Rating: 
Summary: READ the book before reviewing it!!
Review: Doesn't it say, right before the link to write a review, that "I have READ this book and want to review it.." Yeah, and many of the people giving this book bad reviews haven't even read it, you've just taken what other people have told you about the book and written a review based on that. But I guess your used to doing that, since you've been listening to those sermons. But anyway, NO this book IS NOT "feel good spirituality" God never says "do whatever you want", in fact I will directly quote the book for those of you who have failed to read it:
"..Yet hold to your beliefs, and stay true to your values, for these are the values of your parents, your parents parents; of your friends and your society. They form the structure of your life, and to lose them would be to unravel the fabric of your experience..."
So, there you have it. PLEASE, please read this book. ESPECIALLY if you wish to criticize it...
Rating:
Summary: A different view
Review: I think I read all three books in a month. I couldn't put the books down. What a different view to believe God doesn't judge you. That doesn't mean you are to go around killing people. We all know how to behave. We all know when we are doing something wrong. I loved it and everyone I have passed it down to loves it too.. Well done!!! Read the book with an open mind....
Rating: 
Summary: provocative
Review: We have, as a culture, (Western) been accused of having too much of material things, and not caring enough about anything or anyone else in the world. Here we have a book that proposes that we should all be more concerned with "self" rather than anything else. Surely a compassionate God would want us to be more in tune with others, is he (Walsch)saying we only have a vindictive God, One whom we should ignore because we've "evolved" beyond that concept? I really don't know what he's trying to say, but I don't think he's objective, and I'm sorry, I don't feel that his ideas are sound or anything but an old diatribue for an atheist to dispute a Christian, nay, even a Jewish or Muslim belief. He seems to take things from the Bible and paraphrases it to suit his thoughts. In quite a few instances he is totally out of context. Read it to get a really different view, but I don't believe it should be encouraged reading for young people who are very vunerable. I'm told it's on the Scolastic Book Club list of books, and I don't think that's appropriate...but that's just my opinion
Rating:
Summary: Who is the joke on?
Review: The following is part of a longer review I wrote for this book. I'd provide the URL for that review except that Amazon respectfully requests that we not put URL's in our reviews.Among the several criticisms of Christianity in this book, God takes a few pot shots at those who accept the Bible as the authoritative word of God. She writes that, "By listening to what other people think they heard Me say, you don't have to think at all" (p.6). The uncritical reader, already hostile to Christianity, will find himself laughing right along with God at all the mindless fundamentalists, but they will be completely oblivious to how Walsch is poking fun at his own readers. Those who continue to buy Walsch's sequels to Conversations With God and pay $$$/year for his news letters are, themselves, "listening to what other people think they heard Me say," and about those people, God says they "don't have to think at all." I could not miss the humour in thinking that Walsch was poking fun at the very people who are supporting him financially. Another criticism Walsch has of Christianity is the belief that God punishes people and that there's such a thing as original sin. Pay careful attention to how God suggests that we get rid of those erroneous views. She says, "You can undo the teaching by reading and re-reading this book. Over and over again, read it. Until you understand every passage. Until you're familiar with every word. When you can quote its passages to others, when you can bring its phrases to mind in the midst of the darkest hour, then you will have 'undone the teaching''' (p.120). So apparently, the way to get rid of the beliefs in original sin and a punitive God is not by thinking and reasoning, but by brainwashing yourself with what somebody else claims that God said to them--the very thing that supposedly removes the need to think. If, in the end, you decide you want to deprogram yourself from all that Walsch has brainwashed you into believing, I recommend getting a basic book on logic and reading it over and over again until you understand every passage and are familiar with every word so that you can quote it to other people. Once you understand logic, you will have undone what Walsch has taught you.
Rating:
Summary: Independent Thought is a GOOD thing
Review: I first read this book more than 4 years ago. To be quite honest, it changed my life. It took the organized, gray way I looked at things and twisted them into bright, colorful images that resonated within my soul. I was raised in a strict religious home/community and found the hypocracy intolerable. I don't think Mr. Walsch promotes "selfsihness" as some others have reviewed. I think he promotes the "highest thought of the grandest vision" you could have about yourself - which thereby increases your compassion and lack of judgement upon others. Really, if you're not going to be good to yourself, how can you be good to anyone else?
