Good and the Good Book

''It is written ...,'' says the believer in a sacred text, and proceeds to justify all manner of terrifying things. Or so runs a popular caricature of religious faith today. Religions that center around a revelation--around a ''good book,'' like the Torah or Gospels or Quran, which is seen as God''s word--are widely regarded as irrational and dangerous: as based on outdated science and conducive t...