Andy from FL

Misses the elephant in the room

Revisado: 04-23-23

I bought this audio book primarily to learn more about the gods that were worshipped by pagan cultures, especially the ones mentioned in the Bible. To be fair, I did learn some new things. That is why I gave it 2 stars vs just 1.
Now for the elephant that is in the room that he totally ignored. What surprised me even MORE is the fact that after reading a copious amount of reviews on this book, nobody else seems to have noticed this. There are three huge facts that he either twisted or ignored or, I guess, is simply ignorant of. Ignorance is no excuse however when you are writing a book and putting yourself in the position of teaching others about Biblical topics. At that point you put yourself in a position where you had better make SURE you know what you are talking about. I'll tackle these one at the time and I'll keep it short and concise.

1) He claimed that ancient Israel got off track when they began worshipping other gods.....and he left it at that. There was another thing that always preceded them departing from God and that was Sabbath breaking. Not just the weekly sabbaths but the annual ones as well. There was NEVER a case where idol worship alone was the problem.

2) He claimed that the pagan gods were basically kicked out by Constantine. Are you serious? How void of historic knowledge do you have to be to make such a totally false statement. It was Constantine who embraced pagan worship and forced it to become church tradition. It was he who in the Edict of Constantine (325 AD) who ordered the day Sunday, the day of the sun, to be the Roman day of worship. It was he who ordered the property of members of the true church of God to be confiscated. It was he who began the tradition of labeling obedience to God as " Jewish". This mindset was later fully enforced in 363 AD at the Council of Laodicea. In the 29th cannon it states "Christians must not judaize by resting on the sabbath but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's day: and if they can, resting then as Christians. But if they be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ". This was a death sentence for those who remained faithful to the 4th Commandment.

3) This was really the one that floored me. This man spent a LOT of time covering Ishtar and how the means of worshipping Ishtar have filtered down through the centuries. Yet he totally failed to mention that the biggest remnant of the worship of Ishstar is the chief holiday of the Catholic and Protestant churches......Easter. It literally still bears her name and the implementation of rabbits and eggs come from the ties this holiday has to reproduction and sex. BTW, this pagan holiday was also a gift from the time of Constantine. The Passover had been kept on the 14th of Abib, then the corrupted church leaders changed that day to a set day each year....on Sunday. Later the name was changed as well.
For ANY who believe any man or group of men have the authority to take a pagan custom and wrap God's name on it, I would point you to Deut 12: 30-32
Deu 12:30 take heed to yourself that you do not become snared by following them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not ask about their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods, that I too may do likewise?
Deu 12:31 You shall not do so to the Eternal your God. For every abomination to the Eternal, which He hates, they have done to their gods; even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32 All the things I command you, be careful to do it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

Neither ADD or TAKE AWAY. No wiggle room, it doesn't matter how wonderful you may think this holiday is. The ancient pagans had the same warm feelings about THIER holidays as well. Notice in verse 31 it says " You shall not do so TO the Eternal your God" . You are NOT allowed, or is ANY church organization allowed to brand God's name on a pagan holiday. As Christ said "In vain do you WORSHIP ME, teach for doctrines, the commandments of men." Yes, you can, with all good intentions, worship Christ in vain.

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The best book so far on Roger Williams

Revisado: 12-05-19

I've read everything I could on Roger Williams, the true father of the religious freedoms we enjoy in this nation. This is now my personal favorite. The author is VERY clear that all we have to go by when learning about this time period is the writings left behind, and those writings can be skewed at times (imagine reading a history of WWII 200 yrs from now written by a Japanese military men DURING the war). He does an excellent job at injecting at times why a certain historical record may not be fully reliable. You get a full history of various Indian tribes living in the area and how they interacted with Roger Williams and with the English. Roger Williams lived his faith while the Puritans seemed to use their faith as a club to subdue those who didn't agree with them. Williams' most enduring spark of brilliance was his unique recognition that God never, outside the unified nation of Israel, demanded that a government enforce the 10 Commandments or create a State religion and demand subjection. He looked back at Judah's time in Babylon and saw that it was the Jews' responsibility to live the life God spelled out, it was the government's job to make sure there was fertile ground for the true religion to flourish. It is impossible to give this man enough credit for his impact on the Founding Fathers' foundation for spelling out the religious freedoms this country was founded on. James Madison referred back to Williams' thinking when he insisted that we have FULL religious freedom rather than merely government "tolerance".

