There Is Only God by Dr. H. Peter Warmbier

Religion for The Third Millennium

Is There A God? Does God Exist? Is God Real? God Exists? Faith and Reason – Rational Faith

Is faith rational? In “There Is Only God,” Dr. H. Peter Warmbier shows that belief in the divine is indeed reasonable and urgent. This surprising and relentlessly provocative work is aimed at atheists, agnostics, and skeptics as well as believers and encourages deep self-reflection on the essence of existence and the nature of the divine. Using clear and easy-to-understand explanations of philosophical ideas, scientific facts, and current religious views, Dr. Warmbier offers astonishing reasons to combine faith and reason and encourages us to accept a new way of thinking about theology for the future.

In 28 quick-read but profoundly reflective chapters, this important book addresses crucial questions: Is God real? What is the origin of “Him”? Can supernatural miracles be reconciled with our scientific knowledge? With a combination of historical context, contemporary relevance, and fascinating introspection, Dr. Warmbier challenges readers to rethink their subjective realities and discover universal truths.

Take part in a transformative journey that will not only restructure your perception of the divine but also expand your understanding of your place in the cosmos. On every page, “There Is Only God” invites you to consider complementary connections between faith and reason and to discover how to establish and maintain your permanent connection with the divine without superstition and blind faith.

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There Is Only God © Copyright 2026 Dr. H. Peter Warmbier

Introduction

Modern paleontological research dates the first precursors of religion in the form of spiritually symbolic cave paintings to around 36,000 years ago. Could it be possible that the spiritual or religious phenomenon is based on nothing but wishful thinking with regard to the natural death barrier? A side effect of homo sapiens equipped with a prefrontal cortex allowing for reflective consciousness, and nothing but a neurological epiphenomenon and possibly an evolutionary dead end, or could there be more to it? Generations of philosophers, theologians, and natural scientists have pondered over this and related questions over millennia, especially for the last three hundred years since the Enlightenment of the 17th century, without coming to a generally accepted conclusion. On the other hand, it is a surprising fact that today, more and more people tend to believe to some extent in horoscopes, voodoo dolls, and other superstitions and find consolation, peace, and strength in esotericism despite their education and rejection of religion. At the same time, there are thousands of religions attended by billions of people.

This book was written as a reaction to the rupture between the way modern people talk and therewith think and the way traditional believers communicate about religious concepts that were developed centuries and millennia ago and how such topics are presented in schools, social media, and religious communities today. Specifically, it does not make sense to defend in an uncritical way ancient reports of supernatural miracles, which are completely implausible according to the insights of modern research in the natural sciences, and this with a vocabulary that is so very remote from contemporary parlance, like the one used in the King James Bible, published in 1611, which is still in use to this day. (Even though it has undergone several revisions over time, its jargon is still based on this bygone era.) Such a practice holds the danger that current and future generations will get more and more distanced and alienated from religious thought and practices, that is, thoughts and practices that can provide much consolation, security, belonging, and above all, meaning in life. It is time to reform our use of religious language to show religion as complementary to modern science, and necessary in its transformative potential for humankind now and in the future.

The Holy Scriptures can be both a blessing and a curse, if I may use biblical parlance. They are a curse if you are not able to unlock the messages encoded therein a very long time ago. It is problematic, for example, that in a few chapters, Bible authors tried to explain how the world came into being, and, given that the Bible is supposed to have ultimate authority for the followers of many Christian denominations, literal readers confuse it with a science textbook even today. In reality, the scriptures are a wonderful collection of texts that were written by different authors with various intentions in their time and circumstances, for people who had no clue where they came from, why they were here, and where they were going. Today, we still have the same problem, but we have a lot more insight at our disposal than these ancient authors, as we will see.

Then there is also the problem of translation. In the fourth century, for example, Jerome translated Jesus’ words from Greek to Latin, and, lamentably, he interpreted the ancient Greek word μετανοείτε (transliterated: metanoeite)1 as “repent.” But metanoeite does not mean that, according to modern experts in the field, such as American philosopher and theologian David Bentley Hart. As it happens, there are sometimes words in one language that cannot be translated into another without describing their meaning, which wasn’t done here. Metanoeite can or rather should be translated in the sense of “be transformed”, “go beyond your usual way of thinking”, or “transform your mind”. This unfortunate neglect is one of the reasons why many Christian denominations are so fixed on sin and repentance and the exaggerated enforcement of a plethora of rules and supposedly “correct” behavior, contrary to the tolerant and inclusive example Jesus of Nazareth gave us.

1 Matthew 3:2, 4:17, and Mark 1:15.