Hello Dr Craig,
I just wanted to express my appreciation with your ministry and philosophical work.
The acquaintance with your work has helped me structure and sort my thoughts and beliefs. It has also helped me gain new insights in the christian faith in general. In talking with other christians and non-believers i find myself being able to present the doctrines of our faith in a straight and clear way. Which gives many opportunities for further fruitful discussions.
Living in Sweden, a country deeply indoctrinated with secular beliefs and attitudes, i have also come to see the importance of raising my children in a sound apologetic intellectual environment. Providing a loving, alert and sturdy base for their growth as christians.
Let me give you quite a cute and good example of this, and of how intellectual training in an early age is beneficial for a childs thinking.
My daughter is three and a half years old, but is way ahead in her intellectual development. The other day she asked me why we (humans) and other things die. I explained about the body and matter, how they are not nessecarily consistant but can change over time. That bodies grow and decay and eventually cease to function. I used lots of examples from nature and the forest she knows well. From that we came to talk about what happens when we die. About the difference between the soul and the body. She seemed to appreciate the distiction. That the body decay in the ground but that the soul, the mind or the self is something essentially different and can exist without the body. (We haven't come to the general resurrection yet). She also seemed to grasp that her mind could be "about" something. For example she could think about the blue pot on the table, and realize that it was an intentional state in the mind or the soul , not the body. Doing this i realised: " i'm discussing mind-body-dualism with a three year old!".
We have earlier talked about how God is spirit or mind. She wanted to hear my explanations over and over again and happily concluded: "after we die, we live on. But with God!". She then went on to make general distinctions on life and death. For example she , totally on her own, cleared the difference between dying and withering among plants. "Trees", she said, "look like they die during the winter. But they don't. It's only the leaves that die. The trees wither, but when spring comes they live again!"
I think this is a good example of how your work can bring fruit also for a philosophical layman like myself. And, may i ad, for nonevangelicals. I am myself a high church lutheran, leaning more and more towards catholicism. I have read in articles that your work is mostly for the evangelical subculture and that is simply not true. We are many outside that culture that benefits from your defence of "mere christianity".
May God bless you and your family.
Best regards,
-Viktor
