The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates the New Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God

Written by Lee Strobel

Narrated by Lee Strobel

Audiobook narrated by Lee Strobel.

Discover the astonishing evidence for intelligent design in this New York Times bestselling book by award-winning journalist Lee Strobel.

"My road to atheism was paved by science . . . but, ironically, so was my later journey to God," Strobel says.

During his academic years, Lee Strobel became convinced that God was obsolete, a belief that colored his journalism career. Science had made the idea of a Creator irrelevant--or so Strobel thought.

But today science points in a different direction. A diverse and impressive body of research has increasingly supported the conclusion that the universe was intelligently designed. At the same time, Darwinism has faltered in the face of concrete facts and hard reason. Has science discovered God? At the very least, it's giving faith an immense boost, as new findings emerge about the incredible complexity of our universe.

Join Strobel as he reexamines the theories that once led him away from God. Through his compelling and highly readable account, you'll encounter the mind-stretching discoveries from cosmology, cellular biology, DNA research, astronomy, physics, and human consciousness that present compelling evidence in The Case for a Creator.

Also available: The Case for a Creator small group video study and study guide, Spanish edition, kids' edition, student edition, and more.

Suggested reading, study guide, and end notes are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Mar 23, 2004
• ISBN: 9780310261421

Lee Strobel

Lee Strobel, former award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have sold almost twenty million copies worldwide. Lee earned a journalism degree at the University of Missouri and received a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School. He was a journalist for fourteen years at the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers, winning Illinois’ top honors for investigative reporting (which he shared with a team he led) and public service journalism from United Press International. A former atheist, he served as a teaching pastor at three of America’s largest churches. Lee and his wife, Leslie, have been married for more than fifty years and live in Texas. Their daughter, Alison, and son, Kyle, are also authors. Website: www.leestrobel.com

Reviews for The Case for a Creator

[Fit For Faith 〣 Your Christian Ministry. · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A good defense of Monotheism, but his 'g'od takes the backseat in the creation of the planets.

This book is a dangerous potpourri / blend of ideas. I go as far as to say that it is more dangerous than what Darwin has written or said, because it pretends to endorse the Bible while it does not even reference one single Bible verse in 95% of the book (only as afterthought in the final words) and plainly contradicts the creation account. His version of the creation implies billion-fold death before Adam.

While Strobel generously allows THEOS to have come into action with creation day 1, he assumes in this book a passive role of a spectator who had to wait until the big bang had made Him the earth and other collisions formed the moon and so on.

This is heretical. The Bible clearly states that IESOUS laid the foundation of the Earth (he quotes the respective verse at the end of the book, but plainly contradicts it in all the book), and the act of 'laying' is contrary to watch an accident happening. And it says that He created bodies like the moon.

While this author enlightens us with a good defense of special creation, he appears to have been intimated by his cuma laude friends. Why is he not asking how they can be certain about the materials the sun consists of, or why it should be billions of years old? Why did he not confront them with Bible verses that state that THEOS laid the foundation of the earth and created the sun?

It is hypocritical to have an investigative character and boldness when it comes to opposing certain lies of the more obvious enemies of THEOS, but to leave this same character at the door when meeting with his friends of worldly prestige.

Another fatal point is the blatant deception regarding the Cambrian explosion. When the topic comes up in the first half of the book, it pretty much sounds like 5500 BC (Adam) or 3300 BC (Noah's Flood), when all the animals suddenly appeared at the same time. It is then a huge surprise to read at the end of the book and after having been left with this totally false impression, that this explosion in his reality lasted 5 million years and took place 530 million years ago. He tries then in a silly way to compare this to 5 minutes of a 24hrs day (which would make 1440 million years!!!), in order to water down the obviously close similarity to the concept of evolution. Who cares if 5 millions or a couple of million years more. Both concepts are outmost heretical when compared with the Word implying 6 ordinary days.

Don't get me wrong, Mr. Strobel certainly makes a very good overall case for Christianity and defends it well in many aspects.

But this book should have been published as a scientific paper and rather not reached the audience of the average churchgoer. I am certain that it is not in the will of THEOS that someone spends 20-40 hours reading intellectual banter, no matter how sophisticated and meaningful it might be. That time could be much better used to serve the church in a practical way, than being drawn in a parallel world of intellectual prestige and academics while endlessly listening to their oh-so-impressive credentials.

I use the word banter because it is a back-and-forth without any spiritual direction. Although the author has his heart possibly in the right place, it is a heartless and bone-dry book lacking for the holiness and passion for the true Creator.

