Book Description
Dr. Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, is one of the world's leading scientists. He works at the cutting edge of the study of DNA, the code of life. Yet he is also a man of unshakable faith in God and scripture. He believes that God cares about us and can intervene in human affairs -- on rare occasions, even miraculously. Collins has personally discovered some of the scientific evidence for the common descent of all living creatures, even though he repudiates the materialist, atheistic worldview argued by many prominent Darwinists.
In short, Dr. Collins provides a satisfying solution for the dilemma that haunts everyone who believes in God and respects science. Faith in God and faith in science can be harmonious -- combined into one worldview. The God that he believes in is a God who can listen to prayers and cares about our souls. The biological science he has advanced is compatible with such a God. For Collins, science does not conflict with the Bible, science enhances it.
For many years Dr. Collins kept his views largely to himself, as he helped oversee the Human Genome Project's stunning sequencing of the code of life. Now, in what may be the most important melding of reason and revelation since C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, Dr. Collins explains himself in detail. The Language of God makes the case for God and for science. Dr. Collins considers and rejects several positions along the spectrum from atheism to young-earth creationism -- including agnosticism and Intelligent Design. Instead, he proposes a new synthesis, a new way to think about an active, caring God who created humankind through evolutionary processes.
He has heard every argument against faith from scientists, and he can refute them. He has also heard the needless rejection of scientific truths by some people of faith, and he can counter that, too. He explains his own journey from atheism to faith, and then takes readers on a stunning tour of modern science to show that physics, chemistry, and biology can all fit together with belief in God and the Bible. The Language of God is essential reading for anyone who wonders about the deepest questions of all: Why are we here? How did we get here? And what does life mean?
Customer Reviews:
No Tower of Babel Here.......2007-10-10
The Language of God is genius in Dr. Collins' skill in conveying the complexity of science and the wonder of the divine in easy-to-understand language. No polemics, no rhetoric, just the facts and they logically point to the existence of God. At last, a credible read for both the science-minded and the evangelicals among us.
Suzette Martinez Standring
Believing in God Not a Problem for Scientists and Engineers.......2007-10-08
Having heard Francis Collins speak on this topic several years ago, I eagerly awaited the chance to read this book. I was not disappointed.
This book is one which will be appreciated by every scientist and engineer as being genuine. There is no white-washing science, or diminishing its importance in our world. Collins is a scientist and it is clear that he loves his life's work. And at the same time, he recounts his personal journey to faith in God. He does not leave his intellect behind when he searches for God. Every person's journey is different, but it is fascinating to read an account of how a smart, clear thinker fully reconciles his faith in God with the incredible world that God created, while also recognizing that neither diminishes the other.
As an engineer who also has worked for the Catholic Church, I most enjoyed the parallels that he made between scientific developments and his belief in God. I've found many parallels of my own during my journey and it was a pleasure to read about the connections Collins has discovered.
On the negative side, I found the part on evolution a bit too long. Evolution is a hot button for many people, however, which is probably why he dwelled on it for so many pages. Also, the Appendix had some opinions that were counter to Catholic teaching. But despite these shortcomings, this is a book that will bring much good in helping people realize that God and the world are not "opposites" but rather both co-exist extremely well together! This may be obvious to many of us since God created the world, but not to everyone, yet.
appeals to logical fallacies at key points.......2007-09-30
This book attempts to create a bridge between evolution and the Bible by arguing for theistic evolution, but falls flat through its use of logical fallacies in defense of evolution. Here is a sampling:
p. 99 "No serious biologist today doubts the theory of evolution..." p. 174 "for anyone familiar with the scientific evidence..." This is the "poisoning the well" fallacy, where people who disagree with him are mocked as amateurs or ignorant.
p.199 "Theistic evolution is the dominant position of serious biologists who are also serious believers." Poisoning the well, and Ad Populum. There was a time when 'the earth is flat" was the dominant position of serious people. Did that make it true?
p. 99 "... it is difficult to imagine how one would study life without it (evolution)." Arguing from lack of evidence. I can't imagine it, therefore it cannot exist.
p. 146 "evolution is so overwhelmingly supported by scientific evidence". Tautology, due to the ground rules of science. Science allows only natural causes for observed effects, which rules out supernatural causes, therefore in science the only possible cause of life is evolution.
p. 96 "while there are many imperfections in the fossil record, and many puzzles remain to be solved, virtually all the findings are consistent with the concept of a tree of life of related organisms" (evolution). Aside from the data that disagrees with my view, all the data agrees with my view. The ancient astronomers observed that planets occasionally seemed to reverse direction, which they viewed as an imperfection in their orbits. Scientists later discovered that the imperfections were not in the orbits of the planets, or their data - it was in their wrong framework (geocentric) for interpreting the data. Could evolution be the wrong framework for interpreting the fossil record?
I would not note the logical fallacies, except they are essential to Collins' arguments, and therefore essential to his conclusions.
Thought provoking.......2007-09-28
For years I have struggled with the divisions caused by Creationist, Evolutionists, and Intelligent Design advocates among Christians. This book unabashedly developes a clear defense of Evolutionary theory while at the same time articulating a strong apologetic of Christianity. It is refreshing to see a brilliant scientist invite others into belief based not on a literal view of the Creation narrative but a glimpse into the grandeur of God as seen in Evolutionary theory.
Evolution from a Religious Scientist's Perspective.......2007-09-28
Francis Collins argues in this book that the conflict between evolution and religion is largely artificial and that it causes unnecessary damage to both science and faith. Collins speaks from the perspective of a highly-respected scientist and a self-described evangelical who is concerned with both the integrity of science and the integrity of religion. He refutes Creationism and Intelligent Design on both scientific and theological grounds. I found this book to be similar to Michael Shermer's Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design with the important distinction that Collins is a man of faith whereas Shermer is not (though both books are polite and seem geared towards a similar audience). Given Collins' religious credentials, this book might have greater potential than Shermer's book for positively influencing its intended audience.
Collins addresses some common anti-evolution fallacies in this book such as the perceived violation of the second law of thermodynamics and the habitual misunderstanding of the term "scientific theory." I thought that the points Collins raised regarding the psychological bias generated by the terms "creationism" and "intelligent design" were spot on. If one believes that God set evolution in motion to create life then evolution logically becomes the theory of an intelligently-designed creation, regardless of the clever naming practices of various anti-evolution hypotheses.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a believer, yet I was raised both as a Christian and as a Creationist; the damage that many religious are doing to their children and to the future of their faith by forcing people to make an artificial choice between God and science can hardly be overstated. As Collins points out, "Faced with incomplete understanding about the natural world, believers should be cautious about invoking the divine in areas of current mystery, lest they build an unnecessary theological argument that is doomed to later destruction." In fairness, some secularists also share in the blame for the equating of evolution with atheism when the two are evidently not mutually inclusive simply based on a cursory glance at religious polls taken of the scientific community.
The theology presented in this book is very similar to that found in C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity (in fact, Collins quotes Lewis heavily); therefore, I imagine that any fan of C.S. Lewis' theological writings should also be right at home with Collins' theological viewpoint. I think that The Language of God is mainly geared towards the religious but I would also recommend it to secularists as an example of how religion and modern science can coexist in relative harmony (ignoring the potential conflict between sociobiology and the notion of a divine Moral Law). I found the bioethical discussion concerning stem cell research, cloning, etc., in the appendix to be rather interesting as well.
