Here's the blurb:
Do you believe in God, life after death, or nothingness? Do you know the origins of the Bible’s New Testament? This book explores the world of science, religion, and atheism and integrates them into the aspects of Twentieth and Twenty-first Century physics. It ponders life and death experiences and includes the author’s own near death experience. Posing many questions about the realm of our existence, it stresses the importance of promoting humanity without exclusionary elements of human prejudice.
These and many other contemporary issues are combined with the latest scientific and philosophic theories in the search for real truth of subjects that have brought down entire empires in bloodlust, and have each of us pondering the eternal “Why?”
We are in the second century since the collision of science and religion. One is based in empirical evidence; the other is based on thousands of years of pure faith. Hang on as your perfectly ordered world is shaken and stirred – if you have an open mind to believe what is real and allow for possibilities of the yet unknown.
Finding God is a thought-provoking book. While in spots I felt it moved a bit slow, overall the pace moved along at a good clip. It's not the type of book you're going to read quickly and toss aside.
My challenge in writing this review is that I don't agree with much of what was written in the book. Yes, faith has been used to start wars. People are persecuted in the name of God all the time. That doesn't mean faith in God and belief in the Bible are a bad thing.
One of the author's concerns is stated on page 70: "My issue is we, humans, always put ourselves in harm's way when we create infallible monolithic supernatural book(s) which cannot be questioned and are believed as the literal word of God." Oliva uses the multiple versions of the Koran as an example. And as he mentions, those "holy words are now used as an excuse to kill people." While I certainly can't argue with that after September 11th, I also think that's taking too general of an approach to the issue. We can't judge the whole by the actions of a few.
The book states that the Old Testament and portions of the New Testament are "violent, nasty, bloody, murderous, and pornographic with an unforgiving and at times merciless God." Very true. But, if we are to believe the author's line of thinking that the Bible has been used to manipulate people into submission, it almost begs the question, "Why is all that stuff in there?" If you wanted to convince people of how great and loving your deity is, wouldn't you paint a rosy picture, not all this violence and harsh judgments handed out by your all-powerful God?
Tidbits of conversations Oliva had with Christians online are included in a portion of the book. In one such conversation, the author says that people who believe the Bible--or anything else literally without question or doubt--are similar to the country in Europe that believed in the Mein Kampf (page 135). He goes on to say that the Bible has only stood the test of time because it's "an icon not a book." We pretend to read it and make up what it means, when we actually don't understand any of it (page 136).
The author says he doesn't stand in judgment of anyone, but the language used in the book and his depiction of certain groups tells a different story. That impedes the reader's ability to remain open-minded to what might be a very enlightening book.
In the end, Finding God by Nick Oliva is a book you're going to have to make up your own mind about. I found myself nodding along with the author from time to time, but I also couldn't agree with him on a lot of things. The book has received some great reviews on Amazon and the foreword by Yvonne Perry indicates that Oliva's candor and style is appreciated by others.
Title: Finding God: To Believe or Not to Believe
Author: Nicholas Oliva
Publisher: Old Line Publishing, LLC.
ISBN-10: 098461432X
ISBN-13: 978-0984614325
SRP: $14.95
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