The Book of Life

I must confess that I really struggled with this Kindle ebook. It is hard to see who it is aimed at or what its purpose might be, other than providing the venting opportunity that is a necessary part of any religious rant. There may be good things in it, but they are very hard to find, obscured as they are by poor writing, capitals indiscriminately thrown around and basically what is a very confused line of thought.For the evidence he requires for his theory, the author dips in and out of the various religions, calling on the Christian God, Mohammad and Allah and Lao Tzu among others to bear witness to his ideas. At times he seems to engage people like Jezebel or someone from Babylon in a sort of dialog that doesn't really make any sense - to me at any rate.It was very hard to know at any one time if the words I was reading were intended as they sounded or were something from one of those "good" books that the author was criticizing. An example is the following, which appears in bold text in the middle of the page:"Teach what I teach in this book or else you intentionally choose to remain ignorant, incompetent and immoral and so will end up in hell."Among other confusing passages were:"No matter how many resources are put into education until this section of the book is taught in every high school and every College, graduating students will remain ignorant, incompetent and taught to become immoral hypocrites who say the "nice things" the masses want to hear while doing evil works.""Ignoring me is ignorance."According to the author, there are seven spirits of God. I don't know if this means seven aspects of God or seven spirits that exist in a God they are not part of. But it would seem from this that the author's "theory of everything" is a departure from the viewpoints of religions familiar to us (or to me anyway).I don't wish to be unduly hard on someone who feels as strongly as the author obviously does. My (probably unwanted) advice to him is that he needs to do a complete rewrite. This should first be preceded by a complete rethink. He needs to sort out his thoughts while they are still in his head so that he can then put them down on paper in a logical, coherent sequence that might have a chance of catching the eye of someone interested in this very personal view of God and his expression through the world religions.Before finishing I would like to add that there are some good things about this ebook - here and there it has beautiful pictures of waterfalls, sunsets, and so on. They provide temporary havens for the bewildered reader trying to work her way through the ebook. Unfortunately, the peace gained by looking at these is quickly banished once the flow of words begins again.The earlier part of the book seems to be mainly concerned with religion itself, and the later with its influence on politics, or maybe the other way round. I could not see any real attempt to connect the theory with physics, business, or economics. At any rate, those seeking a "theory of everything" will not find it here. From the point of view of a religious "theory of everything" it also fails, and any adherents to one or other of the world's great religions who manage to read as far as I did are likely to be quite content to stay within familiar folds.

The Book of Life presented some interesting ideas, with a constant reference to religions and how a person's belief influences how they behave.He made several points that I found attractive. The first is that is wrong for a human in the name of religion to use violence against any other human in the belief that the view they hold of God gives them the right to do so. The second is that God is one God despite the religion that the individual practices and as long as the idea that God is love is practiced, the specific religion is irrelevant. The third idea that if a person does not follow religion and live by God is love they are hypocrites and despite lip service to religion, they are not true believers. Fourth, God in any religion has not place in his kingdom for hypocrites.Mix in theories of physics, this was sometimes hard to follow but in other parts extremely interesting. It was not a light read but took some work to understand as it rambled over the problems of the world mixing religious belief with physic theory. It had a very pretty cover.

Mr. Zecos insights are an extraordinary and valuable contribution to anyone trying to understand the world we live in.

Paul Zecos believes he has rationalized the theories of just about everything and has put together what he believes is the solution that will provide for man's salvation.He has some very different slants on the problems man faces and recommends that the answer lies in the "establishment of small Independent Disarmed,Demiliterized Democratic Holy Lands in each nation,for the poor,the weak,the suffering,the alienated and the righteous to live in by love truly,if they choose,and as an oasis of love for the rest." It is an interesting,though laboured read with numerous cross references with not only with the Bible but other books and religious teachings.There is a of what he expounds that is in common to the teachings of most religions.Where he differs is in the proposals he makes.It is human nature for people to look to someone or some institution to lead them to "the promised land" ,salvation or afterlife. Zecos is not the first,nor will he be the last to expound such theories and ideas.In fact,all religions gurus,prophets,and beliefs are similar. As I read this book,I had the thoughts that the people who followed Jim Jones and ended up in the disaster of Jonestown,Guyana,drinking poisoned Kool Aid;or those who followed David Koress and the Branch Dividians, in the debacle of the Mount Carmel Center,near Waco,Texas;also thought they had the prescription of salvation and redemption. There are a lot of ideas expressed that anyone can accept and believe;but one must be very careful when throwing in with a commune led by one fervent individual and allowing someone to control their minds and thought processes.

No, no, no......for this is no-no