101 Myths Better, But This is Solid Back-Up, January 27, 2008
Bart D. Ehrman
See my review of 101 Myths of the Bible for both extended comments and a list of two DVDs and several books that capture my history of reading of about religion.
With so many other reviews, this one is primarily to highlight and summarize the book for those that use me as a surrogate browser of non-fiction.
What struck me most about this book and its learned “born again” Christian was that it deconstructed the Bible so ably, but strives to retain the immutability of the Bible.
The author excels at telling his personal story of discovery, and doess a better job than 101 Myths at capturing and explaining:
+ We have no originals
+ The Bible is copies of copies over centuries
+ The Bible is a human book, full of mistakes
+ The Bible has been consistently revised by generations inserting their own historical contexts and agendas
+ Radical (the aurhot's word) alterations abound.
This book is a scholarly work that respects the contributions of a number of key scholars, but strangely makes no reference I could find to 101 Myths.
Religion has been fradulent and abusive. I agree with Rabbi Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right, on the importance of reintegrating a culture of compassion back into our social and political lives, but I am now inclined to reject all organized religion as a form of organized crime, cult, and theater.
It ignores Catholic genocide, the Catholic crusades against Islam, the high culture of both Arabic Islam and Persian Iran that preceeded European culture, eteceta.
It ignores the present day Jewish genocide against the Palestinians as well as Jewish theft of water from the Arab aquifers (the Arabs are not blameless, far from it).
Most importantly, it ignores India's success (second largest Muslim population outside of Indonesia) as well as the success of Malaysia, Turkey, and Indonesia among others, and it fails to distinguish between Islam and dictatorships or peverted roylaty such as the Saudi's to whom the US Governmetn has prostituted the Republic while they spread virulent Wahhabiism all over the world.
Five for Science, Three for Humanities, Four on Balance
January 17, 2008
Richard Dawkins
I have seen this argument so many times over the past 40 years; it's as if each new generation has to condemn God to find its own soul. I myself wrote a poem in college once, “Our Father, who art in hell….” You can imagine the sophomoric rest.
There are so many other reviews, I want to use this space to highlight three ideas, point to one posted image, and link to several books that demonstrate that Mike Huckabee has it exactly right: we need God (not the high priests that steal our money to live lavishly) as a foundation for the community of man, as an absolute measure of our morality.
Idea #1: God is or should be a moral standard. Fundamentalists of any stripe that claim to be the sole religion, calling all others unbelievers or heathen or worse, are nothing more than a cult.
Idea #2: Religions are bad in so far as they incite hatred toward others or enrich a few at enormous cost to the many. We do not need intermediaries nor do we need interpreters. God loves us all (including Adolph Hitler and Dick Cheney) and God's love is immutable. We are what we are, and within God's love, we must simply strive to be better, longer.
Idea #3: Engineers and scientists have a very hard time understanding any constructive role for religion. E. O. Wilson has answered the question, “why do the sciences need the humanities,” and I will sum it up in one word: Humanitas. There is a spiritual, artistic, ethical, quantum aspect to life that is often best explained through either myths or conventions.
Here are ten books that have informed my appreciation for God, whom I found again, very strongly in my life, six months ago, when everything started going in the direction that I had been struggling to achieve for twenty years, not for myself, but for my children and the future of life.
02 The Lessons of History Morality is a strategic asset of incalculable proportions (a Nobel Prize was awarded in the 1990's to a man who proved that trust lowers the cost of doing business).
04 God's Politics LP Buy this used, I hope it is reprinted. Religion is like a gun–it is the person who chooses between an exclusive “true believer” role that is hateful, or an inclusive compassion that is respectful of all. I end my review saying he has my vote for Chaplain to the Nation.
05 Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik The author is a Navy Captain (O-6) Retired, I know him, and he taught me that faith is a tangible value that can be demonstrated in a peaceful respectful manner, and doing so yields enormous dividends when negotiating or interacting with those whose faith is strong but different.
07 Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors I am often shocked by how little the average American knows of history, to include our genocide of the Native Americans, the Puritan exorcism of women as witches, the Catholic Church's inquisition, the crusades, and their all too eager collaboration with the Nazis in administering the Holocaust. This book is as good as any for reflection in that direction.
08 The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History Howard Bloom is a friend, and also the author of Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century. I learned from the latter book that a human brain “locks down” by the age of 30 or so, and whatever good or evil thoughts have been introduced to that mind, are there to stay. He anticipated the Sunni Shi'ite wars (Iran, which is Persian, and the Iraqi Shi'ites, are terrified because they are surrounded by extremist Sunnis led by Saudi Arabia which the US is stupidly arming, and Pakistan, which has the SUNNI bomb, as well as Egypt and Syria, two of the bloodier dictatorships in that region: remember, CIA put the Shah into power, overturning a democratic election in Iran. See also my review of Web of Deceit.
