God: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt?: Faith versus Reason

Can you justify a belief in God? After reading this compelling, well-documented book your answer just might be "no." The text is not poetic. It is not lyrical. But it is relentlessly logical. It will transform your thoughts about religion and God. Chapter 1 begins with the following axiom: Religious faith without credible supporting evidence is superstition. Then, after a brief introduction to the major religions and their histories, quotations from the Jewish, Christian and Islamic Scriptures are used to probe the very foundations of monotheistic belief. The holy texts are shown to be human creations that are the products of embellished oral history, translation mistakes and sociopolitical forces. The Jewish Bible, the doctrinal cornerstone of both Christianity and Islam, is filled with internal contradictions, along with morally questionable decisions and acts taken by a purported all-just, all-merciful deity. For Christians, the pivotal story of a miraculously resurrected Jesus is challenged by a more-plausible account that has Jesus surviving the crucifixion based on the unvarnished gospel of Mark. The analysis then moves on to the more recently developed arguments of so called “Intelligent Design” that are said to support a belief in God. Evolution, genetics, Big Bang cosmology and the emergence of life are some of the topics covered. In addition, a chapter is devoted to traditional philosophical considerations that include “First Cause” and the existence of evil in the world. In short, the reader will be able to rationally assess the credibility of faith-based religious traditions against the objective evidence. That is, does God actually exist beyond a reasonable doubt?