To adapt a phrase, idols have consequences.

In studies asking why young people left their family religion, their most frequent response was unanswered doubts and questions. The researchers were surprised: They expected to hear stories of broken relationships and wounded feelings. But the top reason given by young adults was that they did not get answers to their questions.

The sense of all stylistic change is that the underlying view of the world changes.

I discovered that Christianity does have the resources to meet the challenges posed by competing worldviews after all.

If people deny free will, then when ordering at a restaurant they should say, "Just bring me whatever the laws of nature have determined that I will get."

When people commit themselves to a certain vision of reality, it becomes their ultimate explainer. It serves to interpret the universe for them, to guide their moral decisions, to give meaning and purpose to life, and all the other functions normally associated with a religion.

In every historical period, the religious groups that grow most rapidly are those that set believers at odds with the surrounding culture.