The iPod - a tool to study Apologetics

If there's one thing I've learned from my stint in radio, is that the audible message, repeated constantly, becomes an indelible part of your memory.

Why do you think that a thirty second radio ad, hammered into the subconscious of so many listeners, at least six times a day for at least six months, is committed to their memory in such a way that they can even repeat it verbatim - knowingly or unknowingly?


There's something to what Joshua was told in the book of Joshua, in verse 1:8.  "This law scroll must not leave your lips! 1  You must memorize it 2  day and night so you can carefully obey 3  all that is written in it. Then you will prosper 4  and be successful. 5 " - from Netbible.org.


I first started to listen to podcasts after finding out that there were lessons to be learned from the great divinity schools in the US through iTunes U and other great websites.  At that time, it was just good to listen online because I could choose to stop listening at any time.


After starting my studies in apologetics, downloading the podcasts became mandatory.  It was difficult already to wrap your head around the concepts, much more grasp them completely after reading through the pages of the book just a few times.  Add to that, my failing eyesight, reading became quite a challenge after going through at least five pages.


Downloading podcasts by Dr. William Lane Craig, JP Moreland, Mike Licona and Gary Habermas to work through the issues of the resurrection account helped me understand the propositions and the arguments better. After realizing that I could take the lectures with me while waiting in line at banks, walking from place to place, I began to load the podcasts on my old iPod.  Who cared if I couldn't upload video? I didn't need visual aids.  I needed to remember these things.


Uploading the lectures and interviews by Dr. Mike Licona helped my understanding of historiography and how valuable it was in making the case for the validity of the resurrection accounts.


Downloading, and listening to Reasonable Faith podcasts brought me up to speed on the absurdity of life without God, the Kalam Cosmological Argument, the problem of evil and a great many other issues that are taken up by most apologists.


With the lectures by Dr. Doug Groothuis, I learned to appreciate Francis Schaeffer, Soren Kirkegaard, Blaise Pascal and cultural apologetics.


Listening with the iPod is the next best thing to being with these esteemed scholars and listening to them in real time. It's even better, because you can get to rewind and really commit what they say to memory.


Many other people have become enamored with tablet PCs and other gadgets. 


I value my old iPod - and plan to get another one with larger memory space when it finally conks out. It has served me well since 2006. And continues to do so up to now - in my quest to study the hope that we have and why it's the most viable system of thought to believe in.