I liked this book because I thought it provided a fair discussion on evolution in what I am cautiously optimistic is an accessible manner for many people of faith. Dawkins is one of my favorite popular science authors but I am under no illusion regarding the reception his books would receive, for example, from my religious family (i.e., a highly negative and divisive one). The actual science in The Language of God is rather light such that people who are interested in learning about evolution should likely look to authors such as Stephen Jay Gould or Ernst Mayr for more detail. Dawkins is another excellent writer for those who are not religious or who will not mind the occasional religious sucker-punch. I think that The Language of God is a good attempt at harmonizing modern science and religion and I would recommend it to all who are interested in this occasionally divisive discussion.
Book Description
Throughout history, arguments for and against the existence of God have been largely confined to philosophy and theology. In the meantime, science has sat on the sidelines and quietly watched this game of words march up and down the field. Despite the fact that science has revolutionized every aspect of human life and greatly clarified our understanding of the world, somehow the notion has arisen that it has nothing to say about the possibility of a supreme being, which much of humanity worships as the source of all reality. Physicist Victor J. Stenger contends that, if God exists, some evidence for this existence should be detectable by scientific means, especially considering the central role that God is alleged to play in the operation of the universe and the lives of humans. Treating the traditional God concept, as conventionally presented in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, like any other scientific hypothesis, Stenger examines all of the claims made for God's existence. He considers the latest Intelligent Design arguments as evidence of God's influence in biology. He looks at human behavior for evidence of immaterial souls and the possible effects of prayer. He discusses the findings of physics and astronomy in weighing the suggestions that the universe is the work of a creator and that humans are God's special creation. After evaluating all the scientific evidence, Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God.
Customer Reviews:
How do you prove the unprovable?.......2007-10-10
Stenger has bitten off a large argument here, and done a fairly admirable job at tackling certain aspects of it, but his larger premise is faulty based on his belief that humans, at present, have the ability to disprove the existence of a supreme being. While I agree with some of his goals, he takes it one step too far. Rational scientific evidence suggests that a god does not exist, and never has. This, however, is far from conclusive. Strong atheism requires almost as much faith as fundamentalism.
Perhaps the day will come when human knowledge will be such that we can provide a scientific proof against the existence of a god, but that day has not yet arrived. Stenger can disprove the "proofs" of the faithful quite convincingly, but that is all. The larger question remains unanswered, and will for some time; perhaps for all time.
Conversely, Stenger IS convincing in his assertions against religious visitations, miracles, and the answering of prayers. These are mythical stories perpetuated by those who want to believe. In all cases of so-called miracles there is a logical scientific alternate explanation. Remember Occam's Razor: the simplest solution should be the right one. Are we to believe a scientific explanation, or call it divine? Science is simpler and makes much more sense. Same goes for prayers allegedly being answered.
As for the historical evidence of the resurrection, I'm afraid the tales in ancient books of mythology do little to sway me. Many have faith that it, along with other biblical claims, did indeed happen. Faith does not equal proof.
Perhaps a god does exist, and perhaps he/she/it did create the universe. The limits of human knowledge at present are such that this can neither be proven nor disproved. However, the burden of proof is on the faithful. If I claim that the Loch Ness Monster exists, I need to provide some proof. It is not the job of unbelievers to disprove my assertion. While I find Stenger's arguments interesting, we as a species do not yet have the ability to irrefutably claim that god does not, or never has existed. Just as the faithful cannot prove that a god does exist. Perhaps we should stop trying and just agree to disagree.
Whether a god exists or not, there is substantial evidence that such a god does not intervene in worldly affairs. The stories of divine intervention on Earth have a more rational, scientific explanation. For example, Dr. Michael Persinger offers a reasonable explanation for why people can feel as though they have communed with a divine spirit. Did the Virgin Mary really appear in a grilled cheese sandwich, or is there a more rational explanation? Did Moses really see a god in a burning bush, or did he perhaps make it up? He may even have been schizophrenic. Again, Occam's Razor.
My basic point is that we can't prove that a supreme being does not exist. The evidence against it leads me to believe that a god does not exist, but this is far from conclusive. However, there is ample convincing evidence against such a god being involved in the daily happenings of its creation.
Let's say, for sake of argument, that there was a god that created the universe. What has he been up to since then? Scientific evidence indicates that he/she/it has left the universe to its own devices. Is he collecting unemployment insurance? Did he tire himself out and decide to sleep away the eons? Is he like an innocent bystander who just doesn't want to get involved? Did he figure he was finished his work and willed himself out of existence? Did he die? We can't know.
IF a god created the universe, then I guess he deserves our thanks. So, just in case, "Thanks, dude." That is all you will get from me. Daily or weekly groveling and prayer accomplishes nothing tangible, from my perspective. For the faithful, it can act as a shield against the some of the universe's harsh realities. It can also compel less thoughtful individuals to live more ethically.
As for me, I believe and accept that this is the only life I have, so I should live it fully. I can live a moral life without divine guidance. Unlike militant atheists, I can also respect the beliefs of those who disagree with me. If faith provides you with comfort and/or guidance, who am I to try and convince you otherwise? Unless you are a Scientologist, in which case I might want to call you a wack-job.
I am uncertain that strong atheism does anything to further the cause of rational scientific thought. It merely polarizes viewpoints, resulting in, as an example, a mixture of five-star and one-star reviews.
Many strong atheists see the faithful as deluded and irrational, while fundamentalists see atheists in a similar light. One interesting difference between the two groups is who holds the political power in the United States. The first President Bush once made a claim that atheists should not be considered citizens and not have the right to vote; how very enlightened from a man who once had control of a nuclear arsenal.
The atheist/agnostic movement has much to overcome to be accepted by society at large. I am not convinced that this book will help the cause.
Pseudoscience and bad history.......2007-10-07
Firstly, I would just like to point out that Professor Stenger has no historical credentials whatsoever. He is a physicist and an astronomer, not a historian! It is quite apparent that the little historical research he did, if any, is extremely skewed and faulty.
Secondly, I would like to mention how science cannot disprove any event in history, such as the resurrection of Christ. It is pseudoscientific to the extreme if any scientist attempts to do so! What happened in history happened, regardless of where science takes us.
I will now reveal the most important historical fallacies Stenger made in this book. The first historical error in this book is the claim that no extra-biblical records corroborating the darkness and earthquake during the crucifixion of Jesus exist. That is simply incorrect! There were two ancient Greek historians, who were extremely critical to the early church, who acknowledge this event in their writings. Thallus writes that this darkness was the result of an eclipse, even though he tries to explain the reason he is indeed aware of this event in history. Another Greek historian, Phlegon, also describes the darkness and the earthquake as well. He includes in his writing that the earthquake destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and killed thousands of cattle. He also includes the fact that the entire Mediterranean area was affected by the darkness.
Another major fallacy in Professor Stenger's book is his reliance on the King James Version of the Bible. I would just like to point to the fact that the KJV Bible has been shown to contain several fatal misinterpretations of the original manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments. This is due to the fact that when the KJV was written, the writers had a scarce amount of the original manuscripts. Today, we have a vast amount of the original manuscripts, thanks to archaeology. The KJV Bible should no longer be used as a source of information!
Dr. Stenger's third error, more of a speculation, in his book is the claim that some of the prophecies from the Old Testament were not fulfilled in the life of Jesus. Now, the ancient Jews thought that the fulfillment of prophecies in the time of the messiah would depend upon Israel's moral state. When Jesus of Nazareth came, he fulfilled about half of the prophecies from the Hebrew Bible. The rest of the New Testament shows that the second half of the prophecies will be fulfilled at the end of time, when Christ comes again. It is a matter of time which describes how the prophecies were, and will be, fulfilled, not Israel's moral state or a "failure" of certain prophecies!
List of Scientific proof of NO God usefull.......2007-10-06
I find the lists of Scientific proof that there is NO God are very usefull when countering the pig-ignorant primitive superstition of christians.
