This is an interesting point, and I've often thought similar things myself. Josh McDowell style apologetics don't really turn me on either. However, they have resulted in a changed life for some people, and one can't say that their experience of the power of God has been disingenuous simply because they faith had a start in empirical inquiry. God created the natural word, and he created the human mind, and there is nothing "un-spiritual" about investigating our reality through rational means.

I can understand it not being something everyone would want to study deeply. It suppose it's much like mathematics, for many people math is difficult and something they want as little to do with as possible, while for others mathematics is a joy that opens before them like a horizon.