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190th out of 195 books
—
164 voters
The God Hater
by
Bill Myers
A cranky, atheistic philosophy professor loves to shred the faith of incoming freshmen. He is chosen by a group of scientists to create a philosophy for a computer-generated world exactly like ours. Much to his frustration every model he introduces—from Darwinism, to Existentialism, to Relativism, to Buddhism—fails. The only way to preserve the computer world is to introdu...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
September 28th 2010
by Howard Books
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Okay, here is a book about someone who hates God and all religion so much that he despises anything to do with it - he has only one friend (a fellow professor) and her little boy and his brother who he sees about once a year. Outside of that everyone avoids him like the plague, not a pleasant person to be around to say the least. Then suddenly, everyone is after him, literally. Nicholas is asked to help his brother on a project he has made, creating a CGI world with characters that are supposed...more
Review by Jill Williamson
Dr. Nicholas Mackenzie, an atheistic philosophy professor, is nearly abducted by men looking for his brother, Travis. A few days later, Travis finds Nicholas and begs him to help with his latest project. He and some associates have built a computer-generated world, but the civilizations keep killing themselves off. They need someone to create a philosophy for the people in the program, to see if they can find a model that won’t end in extinction.
Bill Myer is so clever an...more
Dr. Nicholas Mackenzie, an atheistic philosophy professor, is nearly abducted by men looking for his brother, Travis. A few days later, Travis finds Nicholas and begs him to help with his latest project. He and some associates have built a computer-generated world, but the civilizations keep killing themselves off. They need someone to create a philosophy for the people in the program, to see if they can find a model that won’t end in extinction.
Bill Myer is so clever an...more
The God Hater by Bill Myers is a fast-paced novel that is hard to put down. It is an interesting concept, what would happen if a world were created without the concept of God? What would people do? How would they survive and advance in life? Well, in The God Hater a virtual reality world has been created just like that and what happens is very intriguing.
Our main character Nicholas MacKenzie, is an atheist who has been roped into helping his brother Travis with an unusual computer program. A vir...more
Our main character Nicholas MacKenzie, is an atheist who has been roped into helping his brother Travis with an unusual computer program. A vir...more
When I started this book, I knew it sounded like a good book, but I never thought I would be as thoroughly sucked into the book as I was. In the first 5 pages I was already not wanting to put it down and I went through the first 100 pages no problem on the first night (and I was tired and not feeling well). The second night I would have finished it, but I became very sleepy, but I did get through about 150 pages, I even stayed up late to get that far.
The story in this book is really comprised of...more
The story in this book is really comprised of...more
Brilliant!.. that's how I'd describe Bill Myers THE GOD HATER in one word.
Our protagonist is Dr. Nicholas Mackenzie, a God and religion hating, atheist Philosophy Professor who has made a career and a name for himself disparaging all who dare challenge him on the topic of creation. When his delinquent younger brother Travis is successfull in creating a cyber world of true Artificial Intelligence, Nicholas reluctantly agrees to to help him overcome the programs only manger flaw.. the civilizatio...more
Our protagonist is Dr. Nicholas Mackenzie, a God and religion hating, atheist Philosophy Professor who has made a career and a name for himself disparaging all who dare challenge him on the topic of creation. When his delinquent younger brother Travis is successfull in creating a cyber world of true Artificial Intelligence, Nicholas reluctantly agrees to to help him overcome the programs only manger flaw.. the civilizatio...more
This is a really good story. In fact, I had to ration myself whilst listening to this because it was so good. I really didn’t want it to end. It kept my attention, and made me wonder how it was all going to end. And what an ending, not disappointing at all. this was my first book by Bill Myers, so wasn’t too sure what to expect. I thought it might be a bit corny actually, and full of cliches, but not at all. I have read other Christian fiction which I really didn’t like for those very reasons. T...more
The God Hater is about an atheistic philosophy professor, Nicholas Mackenzie, who is asked to help with a computer program. This computer program contains an entire world and characters who think, react, and feel just like real people. The programmers believe they have thought of everything and made the program perfect. But everytime they run it, the characters end up self-destructing. Nicholas reluctantly decides that they need to introduce religion into the program. But that too fails. Even gi...more
You’ve met Nicholas Mackenzie before. His words are those of the argumentative atheist. Banking on his intellectual ability, he prides himself in relentlessly engaging Christians in theological debates.
