About Finding God: To Believe or Not to Believe
Do you believe in God, life after death, or nothingness? Do you know the origins of the Bible’s New Testament? This book explores the world of science, religion, and atheism and integrates them into the aspects of Twentieth and Twenty-first Century physics. It ponders life and death experiences and includes the author’s own near death experience. Posing many questions about the realm of our existence, it stresses the importance of promoting humanity without exclusionary elements of human prejudice. These and many other contemporary issues are combined with the latest scientific and philosophic theories in the search for real truth of subjects that have brought down entire empires in bloodlust, and have each of us pondering the eternal “Why?” We are in the second century since the collision of science and religion. One is based in empirical evidence; the other is based on thousands of years of pure faith. Hang on as your perfectly ordered world is shaken and stirred – if you have an open mind to believe what is real and allow for possibilities of the yet unknown.
My motivation for the Labor of Love to Write “Finding God: to Believe or Not to Believe”
After I published my first book, a novel called “Only Moments” I decided to press on with a non-fiction book that documented my Near Death Experience that was written in that book ten years earlier before it actually happened to me. I wanted to share those incredible things I’ve had been through with my NDE and how it revealed to me that the core of my beliefs were really right in line with both what I had wrote and the experience I went through. This reinforcement renewed the vigor within me. I have since lived my life knowing what is to come and unafraid of death. This concept grew into a much wider subject as I found myself exploring the world of science, religion and atheism and integrating them into the aspects of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Century physics.
Posing many questions about the realm of our existence, I stress the importance of promoting humanity without exclusionary elements of human prejudice. I chose to make this not just a personal journey but one that could reach out and perhaps bring people of like minds together to show the people of extremist positions that the love humanity and of life itself is more important than killing for any God, regardless of what God that might be. I combined this central theme and many other contemporary issues with the latest scientific and philosophic theories in the search for real truth of subjects that have brought down entire empires in bloodlust, and have each of us pondering the eternal “Why?”
We are in the second century since the collision of science and religion. One is based in empirical evidence; the other is based on thousands of years of pure faith. The book utilizes pop icons and imagery and humor to break up the usual scholarly and tedious reads that usually surround this subject. The book, eventually entitled “Finding God: To Believe or Not To Believe was focused to speak to part of a contemporary worldwide groundswell for what constitutes the thirst for “truth” of religion/spiritualism. I attempt to build a bridge between atheism and the turn of growth to extreme fundamental Christianity and other religions.
I tried to promote a common sense attitude that we do not have all the answers as to an existence of the essential force of our lives. The human race finds itself constantly at war for a cause that has absolutely no empirical data that can prove anything either way. People are looking for a sane intelligent answer to the question “why” and this book helps define the individual and their place in this universe while showing the real abuse of power and myth now and throughout the centuries.
The book also includes details of the repeated sexual abuse I received as a child of ten years-old from my Catholic Pastor, the motivation of fear as tool of empowerment, and the contemporary philosophies as well as the latest theoretical physics concerning God, quantum theory, and theories of the creation of the universe.
The chapters are entitled:
Do you believe in God, life after death, or nothingness? Do you know the origins of the Bible’s New Testament? This book explores the world of science, religion, and atheism and integrates them into the aspects of Twentieth and Twenty-first Century physics. It ponders life and death experiences and includes the author’s own near death experience. Posing many questions about the realm of our existence, it stresses the importance of promoting humanity without exclusionary elements of human prejudice. These and many other contemporary issues are combined with the latest scientific and philosophic theories in the search for real truth of subjects that have brought down entire empires in bloodlust, and have each of us pondering the eternal “Why?” We are in the second century since the collision of science and religion. One is based in empirical evidence; the other is based on thousands of years of pure faith. Hang on as your perfectly ordered world is shaken and stirred – if you have an open mind to believe what is real and allow for possibilities of the yet unknown.
My motivation for the Labor of Love to Write “Finding God: to Believe or Not to Believe”
After I published my first book, a novel called “Only Moments” I decided to press on with a non-fiction book that documented my Near Death Experience that was written in that book ten years earlier before it actually happened to me. I wanted to share those incredible things I’ve had been through with my NDE and how it revealed to me that the core of my beliefs were really right in line with both what I had wrote and the experience I went through. This reinforcement renewed the vigor within me. I have since lived my life knowing what is to come and unafraid of death. This concept grew into a much wider subject as I found myself exploring the world of science, religion and atheism and integrating them into the aspects of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Century physics.
