Ten Books That Have Influenced Me in Unique Ways

I've been challenged to list ten books that have stayed with me in some way. This is a hard list to write, because there are so many books that have influenced both my thinking and my approach to the world. Of course the Bible has had the biggest impact on my life and that from second grade on. But anyone's scripture should influence their beliefs if they take them seriously.

In order to give a more well-rounded feel to my list, I've decided to list ten books that became symbolic of certain points in my life. These books did impact me but they are more than that. Like a song a couple hears on their first date, these books capture certain eras in my life and point to a change in direction in some way. There were contenders like My Antonia or reference works like Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview and Haley's Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible, but I think the ten I've chosen cover some of that kind of ground pretty well.

Other pieces of literature also evokes strong memories of the past. Short stories such as Jack London's "To Build a Fire" or J.D. Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Bannanafish." Poetry played a part in my life as well, with Robert Frost's "Birches" or "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening" or Shakespearean sonnets and the challenge of a good villanelle.

Lately I tend to mostly read non-fiction, which helps me in my profession, but may be to my detriment. Be that as it may, here are ten books that influenced me in unique ways from elementary school through today, in order of their appearance:

1. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective – Donald J. Sobol
   This was the first series I read from second to fourth grade where I absolutely had to have them all. I remember George the Shy Stegosaurus or The Borrowers which I also loved, but this series set me off to challenge my mind and solve problems.  I wanted to be Encyclopedia Brown!
    
2. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
   I got to read The Hobbit in eight grade, just before a trip to the Renaissance Faire, and that was all it took. I devoured The Lord of the Rings, and came back to them several times, once even conquering all three books in six days. Tolkien's attention to detail was genius and his ability to capture true moral struggle while showing why being good for the sake of goodness is a message that is crucial for today.
    
3. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
   Ah, AP English class. We read all kinds of things, like Othello and other works, but Heart of Darkness encapsulated the peak of high school. I was simply amazed at Conrad, who was a native Polish speaker, command of English. He seems to capture the antithesis of Tolkien: an unchecked drive to conquer and lift one's self above others leads to self-cannibalism.
    
4.  Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
   I could say so much about this book, but I actually have done so in a more extended post here.
    
5. The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
   One cannot approach a list like this without listing C.S. Lewis in some way. While Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, and other titles are all huge in their impact, it was really The Screwtape Letters that got me thinking about my own spiritual walk and the reality of capitulating to the enemy when I give into sin. Good self-check here.
    
6. Questions That Matter: An Invitation to Philosophy – Ed L. Miller
   This is a text book (!) that is very popular across the country in college Intro to Philosophy courses and one of  my Top Ten Neglected Books for Apologists. Miller captures the main concepts across the discipline of philosophy and includes significant portions of key texts. He doesn't resolve the problem for the student, but allows the reader to explore the ideas presented. This book cemented my love of philosophy and helped me being to think more clearly about those questions that really do matter.
    
7. Love Your God with all Your Mind - J.P. Moreland
   This was the book that really resonated with me as a young apologist; it said everything I wanted to say to the Christian church collectively, and so much better. Simply put, all believers need to read this book. J.P. has since become a friend and a mentor, and I still look to him today to help me with clearing the cobwebs out of my mental attic.
    
8. God, Freedom, and Evil – Alvin Plantinga How could an all-good, all-powerful God exist and still allow evil in the world. Alvin Plantinga here lays out the case to why evil and God are not contradictory. It also pointed me towards a more robust idea of God's middle knowledge, which balances the tension between freedom of choice and God's predestination.
    
9. Playing with Fire: How the Bible Ignites Change in Your Soul – Walt Russell
   When I first came in contact with Dr. Walt Russell, he literally changed the way I read the Bible.  This book is the culmination of his teaching. It helped me take the proper context of scripture, lose the idea that verses can be applied outside of the larger work, and help refine how I understood biblical inerrancy.
    
10. How Christianity Changed the World – Alvin J. Schmidt
    Another in my Top Ten Neglected Books list (really, you should just read them all), it is still my go-to book of choice for the real-world implications of Christianity. The value of every human being, the birth of hospitals, orphanages, and educational institutions as we know them today all have their roots in the Christian worldview. Schmidt doesn't simply give you dry facts and figures. Rather, he tells of how Christianity uniquely civilized our civilization in a very readable way. It's where the rubber meets the road in comparing worldviews.
     

