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bigred
Old 09-23-2009, 10:01 PM     Post subject: Religious Readings #1 (permalink)  
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 Inspired by reading the recent Dan Brown novel (it was decent but his research is always good) and the god threads, I want people to suggest religious readings. I don't know how I feel about reading actual texts like the Bible, Torah, etc, etc but would rather read critiques and interpretations from modern authors such as The Case for God by Karen Armstrong.

I'm pretty set on being an atheist but I enjoy reading other people's viewpoints and think many religions have a lot of good. The problem is when their interpretations are used for sinister actions.

So far I'm planning on reading:

Non-fiction:
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (just started this)
Case for God by Karen Armstrong

Fiction:
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Bible (LOL JK)


I'm going to start researching and adding to this list but I thought I'd let you guys help me as well. I'd especially appreciate books on Eastern thought since this is a field I barely know or understand.
LOL OPERATIONS
 
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Warpe
Old 09-23-2009, 11:03 PM #2 (permalink)  
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 Maybe read the early autobiography of Thomas Merton:

http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Storey-M.../dp/0156010860

Amazon review:
"In 1941, a brilliant, good-looking young man decided to give up a promising literary career in New York to enter a monastery in Kentucky, from where he proceeded to become one of the most influential writers of this century. Talk about losing your life in order to find it. Thomas Merton's first book, The Seven Storey Mountain, describes his early doubts, his conversion to a Catholic faith of extreme certainty, and his decision to take life vows as a Trappist. Although his conversionary piety sometimes falls into sticky-sweet abstractions, Merton's autobiographical reflections are mostly wise, humble, and concrete. The best reason to read The Seven Storey Mountain, however, may be the one Merton provided in his introduction to its Japanese translation: "I seek to speak to you, in some way, as your own self. Who can tell what this may mean? I myself do not know, but if you listen, things will be said that are perhaps not written in this book. And this will be due not to me but to the One who lives and speaks in both." --Michael Joseph Gross"

Or you might just want to read The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton (probably the best biography)

http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Mountain.../dp/0156806819

Amazon review:
"While many biographies and studies of the writer and monk Thomas Merton have been published over the years, The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton remains the official biography sanctioned by the Thomas Merton Legacy Trust. Mott was given access to all of the private journals that, according to Merton's legacy, were not to be made public for 25 years after his death. (These have now been released; see for example The Intimate Merton, which contains a selection of these journal entries.) Mott's goal in this work was to approach the writer in a balanced manner--to correct the record where Merton himself may have had the facts wrong (early childhood material, for example), and to offer a different interpretation at times from the one Merton himself comes to in his own autobiographical writings. Above all Mott is not writing hagiography: this is no life of a saint, at least not in the stereotyped sense. But it is clearly the life of a real 20th-century man who, along with the expected dead ends and blind alleys, did find himself listening to a real call and following it as deeply and as passionately as his life would allow. And who knows? Perhaps that's a good definition of saint. --Doug Thorpe"



 
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sinister1
Old 09-24-2009, 12:27 AM     Post subject: Re: Religious Readings #3 (permalink)  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bigred
Inspired by reading the recent Dan Brown novel (it was decent but his research is always good) and the god threads, I want people to suggest religious readings. I don't know how I feel about reading actual texts like the Bible, Torah, etc, etc but would rather read critiques and interpretations from modern authors such as The Case for God by Karen Armstrong.

I'm pretty set on being an atheist but I enjoy reading other people's viewpoints and think many religions have a lot of good. The problem is when their interpretations are used for sinister actions.

So far I'm planning on reading:

Non-fiction:
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (just started this)
Case for God by Karen Armstrong

Fiction:
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Bible (LOL JK)


I'm going to start researching and adding to this list but I thought I'd let you guys help me as well. I'd especially appreciate books on Eastern thought since this is a field I barely know or understand.
The gf said this was a good read, I might check it out too.
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Xianti
Old 09-24-2009, 01:27 AM     Post subject: Re: Religious Readings #4 (permalink)  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bigred
Inspired by reading the recent Dan Brown novel (it was decent but his research is always good)...
Cool! I just picked up this book yesterday. Haven't read any of his others, but the myths/conspiracies about the Freemasons have always intrigued me.
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a500lbgorilla
Old 09-24-2009, 01:36 AM #5 (permalink)  
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kingnat
Old 09-24-2009, 01:51 AM #6 (permalink)  
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 The End of Faith by Sam Harris is a bit long winded but lots of good parts....
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bigred
Old 09-24-2009, 02:08 AM     Post subject: Re: Religious Readings #7 (permalink)  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xianti
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigred
Inspired by reading the recent Dan Brown novel (it was decent but his research is always good)...
Cool! I just picked up this book yesterday. Haven't read any of his others, but the myths/conspiracies about the Freemasons have always intrigued me.
Then you're going to love it. The plot is secondary to all the cool freemason stuff
LOL OPERATIONS
 
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JKDS
Old 09-24-2009, 06:08 AM #8 (permalink)  
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 nobody dies until like halfway through and there isnt really a strong driving force to do anything till a little later. i am disappointed.

ps: this is now the danbrown book thread
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But no, jkds is lolvillager and anyone who wants to string him up is sighbad.
 
