The Origin of God Paperback – January 1, 2010

As a voracious reader, I have a strong tendency to highlight passages in books, taking special note of new insights, important facts, and particularly well written passages which seem to contain all of the above. My difficulty in reading Laurence Gardner's new book, The Origin of God, is that virtually every page ended up with highlights, often two or three to a page. Yellow highlighting and post-it flags everywhere... even an occasional underline. In point of fact, Laurence Gardner provides a treasure trove of recent discoveries, lesser known facts, critical detail, unbiased analysis, and genuinely thoughtful understanding on the nature of the Biblical God. His latest book is an extraordinary, well-researched and well-organized treatise on a quest to find evidence that supports (or denies) the "long-standing and widespread notion of God's existence." The Origin of God subsequently considers a wide variety of sources, their credibility, how they agree or conflict with each other, and how the sum total of the resulting knowledge can lead each of us to a better understanding of God. Despite the controversial nature of the subject, the author is able to provide an unbiased, persuasive picture of the various ways that ancient peoples perceived their deity (or deities). In the process, The Origin of God provides the reader with the raw material to reach their own conclusions. Both scholarly and academically correct, the book is also highly accessible to the lay reader. The fact Mr. Gardner also writes well, clearly, and in a manner easy to understand, is just icing on the cake.

Laurence Gardner has done it again in this wonderful and thought provoking and revelatory explanation combining science, archeological exploration of the real facts of the duplicity and errors of current religious theory. Behind Christianity of the "fact finding, actual Historical records and who and how the bible was scribed and written what millions believe can not co-exist with the evolutionary facts that what we were taught about Creation, Evolution and God. It is about time someone like Mr. Gardner took on the challenge of this enormity and scope of an entire Christianity and Science to find that Facts behind the Fiction. Absolutely Brilliant Writing and just plain good old Brain stimulating reading. Definitely not for the non-cerebral literary reader and those who do not like to demand and asking hard and demanding hard answers. If you liked his other books this is one you must also have in your collection

ever wondering what became before Adam here -he was not the first man on earth - Cain was the first man Cain was begot was Eve hegot by another man, then came adam. Read the book - before informatetive. so much has been left out of the bible, you will finally read the truth,al the way backto the year 4000ce if not more very enjoyable- his other books are the best ever

Digging deep into the origin of the Judaeo / Christian God from a historical perspective. Gardner is excellent in presenting the driest material and making you want to keep turning pages. Starting in Sumeria and ending with the new testament this book is quite comprehensive. You will find many things can be controversial from a fundamental / folk religion perspective, Moses was a Pharaoh, but ultimately good information and lots of footnotes to read where the reference came from.

What a shame we lost Laurence Gardner - he explains things so clearly that you have numerous Eureka!! moments - I've been studying what he writes about for a number of years and he brings tears to my eyes as he confirms my beliefs - I have a close friend who is a dedicated Evangelical with whom I have been having debates for years and I so wish I could loan him this book and suggest he might better understand my position but I just know that he would reject it because it does not agree with his interpretation of scripture

As always Laurence Gardner is clear and gets his point across without rambling. I now have all of his books and everyone is filled facts and a very realistic perspective. It makes you wonder what the church isn't telling us and is their presentation accurate or is it a romantic picture of events. I truly feel that there is a divine presence. One only has to look at a flower or a sunset to see that. But are we getting an honest picture from the church? Gardner has mountains of research and a sound common sense approach to his writing.

Thorough research is this authors hallmark.

I've read everyone of Gardner's books and this is so well organized and so easy read that you could almost use it as a reference book. You learn everything you need to know about the Annanage, Sumerian, Akkadian, belief systems and how they compare to the Judeo-Christian beliefs of today. If you read "Genesis of the Grail Kings", this book's material expands the first chapter or two of that book.

Exzellente oeuvre! Und vue d'ensemble globale du développment de la notion de "Dieu" depuis la présence physique reelle (c.-a.-d. Un être humain réel dans les recits Mesopotamiens) jusqu'à la présence mystérieuse spirituelle plus tard dans l'Ancien Testament judaique. Le Dieu devenait un Instrument fabriqué d'oppression de peuple par les grands sacrificateurs et les souverains dominants. Même le Dieu chrétien était et est utilisé de faire peur de l'incroyance de Dieu de la manière plus subtile. D'autre part la croyance de Dieu fait intolérant. Il progressait et progresse toujours à la lutte de religions, à la bataille Dieu contre Dieu. C'est la preuve que le Dieu n'existe pas, il est un produit superstitieux de l' imagination humaine bien disposée ou de mauvaise foi.

