Answering Alpha is a series of reviews of Alpha Course , which is an evangelism-focused series of lectures and Bible studies. The “course” aims to introduce outsiders to Christianity to basic concepts like sin, the afterlife, who and what Jesus is, and why everyone needs to convert.
First developed in the UK, it now runs all over the world in many different languages.
And as you might suspect, it sucks.
In Alpha Course #9, our presenters change a bit to reflect a serious new direction in the series. Here, we’ll get sales patter and testimonies meant to make us think the Holy Spirit does a bunch of different things. Today, we’ll check out this video, examine its claims, and find Read more
In Alpha Course video #8, the title promises to tell us exactly who the ‘Holy Spirit’ is. But as we saw in previous videos, it’s pure folly to trust this series’ titles to live up to their promises. In this review, we’ll explore what the video says, what it studiously Read more
As I watched Alpha Course’s video about divine guidance, one fact sprang out at me above all others. Well, two facts. The first one was simple: Christians have no idea in the world how to tell what their god wants them to do. The second is that their god apparently Read more
In Alpha Course’s seventh video, we find some of its creators’ most fanciful guesses yet about exactly how their god and religion operate. This one covers divine guidance, which almost all Christians believe their god offers believers as a perk. Despite its nearly-universal status, however, they can’t actually tell us Read more
In Alpha Course #6, Christians try very very hard to make the Bible sound utterly relevant and important to everyone’s lives. They fail, of course, just like every other video so far has failed to accomplish its own stated goals. But as usual, it’s how specifically they fail that should Read more
We now arrive at Alpha Course #5, which concerns prayer in Christianity. Here, we see Christian dishonesty at its fullest flowering. The Christians responsible for this mess desperately want to promise potential recruits that prayer results in miracles. Oh, yes, they do desperately want to promise that. But they know Read more
When I review Alpha Course evangelism videos, I double-check my ideas by consulting a printed manual for the entire course. This time around, when I reviewed its fourth video, the manual contained an interesting discrepancy between its syllabus and the video’s actual contents. Today, let’s dive into this very telling Read more
In the fourth Alpha Series video, Christians try very poorly to explain how religious faith works and how someone acquires faith in their religion. Unfortunately, they don’t understand what faith is themselves, nor how faith sparks to life in the first place. Today, we’ll review this video and explore what Read more
Throughout the first two episodes of Alpha Course, we watched its creators do everything except provide tangible evidence that could spark belief in their claims. The third video is no different. This time around, we watch Christians do everything except explain in concrete terms why Jesus just had to die. Read more
Alpha Course is a venerable evangelism-focused Bible study about Christianity. As such, its creators brought their A-game to making it as persuasive as humanly possible. But to call it underwhelming would be an understatement. In the series’ second video, “Who is Jesus,” we explore various bad apologetics arguments and emotional Read more