I just finished listening to Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ. Lee was an atheist who was an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune when his wife converted to Christianity. Using his investigative skills, Lee set out to prove that Christ, or at least Christ's divinity, was a myth. The result was the most compelling and complete case for Christianity I've ever heard. From historical accounts, archaeology, psychology and much more, Lee pursued the topic and found more and more evidence for Christ. I spent a little time noodling around YouTube and found this brief summary by Lee.
Enjoy. And then check out the book. Religion aside, I learned a lot about the different disciplines he applied to his work. His work is so compelling and so complete that I think I'm going to stop reading theology books for quite a while and go back to philosophy, fiction, business and science. After you read Lee, there's not a whole lot left to read.
Along the lines of some of the things Strobel said in that clip, you might find it interesting to read "Asimov's Guide to the Bible". It is intended as a discussion of when and by whom each of the parts of the Bible were written, who they were about, and what was going on in the area at the time it was written. Even though Asimov was not an observant Jew, he tried to take a strict factual approach rather than arguing religious points, and I think he did a pretty good job of it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! I have to say it surprises me. I couldn't get through Asimov's famous Foundation series because he did such a terrible job creating the fake-religion his characters use to control the populace.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I didn't buy his fake religion in Foundation for a minute. And, in fact, I thought most of his fiction was kind of bland.
ReplyDeleteBut, Asimov was at his best when he was explaining factual matters. He was very good at taking writings by other experts, and distilling them down to something comprehensible and to the point.
I take The Bible as analogy and it is full of wisdom that applies in everyday life. However, the place that I was most exposed to bible study was not church but public school in the great state of Indiana. It used to be that a mobile classroom would stop by the elementary school and we students would participate in "bible study class."
ReplyDeleteI imagine this practice has long since been stopped by the ACLU despite the fact that the entire reason public schools were founded in our country was to enable public literacy of The Bible.
I enjoyed I, Robot, but for the most part, I preferred Heinlein and Bradbury.
ReplyDeleteI take The Bible as analogy and it is full of wisdom that applies in everyday life.
ReplyDeleteLee Strobel makes a very strong case for the New Testament being regarded as an accurate historical document and not just a set of suggestions.
"Lee was an atheist who was an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune when his wife converted to Christianity."
ReplyDelete/awkward dinner conversations
As far as that goes, I wonder if she now thinks that he went a bit overboard. From Strobel's Wikipedia page:
ReplyDelete"Strobel was a teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, from 1987 to 2000, and of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California from 2000 to 2002, before shifting his focus to writing and producing his TV show.[8] He continues to speak periodically at both churches and has been a board member of the Willow Creek Association. In 2007, Strobel was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by Southern Evangelical Seminary in recognition of his contributions to Christian apologetics."
Tim, having watched a few of his YouTube chats, I think you're right, he got on the bandwagon with a vengeance. Unlike some of us who just take it all for granted, he spent almost two years trying to disprove the thing and ended up getting repeatedly hit in the face with evidence.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he's trying to make up for lost time. Whatever it is, it seems to have helped the people around him. He's got a lovely quote at the end of his book from his (then) 5-year-old daughter who saw the change in him from angry, selfish dad to loving dad. The tyke loves the change and wants more of it.