Divinity of Doubt: The God Question [Hardcover]

Vincent Bugliosi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2011

Vincent Bugliosi, whom many view as the nation’s foremost prosecutor, has successfully taken on, in court or on the pages of his books, the most notorious murderers of the last half century—Charles Manson, O.J. Simpson, and Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

Now, in the most controversial book of his celebrated career, he turns his incomparable prosecutorial eye on the greatest target of all: God. In making his case for agnosticism, Bugliosi has very arguably written the most powerful indictment ever of God, organized religion, theism, and atheism. Theists will be left reeling by the commanding nature of Bugliosi’s extraordinary arguments against them. And, with his trademark incisive logic and devastating wit, he exposes the intellectual poverty of atheism and skewers its leading popularizers—Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins.

 

Joining a 2,000-year-old conversation which no one has contributed anything significant to for years, Bugliosi, in addition to destroying the all-important Christian argument of intelligent design, remarkably—yes, scarily—shakes the very foundations of Christianity by establishing that Jesus was not born of a virgin, and hence was not the son of God, that scripture in reality supports the notion of no free will, and that the immortality of the soul was a pure invention of Plato that Judaism and Christianity were forced to embrace because without it there is no life after death.

 

Destined to be an all-time classic, Bugliosi’s Divinity of Doubt sets a new course amid the explosion of bestselling books on atheism and theism—the middle path of agnosticism. In recognizing the limits of what we know, Bugliosi demonstrates that agnosticism is
 he most intelligent and responsible position to take on the eternal question of God’s existence.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.)

Review

“I found myself following my wife around the house reading passages of Bugliosi's book to her out loud. I wish I'd written this wonderfully funny deeply moving antidote to the false certainties -- both religious and irreligious -- that have divided our society into warring camps yammering at each other about things no one understands.”
—Frank Schaeffer New York Times bestselling author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back

“Always eloquent, this is a fascinating read.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Bugliosi’s arguments, while familiar, are well-reasoned, clearly presented, and provide a good introductory survey of the theist-versus-atheist-versus-agnostic debate.”
—Booklist

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Vanguard Press; 1 edition (April 12, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593156294
• ISBN-13: 978-1593156299
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Agnosticism

More About the Author

Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor of Charles Manson, lives in Los Angeles, California. He is the author or co-author of many books, among them the #1 best-sellers Helter Skelter, And the Sea Will Tell, and Outrage; plus Four Days in November, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, No Island of Sanity, The Betrayal of America, Lullaby and Good Night, Shadow Of Cain, Till Death Us Do Part, Drugs in America, and The Phoenix Solution.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

268 of 296 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Bugliosi Stumbles Around in This One April 13, 2011

By Book Fanatic TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Before you pay good money for this book like I did, I want you to know some things about it. First of all I greatly admire Vincent Bugliosi and consider him one of the greatest prosecutors ever. I own some of his previous books and they are exceptional. His Reclaiming History book on the JFK assassination was a monumental achievement to which he dedicated 20 years of his life. I also want you to know I'm not religious so his taking aim at Christianity in this book is not a problem for me.

Bugliosi's approach in this book by his own description is based upon logic and common sense. That's how he justifies departing from crime and courtrooms into religion as a topic for this book. He says he deserves to be heard based upon his reasoning ability alone.

He seriously skewers the Catholic church in a really exceptional chapter. He successfully shows the absurdity of many Christian / God concepts and does so in his typical hyper-critical and sarcastic ways. Much of the book consisted of this type of reasonable and entertaining analysis in areas Bugliosi is obviously comfortable with. These are readily accessible concepts familiar to most people and Bugliosi is well versed in them. That was the good.

Now for the bad and at times really bad. Bugliosi ventures into areas he readily admits he doesn't know much about like biological and cosmological science. I am not an academic or a scientist, just an informed and interested layman on those topics. Bugliosi's ignorance in them is painfully obvious to me and will be to any other similarly informed person. That lack of knowledge turns him into a babbling idiot at times. Please bear with me for just one example that is almost unbelievable coming from the pen of an intelligent man.

One thing that disturbs Bugliosi about evolution is the fact that if we truly did evolve from monkeys or apes then why do they still exist? Shouldn't they have all evolved into humans?! I'm not kidding, that is on page 64 of this book. That's like asking why when I look out into my backyard I can see both Cardinals and Blue Jays. Since one bird species evolved from another shouldn't we only have one species of bird and since birds evolved from reptiles shouldn't all the reptiles be gone?! It's so pathetic and painful I could hardly continue the book. That is far from the only example of this type. Bugliosi stumbles around badly in these areas which shows what is wrong with his thinking that "common sense" and "logic" means he deserves to be heard on topics for which he doesn't even have a beginner's understanding.

His last chapter called "Bookends" was awful. He clearly is unqualified to speak about anything related to science or mathematics (he plays with probabilities). I was embarrassed for him.

So some of the book is good and enjoyable, some of it is awful. I don't think it is worth the price of a hardcover edition so maybe you should wait to buy it bargain or get it from a library.

49 of 55 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fresh Approach April 15, 2011

By Smilez

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

As he maintains in the book, Bugliosi is by nature a critical person. He finds and attacks what he precieves to be the weaknesses in atheist and theist arguments, and I really got the sense while reading the book that he's the type of person who strives to be as objective as humanly possible.

I felt that the weakest part of the book was the discussion of evolution - several times Bugliosi objects that he cannot imagine a bacteria evolving into Mozart, but of course, evolutionists believe the process happened gradually over billions of years, so to phrase the claim in such a way sets up a strawman. Bugliosi errors again by thinking "locally" about cats and dogs (why haven't they changed in the last 10,000 years, he asks?) when they have a great deal, genetically speaking! In fact, the genetic arguments for evolution are completely left undiscussed by Bugliosi.

Despite this flaw, this book is comendable for two reasons. #1, since there is very little hard evidence that points in either direction of "a god's" existence, Bugliosi's common sense objections serve him fairly well here. And #2, his willingness to take on either side of the debate and outright offend those of either viewpoint that he deems as foolish, is a breath of fresh air in a debate where there is often a lot of back slapping and "supporting your own team". Bugliosi is a truth teller (or at least he makes his best attempt to be), and that's about the highest compliment I can give someone when it comes to debate.

57 of 65 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I Should Have Read The Sample May 2, 2011

By W. Roop

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Having an interest in the subject matter of this book - and based on Vince Bugliosi's reputation, I bought the Kindle version of the book without downloading and reading the sample. Bad mistake. In this book, Mr Bugliosi disagrees with everyone who has an opinion different from his own - including experts in fields where he freely admits he has little or no expertise. His reason? Common sense. For example, with regard to evolution he states "...every writer I personally have read on the subject clearly has lacked, in my opinion, the ability to communicate his alleged knowledge of Darwin's theory. In other words, as is so often the case in life, these writers are markedly inept in their ability to impart to others what they claim to know." I would suggest that perhaps Mr. Bugliosi doesn't have a fundamental understanding of science that would allow him to comprehend higher concepts - or else he's dumber than a rock. I could give many other examples of his arrogance and his mocking tone of writing, but it's better for the reader to discover them.
I do applaud Mr. Bugliosi for admitting that he doesn't know if God exists; however, I do wonder why he makes that concession - he clearly thinks he knows everything else.
I would highly recommend that the prospective buyer download the sample of this book or browse through it at a local bookstore before purchasing it - or perhaps just ask a stranger on the street what he thinks about the existence of God. I expect his opinion will be just as valuable as Mr. Bugliosi's opinion (and that's ALL he states in this book) - and it will certainly cost less.