Case for a Creator (Lee Strobel)

from an email August 7, 2004

Mass email #90894 (or so it seems)… I use the 15-30 minutes it takes to summarize the book kinda as a recap so I remember what I read.

I was at a Christian bookstore back in July and found this new book by Lee Strobel. He is the author of the famous “Case for Christ” and “Case for Faith” books that I really liked. Sometimes the chapters were a bit long but overall the message and content were awesome! So when I saw “Case for a Creator” I was pumped! As I read through the book in the first few chapters he said something along the lines of “This book is not written to settle the Christian argument about an old or young earth”. So when I saw that I was like “ok.. that’s cool” … but as I kept reading I was kinda disappointed a bit case he definitely took the old earth side of the argument. Other than that I definitely recommend the book though. If you want something scientifically based its good. I’ve never read it but Michael Behe’s “Darwin’s Black Box” is supposedly really good too. My personal favourite about the creation / evolution debate is “The Battle for the Beginning” by John MacArthur. On the back of that book is this quote “Defending the authority of Scripture from the very first verse”

The structure of Lee Strobel’s books and the Case for a Creator is that Lee goes to different scholars and asks them tough questions... here’s my little summary:

I’ve never studied Bio but I do know (as was mentioned in this book) that a 4-cylinder, 2L, block engine maxes out at about 9000 rotations per minute. In Case for a Creator the author interviews a man (Michael Behe) who is a biology big wig and he describes the bacterial flagellum (I have no clue what it does .. lol .. but I do know its impressive) The “flagellum’s propeller can spin at 10000 rpms…not only that the propeller can stop spinning within a quarter turn and instantly start spinning the other way at 10000 rpms.”… “Howard Berg of Harvard University called it the most efficient motor in the universe. It’s way beyond anything we can make, especially when you consider its size.” Get this… this super fast motor is approximately 1/100 000th of an inch!!!
Another of the guys the author interviews said this about the transitional fossils Darwinists have been searching for over the past years… “the intermediates have remained as elusive as ever”… to which I respond… “duh… there aren’t any!!!”

Listen to this argument one of the scholars / philosophers proposed … see if you agree with each of the statements:
#1 Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
-even renowed skeptic David Hume didn’t deny this
#2 The universe had a beginning
-its funny because 50 yrs ago atheists attacked this premise because they didn’t think the universe had a “starting point” but now scientifically its proven there is a start so they have to attack the first premise… lol… embarrassing
Therefore, the logical conclusion is
#3 That the universe has a cause

Another chapter was on “the evidence of astronomy”. Did you know… “it would take a star with the highly unusual properties of our sun – the right mass, the right light, the right distance, the right orbit, the right galaxy, the right location – to nurture living organisms on a circling planet. Numerous factors make our solar system and our location in the universe just right for a habitable environment. What’s more, the exceptional conditions that make life possible also happen to make our planet strangely well-suited for viewing and analyzing the universe and our environment. All of this suggests our planet may be rare, if not unique, and that the Creator wanted us to be able to explore the cosmos. Harvard-educated astrophysicist John A. O’Keefe of NASA said, “It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in.”

This email wouldn’t be done without Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Its definitely cool that tomorrow at church we’re singing “God of Wonders”… when I was up at Fair Havens last week just looking up into the sky at night seeing all the stars reminded me once again of the great God we serve! I’m going to see Niagara Falls again tomorrow with relatives from Norway who are here visiting and just other things that have come up remind me of our Creator and his workmanship! :)

It was super cool at the end of Case for a Creator, cause Lee Strobel writes about a couple (2 doctors) who did an investigation similar to his. They came to the conclusion that there was a Creator and then investigated the Bible and Jesus’ claims. After committing there lives to Christ and becoming Christians they prayed the bold prayer asking God to send them wherever He desired. Viggo and Joan ended up spending 33 yrs in poverty-wracked Bangladesh where they founded Memorial Christian Hospital. From atheist skeptics to missionaries! So good!!!

The little Sunday School song is true:
“My God is so big! So strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do!”