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36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction

About the Book

36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction

After Cass Seltzer’s book becomes a surprise best seller, he’s dubbed “the atheist with a soul,” and becomes a celebrity. He wins over the stunning Lucinda Mandelbaum, “the goddess of game theory,” and loses himself in a spiritually expansive infatuation. A former girlfriend appears: an anthropologist who invites him to join her in her quest for immortality through biochemistry. And he is haunted by two people who ignited his passion to understand religion: his mentor and professor, and a six-year-old mathematical genius, heir to the leadership of a Hasidic sect. Each encounter reinforces Cass’s theory that the religious impulse spills over into life at large.

Through the enchantment of fiction, novelist and MacArthur “genius” Rebecca Newberger Goldstein shows that the tension between religion and doubt cannot be understood through rational argument alone. It also must be explored from the inside --- from the point of view of individual people caught in the raptures and torments of religious experience in all their variety. And that can only be done from the insider perspective of fiction.

Using her gifts in fiction and philosophy, Goldstein has produced a true crossover novel, complete with a nail-biting debate, and an appendix with the 36 arguments (and responses) that propelled Seltzer to stardom.

36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction
by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

  • Publication Date: February 1, 2011
  • Paperback: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage
  • ISBN-10: 0307456714
  • ISBN-13: 9780307456717