THE CASE FOR RELIGION

The book I'm currently reading in my iPod is The Greatest Story Ever Told--So Far, by Lawrence Krauss, a noted skeptic.  My current state of mind is that in the beginning Man created God.

However, I just received in the mail The Case for the Creator, by Lee Strobel, an investigation for scientific evidence that points toward God.  There was no return address, nor message.  I don't know who sent this book, and the postage was almost $8, so it probably did not come from anyone in Hawaii.  Don't know if the sender wants to be anonymous or just forget to show any identification.

My history of reading these types of books is general wonderment.  How can anyone with any intelligence and education bother to read such nonsense.  Take Conversations with God, by Neale Donald Walsch.  I was given books 1 and 2.  The first spent 137 weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers List beginning in 1995.  This series is so successful that it is up to #10, plus, he has published 18 other scribbles of poppycock.  I swear, honestly, that for what I read, I could easily have made up what was shared.  There was absolutely nothing that had a shred of compelling consequence about Walsch's purported dialogue with God.

Walsch seems to fit the characteristics of those chosen to communicate with the Almighty.  Founder of Islam Muhammad, for example, had a camel caravan beginning.  Joseph Smith visionized both God and Jesus as a simple citizen.  Walsch dropped out of college, went through a few marriages, and was collecting aluminum cans and bottles to buy food when in 1992 he woke up in the middle of the night...you read the details.

So who is Lee Patrick Strobel, a 67-year old investigative journalist?  Four of his books received religious book awards.  He has a law degree from Yale.  Now a Christian, he was an atheist until the age of 29.

 In a Lee Strobel interview, he says that as an atheist, he had concluded that the best way to live his life was as a hedonist. "Just pursue pleasure, this is all you get in this world. So, that was my number one goal in life," says Strobel, "to bring maximum pleasure into my life. And so I lived a very immoral, and drunken, and profane, and narcissistic, really self-destructive kind of a life. That was my life."

He has written a bunch of cases for religion:

"The Case for..." series[edit]

• The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (September 1, 1998), Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-22605-8--which was made into a movie by that name.  He even served as an extra.  Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it a 59% rating, but the audience score was 90%.
• The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity, (October 1, 2000), Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-22015-7

• The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God (2004), Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-26386-7
• The Case for Easter: Journalist Investigates the Evidence for the Resurrection (2004), Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-25475-2
• The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger (2005), Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-25476-0
• The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ (September 10, 2007), Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-24210-X

• The Case for Christianity Answer Book (July 1, 2014), Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-33955-3
• The Case for Hope: Looking Ahead with Confidence and Courage (2015), Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-33957-X
• The Case for Grace: A Journalist Explores the Evidence of Transformed Lives (2015), Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-25923-1
• In Defense of Jesus: Investigating Attacks on the Identity of Christ (2016)
• The Case for Miracles: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Supernatural (2018)

Clearly, he has a following and people buy his books.  Return for my possible future review of The Case for a Creator.

AND, BY THE WAY, IF YOU DON'T LIVE IN ARIZONA OR HAWAII, DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME ENDED EARLY THIS MORNING.  YOU LOST AN HOUR OF SLEEP.  NOON TODAY SHOULD NOW BE 11AM.

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I've had my eye on Super Cyclone Kyarr in the Arabian Sea for a little more than a week.  It reached Category 5 and became the strongest cyclonic storm ever in that region.  However, after avoiding any landfall, it appears that Kyarr has now just about dissipated:

There is Typhoon Halong in the West Pacific, but it does not offer any threat unless you happen to be on a sailcraft.

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