Knowledge of Angels

May 2, 2007

Speaking of religion, faith, beliefs and all that, a friend of mine recommended me this book early last year. Her enthusiasm regarding the book made me read it immediately, and I found it a damn good read. It’s fiction. It’s written really well, and it presents ideas in a very straightforward way. In summary it’ set some hundreds of years ago where travel is difficult, and many strange far off lands do still exist. Many things happen in parallel: a young girl who has grown up around wild animals is found and she is raised by the Church without any mention of God. The reason behind this, is for some religious leaders to determine (or prove) that the knowledge of God is innate. The book ultimately becomes a debate between a local Christian leader and an Atheist “king” of sorts. The king gets washed up on an island ruled by Christians – and island where people of other beliefs manage to survive but are subject to curfews and other laws. Both men are under immense pressure as they debate, since as an atheist, the king is to be tortured and killed by a powerful Christian official as an example of a man who has turned his back on God, while the local leader does not want to see an intelligent, principle-centered man die. The debate and conversation is similar to what was suggested in a peice I trackbacked to in a previous blog post, however these men are passionate about their own views but also passionate about reason and logic in relation to some sort of ultimate truth. It’s a very good read, and I recommend it.