The Reason for God

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller

This book was excellent.  It was broken up into two parts.  In the first part, the author, a NYC pastor who has heard it all, took the most popular objections to Christianity and addressed them.  I would not exactly say that he "refuted" them, because it sounds somewhat abrasive to speak that way.  Instead, he discussed the implications of believing in each objection, and exposed each one as logically unsound.  One particular thing that stands out is that unlike many religious people, the author did not use scripture to "prove" his point.  When a person uses scripture as the foundation for an argument with someone who objects to Christianity, the other person can simply call the validity of scripture into question, thus causing the whole argument to fall apart.  Scripture is useful for a lot of things- teaching, rebuking, correcting, training- but it does not make a sound foundation in an argument about the validity of the word of God.  Mr. Keller uses philosophy and logical thinking to discuss scripture, and through logic explains that many of the objections to Christianity require a belief in some other unproven theory.

Take for example the objection, "There can't be just one true religion."  In the United States, it is culturally important that we be sensitive to other people's beliefs.  This allows multiple religions to have breathing room.  But in the Middle East, almost everyone believes there is just one true religion.  To state that "there can't be just one true religion" also asserts that your cultural beliefs are more important than others, and is a statement of belief which others do not hold and which you cannot empirically prove.

So, in the first part of the book, the author lays out reasons we shouldn't disbelieve, and in the second part of the book, the author explains by topic reasons to have faith in Christianity.  Although this part is important, from a practical standpoint, I found the first part of the book more useful to me in answering not only questions I've heard, but questions I've asked myself.  In particular, the question "How can a loving God send people to hell?" is one that I have wrestled with.  One thing that stood out from that chapter was that it would be very unloving for God to allow people like Hitler into heaven.  The question that follows is how can a loving God NOT send people to hell?"  There would be no justice anywhere if that were the case.  I honestly had never thought of it from that perspective before.

I think that this book is good for anyone who likes to think, who wants to view Christianity from a new perspective, who likes philosophical thought, or who has tough, unanswered questions about God, the Bible, or Christians.  This book is NOT good for someone with a low reading level.  I have done college-level reading in a short time and with no problem, but this book was a challenge for me (only in parts).  In addition to reading (visual input), I had to supplement my absorption of this book by reading some chapters out loud (auditory input) and underlining key points (tactile input) in order to fully understand the concepts discussed.  However, this was not for the entire book, only some of the deeper chapters.  For the most part, if you can read at a high school or college level, you should be okay as long as you are interested in the subject matter.  Lastly, from a Christian perspective, this book is helpful for grounding you in the beliefs you already have or may have been raised with.