Найти книгу: "IS THIS THE BEST GOD COULD DO?"

Is This the Best God Could Do? (nonfiction, approximately 115.000 words) was born of a crisis of faith of the most cruel kind, the loss of my mother who lingered on the brink death for five weeks, and that is where the book begins. I was living the American dream, a happy wife and mother, and by most measures, charmed, and then she died, suffering terribly in the process in spite of my ardent prayers. <br>Like many in this position, I felt that God had let me down, but once my grief passed, I realized that the God of traditional Christianity keeps us in thrall by fear and guilt, by insisting we are small when we are really quite &quot;big&quot; beings. When the World Trade Center collapsed, I also realized that the end of the world might well be upon us because it is a self-fulfilling prophecy brought about by the zealot believers in the Abrahamic religions, fear carried to an illogical extreme. This epiphany made me angry. Is This the Best God Could Do? is also the result of that anger.<br>However, although the topic is obviously deadly serious, I debunk the warped monotheism of the &quot;Big Three&quot; with humor and wit as well as reasonable, albeit edgy, argument. What follows the section in which I recount the loss of my mother (and the realization that the Abrahamic version of God has been messing with us for a couple thousand years) is part dialogue with that big guy (picture Groucho Marx as interlocutor: &quot;Hi, God of Christianity, Sarah here. I can appreciate your dilemma, I really can. But the next time one of your angels gets out of hand, please try to take care of the problem instead of making it one of ours…&quot;), part personal history, and part reasoned deconstruction.<br>But the conclusion I reach about religion does not amount to an advocacy of atheism. Although the monotheistic God is discounted as a manmade thing, one used to control us, I also argue against the godless scientism of Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (Letter to a Christian Nation), and Christopher Hitchens (God is Not Great). In fact, I argue against this limited perception of human being as a random function of extraneous forces in favor of a more profound participation of humans in reality leading to a profound spiritual transformation on the part of individuals and eventually all of humanity.<br>I also argue for a kind of pandemic version of the dramatic &quot;wake up&quot; effect (Eckart Tolle&#39;s concept from A New Earth) I experienced when my mother died. The human race, indeed the very planet, is going through extraordinary changes &ndash; all cause for great alarm among the monotheists as the beginning of the end. I insist in Is This the Best God Could Do? that, on the contrary, our situation is karmically inevitable and the dire straits in which we find ourselves an invitation to spiritual growth and thereby a renewal of civilization. I also call for those born to relative wealth, the American populace in general but also most of the Western world, to accept responsibility for charting the way forward because it is easier to evolve beyond the traditional notions of religion when one&#39;s belly is full and one is warm and dry.<br>But Is This the Best God Could Do? is not just a polemic about the medieval grip of fundamentalism that holds humans back from the self awareness necessary to find a way forward through the difficulties of history to an enlightened way of life &ndash; the book also charts the path. I offer guidance to the reader for achieving the kind of awareness that allows them to hear &quot;God&#39;s voice&quot; and to participate in the world as an active agent instead of being just a passive believer, to understand the &quot;magnitude of our spiritual reality.&quot; <br>Although my book is utterly unique in its mixture of elements (the strident debunking of monotheism, the hopeful recognition of the &quot;bigness&quot; of humans as spiritual beings to stand in opposition to the &quot;smallness&quot; of fear and guilt, a hope-filled recipe for saving us from ourselves, and memoir &ndash; and all in a tone worthy of British humorist Russell Brand in My Booky Wook), the various aspects of the manuscript can be compared to other well known books. <br>Like James Redfield in The Celestine Prophecy, I invoke Jungian synchronicity as the mechanism by which we can hear &quot;God speaking.&quot; It is through the development of our intuition that we recognize these moments in the first place, and as Rick Warren advocates in his A Purpose Driven Life, I argue that this recognition is not reserved for the few but is available to anyone who becomes self aware &ndash; in place of Warren&#39;s scriptural references are ideas from Eastern religious practices. Ultimately, I am advocating an evolution of the spirit, from medieval servitude born of fear to what Gary Zukav refers to in The Seat of the Soul as a necessary move beyond reliance upon our senses (the atheism of scientism) to the cultivation of our intuition in order to bring about a better future for ourselves and civilization as a whole.