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Xianti
Old 09-24-2009, 06:24 AM #9 (permalink)  
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 thanks for the spoiler alert, jerk
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givememyleg
Old 09-24-2009, 07:40 AM #10 (permalink)  
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 god delusion was great, but was aligned with how i thought before hand so it's not really a surprise. i'm going to try reading other books completely unaligned and see how it will be... case for christ is on my list, i guess this is "the book" that converts people over. we will see in a few weeks if i'm going to be preaching to all you damned atheists!

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Xianti
Old 09-24-2009, 09:05 AM #11 (permalink)  
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Originally Posted by givememyleg
case for christ is on my list, i guess this is "the book" that converts people over.
This will be interesting.
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wufwugy
Old 09-24-2009, 10:08 AM #12 (permalink)  
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 You guys may like Alan Watts. He's a Tao/Zen guy whom I found to be insightful. This was nearly a decade ago that I was into Watts, so my memory is fading, but he definitely had a way with words and a refreshing view of things.

However, Tao and Zen are not quite religions. They don't pretend to be right or wrong about anything. They're just a way of life; a sort of intuitive presence, if you will

A few Watts quotes

Quote:
“Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.”
Quote:
“No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
Quote:
“We are sick with fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas. Meditation is therefore the art of suspending verbal and symbolic thinking for a time, somewhat as a courteous audience will stop talking when a concert is about to begin.”
Quote:
“The more we try to catch hold of the present moment the more elusive it becomes. It is like trying to clutch water in ones hands. The harder we grip, the more it slips through our fingers.”
Quote:
"Advice? I don't have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you're writing, you're a writer. Write like you're a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there's no chance for a pardon. Write like you're clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you've got just one last thing to say, like you're a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God's sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we're not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don't. Who knows, maybe you're one of the lucky ones who doesn't have to."
Quote:
"Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is like when you trust yourself to the water. You don't grab hold of the water when you swim, because if you do you will become stiff and tight in the water, and sink. You have to relax, and the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging, and holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be."
Man, Watts has a ton of good stuff. I nearly forgot about it all. Some of it is silly, but some is rather poetic and purposeful.
 
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bigred
Old 09-24-2009, 02:47 PM #13 (permalink)  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JKDS
nobody dies until like halfway through and there isnt really a strong driving force to do anything till a little later. i am disappointed.

ps: this is now the danbrown book thread
so you knew people in this thread hadn't read it and you say this anyway, you're a dick
LOL OPERATIONS
 
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flomo
Old 09-24-2009, 02:51 PM #14 (permalink)  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bigred
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKDS
nobody dies until like halfway through and there isnt really a strong driving force to do anything till a little later. i am disappointed.

ps: this is now the danbrown book thread
so you knew people in this thread hadn't read it and you say this anyway, you're a dick
+1

ps: this is now the call that dude a jerk thread
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Protect dog
 
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JKDS
Old 09-24-2009, 03:46 PM #15 (permalink)  
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 i dont get it. its a spoiler? A common thing in dan brown books is "kill this dude, kill that dude, ok prolouge over". This book steers away and doesnt really have alot of killing whatsoever, sure they play this

***spoiler***

is peter dead? who knows!!!!

/spioler

card alot, but really the book starts with

***spoiler***

bwahahahahaha i am now in a cult

/spioler

as opposed to

***spoiler***

i have cut out your eye! / I have killed you and your body is now a work of art etc.

***/spoiler

its like i said a harry potter book lacked magic. whats the big deal? Like i really dont get it.
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a500lbgorilla
Old 09-24-2009, 03:50 PM #16 (permalink)  
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we dont expect assholes like you to understand!

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bigred
Old 09-24-2009, 05:22 PM #17 (permalink)  
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 Really could care less about the plot tbh
LOL OPERATIONS
 
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Old 09-24-2009, 06:34 PM     Post subject: Re: Religious Readings #18 (permalink)  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xianti
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigred
Inspired by reading the recent Dan Brown novel (it was decent but his research is always good)...
Cool! I just picked up this book yesterday. Haven't read any of his others, but the myths/conspiracies about the Freemasons have always intrigued me.
My girlfriend's brother and cousins have spots open for them in the Freemasons since their fathers were but none of them have opted to take those spots. Instead they just wear the rings to show off. Such a waste imo.


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I don't get why you insist on stacking off with like jack high all the time.
 
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bigred
Old 09-25-2009, 02:40 PM #19 (permalink)  
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 Dude, let me join. I'm super cool
LOL OPERATIONS
 
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acehigh19
Old 09-30-2009, 04:43 AM #20 (permalink)  

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For Christian stuff, check out anything by CS Lewis. As far as Eastern thought, the Tao Ching is about Taoism, and Thicht Nacht Hahn has written a lot about Buddihst thought. If you want more Eastern stuff, let me know.
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