Divinity of Doubt: The God Question

The question of the existence of God has captured the imaginations of pundits and pedants around the world. On one side are the theists, the believers. On the other side are the atheists, the ardent unbelievers. Bugliosi finds himself in a third category -- the agnostic, one who admits that he doesn't know if God exists, and may even insist that it isn't possible to know if there is a God. The author is a well-known attorney as well as a writer, whose best-known book, Helter Skelter, documented the horrific Charles Manson murders. He turns his attention here to a broad and often biting study of the proponents, and opponents, of Godism. He addresses some of the oldest questions in Christendom -- the problem of evil, the sometimes contradictory accounts of sacred events, etc. -- and sees no inevitability of a God in any of the answers proposed by even the best scholars. He ends his thoughts with a simple "God should only be a question." Sometimes pedantic but always eloquent, this is a fascinating read. (Apr.)