My draft to Amazon.com on the Book, The Origin of God by Laurence gardnerLaurence Gardner is not afraid to come out and say what his research and studies has come across. It is like saying, "Was God and Astronaut" like Edrich von Daniken did. From the time we were children, we were told stories of the baby Jesus, and of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, a trilogy dreamed up in the 4th or 5th century by Emperor Constantine who wanted to rule his empire with hell-fire and brimstone, and flood his domain with a "new type of religion" so as more of his peoples would follow him. For years, we have had to listen to orators proclaiming hell-fire and damnation if we do not listen to them, and now Mr. Gardner has studied, researched, visited the Middle Eastern, so called "Holy Lands" and read so much as to go into print and advise, or indeed explain and tell us, that really was not the story.The "Nag Hammadi Scrolls", the "Dead Sea Scrolls" have for some years, since around, since the last century, been the subject of many books, but Mr. Gardiner has taken time to put things into context. Naturally there are many sceptics in the world who dare not, or do not want to learn what may have happened in the past, and therefore tend to remain in a cocoon frame of mind. Even some will not dare to mention the pyramids, they just happened, they are there. The Egyptians were a tremendously great, intelligent, skilled engineering race, but where did they come from, and more over, where did that great race of craftsmanship, and engineering intellect go?In the United States of America, the so-called "Creation Museum", which is the American Museum of Natural History in New York proclaiming that the Earth and everything living on the Earth was created about 6,000 years or so ago, and that's that, is not giving our children a chance to see dinosaurs, and tyrannosaurus rexs' that roamed the Earth millions of years ago, along with every other prehistoric creature. The so-called creators and directors of the museum are saying that he Evangelistic Church is right.But what of the museums in London which are packed with millions of years of factual evidence, they cannot ever go ignored, and again Mr. Gardner's book prevails. Very much so, and logically too.Dr. Christian and Barbara Joy O' Brien who co-wrote the book called The Shinning Ones have researched more of the same ground as Mr. Gardner has, and both conclude that there was educated life tens of thousands of years ago, and even compare their notes with most, if not all of the worlds Holy Books. Not only that, Laurence Gardner actually writes of the O'Brien's work in his book, and this speaks volumes in itself.Laurence Gardner has come up with a deep research and knowledge of what was, not so much of what "he thinks was there" but factual claims and analysis. His book is a pleasure to read, and also a pleasure to study. He is trying to get the message across to his readers, and I believe that he does a good job, because he does get his message across.Laurence Gardner compares Genesis with clay tablets, cylinders and scrolls dug up, possibly in Mesopotamia, and later in Egypt, and Sumeria, then translated, then he shows how he believes that Genesis was not written by one man, but by many people, many, many hundreds of years later, and that the information in Genesis must have been conveyed, dare I say it by "word of mouth" and that is open to all sorts of variations, misunderstandings, and worst of all. "I think it must have meant this, or it must have meant that (for example).For those really interested in, not our prehistoric beginnings, but dare I say it, our sudden change from Neanderthal Man to Cro-Magnon Man in a matter of a few thousands of years, whereby natural transition usually takes millennia.From dragging everything in to caves, and then to upright, walking and talking man growing crops, tending domesticated animals and living in built accommodation, something MUST OF HAPPENED, to make this sudden change. The Origin of God by Laurence Gardner tells it how his studies believes it is, and he tells it in a readable, and understandable style, rather than in "over-the-top" university type English which very few understand.A very good book indeed. So much so, I bought two copies, and one is for a birthday present for a very dear friend of the family, whom I know, will enjoys the read.