The Right Approach, the Wrong Conclusions.......2007-09-19
Victor Stenger tries to demonstrate that, far from confirming theism as some (myself included) have claimed, science actually demonstrates positively that God does not exist. Although considered by many commentators to be part of the `new atheist movement,' along with books from atheists Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, Stenger's book is much better than those by Dawkins and Harris because he actually attempts to deal with the evidence for and against God's existence rather than complain about the supposed social problems that religion creates. Stenger is straight to the point, for which he should be commended.
In the book, Stenger tries very hard to limit his discussion to issues of science, trying to leave out considerations of philosophy. However, while I understand his desire to approach the topic of God's existence from a unique angle, I think that this decoupling of science from philosophy raises several problems.
For example, in chapter 3, Stenger discusses scientific evidence from the field of neuroscience. He contends that evidence linking conscious states with brain states demonstrates that there is no soul, or, as he puts it, `world beyond matter.' Such a demonstration might be convincing if we are restricted to analyzing science alone. However, as many scientists have recognized, finding a link between brain states and conscious states is not the end of the game. Steven Pinker, a prominent psychologist, distinguishes between the `easy' and `hard' problem of consciousness. The easy problem is trying to identify the link between certain brain states and certain conscious experiences. As Stenger points out, science has made tremendous headway on this problem, and progress will likely continue. But, the hard problem will not go away, because the hard problem of consciousness deals figuring out why there is a first-person, subjective experience of consciousness. This hard problem of consciousness will not go away no matter how much science works on the easy problem. So, in my view, the evidence Stenger raises does little or nothing to challenge the idea that there is a soul. The existence of a soul is necessary to solve the hard problem of consciousness. Thus, in this case, Stenger's reliance on only science has led him, I think, to conclusions that are false and irrelevant.
Stenger runs into the same problem when he discusses morality. He attempts to use science to show that moral ideas come from our evolutionary history, and that religious believers are no better behaved then nonbelieving counterparts anyways. But these questions do not address the philosophical question "are moral values objective, and if so, then where do they come from?" Stenger can argue till he is blue in the face about the gradual development of moral instincts through evolution, but this is simply not relevant to the moral argument for God's existence.
Stenger's lack of philosophical reflection also allow him to reach absurd conclusions while trying to undermine theistic arguments. One particularly potent example in found on page 133, where he tries to answer the question, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" He says,
"...Many simple systems of particles are unstable, that is, have limited lifetimes as they undergo spontaneous phase transitions to more complex structures of lower energy. Since `nothing' is as simple as it gets, we cannot expect it to be very stable. It would likely undergo a spontaneous phase transition to something more complicated, like a universe containing matter."
This view, however, is clearly metaphysically absurd. True nothingness cannot have any properties whatsoever, including the property of instability.
Other than a lack of sound philosophical thinking, the main problem with Stenger's book is the lack of depth. Each chapter is very short and Stenger simply tries to cover too much material in the space he allots. Many of his arguments are left with no support except for a footnote directing the reader to another one of his books.
Unfortunately, it is this lack of depth that ultimately diminishes the value of the book greatly. Although Stenger, unlike some of his atheist comrades, does at least look at the evidence for and against the existence of God, the treatment of the different subjects is too shallow. Moreover, by overlooking a consideration of philosophy, Stenger makes several errors in thinking and overlooks some powerful evidences for God's existence.
Long Live Stenger.......2007-09-16
This is not a Science book. One has to admire Stenger's courage to take on a "supreme being (the one "beyond matter, space, and time") that much of humanity worships. "Learning an enormous amount from this splendid book" (Richard Dawkins) will not be easy for the average reader, who selects this report (by a former physicist and astronomer) of a trial subjecting the God hypothesis to scientific study. The reader has the benefit of learning how scientific methods (as presently understood) are utilized to arrive at the conclusion that God does not exist.
Stenger's excellent and plentiful NOTES and extensive BIBLIGRAPHY are a signal that it takes a so-called scientific inclination (attitude or mind) to master and ultimately enjoy this book.In a 2003 book Stenger found claims of scientific evidence FOR God to be "inadequate". The present book now promises (and mostly succeeds) how "Science shows that God does not exist". Readers, not already having "committed themselves to God as an act of Faith" or "still practicing their religion out of respect for their heritage", who learn to handle the first two Chapters ("Models and Methods" and "The illusion of Design") will with less difficulty follow the evidence as presented by Stenger in nine wonderfully titled Chapters (each with an epigraph - several by David Hume - quite wisely selected). I certainly welcomed Stenger's claim that "if scientific arguments for the existence of God are to be allowed into intellectual discourse, then those against his evidence also have a legitimate place". He ends his book with a refreshing Chapter on "Living in the Godless Universe". Stenger is there to help whenever we are confronted by the never-ending religious onslaught as enjoyed and practiced by many militant believers.
Never forgetting - throughout the book - that the hypothesis to be tested is the existence of God, the reader will find this "journey" to be enjoyable (Stenger's style of writing helps a lot) and probably convincing.
Book Description
Hear the words of the Bible brought to life like never before. Inspired By… The Bible Experience: New Testament Audio CD is a fully-dramatized reading of the Bible performed by an unprecedented ensemble of distinguished African-American actors, musicians, and personalities. The cast, including recognizable voices as Denzel Washington, Blair Underwood and Angela Bassett, reads the Bible using the accessible and trusted Today’s New International Version (TNIV).
Customer Reviews:
This CD package Brings the Bible to Life.......2007-09-06
This CD set delivers the New Testament in a way that spoke to me. It is more than a Bible reading but a story that comes to life with the reading of each chapter. Listening to the voice inflection, tone and tempo married with the background sound effects provides a backdrop for you to visualize the time, location and circumstances that this biblical story takes place. Enjoy the word and discover new insight through the experience of this CD set. It is well worth the money and I can not wait to hear the Old Testament too. [...]
Awesome!!!.......2007-08-30
This set is absolutely wonderful! It causes you to see the bible in a whole new light. It really takes the bible and gives it life. I highly recommend this set!
Awesome.......2007-08-16
This audio NT bible is great to listen to. The bible is brought to life through the wonderful acting everyone does. It was special because each person played their role throughout the entire NT. Worth every penny!
EXCELLENT.......2007-07-20
Who says you have to READ the Bible? This auditory rendition is so amazing- putting emphasis where it should be, pulling passages together- you feel like you are THERE! The different voices and background sounds just bring everything to life while you listen to a verbatum "acted out" reading of the NIV NT.
I downloaded it onto my ipod and listen to it while I work and I carry the cd's in the car. This is so amazing, I recommend it to EVERYONE- just as everyone should have a Bible, everyone should have this as well! I cannot say enough. I have gone through the entire NT a few times now and the Word just becomes more and more real to me and I KNOW more and more of it now... Purchase several and give them away- you will not be sorry!
Outstanding.......2007-07-09
These CDs are perfect for long drives or commuting. Easy to follow along, very imformative. The speakers have exceptional auditory skills. Reminds me of the many times my sisters and I sat quietly at my father's feet while he told us stories of the bible. Great family night event...excellent conversation piece.
Average customer rating:
- A Guru for the 21st Century
- Something that will keep us pondering for a long time
- Harris dares to imagine no religion
- About the same as fellow atheists Dawkins and Hitchens but a tad more reasonable
- The End of Bad Arguments? Unfortunately Not
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The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
Sam Harris
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
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ASIN: 0393327655 |
Amazon.com
Sam Harris cranks out blunt, hard-hitting chapters to make his case for why faith itself is the most dangerous element of modern life. And if the devil's in the details, then you'll find Satan waiting at the back of the book in the very substantial notes section where Harris saves his more esoteric discussions to avoid sidetracking the urgency of his message.
