Does this invalidate the value of Christianity? I don’t think so, unless an apologist tries to defend the bible as being as perfect and infallible as their god. This leads to fantastical twists of logic as troublesome bible verses are reinterpreted to fit current knowledge. This pseudoscientific god is clownish in its twists and turns, and not a being I am inclined to admire.
Anyways, back to the original challenge. The apologist stated that there are no preachers who declare a flat earth today. Besides this being a weak claim anyways (appeal to majority) saying there are none sounds like an easy challenge. After all, there are more denominations and flavours of belief than there is clover in the field. If I find just one, the statement is invalid.
Well, it’s three days later and I’m still looking.
I’ve found a divinity student blogging about the flat earth. There is a now defunct church that has reinvented itself and it remains silent about earths flatness. And I found a lengthy ecumenical statement from another denomination where they debate whether to maintain a six literal day creation cycle.
The point is moot as the apologist in question also stated unequivocally that there are no non-trinitarian churches. That was easy to disprove. There are Bible Students, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Unitarians, and Christadelphians to name a few. The apologist tried to discredit these examples first by their minority and then that they are heretical. This is the “No True Scotsman” argument. Of course there are non-trinitarian churches. There are a nearly endless variety of shades of belief. The original statement is false.
Just because an apologist needs a fairly uniform set of beliefs doesn’t mean reality has to match his expectation.
So I know going forward that even if I locate a flat earth church this particular apologist already has ways to dismiss my findings.
But wouldn’t it be fun to find one?
The divinity student: https://www.philipstallings.com/?m=1
The now defunct church: https://wiki.tfes.org/Christian_Catholic_Apostolic_Church
A church holding to a six day creation: https://www.narrowway.ca/what-we-believe
A thesis that gives a good background on the forces that led to this type of apologism.