It is his vitamin of choice, his adrenaline rush. In truth, it is his defense mechanism.
When you learn of his history, you understand why. His son is dead and he was to blame. It was a plane crash. Nicholas was the pilot. It is true that suffering tragedy and trials will either make us bitter or b...more
It is his vitamin of choice, his adrenaline rush. In truth, it is his defense mechanism.
When you learn of his history, you understand why. His son is dead and he was to blame. It was a plane crash. Nicholas was the pilot. It is true that suffering tragedy and trials will either make us bitter or b...more
Bill Myers demonstrates a parallel universe where religion is necessary to succeed in life lasting past a short period of time. In this parallel universe, there are those who rebel against the "Law", and those to claim to have acheived success in living the "perfect" life following the Law, similar to how our world is seen While the author's examples miss the mark slightly on what Jesus did and what God is able to do still today, and the mental illustrations can not properly reflect all that was...more
This was a fascinating story about a man, totally ruled by logic, who rejects religion and God in any form. When his brother manages to create artificial intelligence and needs help giving his creations a reason not to kill each other, Nicholas is forced to come up with a philosophy for these people. "Programmer" tells them they must take dominion over their domain. Then, come the temples, the laws, and the punishments. It starts to bear a strong resemblance to Israel 2000 years ago. A good read...more
Sadly, I cannot recommend this for secular reading. I'd love to be able to do so but it's just too obvious in it's Christian allegory and the story itself is not strong enough. The premise (sort of a Tron type thing) is awesome but the story lacks depth outside of the computer. The characters in our reality seem to do nothing but run around scared with no real answers about the danger. In the computer reality, on the other hand, the characters are great and the allegory is, if obvious, quite wel...more
In Bill Myers' "The God Hater," the cutting edge of technology meets the cutting edge of contempt. Central to the story is Dr. Nicholas Mackenzie, a brilliant, yet embittered, university professor.
Mackenzie is not only a "God hater" but an acerbic critic of all forms of theology. A man of many quirks -- most particularly a deep-seated mistrust of electronic gadgets and other variations of modern communication -- Mackenzie holds himself severely aloof from fellow academics, from students, and fro...more
Mackenzie is not only a "God hater" but an acerbic critic of all forms of theology. A man of many quirks -- most particularly a deep-seated mistrust of electronic gadgets and other variations of modern communication -- Mackenzie holds himself severely aloof from fellow academics, from students, and fro...more
Nicholas is an anti-religion professor who would outdebate the best of them. He sees religion as the downfall of man, until his brother Travis presents him with a complex computer program. In the program he has created a whole world and the main character in the program is called Alpha designed after Nicholas's dead son. In the program they try to create a world where people would survive without the confines of religion, however they soon discover that no matter what they try the world destroys...more
Imagine a virtually realistic world designed to figure out how to save our own world from its inevitable self-destruction. No matter how many ways super genius Travis plays out the various scenarios, the end result is always the same. Thinking he must have missed something, he contacts his brother Nicholas, a reclusive professor, to bounce ideas.
Nicholas, an avid atheist who loves nothing more than shredding incoming students’ faith, is shocked to find that the premier male in the VR world is pa...more
Nicholas, an avid atheist who loves nothing more than shredding incoming students’ faith, is shocked to find that the premier male in the VR world is pa...more
The God Hater, by Bill Myers, Howard Books, 2010, 320 Pages, ISBN-13: 978-1439153260, $14.99
The limousine driver unexpectedly pulled to the curb and Dr. Nicholas Mackenzie's curt questions were silenced when Homeland Security Agent, Brand Thompson quickly opened the back door and slipped in. The agent flipped open his credentials and said, "It's about your brother....Travis Mackenzie" before the professor could say another word.
Award-winning author of more than sixty national and international...more
The limousine driver unexpectedly pulled to the curb and Dr. Nicholas Mackenzie's curt questions were silenced when Homeland Security Agent, Brand Thompson quickly opened the back door and slipped in. The agent flipped open his credentials and said, "It's about your brother....Travis Mackenzie" before the professor could say another word.
Award-winning author of more than sixty national and international...more
This book was based on an interesting concept in speculative fiction. It was exciting to see how it played out in the book. It did not quite have the "can't-put-it-down" value of some, but it was reasonably addicting. There were a few overly constructed-feeling moments in the book, but the ending was very well crafted. Not a bad choice for Christian speculative fiction.
