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Nobody does that anymore. Nobody says different Christians might come down in different places here and still have a high view of Scripture. Instead, they identify their take as the wise one, and say everyone else is selling out or something.

In today's climate, to come down on a theory of creation would be as bad as if I said, "I'm a Democrat" or "I'm a Republican," because then the people of the other party aren't going to listen. They're going to say, "So your gospel isn't for Republicans," or "It's not for Democrats," or "It's not for me, because I believe in evolution."

So I want to be noncommittal. I don't want the people who don't like one creation view to feel like now they can't listen to the rest of the gospel.

Instead, I point out that it's a red herring to go after that before you decide whether Jesus died and rose again. Two people said [last night at a Veritas forum]: "I can't believe in Christianity, because look at the fossils." And I was trying to say, "Because you believe in evolution does this mean that Jesus Christ couldn't be raised from the dead?" One said, "No, that has nothing to do with it." If he was raised from the dead, then you have to take seriously the Scripture and you have to work on all this. If he wasn't raised from the dead, who cares about Genesis 1–11?

Do you hear a lot of "I can't believe in Christianity because I believe in science"?

Yes — mainly from math and science people. They have different problems with Christianity than the artists do. Artists feel like Christianity is culturally regressive; it's a throwback, and it's keeping women barefoot in the kitchen. The math and science people ask me, "So if I believe the gospel, can I be a scientist?"

The recent Pew study talked about changing patterns of belief in America. Has that affected your apologetics ministry?

The Pew study showed that the moderate middle has atrophied — people who are kind of Christian. They now take Christianity metaphorically. They believe the Resurrection is a wonderful symbol. That group has just been shrinking, and secularism and orthodoxy are growing. So we have a polarized society — which is what I try to say in the first chapter of the book. So it only confirmed the book.

One reason for this is because I think there's been a backlash. Evangelicalism has been so identified with conservative Republican values that a lot of people who might be more moderate have decided they are not religious. I've seen that happen in New York. They're moderate or liberal politically, and they feel like orthodox Christianity is so identified with conservative Republican politics that they have actually distanced themselves from the faith.

Many Christians say that the rationality of Christians' faith is not the obstacle for unbelievers; they reject Christianity because of what they see as bad behavior and toxic attitudes.

There are always three reasons people believe or disbelieve: the intellectual, the personal, and the social.

It's typical of postmodern people to say belief is all cultural, conditioned by your community.

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June 2008, Vol. 52, No. 6