Real Name: Sean Giordano

(email: rpt@r-pt.net)

Socrates said if you find “a good wife you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher.” Being a decent philosopher aside and having a wonderful wife, I have been blessed with two very cool boys! My youngest child [now a high schooler] has a closeness to Gracie Allen when she said, “when I was born, I was so surprised I couldn’t talk for a year and a half.” And my oldest son [now a Marine] taught me that the difference between couple-hood and babyhood is moisture. Paul Reiser said it best, “everything in my life is now more moist. Between your spittle, your diapers, your spit-up and drool, you got your baby food, your wipes, your formula, your leaky bottles, sweaty baby backs, and numerous other untraceable sources – all creating an ever-present moistness in [our] life, which heretofore was mainly dry.” I was born in 1970, a perfect time to catch the re-runs of Felix the Cat and Lassie, as well as catching the new Justice League and S.W.A.T. We are the generation of arcade games and classic 80’s movies, Metallica and N.W.A. I wouldn’t want to be in any other time in history than the one I was born into.

I have mentioned for the audience of my old blog, but will again mention it here for any new readers: this is not meant to be an explicitly Christian blog. While I hold to and vehemently defend a particular worldview, I do not intend this site to be “rosy cheeked” — “pure as the driven snow” depot for faith. This site is meant for men and women who are confident enough in themselves, their faith, and their culture to know that the “holier-than-thou” lifestyle is best adhered to by those other than ourselves. So expect language and raw thoughts at times, in a respectful or satirical manner. In other words, CAUTION, “Religio-Poltical Apologetics” ahead!

Over 20-years ago I was incarcerated for 3-felonies. A Christian Sheriff got his hands on me and I was pulled by the Spirit back to the faith of my youth and the Finished work on the Cross and have studied to show myself approved since. I graduated in 2009 with an MATS (Master of Arts in Theological Studies). Full circle, so-to-speak. I have recently been diagnosed with MS.

I have interests, and most of them pertain to reading and learning as a hobby.  I own about 5,000 books and about 500 documentaries and truly believe the statement by Mark Twain that “The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t.” Thomas Jefferson chimed in when he said that “Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men [or women], setting out in life, it is their only capital.” Which brings me to a long list of books. These are books I have read and would wish my sons to read or have for reference by the time they’re 40 or so, preferably earlier. (I will highlight just a few out of the categories that I will want to see on their bookshelf in their homes! More in the DVD section) Mind you, if this is my wish for the two guys I love and dig the most, others who visit here may benefit from this list as well (following the book list is a DVD list as well):

Top-Twenty Apologetic Reads:

1. Unshakable Foundations: Contemporary Answers to Crucial Questions about the Christian Faith
2. Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity
3. Christianity on the Offense: Responding to the Beliefs and Assumptions of Spiritual Seekers
4. The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict Fully Updated To Answer The Questions Challenging Christians Today
5. The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ
6. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Baker Reference Library)
7. Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity
8. Does God Believe in Atheists
9. Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus
10. I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
11. Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe
12. Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels
    
13. True for You, But Not for Me: Overcoming Objections to Christian Faith
14. That’s Just Your Interpretation: Responding to Skeptics Who Challenge Your Faith
15. How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?: Responding to Objections That Leave Christians Speechless
16. Defending the Faith, Engaging the Culture: Essays Honoring L. Russ Bush
17. Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists
18. More Than a Carpenter [updated edition]
19. The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity
20. To Everyone an Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview
    

Top-Ten Intelligent Design Reads:

1. Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education
2. God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?
3. Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing
4. Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design
5. Darwin’s Proof: The Triumph of Religion over Science
6. Darwin’s God: Evolution and the Problem of Evil
7. Darwin Day In America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science
8. Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design
9. Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? Why Much of What We Teach About Evolution Is Wrong
10. Agents Under Fire, Materialism and the Rationality of Science

Top-Fifteen Christian Philosophy/Worldview Reads:

1. The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology
2. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview
3. Philosophers Who Believe: The Spiritual Journeys of 11 Leading Thinkers
4. Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide
5. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics
6. Philosophy Made Slightly Less Difficult: A Beginner’s Guide to Life’s Big Questions
7. Faith and Reason: Searching for a Rational Faith
8. A Handbook for Christian Philosophy
9. Good God: The Theistic Foundations of Morality
10. Life’s Ultimate Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy
11. Christianity and the Nature of Science: A Philosophical Investigation
12. God Is Great, God Is Good: Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and Responsible
13. Contending with Christianity’s Critics: Answering New Atheists and Other Objectors
14. Understanding the Times: The Collision of Today’s Competing Worldviews
15. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