Interestingly, Harris is not just focused on debunking religious faith, though he makes his compelling arguments with verve and intellectual clarity. The End of Faith is also a bit of a philosophical Swiss Army knife. Once he has presented his arguments on why, in an age of Weapons of Mass Destruction, belief is now a hazard of great proportions, he focuses on proposing alternate approaches to the mysteries of life. Harris recognizes the truth of the human condition, that we fear death, and we often crave "something more" we cannot easily define, and which is not met by accumulating more material possessions. But by attempting to provide the cure for the ills it defines, the book bites off a bit more than it can comfortably chew in its modest page count (however the rich Bibliography provides more than enough background for an intrigued reader to follow up for months on any particular strand of the author' musings.)
Harris' heart is not as much in the latter chapters, though, but in presenting his main premise. Simply stated, any belief system that speaks with assurance about the hereafter has the potential to place far less value on the here and now. And thus the corollary -- when death is simply a door translating us from one existence to another, it loses its sting and finality. Harris pointedly asks us to consider that those who do not fear death for themselves, and who also revere ancient scriptures instructing them to mete it out generously to others, may soon have these weapons in their own hands. If thoughts along the same line haunt you, this is your book.--Ed Dobeas
Book Description
An impassioned plea for reason in a world divided by faith.
This important and timely book delivers a startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today's world. Harris offers a vivid historical tour of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify harmful behavior and sometimes-heinous crimes. He asserts that in the shadow of weapons of mass destruction, we can no longer tolerate views that pit one true god against another. Most controversially, he argues that we cannot afford moderate lip service to religion—an accommodation that only blinds us to the real perils of fundamentalism. While warning against the encroachment of organized religion into world politics, Harris also draws on new evidence from neuroscience and insights from philosophy to explore spirituality as a biological, brain-based need. He calls on us to invoke that need in taking a secular humanistic approach to solving the problems of this world.
Natalie Angier wrote in the New York Times: "The End of Faith articulates the dangers and absurdities of organized religion so fiercely and so fearlessly that I felt relieved as I read it, vindicated….Harris writes what a sizable number of us think, but few are willing to say."
Customer Reviews:
A Guru for the 21st Century.......2007-10-08
Morally speaking, are Bronze-Age myths as good as it gets?
Sam Harris doesn't think so and he argues brilliantly for a
new religious paradigm to shepherd us through the 21st Century.
Like a Spanish Inquisitor Harris ruthlessly examines the shaky philosophical justification for Abrahamic theism and finds it wanting.
But Harris doesn't just convince us that there really is no Santa Claus, he offers us a new way forward. He proves conclusively that science and reason do not necessarily have to be divorced from spiritual inquiry and revelation.
Some of his detractors have said that Harris is angry at God, but
that of course assumes a fact not in evidence (the existence of God).
After hearing him speak at Aspen Colorado,
'angry' is not quite the adjective that comes to mind.
http://svayam8.blogspot.com/2007/07/sam-harris-at-aspen-ideas-festival.html
As hard as it may be for theists to accept, many disbelievers really are being intellectually honest.
Sam Harris is one of those. He isn't angry, he's just right.
Thank you Sam for being a beacon of reason in a dangerously
darkened world.
Letter to a Christian Nation
Something that will keep us pondering for a long time.......2007-10-07
Well, this book is one of those that you come across with an argument so solid that you cannot stop pondering about its ideas. Mr. Harris has laid down a set of ideas that for a long time will haunt us, and the generations to come. Mr. Harris exposition of his thesis is simply monumental. His lurid writing style and his exquisite manners have brought forth a fundamental issue.
Mr. Harris as in the moving The Kingdom have presented us a sordid reality. Either we continue with religions and destroy humanity or we dispose of religion and avoid genocide. Muslims wants us dead and we do not want Islamic doctrines in our life. Further, more 9-11 have presented us with the issue of Abrahamic Religions and their stupidity. Because of them we lost 500 years, The Dark Ages and because of them we are losing our freedom and technological progress.
Some rabble-rouser long ago hid truth from us. [...] God created man. [...] men create God. That is the way it is in the world - men make gods and worship their creation. It would be fitting for the gods to worship men! Gospel of Philip 71:34; 72:1-4 Nag Hammadi Texts
Fanaticism and Fundamentalism of the religious realm have ruin freedom and life itself! Both should be eliminated and replaced by logical processes, which will warrant freedom, progress, technological development, world peace and happiness to every single human being. Religious moral varies from religion to religion. Logical morality does not need to vary! 1+1=2 in USA and in China too! Morals should be in the same manner.
Mr. Harris has begun a movement that will be here long after he parts. It is a movement of personal right to live a life as one please and not as a few wants you to live. It is also a movement toward World Peace!
I do recommend this book to everyone!
Harris dares to imagine no religion.......2007-09-26
This book is so much fun to read I read it twice. Harris writes with passion, erudition, and razor-sharp wit. His book has forced so-called religious moderates to begin taking responsibility for the zealots they unintentionally shelter, and he has demonstrated that a world with powerfully destructive technologies, such as ours, can no longer afford the luxury of basing policy on tribal superstitions and on supernatural claims that cannot possibly be substantiated with evidence. Highly recommended.
About the same as fellow atheists Dawkins and Hitchens but a tad more reasonable.......2007-09-22
Sam Harris like Hitchens and Dawkins is a master at setting up religious straw-men and then knocking them down. It is more fun and sells more books than taking on the real thing. Then it becomes balanced and boring. The author looks at the great evils in the world, the cause of which many others have attributed to nationalism, capitalism, lack of "lebensraum" etc. and claims that religion was the real cause. "Knowingly or not Nazis were agents of religion."... "Stalin and Mao killed millions because "communism was little more than a political religion." Why are the millions killed by Paul Pot not mentioned was he not trying to please God like Stalin, Mao and Hitler? Looking at Webster's definition of religion it is clear that these three ruthless dictators were not great religious leaders.
The author is using words incorrectly to make false accusations. A "political religion" is not religion if it does not profess a belief in an after life and God. But the author ignores that fact, because he is out to pin as many bad things on the word "religion" as possible..
Unlike Hitchens Sam Harris is an atheist who does see bigger differences among religions. He thinks Islam, for example, is especially bad ("cult of death").
I did not know that Noam Chomsky was any kind of religious thinker but the author takes a swipe at Noam by stating that Chomsky's view of moral equivalence is a big mistake." It is not clear how that fits in with his attacks on religion, but he gets the third star for that anyway.
The End of Bad Arguments? Unfortunately Not.......2007-09-19
Sam Harris's "The End of Faith" is an assault upon religion, blind faith, and fundamentalist violence. However, clear thinking Christians have little to fear from Harris's social critique.
The majority of the book is an exposition of the evils, real or imagined, produced by religion. Harris discusses current atrocities, including September 11 and suicide bombings in Israel, as well as past atrocities, including the Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials. This leads to the natural question- if Harris (an atheist) is so critical of religious horrors, how can he explain the atheistic regimes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, which collectively were responsible for millions of deaths? Harris claims that, while they may not have been explicitly religious, these evil regimes were the result of poor thinking. He states in his afterword-
"While some of the most despicable political movements in human history have been explicitly irreligious, they were not especially rational. The public pronouncements of these regimes have been mere litanies of delusion- about race, economics, national identity, the march of history, or the moral dangers of intellectualism." [231]
Thus, we see that The End of Faith does not really support atheism or oppose religion, it simply supports reason and opposes blind faith. Otherwise, his critique of religion is completely arbitrary, as he admits in this quoted passage that the real enemy is not simply religious faith, but irrationality itself. Thus, Harris needs to demonstrate that Christianity inherently necessitates irrational faith if he wishes to demonstrate that it should be rejected. Throughout the book, Harris merely assumes that so-called "fundamentalist" Christians can only exist through blind faith, but his assumption is both unproven and incorrect. Despite railing on about the supposed irrationality of religion, Harris never once deals with any of the arguments offered by Christians either historically or in the present day. There is no critique of the Cosmological Argument, no consideration of the evidence for the empty tomb, no critique of biblical passages or doctrines. Harris simply assumes that Christianity requires blind faith, argues that blind faith is both stupid and dangerous, and declares victory. The problem is that he has never shown that Christianity requires blind faith.
