Solving the God Puzzle

by Tom Hammond

A short book about our decisions on the existence of God. Precise and to the point.

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was lying in the underside compartment of a desk in one of my classes for weeks, so I decided to pick it up and give it a read. Its a shame to see a book go without a owner, but after reading it I can see why someone would just leave it there and forget about it.

The premise of the book was strange from the get go. It's obviously a piece of evangelical propaganda, but it targets agnostics and their supposed beliefs and talking points. Which is new, I guess? Agnostics are a pretty niche community, and if this book were to to be distributed to random people for ministry purposes, I doubt that very many of them will be self identified Agnostics.

Anyway, on to the actual content of the book itself. I don't think the author has really spent any time talking to agnostics are even fully understands what Agnosticism is. He put it on the same spectrum as Theism and Atheism as some sort of middleman between the two, which isn't the case at all. Theism and Atheism deal with the belief or lack of belief of deities, while Agnosticism is on the knowledge spectrum of Agnosticism and Gnosticism.

The author proceeds to make all of these assumptions about the underlying beliefs of agnosticism and agnostics that just come off as ignorant of how they actually view the world. I don't know where he gets the idea that Agnostics are considered the most intelligent worldview. Who goes around saying this exactly? He would go on to make this idiotic comparison saying that uncertainty is illogical because you want to make sure airplane pilots are certain they know how to fly a plane. I fail to see how he even thought that was making a point? Yeah obviously experts should be confident about their respective fields, but there's plenty of things people are uncertain about all the time, its perfectly natural.

The book then goes on to make the same old half-ass arguments about Gods existence and how obviously any creator is the God of Christianity because well the Bible says so. You can make that same argument for nearly all creator deities, its circular self-serving logic. It became glaringly obvious to me that the author is incapable of understanding how anyone can see the world differently then himself because the idea of the Christian god is so self evident to him. The logic of the arguments presented only make sense if you already subscribe to a Christian worldview, which makes the whole thing come off as lazy as ineffective.

In the end, it comes off as more of a book for Christian affirmation then a book that would convince a nonbeliever to convert. This work may work for some extremely impressionable fence sitters (which I suspect is what he's aiming for), but the author severely lacks any understanding about why more critical non-believers lack belief and addressing those issues. As long as the author continues to believe non-believers are just people who don't believe in God because they want to lead hedonistic lifestyles, he'll never be able to engage them with any meaningful dialogue. My suggestion, learn how to put your own beliefs to the side to truly understand why others have worldviews different then your own.

[Taylor Johnston · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am actively trying to find my faith again. I grew up religious, and then I started to have doubts, like everyone naturally does. Some people with doubts will find the answers they are looking for by going to people in churches or their own religious circles, providing an echo chamber of opinions that points them back to where they started. My doubt was first established when I realized that there are so many religions that all strongly believe themselves to be true. They can’t all be true, that’s impossible. All things that I see provided as “proof” eventually end up back at the same place, the Bible. But is it possible, that just like other texts and scripts that came before and after the Bible, it is also a lie? To understand something fully you have to examine it from both sides. If you read the Bible and take it at face value as fact, then why not read other writings the same way? I fully want to believe that God is real and I believe it’s the answer to life’s ultimate question, so I am digging with the full intent of finding that. This book seems to dismiss and belittle nonbelievers instead of welcoming them. Its reasons for agnostic and atheist views to not be true is simply that they cannot, only to turn around and say that things simply could not exist without God. Is it not possible that something does exist and always has existed, that was capable of forming life and consciousness, and that thing is the universe? We have the capability to question these things because eventually in a time when all things are expanding and happening, there would be a point when consciousness would happen and we would want answers. Most evidence provided by religion relies on faith, and what more is faith than just hope? I’m sorry for no paragraphs and the rant. This book provided nothing at all. If I find a book out there that satisfies me I will return here to let all of you know. And morality only exists because god exists? That was the most ridiculous argument made.

[Carina Herlina · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the book is a good introduction to Christianity - summarizes our main values and defends them with few but strong arguments against agnosticism and atheism, I think there are too many points made that feel like assumptions and generalization. I understand that it's a very small book and thus won't be able to cover a bunch of stuffs, but with a deep topic like this, I think it is crucial to cover all possible case scenarios to be able to help people to see the points objectively.

[Bren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straight forward look at the five underlying beliefs of agnosticism in contrast to the five underlying beliefs of Christian theism. Five counter facts are presented for common skeptic arguments. Thought provoking quick read.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice short book that asks good questions

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple read and explanation for any agnostic, atheist, or unbeliever, who wants to know the truth about God and how to make it to Heaven.