I want to write a work of Christian apologetics, but for that I need a lot of arguments. I know some, but not enough of them, and the ones I know may not be perfectly solid. So I need to do research, but I don't want to spend money on books. So I will need to use the internet. My question is this: How do I conduct research on the internet and get the most out of it without paying for anything. My question is particularly this, how do I research this topic of Christian apologetics? Do you think I will find enough information on google books for free? Also, do you think I should gather only a small number of the best arguments and use them, so that my work is not too long? I want to make a clear case for the Christian faith but I don't want to write 100 to 700 pages. What do you think I should do?
You can find a lot of stuff on google, but tbh this sounds like the sorted of learned clerical argument that is generally written by academics - is there a university near you who's library you could arrange to use ? Or a good public library ? If not your best bet would be vto speak to your preist or vicar (or whatever depending on your denomination) - they are likely to both be well versed, and to have texts etc
Make friends with the librarian at your nearest library, and tell her what you're researching. They know things. They have friends. They'll call in the librarian calvalry for you and track down obscure books and articles. They have lists of sources beyond what you can imagine. Non-fiction has been my genre for decades, and I've never had to buy a single book for research, unless it's one I actually was actually interested in enough to keep.
If you don't mind a bit of language ArmoredSkeptic and Logicked on youtube bring pretty good arguments. Also the interwebz is full of arguments for both sides, and only costs you what you pay for your internet service on a monthly basis.
Amazon offers a tonne of Christian theology e-books for free. If you don't have a Kindle reader you can convert them to PDF and read them on your computer.
I don't want to rain on your parade, but this sounds a lot more like a second year university research paper than a book. The finest minds Christianity has to offer have spent centuries developing such arguments, and in turn, there have been generations of historians, both Christian and otherwise, documenting their efforts. If you're working for your own edification or satisfaction, fair enough, but if you're trying to write for a larger audience, you've chosen a huge topic to distill down in a very short space. For example, The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel, which attempts to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was a historical figure who was accepted as a prophet in his own time, takes up 295 pages. Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis, is 98 pages, but that's only one source, and one you might have to pay for. With only access to the local library and whatever you can find on the internet, and a target of fewer than a hundred pages, you're unlikely to produce anything that hasn't already been covered on someone's web page.
