A Doubter's Doubts about Science and Religion: By a Criminal Lawyer. Cambridge Library Collection. Religion

by Robert Woodruff Anderson

This 1889 volume was published anonymously and later ascribed to Robert Anderson, a barrister and theological writer who became Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard. Mixing his religious beliefs with his detective skills, Anderson argues for true scepticism to be embraced, comparing the tricks played on people by organised religion and science to the scams of confidence tricksters. Writing from a self-confessed standpoint of 'destructive criticism', Anderson discredits the theory of evolution as a newfangled superstition. Science, he says, assumes the existence of life, but has not the answer to the basic question – how did man come to be? 'The man who can give no account of his existence is a fool, and he who denies a god can give no account of his existence.' A Doubter's Doubts About Science and Religion proposes that the true sceptic cannot deny that the origin of life exists under the name of God.

132 pages, Paperback

Published September 25, 2019

About the author

Robert Anderson (born Robert Woodruff Anderson) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and theater producer.

He is best remembered as the author of Tea and Sympathy. The play made its Broadway debut in 1953 and was made into an MGM film in 1956; both starred Deborah Kerr and John Kerr.