After 43 years service as a priest, an Oxford doctorate in history and years of studying philosophy and theology, he is convinced: 'It is more reasonable to believe in God than reject the hypothesis of God by appealing to chance ...Goodness, truth and beauty call for an explanation as do the principles of mathematics, physics and the purpose-driven miracles of biology which run through our universe. The human capacities to recognise these qualities of truth, goodness and beauty, to invent and construct, also call for an explanation...' Not averse to controversy (readers of Damian Thompson's blog on the Telegraph website will already know of Cardinal Pell's considerable influence and reputation within the world Catholic communion), this collection of writings is the perfect antidote to the onslaught from the Hitchens/Pullman/Dawkins brigade.