The Gift of the Jews - Thomas Cahill

Interesting book, however I disagree with some of his conclusions. Cahill looks at the influence of the Jewish people in world culture. He begins with the Sumarian civilization and moves on from there. In the end he says it is unreasonable to accept the God depicted in the Bible. I thought his analysis of God's judgment on Saul versus David weak. Cahill seemed to think that the decision to punish Saul for something so minor as sacrifice at the wrong time is no reason for ripping the kingdom out of his hands. It seems to me that Cahill is presupposing the impossibility of God being real, and therefore, impossible to actually look into the heart of men. Isn't that ultimately what separated David from Saul? Certainly David was no angel. Overall, I thought the book was insightful, although I wonder at the level of detail of research and free representation of commentary as fact.