'I have never been more comfortable with the fact that I don't believe in God.'

This declaration of unbelief, uttered by a member of the British public on BBC Five Live a week after 'nine-eleven', epitomizes the response of many to the violence and bloodshed currently being perpetrated in the name of religion. It bespeaks the new urgency and intensity of today's popular debate about God.
In his scholarly and well-written study, Philip Blair traces and analyses man's attitude to the divine from earliest times to the present day, paying special attention to the witness of Jesus of Nazareth. After careful consideration of the data available, he concludes that belief in God is both normative and rational.
Dr Blair takes full account of atheistic contributions to the God-debate by thinkers and scientists such as Ludovic Kennedy, A.N. Wilson and, most recently, Richard Dawkins, exposing the weakness of their position with fact and cogent argument.
PHILIP BLAIR is Associate Professor of English at the University of Balamand, Lebanon. He is the author of two other works with religious themes, acclaimed respectively as 'this beacon of a book' (Daily Telegraph) and 'of vital contemporary relevance' (Christian Herald).