Lee Strobel - The Case for ... Student Collection: A Journalists Personal Investigation of the Christian Faith

ZONDERVAN

The Case for Christ - Student Edition 2001

The Case for a Creator - Student Edition 2004

The Case for Faith - Student Edition 2002

The Case for the Real Jesus - Student Edition 2008

The Case for Grace - Student Edition 2015

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ePub Collection ISBN 978-0-310-75134-2

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Cover design: Deborah Washburn

Cover photography or illustration: Shutterstock

Interior design: Todd Sprague

CONTENTS

Part Two: How Reliable Is the
Information About Christ?

Part Three: Can a Dead Man
Come Back to Life?

2. Beginning with a Bang:
The Evidence of Cosmology

3. Exploring Evolution:
A New Look at Old Ideas

4. The Cosmos on a Razors Edge:
The Evidence of Physics and Astronomy

5. Mousetraps and Molecular Machines:
The Evidence of Biochemistry

6. DNA and the Origin of Life:
The Evidence of Biological Information

7. Decision Time:
Is There a Case for a Creator?

Miracles Contradict Science;
Therefore They Cannot Be Real

Challenge #1:
Scholars Are Uncovering a Radically Different Jesus through Ancient Documents Just as Credible as the Four Gospels

Challenge #2:
The Bibles Portrait of Jesus Cant Be Trusted Because the Church Tampered with the Text

Challenge #3:
New Explanations Have Disproved Jesus Resurrection

Challenge #4:
Christianitys Beliefs about Jesus Were Copied from Pagan Religions

Challenge #5:
Jesus Was an Impostor Who Failed to Fulfill the Prophecies about the Messiah

Challenge #6:
People Should Be Free to Pick and Choose What to Believe about Jesus

Introduction

M y friends and I were celebrating at an Italian restaurant across the street from the University of Missouri. I was set to graduate in a few days, and I had just accepted a job offer: a three-month internship at the Chicago Tribune, with a promise that if I performed well, Id get a permanent job as a reporter.

At one point during the meal, somewhere between the bread sticks and the Neapolitan ice cream, my best friend, Ersin, made an offhand remark about how my internship was certainly a great gift from God.

His comment startled me. During the four years Id known Ersin, I dont think wed ever talked about religion.

Wait a minute, let me get this straight, I said.Are you telling me that someone as intelligent as youvaledictorian, science whiz, and all that that you actually believe that God exists? I always figured you were beyond that!

It was clear that Ersin was equally surprised. What are you trying to tell me? he said. Are you saying there isnt a God? Are you telling me that someone as intelligent as you doesnt believe in God? Youve got to be kidding!

We were both genuinely astonished. I couldnt believe that a sharp person like Ersin had actually bought into a fairy tale like the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe. Hadnt he learned anything at college?

If you could freeze-frame my attitude toward God, that would be it: Intelligent people didnt believe in him. All it took was a quick look at the evidence to know that Christianity was nothing but superstition and wishful thinking.

But to be honest, thats all I had ever really given the evidence: a quick look. And I was happy to keep it that way for yearsuntil one day, my life took a strange turn, pushing me into an all-out investigation into the facts surrounding the case for Christianity.

Thats what this book is about. Ill take you along as I retrace the events that led to a nearly 2-year exploration of the evidence for and against believing in Christ.

After weighing the evidence, I made my decision. But I cant make yours. Thats your choice. I hope you take it seriously, because there may be more at stake than just idle curiosity. If Jesus is to be believedand I realize that may be a big if for you at this pointthen nothing is more important than how you respond to him.

Check out the evidence for yourself.

I could take you back to the very place where I lost my faith in God. I was 14 years old.

At Prospect High School in Mount Prospect, Illinois, the biology classroom was on the third floor in the northwest corner of the building. I was sitting in the second row from the windows, third chair from the front, when I first learned about Darwins theory of evolution.

REVOLUTIONIZED BY
EVOLUTION

This was revolutionary to me! Our teacher explained that life originated millions of years ago when chemicals randomly reacted with each other in a warm ocean on the primordial earth. Then, through a process of survival of the fittest and natural selection, life forms gained in complexity.

Eventually, human beings emerged from the same family tree as apes.

Although the teacher didnt address this aspect of evolution, its biggest implication was obvious to me: If evolution explains the origin and development of life, then God was out of a job! What did we need God for? Life was just the natural result of the random interaction of chemicals.

To my mind, this was great news! Finally, here was a rational basis for atheism. If evolution explains life, then the first chapters of the Bible must be mythology or wishful thinking. And if that were true of the first chapters, why not the rest? Jesus could not have been God. Miracles arent possible; theyre just the attempts by pre-scientific people to make sense out of what they couldnt understand but which now science can explain.

For the first time, I had a rational reason to abandon Christianity.

BORED BY RELIGION

Not that Id ever really been a Christian.

My parents believed in God and had done their best to try to spark spiritual interest in me. When I was a kid, they brought me to a Protestant church, where I would struggle to stay awake during the 20-minute sermons. I didnt understand the rituals, I couldnt relate to the organ music, and I quickly concluded that religion was a waste of an otherwise perfectly good Sunday.

When I was in junior high, my parents enrolled me in confirmation class. This meant that one day a week after school I was forced to sit in the churchs airless basement and go through a series of classes.

I cant recall learning much about the Bibleor about Jesus, for that matter. Mostly, I remember having to memorize things like the Ten Commandments and then stand and recite them. Nobody knew them well; we sort of bluffed our way through as the pastor would prompt us. It was mind-numbingly dull. I dont remember anything that I was forced to commit to memory back then, although I do have vivid memories of the pastor lecturing us and telling us sternly that we didnt have enough diligence. I didnt even know what that was, but apparently we were bad for not having it.