Delusions about God

IS GOD A MORAL MONSTER?
Making sense of the Old Testament
By Paul Copan. Baker Books. 252 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978-0-8010-7275-8

‘The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.’

This is perhaps the best-known passage from Richard Dawkin’s God Delusion, and it represents one strand of the New Atheism’s attack on the God of the Bible. If we wonder how to answer such challenges, we would do well to read this thorough and well-argued book from Paul Copan. Each chapter takes a charge levelled by the new atheists, considers it, and answers it from Scripture.

After introducing the debate with the new atheists in the opening section, Copan goes on to address specific questions: Is God arrogant to demand our worship? Is he guilty of jealous rage? And was he immoral and cruel to ask for the sacrifice of Isaac? Part 3 is the longest section of the book, grappling with the issue of God’s laws for Israel, which seem so strange and irrelevant to us today. Questions are also raised about the place of women in the Old Testament, the laws on slavery, and the ethnic cleansing of the Canaanites. The final section of the book points to God as the only true basis of morality, and points to Jesus as the fulfilment of the Old Testament. Each chapter concludes with suggestions for further reading, and at the end of the book there are discussion and study questions.

Copan is not afraid to grasp controversial nettles; for example in his chapter on whether religion causes violence, he compares the Crusades with Islamic jihad, and then contrasts jihad with Yahweh’s war in the Old Testament. We may not agree with every detail of the author’s argument, but there is a great deal of helpful material here which stimulates us to think through our response to the mockery of the new atheists. More than that, we are led to a deeper consideration and understanding of a number of difficult Old Testament texts and the ethical issues they raise. In other words, this book is not only apologetic, but edifying, and is commended.

Bill James,

pastor, Emmanuel Evangelical

Church, Leamington Spa