Synopsis "The Book (in English)"
The Confluence of Faith, Science and the potential for Peace. The BOOK is a new novel by John McDonnell Tierney designed to teach and entertain. The author offer a Big Idea (Don't Kill); timeless topics (morality, justice, human nature, spirituality) through which to explore and think about the Big Idea; and an engaging context (the story) in which this exploration and thinking plays out. Throughout the world today, many people are making decisions about morality, what is right and just, based on their interpretation of what is "godly." That is, what a holy book tells them is godly. For almost all of human history, people have killed other people believing such killing to be a moral act, sanctioned by God. This remains the case today. Despite all the rhetoric among "moderate" religious folk about theirs being a religion of "peace;" Christians, Jews, and Muslims actively participate in armed conflicts where killing is inevitable, or passively condone it, blaming it on human nature. This is the story of one of the nearly four billion People of the Book trying to decide if their God wants them to love their neighbors or kill their neighbors. Although a work of fiction, The BOOK presents a lot of information, most of which is not fiction. For example, in The Book, you will be privy to "fictional" but factually-representative conversations regarding what some "believers" believe to be true, at least as I have come to understand through scholarship and research. So, why should you care what believers believe? Because, some of those believers, as elected officials or corporate executives, are making decisions that affect your life based on those beliefs! Should we have war or peace? Should same sex couples be allowed to marry? Should climate change influence our actions? Should women have access to birth control? To answer these and other literally life and death questions, "believers" frequently seek guidance from a God who speaks to them through a book, a Holy Book on which they build their religion.
