Strobel answers questions at Friendly Atheist blog

Over at the Friendly Atheist blog, Hemant has asked Lee Strobel to answer some questions sent in by atheists who read Hemant's blog. If you didn't know, Lee Strobel was an atheist for many years before he noticed some attractive qualities in his wife after she became a Christian. After more investigation and hearing the gospel in a way that made sense to him, he became a Christian as well. He is now regarded as one of the leading apologists of our day.

Here's Part 1, where he answers the question:

What is your own background with atheism? What caused you to become a Christian? Is there a difference between your former atheism and the “New Atheism” of today? In other words, how hard-core of an atheist were you?

Here's a snippet of his answer:

"For nearly two years, I investigated science, philosophy, and history. I read literature (both pro and con), quizzed experts, and studied archaeology. On November 8th, 1981, alone in my room, I took a yellow legal pad and began summarizing the evidence I had encountered. In light of the scientific evidence that points toward a Creator and the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, I came to the conclusion that it would have required more faith for me to maintain my atheism than to become a Christian.

Essentially, I realized that to stay an atheist, I would have to believe that nothing produces everything; non-life produces life; randomness produces fine-tuning; chaos produces information; unconsciousness produces consciousness; and non-reason produces reason. Those leaps of faith were simply too big for me to take, especially in light of the affirmative case for God’s existence and Jesus’ resurrection (and, hence, his divinity). In other words, in my assessment the Christian worldview accounted for the totality of the evidence much better than the atheistic worldview."