"Suppose you knew someone who had graduate degrees in science, philosophy, and logic and who had the opinion that all the standard so-called evidence for the existence of God was no damn good: it pretty much sucks.
You would expect her to be an atheist, someone who believes that God does not really exist—God is no more real than Zeus or Thor or the Easter Bunny. You would not expect to discover that she is an agnostic, someone whose attitude towards ‘God exists’ is about the same as her attitude toward ‘It will rain in New York next year on May 1’, an attitude captured best by ‘I have no idea. It could be either way, as the available evidence is totally inconclusive. I’m not stupid you know’.
Frances was a professor of philosophy with graduate degrees in physics and philosophy and he is an agnostic who judges all the so-called standard evidence for God’s existence to be awful. And yet, he is moved to defend the proposition that there is impressive evidence for theism. Frances is by no means unique; there are many philosophers with strong scientific backgrounds with similar positions regarding theism.
In this book you will learn why so many people with scientific and philosophical credentials are agnostics despite judging all the usual evidence for theism to be fatally flawed."
----From the publisher
Umm . . . No. ----->
reviewS
"This book is the only one that could ever convince me to give up my atheism. It's simply incredibly great."
--Graham Oppy, famous atheist
"Damn. And all this time I was convinced that religion was nonsense."
--Nietzsche
"Well, shit. Okay. After over 50 years of defending theism, I give up. Just . . . shit."
--Alvin Plantinga, famous theist
"Hmm. This book makes me think I'm lacking in self-knowledge."
--God
"Jesus Christ!"
--Jesus
(Yawn)
--Marcus Aurelius
Ok, here are the real reviews:
“’I tell you naught for your comfort.’ This line by G. K. Chesterton kept coming to mind, as I read An Agnostic Defends God by Bryan Frances. He offers disconcerting home truths to both Christians and atheists, and then he shows that agnostics should not be so self-satisfied either. A deeply wise discussion, moving rapidly back and forth across the landscape of religious/non-religious belief, stopping only to ask penetrating questions. Well worth reading.”
--Michael Ruse
“Bryan Frances is an agnostic; I am an atheist. You might think that I won't have anything good to say about either Bryan or his book. Not so. Bryan's book is excellent and challenging. It may well unsettle your opinions about how theists, atheists and agnostics ought to think about the security of their own opinions and the competence of (at least) the best of those with whom they disagree.”
--Graham Oppy
“Written by an expert in the field, An Agnostic Defends God offers a lively, and fair-minded, discussion of the evidential basis for religious belief. Frances deftly covers this difficult intellectual terrain with his characteristically engaging writing style."