This book encourages us to think for ourselves; to not simply follow along like sheep; to explore the inside world of spirituality instead of taking someone's word for it; and most of all to act out of love instead of fear.
I'm not quite sure where my life would be today had I not picked up this book those several years ago.
Rating:
Summary: It's rare that I can't finish a book..
Review: ..but I could not make myself finish this one. I have believed for a long time now that all religious doctrines at their most basic level are all telling humanity the same things: "you know when you're doing something wrong, so don't do it; do unto others as you'd have done to you." As with any kind of doctrine, religious or otherwise, individuals and/or organizations will re-interpret, alter, confuse, criticize, twist, etc, etc, those doctrines to serve their own purposes. As I began reading "Conversations with God", it appeared at first to confirm my own theories. I eagerly looked forward to reading it through. But before I finished the first chapter, I couldn't return it to the bookstore fast enough. I didn't even want it collecting dust on my bookshelf. I found it superficial and self-serving. To quote another Amazon review titled "God of Baby Boomers", 12/12/1996: "The morals (or the lack thereof) in the universe seem a TAD convenient for what the boomer generation is hungry for (essentially, do what feels good...and gobble up all the money and sex that feels right for you)." I admit I am no literary critic. Bottom line, this book just creeped me out.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting...
Review: As someone who works for a hotel which has housed the "Conversations With God" seminars, I can safely say that the author of this text is amazingly rude for someone who claims to speak to God. Remember Mr. Walsh, the Divine loves all people, even those underlings who work the front desk and arrange your overpriced 'classes' :)
Rating:
Summary: Finally God and life makes sense.
Review: Before I read this book I was an agnostic. I was raised a protestant Christian and all of the hypocrisy turned me away from God. I was skeptical when I picked up this book, what a brilliant way to cash in, tell everyone you had a conversation with god! However the deeper I got into the book the more I was moved, the more I started to believe. I simply couldn't argue with what was written, it gave me peace, joy and I felt harmony with the universe, I finally found god. I have read many of the reviews in here with dismay. So much of the message of these books were lost on some people. You don't have to believe in god to understand that this philosophy of life makes sense and would vastly improve our lives and the lives of everyone if we all thought this way. To tackle the topic of homosexuality. I never understood why anyone cared, if you truly believe in the bible and a wrathful god would he not take care of them in the afterlife? So leave them alone, let them live their blasphemy if that's what you think. But I will tell you a story: my grandfather a devoute christian, studied the bible and toured the States to pass his message found himself in the ultimate dilemma, his youngest son came out as being gay. Now does he stick to his beliefs and cast his son out of his life, or does he re-examine his beliefs and and see the many holes in it? He has since gone back to the bible and saw the contradictions, he developed a new relationship with god and was able to embrace his gay son. Pain and suffering is not nessesary, and to inflict it on others goes against the teachings of God, "do unto others as you would have done unto yourself" this includes gays, people of all races and religions, drug addicts, criminals and the so called evil. Always do unto others, that is what God taught you, that is what you preach, so go one step further and practice what you preach! There are no exeptions, love everyone the same despite what you may believe, this is the only path to peace.
Rating:
Summary: books that speak to my heart
Review: These books speak to the part of us that we seldom acknowledge. They speak to our soul. I am so often moved by the words in these books for this reason. They touch a part of me that goes beyond any words or reason. I don't know what kind of things I can say to communicate what these books mean to me. They simply have shown me what is true, and brought great peace, joy, and love into my life.
Rating:
Summary: Only appreciated by those with critical thinking
Review: Some people actually think they have critical thinking skills when it is obvious they don't. If one had actually read the book then perhaps one would have picked up on some of the key points. One of which is that We are all One. Separateness is an illusion. That is why Jesus said what you do unto the least of my brothers you do unto me. Everything you cause another to experience you will one day experience, is one of the points brought across in convo with god series. Thus as for consequences? They are obvious: If you cause another to experience something you will one day experience it because you and the other are one. I repeat twice since the once or twice in the book wasn't enough for those with serious judgement filter up. The book obviously evokes strong emotions in even those who label it as bad. I know if I read a book and thought it was bad I wouldn't bother writing a review slating it. That is assuming I even finish it. Food for thought where this book is concerned.
|
