Thank you. The words are simple but their meaning more than sincere. I'll convey my story.
I was raised in a Christian home, and sent to a private Christian school for most of my pre-college education. The Christian school I went to taught us dogmatically what was and wasn't right, from the standpoint of pentecostal interpretation of the Bible. The problem was that not all of it was Biblically sound, and not all of it was in good manners. We were taught that we were right simply because we were right, and that Big Bad Atheists simply couldn't be reasoned with, so don't bother. On the other hand, when our Christian-themed science curriculum did speak, very one-sidedly, on matters such as biological evolution, not only was the slant akin to brain-washing, but the refutations of such things were scientifically unsound and based on completely outdated information and logic.
For instance, we were told that evolution could be disproven by asking the evolutionist "How do you date the fossils?", and according to our curriculum, he would smugly reply "We date the fossils by the geological layer in which we find them." We were then supposed to ask "And how do you date the geological layer?" to which he would say "By the fossils we find in them!" And then we must point out the circular reasoning. The problem is that, when we went on a field trip to the museum of natural history, and we discovered the poor elderly fellow doing the presentation on biological evolution, he did not respond with what we were taught to expect. He said "Oh, we date both via the carbon dating method!" And left us with our jaws hanging slack. We'd been defeated!
Instead of accepting that our science needed updating, we were encouraged by the faculty to IGNORE the defeat, unchanged, and assume that we were still correct. One can see how this ultimately lead me to be a very arrogant young adult by the time I had graduated. Over the next decade, I continued to flaunt reason and logic for dogma, and looked down my nose at anyone who wasn't like me.
It was a few years ago when I got a job where I made friends with several atheists, and suddenly my lack of logic was thrown in my face. Unlike most atheists I had been taught to expect, they were kind. Gentle. Loving. Moral. Intelligent. Open-minded. And they tore my beliefs apart. I remained faithful, but it became apparent to me that I had a lot of thinking to do.
Another few years go by, and I found that I could not stand against the intellectual onslaught of "God vs. Science". I fought it tooth and nail, but in the face of "There is no evidence for God!", my lack of knowledge only further breached the hull of my already sinking ship. Finally, persons like Penn Jillette and Richard Dawkins really had me questioning whether or not my own experiences with God were imagined. One night at my second-shift job, I cried out to God for a miracle. Something, ANYTHING, to show me that He was real. The only response I got that night was "Am I a magician, that I should do magic tricks for you every time you need proof?" I suspected whether or not I had even truly heard that or imagined it.
A month later, just after the Thanksgiving holiday, a group of my friends and I had gone out to our makeshift firing range to do some shooting. One of my Christian friends had found an atheist book in a bargain bin, and decided it would be fun to shoot it with his shotgun in the presence of one of our atheist friends, just to get a rise out of him. Our atheist friend wasn't phased, by the way. Later, as we posted about the days events on our group forum, my Christian friend posted a video of one Dr. William Lane Craig explaining how "the brights" weren't very bright. I watched this video several times, devouring your acidic critique of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
Afterwards, I decided I had to look up this William Lane Craig fellow, and see what else he had to say. Little did I realize just what I was getting into! Debates, interviews, commentary, and finally Reasonablefaith.org came up in my browser. Suddenly I had access to the Defenders podcasts! I cannot explain how utterly elated I was!
God had answered my desperate prayer. He didn't give me some sort of dog-and-pony magic trick in the night sky. He gave me evidence that He existed!
Needless to say, I spent weeks devouring the Existence of God series. I ordered On Guard and Reasonable Faith on Amazon.com. I started posting arguments on facebook, and even going into overtly secular forums and debating, getting a chance to practice logic and reason, and learning the ins and outs of the arguments and their refutations. My faith in God was strengthened, and my confidence to share His word was also strengthened.
Obviously, to God be the glory for this. It was in His timing that I felt the greatest need to cry out, and in His timing that I was shown your work. But, I say, thank YOU for your life of obedience and hard work. To me, and those around me, it has made a huge difference.
-Nicholas
