God?: Thoughts from a Spiritual Journey

When I met my roommate, he was wearing camouflage long pants (in 100-degree heat) with a Sex Pistols t-shirt that said "No Future." He had a mullet and wore earrings before either was considered to be particularly cool. He was ahead of the curve, it turned out. And he told me, in one of our first conversations, that he hated sports.

Sports played a huge role in my life and thoughts. My first thought was, "this is going to be a long year." He may have thought the same thing about me.

Then we met our suitemates. They were not shy about their Christian faith.

At that point, I thought, "This is really going to be a long year." I remember feeling like I had heaven on one side and hell on the other, and I wasn't ready for either yet. It turned out though, that my roommate was an amazing person. Smart, funny, and thoughtful. He was a fantastic roommate and we became great friends.

And my suitemates broke just about every stereotype I ever had about someone who actually believed the Bible. They were smart, fun, social, athletic, and could explain and defend their beliefs intelligently. In fact, they had far better answers -- to all sorts of questions about God -- than I had ever imagined might exist.

Beyond that, they had a sense of direction and purpose that was different than I had seen in any of my friends. And they really seemed to have a peace and quiet confidence about their faith. That was new to me.

Over time, we began to talk about God in some of those late-night conversations that happen in most dorm suites. And about Christianity. They talked about a personal relationship with God and not about a system of dos and don'ts. That was new to me. And about the idea that the very core of Christianity boils down to one event in history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They showed me, in the Bible, where it said that if the resurrection of Christ did NOT happen, all of Christianity was a fraud, and that the Biblical writers' faith was in vain. That was definitely new to me.

That was the beginning of a journey. A journey that began with many questions but that ultimately led me toward faith.

This book is an exploration of both what I've come to believe--and why I believe it. It was written, initially, as a very personal project for my future family (should my kids ever have kids), and for high school students that I've gotten to know over the past ten years. But I realized, as I asked friends to read draft versions, that it might helpful or at least interesting for others to read as well.

If you would call yourself spiritually curious, this book is for you. I'd call it an entry-level book that contains (hopefully) thought-provoking arguments. It not only suggests that it is rational to believe that some kind of God exists, but that the central claims of Christianity are more likely to be true than not true.