Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists

by Sean McDowell

[why it matters] FINDING REAL LIFE Little did I know when I started college that I would be doing what I do now. I was headed toward a career in radio, TV, and film, hoping to be a sports broadcaster or work in a sports department. I was an officially declared agnostic. I grew up in a church where belief in the resurrection of Jesus was optional. I thought Jesus was a great cultural figure who served our culture as a prophet in challenging us to live well before God. I knew that much, but was not sure how much of it I believed, including what one could believe about the Bible—a valuable book perhaps, but not the Word of God (after all, how could one know when God had spoken!). Over a five-year period stretching back to high school, believers had urged me to believe in Jesus for the sake of my soul, but I was not interested. I thought they were a bunch of fanatics. But they were good friends so I tolerated their forays into the well-being of my soul. During my freshman year at Southern Methodist University, my roommate and fellow Mustangs challenged me to take a hard look at Jesus’ claims and the Bible. I began a journey during that year that has kept me in the Bible ever since. I came to see that the manuscript base for the content of the New Testament was unparalleled among ancient documents. I began to recognize that no group would make up a religion like Christianity to make itself feel better, because Christianity is so forthright about the sin of all of us and how we...