Great books for the sceptical
There are many people who think Christians are uninformed anti-scientific people who believe things disproved by scientists years ago. Richard Dawkins famously said that faith is believing something that you know isn’t true.
This prevents quite a few people from even considering the claims of Christianity. Why would you bother? Surely science has proved that God doesn’t exist, and evolution can explain why the world is the way it is. We are constantly told by our education system, our media, our novels and movies, that all we need is to make our own meaning in the world and live a good life. Introducing the ideas of God and sin and forgiveness and life after death is unnecessary and unhelpful.
Because of these assumptions held by so many, it can be hard to even speak about Jesus to our non-Christian friends. That might be OK for you, they might say, but it is not for me. I could not possibly believe those kinds of things.
I have recently read two very helpful books that can equip Christians on this topic and can be given to non-Christians to challenge their assumptions. The secular worldview, the idea that science can explain everything, is so dominant but it is simply not true. Exploring the logic of the secular worldview and what Christians really believe shows that it is more than possible to be an intelligent, educated person in the Western world and still believe in the Bible and in Jesus.
The first book is the more thorough and detailed: Making Sense of God by Timothy Keller. Tim Keller is a pastor from New York whose books are always helpful, albeit quite deep and philosophical. He explores some key ideas in ways that are logical, challenging and honest. Can you have morality without belief in God? Is it possible to make your own meaning or get meaning from what society says is right? Is my personal freedom to do what I want, as long as I don’t hurt anyone, the most important thing in life? I highly recommend this book for anyone who is a serious thinker about how the world works. It would be a great book to give to a highly educated friend to spark a conversation.
The second book is simpler but probably more helpful for many because of its simplicity. It is John Lennox’s latest one entitled ‘Can Science Explain Everything?’ John Lennox is a world-renowned mathematician, Oxford professor, and professing Christian. He has been mocked for his faith by fellow scientists throughout his career. He has refined his arguments in debates with many atheists over the years, and this book is his simplest and most concise. It is short, to the point, and convincingly argues that Christianity makes logical sense in a way that trusting in science does not. It is clearly not anti-science but explains that belief in God underpins modern scientific method and that the expectation on evolution to explain the world is not enough. This is simple enough to give to a teenager or anyone dealing with the issues posed by evolution and science.
It is a great blessing in our modern world that we have such good, well-written books to help us with these key questions. Either of these would be well worth your time, and worth giving away to a friend who grapples with these issues.