Is There a God? Make up Your Own Mind with This App

Traditional etiquette states that you should never discuss religion, politics or money in polite conversation. This might help you avoid conflict, but it also stops you hearing alternative points of view. If you’re the open-minded and curious type, it’s good to hear both sides of an issue — especially one as persistent and thorny as ‘does God exist?’.

The Reason For God

In Timothy Keller’s The Reason For God, he argues that as humans we have the desire for a higher being and a higher meaning in our lives, and where there is a desire, something usually exists to fulfill it. For example, hunger is a desire that is fulfilled by eating food. Without food to fulfill the desire, hunger makes no sense. For Keller, this same rationale can be applied to the existence of God. People desire a God that can provide meaning and purpose, so it follows that a God exists that can fulfill this wish. Otherwise, what is the point of this desire at all?

Outgrowing God

Outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins takes a diametrically opposed view in Outgrowing God. Rather than seeing a trait such as a desire for meaning as being indicative of the existence of a God, Dawkins sees it as a by-product of human evolution.

Effectively detecting patterns is an evolutionary advantage that enabled our distant ancestors to avoid being eaten by predators. Unfortunately, being hardwired to detect patterns means we often misinterpret information and incorrectly attribute meaning to things that are meaningless. This is the mechanism by which superstitions are formed, and according to Dawkins it can be used to explain the origin of religion and a belief in God.

Make Up Your Own Mind

Both Keller and Dawkins have managed to nudge this millennia-old debate into new territory. If you’re still unsure which camp to pitch your tent in, then they might be able to help you make your mind up. After exploring these, dive deeper with our collections, featuring a wider range of books on these topics.

Powerful Perspectives in 15 Minutes

Getting a handle on different sides of a debate can be tricky and time-consuming – but luckily, this is made much easier with Blinkist. Understand the key learnings of the best nonfiction books in just 15 minutes with the Blinkist app and web platform. Using neuroscientific principles, our content experts take the most important ideas of these books to create memorable, easy-to-understand insights which can be read or listened to.

With Blinkist, you can quickly dive into new theories and topics without spending hours reading the full book. Exploring various perspectives can help you decide where you stand – and understand where others are coming from when they have different ideas.

Blinkist Helps Readers Grow

This innovative concept is helping millions of people improve their lives: 87.5% of surveyed Blinkist users reported making positive changes to their lives based on the content they read on the app. Actionable advice, specific examples, or practical tips, included in all of the content, supports you in understanding new ideas and implementing them into your daily life.

Best of all, when and where you read is flexible: listen to the Blinkist app while on the train or cooking dinner, read on the computer in between Zoom calls, or start or end your day by reading a book on a new topic.

Join millions of curious minds and sign up for Blinkist to start listening today!