Humans cannot be convinced by truth and arguments alone, they are convinced by truth combined with example and passion. And most importantly and the author does not even see this, it is THEOS who needs to take away a veil in order to see those truths. No matter how smart and right and good many of his arguments might be, if he shows no heart to at least pray and call the reader to pray for those veils be taken away, then this book is useless.

PROS

+ Well informed; partly a good defense. Lots of good arguments and insights.

+ He made a good choice to read the audiobook himself.

CONS

- He exclusively interviewed academics. No pastors or ministers consulted for this book.

- Repetitive (e.g. the fine-tuning of the universe is repeated and could have been significantly compacted).

- He clearly makes the case for a designed Big Bang as repeated over and over and affirmed at the end of the book, following the highly problematical teacher William Lane Craig, with whom he repeatedly worked together and who holds to this view (Theistic evolution; Adam&Eve = Homo heidelbergensis; one million years ago ...; claims that the genre of Genesis 1-11 is pure myth; rejects the Flood and the Tower of Babel; rejects inerrancy of Scripture ...).

He simply assumes that the incredibly complicated 'inner life' of our planet was composed within 90 seconds of a gigantic battle of material. This is heretical. KYRIOS makes it very clear that not only the furnishing of the earth is a miracle, but that He delicately designed its inner life (as Strobel also pointed out at one point, but overall shows a fundamental contradiction). The theory of a big bang in a Christian context is a 'slap into the face' of KYRIOS.

- Endorsement of Teresa de Avila, as being 'eloquent' (Key figure of Catholic and Christian Mysticism, First female Doctor of the Catholic church, levitated). To quote her, is to essentially quote the devil.

- Endorsement of Augustine (creator of most Catholic & Calvinist doctrines; the patriarch of Calvinism; preeminent Doctor of the Catholic Church; amillennialism; rejected also the Genesis account being literal; key figure in bringing the OT Apocrypha into our Bibles; father of the doctrine of persecution; Ransom-Theorist). To quote him, is highly problematic.

- Endorsement of Francis Collins (Teaches that man comes from evolution; supports Genetic Enhancement; aborted fetal tissue research ...).

- Endorsement of Alister Edgar McGrath, who is an Anglican priest, who has attended/taught at Oxford and Regent College, both outmost problematic institutions, no matter how much the world esteems them.

[Fernanda P · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Outstanding book that works as an alternative source to the Bible that there is a Creator, God almighty, and He has carefully designed us, everything that surrounds and and beyond.

[Fred Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A superb and comprehensive review of multidisciplined evidence of a creator, God…a must read for any sceptic, you owe it to yourself to read this book or listen to it.

[sugarplumfairy_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I don't like this book at all. Strobel relies so heavily on "straw man" arguments that one begins to suspect that real objections to creationism just may have some actual merit. I also do not like that all of the "leading scientists" he interviews are Christians I have never heard of. There is no discussion of the "intelligent design" movement in secular science. There is no purely secular source that is analyzed to show the plausibility of theistic creation (they do exist). A weak book that, in my opinion, hurts the case for a Creator for any skeptics that may read it.

[rybeewoods · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Refer to my thoughts concerning Case for Christ.

[shelterit · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Good try at convincing us that there is a God and his son is Jesus, but every time a hard question is asked, the straw-men come dancing in and fail to impress me.

[nbr_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

He's actually willing to take on some tough questions. That's to his credit. However ... he has no tough answers to go along with them. In the end, it always seems to come down to personal convictions, inner transformations, and ineffable experiences of being "sure."

[n_yay · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Have you got questions about Christianity? Former athiest attempts to break down those barriers.

[Greg House · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent and comprehensive review of scientific evidence available to date and a critique of Darwinism that is hailed as fact while not even a robust theory.
Delves into various facets of science (biology, chemistry, physics, cosmology, astronomy etc) and gives a good overview and reason why you should be a sceptic and review the popular narrative.

[krista.rutherford · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am a Christian and read this book out of curiosity. It makes some valid points and conveys some interesting ideas, even if you want to argue with the interpretations. The bottom line is Jesus rose from the grave, and Strobel did a particularly good job of investigating that in the original Case for Christ.

[jenniferrobb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was a harder read than I thought it would be--and some of the subjects it contains are ones I've read about previously. I found the scientists's arguments to be well reasoned out and logical, but in many cases I had to take breaks to digest what I'd read because there was so much information packed into each chapter!