Top-Twenty Political/Cultural Reads

1. Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas
2. The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power
3. The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture
4. The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left’s Assault on Our Culture and Values
5. Black Rednecks and White Liberals
6. Clash Of Orthodoxies: Law Religion & Morality In Crisis
7. The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
8. Legislating Morality: Is It Wise? Is It Legal? Is It Possible?
9. American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia
10. Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice
11. True Tolerance: Liberalism and the Necessity of Judgment
12. Natural Law and Public Reason
13. The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents
14. The Ten Things You Can’t Say In America
15. The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom
16. Embryo: A Defense of Human Life
17. The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy
18. Same-Sex Matters: The Challenge of Homosexuality
19. Homosexuality and American Public Life
20. Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air

Top-Fifteen Historical Reads

1. Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change
2. A Conservative History of the American Left
3. Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, & Religion
4. Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White
5. How Christianity Changed the World
6. Christianity and the Constitution: The Faith of Our Founding Fathers
7. 48 Liberal Lies About American History: (That You Probably Learned in School)
8. History Upside Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression
9. The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success
10. Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America
11. The Genevan Reformation and the American Founding
12. Religion and The American Constitutional Experiment
13. The Question of Freemasonry and the Founding Fathers
14. A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Discovery to the War on Terror
15. The Savage Wars Of Peace: Small Wars And The Rise Of American Power

Top-Five Islam Reads

1. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)
2. The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion
3. Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t
4. God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades
5. Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross

Top-Fifteen Comparative Religious Reads

1. See the Gods Fall: Four Rivals to Christianity
2. UFO’s in the New Age: Extraterrestrial Messages and the Truth of Scripture
3. Religions of the Stars: What Hollywood Believes and How It Affects You
4. Why You Should Believe in the Trinity: An Answer to Jehovah’s Witnesses
5. The Truth Behind Ghosts, Mediums, and Psychic Phenomena
6. The Kingdom of the Cults
7. Correcting the Cults: Expert Responses to Their Scripture Twisting
8. The New Mormon Challenge
9. The Emergent Church- Undefining Christianity
10. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Cults, Sects, and World Religions
11. Is Rome the True Church?: A Consideration of the Roman Catholic Claim
12. Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah’s Witnesses
13. Jehovah’s Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse
14. Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message
15. Christianity In Crisis: The 21st Century

Top-Fifteen Theology/Doctrine Reads

1. Christian Theology
2. Integrative Theology
3. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine
4. Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know
5. Systematic Theology
6. Christian Theology: An Introduction
7. Inerrancy
8. Basic Bible Interpretation: A Practical Guide to Discovering Biblical Truth
9. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology
10. An Introduction to the New Testament
11. Is There a Meaning in This Text?: The Bible, the Reader, and the Morality of Literary Knowledge
12. First Theology: God, Scripture & Hermeneutics
13. Making Sense of the Trinity: Three Crucial Questions
14. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance
15. Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction

DVD LIST

1. Unlocking The Mystery Of Life
2. Darwin’s Dilemma
3. The Privileged Planet
4. The Great Global Warming Swindle (DVD)
5. Mine Your Own Business: The Darkside of Environmentalism
6. INDOCTRINATE U (Explicit Version)
7. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
8. The Case for a Creator
9. Icons Of Evolution
10. Celsius 41.11: The Temperature at Which the Brain… Begins to Die
11. Fahrenhype 9/11
12. The Siege of Western Civilization
13. Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West
14. Islam: What the West Needs to Know
15. WMD: The Murderous Reign of Saddam Hussein
16. The American Heritage Series
17. America’s Godly Heritage
18. The Spiritual Heritage of the United States Capitol
19. Education And The Founding Fathers
20. The Influence of the Bible on America
21. Spirit Of The American Revolution
22. Role of Pastors and Christians in Civil Government
23. Keys To Good Government
24. Four Centuries of American Education
25. How Should We Then Live?
26. A Christian Manifesto
27. The Real Jesus: A Defense of the Historicity & Divinity of Christ