This allegorical novel made me think from start to finish. In this superb story-within-a-story, the premise that God and Christianity has (and still does) affect the world couldn't be missed. I found myself pondering much on the themes in this book well beyond my reading of it and have recommended it to several people since.
A strange book.
Looking at life as a computer simulation was... weird. Having the role of God being played by Travis, was bad, and Nicholas as the Savior??? That was even worse. I felt like the parallel of Christ's life to the atheistic Nicholas was not right. It felt like it was trying too hard and never actually working.
Looking at life as a computer simulation was... weird. Having the role of God being played by Travis, was bad, and Nicholas as the Savior??? That was even worse. I felt like the parallel of Christ's life to the atheistic Nicholas was not right. It felt like it was trying too hard and never actually working.
Oct 29, 2010
Theresa
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Older Teens through Adult
Recommended to Theresa by:
FIRST
This was a great read and should really be rated at 4.5. I was held captivated with the idea of a computer program that could run each philosophical theory and show (not by the programmer's choice) that these humanistic views would fail in the end. To come up with a solution that these programmers were trying so hard to avoid, made this a most delicious read. The ending, although quite predictable, had a nice surprise twist to it. Truly an enjoyable book!!
A strange book about a computer geek who creates a pixelated community which mirrors humans. From there it gets weird. It turns into a huge allegory of good vs evil. A virus is introduced (sin) which requires a savior (the son of the "Programer"). It all just got to be too much.....
Sep 03, 2012
Hannah
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Those with an interest in religious topics
Apologetics in fiction format, with a mild twist of Sci-fi!
PLOT: Somebody invents very realistic world in Cyber space, inhabited by realistic simulated humans. It is discovered that the cyber world cannot function without a guiding moral philosophy. An (atheist) philosopher is called in to provide such a philosophy
Gradually events conspire to fine tune the moral philosophy so that it inevitably gets closer and closer to the Christian message in the Gospel..
Meanwhile crooks as well as a sinister...more
PLOT: Somebody invents very realistic world in Cyber space, inhabited by realistic simulated humans. It is discovered that the cyber world cannot function without a guiding moral philosophy. An (atheist) philosopher is called in to provide such a philosophy
Gradually events conspire to fine tune the moral philosophy so that it inevitably gets closer and closer to the Christian message in the Gospel..
Meanwhile crooks as well as a sinister...more
good book! Even though its fiction it makes ya kinda think of what goes on in the book is how it is in real life! Like they controlled Alpha and the others are we being controlled the same way? Or is it really just God! Ya have to read the book to understand what I'm talking about!
I thought this was a work of genius! It brought together the whole thought process about what God thinks and feels for us, and what we think about what God does in our lives. Brilliant! I was glued to the pages trying to decide what would happen next.
Interesting--thought provoking. Reminded me of an old Andrew Greeley novel, The God Game. Part topical (atheists taking on Christians) and part science fiction/fantasy, this story explores the Gospel in modern terms. Definitely recommend it!
So engaging I never wanted to put this down alas one must go to work.
I loved the way that the author was able to explain the Gospel in such a clear and updated manner. This is what Tron would have been if Disney had been more blatantly Christian.
I loved the way that the author was able to explain the Gospel in such a clear and updated manner. This is what Tron would have been if Disney had been more blatantly Christian.
I really did not like this book. However, the storyline was alright. Also, my father told me that after I take a year or two of psychology in college, I will want to come back and read it. We'll see then. :)
Though-provoking and creative. Will be thinking about this story for a while. A little predictable toward the end for those who know the gospel story well.
This book is a contemporary novel about an atheistic Philosophy professor named Nicholas Mackenzie. Nicholas and one of his co-workers, Annie, get involved in a sociology experiment that is spearheaded by Nicholas’s brother, Travis. This project involves the creation of a computer-generated world that is to be used for research purposes, studying how societies react to various commercial and political variables. However, the people in this computer world never survive much longer than a generati...more
Highly thought provoking. A real page turner. Myers back in his stride. A bit corny, lots of plot holes.
Not wild about the story line but some great ideas to stretch understanding of some issues of faith
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Bill Myers was born into a Christian home, and although as a child he became bored with Christianity, he decided at the University of Washington quote, to "make God my boss." Ironically, at the University his worst subject was writing. He claims to have prayed, and said that he would be able to do anything for God, except write. Even so, he has become a prominent Christian writer, and has a large...more
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