Here, alas, probably because religion makes him so very cross, he often sounds more like Owl hectoring Winnie-the-Pooh. \u201cThis really is the sort of thing theologians spend their time thinking about,\u201d he\u2019ll tell us peevishly, or \u201cthe Roman Catholic Church was very silly\u201d to have authenticated a supposed miracle in Portugal. Throughout a long, excruciating passage about Noah\u2019s Ark he refers to \u201cMr and Mrs Wombat\u201d and \u201cMr and Mrs Kangaroo\u201d.<\/p>\n
From the get-go we\u2019re into his favourite argument, made many times before, which is that there\u2019s no more reason to believe in the Christian god than any other. \u201cLike you I expect, I don\u2019t believe in Jupiter or Poseidon or Thor or Venus or Cupid or Snotra or Mars or Odin or Apollo,\u201d he writes. \u201cI don\u2019t believe in Anyanwu, Mawu, Ngai . . .\u201d Yes, we get it. Please stop.<\/p>\n
A rolling, extensive list of everything else he doesn\u2019t believe dominates part one. Quite a lot of it is about how bits of the Bible are contradicted by other bits, or inspired by previous works, or just not very nice. He\u2019s very angry, for example, about the story of God telling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. \u201cIs it possible to imagine a worse trick to play on someone?\u201d he thunders. Likewise, about God\u2019s instructions in the Old Testament about what ought to be done with the Canaanites. \u201cNowadays,\u201d he writes, \u201cwe\u2019d call it ethnic cleansing and child abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is it wrong to find all this a bit low-rent? Only very occasionally do you get an insight that stands out, such as the one about Hell needing to be so horrid precisely because the idea of going there is so implausible; otherwise it would be harder to inspire the necessary dread. Also, sometimes, thank God (or whoever) the attempts at wit actually land. \u201cThou shall not covet thy neighbour\u2019s husband,\u201d he suggests as an antidote to the sexism embedded in the Ten Commandments. \u201cNor her Jaguar. Nor her doctoral degree.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a> (subscription).<\/p>\n “For plenty of his fans, I suppose, this is just what they will have wanted. For most readers, though, if anybody needs to outgrow God, it\u2019s him.”https:\/\/t.co\/H0Csf4MEzv<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 daniel josiah ketler (@djketler) November 6, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n