The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism

In his 31st book, the eminent English philosopher re-examines the arguments for and against God and falls firmly in the camp of the nonbelievers. There is not a lot of new ground covered here%E2%80%94Kant, Descartes, Hume and Locke all fall under the microscope, and Grayling has intelligently tackled religious belief in a long list of other books, including The Good Book (2011). While Grayling makes a thoughtful case in engaging writing for humanism%E2%80%94a belief in the potential of human beings and their rationality%E2%80%94he, like so many others, fails to offer religious readers a reason to rally behind it beyond common sense. Like so many atheist writers, Grayling assumes that all believers are fundamentalists, with little nuanced beliefs, implying that believing in the divinity of Jesus is the equivalent of believing in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. Until Grayling and other atheist writers recognize that religious believers, too, have brains that can be appealed to and must also be reached not only with emotion, his book and others like it are just more preaching to the atheist choir. (Apr.)