I discussed the contents and questions of this book with a friend who also enjoyed it.

[page.fault · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I somehow had the urge, on Christmas day, no less, to review this... maybe as explanation for why I'm not sitting in church right now... a "bah, humbug" review, I suppose. I used to identify as Christian. I read this book. I'm now agnostic. Obviously, losing faith isn't that simple, correlation doesn't imply causation, and this book may be great for some people, but I want to add my reaction because I'm concerned for anyone who reads this book while troubled about their faith...it may be a really, really bad idea.

I grew up in the church, but I've always had doubts. I'm a logician at heart, and there are a lot of direct contradictions in the Bible. There are also a lot of teachings which have been discarded in light of our culture(e.g. the role of women, most of the Old Testament laws, etc) and my very tautological mindset has issues with pick-and-choose precepts. Anyway, growing up in the church, I learned quickly that hard questions were not welcomed. (Yes, this includes those alpha groups. I tried a few--after getting questions shut down, I tried contacting the leaders and asking if it was ok for me to come...I was gently told that my concerns might "contaminate" others.) That "don't confuse me with the facts" mentality is what eventually made me give up. And this book has it in spades.

I was given this book (as a Christmas gift, incidentally) quite a few years ago by a truly kind and compassionate member of my church who hadn't read it but thought it might help me with those "hard questions." As it turns out, it didn't, and in fact helped to kill most of my remaining faith. I found Strobel's God to be one much more interested in righteousness and justice than forgiveness or compassion. He felt to me like the other side of the coin of C.S. Lewis's God of joy and love.

Strobel sets out a bunch of "laws" and "rules" dogmatically, not all of which (I felt) are biblically supported. Take, as one example, the fun parts of the Old Testament where God orders pillage, rape, murder and genocide. I sort of developed a comfort with the "continuing revelation" view of the Bible--that God first reveals himself to Abraham as in some ways a god of the mountain, and that as he continued to reveal himself, people understood more clearly about mercy as opposed to hard justice. Strobel doesn't agree. I also never believed in inerrancy--it's the whole direct contradiction issue--and Strobel does. So that means he actually had the fun task of arguing that the genocides and rapes and slaughters,of, say, the Canaanites in the Old Testament were justified. Strobel's response: they were bad people, so they--and their children and camels--deserved what was coming to them.

Another section that bothered me was about exclusivity. I've always believed (I know, I know, this automatically shows why I couldn't survive in the church) that God must be bigger than the labels and regimented doctrine of Judeo-Christianity. Why would he limit himself to only one small group? What happened to people born before then? What happens to someone who never learned of Jesus? Why could God not have been continually revealing himself to people throughout time, to people who never fully grasp Him and therefore splinter themselves into various religions? (I know, it's heresy. But then, I'm no longer Christian...maybe I never really was.) Strobel asks some of these in his interview...but comes up with neatly packaged answers supporting exclusivity. He argues that God being God, God must somehow give everyone the opportunity. And apparently, all other religions are "wrong" and "arrogant" for "daring" to consider their religion better than Christianity. I cannot reconcile with a God who sends backbiting Christians to Heaven because they jump through some hoops and get all their names right while sending, say, faithful, righteous, and compassionate Muslims to Hell.

And speaking of Hell...there's an entire chapter devoted to it. It is actually possible, if you're careful, to read what Jesus says about Hell, the weeping and gnashing of teeth, as simply ending rather than eternal torment. For me, that was OK. I'm comfortable with ending and becoming nothing. Eternity scares me. Eternal Hell also seems to me to contradict the argument that God uses earthly pain as a teaching tool like a parent making a child do his homework. (Speaking of which, apparently children get a free pass--Strobel "saves" the children from Hell via the "age of accountability" doctrine--apparently there's a mystical cutoff at which point you become responsible and can go darkside. I don't understand this, and I see no biblical support.) What parent, no matter how sick, twisted, and bad, could ever send their child to eternal time-out, let alone Hell? How could God? According to Strobel and his interviewee, God thinks we each have "intrinsic value", so shoving us in hopeless Hell from which there is no chance of redemption somehow "saves" that "value", whereas nonexistence would destroy it. That sounds dangerously close to a sociopathic viewpoint to me. And how could anyone be happy in Heaven knowing anyone--no matter how bad--was being eternally tormented? Apparently, they're just dandy with that "value" thing. Look, if Strobel's right, I'm headed straight to Hell without passing go or collecting $200. I can't picture my parents feeling happy knowing that I'm eternally tormented. They'd rather I was just gone. The only reason to keep us there would be the CS Lewis Great Divorce style redemption--where even after death, people could be reconciled to God. No chance, says Strobel, because if God is infinitely wise, how could anyone die without having sufficient opportunities? This touches home, as (like most people) I know people who have committed suicide due to serious mental depression (and possibly poor medical treatment for it). According to Strobel, they're downstairs being tortured right now, and will scream in Hell for all eternity.

