Laramie, WY, – People seem to have very definite opinions and care deeply when it comes to the issues in evolution versus religion. Ron Frost takes on this debate in his book, Religion Versus Science: Where Both Sides go Wrong in The Great Evolution Debate (O-Books). An editor for two major scientific journals and a professor of Geology for many years, he brings a new perspective to this ongoing argument.
The great debate between scientists and Christians has been going on in this country since the Scopes trial in 1927 and has yet to lose its fury. It is a subject that has been the root of many cultural wars that separate secular, technical people, whose interest is in science, from Christians and followers of other religions. It seems the debate has continued because the supporters of both sides see only a partial view of reality. By shedding new light on this often troubled relationship, Frost presents a new viewpoint of evolution that is compatible with all the world’s wisdom traditions.
The author believes that misconceptions exist on both sides of the debate, and in his book readers get the benefit of his extensive research that helps clear up some of these ideas. There are two things that have to be accepted if we expect to find a common ground between science and religion. First, the scientific evidence upon which the theory of evolution is based is hard to refute: the Earth is immensely old; all life can be traced to one ancient progenitor, and the species that have populated Earth have changed over time. Second, the common nature of the mystical experiences that form the roots of all religions indicate that we are immersed within a spiritual dimension.
What has been an irritant to Christians is that scientists use the facts of evolution to present a totally materialistic view of life, one that leaves no room for a spiritual dimension. Evolution is often depicted as a random, pointless process where the only value to human life is to act as a transporter of our all-important genes. It is understandable why Creationists are appalled by this view; in trying to answer it they make the mistake of attacking the actual facts of evolution rather than the manner in which those facts are presented. In Religion versus Science, Frost, using a premise that evolution has occurred within the bounds of a spiritual dimension, presents a view that is compatible with both the scientific evidence for evolution and with the core teachings of the world’s religions.
Ron Frost has been an editor for two major scientific journals and a professor of Geology at the University of Wyoming for many years. Combining his background with twenty-five years as a practicing Buddhist makes the perfect blend for finding a common ground between science and religion. For more information, please visit the author’s website at: www.ronfrost.com or see the author in a live interview at: http://geology.uwyo.edu/?q=node/281.
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TIP SHEET:
Karl Giberson, Ph.D., author of Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution, and Oracles of Science: Celebrity Scientists Versus God and Religion with Mariano Artigas: “Frost’s remarkably wide-ranging volume offers the reader a helpful survey of the troubled road that led to the current controversy over scientific theories of origins. More than just another book on creation versus evolution, Science vs. Spirituality locates the controversy in the inability of science to deal effectively with the realm of consciousness and mind, where our deepest needs and most profound experiences reside. Writing from an eastern, Buddhist perspective, Frost offers a fresh perspective on one of the deepest questions of our time.”
San Antonio, TX, – San Antonio evangelical preacher Matthew Hagee’s new release Response Able: What my father taught me about life and making a difference (Charisma Media) offers the insights of a lifetime on parenting, self-reliance and affecting societal change. The key to any significant transformation, according to Hagee, is a refusal of the sense of entitlement often associated with Gen-Y and Millennials. Instead, Hagee argues that readers should embrace self-reliance and acknowledge the individual’s God-given ability to respond in a positive manner, regardless of the circumstances.
“One of the most valuable lessons my father taught me was to focus on what I can do, rather than what I cannot,” says Hagee. “If your life is on a course that you would indeed like to change, you can change it. No matter what.”
Matthew Hagee, the son of global evangelist John Hagee, serves as Executive Pastor of the 20-thousand member Cornerstone Church founded by his father in San Antonio, Texas. The elder Hagee launched the church more than three decades ago, growing it into one of the most influential and charismatic Christian communities in the country. The companion TV ministry now reaches almost 100 million homes in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa and New Zealand. Matthew Hagee, the heir-apparent to the church and TV ministry, uses many lessons taught by his father as the framework of Response Able.
With some parents working two jobs or both parents working more than 40 hours a week, Hagee wants to help parents break the cycle of shrinking family time in America. To do this, he has issued a provocative challenge to the parents in his flock. He calls it the 707 Challenge and he wants parents to sign up for this ongoing campaign that requires moms and dads to commit to spending at least seventy minutes per day with their children, seven days a week, for seventy days.
“The time has come for this generation to take responsibility for tomorrow,” says Hagee, “and the response begins with you.”
Hagee’s book offers faith-based insight and guidance on initiating powerful change in personal, social, financial, educational and political arenas. Hagee bases his premise on a conviction that principle should be the compass by which to guide one’s life, and not passion.