As soon as I was through, I started this book over again.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Pretty interesting read.

Revisado: 11-22-19

This was a pretty good listen. The author did an excellent job of giving the history without injecting any bias. Everything was given very matter-of-fact. He also does a good job at showing how many religious aspects changed throughout time, especially in times of war. I wish he had spent more time on Roger Williams and some of the problems he faced in Rhode Island after he introduced the idea of true religious freedom. My only big issue was that the author kept using the word Sabbath when he was referring to Sunday. The Sabbath is the Sabbath, Sunday is Sunday. You can call Wednesday Friday but it doesn't make it so.

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A recent history of world mis-finance

Revisado: 08-09-19

I always enjoy Mr Rickard's books. This one is one of his best. There is a lot of updated information. I found the part about China and the current trade negotiations particularly of interest. I really don't understand the complaints about the narration, it was easy enough for me to understand and I'm an expert by no means. He does an excellent job of commenting on political leaders and their impact on the nation's economic health without getting political which is VERY refreshing these days. He goes over objections to a gold backed monetary system and explains his position in an easy to understand fashion. He also highlights the need to clearly and thoroughly plan out your strategy. I got to see just how ill prepared most people are when the excrement hits the fan when hurricane Michael devastated our area. Many thought they had things planned out, then reality set in. What good is having a generator that burns a gal of gas per hour if you only have three 5 gal gas cans standing by?
I'm already looking forward to his next book.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Not just unabridged but unedited as well

Revisado: 01-07-18

I had high hopes for this, I really did. I guess I was expecting more information on the eruption itself but this book deals mostly with the impact on crops around the world. Fair enough, the eruption happened in 1815 and there wasn't exactly a lot of information gathering facilities in place then.
The reason I zinged this with 2 stars for performance was that this audio is the raw unedited. You hear him say a line and then realize he had the inflection off so he rereads the same line a time OR two more. Now I record my own radio ads so I know full well that you mess up on occasion BUT we go back an edit out my errors. This sucker has all the errors left in.

Somebody didn't do their job on this one. I've bought several audio books from Charles River Editors and have been pretty pleased so far.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Solid primer of geology

Revisado: 08-16-17

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As mentioned already, unfortunately in a critical manner, it is rather brief. However, when you look up a book on Audible, it tells you the length so HOW someone could complain about its length is beyond me. Actually, this is precisely WHY I chose this book. I wanted something that moved quickly and didn't get bogged down in minute details. Far too many times, professors fall in love with their own voice and end up dragging something out to the point that the listener's mind drifts and the next thing you know you are mentally wondering if it's time to clean the gutters. This book kept my attention the whole way through. She freely uses analogies to make a process or action understandable. She has a very down-to-earth way of speaking, something that is rare these days.
Of course the book goes over the different types of rocks and rock formations but she also covers plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanoes. She also has a chapter on how geologist determine the age of things....though I discount most of this because it seems every day I read an article where they find some new fossil or artifact and they have to "shift" their time scale, sometimes by hundreds of thousands or millions of year. If you can suddenly shift time to THAT degree then forgive me if I don't put much trust in your dating methods.
Anyway, the book is solid, fast-paced and VERY well read. I was genuinely disappointed when I checked for other audible books by her and found none.
A good description for intelligence is being able to get your point across with the fewest words possible and at the same time using language that is understood by the majority of the people you are addressing. Prof Zeigler gets an A+ in this regard.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