The other problem with Harris's approach is a common one- he assumes that the misdeeds of religious followers invalidates the religion itself.
Thus, the majority of Harris's book is simply not relevant for intelligent Christians. Surprisingly, however, there is some value in The End of Faith. For example, he discusses morality and makes a good case for charitable giving, and discusses politics and law, and makes a good case for the legalization of (some) drugs as a matter of public policy. However, as a critique of religion in general, and Christianity in particular, "The End of Faith" fails quite miserably.
Average customer rating:
- Dramatic reading is enthralling, keeps me focused
- Splendid!
- A Great way to "Read" the Bible by hearing it!
- A vibrant, energizing delivery...
- Superb
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The Listener's Bible NIV
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The Listener's NIV MP3 Audio Bible by Max McLean
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The Listener's Bible - ESV (4 MP3 CDs)
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The Essential Bible Companion: Key Insights for Reading God's Word
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The Valley of Vision
ASIN: 1931047170 |
Book Description
All 66 books of the Bible, read dramatically and powerfully by Max McLean, celebrated stage presenter of the Bible. This 66-CD set comes with a leatherette carrying case which is perfect for your travels near and far. The recordings are all digitally mastered and come with a lifetime replacement guarantee. Bestselling author Chuck Swindoll says that these recordings of the Bible are, quite simply, "the best."
Customer Reviews:
Dramatic reading is enthralling, keeps me focused.......2007-07-19
Max McLean reads the Bible like it really means something to him, as if he has almost memorized it. (And, in fact, the man stands up in front of audience all over the country and quotes, word for word, from whole chapters of the Bible. I have watched in amazement as he has recited from Mark and Acts, and he is completely on with his recitation! Both times I was in the audience he received standing ovations.) I use the CD set with my daily Bible reading every day and feel it helps keep me on track with those passages that can sometimes feel long and boring. But Max reads Leviticus 18 as he does John 3, as he never lets up and treats every verse as if one's salvation rested on it. He even gets into the hard-to-pronounce names, and while I'm not always sure if his pronounciation is correct, it sure sounds correct. There are some instances where Max misses a word or adds in one of his own--perhaps somebody should have really been listening along with him in the studio and then edited these small errors--but they really are far and few between, and they never change the meaning of the passage. In fact, I could never come close to his incredible accuracy. Overall, this is a big thumbs up for what ought to be considered a spiritual investment.
Splendid!.......2007-05-06
Max McLean's audio bible is a masterpiece. McLean's delivery is lucid, powerful, and skillfully engaging. I listen to this Bible daily. Mclean gives you "the story" or the panoramic view of the scripture. The NIV translation lends itself more to a fluid listening of the scripture. McLean certainly communicates with conviction the inherent authority of God's word. He brings the scripture to life, putting you into the time period in which it was written. Purchased this product along with Scourby's KJV through Amazon and it is a timeless investment.
A Great way to "Read" the Bible by hearing it!.......2007-03-13
I have truly been blessed by this item. It has allowed me to listen to the Bible when I don't have the time to actually sit down and read it. I highly recommend this item to anyone wanting to get to really know God and the word of the Lord. Max McLean is and English trained actor and unless you like hearing an Englishman talk you may not like it, but of course, that is why he was called into service for the Lord.
A vibrant, energizing delivery..........2007-03-10
Max McLean has the most beautiful, soothing voice I have heard on any audio recording. His delivery of the Bible texts is superb. I purchased both McLean's "The Listener's Bible" and "The Valley of Vision" recordings for my husband as a Christmas gift, and he has enjoyed immensely his daily commute of two hours ever since.
One reviewer mentioned attempting to read along as Mr. McLean delivered the beautiful biblical verses and having difficulty with the theatricality of Mr. McLean's voice. I disagree that his voice is theatrical; I do find it dramatic and moving and precisely how I would expect to hear the Word of the Lord - dramatic enough to know who is speaking but lovingly delivered.
As a teacher, I would suggest a method which might help persons reading the Bible and having difficulty with older, non-modern versions of any text. As with other fine literature, the modern, untrained reader must develop a knack for reading and understanding older literature and other texts correctly over time. One way is by hearing it again and again before attempting to decipher it in print.
In other words, listen to develop a familiarity with how the text would have been spoken, the inflections of voice, and the emphasis on certain words in order to "translate" concepts into modern terms. Then when one sits down to read the written word, it becomes much more clear and revealing. (Try this with Homer or Shakespeare as well.)
The best way I have found to fully appreciate Max McLean's narrative talent and the soul-soothing balm of the Bible is to close the drapes, lie back, exclude as many outside sounds as possible and devote an hour or more solely to LISTENING. Allow McLean's lovely voice to read to you. Just ENJOY it!
Then, if you can force yourself to stop the CD ("only ONE more chapter..."), go about your work or play. Later on or the next day, open your Bible and read what he read to you. It is amazing how more vivid the text will have become to you. I think this method will help much more than trying to read along. Sometimes our limited knowledge of words and their older meanings, our lack of proper inflection, and our unfamiliarity with the subject, history, or traditions and customs causes us to stumble over words and passages and to totally miss the concepts we might understand if we were not attempting to keep up with a reader. This is akin to "listening" to what another person is saying while, at the same time, thinking of some rebuttal or formulating a counter-speech in our heads. Listening is a wonderful skill.
My husband came home last night in a joyful mood, because in spite of his hectic day at work, rude drivers and heavy traffic on the highway, he had listened all the way home to the lovely, encouraging voice of God lovingly narrated by Max McLean.
If you purchase this item (and I also suggest "The Valley of Vision" -both the book and McLean's reading of it), you will most certainly benefit. Your listening skills will improve (might help at home and work, too), your appreciation for the Word of God also will be markedly changed, and the next time you read to someone, maybe McLean's dramatic and enthusiastic influence will spill over to your own reading.
Superb.......2007-01-11
Max is a master at what he does. Narrate. I play these all night and in the car. A perfect gift for everyone including self.
Book Description
This ambitious, interdisciplinary book seeks to explain the origins of religion using our knowledge of the evolution of cognition. A cognitive anthropologist and psychologist, Scott Atran argues that religion is a by-product of human evolution just as the cognitive intervention, cultural selection, and historical survival of religion is an accommodation of certain existential and moral elements that have evolved in the human condition.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent first step.......2007-07-26
This book is no beach read. It is dense, technical, and written in a rather stiff prose style. It is, however, absolutely the best book available on the evolutionary origin of religion.
Briefly, Atran defines religion as a community's costly and hard-to-fake commitments to nonexistent beings, commitments which help to assuage existential anxieties involving death, suffering, loneliness, and so on.
Atran uses an incredibly wide array of primary sources in biology, psychology, and religious studies to make his points, and the book brims with insights, both large and small, about how human minds manufacture religion. For example, psychologists and ethnologists have commonly argued that magic in many tribal cultures represents a primitive form of thought which children also have. Atran points out that children in such societies actually believe LESS in magical explanations than their elders. His discussion of divination is also quite insightful.
