GodGod is dead, declared Friedrich Nietzsche. Thank God! Who needs that God anyway? We now have the other gods weve created to fit our deep desires and make us feel that it is WE who are in charge, and not anyone else. We thought that these human-made gods were not only more convenient, more suitable, and much easier to worship, but they also held the key to freedom, security, and happiness. Did they?
Who and what are these gods we love to worship? What kind of religious practices will we use in order to please them? Has religion become a sophisticated tool that allows us to hide from the true God? Has religion become a ready commodity we use every time we want to subdue an opponent? Is religion still needed when science and reason are now the light of our world? Is religion more than a good business after all? Does religion help to bring personal and world peace, or does it provoke violence and wars? Do we really need God to tell us what the truth is? How do we know what is good and what is wrong?
In this book, you will find an answer to these questions and to many more. You also find an explanation for why religion, when it is reduced to an abstract concept or to the mere embodiment of human institutions, will not help men and women to achieve their life purpose and reach their highest potential and destiny. Instead, it may even be dangerous. A deformed religiona religion with a false god or without God at allcould become fanaticism, ideology, Puritanism, abstraction, a weapon to win an argument, humiliate the opponent, and even kill the adversary. A true religion preaches love, not hate. So tell me who you worship, Ill tell you who you are.
This book is, in a sense, a heretical book. It is disturbing, bold, radical, and controversialintentionally controversial. Dr. Maalouf is hoping to shock readers out of apathy, indifference, compromises, and idolatry into the true reality of what being human with a divine destiny is. This is a must-read book for all those who seek God beyond their gods, the whole truth beyond their half-truths, and the depth of a divine connection beyond the letter of the law. It is a hard-hitting challenge to false beliefs and a much-needed wake-up call to refocus attention and desire on what is essential and most lasting.
