When I was a Fundamentalist Christian I purchased both "The Case for Faith" and "The Case for Christ". I thought it would be fun. I thought it would help me answer those nagging questions I had always had about Christianity. I was sourly disappointed. His book was just a collection of flimsy arguments that any jr high school student could pick apart. I expected better of him because he, supposedly, was one of the best apologists that the Christian faith had. I read the book sincerely hoping to find solid arguments and real facts. I got neither. The dissapointment was pretty awful.
Strobel and people like him pushed me towards atheism because their inability to debate or provide solid fact led me to seek these things out myself.
In defense of the fundies though, consider that most of them don't know of the existence of any other information that could disprove the Bible and god. Christianity is a closed system. Lee Strobel's books are on the tacitly approved list of books, other books aren't even mentioned. One has to look in places where one would not ordinarily look to find information. Real books that disprove the Bible are almost never mentioned. It's hard to search for a title that you don't even know exists. I had no idea that "The Bible Unearthed" existed until someone on this forum suggested it (I recently bought the book BTW.) On the other hand, I did know about and do possess several books that "prove" the biblical stories.
Also consider availability of books that disprove the Bible. I recently did a library search on atheist books (electronic Kindle edition) in my counties library. Note that my county contains the 4th largest city in the United States (Houston). I found book after book on several different topics on Christianity but no, not one, Richard Dawkins book. I did find a few Hitchens books. I'm thinking about a campaign in my area to flood the county library system with Atheist books.
My point is that there is a serious disproportion even in the public library between available Christian books and available atheist books. This could lead one to believe that not only do atheist books not exist, but also (if they did indeed manage to come across an atheist book) that their argument might not be as valid as that of Christians because there is so little information.
Strobel and people like him pushed me towards atheism because their inability to debate or provide solid fact led me to seek these things out myself.
In defense of the fundies though, consider that most of them don't know of the existence of any other information that could disprove the Bible and god. Christianity is a closed system. Lee Strobel's books are on the tacitly approved list of books, other books aren't even mentioned. One has to look in places where one would not ordinarily look to find information. Real books that disprove the Bible are almost never mentioned. It's hard to search for a title that you don't even know exists. I had no idea that "The Bible Unearthed" existed until someone on this forum suggested it (I recently bought the book BTW.) On the other hand, I did know about and do possess several books that "prove" the biblical stories.
Also consider availability of books that disprove the Bible. I recently did a library search on atheist books (electronic Kindle edition) in my counties library. Note that my county contains the 4th largest city in the United States (Houston). I found book after book on several different topics on Christianity but no, not one, Richard Dawkins book. I did find a few Hitchens books. I'm thinking about a campaign in my area to flood the county library system with Atheist books.
My point is that there is a serious disproportion even in the public library between available Christian books and available atheist books. This could lead one to believe that not only do atheist books not exist, but also (if they did indeed manage to come across an atheist book) that their argument might not be as valid as that of Christians because there is so little information.
I have studied the Bible and the theology behind Christianity for many years. I have been to many churches. I have walked the depth and the breadth of the religion and, as a result of this, I have a lot of bullshit to scrape off the bottom of my shoes. ~Ziploc Surprise