09 Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror There are so many other books I could recommend, but Amazon limits us to ten. See also Looming Tower, The Fifty Year Wound, Sorrow's of Empire, and Wilson's Ghost as well as the DVD Why We Fight. The bottom line is that the US Government and its secret intelligence agencies (I've done it all across that world) are inherently pro-dictator (see Ambassador Mark Palmer's Breaking The Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025. There are 44 dictators remaining, 42 of them are best friends with Bush-Cheney, and of the remaining two, North Korea and Cuba, both are benign in my view, and Cuba has a great deal to teach us about sustainable agriculture, full employment, and free public health care. I have no patience for demagogues, and pray for the day when we can restore the Constitution, the Republic, We the People as sovereign, and Thomas Jefferson's original vision of commerce and peace.
10 American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America is the top book on the evil that is represented by cult-like fundamentalist movements whose preachers can be (not all) hypocritical miscreants who favor homosexuals and drugs when traveling at our expense. American Theocracy and Tempting Faith also fall into this last category, useful for understanding where religion went wrong.
America is in a desperate condition right now because We the People forgot that democracy requires our constant tending–a Republic, if you can keep it. When we allowed the Democratic and Republican parties to disenfranchise the League of Women Voters so they could shut out third, fourth, and fifth parties; when we allowed the FBI to ignore Steve Emerson's PBS special in 1994 on imams on US territory calling for the murder of Americans and the overthrow of the secular government; when we allowed Jeb Bush to disenfranchise 35,000 to 50,000 people of color in Florida, with a brilliant exposure THREE MONTHS BEFORE THE ELECTION, and Al Gore chose to “go along” with this “reasonable dishonesty” so as to reap wealth and celebrity (rather than being shunned for spoiling the party), We the People gave up our Republic.
The image I am loading says it all. That is where a number of us are headed, and we carry God with us in mind and heart and spirit. Most churches and non-profits are nothing more than scams to separate the sheep from their money. Free men, real men, *are* God to the extent that they respect the brotherhood of man, follow the Golden Rule, and respect the Ten Commandments, which are the most helpful guide possible for life in a complex society.
A note on Mike Huckabee: he represents faith in a good way, not the evil way that Cheney harnessed and then dismissed. Mike Huckabee has a vision for a return to a Christian, family-oriented Republic. I share that vision.
1998, the most earnest book (his first), January 5, 2008
January 5, 2008
Mike Huckabee
I bought four of Governor Huckabee's books, and spent much of Sunday going through them. I've decided to do one review posted four times, to provide anyone visiting one of the four books to see four snapshots in one place. I am NOT looking for multiple votes. This is my bottom-line over-all assessment of one of the three people I believe is qualified to b;ring our Nation together, the others being Senator Obama, and Representative Paul, who will not win but could demand electoral reform when Congress returns.
Both of the above are formula books, somewhat contrived, but earnest and sufficient to come to at least two conclusions:
1) This citizen is not going to let go of God or faith. He is completely different from Milt Romney, whom I consider to be just a little too slick about his Mormon loyalties (CIA officers who were Mormons would fall asleep at their desks because the Mormon church had them up working all night).
2) This is a sincere good man (I based this on seeing him elsewhere as well). I frankly think that he brings the right respect for faith and God, and we need some of that in the White House, not lies and treason documented in Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America. As an estranged moderate Republican and Methodist, outrages by the crimes committed in our name, I think its time we had a moderate faith in God back in the White House.
The latter book touches on various “mandate for change” issues, and one has to be somewhat dubious on his record, since more than one person from Arkansas has told me they lost income and the schools lost funding during his tenure.
We need change. I'd like to see Mike Huckabee lead a dialog with all congregations on God's Politics, the Left Hand of God, and Faith-Based Golden Rule morality in all our policies at all levels. Barack Obama is energizing the young, but still severely handicapped by his elderly advisors who are out of touch with global reality.
In my view, as a person who cares deeply about the Republic and has spent the last 15 years obsessing on global reality and a strategy for saving the Earth for seven generations and beyond, I would like to see Mike Huckabee being the evangelicals back into the fold, without the attendant lunacy and criminality that characterized the Bush-Cheney White House.
Please do not vote for this review in more than one place.
I bought four of Governor Huckabee's books, and spent much of Sunday going through them. I've decided to do one review posted four times, to provide anyone visiting one of the four books to see four snapshots in one place. I am NOT looking for multiple votes. This is my bottom-line over-all assessment of one of the three people I believe is qualified to b;ring our Nation together, the others being Senator Obama, and Representative Paul, who will not win but could demand electoral reform when Congress returns.
Both of the above are formula books, somewhat contrived, but earnest and sufficient to come to at least two conclusions:
1) This citizen is not going to let go of God or faith. He is completely different from Milt Romney, whom I consider to be just a little too slick about his Mormon loyalties (CIA officers who were Mormons would fall asleep at their desks because the Mormon church had them up working all night).
2) This is a sincere good man (I based this on seeing him elsewhere as well). I frankly think that he brings the right respect for faith and God, and we need some of that in the White House, not lies and treason documented in Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America. As an estranged moderate Republican and Methodist, outrages by the crimes committed in our name, I think its time we had a moderate faith in God back in the White House.
