In this thought-provoking book, born-again Christian Denis O. Lamoureux argues that the God of the Bible created the universe and life through evolution--an ordained, sustained, and design-reflecting natural process. In other words, evolution is not the result of blind chance and our creation is not a mistake. Lamoureux challenges the popular assumption that God disclosed scientific facts in the opening chapters of Scripture thousands of years before their discovery by modern science. He contends that in the same way the Lord meets us wherever we happen to be in our lives, the Holy Spirit came down to the level of the inspired biblical writers and used their ancient understanding of origins in order to reveal inerrant, life-changing Messages of Faith. Lamoureux also shares his personal story and struggle in coming to terms with evolution and Christianity.
In our current era of holy terror, passionate faith has come to seem like a present danger. Writers such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens have been happy to throw the baby out with the bathwater and declare that the danger is in religion itself. God, Hitchens writes, is not great. But man, according to George E. Vaillant, M.D., is great. In Spiritual Evolution, Dr. Vaillant lays out a brilliant defense not of organized religion but of man’s inherent spirituality. Our spirituality, he shows, resides in our uniquely human brain design and in our innate capacity for emotions like love, hope, joy, forgiveness, and compassion, which are selected for by evolution and located in a different part of the brain than dogmatic religious belief. Evolution has made us spiritual creatures over time, he argues, and we are destined to become even more so. Spiritual Evolution makes the scientific case for spirituality as a positive force in human evolution, and he predicts for our species an even more loving future. Vaillant traces this positive force in three different kinds of “evolution”: the natural selection of genes over millennia, of course, but also the cultural evolution within recorded history of ideas about the value of human life, and the development of spirituality within the lifetime of each individual. For thirty-five years, Dr. Vaillant directed Harvard’s famous longitudinal study of adult development, which has followed hundreds of men over seven decades of life. The study has yielded important insights into human spirituality, and Dr. Vaillant has drawn on these and on a range of psychological research, behavioral studies, and neuroscience, and on history, anecdote, and quotation to produce a book that is at once a work of scientific argument and a lyrical meditation on what it means to be human. Spiritual Evolution is a life’s work, and it will restore our belief in faith as an essential human striving.
This title explores the meaning of Christian theology in light of the scientific discoveries of our age. Like Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry, Delio opens out eyes to the omni-active, all-powerful, all-intelligent Love that forms and guides the interrelatedness and interbeing of everything and everyone - ourselves included.
Nineteen year old guitar prodigy Avery Jones is desperate. Her twin brother, the other half to her musical duo is gone. She needs work, and is out of options. Marcus Anthony, the sexy and temperamental lead singer of Brutal Strength, one of the biggest rock bands out there, needs a new lead guitarist. Seems like the perfect fit, except for one big problem. Marcus won't allow a woman in his band. Love Evolution is a rock star romance based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It is the first book in the Brutal Strength series.
Heart of Love Evolution is a powerful, emotional journey through depression and suicidal thoughts. Depression is born out of life experiences. It is the giving up of hope, the belief that no one cares for you and the thought that suicide is the only way out. But this darkness is also a manifestation of choices made in the spirit world prior to life. Emotional issues fettered to the soul carry forward the torment of past lifetimes and cycles onward. The cycle of submission to that darkness must be broken. We all need hope and to be loved. To love yourself is the one commitment you must make. Author Terezia M. Farkas recounts how after being a caregiver, grief and depression took over her life. She also shows depression as a spiritual journey, a product of past lifetime torment, and choices made in the spirit world prior to life. At times poetic recollection and at times self-help treatise, Heart of Love is a portable guide through the most challenging, harmful experience in life....
This book was written for those who find themselves inadequate and alone to meet life’s challenges, with little or no support from family or friends; having only themselves to count on for financial support and without even a car to get to and from work; for those who are scared, depressed and lonely. That is how the author found herself after her divorce. She began writing a journal of prose which enabled her to express her thoughts and activities, then making comments on the prose. The journal became the source for this book. The trauma of all the above factors forced her to turn within, where much to her surprise, answers came! What she has learned is “All things (ALL situations, ALL events, ALL circumstances), work together for good, PERIOD! HOWEVER, that phrase has a caveat: It requires that we fully believe – more than that - KNOW that there is a power, greater than our finite selves, that is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. The essence of that power is LOVE, that many of us call God. That is what the author wants to share with her readers; That through life’s trials and personal tribulation, our successes, and failures, and by turning within for the answers, we become more and more aware that there is indeed a power greater than the finite, inadequate, ego-centered self we hold so dear. For the vast majority of us, this does not happen over-night, that we must be vigilant in watching our thoughts. You will find throughout this anthology, that the author indeed has her ups and downs, successes and failures, but through her persistent belief in that higher power within us, she found the love she was looking for – both within and without.
The Evolution of Love follows the human heart through the intense highs and lows of First Love, the frustrating but instructive path of Middle Love, and the battle-tested yet eternal light of Final Love. From a first crush to the death of a spouse and beyond, these poems and stories capture what connects us all: the search for true and unimpeachable love.
The things that are happening on planet Earth these days are more than unbearable. Everyone is aware of it, but no one knows what to do about it. This change needs to be individual. It is up to each of us, and it is our responsibility to make this world a better place. Because it is far from being OK, and there is no evidence more convincing than today's human. But he is free to choose whether he will continue his development on the conscious level or not. Life is a game, but it is hard to play with people who don’t know the rules. Just as each machine has its own instructions for use, it is the same with life and people. And they are actually very simple instructions. When each of us starts working individually, it will join us all together. This book was not written to be liked - it should be, above all, understood. God, Sex, Money, Ego, Morality, (mass)Media, Love, Meditation, Esotericism, Consciousness, Education, etc. - the real holistic view.
Bruno Littlemore is quite unlike any chimpanzee in the world. Precocious, self-conscious and preternaturally gifted, young Bruno, born and raised in a habitat at the local zoo, falls under the care of a university primatologist named Lydia Littlemore. Learning of Bruno's ability to speak, Lydia takes Bruno into her home to oversee his education and nurture his passion for painting. But for all of his gifts, the chimpanzee has a rough time caging his more primal urges. His untimely outbursts ultimately cost Lydia her job, and send the unlikely pair on the road in what proves to be one of the most unforgettable journeys -- and most affecting love stories -- in recent literature. Like its protagonist, this novel is big, loud, abrasive, witty, perverse, earnest and amazingly accomplished. The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore goes beyond satire by showing us not what it means, but what it feels like be human -- to love and lose, learn, aspire, grasp, and, in the end, to fail.
