FAITH IN THE UNSEEN

In recent years, the debate over science,
reason, and religion has reached a peak (or a high plateau,
depending on your perception of time scales) of intensity,
breadth, and confrontational vigor. Hundreds of Web sites,
blogs, and forums have sprung up, enabling the debate to
rage day-to-day. But people will always want points of view
to be encapsulated in portable form: books.
Faith
in the Unseen is a contribution to the debate. Its author,
Dr. Rashid Seyal, who is a consultant cardiologist with
numerous books on cardiology and religion under his belt,
approaches the debate on the "faith" side as a religious man
(he is a Muslim) with a strong background in science. The
title of his book places the emphasis on the key issue that
stands between the scientific atheist side and the faith
side: evidence, and the absence thereof. For fundamentalist
believers, evidence (other than what is written in holy
books) is simply not an issue. However, for the rational
religious believer, it is a pivotal point and must be
rationalized.
It is divided into substantial
chapters, each dealing with a major subject of faith and/or
reason, and each chapter is subdivided into sections, which
discuss various detailed aspects or examples, including
death, the afterlife, and the philosophy of life.