10 Conflicting Beliefs of Modern Atheism

Recently, I saw an article by Ben Johnson on Life Site News listing "15 contradictions you have to believe to fit in with pop culture." The article was clever enough and it dealt mostly with the tension of conflicting beliefs of those who would hold up abortion as acceptable. I decided to take a stab at a similar list, looking at beliefs of the pop atheist community and how some of their views sit in conflict with one another. Below are ten beliefs that I've found most atheists to hold, and how they sit in conflict with other affirmations. I've provided links to articles I've written that explore each of these statements a bit more. For item #5, though, you'll have to grab a copy of True Reason and read my chapter on the argument from reason to get a fully developed argument.

1. Apparent design in creation can usually be explained, even if the explanation appeals to transitions and development even when science has absolutely no clue as to how such development occurred. However, appealing to a designer should be immediately dismissed as a "God of the Gaps" argument.
2. Good and evil are not objective, but simply the shared preferences of individual cultures and they can change from culture to culture – unless one is talking about the God of the Bible.  He's objectively evil.
3. Since miracles are much more rare than our everyday experiences, it would be more reasonable to ascribe a seemingly inexplicable event to possible sources we know could account for the event. However, assuming something like the cell that shows fantastic complexity and apparent design is actually the product of design is completely unreasonable.
4. The fact that divergent religious claims try to explain the existence of the cosmos prove that all religions are false while the fact that there are divergent scientific theories seeking to explain the existence of the cosmos is how knowledge is acquired and is necessary to eventually arrive at the right conclusion.
5. Reason is the only reliable way to establish what is true, and we reason with brains that evolved only for survival value with no regard for the truth of a belief.
6. Science is a field of study centered in experimentation and observation and science dictates that life came from nonliving material, even though in the entire history of mankind, no one has ever once observed life coming from non-life.
7. It is only through planning, intelligence, and hard work that scientist have been able to extend the lives of human beings while the very life they extend is ultimately the product of no planning, no intelligence, and mere accident.
8. The Universe came into existence from nothing – and that nothing is made up of at least two things: quantum fluctuations and time.
9. All human beings are the product of evolutionary forces including survival of the fittest, which means that only those who hold the best attributes will advance the species, but all human beings are completely equal and no one is more valuable than another.
10. Belief in God is a delusion, religion is a virus and it is morally wrong to push religious beliefs on other by expressing them in invocations or other community-centered meetings, which is why atheists seek to push their belief of the nonexistence of God upon all aspects of society.

Can you come up with any more? Let me know and I'll publish the best ones here.

Taking a Chance that There is No God

A few years ago, I was invited to address several hundred college students at the University of Northern Colorado. It was a great time. I had invited Dr. Paul Copan to join me and the two of us were able to meet with the Christian clubs on campus first and give them instruction on how to argue convincingly for the Christian faith.

The main event was held in the evening, where Paul first gave an address to the student body as a whole, comparing the Christian worldview to the naturalist's worldview and demonstrating how Christianity is the more coherent belief system. I then joined Paul for about an hour of Q & A with the students.

The questions were powerful and interesting. Many students were very intrigued with the idea of Jesus providing an atoning sacrifice for us. The concept that there were moral absolutes and individuals would be held accountable for violating those moral standards seemed to spur on a lot of activity.

One student who we talked with classified herself as an "agnostic humanist". She had several objections to the Christian concept of eternal punishment from a God who hasn't given us enough proof to believe in Him. This is a classic objection – one that Bertrand Russell used. However, Paul and I repeatedly discussed the real evidence that's available to demonstrate the existence of God. If one chooses to ignore that evidence, you cannot blame God for not providing it.

One point we talked on repeatedly was the creation of the universe and the creation of life. We discussed the English scientist Sir Fred Hoyle's calculations about the improbability of life being formed spontaneously. In his 1981 book Evolution from Space (co-authored with Chandra Wickramasinghe), he calculated that the chance of forming the required set of enzymes in sequence for even the simplest living cell was one in 10 to the 40,000^th power. Since mathematicians generally agree that anything above one in 10 to the 50^th power is classified as impossible, that's a pretty powerful number. However, she kept holding onto her doubt, saying "but there's still that one chance."

I found such a statement silly. It's like saying if you're broke, you shouldn't look for a job but buy lottery tickets instead since there's still a chance you may win the lottery and never have to work again. That's not thinking rationally, that's just being childish. It's saying "I'm not going to believe this no matter what you say!" Now, you can hold that position. However, you cannot still maintain that there isn't enough evidence to believe in God or that God would be cruel for punishing you for your false beliefs.

I will say that everyone there was very polite and appreciative that we didn't talk down to them or preach at them, but we were treating them as thinking individuals who could be reasoned with. They enjoyed the exchange and as we answered questions; we had the opportunity to lay out the Christian plan of salvation clearly for all to hear. The most exciting time came when one questioner asked, "O.K., so suppose I believe what you said, that the resurrection is true. What do I do next?"

