Judging God [Paperback]

John Henderson (Author), Craig Gurgew (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Parkway Publishers (May 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933251425
• ISBN-13: 978-1933251424
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,611,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review by a Christian, January 5, 2008

By 

Andrew F. Martin (Tallahassee, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Judging God (Paperback)

This 280 page treatise dwells primarily on the inconsistencies among the common ideas about God, the actual presentation of God in the Bible and finally the actual behavior of practicing Christians, past and present. The discussion focuses on the God of Abraham, which is of interest to Jews, Christians and Muslims so the authors often use the term, "JCM God". In general, the authors note that there are huge differences between what JCM God advocates seem to think and what is written in the Bible and to some extent, the Koran.

These inconsistencies usually show up in the book as opposites, like the JCM God is supposed to be the god of love, yet He has drowned nearly everybody on earth, ordered genocide, rape and slavery and virtually every other possible anti-love activity known. He has arranged a hell for people who don't make the cut. These actions, as documented in the Bible, become evidence in the final chapters where God stands accused of inhumane and negligent behavior in a mock trial.

This is strong stuff, especially for Christians who have never picked up the Bible and read it through from the front to the back. The authors are correct; all that nasty stuff is in the Bible and the JCM God gets full credit for all of it. Christians who have been fed a diet of Biblical passages selected by their clergy might be shocked after reading the primary document of their religion and that would be a good thing in my opinion. People seeking to escape Christianity will find a wealth of reasons to make good on their quest or to be made surer of any pending decision to be an atheist. People who are just searching might find this work a bit unbalanced since it strongly advocates atheism and has almost nothing good to say about religions of any kind.

As such, Henderson and Gurgew have given us one more opinion on the subject of religion and they have documented a few instances of a personal nature which do not bode well for the performance of Christians. In addition, they offer some ideas on how a religion might look if it is not to be an offensive and negative force in society.

It is interesting that this reviewer, a Christian, recently published a book on Christianity with most of the same complaints noted in "Judging God" but the deeds of Christians were kept separate from the reported deeds of the JCM God. This separation, combined with an effort to distill the falsehoods out of the Bible, allowed the reviewer to reach a different set of conclusions entirely. People in power have been doing bad things for a very long time and then making up lies about how God told them to do the evil deeds. That is still going on today. Thus, it is reasonable to take a different line of thought from that of Henderson and Gurgew starting with essentially the same data, using "Judging God" as a smorgasbord of possible starting points.

Juxtaposition of reality with religious ideal is the strong point of the text as it doesn't really include much analysis of any kind until the last few chapters where God's trial occurs. This is unfortunate because there is a gold mine of thought that could have been included. At least the authors are well read and include a nice bibliography along with occasional tantalizing quotes and excerpts to keep things interesting.

Whatever be your attitude about religion, if you want to do some serious thinking, this book is a good data set as long as you don't let it do your religious thinking for you. The authors would probably not like to be leading you around by your nose anyway since that is exactly the kind of behavior they are complaining about!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No punches pulled, October 28, 2007

By 

Betty J. Brogaard (Fremont, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Judging God (Paperback)

John Henderson and Craig Gurgew pull no punches in their book JUDGING GOD. They fearlessly express the dangers and absurdities of religion in a straightforward manner that will leave fellow unbelievers impressed and glad to be among the freethinkers of this world. Christians and other religionists who read this book may well be angered by it but will be hard pressed to expose concrete fallacies in it. They have only their "faith" on which to fall back.

Betty Brogaard (author of DARE TO THINK FOR YOURSELF)

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wise judgement--and "God" loses, July 1, 2008

By 

Edward Buckner "Southern Director, Council fo... (Smyrna GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Judging God (Paperback)

Judging God is a fine work, well argued by a surgeon (Henderson) who can cut out the irrational myths surrounding the ideas of God most Westerners are familiar with and by a building contractor (Gurgew) who together show the constructive way to losing religion. A great read and a good buy.