TDW: What inspired the title of the book?

DCD: Since I was a child, I wondered why much of the grief and suffering in the world seemed to be unconquerable. And in my small mind, I asked the question why God couldn’t just take care of it. Why did God seem so silent? Yes, I know that God works through people and sends his word through people, but I just didn’t understand what the complications were.

TDW: Did you write the book to make a statement or provoke theologians?

DCD: Yes, I have always felt strongly about God. I was taught, as many children are, from a very early age that there is one God and that he sent his son, Jesus. It wasn’t until much later that I found out that there were other religions. But the book If God Could Talk… is a simple premise, if God did choose to speak to us directly, would he speak to all of us at once, or would he use TV to present his views.

TDW: In your book, God decides to go on a Cable TV talk show to directly communicate to the world. Doesn’t that seem a bit un-godly?

DCD: I don’t know; it’s just a story. It’s about a fictional character who is asked by a friend to suspend disbelief and be open to the possibility that God would go on his show. Don’t you find it rather funny how he is asked to suspend disbelief in order to believe?

TDW: What do you say to the people who truly believe that Jesus is God?

DCD: Look it's a fictional work but please consider that the fear many thinking people have is that their private conversation with God has to be filtered through the rules and laws of the church. Some of the psychological problems people experience, comes from the guilt and fears that were programmed in them by the church.

TDW: Is this book just a way to take it out on the past sins of some of the clergy?

DCD: Well, there are easier ways of doing that. But the major question that motivated writing the book was, how did Jesus seem to upstage God? How did he grab the spotlight from the One? Remember the reason Jesus broke away from the Jewish Temple was that the high priests said you couldn’t have a conversation with God directly. Why can’t God have a chance to say what he thinks? Much of the Christian religion focuses on Jesus.

TDW: One critic said, “How can he write what God thinks or would say? Who does he think he is?”  And why do you have this problem with buying into that Jesus is God, part of the holy trinity?

DCD: What my book is saying is that everything that has been written about God is the product of someone’s subjective story. If God Could Talk… is another subjective fantasy, but the storyline does talk about what has been written. Maybe an historical novel would have been a better way to show it, but I’m a better story teller than writer. The story is the key to the book.

TDW: What would you say to a historian or theologian who says, your facts are all wrong?

DCD: Yes, I would expect them to question what God says in the book. I would think that they would be a bit rattled by it all. Some would say that the writer will go to hell for writing such a book, but I would still ask, what would God say to us today? What would he say about those who have built a terrorist organization on the basic tenet that in a religion where suicide is a sin, the exception is if you are defending your religion? And what would God say to those who believe that it is a sin to kill another human being, but it’s okay to kill when you fear your way of life is threatened? How would God handle that dilemma?

TDW: The devout will say they have ample proof that their deity is real and talks to them every day. What do you say to them? Don’t you believe that God exists?

DCD: I am a realist. I am waiting for more proof. I always ask people to prove to me that God exists with using the Bible, or Quran, or Book of Mormon or Dianetics... tell me what God said? Take those sources away and what did he say? Yes, I know we have codified those works as the word of God. I understand that, but you have to wonder if God is so ever-present, why can’t we have more text from him. Why hasn’t he been speaking to all of us? We need him now.

TDW: What are your sources for such outrageous claims in the book If God Could Talk…?

DCD: The whole history of God starts with one book. No one book can be an authority on anything as important as God. Why is the scholarly work of God’s word locked in time?

TDW: But there are many books about Jesus, God, Muhammad and Buddha by modern authors, why not quote them?  

DCD: What I am saying through this story is that no man is God. Mohammed, Jesus and every Saint were just people. The book is saying that our main character, Jonas Bronck, wants to find God. The book never says that God doesn't exist. It tries to motivate a discussion about God.

TDW: Many people who have been touched by God will want to read the book. They talk to God every day and they will know the truth.

DCD: Consider this: George Bush told us that God told him to run for president, just as credible as claiming God instructed Joan of Arc. If you like George Bush, you believe what he said. I have no reason to think God didn’t talk to George W., but would God really pick a president. Well, according to Mr. Bush, God picked him. Can we use this as a proof of the existence of God?

TDW: You really beat up on the Catholic Church in this book. What do you have against such a great institution?

DCD: I would be careful calling any institution “great.” In this case, the jury is still out on that one. Pun intended.  If you really read the book, you will hear times, when our lead character attempts to defend the Catholic Church. And the God Head – which is an agnostic term - is equally negative toward heroes of the protestant movement. He calls John Calvin an evil man.

I truly believe that as humankind learns more and more, we need to adjust what we believe in. I think Pope Francis is doing a great job adjusting and moving in the more logical direction.

TDW: What do you expect to happen when this book becomes popular?

DCD: I am saying that people of the world need to start to think about what their original scriptures mean. Forget about those frozen in the small compartments of 8,000 or 2,000 years ago and figure out how to apply the basic human trust and goodness to the world. If this book gets young people to talk about what they believe in, how is that bad? Why do I have to defend this story? This book might be a total flop, but I would rather start one conversation about God than to just assume we are supposed follow everything to the letter of what was written. If we did that, we would have to start stoning people for ridiculous reasons.

TDW: Is there one central question you are asking in If God Could Talk…

DCD: Yes, there is. If Muslims, Jews and Christians all have the same God, then are Mohammed, Jesus and history seem to be getting in the way of what God is? Are those human filters clouding what God really means? If you cannot depict prophets in cartoons or paintings, then the followers have been placed the messengers above God. Yes, the central question is simple: If God could talk what would he say to us? And when I say “talk” I mean, to all of us, not just those who are in the trance.