Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh Insight About Our Conception Of God, December 24, 2007
Finally, a book whose author is not afraid to bring to light a exit from the mindset held by many worldwide religions today. The massive work not only explores our evolving conception of God, but also debunks certain monotheistic and Dark Ages beliefs. In addition, the book deserves a five star rating because it digs deep uncovering facts about who we really are, future trends, along with highly intelligent, logical concepts which include the author's own personal experiences. Each chapter's theme is set by a picture and quote from a famous person. The touchy concepts
include why many religious beliefs about God's aspects and characteristics are false. Readers will also be provided an outstanding model for human advancement as well as a solution for the Middle East.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Question, Is this the best god could do, September 3, 2007
Not my standard read, my wife gave me a copy and insisted I read it.
I have not spent a great amount of time pondering the big picture of a higher being, usually feel too busy taking care of making sure everyone eats and when I do get free time to read I like to escape to Higgins, Koontzs, Patterson ect. but this book was a great read, full of peppery language and thought provoking theories, only theories as none could be proved no more than Moses parting the red sea could be proved.
I agree with the St John that organized religions have only served to restrain mankind from enlightenment or even worse has been the cause of millions of deaths, the word of God has been abused by Hilter and Osama, even Bush who I do not put in same catagory as Hilter and Osama (unlike my wacked liberal friends) but Bush is on a crusade (his own words) and thousands of Americans die for a society that has been battling over religion. Jews vs. Arabs, protestants vs. cathloics, Cortez and the Incas, the poor American Indian heathens we wiped out because they didn't worship one god. Through history and in todays news we still kill because of religous differences, I have Jewish, Muslim, Christain, Aethist and agnostic friends, I don't hate anyone simply because they don't think like I do, what a novel american concept, St John believes we are all part of God working our way, earning our way to a better existance, not just because when I die, I say sorry for killing all those people and I take jesus christ as my savior, what a load of bs they have been forcing down our throats for two thousand years, every action and thought you have has an impact on the universe, we don't get to wave a majic wand and make our misdeeds go away. St John hits many valid points as well as some I don't agree with, but that is what we are suppose to do, take the best from what we read see or hear and incorporate into our thoughts, overall great read that speaks of todays current events and provokes thought, enjoy, I did.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A wide ranging assault, August 30, 2007
This book examines the world's three monotheistic religions and concludes that they share the same basic premise: God prefers me. They are arrogant and that leads to hatred, poverty, violence, indecency, intolerance, terrorism, narrow-mindedness and everything else. Jews are attacked because religious Jews supposedly abhor touching `unclean' women, which is not entirely accurate. Muslims are attacked for learning Koran by rote and for the Koran's intolerance. But it is Christianity that gets the brunt of the assault.
St. John examines what she calls the `western doctrine of smallness' or basically what she describes as the Christian church's ideology. The idea is that Christianity teaches people that they are small, that they are sinful. This book argues not only in favor of a new age of paganism but also assaults the age of organized religion, monotheism and the fear it has supposedly unleashed on the West.
In essence the question is `is this the best god could do?' But these is much more than that, there is examinations of Mark Twain and many other books and texts. There is an examination of the development of Christianity and its spread to the West. But through and through it is mostly a wide ranging, rambling condemnation of religion. This is too bad because for all the things religion can be accused of there is no evidence that absence of it is any better. Nazism and Communism, the two secular movements of the 20th century(one arguably pagan) were the greatest mass murderers. They also made people small and made them fear. Pagan religions also practiced slavery and cannibalism, where is the greatness in that?
Seth J. Frantzman
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