Exellent, eye opening study of the Bible and a probable Sumerian influence to the origin of God (a combo 0f Enki, Enlil, Ninlil, Marduk -the Babylonian version of Enki- and Baal who was Known to the Sumerian's by the name Ishkur, all generally known as El Elyon, a catch all term) before the Christian El Elyon Monotheistic God. note that El, originally seems to be a Androgynous word for both a male and female deity, The earliest written form of the Germanic word 'God' (always, in this usage, capitalized)comes from the 6th century Christian 'Codex Argenteus'. The English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuðan. Most linguists agree that the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was based on the root * ǵhau(ə)-, which meant either "to call" or "to invoke". The Germanic words for God were originally neuter--applying to both genders--but during the process of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism, the word became a masculine syntactic form. In the English language, the capitalized form of God continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic "God" and "gods" in polytheism. Gardiner mention's a 'Yuya/Iouiya/Yaouai'(phonetic Yahweh) who is directly equated with 'Aten/Adon' in the bible during the Egyptian Moses period, the following on the Canaanite 'Yah/Ia' maybe to be related to the Egyptian 'Yuya/Iouiya/Yaouai'.Friedrich Delitzsch (1902) ((Delitzsch specialized in the study of ancient Middle Eastern languages, and published numerous works on Assyrian language, history and culture. He is remembered today for his scholarly critique of the Biblical Old Testament. In a 1902 controversial lecture titled "Babel and Bible", Delitzsch maintained that many Old Testament writings were borrowed from ancient Babylonian tales, including the stories of Genesis creation narrative and the Flood myth. During the following years there were several translations and modified versions of the "Babel and Bible". In the early 1920s, Delitzsch published the two-part Die große Täuschung (The Great Deception), which was a critical treatise on the book of Psalms, prophets of the Old Testament, the invasion of Canaan, etc. Delitzsch also stridently questioned the historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible and placed great emphasis on its numerous examples of immorality (see also Julius Wellhausen)) brought into notice three tablets, of the age of the first dynasty of Babylon, in which he read the names of men called Ya-a'-ve-ilu, Ya-ve-ilu, and Ya-u-um-ilu (meaning "Yahweh is God"), and which he regarded as conclusive proof that Yahweh was known in Babylonia before 2000 BCE; he was a god of the Semitic invaders in the second wave of migration, who were, according to Winckler and Delitzsch, of North Semitic stock (Canaanites, in the linguistic sense).In 1903 Ernst Sellin excavated at Ta'annuk (the city Taanach of the Book of Joshua) a tablet attributed to the 14th century BCE, in which a man is mentioned whose name may be read Ahi-Yawi, equivalent to the Hebrew name Ahijah. If the reading be correct, this would suggest that Yahweh was worshipped in central Canaan before the Israelite conquest. Genesis 14:17 describes a meeting between Melchizedek the king/priest of Salem and Abraham. Both these pre-conquest figures are described as worshipping the same "Most High God" later identified as Yahweh.Yahweh ('Yahu'/'Yuya/Iouiya/Yaouai'), prior to becoming Yahweh the national god of Israel and taking on monothestic attributes in the 6th century BCE, was a part of the canaanite pantheon in the period before the Babylonian captivity. Archeological evidence reveals that during this time period the Israelites were a group of Canaanite people. Yahweh was seen as a War God, and equated with El (but do bare in mind orignaly El was given to all Babylonian/Sumerian deitys, male and female not just Enlil, but Enlil/Ishkur was/were seen as a destructive force). Asherah, who was often seen as El's consort, has been described as a consort of Yahweh in numerous inscriptions. The name Yahwi may possibly be found in some male Amorite names.Many attempts have been made to trace the Northwest Semitic Yahu back to Babylonia. Thus Delitzsch (1881) formerly derived the name from an Akkadian god, I or Ia; or from the Semitic nominative ending, Yau; This deity, Delitzsch's Yahu, has since disappeared from the pantheon of Assyriologists. Jean Bottéro (2000) speculates that the West Semitic Yah/Ia, in fact is a version of the Babylonian god Ea (Enki), a view given support by the earliest finding of this name at Ebla during the reign of Ebrum, at which time the city was under Mesopotamian hegemony of Sargon of Akkad.

The last great book from the late Laurence Gardener. The first part that is concerned with the Tora's and Sumerian history are well researched and provide the structure for an interesting theory. The most famous biblical characters are analysed and the conclusions are believable. Moving on to the New Testament is not as interesting, as Gardener justifies his conclusion that it is merely a chronological list of accession coupled with events that were significant to the people at the time. In light of discoveries at Gobekli Tepe and other sites, his conclusions along with others such as Hancock and Bauval are growing in precedence.

very much enjoyed following the historical process outlined by the author.