Has anyone read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn?
814910
YES! You must read this book.  This book changed my way of thinking about everyting.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.  Please read it and then pass it along to someone else.  I would love to discuss it with anyone who has read it...feel free to e-mail or IM.
1110036
It is a good book, perhaps co-authored with Henry Morris, Mr. Creation. I think it is worth of your time.\n\nIn the Beginning God created heavens and earth.\nGod gives you air to breathe and sunshine to enjoy.\nGod gives you water to drink and food to eat.\nGod gives you a wonderful body and sound mind, to live.\nGod loves you, and you are precious to Him.\nSon of God died on the Cross to save us from condemnation.\nJesus’ love is boundless and everlasting.\nWe have the hope of Heaven through Jesus.\nLife therefore has fantastic and glorious future!
169101
I'm reading the book now.  It is about a supposed secret society that protected the secret that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalen and had a son.  The artist da vVnci was supposed to have been a member of that secret society, and hid clues about it in his paintings.\n\nRemember, it is a work of fiction.  Not a bad read, and makes you think, but still fiction.
469322
Not sure.  Excellent book tho'.  Can't wait for the third one.  Check out Amazon UK.  They may have info you need.
581030
Very Insightful. Seriously I loved the series. Check out his book "God and the Evolving Universe" another great one. I forget who co-wrote it with him. I try to live with what I learn from reading different concepts and other peoples truths. This set of books has given me so many good lessons. The main thing I took away from it was a totally new way to interact with my children. I see them more as equals now than before. They have taught me many things that have made my life better. I think if people can use what they read in these books then it would be a really good thing for the world. \nLove & Light\nOne Planet = One People
818425
This book is hands down one of the best pieces of young adult literature ever written!  I loved it.  I read it once for pleasure and again for english class in eighth grade.  you should also check out the movie.\n\nPonyboy is a hero for a couple of different reasons:\n\nHe stands by Johnny after he kills the soc, and stays with him all the way through until when johnny dies in the end.  He is a hero this way because he stands by his friends through the good and the bad.  That is a great charecteristic for anyone to have.\n\nHe is also a hero because he saved the kids from burning inside the old church.  This is the biggest reason for him being a hero.\n\nThe last reason is that he went to fight in the rumble, even though he didnt feel well.  He knew that his friends needed him, and he stood by them, once again showing his great characteristic of loyalty to his friends.
387251
Do your own homework.  They're both excellent stories... reading them will be enjoyable.  I'm partial to Bierce myself.
895302
I wish I had kept the essay I had written on this book last year, but I do remember some about Ralph.\n\nRalph used the conch shell as a method of gathering the group together, and in doing so, he took an iniative as a leader.  The novel foreshadows him as a good leader because of his physical stature (lean body, fair hair, good complexion).  He embodied all of these characteristics.  Ralph represents democracy and he sees the island as an opportunity to exercise his newfound strength.\n\nHe has some originality of ideas too, such as building shelter first, setting up the fire, the camp, directing who should do what jobs, finding hunters and others to gather fruit, and designating the "bathroom" spot so the tide clears up the waste.\n\nRalph is ineffective because he gets most of his ideas from Piggy and refuses to compromise with Jack and his choir.  Because of this, they separate and get into fights, thereby allowing themselves to transcend into savagery.  The more conflict, the worse his reliabiliy is.  Futhermore, Ralph buys into the theory of a "ghost" or "beast."  It is Simon that discovers the truth, although untimately he pays the price when trying to warn the others of his discovery about the parachuted man on the mountain.  \n\nAs far as his inability to remember his purpose, Ralph gets tied up in so many small conflicts over power.  Gradually, these get bigger and his leadership diminishes.  The final symbolism of his full loss of power  occurs when Piggy is killed and the conch shell is shattered.\n\nI hope this helps!
902182
It's a great book and you should read it.\n\nhttp://www.annefrank.com/1_life.htm\nHere's a summary of it and I'm not going to answer all those questions.\n\nhttp://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/frank/fullsumm.html\n\nhttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/annefran.htm
133412
No. I think it's an interesting book, like the Qur'an or the Vedic texts, but to me it's just ancient literature with some limited ethical application today.\n\nI consider Emmanuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" a much more relevant book nowadays in answering the question "how can I be a good person?"
522004
Yes, the book is definitely trustworthy.  Yes, you can believe it to be true.\n\nGod made Himself into a man.  As the previous answer indicates, His name is Jesus Christ.  While here He healed the sick, rebuked demons, He walked, talked & ate with man, He cried with man, He resurrected dead men, He purged evil spirits and He performed miracles.  Most importantly, He came as the Sacrificial Lamb and died and resurrected Himslelf to save man from sin forever.  I can't wait to walk with Him in my second life.  I hope you'll be there with us.
801342
I think it's pretty good.  There's definitely good description, even though I don't really follow the story.  That's is probably because I didn't read the part before it.  Maybe you want to put the entire thing on here so it is easier to get revisions.  Good luck!