“Principles are powerful,” says Hagee. “They will make men out of boys and instill a foundation in future generations that cannot be shaken.”
Other foundational concepts offered in the book include:
Responsible people submit to authority, namely God Declare war on the status quo Invest in others, primarily children Patience rewarded Gratitude The joy of giving
And many more concepts chiseled into his character by his father’s loving guidance. For more information on this remarkable man and his new book, visit: www.response-ablethebook.org.
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For more information, or to schedule an interview, contact Jeff Brady at Brady Media Group. 214.265.5670. [email protected]
Overland Park, KS, November 10, 2011 – Visionary-political novelist Bill Douglas has an obvious gift for writing novels that seem to foresee what is going to happen – before it happens! His latest spellbinding novel is no exception. A Conspiracy of Spirits – Wall Street vs. The 99% (Illumination Corporation Publishing) was years in the making, yet the release of this environmental thriller couldn’t be more timely in today’s world climate where its visionary tales are coming true.
This fascinating story is about two people living in different parts of the country who are besieged by visions of the Arctic; one a corporate ladder-climber in southern California who wakes up in the middle of the night to find himself naked in his backyard, compelled to write down the feelings that are tearing his heart and mind apart. The other is fifteen hundred miles away – the nine year-old daughter of illegal Mexican immigrants who is plagued by cataclysmic visions of polar bears.
Simultaneously, an elderly Chinese woman living in Kansas is shocked by violent visions of a young girl and a man connected in the vast web of life and this web has been disturbed by a crime of such proportion that its perpetrators have the blood of nations on their hands. She is powerless to do anything but watch as the chaos from the crime tears at life’s fabric, leaving the two strangers’ lives shattered in its wake. Their survival is entwined with the fate of us all. The question is – will they make it? Will we?
The breakneck pacing of this latest thriller proves to be yet another white-knuckle ride, taking readers deep into our political system and environmental and economic justice issues, with characters who struggle to do what is right rather than what is habit.
So begins . . . a conspiracy of spirits.
Douglas’s first fast-paced thriller 2012: The Awakening received rave reviews, including one from Deepak Chopra, and was named Best Fiction of the Year by Spiritual Enlightenment Magazine.
When a global human awakening shakes the very foundations of powers that have ruled the world for eons, unlikely heroes struggle to find a new way to survive.
The lives of a bookish heroine, a burned-out Naval Intelligence Officer, and a deadly covert operations’ professional become entwined in a riveting thriller that unravels threads of the ancient beginnings of human consciousness. Their struggle parallels that of everyone on the planet today. Douglas expertly weaves current global issues in an ageless story that blends history, science, socio-politics and spirituality; thrusting the reader into pulse-pounding excitement on a roller-coaster ride of twists, turns and intrigue that leaves readers breathless, riveted and reeling!
In Bill’s soon-to-be-released autobiography; A Call to Duty – Miracles DO Happen!, he’ll discuss this ability of prescient thought being common to his entire family. They are descendants of a clan from the highest of the Scottish Highlands – a people known throughout Scotland for having “the second sight,” the involuntary ability to glimpse future events. Bill describes how his grandfather, Isaac Douglas, predicted JFK’s assassination days before it occurred.
The absorbing, visionary plots in this author’s novels have all the makings of incredible movies. For more information on this creative writer, please visit: www.conspiracyofspirits.com.
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TIP SHEET:
Deepak Chopra: “What a gift!”
Spiritual Enlightenment Magazine: “2012 The Awakening chosen Best Novel of The Year – With a thought-provoking, gripping and engaging storyline, no other fiction that came out this year even came close.”
Midwest Book Review: “Riveting … a must”
Enlightenment Dudes Book Review: “Mind blowing – Ten out of ten stars!”
Coleen Rowley, TIME Magazine Woman of the Year/FBI whistleblower: “Visionary!” Holmes Osborne, Actor: The Box; The Quiet American; ER; Boston Legal; The X Files: “RIVETING! With the suspense of a Da Vinci Code, the spiritual awareness of The Secret, and the fearsome aspect of Orwell’s 1984, what a terrific film this book will make!”
Torrance, CA. – A Buddha is one who has attained the highest level of enlightenment in the Cosmos and Buddhism teaches that the Cosmos contains innumerable worlds similar to ours, with countless number of Buddhas. Buddhism also teaches that there are fifty-two levels of enlightenment, the highest of which is called the “enlightenment of a Buddha.”
The Story Of Buddha: A Graphic Biography (Ichimannendo Publishing) by Hisashi Ota is believed to be the first book on the life story of Buddha and his teachings in Manga – a revered practice by the Japanese of using comics for explanation and illustration,.