On the downside, this book is pitched at a rather general, ahistorical level. There is little discussion, for example, of the differences between tribal religions and religions which have had much longer written histories, such as Zen Buddhism and American Protestantism. This is perhaps unavoidable in a book on such a large topic, particularly when this book applies a relatively new sort of explanation to this topic.
Also nice would have been more on how prayer, meditation, and other techniques are used in religion, or about how and why different religions (e.g., Sufi mysticism, Church of Christ Protestantism, and shamanism) differ in the way that they do, but again, this may be expecting too much from a book that weighs less than I do.
On the whole, a superb first step on the road to explaining what human religiosity owes to our evolutionary ancestry, and a wonderful antidote to anti-religious screeds which ignore the universality and complexity of religion itself.
Defectors and norms?.......2007-04-11
Negative reviews are not popular in this venue, so I'll keep this short and sour.
I refer you to ch. 8, "Culture without mind."
I ask you to reconcile the sense of the following claims:
"There is no compelling psychological evidence for norms as packages of learned information, stored as discrete units, clustered into higher order knowledge structures, encoded as specific memory traces in neural tissue, or expressed in clearly recognized and denumerable bundels of behavior."p. 199.
"Perceived reciprocal altruism may result in a culturally stable strategy as long as defectors can be defected and excluded." p. 201
How does one define or recognize a "defector" without a clear notion of norms and their violation? But, it will be argued, the point is that the evidence used by those who identify "norms" as units of selection does not include the detail necessary to verify or falsity the the role of such norms. But the semantic nature of my objection simplify shifts focus to "defection": How can evidence insufficient to verify or falsify the role of norms do more to verify or falsify "defector detection"?
The argument of ch 8 also suggests that 'mind' is equivalent to 'computational architecture'. But current notions of computational architecture are totally inadequate to account for individual differences among any of the world's cultures. That the human mind has a "module" for organizing taxonomies of living things, suggests only that taxonomies always and everywhere are based on essences which do not change over a lifetime and which can be arranged as elements in a hierarchy of nested sets. This is true the world around. But so called modularity of mind does not enable us to distinguish the folk taxonomies of the Amazon basin from those of lowland Guatemala.
If we can't tell folk taxonomies apart, aren't we just being asked to put all the world's religions into one box labeled "minimally counter-intuitive" by-products of natural selection?
Why should that rate five stars?
Very sad.......2007-03-09
It is sad that so many in the world are saddled with the consequences of belief in gods; one hopes that this book will enlighten! It is fairly hard work but worth it.
Thoughtful analysis of the origin of religious beliefs.......2007-03-08
There have been a slew of recent books by scientists on religion which fall basically into two camps. The first, exemplified by Sam Harris' "The End of Faith," are essentially attacks on the logical plausibility of the major religious belief systems. For those who have already realized that these sorts of beliefs are absurd, such works are entertaining but are a bit like preaching to the choir, if you'll excuse the metaphor. The second camp, exemplified by Pascal Boyer's "Religion Explained," are attempts at explaining WHY people believe in such absurdities, from the perspectives of cognitive neuropsychology and anthropology. Atran's book is in the latter camp, and in fact overlaps to some extent with Boyer's book, published at about the same time, although each author has unique insights. I especially liked Atran's analysis of the origin of beliefs in the supernatural as stemming from a cognitive module predisposed to interpret environmental stimuli as coming from a potential predator, and I also found his analysis of "meme theory" to be enlightening (he strongly discounts it). Atran's book is the harder to read of the two and is largely missing the dry sense of humor in Boyer's book, which is why I docked it one star. I also disagree with the pessimism in Atran's last chapter about why religions are likely to endure indefinitely; I believe the secular trends present especially since Darwin must ultimately prevail. But his book is certainly a valuable contribution to the discussion of the origins of religious thought and behavior, which is of paramount importance in understanding today's world of religious fanaticism.
Simply the best book on a charged and intricate topic.......2007-02-01
The topic of Atran's book has recently received a lot of attention, primarily because of the publication of Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell" and Richard Dawkins' bestselling "The God Delusion".
I have just finished teaching a graduate course on evolutionary perspectives on religion, and have fewer doubts than ever that Atran has written by far the best book on the topic. In terms of explanatory structure his theory is more detailed and precise than any of the competitors.
While Atran says openly that he is an atheist, he tries to keep his discussion neutral, and his book is devoid of the polemical tone of Dawkins and Dennett. Yet, paradoxically, his approach has interesting implications for dealing with religious fundamentalism on a political level.
Even though "In Gods we Trust" is an unabashedly scientific book, it is well written and accessible to informed lay-people. I also recommend viewing the interchanges of Atran and Sam Harris ("The End of Faith")during the recent "Beyond Belief" conference either on youtube or (written) on the "Edge" website.
Book Description
Seven Spiritual Masterworks by C. S. Lewis
This classic collection includes C. S. Lewis's most important spiritual works:
Mere Christianity
The Screwtape Letters
The Great Divorce
The Problem of Pain
Miracles
A Grief Observed
The Abolition of Man
Customer Reviews:
C.S. Lewis is a genius!.......2007-10-05
GREAT book! Arrived quick and in perfect condition. Some of my favorite works by this author.
Brilliant.......2007-10-01
Those that read his several works contained in this book will appreciate his straightword and understandable writing. Yet, still readers will be amazed at his deftness in describing heaven's honesty and glorifying light, and his illumination of hell's lies and destructive darkness. The book is awesome.
The Answer Is Found........2007-09-22
If you have any questions to the way life is a certain way, or just want to expand your mind and let new things in, this is the book. Lewis shows in one occasion that truth has the same meaning no matter what time and age you live in. In MERE CHRISTIANITY (my favorite), he uses what he calls the "natural law" and not once uses the bible to show why certain things can only come from a creator. EXCELLENT BOOK!!!
A must for EVERY Chritian or those considering Christianity.......2007-09-10
Christianity is a journey of discovery and growth... Lewis, a one-time-atheist, has written incredible stories and teaching works that have inspired Christians and surprised everyone else for the better part of the last century. His way of bringing to light the answers to questions you have, and expounding on questions you might not have thought of yet will help anyone on their way to understanding powerful truths in life. Reading C S Lewis has shaped my understanding of my own faith in a way i could not have conceived. he does not present new and controversial ideas, or formulas... he merely helps to understand age old issues that affect us all.
This book is a well put together collection of some of his greatest apologetic works that prove and illuminate the Christian Faith. If you don't have it, get it! Then, go out and get his other works, like The Cosmic Trilogy, or The Chronicle of Narnia. Lewis infuses his powerful ideas into these as well, and tells brilliantly woven stories that enthrall our imaginations and inspire our hearts. Please Enjoy...
Excellent.......2007-09-04
Lewis is an amazing author, and this is a complete collection of his best work.
Book Description
· The complete Bible—64-CD set includes both Old and New Testaments
· New International Version—today’s most read, most trusted translation
· New Testament selected by Audio Publishers Association as Audie Award® winner—the most prestigious award for audio products
· Multiple-voice dramatization brings the Bible to life with world-class narration and colorful, true-to-the-text character renderings
· Fully orchestrated background with sound effects provides maximum enhancement of the text reading
· Digital engineering from start to finish delivers the ultimate in clarity and listening enjoyment
· Brief book introductions give you a quick, preparatory overview of each book of the Bible
· Location markers make finding and keeping your place as you listen as easy as hitting “fast-forward” or “reverse”
· Running time 76 hours
· Lifetime guarantee stands behind this product’s performance
Customer Reviews:
Review my order and shipment of the NIV Bible Dramatization.......2007-10-07
I ordered this copy of the NIV Bible Dramatizedf for my Grandson. He and his mother was very excited to get this gift and they are both using it often as they travel around in the cities of Phoenix and Peoria Arizona. I have an earlier copy and have enjoyed it very much.
