Doubt

In this book, Hecht describes the world's greatest doubters—the greatest intellectuals who also belong to humanity's greatest doubting traditions. These doubters include Socrates, Galileo and Darwin, as well as Marx and Freud, among others. Hecht is no atheist (though he does not share Job or Ecclesiastes' understanding of God), but he is partisan to the skeptical cause. He characterizes Jesus as a man of doubt, discusses Jesus' relationship with His Father, cites Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, and asserts that Jesus was a pacifist who was unable to believe in an afterlife worthy of human beings' accountability. Hecht concludes by discussing secularism and the rise of science.