"Former ambassador to Kenya and former president of the University of Connecticut Glenn W. Ferguson has kept a journal for twenty-two years. In it he has recorded his thoughts and observations during his travels throughout the United States and the world. One issue that continues to draw his attention is the many and varied conflicts between the views of nonbelievers and religious believers. He never tires of chronicling the paradoxical attitudes that result from the clash of increasingly secular, international trends with traditional belief systems. This creative and thoughtful book is a compilation of brief essays based on some of his topical journal entries." "Ferguson begins with a "Credo of the Ignored," a profession of nonbelief to counter the oft-heard professions of faith trumpeted from every pulpit and reported in the media. He offers critical commentary on major theological issues: the nature of God, heaven and hell, miracles and sin, as well as social and political topics, such as religion in education, democracy and religion, population control, abortion, euthanasia, the differences among sects, funeral rites; and even the esthetics of places of worship. In the concluding chapters he spotlights religious quotations from other religious dissenters as well as his own original aphorisms."--BOOK JACKET.