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I’d been addressing two fundamental questions: • Is there a God? • If so, which God?
I wish there’d been someone to help me see this early on—a perfect Christian witness to take me aside and say, “How about determining if God even exists before you start worrying about who He is?”
STEP #3: POINT TO A CREATOR So—is there a God?
American seekers born after 1950 have a distinct disadvantage here because we were taught that evo- lution alone explains the universe. And many of us drew a sad but logical conclusion: If evolution is true, then God is unnecessary. But as I would fi nally discover, the evidence of science clearly says, “Yes—there is a God!” In my case, the key proof was the anthropic prin- ciple, which says that every variable in the universe is fi ne-tuned to accommodate life on earth; tweak just one, and it all falls apart. This truth led me to the literature of Intelligent Design, which persuaded me that there had indeed been a God behind the universe.
But getting there was an arduous process. How I wish my imaginary witness had been there to say, “Take a look at these books—you’ll fi nd the evidence for design overwhelming.”
STEP #4: CLARIFY THE ALTERNATIVES Okay, so there’s a God. But how can we know which
one is the real deal?
That’s the million-dollar question, and the persis- tent seeker will eventually ask it. Here’s the path I took.
I came across a book providing overviews of all major worldviews, from Hinduism and Islam to existentialism and Christianity. It helped me see that there are really only a handful of basic scenarios— and that because they contradict each other in key tenets, only one can be 100 percent true. That gave me a framework for an exhaustive and
exhausting year-long investigation. If only my imagi- nary witness had been there to help me organize all the information I was gathering.
“Try this, Kitty,” he might have said. “Set up mental buckets—one for each worldview. Then start tossing the evidence you fi nd into the appropriate
buckets.”
Although I didn’t realize it at the time, this is exactly the way I did approach the task—but with mind-numbing ineffi ciency, since I couldn’t see the big picture.
My imaginary witness might have saved me many sleep-deprived nights by warning me that nearly all my buckets would remain empty—except for the one labeled “biblical Christianity.”
STEP #5: TAILOR YOUR TIPS Without guidance, seekers may never unearth
personally persuasive Christian proofs. The problem isn’t too little evidence, but too much; they can get so bogged down in apologetics falling outside their areas of interest or expertise that the perfect proofs never capture their attention.
That almost happened to me when I fi nally ad- dressed the bucket labeled “biblical Christianity.” The fi rst alleged proofs I came across were based entirely on the branch of philosophy called logic. I wasted many hours trying to fi gure out if these arguments were true; philosophy is simply not my thing.
If only my imaginary witness had been on hand to help me cut to the chase. “Hey,” he might have said. “Did you know that the Bible contains dozens of scientifi c truths its writers had no business knowing?” As a high-tech copywriter with a professional in- terest in the things of science, that defi nitely would have piqued my curiosity.
Fortunately, I was motivated enough to keep digging until I stumbled across those scientifi c proofs myself. But not all seekers are so driven. We can help by tailoring our pointers to the individual seeker. The more we know about such subjects, the more persuasive we can be. But we don’t have to be experts; we just need a handle on the right resources to recommend for further inves- tigation.
STEP # 6: EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL Maybe I’m dense. But it took me several years and an
evangelism course to grasp the gospel. That should never be allowed to happen; if seekers learn noth- ing else from us, they should walk away with a clear understanding of the gospel.
My imaginary witness would have shared the 2222222222222 38 Fall 2010 •
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