Once the Q & A time ended, Paul and I spent the next two hours answering questions with a group of about fifteen kids who followed us down to the Starbucks cafe that was set up downstairs from the meeting hall. It just reinforced to me how hungry these kids are for real interaction, for being treated as adults and for real answers to be provided for their questions.

I have been very blessed to be a part of this opportunity and I pray God will continue to open the doors for Come Reason to reach more kids for Christ. I ask that you can help us as well, by praying for outreaches such as these and by supporting our ministry financially. For those who wish to contact me about an event for their church, youth group, or school, click here. And for all my friends in the U.S., have a happy Labor Day holiday.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
—Galatians 6:9-10

References

Image courtesy Robert S. Donovan and licensed via the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Christians Must Stop Staying Invisible (video)

Imagine Thomas Jefferson wanting to stay anonymous when the U.S. was founded. What if he chose to only talk with those who agreed with him instead of drawing attention to himself and risked his livelihood by becoming a figurehead of the revolutionary effort? What would the United States look like today without the ability to point to Jefferson and his ideas?

That is the very problem plaguing Christians in who fight in the war of worldviews. The Barna organization reports that the influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives has become largely invisible. It's not that there is no influence, it's simply that no one realizes how much Christianity matters to society. Christians are buying the lie that they should keep their faith as a private matter, and it weakens the moral and spiritual principles upon which our society runs.

In this short clip, listen in as I note the threat to our modern way of life when Christians become invisible in culture.

References

Image courtesy Leo Reynolds and licenced via the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

You're Smarter than You Think You Are

I'm a big comedy fan. Nobody does silly-smart like Monty Python. Their "Philosophers' Football Match" was hilarious. It makes you appreciate good satire.

The Far Side, the single panel comic strip by Gary Larson, was another piece that had some pretty funny moments. One comic in 1986 that I distinctly remember was a panel showing two deer standing only on their hind legs facing each other. One deer has two concentric circles forming a target on his chest. The caption has the other deer saying, "Bummer of a birthmark, Hal."

As we press on into the twenty-first century, I find that more and more Christians are feeling the same way that deer felt. We can feel the frequency of attacks against Christian believers increasing faster than ever before. We see this most evidently in the recent best-selling works of the so-called "New Atheists," such as Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation, and Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. These titles are now well-known and they've been extensively covered by popular media. However, I think that the prominence of these books is a comment on how our society has become more uncomfortable with a strong Christian faith.

It really seems as if we're entering a time where lines are being drawn more clearly. We live in a society that views belief as a deeply personal approach to life, and the most important thing to guide one's moral life. Yet most people also adopt a "salad-bar theology" in their beliefs; they think that they can pick and choose beliefs by what they like and don't like. If your plate looks different than mine, that's OK. Just so long as I can have only what I like1.

But we cannot be passive in the face of attack. In fact, the Bible commands us to engage with others in the war of ideas. We are the "always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks, yet with gentleness and reverence" as 1 Peter 3:15 tells us. That means we will need to be ready to have answers and face people who may seem pretty smart.

Think About It

How do you feel about what you believe? Is it only a personal choice or are there reasons why you believe what you do?

Pretty scary, huh? Well, don't be too worried. You're smarter than you think you are! You have the ability to give good, solid answers for the things you believe. You have just as much ability to stand up for your faith as anyone else—even the so-called experts. Then, why do most people get so flustered when objections or questions come their way? Well, primarily it's because they haven't ever taken the time to sit down and think through what it is they actually believe. But, as Christians, we're commanded to do just that!

Although many people want to shrink from such a command, I want to encourage you to move forward. Pick a topic, such as the existence of God. Study it. Read some of the good books, web sites and other materials that are already online. Checkout podcasts, like our weekly Come Let us Reason podcast.  It isn't as hard as you think. And it's crucial to remember just what's at stake.

You see, ideas have consequences. Believing what God says about people being made in His image caused advocates like William Wilberforce to rise up and demand the abolition of slavery. Believing that all human beings are precious powers the pro-life movement and has a direct impact on saving babies. It's not about trying to be some type of intellectual; it's about how knowledge affects the way we react to events as we see them. It means we're able to impact the world because we know things. We are fighting a spiritual war and souls hang in the balance. Let's fight smarter.

References

1. A Barna survey reports "74% to 23%—adults agreed that their religious faith was becoming even more important to them than it used to be as a source of objective and reliable moral guidance." The report also states "By a three to one margin (71% to 26%) adults noted that they are personally more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a comprehensive set of beliefs taught by a particular church." See "Christianity Is No Longer Americans' Default Faith", Barna Group Ltd. Jan 12, 2009. Online at http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/15-christianity-is-no-longer-americans-default-faith accessed 7-23-2009