History read by a snob

Revisado: 08-16-17

I really wanted to like this book. I've been studying up on geology and earthquakes and thought this would be a good addition to my base of knowledge. He almost immediately takes a swipe at anyone who believes in God, which why in the world he felt the need to inject this was beyond me. Anyway, I brushed that away and kept listening. As Julia has already said, the first part is a history of geology. Personally I thought that part was pretty good but I didn't buy the book for a history of geology, I bought it for a history of the 1906 event. When he finally gets around to the earthquake it fell short in my opinion. It seemed he spent more time trying to convince the listener that San Fran citizens were anti-Chinese bigots than with the event itself.
I did find it interesting that he tied the San Fran earthquake to the Azusa Street Revival. That is a point in history that is rarely mentioned.
The last part of the book was outright torture. He recounts his 3,000+ mile journey to the Alaska pipeline in painful detail. Once he reaches the pipeline section that goes across the fault, he lets the reader know that he secretly wished he had some C4 explosives so he could blow the thing up....I kid you not. This guy DRIVES over 3,000 miles, burning gas the whole time, just to look at one of the man made creations that helped produce the fuel he needed to perform this task and his first thought isn't "Wow, wasn't this designed well!" No, to the contrary, his first thought is "Sure wish I had some plastic explosives." Keep sharp instruments away from this man please.
Finally, as if I needed more evidence to convince me this guy is a class A snob, he lets the reader know that the primary hallmark he uses to identify a town that is nothing but a habitation for white trash is.....get this....a Walmart.
I want my 7+ hrs of my life back.

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Excellent history of the study of earthquakes

Revisado: 10-30-16

I have recently become interested in earthquakes...how they happen, why they happen. I've watched every documentary and lecture I could find online and stumbled across this book while browsing Audible. I don't regret the purchase or time spent listening one bit. The only part that got a little "long in the tooth" was the part that dealt with the 1906 San Fran earthquake but this is easily forgiven because I realize the author was attempting to "take you there" which he did quite well.
The rest of the book goes over the science of earthquakes which is a relatively new science. I found it interesting how "settled science" was overturned again and again. Those who helped establish what we all now consider Earthquake 101 all had to overcome criticism and outright hostility from fellow scientists. The author helps you realize just how new our understanding of earthquakes really is. He further debunks the science of earthquake prediction.
It is vitally important that you begin listening to this book with an open mind and be willing to admit that what you thought was fact just might be wrong.
The final chapter was really fascinating to me because he goes over areas along the San Andreas where they are very overdue. I listened to this part just a few days before the Salton Sea area was hit by a massive swarm of quakes.
A great follow-up to this would be the lecture given by Nick Zentner entitled Great Earthquakes of the Pacific Northwest, you can find it on Youtube. He also puts to rest many false "facts" of earthquakes.
You can buy this book with confidence that you will NOT regret it.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

One of my favorites from the Great Courses series

Revisado: 03-27-16

I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture. It is easy to tend to listen to history from the middle ages or ancient history and forget about recent history. This lecture probably does more to help you understand the world we are currently living in than any other out there. You can't understand the present if you don't have a solid foundation of historical context to build upon. It is akin to walking into a movie that is near the end and attempting to figure out what is going on. I was never bored. This is one of the few audio books that I fully intend on listening to for a second time.

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esto le resultó útil a 14 personas

Interesting look at American history

Revisado: 03-27-16

I basically liked this course. I learned some things I didn't know before which helps me better understand the people and events that formed the country and world we live in today. It kept my interest and I never once thought of not finishing it.
The only point the lecturer made that I would strongly disagree with is a myth that is all too common. It has been repeated so many times that it is never challenged. What did he say? That WWII ended the Great Depression. War does not create wealth or a sustainable economy. It kills and destroys. IF WWII truly ended the Great Depression then the pathway for prosperity lays before us, let us by all means pack our aircraft carriers and ships of war with hundreds of thousands of members of the military, load them with all means of equipment...tanks, missiles, troop carriers, jets, etc...send them out into the ocean and have our subs sink them immediately. Just think of the prosperity, and we won't suffer damage to our infrastructure or that of any other nation. What ended the Great Depression was twofold, the cessation of the war...the ending of the destruction. The other event that helped end it was the death of FDR which ceased his meddling of the economy. Business activity was allowed to proceed as normal.

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