When the Buddha was a young man he was called Siddhartha and he dealt with similar struggles that we have today. He was born as a crown prince and was blessed by having an extremely beautiful wife. He had it all – money, fame, position, wealth – there was nothing he needed yet even with all of his possessions he was not totally happy. He felt there was something missing in his life and he wondered how there could be meaning in the same routine day after day. That is when he went in search of happiness…and a search for answers to the age-old question, “what is the meaning of life?” began. Little did this dissatisfied prince from the foothills of the Himalayas know that 2,600 years later he would be considered one of the world’s greatest sources of religious inspiration!
Hisashi Ota, the author of this remarkable book, was born in Japan and graduated from Nagoya University’s School of Science.
New York – Dr. Robert Forman hits it on the head when he says that millions are spending years and years seeking enlightenment but they are looking in the wrong place for the real life goal. He has learned from his studies and his long journey to gain enlightenment that what we modern westerners are really after is not a shift in a state of consciousness but more a shift in a whole life.
Where Dr. Forman’s new book differs from most spiritual or self-help books is that his book, Enlightenment Ain’t What It’s Cracked Up To Be: A Journey of Discovery, Snow and Jazz in the Soul (O-Books), cuts through all the hype and ‘pie in the sky’ claims that so many self-help books are based on, and shows what the goal of attaining enlightenment is actually about.
From copious research as well as his own 39 years’ experience of spiritual enlightenment, Dr. Forman tells what it actually is and is not like, and offers sane and experienced guidance to readers who are battling with confusion over their life direction. Some are convinced they don’t have what it takes to achieve enlightenment in this lifetime or are disillusioned by spiritual teachers who don’t live up to their exalted image, while others are hungry for a different way – knowing it’s out there but having no idea where to turn to find it, and worrying that choosing a spiritual life means leaving their everyday life behind.
We can all take something away from the story of Dr. Forman’s lifelong struggles to make sense of the spiritual life and its unusual promised state of consciousness and the misleading fantasies that he, like most people on the spiritual path, shared about enlightenment. It is not the panacea it is billed to be, nor is it the perfection, eternal joy, or the end of all the suffering that people believe – and no, neon lights do not flash!
Enlightenment Ain’t What It’s Cracked Up To Be invites readers to be honest about their spiritual experiences and goals and consider a radically different yet more productive approach. By exploring his own experience of spiritual enlightenment and lifetime of research, Dr. Forman shows that it is possible to create resonance in every aspect of your life with the same easy openness that you get when sitting in prayer or on the meditation cushion, but in order to reach this ease we must “embrace the human messiness” that is too often ignored or outright rejected by most spiritual traditions. He understands this well because his own life journey was filled with confusion, disappointment and disillusionment that he had to fight every step of the way.
Dr. Forman’s unique book offers its newfound hope to spiritual seekers in a very different way: through metaphors, humor, vulnerability and sometimes achingly beautiful prose. He presents a new direction for people who are looking for a sane and healthy spiritual pathway in our increasingly confusing world – one that offers a transformation of everyday life.
Robert K.C. Forman writes with the authority of a lifetime of personal mystical experience and international renown for his books, articles and workshops about spiritual experience and the path. He makes an entertaining and charming guest who encourages listeners/audiences to be honest about their real-life goals as he points them on the road to a truly fulfilling life
Jack Canfield, Co-creator of the NY Times #l Bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul series: “Enlightening… more than a memoir of a profoundly revealing spiritual journey. It is a deep invitation to be your authentic self–to fully own, embody and express every aspect of yourself. The honesty, openness and transparency of Robert’s spiritual journey instantly captivated me. I read the book in one long, joyous sitting. I literally could not put the book down…illuminating, entertaining and impactful. If you’re looking for guidance as to what is truly spiritual and enlightening, then read this book! It is definitely chicken soup for the spiritual seeker’s soul!”
Larry Dossey, MD. Author of Healing Words & The Power of Premonitions: “Enlightenment Ain’t What It’s Cracked Up to Be is a bone-deep description of the decades-long spiritual journey of Robert K. C. Forman, one of America’s most respected spiritual teachers. If ever a book was written from the heart, this is it. It is both a summation and an update of a work in progress…describes the dazzling heights of spiritual awareness, but it also lays bare the twists, turns, and surprises of spiritual maturation, warts and all. Beware: If you need your spiritual guide to be serious, elevated, reserved, and pious, go elsewhere. But if you want eye-ball to eye-ball honesty, integrity, and humor supercharged with compassion, love, vulnerability, and deep wisdom, this is your book.”
