Oh waiter, there's a fly in my turtle soup...

It has been a great many years since I studied apologetics under Dr. Bernard Ramm at Baylor University. Brilliant as he was, though, his system left much to be desired.

I should point out, Little Pig, that you and I have similar backgrounds. I was a Baptist minister and student of theology before becoming a total skeptic of all things religious for some fourteen years as a young man. Because I did not give up looking for the truth of ultimate spiritual reality, I eventually found it, and now I am a biblically oriented systematic theologian.

My theology, however, is not what I was taught at Baylor or Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary or Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary. I consider those institutions to be propagators of ludicrous apostasy as is everything connected to organized religion as we find it today. So, there is still a sense in which I am a profound skeptic of all things connected to "churchianity."

The last high-profile Christian minister/evangelist/professor who actually understood what Christianity really is was the great Charles G. Finney. May I suggest that you might find it extremely helpful to read his Memoirs for an accurate description of what genuine Christianity looked like during the Second Great Awakening. You could also read the first half of his Systematic Theology for a closely reasoned analysis of the true nature of Christianity. You will not find either of these in the "churchianity" of your acquaintance, nor anything remotely close.

Dr. Gerald Schroeder has written a book entitled "The Hidden Face of God" that will give you a wealth of scientific evidence for a theistic world view if you care to examine the evidence. I believe the evidence from modern science for the existence of God is far greater and more convincing (assuming you have an open mind and an honest desire for the truth) than anything traditional apologetics can provide for you.

When I plead sincerely and persistently with the Holy Spirit to open my mind to the truth, he met my need beyond my wildest expectations. And he will do the same for you if you are willing to work with him diligently. Best wishes.

ColinCody
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Thanks for the recommendations. I will definitely check out "The Hidden Face of God." It looks like it is available from Google (_http://books.google.com/books?id=8N1xpfJ9bWAC&dq=the+hidden+face+of+god&pg=PP1&ots=5jpI3b1SQ2&sig=DozbJQipBOmtO5iW5kpgBl1a5JU&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3DThe%2BHidden%2BFace%2Bof%2BGod%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail#PPP1,M1). Have you ever read any skeptical responses to that book?

I'm always a little leery of claims to any 'one, true' anything, especially in regard to theology where 'truth' is something closer to literary analysis or art appreciation than math or science and hinges largely on what Faith you bring to the texts. Something I do know about literature and art is that people will more often find what they bring to it than what an author meant to create. Are there so few educated Christians in the world that only a handful do not actually hold to some kind of 'apostasy?'

My policy on open mindedness is to assume we all are sufficiently open minded until proven otherwise. But we all have our emotional baggage, and in a deterministic universe, results are not random (on the macro level anyways).