>Hi Bret,
>
>Well, Dragan seemed to be interested in the science approach. I thought he might find it interesting reading. The Case for Christ is a bit more problematic for me to recommend in a case like this. The whole set of concepts of God, man's responsibility to God, God's right to expect certain attitudes & actions, etc all come from the notion that there actually IS a god, which is a sort of 'first step', so to speak. If you can then get someone to at least entertain the notion of the possibility of 'a god' you must then, in the interest of intellectual honesty, show them the philisophical 'connection' and basis in thought if they are again so inclined. And then one needs to discover that this 'god' is a personal god, not impersonal. If you can get there then you need to have a discussion about what constitutes real 'knowing' and how one can really know (experiential & intellectual - gnosis & ouides respectively) this God. Then you need to go through several 'layers' where they sort through
>the issues of evil and death and so forth that thinking people will always have at this point. And on & on..
>
>What makes me laugh are those who think that Christianity is for non-thinkers. LOL

Doug,

For the children of many believers all these steps are probably not needed. So, I guess those children can adequately be described as, what you call, non-thinkers. Their reasoning is: "Of course there exists a God!!!!"
I know that other believers do their best to let their children think a lot about it.

As for the adults who try a Christian conversion, I think that you describe well the steps that they have to take. But the steps sound forced to me. I think it is indeed a hard job for a not-yet-believer to make a new view of the world in the brain that incorporates the idea of an existing God. It must be as hard as redefining everything in order to validate the notion that time doesn't exist. (There is a tribe in Brazil where time is not part of their language. They don't have the notions 'tomorrow' and 'yesterday'.)



>Sadly, most Christians think the same thing and act that way. *chuckle*
[snip]