So, I just finished reading Douglas Preston’s “Blasphemy” and I have to say that it was pretty pitiful. The story was interesting enough, a supercollider is built in a mountain in Arizona on an Indian reservation to recreate the conditions after the Big Bang. When it is powered up it says that it’s God.The scientist think that the system’s been hacked and they hide this glitch from the DOE while they try to track down the malware but word gets out and the Christians attack the mountain.
This would have been a far more enjoyable book if the author didn’t take such a cheap shot at Christianity. All of the villains in the book are pastors (one of them is a combination of Jimmy Swaggart and Jerry Falwell) except for a lobbyist (yes, he even included lobbyists, I’m surprised he didn’t throw in Big Oil). It would have been a much better read if the book hadn’t degenerated into a leftwing nightmare scenario of Christians becoming terrorists (yes, he likened them to al Quada) because of their end-times views. I’ve read enough of this crap on the Internet to recognize it’s source.
And the book is filled with the most cliched rants against religion. This is little more than a caricature of Christianity:

“The dead live on, burned and tortured by the God who created them. The God of love. Burned because they doubted Him, because they were confused, hesitant, or rebellious; tormented by their Father and Creator for not believing in Him.”

Yeah, man would love to put the blame on God and not take responsibility for his own actions in rebelling against the God who created him. Does he not grant his creatures love and many blessings in this world even though they spit in his eye? The rich blasphemy God and yet they continue to prosper. This author writes a book in which God is mocked and yet he continues to live and become rich off it.
God demonstrated his love for mankind by sending his son to die in the place of his people.

ESV John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

He did not have to do this but he did, it was gracious and merciful for him to do so. And yet God is seen as cruel because he holds mankind accountable for their sin. Of course man feels this way, he has never wanted to be obedient to God even when the commandment was simple and contained one restriction on the unlimited freedom man was given. Is it any wonder that the descendants of Adam think like this?
The God of love burning the innocent because they were “confused.” No, he isn’t punishing them because they were confused, he’s punishing them because they committed an act of treason against him every time they sinned and it’s justice to punish them for it. We expect our government to punish those who are convicted of treason, why should we be surprised when God does the same thing? Justice demands payment for sin and a gracious God has given it in his Son. Those who are united with Christ will receive mercy but those who are outside of Christ will receive what they should expect after committing a crime: justice.
The book is propaganda and if that doesn’t bother you, then you might enjoy it. It is a quick read, well-paced. I was able to read it on the treadmill so it keeps your attention. But afterward you might wonder why you wasted your time (at least I did) reading someone’s diatribe against Christianity. *Yawn* I can read the same thing on hundreds of blogs across the Internet for free.