NIV AUDIO BIBLE DRAMATIZED CD.......2007-08-21
The quality and the price of the CD'S were excellent!
I would recommend them to anyone.
Very satisfied.......2007-08-09
Overall, I am very happy with this purchase. I think the dramatization - voices/sound effects/music only enhance the listening experience. Probably the biggest plus, is that by purchasing the CDs, I am able to better manage all of the tracks. One of the major complaints I read from people that downloaded an audio Bible (not specifically this version) from iTunes, is that the download shows up as about 8 large files. This makes it very difficult to do anything other than listen straight through. By having the CDs & importing them myself (which is somewhat tedious), I can listen to exactly what I want without having to do a lot of annoying searching. Again, I have really enjoyed this purchase.
Hearing the Word of God in South Africa.......2007-08-01
Zondervan's Dramatized NIV Audio Bible is a blessing! Neither us or friends who recommended it have anything negative to say about it. The local store price in South Africa was too steep so we ordered through Amazon for excellent pricing and delivery! I've just made an mp3 listening copy of the whole set using Apple's iTunes software and the set can now safely be put away out of reach from the kids, who also love listening to the Bible stories. For me the different voices enhance my ability to discern who is speaking and the music in the background is totally non-intrusive. The black carry case it comes in is robust and compact with a nice chunky zipper. The case has no handle, but we're not carrying it.
The first time I really listened to Zondervan's Dramatized NIV Audio Bible was September 2006 in my friend's car while we drove to a faraway town being sent by God through His Holy Spirit to free a woman who was oppressed by an evil spirit of suicide for 17 years. I was picked up at 05h00 and immediately we started listening to the Word of God in the car. We listened into the sunrise and it was awesome, so alive! We were really stoked and before we got halfway through our 5-hour drive, the Holy Spirit fell on us and started prophesying and preparing us for helping the woman so that we did nothing in the flesh but only as the Father in heaven revealed to us. It was awesome! Over the span of 2 days the Holy Spirit took us into this woman's childhood through words of discernment and visions, clearing the hurts and bitterness, showing her who to forgive and what debts of the heart to write off, how to clean the Temple of her heart for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. She would sit vigorously rubbing her wrist with the edge of her other hand's thumbnail, saying: I have an overwhelming desire to kill myself. Before that she would travel with a razor blade in case she had a chance to kill herself. She had tried many times before, but by the grace of God she always failed and many of those failures were through divine intervention!
What an awesome God we serve!! How awesome is the gift of the Holy Spirit and the victory of Christ Jesus! Her final surrender was followed by us taking authority over evil as the Spirit led and then there was silence in the room. During that silence we waited for God to fulfill His Word to us of setting her free, God being the One who does it, not us. Then briefly my eyes were opened into the spirit and I saw ministering angels stream into the room through the ceiling and surround the woman so lovingly, caressing her, and then I knew - it was done! The Joy of the Lord welled up in me and I asked her: Is there something you want to tell us? She nodded - yes. Then tell us please! She quietly said: I'm too afraid to say it because I'm afraid it will go away. Please tell us, it won't go away! Then she testified: I have such an overwhelming peace over me!
How awesome!! Our mighty sovereign God freed her without a sound in the room, just peace! I was so stoked I could scream and run and jump but we were in her bedroom and I didn't want to scare her.
Many say the Bible is the Word of God. That is not entirely true. God speaking is the Word of God. The Bible is an ancient record of the Word of God spoken to those people and we have the benefit of their experiences BUT what is the now-spoken Word of God to you as a person?
Hear what the Father says to you through the working of the Holy Spirit. Hear the Word and do it and know that you are a child of God because the Holy Spirit reveals it every day and many times daily! For a clue to this read (or listen to) 1 Samuel 3:1 to 19. This is how Jesus lived and how we are encouraged to live: people of action, hearing God's Word (the Word being Christ revealed through the Spirit, the Word being the Joy of the Lord, our strength) and not only hearing, but doing, being doers of the Word just like Jesus and many others before and after Him!
So don't just listen to the Audio Bible and don't just listen to the scriptures being preached on a Sunday. We are all living epistles and God is writing His Word on the pages of our hearts NOW. Listen to the Father in heaven for yourself in your quiet time and He will speak to those who knock and seek, and He will give more to those who are faithful with the talents (words and spiritual knowledge) He entrusts to them. And He is faithful to every Word which He speaks now, just as He was faithful in the Bible stories because He is not a man that He should lie and His Word does not return to Him void but accomplishes what He sent it for.
We are vessels for the Living Water, receiving the Word from the Father through hearing by the action of the Holy Spirit and then we contain the Word and then we pour out the Word where, how and when and to whom the Father instructs us. Then we hear, believe and do, proving our love to God in obedience to Him. Cleanse your vessel through first forgiving those who hurt and offended you throughout your life, then repent asking forgiveness, then ask the Father for His Holy Spirit to dwell in you. If someone at any time offends you, forgive them, bless them, pray for them, help them and never cease doing that because even though they do not deserve it, because Christ forgave us although we do not deserve it. In this way we are like Jesus when we forgive others and keep on forgiving. Fail to forgive and you are imprisoned by the Father in heaven and handed over to the torturers (read Matthew 18:18 to 35) and that is oppression by our enemy with approval from our Father in heaven because we who say we are Christians did not do as Christ did at the cost of death - forgive those who wronged us even though they do not deserve it.
So this is a testimony of how we enjoyed Zondervan's Dramatised NIV Audio Bible here in sunny South Africa!
Blessings to you all!! (fukanzu at gmail dot com)
More than satisfied.......2007-06-27
This CD Bible makes listening to the Word of God really amazing as it draws you in to each character's role. The different voices given to each character makes it seem like you're watching a video. The narrator's clear and concise reading is exceptional. I put the CD's on when I'm cleaning or in the morning to read along with the narrator. I am more than satisfied with this product and pray that you will continue to bless others with it as you have blessed me.
Book Description
In a groundbreaking approach to today's tough spiritual and social dilemmas, God Without Religion, with a foreword by Arun Gandhi, offers an intelligent and compassionate bridge from dogmatic belief systems to progressive spirituality. Sankara Saranam shows why organized religion has long been the cause of humanity's worst wars and most acute suffering—then guides us beyond our divisive history into more expansive perceptions capable of creating a unified, peaceful future. Through a series of penetrating inquiries and practices, readers are invited to examine their beliefs, explore the nature of the divine, and develop personal knowledge of God.
Customer Reviews:
Title is misleading.......2007-09-12
I think the title is a misleading. It says God Without Religion. Based on the title I assumed it would talk about a god and how man made religions are flawed. The book did indeed cover the flaws of religion although perhaps too briefly. I'm sure a giant book could be written on the subject but this book just touches on it lightly. I also assumed the book would cover the topic of some kind of supreme being which would be proved by a mathematical or scientific method. After all the term "God Without" implies there is a god. Instead what it goes on to say is there is no God and everyone should worship themselves to fill the void of being godless. The Title should really say something like "There is No God and Religion is Stupid". Perhaps I just wasn't ready to stand on my head or do breathing exercises but I found the second half of the book unexpected and a little boring.
Questioning God: Healthy activity.......2007-05-14
While I can think of 3 or 4 books of a similar nature that I like more (Sam Harris' End of Faith and Letter To A Christian Nation, first of all), this is another important book that stands up to the current trend of forcing "religion" as if it were more important than moral values. This book slaps silly the idea that we benefit from (any form of) extremes when it comes to a person's spiritual life. It didn't read as enjoyably as Religion Gone Bad (Mel White, another ***** book from this year) nor as educational as Richard Dawkins, but belongs in all intelligent and questioning homes and libraries where the first amendment also gives us freedom FROM religion!
