With exception to the Western culture in which I grew up, and the influence of various family members whose persistence eventually paid off, I would not say I was raised Christian.

I accepted that label as early as 9 years old, but had rejected all religious claims by middle school. At 16 I came back to the faith with renewed humility and intellectual curiosity, and while the road that followed included many twists and valleys, it has only become more authentic and meaningful.

There are many critics of religion—Christianity in particular. It is viewed as divisive, oppressive, self-righteous, intolerant and anti-intellectual. And this is true in the same way that every ideology can be, because people are imperfect and sometimes harmfully mistaken. As my good friend and former professor Hunter Baker has adeptly argued, the secular alternative offers no greater promise of peace and freedom than Christianity. If anything, Christianity done well is exceptionally conducive to such a society.

Far from being anti-intellectual, the theological framework of Christianity has enabled me to place into context the things I encounter in the study of history, economics, psychology, government, business and so on. If indeed there is a created order, there must be certain principles at work that transcend and shape all human and natural phenomena—and Christianity supplies and makes sense of those principles. This is why it is more than a religion; it is a philosophy of life that is unmatched in richness and depth of wisdom toward a healthy life.

Some people narrow reason and truth to a particular epistemological method—the scientific method. They argue that if it cannot be proven, it cannot be true. But they fail to recognize the limits of this approach, which, while appropriate for many forms of learning, cannot account for every imaginable truth. Thus, I find no intellectual obstacle to the Christian faith, and the more I understand about humanity and the world, the more compelling the evidence appears in its favor.