The last section is about how it's OK to have doubts. But before you start feeling better, they have to be the "right" doubts. And of course, they will be magically resolved via prayer and supplication and a relationship with God. To be honest, I've tried and agonized. I've never felt God. I've never had a relationship. And I still have (pardon the pun) a Hell of a lot of doubts.

I'm no longer Christian. This book isn't the only reason why, but it certainly was a contributing factor to my sense of alienation from the church and the community. I want to dismiss it, ignore it, erase it from my mind, but I never can. Much of it also has a significant amount of biblical support. This book scares me, and while it promises me eternal torment for not towing the line, it also makes me physically unable to do so. I worry that for doubters like me, this book is dangerous and toxic to faith. But again, everyone reacts differently; maybe some people will benefit from it. If you are firm in your faith, it may be a very interesting read to contrast with C.S.Lewis.

[katieloucks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've been a Christian for years, and this book still brought up some of the questions I had. I loved how they were answered - we won't always have the answers to things, but the answers we do have should be enough.

[justagirlwithabook · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lee Strobel's book got really big when I was in college and he makes a really good argument for why the Creationism theory isn't so far-fetched. I really love his stuff - he looks at everything through the lens of a journalist, someone who is investigating the situation and trying to come to conclusions.

[captkirk_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'v ejust started reading this one. So far, I like the fact that the author opens his book with the idea he's a skeptic, and, as the book unfolds, he is showing how his initial ideas about evolution are being debunked. It's also showing how many of his ideas about the exclusiveness of science and Creationism are incorrect and illogical. When I'm finished, I'm sure I'll have more to say.

[jimocracy · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Lee Strobel is a pompous ass-hat! The interview subjects of his book are a veritable who's who of the ID movement. Further, Strobel doesn't even have the professional decency to interview anyone from the other side of any topic he discussed. I'm sure the true believer will readily agree with the author's numerous logical fallacies and their irrational conclusions but I can't take such one-sided "reporting" seriously.

I was honestly hoping to read a compelling book that would give me room to pause but most of what was written in this book was garbage. I especially disliked Strobel's attempts to put himself in the skeptic's shoes during interviews. Rather than having the real experts discuss these issues, the author chose to pretend that his friends were qualified while he took on the straw-man role of the would-be skeptic.

[zylphan · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

A simplified theology book with pat answers that aren't really answers at all.

[shortybond · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Strobel does it once again in this amazing book defending the Christian faith!!

[djaquay_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A bit of preaching to the choir, a bit of dissing other religions. Not much to see here.

[van_stef_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This a good read. The first time I read this I was a freshman in college and it was for a speech that i was writing. I didn't understand much of it at the time and it kinda seemed like it draged. But now that I've read it again for the pure pleasure of reading it, I like it a lot more. It's very well researched and well it is a very dense book, the way Lee writes it makes it very easy to understand. I like the use of visual analogies that are present throughout the book.

