Evidence Based Apologetics

Evidence based apologetics... what is that?

It's a new foundation system that I am working on, with the hope of developing some key arguments for Islam and the Qur'an which are based upon the best interpretations of available evidence and scholarship and which can, ideally, be tested and assessed by others.

How would we go about establishing a practice of evidence based apologetics?

Firstly, we must look at some specific questions or challenges and, before proceeding, assess the validity of them.

For example, using the challenge in my most recent post as an example, "The Qur'an says Mary is in the Trinity", we would first assess if this is a valid challenge, before we attempt to formulate the justification of the challenge.

I.e., By simply reading the Qur'an, one can deduce that it never suggests that Mary is part of the Trinity. Ergo, the challenge is invalid, and we do not need to go about explaining why the Qur'an would suggest Mary is a part of the Trinity.

After accepting a challenge or question as valid, we may then follow a simple 3 point process to develop evidence based responses. In short, one would need to:

1)Search for and retrieve evidence. In regards to the Qur'an, we could need to look at; manuscripts, exegeses, ahadith, historical accounts, Arabic language primers, journal articles, etc (this list is far from exhaustive).

2)Assess the validity of the evidence found. For example, who wrote it, what was their background, what evidence did they have, what do we know now that they didn't, etc.

3)Make a decision based upon the evidence. After the evidence has been appraised, make appropriate conclusions from it, which are now evidence based conclusions.

Over the next few posts, insha'Allah, I'll be attempting to demonstrate how such an approach would work, based on a common challenge against the Qur'an.

It is regularly suggested that the Qur'anic claim about the Jews considering Uzayr as the son of God is false, because the Jews don't believe this.

Lets take it through the process to come to an evidence based conclusion, insha'Allah.