Synopsis:
The citizens of Newton City have lived in isolation for over seven hundred years, completely devoid of religion, following an apocalyptic war that nearly extinguished all life on Earth. A serial killer threatens the city's long-standing peace and reveals secrets to Detective Gill Stone that have been hidden for centuries. Working with a secret branch of government to track down an underground terrorist organization, Gill finds himself in the middle of an epic struggle that goes outside the walls of the metropolis he calls home and can be traced back to its founding.
History:
I have long been perplexed by the apparent rift between science and religion. Though I have spent plenty of time in the company of skeptics and critical thinkers, I have never been able to accept a truly atheistic worldview. The Final Testament started as a simple thought experiment--one that was originally meant to be a short story--to explore what society would be like if you took religion out of the equation. As I began plotting and writing, it quickly became clear to me that the subject required more than that, and so it grew into a full-length novel.
It takes its cues from the modern skeptical movement, especially the hardcore atheist side of it as represented by Richard Dawkins. I am greatly sympathetic of these atheists, but The Final Testament is my attempt to explain where and how they get it wrong. Newton City lives up to the ideal of a totally secular society, but it is far more of a dystopia than a utopia for reasons that I hope are organic and logical. In the end, this novel is a meditation on my favorite Einstein quote: "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." |