[brookeashley-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

My review for this book and The Case For Christ are the same, since I read them at the same time five years ago and can't remember which topics were in which books. I managed to forget I ever read them, and only when I saw them on this site did remember. These books were given to me by a guy I was dating at the time who decided I'd only be an acceptable wife if I converted to Christianity (I'm currently single, if you're wondering how well that went over). It's a shame he chose these books as his main plan of attack, because they're terrible.Lee Strobel's first mistake is that he tries to answer everything with a pat, definitive response. The tone he uses is one that says, "AH! This is so simple, now that you've explained it! How does anyone not understand?" As most people realize, religion is complicated and often requires you to just believe in things that you take on faith, rather than because it's been proven by evidence. Trying to argue for faith makes faith a moot point. When answering the question, "If there's a God, why does he allow such suffering in this world?" Strobel trots out the tired response, "Because God gave us free will." For a book that's supposed to help convert people, that answer isn't going to reassure someone who had strong objections in the first place. It also fails to acknowledge that we really just don't know, and that we tell ourselves this to try to make sense of things, not because we know for sure.Strobel also tried to address deep questions with anecdotes - one that sticks out in my mind to this day was a response to a question about how people who never heard of Jesus could be saved, and isn't it a flaw of the religion if it only applied to people who happened to live in a place where Jesus was brought to their attention? Strobel somehow thought that a story about a Muslim girl in a Muslim country who one day randomly thought "I need Jesus's help" and secretly became Christian answered it sufficiently and proved that we will just know Jesus in our hearts. Other answers required a preexisting belief in order to make sense. They reminded me of the circular argument the aforementioned ex-boyfriend would give for Jesus's divinity - Jesus is God, so since he says he's God, if I don't believe he's God, I'm calling God a liar. The kicker for me was a chapter about the prediction of the Messiah in the Jewish bible - Strobel managed to find an ignorant Jew who must have never done even the minimal Torah study. With his help, Strobel spins a conspiracy where Rabbis hide the fact that the Jewish bible prophesied the arrival of the Messiah. The ignorant Jew tells Strobel all about how he didn't know such a thing was foretold, and it was such a revelation to him that he converted to Christianity. I want to find this guy and smack him up the side of the head with my Tanakh and suggest he look up that little thing about the descendant of King David. Strobel would have done far better to admit that these are complicated questions for which we don't have all the answers, if we have any at all. The fact that he has an answer for everything just makes him look silly and arrogant. If religion were this easy, we wouldn't have the Talmud and Midrash.

[juglicerr · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A Journalist talks to scientists whose views support hisIt's always a little tricky reviewing a book when I know that I am not neutral on the subject - I feel that I should review it partly in its own terms, to give other readers some idea of how they might like it. I debated for a long time between whether to give it 3 or 4 stars. I read a great deal on evolution, but I do not claim to have the breadth of scientific knowledge to judge the science in all cases. Strobel particularly aims this book at people who found that science undermined their religious faith. (This is not my situation.) On the side of 4 stars: The title makes it very clear that the author has a particular agenda, and since I claim to be in favor of freedom of speech, I am all for people honestly expressing and supporting their views, even if an annoying number of them disagree with me. I think that it is valuable to have this point of view expressed, even if the reader is only planning to knock it down. It is unfair to complain that his treatment is not balanced - he is pretty up front about the fact that this is a book of advocacy (but see the next paragraph.) Strobel also has the honesty to spell out what he means by Intelligent Design, unlike many ID supportors, like Phillip Johnson. (I like Johnson less every time I think about him.) In the desire to avoid religious connotations, Intelligent Design is usually left so vague as to be almost vacuous. I was gripped by some of the chapters, whether by the science or by Strobel's tale of his 1974 reportage on a debate over teaching that is presented. The chapters are somewhat uneven, Behe chooses to be annoyingly obtuse about some of the objections that have been raised to his reasoning, e.g., Kenneth Miller's comments on his mousetrap metaphor. I have to suppose that he has no real answer. Strobel has helpfully appended a list of further reading to each chapter. Knocking it down to 3 stars. There is a whiff of the weasel hanging over this. I have no objection to Strobel acting as an honest advocate; I only object to his trying to dupe us into thinking he's really entering into this in the open-minded spirit of inquiry. "Investigates" is used somewhat loosely in the subtitle as it stands - my review title is a suggestion for a somewhat more accurate subtitle. I take, with a grain of salt, his statement: I would stand in the shoes of the skeptic ... posing the toughest objections that had been raised." I think that should be, "I would feed them straight lines to make sure that they covered the topics/objections that I had in mind." Strobel also uses the "demon word" Darwinism a bit broadly. Naturalism or materialism is a property of science generally, not just Darwinism, therefore the belief that the Universe arose through naturalistic mechanisms is probably believed by most Darwinists, but it's a bit doubtful that it can properly be considered a particular tenet of Darwinism per se. This raises some interesting issues about the science that Strobel et al. accept and the science that they don't. If it could be proven that Prokaryotes were created by an Intelligent Designer, but from that point all other life forms developed through Darwinian evolution, one could still argue that Darwinism is basically correct. On to the proofs. Fascinating as some of the science is, the evidence for Creation or Intelligent Design is not really scientific, it is what I personally call Unaided Logic. This is, for the most part, what classical philosophy does - arguments that are logical but which cannot or are not tested against reality. There have been numerous charming hypotheses that have gone aground on the shoals of testing. In Chapter 7, Gonzalez and Richard argue that there is a long list of factors that had to be just right in order for life to exist. While it may be true that if only one of them varied, life on Earth would be impossible, it could still be true that if, say, five of them varied together, different but still life-supporting conditions would prevail; we have way too little data. (I have little patience with anyone who claims that there definitely is/is not life on other planets or produces unsupportable equations demonstrating the likelihood.) It is true that on a number of issues, Strobel's opponents don't have scientific answers, but neither do his experts. Maybe we just don't know. I am not impressed by elimination arguments, i.e., "If I knock down other theories, you have to believe mine." We are still generally left with "In my opinion, this is the most reasonable explanation" posing as "This is an unbiased scientific fact." I am unimpressed with the kalam argument, a more sophisticated version of the Unmoved Mover argument, since I could just as well state as my premise that we don't know of any things in our experience which do not come into being, and we should therefore assume that there is nothing outside of our experience that does. I use Unaided Logic at times and while it may be reasonable, rational, logical and useful, I don't kid myself that it is scientific. Soap box: I want to thank Zondervan or Strobel, whoever is responsible for the format of the notes. The running title is Chapter X: [Chapter title] and each section of notes is topped by the same title. Makes it very easy to match up the citations with the quotes.