Protect your retirement from the next big crash with a New Twist on the Old Investment Strategy. For years, advisors have recommended that investors take a «buy and hold» approach to the market, but people over fifty can't afford to rely on this strategy. Buy, Hold, & SELL! uncovers the myth of the «buy and hold» investment philosophy, and explains why it's dangerously incomplete. Written by Ken Moraif, one of Barron’s top 100 Financial Advisors in the United States three years a row and who called the 2008 market crash in November of 2007, this book outlines an alternative strategy that better serves investors who are at retirement age. Written in easy-to-understand language and buoyed by Ken's trademark humor, this guide shoots down the myths that keep investors in risky markets, and arms readers with the knowledge, motivation, and strategies that may help them survive-and even thrive-during the inevitable next bear market. Too many retirees lost a large percentage of their investments during the market collapse of 2008 and spent years trying to regain their footing. During the collapse, many advisors told their clients to stay in the market. Ken did the opposite, advising his clients and listeners of his popular radio show “Money Matters” to get out of the market in November of 2007-before the economic meltdown. With this book, Ken shares his 26 years of experience to help investors prepare for the imminent bear market that could devastate their retirement plans. For those looking to build a sound financial plan for the long run, this book provides expert insight and solid advice with supporting charts, graphs, statistics, and anecdotes. Understand the buy-hold-SELL strategy Learn how to design a sell strategy to protect principal in the next bear market Find clear-cut information regarding retirement finances Discover the benefits of a diversified portfolio This book expands upon old advice to provide the most important part of the equation: a sell strategy designed to protect principal. The goal of Buy, Hold, & SELL! is not to make investors rich quick, but to help keep them from becoming poor.

Yes you can! Hands up who feels like a completely inadequate underachiever whenever you hear about someone’s great achievement. When someone in the office is off cycling around the world, or someone on TV has just launched a great new business which will save the planet? Most of us envy the drive and determination of these people. They’ve actually made this stuff happen rather than just day-dreamed about it. We all ask…Could I Do That? Well Simon Hartley is here to show us that we can! Taking on a challenge – big or small – in your career or personal life, can be intimidating but also totally transformational. Simon will show us how to work out what it is we want to do and then how to make that happen. He uses examples and advice from others who have achieved big things. The book examines how you should go about preparing for change, which problems you’ll face along the way, and demonstrates why and how your life will be better as a consequence. Practical and motivational, it’s about embracing change and defeating limiting beliefs It challenges readers to think big and take steps to achieving their goals It puts power in the hands of people who don’t yet realise that they can do extraordinary things too

Straight Talk and solid retirement advice for all Canadians In the face of government changes, financial market volatility, and an aging workforce, Canadians are understandably concerned about the impact on their finances and their future retirement. This reassuring book debunks the generally-accepted claims about necessary savings rates, which can cause paranoia among those beginning to contemplate retirement. The authors offer greater insight into planning approaches that are not widely understood, demystifies retirement targets (age, savings, income), and outlines concrete approaches to maximizing retirement savings. Offers practical advice for dealing with the changes to Canada's retirement system Includes advice for calculating your Neutral Retirement Income Target Contains solid financial advice in accessible language Written by the Executive Chairman and Chief Actuary of Morneau Shepell Canada's national actuarial consulting firm The Real Retirement offers a down-to-earth guide for preparing for comfortable retirement and shows what it takes to achieve it.

Long accepted as a cost of doing business, occupational fraud has recently proven to be much more dangerous to a company than previously thought. Enron, Global Crossing, and other high-profile cases have shown that the risks can be enormous. Fraud Exposed shows how traditional methods of dealing with occupational fraud are inadequate and how an organization's mindset must change if it is to be more effective in dealing with this problem. In-depth insights and practical advice show readers how to apply criminal and law enforcement response models to workplace fraud prevention and detection; analyze financial controls to prevent occupational fraud; as well as examine and improve current defenses to occupational fraud. Written by an expert in this field, Fraud Exposed provides organizations with a realistic approach to uncovering fraud and eliminating it before any damage is done. Joseph W. Koletar, PhD (Glen Rock, NJ), is a Principal and Service Line Leader in Ernst & Young's Forensic and Security Services Practice in New York. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, he was the director of the Forensic and Corporate Investigative Services practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP. Before joining the private sector, Dr. Koletar spent twenty-five years as a special agent in the FBI.