Quoting from Wikipedia, "within a week it had reached #2 on the Amazon bestsellers list and reached #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list in its third week." Written by a journalist who has changed his religion several times, once in order to marry a woman whose family were very devout. He now proclaims that he is an atheist and was trying to disprove the existence of a God.
He very effectively listed numerous instances in which people behaved very badly, "in the name of God". And used their religious beliefs to as justification for committing atrocities. Genocide, torture, human sacrifice, terrorism, the Spanish Inquisition, ethnic cleansing and the holocaust. List goes on, etc. etc. etc.
But when trying to prove the nonexistence of god he did poorly. It is very hard to prove something is not there, somewhere or any where. The author fell into same logical fallacy that those who want to prove He exist get trapped in. He repeatedly made statements which have not been proven and probably cannot be proven. And then used those statements as if they were known facts and that they were evidence of a nonentity.
"God is so man like that he had to created by man." I doubt he ever met God so where is the proof that god is "manlike." The bible says man was created in god's image. And most of what people say about God is second hand information or wishful thinking. So he proves what we already know, people distort what they hear and try to make everything "manlike". It only proves man's ego will triumph over man's intellect. Anthropomorphism. Our mass media is crowded with mice that talk, rabbits that wear vests with watches in their pocket and misplace their white gloves. We read about trees that throw apples and turtles who fight crime and crave pizza.
In the next book the author claims to have the ability to talk to God through the mechanism of automatic writing. In the proses of automatic writing, a person holds a writing instrument and the hand seems to write without conscience effort. This person would write questions or comments to God and the answers would appear, the authors hand guided by some unseen and unknown force.
Some of the silent statements made by this supernatural pen were quite interesting. Saying that "HE" made "us", "His" creation and gave us free will. There is "No right and no wrong. No shoulds and shouldn'ts." "He" wanted "His" creation to be free, no rules. And then "HE" states that "HE" separated parts of "himself" so that could they could remember that they are "Him" and find their way home. The purpose of this exercise was not explained. But he did promise that we would all get home again. Mothers and Fathers. Salesmen and movies stars. Mobsters and muggers and rapists and thieves. Congressmen and congresswomen from California.
So I'm reading these words and thinking to myself god wouldn't say that. And god wouldn't do things like that. Actually having read most of the bible and listened to endless monotonous monologues about the book, most of them bearing little resemblance to the other soliloquies, I feel like I know less with every book I read and every sermon I hear.
But then I don't know anything about god. Does he exist. Is he good or evil or both or neither. Is every word I utter dutifuly recorded in a large gilded book. Does he punish the bad people. Will he put golden halos on the crowns of saintly souls. Does he play tennis or prefer bridge. What is he's real name? Does he have brothers and sisters. Did he attend your child's bar mitzvah. What does he look like. Is he eternal, has he always been here. Not since the beginning of time, because time did not begin. Can god make a rock so big he can't move it?
My conclusion is that I know nothing about god. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
"All I know is what I read in the papers", Will Rodgers.
Please tell me what you know about God, second hand accounts not accepted.
OWL
March 9, 2009
