Customer Reviews

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All?

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Soooooo many people believe things for the wrong reasons-including Christians. This book is an attempt to correct that sad state of affairs and the title question embodies the heart of much of Postmodernism. I suspect that the reader who gave the book only three stars because of the second part of the book on Why Believe Christianity came to the book with Modernist/Evidentialist presuppositions and was disappointed because there were no deductive arguments for the existence of God, no design arguments, nothing of the sort. It focuses instead on the Person of Christ (Imagine that! What a novel idea in Christian apologetics). If you like Kreeft-style apologetics more than Craig-style apologetics, you'll appreciate this section more than the three-star reviewer. The fundamental issue in Christianity is Who was Jesus? Sire addresses that question well. Still, even if this book was limited to the first half, directly addressed by the title, it would be well-worth the price. Get this book, read it, and put it into practice (along with his book _Habit's of the Mind_). Then recommend it like crazy to your friends. This book is not being read enough and is in danger of going out of print. That would be such a shame because this book addresses one of the fundamental issues facing Postmodern Culture. This book could be more important than you think. People who believe things for the wrong reasons typically don't have much conviction and aren't good at persuading others. This book will help you filter your beliefs and achieve greater intellectual integrity.

The first half of this book is somewhat of a dry and lackluster catalogue of Mr. Sire's memoires of his seminars. The information presented though is neither clarified nor evaluated. Much of this book has been written before in his other books, particularly his Universe Next Door - which I highly recommend. I felt as though much of this book was simply rehashed, and added no further weight or evidence.
To be fair, beginning with his chapter on Evil, this book took a positive turn and now began to address with zeal and clarity some of life's most pondered issues. In his last chapters you will find evidence for a necessary God. I would buy this book and skip to the end...

The first half of this book is an attack on reletivism which concludes that the only good reason to believe something is if it is true. Not if it makes us happy, sounds good, can't be disprooved etc.

I suppose that in this day and age this is a point that actually needs making. Reletivism has become part of modern culture to the extent that questioning someone's beliefs is seen as almost rude.

The second half of the book seeks to show that the truth is Christianity. It is not a great apologetic and I feel that the first half of the book should have been allowed to stand alone. There are much better introductions to Christianity.