BeliefWatch: Proof

[ChristineMarie]

The sociologist Rodney Stark's controversial new book "Discovering God" resurrects, if you will, the notion that truths about God can be discovered through the application of reason. Let the vociferous atheists holler, he says at the outset; the marketplace of ideas is exactly like any other marketplace, and the best, most authentic ideas about God will triumph and endure. Four hundred pages later he unveils his conclusion, one that comes as no surprise to those who know Stark's previous work. Quickly dispensing with Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism and Confucianism, as well as the religions of Sumer, Egypt, Greece, early Rome and Mesoamerica, Stark states that Christianity offers the most "complex and nuanced" vision of God and the most "comprehensive doctrine of salvation." Judaism comes in second. Islam is not, as he puts it, an "inspired" faith. "I accept that Muslims will condemn this judgment," he writes. "And of course it is merely my judgment, upon which matters of taste and faith intrude."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21162338/site/newsweek/