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Overview
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781937907303 |
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Publisher: | Rainbow Ridge |
Publication date: | 10/23/2014 |
Pages: | 240 |
Sales rank: | 1,088,088 |
Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
1. The Basis of So MuchIt's not a small thing to be wrong about God.And if nearly everyone on the planet is wrong about God, it's really not a small thing.If nearly everyone on the planet has mistaken notions about God, then nearly everything that everyone on the planet is doing will not work the way it was intended. This is because the basis of so much of what they're doing is found in so many of their beliefs about God.Think not? Think again.Nearly all of civilization's modern laws emerged from the early rules and laws of some faith tradition. Nearly all of humanity's moral codes derive from the mandates of a religion. Nearly every political moment and economic theory is based on ideas of justice, right-and-wrong, and basic fairness first espoused by spiritual teachers.Even those who don't believe in God are impacted and guided by many of the fundamental principles placed in the Cultural Story by those who do.And a striking number of the personal decisions made by billions of individuals across the globe are made within the context of what they beliebe to be the purpose in life, what they believe happens when this life is over, what they believe about God, and about what God wants.So it's not a small thing to be wrong about God.*Proposition: Not one of the systems we have put into place to make life better on this planet is working.Wait. It's worse.Not only have the systems we have put into place failed to produce the outcomes for which they were intendedthey are actually producing exactly the opposite.I have made this point before, in previous books. I believe it is worth repeating, with emphasis.Our political systems are actually increasing disagreement and disarray. Our economic systems are actually increasing poverty and the gulf between the rich and the poor. Our ecological systems are actually increasing environmental degradation.Our healthcare systems are actually increasing inequality of access to modern medicines and health care services. Our educational systems are actually increasing the knowledge gap. Our social systems are actually increasing disparity, disharmony, and injustice.And, perhaps saddest of all, our spiritual systems are actually increasing righteousness, intolerance, anger, hatred, violence, and war.If the improvement of human life upon earth were a laboratory experiment, it would have long ago been considered an abject failure.Indeed, an appalling disaster.*Not everyone agrees. There are those who believe that humanity is evolving to higher and higher levels of sophistication achievement, producing a better and better quality of life for all the members of our species.It is possible that they would not, however, be among the 842 million people (one in eight in the world) who do not have ebough to eat. It is certain that they would not be the parents of over 650 children who die of starvation every hour.They would presumably not be among the 20.9 million women and children who are bought and sold into commercial sexual servitude every year.They would also, one imagines, not be among the over three billion people who live on less than $2.50 a day, or the billions who have no access to health care. (Some 19,000 children die each day from preventable health issue, such as malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia.)They would probably also not be among the 1.7 billion people who lack clean water, or the 2.6 billion without basic sanitation, or the 1.6 billion peoplea quarter of humanitywho live without electricity.That's right. In the first quarter of the twenty-first century, 2.6 billion people live without toilets, and 1.6 billion without electricity.How is this possible?, you might ask. And that is a very good question.It is an especially good question given that humanity imagines itself ot be a "civilized" species. To the people in the above categories, the "civilization of Civilization" has not even begun.A planet where 5 percent of the population owns or controls 95 percent of the wealth and resourcesand where most of that 5 percent think this is perfectly okay, even as unconscionable numbers languish in lack and sufferingwould not seem to be a planet on which a great deal of humanitarian advancement has been achieved.All of this possible because of the collective values of those people who can do something about it. And where do those values come from? I suggest they derive in large part from the well-intentioned, but mistaken, beliefs about God held by many human beingsincluding those who do not believe in God at all.*Does anybody care that our species has been such a failureor why?Does anybody imagine it has not been?Does anybody want to know how this whole situation can be turned around in the blink of an eye?Does anybody want to know how his or her own personal life can be changed for the better with the embracing of a single idea?Do you? Do you want to know?
Table of Contents
1 The Basis of So Much 1
2 Are You Ready for the Great What If? 5
3 What Humans Simply Refuse to Do 11
4 Most People Agree: God Talks to Us 13
5 Our Well-intended Mistakes 17
6 Let's Just Admit It. We've Been Wrong Before 23
7 Our First Misunderstanding about God: God is to be feared 31
8 Another Misunderstanding about God: God may not even exist 43
9 Another Misunderstanding about God: God exists and is a superhuman male being 49
10 Another Misunderstanding about God: God demands obedience 55
11 Another Misunderstanding about God: God sees us as imperfect, and we may not return to God in an imperfect state 65
12 Another Misunderstanding about God: God requires us to believe in God, and to worship God in a specific way 79
13 Another Misunderstanding about God: God is vengeful and God's love can turn to wrath 87
14 Another Misunderstanding about God: God was at war with the Devil, and that's how this all began 95
15 Another Misunderstanding about God: God determines what is right and wrong 111
16 Another Misunderstanding about God: God's forgiveness is required for us to get into Heaven 119
17 Another Misunderstanding about God: God has a plan for us 127
18 Another Misunderstanding about God: God honors self-sacrifice, long-suffering (preferably in silence), and martyrdom 137
19 Another Misunderstanding about God: God sometimes answers our prayers and sometimes does not 147
20 Another Misunderstanding about God: God is on our side 157
21 Another Misunderstanding about God: God will reward us or punish us on Judgment Day 163
22 Another Misunderstanding about God: God want's us to return to Heaven 169
23 The Final, and Biggest, Misunderstanding about God: God is separate from us 181
24 Something We've Left Hanging 191
25 And Two More Things, Please 197
26 The Moment of Choice is Here 201
27 Putting It All Together: A Simple Statement Explaining Everything 209
28 Is This Really a Message from God? 217
About the Author 229