A Different Way to See Things.......2007-03-21
If you are searching for the meaning of it all, this is a book you should read. It contains wonderful insights. Whether you prescribe to the author's views or not, it is a worthy addition to a spiritual library.
Frank Scoblete: author of Golden Touch Blackjack Revolution! and Golden Touch Dice Control Revolution!
Essential Reading for Religious and Non-religious.......2007-03-20
Sankara Saranam lived as an ascetic for two decades during which time he engaged in techniques for sense-introversion. His daily practice over those years led to an understanding of how the ego manifests in our mind. He shares insights based on these personal experiences in "God without Religion" to help readers learn from his spiritual journey.
Saranam wants to free the individual from the divisions created by religions of us and them thinking, believer and non-believer, saved and condemned - all divisions which create disharmony between different faiths and sometimes even engender violence. "God Without Religion" presents the idea of a universal God, which as a concept is found in writings of past philosophers and mystics.
This book engages in a debate that is essential for people to remove their prejudices based on religious dogma and intolerant beliefs. Sankara encourages a more universal perspective that transcends the parochial boundaries of many faiths.
His criticism of the shortcomings often found in religious beliefs are important to consider. For example, Saranam mentions that religions encourage the believer to look outside for spiritual salvation i.e. acceptance of rituals, sacraments etc. instead of encouraging an inner quest, which is why religions often discourage absolutely free inquiry because they make a priori suppositions.
"God Without Religion" allows readers to discover and define God from their own awareness rather than ideas of God based on accepted religious doctrine. The book doesn't provide answers about God, it encourages readers to explore their vision of God through series of questions intended to allow for self-transcendence to a universal understanding. The attitude expressed in the book is one of wonder and exploration.
The book requires an open mind in order to explore the ideas discussed by the author. The author's criticism of religious belief is valid, though ultimately it is NOT antagonistic to religion as it initially appears, since all religions are at their core are based on mystical experience, the rituals and dogmas are their outer form.
I fully recommend this book along with "Nexus: A Neo Novel," which presents a compelling psychological and spiritual journey of transformation.
This is a 6 Star Book! Godly!.......2007-03-19
I just ordered two hundred copies of this book to give as gifts to friends and family, because I can't imagine a better gift than the knowledge and genuine human heart in GOD WITHOUT RELIGION. I have never recognized a freedom from outmoded centralized institutions and sense of power as I do now, from considering the questions and challenges in this book. If God is the potential to expand our hearts and minds, this is not only a book on issues of God and religion, but a godly book. It is unique, because it's as if it was written from the inside. By that I mean it will raise different questions for every reader. It will raise just the right questions to expand your sense of self, sense of the cosmos, and sense of what is God.
Book Description
On the 10th anniversary of his death, brilliant astrophysisist and Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan's prescient exploration of the relationship between religion and science and his personal search for God.
Carl Sagan is considered one of the greatest scientific minds of our time. His remarkable ability to explain science in terms easily understandable to the layman in bestselling books such as Cosmos, The Dragons of Eden, and The Demon-Haunted World won him a Pulitzer Prize and placed him firmly next to Isaac Asimov, Stephen Jay Gould, and Oliver Sachs as one of the most important and enduring communicators of science. In December 2006 it will be the tenth anniversary of Sagan's death, and Ann Druyan, his widow and longtime collaborator, will mark the occasion by releasing Sagan's famous "Gifford Lectures in Natural Theology," The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God.
The chance to give the Gifford Lectures is an honor reserved for the most distinguished scientists and philosophers of our civilization. In 1985, on the grand occasion of the centennial of the lectureship, Carl Sagan was invited to give them. He took the opportunity to set down in detail his thoughts on the relationship between religion and science as well as to describe his own personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience, edited, updated and with an introduction by Ann Druyan, is a bit like eavesdropping on a delightfully intimate conversation with the late great astronomer and astrophysicist. In his charmingly down-to-earth voice, Sagan easily discusses his views on topics ranging from manic depression and the possibly chemical nature of transcendance to creationism and so-called intelligent design to the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets to the likelihood of nuclear annihilation of our own to a new concept of science as "informed worship." Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, he illuminates his explanations with examples from cosmology, physics, philosophy, literature, psychology, cultural anthropology, mythology, theology, and more. Sagan's humorous, wise, and at times stunningly prophetic observations on some of the greatest mysteries of the cosmos have the invigorating effect of stimulating the intellect, exciting the imagination, and reawakening us to the grandeur of life in the cosmos.
Customer Reviews:
Carl keeps it real.......2007-08-06
This is great piece of literature from a brilliant man. You do not need a scientific background to appreciate and understand the points of view Carl Sagan puts forth in his explanations of the universe and his personal search for God. Highly recommended.
Cosmicly Awesome.......2007-08-04
Carl Sagan was undeniably one of the great minds of our time. This series of lectures, given as the famous Gifford Lectures in Scotland, continuously awes one. Even when the material is stuff you already know, he brings a freshness, a joyfulness, a playfulness to it that puts a new spin on the ideas.
No matter how much astronomy you've read, no matter how much physics you've read, this book will toy with your mind, put a sparkle in your eye, and give you new reasons to look to the heavens of a night.
Classic Sagan.......2007-08-01
I was captivated by the title, the play on the original wording. In these lectures, Sagan discusses and compares religion and science, differences, expectations, areas of agreement and disagreement and finally the notion of scientific evidence for a supernatural creator. I would hope that Sagan, were he still alive, would reject the anti-religious crusades by high-profile scientists like Dawkins, Smith & Dennett. He always sought compromise (in the spirit of his friend the late great Stephen Gould) and persuasion as opposed to the near evangelical proselytizing of those obsessed with the subject. Vivir y dejar vivir!
Carl was a rationalist, a wonderer, an unbeliever who put the "I" in intellectual, a genius plain and simple. One can forgive some of the material - it was 1985 and Sagan, with other "progressive" scientists, were in a massive anti-Reagan campaign to keep US nukes out of Europe. Anyhoo, the weapons were stationed, the USSR immediately disintegrated and the incident passed into history. Sagan, like the rest of us, is victim to his own prejudices and opinions. In his case it was his deep belief in the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence over the almost unanimous disbelief of biologists. (His book, CONTACT, is still one of my favorites- as is the stunning movie.)
We went so far as to publicly lobby for SETI funds yet 22 years later we have yet to find a single signal despite tens of millions of searches. This is not surprising to many since the unique conditions for the rise of intelligence on Earth depended on a path of millions of tiny steps, all of which led to our present juncture. Four of these were global catastrophes after which the structure of life began anew. He asks if life evolved on Earth or came from space. He then discusses the UFO craze (seriously) and concludes that (1) Earth has never been visited by aliens and (2) no UFO sighting was authentic. The old Fermi question, "If they exist where are they?" is still apropos with the most obvious answer being the most plausible - we are the first and only, at least in this galaxy. A recent explanation opines that all civilization eventually discard biological bodies in favor of virtual ones. More to the point, would civilizations millions of years more advanced use radio waves? (New search techniques have since been included.)
He tells the story of how humanity was dethroned from our position of uniqueness. Earth is not the center of the Universe, the sun is just a star, we evolved from other species, all life on Earth had a common ancestor. He asks why an omniscent being would wait 4.5 billion years to bring about sentience or what is the purpose of creating millions of species only to have them go extinct? He suggests that civiliza
Coming to Peace With Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology
Mere Christianity
God's Universe
Evolution and Christian Faith: Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist
