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This book wasn't exactly what I was expecting - claiming to be a case against fundamentalism, it is really more like a case against absolutism, if that makes sense. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though, and I still found the book to be interesting. The author asserts that God's existence cannot be proven, explains the differences between knowing, believing, and merely having faith that something is true, as well as looks into concepts like morality, Anslem's ontological argument, Aquinas' Five Forms, the soul, the idea of spirituality, and miracles.
The author tells us there are two central points of the book/essay:
"1 - No claim that a religion makes about God or reality, by the virtue of that religion alone or by its holy writ, can be known to be true.
2 - Religion, nevertheless, is valid in its own right, and, within its own limitations, it plays a useful and even necessary part in man's social and personal life. As a result, it should be judiciously embraced and acted upon." (page xiii)
He goes on to suggest that the idea of God is the personification of the values we believe in (those who believe in a more loving God tend to be more loving themselves, those who are more war-like tend to believe in a God of war, etc), and that religion has much to do with the need for social inclusiveness.
It seems to me that he is trying to argue against the idea that anyone can *know* that their beliefs are true, and therefore that they should allow others the right to believe as they please as well. As a Universalist and a pluralist/syncretist this is a message I can get behind, though I am afraid that the intellectual nature of the book/essay may make it difficult for some of the more "devout" believers - not that they are less intelligent or anti-intellectual, merely that the concept is one that many who do believe they *know* and are certain of their beliefs would take issue with, if that makes sense.
I didn't love this book, but I didn't dis-like it either. It was an easy and quick enough read, though it is one I would recommend to more open minded believers or even Agnostics or Atheists, instead of the more conservative, fundamental type of believers...”
