Josh McDowell - Dont Check Your Brains at the Door

DONT CHECK YOUR
BRAINS AT THE DOOR

Other Books by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler

Right From Wrong
Beyond Belief to Convictions
Josh McDowells One Year Book of Youth Devotions
Josh McDowells One Year Book of Family Devotions
Josh McDowells Handbook on Counseling Youth
The New Tolerance
The Deceivers
The Truth Twisters
Truth Slayers
The Love Killer

Other Books by Josh McDowell

The Unshakable Truth (with Sean McDowell)
The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict
More Than a Carpenter (with Sean McDowell)
Answers to Tough Questions
A Ready Defense
Handbook of Todays Religions (with Don Stewart)
The Disconnected Generation
The Teenage Q&A Book (with Bill Jones)

Other Books by Bob Hostetler

The Bone Box
American Idols
Holy Moses! and Other Adventures in Vertical Living
They Call Me A.W.O.L.

DONT
CHECK YOUR
BRAINS AT
THE DOOR

Josh McDowell
& Bob Hostetler

DONT CHECK YOUR BRAINS AT THE DOOR
1992, 2011 by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Tommy Nelson. Tommy Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Tommy Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Unless noted otherwise, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the HOLY BIBLE: KING JAMES VERSION.

ISBN 978-1-4003-1720-2 (2011 edition)

The Library of Congress has cataloged the earlier printing as follows:

McDowell, Josh.
Dont check your brains at the door / Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler.
p. cm.
Summary: Examines common myths about God, religion, and life that contradict Gods Word.
ISBN 978-0-8499-3234-2
1. YouthReligious life. 2. Witness bearing (Christianity) [1. Christian life. 2. Conduct of life.] I. Hostetler, Bob, 1958. II. Title. III. Title: Dont check your brains at the door.
BV4531.M217 1992
239dc20 9144765
CIP
AC

Mfr: RR Donnelley/Crawfordsville, IN/July 2011/PPO# 122448

LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR

R eal faith, active faith, comes from the heart and the head. Know what you believe and why you believe it.

Trusted Bible teachers Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler have helped millions of young people defend their faith with confidence and understanding. This winner of the prestigious Gold Medallion Award is an invaluable tool for anyone seeking answers to defend the Christian faith. The solid biblical foundation behind every argument, combined with just the right amount of humor, has kept readers turning the pages of DontCheck Your Brains at the Door. Now updated and revised for todays youth, this book is sure to become a favorite for years to come.

The Editor

CONTENTS

1. The Cosmic Cop
The Killjoy Myth

2. The Luke Skywalker God
The Impersonal Force Myth

3. The Vending Machine God
The Father Christmas Myth

4. Prophet Jesus
The Good Teacher Myth

5. Partial Jesus
The Superstar Myth

6. Wimpy Jesus
The Meek and Mild Myth

7. Plastic Jesus
The Ivory Tower Myth

8. Lily-White Jesus
The Racist Myth

9. One Among Many
The Just-Another-Great-Book Myth

10. The Bible and Swiss Cheese
The Holey Bible Myth

11. The Bible and the Telephone Game
The Variant Readings Myth

12. Changing Fact to Fiction
The Myths and Legends Myth

13. Dr. Luke and the Case of the Disappearing Politarch
The Archaeological Myth

14. Truth or Coincidences?
The Coincidence Myth

15. Playing Dead?
The Swoon Myth

16. Blind Mans Bluff?
The Wrong Tomb Myth

17. Hide n Seek?
The Stolen Body Myth

18. One Mans Ceiling Is Another Mans Floor
The Relativity Myth

19. If Youre OK, Then I Must Be OK
The God-Will-Grade-on-a-Curve Myth

20. When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder, Everybodyll Be There
The Universalist Myth

21. Its Not What You Know, Its Who You Know
The Ideology Myth

22. Check Your Brains at the Door
The Unintellectual Myth

23. Jeff and the Professor
The Blind Faith Myth

24. Abe Lincoln and the Ten OClock Class
The Unscientific Myth

25. Stewed Tomatoes and Tennis Shoes
The Brainwash Myth

26. No Doubt About It
The Thomas Myth

27. Potted Plants Dont Answer Prayer
The Subjective Faith Myth

28. Sin, Shame, and Shattered Fame
The Elmer Gantry Myth

29. The Serpents Promise
The New Age Myth

30. Hey, I Dont Deserve This!
The Rose Garden Myth

31. Lifestyles of Rich and Amos
The Consumer Myth

32. Nice Guys Dont Always Finish Last
The Nice Guy Myth

33. No Geeks, Dorks, or Dweebs
The Pharisees Myth

34. Boys Will Be Boys
The Manhood Myth

35. The Crossing Guard
The Egoist Myth

36. Beauty Is the Beast
The Cover Girl Myth

37. Everybodys Doing It
The Conformist Myth

38. Sex Is Not a Dirty Word
The Puritan Myth

39. Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax, Of Crabs and Other Things
The Anarchist Myth

40. Stars in Your Eyes
The Love-at-First-Sight Myth

41. Self-Serve Salvation
The Humanist Myth

42. No Place Like Home
The Heaven-Is-a-Place-on-Earth Myth

T he personal experiences in this book are from both my life and the life of Bob Hostetler. We thought it would make it easier to read and be less confusing to generally refer to these in the singular first person rather than try to identify which of us experienced them.

Josh McDowell

T hey called him the Picasso of counterfeiting.

He was the best. His skill at making phony money was legendary. And he had labored for a full year to perfect the finest set of counterfeit engraving plates ever created.

When he was caught, this artist challenged the government agents who arrested him. He placed one of his own counterfeit twenty-dollar bills beside the bill he had copied. I defy you, he said, to tell the difference between these two bills!

The Treasury man didnt argue.

I dont have to, he said. The one you copied is fake, too.

A lot of Christian teenagers today make the same mistake. They carefully duplicate the beliefs of their parents. They reflect the opinions of their friends. They assimilate the values they see displayed in society. They mimic the behavior they observe at church. Tragically, though, many have been duped, like the unfortunate counterfeiter, into making copies of things that were counterfeits all along.