503407
Have ANY of you actually READ the book? \nI never cease to be appalled at the absolute blindness of the Jesus freaks. Not to mention that not one of you has yet answered the main question posed here.\nYes, the main theory behind the premise of the book is that Jesus has actual blood descendants still alive today. And that there is a secret society whose duty it is to trace the blood line through history and present the knowledge at the right time. \nNow, everyone here loves to just immediately scream "It is fiction!" and "Dan Brown made it up!" Well, if they had ANY idea what they were talking about, then they would know that Dan Brown DID NOT make up the theories presented in the book. The plot of course is his own idea, and is fiction, but the historical background he uses, which is what everyone is upset about, is NOT his idea.\nPlease, folks. Educate yourselves, find out WHAT he wrote. How can you say that what he wrote isn't true, if you don't even know what he wrote?\nBecause most of you have put your brain in the hands of various spiritual leaders, and you have made the conscious decision not to think for yourselves.\nSince my personal belief is that Jesus may have existed, but not as the son of God, then I believe that his blood line could still exist. Does a secret society exist for just this reason? Difficult to believe, but a cool idea.\nAnd because this stuff just really gets me going, I have to say something else. If all of the "Christians" truly believed they are following the One True Religion, and they also believe that every word of the Bible is true (my other favorite subject due to all of the discrepancies in it) why  aren't you showing mercy and compassion for all of the misguided?\nInstead you choose to scream for a banning of the book and a worldwide boycott of the movie. These are the actions of scared people. These are the actions of third world leaders who see their power crumbling. Those who have absolute faith in the truth of their beliefs would only grin, slightly amused, at all the turmoil.
1149394
No I haven't-wanna give me a summary??  Sounds interesting.  Is it based on the new Dead Sea Scrolls they found??
844280
I love that book.  Anyway, in the "Voyage to Lilliput" section, that nation is at war with Blefuscu over the proper manner to eat a hard boiled egg, obviously a trivial matter.  \n\nThere are many layers of satire in "Gulliver's Travels", and one of them here concerns the Catholic-Protestant problems which have often plagued Britain.  Swift was basically claiming that bloodshed between Catholics and Protestants over their theological differences made just as much sense as going to war over the correct way to eat eggs.\n\nI hope this helps.  "Gulliver's Travels" really is a great book, the later parts are, in my view, even better than the more famous voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnag.
519225
I don't like the fact that some people are reading it as fact when it is fiction. The man who wrote it(Dan Brown) was charged with plagiarism. I haven't cracked the book but know someone who is reading it but aren't taken in by it's lies. I find it just as abusurd as the supposed "book of judas."  \n\nHere is one of the lies of this book and the truthfull answers to it.\n\nThe Da Vince Code says...\nIn 325 the council of Nicea decided by vote to make Jesus divine. "Until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet." It was a close vote at that.  P.233\n\nFACT:\nThe council, of which we have the historical writings and decisions, had mothing to do with the divinity of Jesus. They were didscssuin Arius, who had begun teaching that Jesus was not eternally co-existent with the father but was divine, The discussion was around whether Jesus was eternally co-existant with the father not wherether Jesus was divine. The close vote.... was almost 300  to  2. WE WOULD call that a landslide in today's English. Consider these Verses.\n\nMatt 16:16  Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son fo the living God" NKJV\n\nMark 15:39  So when the centurion, who stood oppostie Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said,"Truly this Man was the Son of God!"\n\nLuke 4:41   And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying. "You are the Christ, the Son of God!?\n\nJohn 10:33  The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God."\n\nJohn 20:28  And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"\n\nThe Da Vinci Code says...\nThe church demonized the sacred feminine and the goddess by reaching teh concept of original sin, "whereby Eve tasted the apple and caused the downfall of the human race." P238\n\nFACT:\nThe Bible actually blames Adam much more that Eve and nowhere does the Bible mention an apple, merely fruit.\n\n! Cor 15:21-22  For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.  22.  For as in Adam all\ndie, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.\n\nRom 5:12 Therefore, just through one man sin intered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-\n\nSo if they read the Bible they will see that the Da Vince Code is a joke. The fact that it is a novel: n. a fictious prose narritive of considerable length... fictious: adj. \n1. created or assumed for the sake of concealment; false.\n2. of or consisting of fiction; created by the imagination.\n\nThese definitons came from Websters Dictionary not something I made up.
391342
Yes I have, I have to say that book changed my life. The title can be decieveing.. just a little, because I felt the book was more about spirituality.. I'm not a big reader, and that book was like 300 pages.. it really is a book you cant stop reading, but sometimes you have to put it down cause its pretty deep.. and you need to just stop and obsorb the information. Its a really good, and you dont have to read the 1st book to get the others, I started w/ #4 I think..and it made me look at life very differently.