[debs4jc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As in his other books, Strobel tackles some of the tough objections to the Christian religion--this time objections that would lead to a lack of faith. These include the problems of human suffering and human evolution. Strobel does this by talking to people, he interviews Christian authorities on these matters and then shares his refections. It might not convince anyone who isn't already convinced, but it does offer a personal approach to intellectual problems which at least helps make the book more intersting to read. And I think it does show that to be a Christian you don't have to check your brain at the door.

[nesum_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

What an incredible unworthy follow up to The Case for Christ. The problem is, of course, that Strobel is not a great theologian. His approach to doctrine is very man-focused rather than Christ-focused.Now, when you are investigating the historical evidence to the Bible, the details of your theology don't matter all that much. Because of that, The Case for Christ is a great work in apologetics. But that is not at all the approach of this work. Instead of looking at actual hard evidence, Strobel instead turns to philosophy to answer tough questions like, "If God is good, then why is there evil in the world."Fair question, but Strobel, being very pragmatic and man-focused, turns to like-minded philosophers for his answers. So instead of biblically-based responses (even if we don't want to hear them), we have a bunch of people trying to twist their brains to defend God's actions in history. We have one philosopher trying to claim that hell exists because it is less dehumanizing than simple annihilation (p. 253), that all children who die go to heaven because they are not old enough to know better (p. 169), and that human free will is the driving force in the universe (throughout).The problem, of course, is having a wrong understanding of God in the first place. When you are Strobel, and you come to this book with the belief that God is helpless against free will, then you have a God who either cannot or will not help. That is not the God of the Bible. The true God is sovereign over all things. He is moving the tides of history by His will. He allows evil for a time, but He moves all thing for His glory and for the good of His children. He is guiding this world to a place that we cannot even imagine right now, and yet every moment will be seen in the end as purposeful and for the good. He is merciful to allow evil for a time, for we are sinful, and if He were to avenge evil fully in this moment, then He would destroy us as well. But in mercy He has given us time, for He is long suffering. He has given us this very day that we might repent and believe in Him and be saved.The book is not all bad. Ravi Zacharias has a very fine interview. But on the whole, this is an exercise in bad philosophy trying to remake God in our own image instead of ourselves being conformed to the image of Jesus. I'll stick with Strobel's more historic-based books in the future.

[harpua_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I’ve read Lee’s other books, A Case for Faith and A Case for Christ, and this follows along the same vein as those. Lee interviews numerous experts in their respective fields about subjects and how the facts eventually lead to a case for a Creator. In this book we have topics about Evolution, Astronomy, The Big Bang, Biochemistry, DNA, and much more. A lot of interesting topics and as usual, Lee writes in a very accessible format and is easy and quick to read, not typical of non-fiction books I’ve read lately so I did enjoy this one greatly.In my case, as a Christian, I already hold much of the same beliefs as Lee so I didn’t need much convincing. It was nice to see how science actually points to what I already believe. Would this book have convinced me if I was an avowed atheist? Not likely, but if I had an open mind, and was interested in seeing an opposing viewpoint, this may have been a nice first step in a journey to a new belief system.

[Christopher Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

TRULY AN INCREDIBLE MASTERPIECE. Lee Strobel’s ‘A Case for a Creator’ gives so much undeniable evidence for the existence of the God of the Bible. THIS IS A MUST READ for any skeptic.

[Mark Maciel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A Masterpiece. Complex ideas conveyed in simple language, for anyone to understand. Thank You.