Book Review

Geisler, Norman L., and Frank Turek.I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.

Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004.

Introduction

Geisler and Turek have written a book that seeks to show why faith in atheistic materialism is irrational and not based at all on the evidence all around us regarding Gods existence. This paper will summarize their book I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist and identify its main purpose and themes. It will also provide a constructive critique that examines the consistency, validity, and adequacy of the authors main arguments.

Summary

The main ideas of the book by Geisler and Turek are that the evidence to support the claims of Christianity does exist and can be understood, objectively speaking. The main problem that the authors lay out in the beginning is that an overly skeptical approach to the Bible does not answer the important question of whether God actually exists. It sidesteps it. That is not what the authors are trying to do. A professor in a university may be a skeptic, but he also is unlikely to have an answer to the question, Does God exist? This question can be answered by asking a preliminary set of questions, which are: Where did we come from? Who are we? Why are we here? How should we live? Where are we going?[footnoteRef:2] [2: Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004), 20.]

The authors discuss the differences between theism, pantheism and atheism. They note that facts matter when it comes to deciding what to believe because faith is ultimately based on facts. Or, as the saying goes, faith rests upon reason. One has to have a reason to believe what he believes. So the authors pose the question: What makes Christianity reasonable?[footnoteRef:3] [3: Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004), 24.]

The themes that the authors tackle focus mainly on the faith of atheists in atheistic materialism. It is not that they have no faith. They have no faith in religion, but they do have faith in materialism. They believe in the Big Bang (or some derivative of this explanation of the origins of life). They support this belief with scientific speculations and theories that they take for fact. The main point of the authors, however, is that such speculations and theories are insufficient to command ones faith in them, objectively speaking.

The authors posit that truth is real and can be known. They rely on various arguments to make this assertionthe cosmological argument, the teleological argument and the anthropic principle, and the moral argument. They proceed logically from these arguments to deduce that God does exists, miracles can and do happen, and that faith in God is reasonable.

The purpose of the book is to show the evidence supporting these arguments that justify faith in God from a rational standpoint. They look at the origins of life, the historical claims of the Bible, the design of nature, and the various counter-arguments made by skeptics, such as Darwin, whose theory of natural selection and evolution is analyzed and dissected to show where it falls apart.

The authors seek to show why the Bible can be believed on its own terms, why skeptics do not have enough to offer in terms of alternative explanations for where we came from, where we are going, how we should live and why, and who we are. The authors aim to show that atheistic explanations for the creation of the universe, for the identity of human beings, and for natural law and...

…ideasbut rather to point out why the skeptics are wrong and why one must accept the basic premises and principles that should govern ones reason when looking at the facts of the existence of God and how this acceptance guides faith. They are not aiming to explore the nuances of Kantian metaphysics. That would require a separate book altogether.

What they succeed in doing is essentially providing a framework for how one living today can navigate the world of ideas and the world of reality and come to the conclusion that God exists, that He can be known through ones engagement with the world and how the Bible can be accepted as the Word of God. They do this by laying out their argument, providing the reader with a blueprint of how they are going to do this, laying out the specific principles upon which they rely and showing how they apply to the problem at hand. It is a carefully constructed book that is logical, consistent, valid and adequate. However, if one is looking for a nuanced approach, this is not necessarily it. Nuance does not always permit one to examine grand themes of this nature, covering as much ground as the authors do, in such a short space.

Conclusion

The book by Geisler and Turek does serve as a good introduction to the various principles and ideas that are at a style ='color:#000;text-decoration: underline!important;' id='custom' target='_blank' href='https://www.paperdue.com/topic/play-essays'>play in the great debate about whether God exists and how one can know God. As an introduction, it is best suited for bringing these concepts to readers who are not familiar with them. A reader who is already familiar with these concepts may not be as engaged by the book as novices, but the aim of the authors is to help novices navigate these watersand the authors succeed in their aim.