Disappointing
From Amazon
I was so excited when this book finally came out, I love his two others, however I was very disappointed. This book is no were near the level of his other work, I would not recommend it.
Are You Brave Enough Not to Believe?
From Amazon
"God Explained in a Taxi Ride" by Paul Arden is one of his many motivational books published and meant to drive home the solution in as few words as possible. He takes one very heavy topic and explains it in the bluntest of terms.
"God Explained..." is no exception to this rule.
Think about it. Whether you believe in Christ, Allah, Buddha, the Sun God, yourself... this book will answer your questions. Because the long and the short of it is this: God exists in YOU.
Quotations:
"We need a soulmate. We gaze upward to find him."
"It's the unknown that makes life so rich."
Keep things simple. Why talk through a preacher or priest when you can talk to your god whereever and whenever you want to? Why spend a specific amount of time in your church, on a specific day, when you can praise your god anywhere? If you read the Bible (for example) as a text book, it states that god exists within YOU. So... why the necessity to visit a church when you can praise your god in the comfort of your own home? Does going to church make your prayer any more substantial? Does praying to your god (and not someone else's) make your wishes any more worthy?
"Jesus actually existed... his story has been told and retold so many times that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction."
It's like a game of telephone. How does "I want a piece of cheese" turn into "Wanna beseech thee?" at the end of only five people. Imagine a full story told at the end of thousands of years. Won't it change a little?
****"Why does god need you to defend him? It must be because you think you are more powerful than your god."****
"You can only have faith in what you DON'T know. That's what faith IS."
Take this book, read it for its merits and for its suggestions. Like every other book, take from it what you can and try to delve a little deeper beneath the surface.
Relax. Your god wouldn't want you to be so tense.
In as few words Mr Arden has used, I have learned more from him than I have from decades of going to church.
Thank God I Did Not Buy The Book!
From Amazon
Thank God for the Library!
If I had spent $10 plus on the his book, it would have a warranted a mourning, and a serious one at that.
The book is short (You can finish it in under 15 minutes!), cheeky, and just plain confused.
Take for example these points:
1. "More blood has been shed over religion than any other issue"
WRONG
(More people have used religion as a platform for own selfish goals and agenda.) If you don't believe me, take a tally of all the "religious motivated" Wars: Crusades, Witch hunts, etc. And compare it to the number of deaths under the regime of Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, and Hitler. (My argument is not fully sound in my view, because I believe every possible view of the world acts functionally as a "religion," even Atheism -- But to those who think that Atheism is "not a religion" then this argument should carry some bite.) For more see the book Whats So Great About Christianity.
2. "Most religions are different ways of saying the same thing."
Once again this is false. To quote Steve Turner:
"We believe that all religions are basically the same-
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation."
There are serious and important differences between the major religions of the world, even the similar theistic Abrahamic Faiths.
3. "Christ was taken down from the cross by his friends while he was still alive."
"Three days later he died"
Two Words: "Total Rubbish" Any NT scholar Christian would disagree with this statement. The debate with historians surround his resurrection, but all agree that he was killed when he was placed in the tomb. [See the Historical Jesus by Gary Habermas]
4. "It was written long after the death of Jesus, from word of mouth and hearsay."
Really? It was written only decades after Jesus resurrection, thus meaning that the disciples and the more than 500 people Jesus appeared to would still be alive. And word of Mouth? Luke says that he interviewed eye-witnesses and Matthew (after whom a gospel was named)is an eye-witness. So please if you are in a History Class don't get your facts from this book.
5. "To ease our fear of the dark, we invent explanations for the afterlife such as heaven and hell and reincarnation." This explanation is ridiculous as one might potentially "dream" up heaven to comfort one's self.... but why HELL? If you are into comfort, hell is anything but that.
Now the book has some pithy sayings such as "If anyone suggests that you become a martyr, say... 'you first.'"
An excellent insight he points out is "According to the atheist, all notions of God are fictional. He is mere fantasy, living far beyond the scope of rational thinking. But isn't a firm belief in the non-existence of God a religion in itself?"
But even these good points could not redeem the faulty thinking, reasoning, historical facts and analysis surrounding the book. In the end, in a rather vivid presentation, he affirms, a mysterious God, a God in which he calls "The Force Behind Creation." I agree with the conclusion. This is as far as natural reason can take you, but the fullness of the mystery of God is revealed in Jesus Christ. For those interested in a more substantive and accurate analysis of "God" look at the book: "The God Question" by J.P.Moreland. A book worthy of your hard-earned cash.
Worst Book I've Read This Year
From Amazon
In a phrase, it's "stupidity dumbed down".
The author obviously is not educated in the discipline of Religion, and simply regurgitated fragments of great philosophers, such as Descartes' proof of existence of God, and a bunch of other rationalizations for the Christian faith.
At a point he mentioned that Man can commune with God without the church, and that the church has been nothing but trouble and translation errors (he must've overlooked the fact that Jesus agenda to build a church [On this rock I will build a church(greek: ekkl h sia) -Matthew 16:18] So there he contradicts himself in claiming he believes in Jesus but not what Jesus believed in.
His conclusion was that God was simply the name that we people give to the life-creating force, and that we created God to feel safe. even calls the Bible a fiction book, setting himself against the library of archaeological findings we have on the ancient Greco-Roman society and the Biblical characters.
In a word, bull.
Save your money...
From Amazon
This glib little brochure is cute but not worth the taxi ride's length of time it takes to read. Not only does it not have a single insight to add to the understanding of "God," it seems to have been written by a commercial copy writer with the intention of making bucks off people who need things explained to them in Hallmark-card cadences of cutesy shrugs. Even the illustration style smacks of the greeting card mentality.
It's embarrassing.