Why there really is a God: and what you need to know about Him – Andrew Wilson

Books written to oppose and refute the doctrine of atheism are not in short supply. Many are written by authors from a scholarly or scientific background for a readership with similar interests and understanding of the issues being discussed. This latest book by Andrew Wilson is both scholarly and scientific, but written in an accessible way and in a style which the average reader will enjoy, and which the intellectual will not feel patronized. I found it to be one of those compelling books that draws the reader into wanting to read the next chapter.

The arguments raised in denial of deity are mostly well-worn, futile, fundamentally flawed and founded on ignorance. Andrew Wilson delves into the experience and teaching of sixteen diverse individuals from Socrates to the present day, considering Albert Einstein, Stephen King, William Shakespeare and King George VI, among others. Each chapter approaches the subject from a different but related standpoint, using, for example, the evidence of conscience, creation, design, morality, the person of Christ, scripture and personal experience. In each case the author highlights the utter inability of the atheist to provide a rational explanation which answers the inescapable proof that such fundamental realities exist.

A knowledge of God is, of course, essentially a matter of faith. So, having considered beyond reasonable doubt his original interrogation regarding the existence of God, Andrew Wilson entitles the second part of the book, ‘What you need to know about God’. He considers, using eight headings, the essential attributes of God as revealed in the scriptures, commencing with the intangible reality that ‘God is Spirit’. Subjects which follow are the omnipotence, the omniscience and omnipresence of God, His love, His holiness and the nature of the Trinity, of which a particularly well-expressed explanation is given on a subject that many find difficult to grasp or define.

Part three faces some of the well-known arguments raised by unbelievers under the title, ‘Objections to God’. Using such headings as; ‘Who made God?’; ‘Faith is just believing without evidence’; ‘Religion causes wars’, and ‘The problem of evil and suffering’, the author presents lucid and logical explanations, which an unbiased mind would find hard to refute.

I have already recommended this book to others and fully intend to read it again, to reinforce its reasoned arguments in my own mind to meet the challenges often faced today.