The Holy Bible by Anonymous – perhaps the best book to read to understand The Bible better is The Bible – A Biography by sublime Karen Armstrong, my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-bible-biography-by-karen-armstrong.html where you find a few thousand more reviews - 9 out of 10

 

The Holy Bible by Anonymous – perhaps the best book to read to understand The Bible better is The Bible – A Biography by sublime Karen Armstrong, my note on this is at  https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-bible-biography-by-karen-armstrong.html where you find a few thousand more reviews

 

 

9 out of 10

 

Nine out of the ten for the perfect book, coming from the Almighty, Omniscient, All powerful is not just a bad, ominous start, it is also hedging the wrong way, Pascal had that smart, on the surface, bet, he said you should believe in God, for if he is up there (or maybe she, they) then you win, and if they are not, what have you lost?

 

Nathaniel Branden was declared the best expert on Self Esteem – you could do no better than read The Six Pillars of Self Esteem – and he has this work, The Psychological Effects of Religion, in which he states that religion is awful https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/psychological-effects-of-religion-by.html and its effects are terrible

The omniscient Supreme Being has those harsh rules and if you do wrong, say masturbate as a teenager, then he will show his wrath “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee…’

 

The above is best known from Pulp Fiction, this is what Jules aka Samuel L Jackson says before killing the poor man, but the argument for Nathaniel Branden is that many live in fear, and then they also have the false impression that this is just a passage, heaven is waiting for them, when in fact this is the only chance we have

CS Lewis https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/surprised-by-joy-shape-of-my-early-life.html was one of the most mesmerizing scholars who made the case for God, The Bible, explaining one of the most severe criticisms, that the All-powerful and Omniscient Being is inhuman (I was going to delete this oxymoron, but what the hell)

 

Either he knows and can do everything and then he must help the needy, or else he is not perfect, cannot do anything, ergo he does not exist, but CS Lewis is right in maintaining that there is Free Will, humans have the liberty to choose to be good, generous, brave and virtuous overall, just as they can opt to be the reverse

 

This is why we have tragedies like the one described by Fyodor Dostoevsky  https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-brothers-karamazov-by-fyodor.html who wrote about the child tortured by a boyar, just because he was a defenseless, pauper, and the rich villain had the means to satisfy his demons

Incidentally, I was under the wrong impression that Dostoevsky was atheist, and in presenting this odious story, he must surely have exposed the divine failure, and thus the intrinsic absurdity, there is no divinity, if he, she allows this to happen, but we could not have a mechanical world, in which all is pre-determined

 

We have another glorious luminary who makes me contemplate (at least) switching sides in some manner or form, at the extreme, here I am, writing in favor of God, for nobody, and no good reason, these are words that do not reach an audience, alas, but help me navigate, maybe even find the Truth, ‘The Great Sculptor and Colorist’

Andrei Plesu https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/03/limba-pasarilor-aka-language-of-birds.html is one outstanding philosopher, one of the smartest humas alive, and a deeply religious man, ergo, if this magnificent Magister Ludi does not need ‘proof’, then why should I be so pretentious, arrogant and pretend to see evidence

 

I am reading The Case for God by the same Karen Armstrong and it is not just good for proselytizing – this is just joking, this fabulous thinker has no such intentions, well, probably she wants to change readers’ minds, all writers would like to have an impact, she is marvelous, let us just state that – it is enlightening

 

How about the Supreme Being?

 

For God, being is something else, and trying to fathom some of these concepts is just mind blowing, also, there is always the thinking of Socrates https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/apology-by-plato-unexamined-life-is-not.html?q=socrates a role model, important figure for yours truly, from adolescence actually

He was named the wisest man of his time by the Oracle at Delphi, and he wondered why, what did he do to earn this accolade, looked around and noticed that around him, everyone gave advice, took sides, acted as if they knew well, everything, while he did not do the same thing, saw when he was ignorant, indeed, often he made that clear

 

This must have been the reason why the Oracle must have selected him for this ‘grand prize’, however, to finish this, one aspect was important there, he spoke of death and applied the same ‘we do not know about this, nobody came back to tell us’, so he was actually respectful of the gods, and thus, another luminary with an example to follow

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”