Speaker and author Lee Strobel discusses how creation points to the existence of God in his new book, “Is God Real?: Exploring the Ultimate Question of Life.” He shared with Fox News anchor Shannon Bream about how, as a former atheist, he got into proving that God exists and how amazingly planned out our existence is. Bream asked Strobel, “How does someone go from being an atheist to writing the books you’ve written?”
Strobel shared, “I’m trained in journalism and law like you are, and was legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, an atheist, a skeptic. And everything was going along pretty well until my wife, who was an agnostic, met a Christian who shared her faith with her and took her to church. And then my wife gave me the worst news an atheist husband could get. She said, ‘I’ve just become a follower of Jesus.’”
After his wife told him the news, the author instantly thought of divorce. But first, he attempted to “rescue” her from the “cult” she had gotten sucked into. So, he sought to disprove Jesus’ resurrection. Strobel continued, “Because I, even as an atheist, I recognize that’s the foundation of everything. So I did take my journalism training, legal training, and systematically investigate the historical data concerning the resurrection of Jesus and other issues involving the reality of faith and so forth.”
He continued, “I spent two years of my life doing that, until November the 8th of 1981, when I sat down to reach a verdict, and I, as I reviewed all the evidence, I said to myself, you know, in light of the avalanche of evidence that points so powerfully toward the truth of Christianity, I realize would take more faith to maintain my atheism than to become a Christian. So the scales just kind of tip decisively in favor of faith.”
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So, he converted to Christianity, and his “character, morals and marriage” shifted for the better. Strobel recently shared another thing that helped his atheism dissipate: discovering why God loved him. He said, “I came to realize that God didn’t love me because I made myself valuable through service; on the contrary, I was valuable because I was loved by God. I could stop working like a slave to justify myself; I just needed to recognize — and celebrate — my adoption as God’s child. My desire to love and serve God in a healthy way would flow from that.
Since his conversion, Strobel has helped author over 70 books about the scientific and historical basis for Christianity. He shared with Bream how the existence of everything is planned out in minute detail. Strobel explained, “I mean if you were to look up at the night sky, and instead of seeing a bunch of stars, if you suddenly saw 100 giant dials in the sky, and each one can be calibrated to one of trillions and trillions of possible settings. And yet, each one of these dials is perfectly calibrated so that we have a universe where life can exist. If you just mess with those, with those dials a little bit, intelligent life becomes impossible anywhere in the universe.”
He continued, “I’ll give you one of my favorite examples is the force of gravity. If you imagine a ruler across the entire known universe… 13 or 15 billion light-years width, a ruler broken down in one-inch increments.” This represents the possible range along which the force of gravity could have been calibrated.” Gravity’s creation rests at the only spot where it, and therefore life itself, could have ever been created.
Along with writing books and attending speaking engagements, Strobel directs the Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at Colorado Christian University.