It has been said that plagiarism is when you copy one person's work and scholarship is when you copy a whole bunch of people's works. This book purports to answer the questions of why we are created, who we are, and what our purpose is. I bought it expecting it to be an apologetic work that answers these questions with hard, logical responses from a biblical base since Dunlap is a minister and Templeton a legendary Wall Street financier. Instead what we have is a book of quotes from everyone from Hamlet to Desmond Tutu on their perspectives on life.

The quotations are not factual or logical statements, but rather general opinions on the virtue of creativity, love, purpose, humility, open-mindedness, etc. They are also ecumenical in the sense that all religious viewpoints are considered equally valid and all scientific theories are assumed to be correct. There is enough fluff and generalizations to interest a reader who wants a totally non-confrontational approach, but serious discussions are not likely to come from this book.

We are seriously disappointed with how poorly the book imparts the subject its title suggests and do not recommend the book.

Back to Contents Does God Exist?, MarApr04.