entered into a realm of discussion that was really deep and really thoughtful and actually…honest? Wait let me explain…

Personally, I stayed away from anything apologetics related for a long time. I saw a couple of those sensational “debates” where atheists and apologists were throwing zingers back and forth at each other like “if I have a box of watch parts and I shake them in a box a billion times they’ll never come out as a working watch therefore evolution is debunked!” I’m sure there’s some value to those things but I don’t enjoy them. It’s a competition and not a learning experience and that’s what I (wrongly) thought apologetics was for a long time.

The thing I appreciate about Cameron’s work is you get a real sense of someone looking for things that are true. Some of the conversations are really deep, too deep for me to passively listen to while I do other things, but the conversations are really just that; conversations. I love this idea of listening to gather information and correct false assumptions and not just listening to confirm a bias. It’s an honest pursuit of truth; not just pep rally or a beat down.

If I’ve learned anything here on social media is that people have opinions and it doesn’t take too long before they start to bluntly share them with you. There are no compliment sandwiches being served here and it can get rough. I’ve learned someone being mean is nothing to get upset about because it’s bad criticism. Mostly I view those as someone who needed to get something out and they used my post to do so - hopefully that was helpful to them. The things that hang around and make me defensive though are the ones that have a ring of truth in them and I’m appreciative for the opportunity to correct my bad thinking.

Thanks Cameron. 🙌