Otherwise, yes, libraries.

Just checked. Los Angeles Public Library system doesn’t carry this book. And I’m not about to suggest they add it to their collection!

So yes, let’s review some books.

I want to be fair to any book we review, taking each on its own merits without a negative association to other works by the same author that we may find questionable. This may be difficult but I know you to be a fair-minded person, and I certainly try to be. The world view of the author is not the issue for me, but I would want to see if the books have arguments that are not just cogent but also sound. If they use references to scientific findings and opinions, I would want to see if those are from reputable sources and if they are free from being “spun” in misleading ways.

I don’t object to people’s religious beliefs. I object to propagating those beliefs with a fraudulent method that exploits the credibility of science and puts children at a disadvantage by confusing them about how science works and how to think like a scientist. That is a betrayal of the trust we all owe the next generation.

I’ll contact you.

I found out that Strobel also published “The Case for a Creator For Kids!”

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310711487/ref=s9k2a_c1_at4-rfc_p?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0R2F298FQ894QZB9JP4K&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463383391&pf_rd_i=507846

The product description says “Excellent for Homeschool Use”.

This is nothing but indoctrination.

Hey, Richard, should we buy a copy and go over this together and post our review of the “hard scientific facts” noted therein?

You know. For kids.

>:-(

Thank you Siamang, for helping me to avoid yet another waste of time.

Here’s a run-down of the interviewees in “Case for a Creator”:

JP Moreland: philosophy teacher at Biola (formerly Bible Institute of Los Angeles). Fellow at the Discovery Institute.

Stephen Myer, former philosophy teacher at the religious Palm Beach Atlantic University. Co-founder of the Discovery Institute. Holds PhD in “Philosophy of Science”.

Michael Behe Biochemist at Lehigh University, Senior fellow at the Discovery Institute.

Guillermo Gonzalez astrophysicist at at Iowa State University until May 2008, and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute.

Robin Collins, professor of philosophy at Messiah College and former Fellow of the Discovery Institute.

William Lane Craig, Professor of Philosophy at Biola University and Fellow of the Discovery Institute.

Johnathan Wells, Molecular Biologist and senior fellow at … well you can guess by now, can’t you?

There you go. That’s the breadth and width of Lee Strobel’s “Case”. Seven dudes from the Discovery Institute. Three scientists and four “philosophers” teaching at bible colleges. And those of us who have followed the Intelligent Design movement have ample, *ample* information as to the *ahem* character and reliability of the three non-philosophers interviewed.

In fact, I know more about Behe than I know about Strobel, and if Strobel picked Behe, that tells me *volumes* about how skeptical a “journalist” Strobel is.

I guess talking to someone who *wasn’t* a fellow of the Discovery Institute… you know, that just wouldn’t be A Journalist Investigating the Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God.

Looks like he got a wide and varied set of opinions that ran the gamut from A to B!

Granted the social cohesion in Christianity may well provide a stabilising force for you personally but it does not follow that others will feel the same. This is simply your choice and not a matter of evidence. It is not a compelling reason to believe.

A genuine miracle would be a compelling reason to reevaluate my own view on God’s existence. Let’s see an amputee regrow a limb or a paraplegic walk again. Miracles were ten a penny a few thousand years ago, where are they now?

You’ve mentioned the mystery surrounding the formation of the universe and the unknown circumstances that turned unliving matter into life. These are wonderful questions well worth investigating further because we simply do not know the answers. Why have you chosen to stop exploring these questions and decide that God is the cause? No offence but an unanswered question does not assume a default answer. It assumed that we don’t know the answer. We should keep exploring, keep asking questions, keep testing evidence until we have a satisfactory answer and for some time beyond. We should never, ever be satisfied with an unprovable hypothesis. Why have you?

Nicely articulated.