Why the Bible Cannot Be the Word of God., by Andre JacobsAuthorHouse, 2011
Softcover, 107 pages
ISBN: 978-1-4567-2276-0
At just a little over one-hundred pages Why the Bible Cannot Be the Word of God is a very quick read. However, despite its brevity, the author presents a very clear case about why he believes the bible is not a book inspired by the Christian god.
The book is broken down into twelve main chapters. Each chapter is devoted to a particular aspect of the contents of the bible. The first chapter is mainly an introduction and explains how many people view the bible as an infallible book inspired by god and puts forth the author's goal of proving this belief wrong. The second chapter explains why a few common reasons people give for believing the bible is inspired are in error, such as “Lots of other people believe the Bible is from God. There must be some truth to this if lots of people believe it.” The third chapter discusses the fact that the bible contains stories about families who are ripped apart due to different beliefs and how the bible supports this, with the author citing Luke 12:51-53, among other passages. The fourth chapter explains how the bible fails to be a clear guide and if it was truly inspired its message should be easy for all people to read and understand and not allow people to become divided over various interpretations. The fifth chapter through to the eleventh chapter discuss slavery, the treatment of women, prejudice, unbelievable tales, contradictions, and cases of alleged examples of science in the bible. The twelfth chapter is a summary of the author's arguments and conclusion.
In each chapter the author clearly explains why an all-loving and knowledgeable god could not possibly have written these gruesome and immoral passages, but was in fact written by men in less knowledgeable and less civilized societies thousands of years ago.
It's my opinion that this book should be read by believers who harbor doubts about their beliefs and also by those who believe the bible is inspired by god. The author's clear and well-written case about how many passages in the bible condone numerous immoral things would hopefully shake a believer out of their delusion that god inspired the bible.
My final verdict: While this book is very basic the author presents a factual and logical argument that is convincing in its case that the bible is an uninspired, immoral, and outdated book that was indeed written by men in less enlightened times.
This sounds like a good book to read along with Sam Harris's excellent, and also brief, "Letter to a Christian Nation".
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