The latter book touches on various “mandate for change” issues, and one has to be somewhat dubious on his record, since more than one person from Arkansas has told me they lost income and the schools lost funding during his tenure.
We need change. I'd like to see Mike Huckabee lead a dialog with all congregations on God's Politics, the Left Hand of God, and Faith-Based Golden Rule morality in all our policies at all levels. Barack Obama is energizing the young, but still severely handicapped by his elderly advisors who are out of touch with global reality.
In my view, as a person who cares deeply about the Republic and has spent the last 15 years obsessing on global reality and a strategy for saving the Earth for seven generations and beyond, I would like to see Mike Huckabee being the evangelicals back into the fold, without the attendant lunacy and criminality that characterized the Bush-Cheney White House.
Please do not vote for this review in more than one place.
5.0 out of 5 stars Useful Bridge, Provokes Reflection
October 28, 2007
It was my good fortune to receive a copy of this book in galley form, and then again when published, because the author was scheduled to speak at one of my conferences. Having read a number of books on religion in politics (bad) and religion in diplomacy (good), as well as a number of books on science in isolation (bad) and science in relation to the humanities (good), I was most intrigued by this author's daring–and ultimately successful–endeavor to combine the accuracy of a scientific textbook with the inspiration of religious faith and gospel (good).
Yes, for some this may be a stretch, and some of it may annoy those who like their religion dressed in dogma and ritual and “no humor allowed,” but on balance I found this book totally worthwile. See others I recommend along these lines at the end of this review.
The author does not address, nor does he need to, the extremes of religion or of the politicization of science. Instead, he reconciles perspectives that have been allowed to claim they are in contradiction when in fact they are not. He builds bridges and makes important distinctions, such as between private and public revelation, facts as God's native tongue, and contrasting faith-based views on evolution.
The book is full of quotes from many of the most respected evolutionary thinkers of all time – both living and dead–as well as dozens of personal anecdotes. There is a separate list of Highlighted Stories, just after the Table of Contents.
Drawing on evolutionary brain science and evolutionary psychology, the author reframes and “makes real” traditional Christian concepts such as “Original Sin” and “The Fall”, but does so in a way that anyone, regardless of their religious or philosophical worldview, can embrace and benefit from. I am reminded of Conversations with God in that sense.
Part IV: “Evolutionary Spirituality” is a collection of exercises, practices, and “self-help” and “relationship-help” tools. Although I have not seen any other “self-help” books, this section struck me as provocative (of reflection) and therefore helpful to anyone.
Overall the author offers us all a “big picture” understanding of life's most important and persistent questions such as: “Where do we come from? Where are we going? Why are we here? How are we to live?”
The bottom line: this book addresses concerns many Christians have about evolution, yet also communicates a universal “gospel” (good news message) that will speak to people of all religious traditions, and even those hostile to religion.
From now on, no discussion of how science and religion or evolution and creation relate can ignore this book. The index is excellent, as are the concluding offerings, a “Who's Who” section and a Resources section.
Buy the Individual Books–As a Set, Replace the Bible
October 16, 2007
Neale Donald Walsch
See my review of Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1) for comments that apply to all three books. These books as a set replace the Bible as a foundation for Being with God as Community in Heaven on Earth.
Book 2 reiterates the common theme, forget religions, have faith, do love, BE the light.
Fastest way to find God is to find one another–ALL of us.
Fastest way to stop evil and hiding from evil is to tell the truth.
Seek, know, accept, praise, and embrace the truth at all times.
Humanity is ready for a new paradigm of communal belief in goodness. Everything we are experiencing today is an opportunity to remember and restore One from Many.
Religion is the opposite of spirituality.
Soul creates, mind reacts.
Energy at the root of everything.
USA in decline because religions have become falsely righteous and intolerant, divisive.
Lesson of Hitler: group consciousness that speaks of separation and superiority leads to a loss of compassion and virtual genocide.
LOTS of coverage of sex, almost a virtual manual for rediscovering the joy and love that should be the foundation for sex. Enjoy it, don't hide it, don't raise kids to be repressed about it.
Education is a mess, teaching knowledge (rote memorization of the past) instead of wisdom (learning to learn, learning to share). Teaching children WHAT to think instead of HOW to think.
Must teach three core concepts: Awareness, Honesty, Responsibility.
Rudolph Steiner and the Waldorf School are on the right track.
Need to achieve societal shift in consciousness–love, family, unity–at all levels from neighborhood to globe.
As of 1994, we are spending $1 trillion a year on war (while peace and prosperity for all would only cost $230 billion a year according to Medard Gabel and other authorities such as E. O. Wilson).
Eliminate money or make it completely transparent. Money is what allows hoarding, theft, and related evils such as corruption, all of which deprive the community and the commons of optimal stewardship. This resonates with the work of the Natural Capitalism Institute and the Open Money pioneers.