"Refining the Columbo Tactic" (Class 2 recap)

On Monday March 23rd we met for our second class to study the book Tactics, written by Greg Koukl.

We started off the class with a short quiz on the topic of God and morality as a review of the On Guard material.

Terrence went over the answers to our quiz from last time and handed back our grades. His wife graciously graded the quizzes based on what she thought were good responses. Everyone was given a secret moniker so that grades could be posted by our code names (the names were based on Transformer names!). Terrence will sum each person's quiz grades from week to week to and post the standings to help foster a little healthy competition. There's a rumor that a prize will be given out to the person with the highest overall score at the end of the course! So keep studying.

The quiz for next time will either be on Suffering (On Guard chapter 7) or Who Was Jesus? (On Guard chapter 8). 

Next we reviewed the lessons from our first session of the Tactics course and then started the new material from this second session. The topic this week was about"Refining the Columbo Tactic: Reversing the Burden of Proof." 

{The burden of proof is on the person making the claim to give reasons or evidence to back it up.}

In practice this can take the form of a simple question like, "How did you come to that conclusion?" or "Why do you say that?" or "What are your reasons for thinking that?".

The first Columbo tactic was all about finding out what someone believes. The second is about why they believe it.

Asking for reasons might leave the other person with a blank stare because frankly they might not have thought through why they believe what they do. They may not have really reached a conclusion. It's a good way to call out those fanciful stories that others may throw out as explanations. Remember, "an alternate explanation is not a refutation." 

For example, Greg Koukl related a story of a person "refuting" intelligent design by offering an alternate explanation along the lines of "there was a point in the nothing and then it caused ripples that eventually spun out galaxies and stars and planets." That might be an alternate explanation but it's on the person making the claim to back it up to show that it is more than just a "once upon a time..." story. 

This class wrapped up a few minutes short of finishing the second session. So we'll finish that up next time. Until then here's some homework: First, practice the Columbo tactics. Second, review the material from this class. Third, read ahead in the next session (page 42 to 59 in the Student Manual). Fourthly, review the topic of suffering and "Who was Jesus?" for a quiz on either one next time. 

Overall it was a great class with a lot of really important practical tips and good discussion.

The presentation from Monday is available digitally on the website here.

Next time we will meet on April 13th, same time, same place (starting at 6:45pm with coffee, desserts, and fellowship). We'll learn about "Perfecting the Columbo Tactic". Hope to see you there!