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SEAN: Dad, why do you love research so much?

JOSH: Information is power. Truth is power. It’s much easier to influence people towards a goal if you have good information. I spend so much of my time—probably too much time—on research. But when I overkill on research, it gives me more confidence. I’ve learned to spend as much time researching those who disagree me as those who agree with me. And when you do that, it’s usually a little easier to arrive at the truth. That’s what I did when I set out to refute Christianity and I ended up coming to Christ.

SEAN: How do you get most of your research? How do you know whether to trust books, articles, or blogs?

JOSH: It’s a lot more difficult with the Internet now. Journals are often the best, because when a professor, expert, or somebody writes in a journal they have limited time so they give it their best shot. Also, theses are helpful. When I lived in Dallas, I used to almost camp out at Dallas Seminary because I would go read and study their theses, which are well researched, well documented, and they have a committee of professors who evaluate them. Some blogs can be helpful too. But you have to be careful with blogs, especially among Christians, because most of them don’t provide documentation. They often don’t document what they say or check for accuracy. I also use a lot of professional, academic books.

How do you know you can trust a source? First, the author is important. With certain books, you know they’re going to be good because the author has shown that he or she is trustworthy. Second, books that are documented. I can’t use books much, if they’re not documented. You can also know by the organization that’s doing it. For instance, groups like Johns Hopkins University and Barna Research are trustworthy.

SEAN: What advice would you have for leaders? Whether student leaders or youth pastors, teachers, professors, pastors, influencers when it comes to the topic of doing their homework and research?

JOSH: Don’t take shortcuts. Run down every rabbit trail there is. If you’re studying a document and you really get some, be sure to track down the footnotes. When I track down the footnotes, to the original article, I usually find even better stuff that I can use. But it takes a lot of time, even with the Internet. Also, do not just seek out to reinforce your ideas. Rather, seek out to find the truth behind the idea. And just try to be as honest as you can.

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, a best-selling author of over 15 books, an internationally recognized speaker, and a part-time high school teacher. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog at seanmcdowell.org.