Posing many questions about the realm of our existence, I stress the importance of promoting humanity without exclusionary elements of human prejudice. I chose to make this not just a personal journey but one that could reach out and perhaps bring people of like minds together to show the people of extremist positions that the love humanity and of life itself is more important than killing for any God, regardless of what God that might be. I combined this central theme and many other contemporary issues with the latest scientific and philosophic theories in the search for real truth of subjects that have brought down entire empires in bloodlust, and have each of us pondering the eternal “Why?”
We are in the second century since the collision of science and religion. One is based in empirical evidence; the other is based on thousands of years of pure faith. The book utilizes pop icons and imagery and humor to break up the usual scholarly and tedious reads that usually surround this subject. The book, eventually entitled “Finding God: To Believe or Not To Believe was focused to speak to part of a contemporary worldwide groundswell for what constitutes the thirst for “truth” of religion/spiritualism. I attempt to build a bridge between atheism and the turn of growth to extreme fundamental Christianity and other religions.
I tried to promote a common sense attitude that we do not have all the answers as to an existence of the essential force of our lives. The human race finds itself constantly at war for a cause that has absolutely no empirical data that can prove anything either way. People are looking for a sane intelligent answer to the question “why” and this book helps define the individual and their place in this universe while showing the real abuse of power and myth now and throughout the centuries.
The book also includes details of the repeated sexual abuse I received as a child of ten years-old from my Catholic Pastor, the motivation of fear as tool of empowerment, and the contemporary philosophies as well as the latest theoretical physics concerning God, quantum theory, and theories of the creation of the universe.
The chapters are entitled:
To Dream, Perchance to Live
The Here and Now School of Philosophy 101
Fear
Ex-Christians, Atheists, and Christians, Oh My! (Or Let Us Go, Once More Into The Breach, My Friends)
The Futile Human Attempts of Spiritual Control
The History of the Christian Bible for the Last 1700 Years
(or that Black Book You're Holding Isn't What You Think It Is)
The Experience
In Conclusion
The Here and Now School of Philosophy 101
Fear
Ex-Christians, Atheists, and Christians, Oh My! (Or Let Us Go, Once More Into The Breach, My Friends)
The Futile Human Attempts of Spiritual Control
The History of the Christian Bible for the Last 1700 Years
(or that Black Book You're Holding Isn't What You Think It Is)
The Experience
In Conclusion
Along the relatively short path of human existence our species has embraced religion, atheism, and science. Few will undertake the difficulty in understanding the history of their own particular religion and to be able to find truth and objectivity in published material about this subject is a monumental task unto itself. Then, if one tries to integrate orthodox religious dogma with the aspects of Twentieth and Twenty-first Century physics it is no wonder that many have chosen to step backwards and reinforce the beliefs of a time when there was much less confusion or ambiguity – before The Age of Enlightenment in the 1800’s. I chose to present many questions about the realm of our existence, and stress the importance of promoting positive aspects of humanity without exclusionary elements of human prejudice that foster hate and divisiveness.
About Nicholas Oliva
About Nicholas Oliva
His first book, Only Moments, was published in 2007, which was a novel that followed the lifetime journey of the professional musical career of a husband and wife team to the year 2020.
His latest book is Finding God: To Believe or Not To Believe, now available at Amazon.com as well as Barnes and Noble and will be available in the Kindle Store soon. To visit the website go to http://www.tobelieveornot.com/.
His latest book is Finding God: To Believe or Not To Believe, now available at Amazon.com as well as Barnes and Noble and will be available in the Kindle Store soon. To visit the website go to http://www.tobelieveornot.com/.
Mr. Oliva’s other Websites are OnlyMoments and for his first book Only Moments by Nick Oliva. You can find him on Facebook as well on either the book page Facebook Finding God: To Believe or Not To Believe or his home page http://www.facebook.com/noliva.
Oliva lives in the quiet mountains of Nevada.
Read the Excerpt!
History is made by those who have the blood of others on their swords and keeping track of thousands of points of aggression is impossible, but for scholars. It is easy to confuse hundreds of years with thousands of years. We think the Romans ruled as a unit for hundreds of years but they were part of a process that saw a rise, a stabilization, and then a long fall. We know even less about Greece and the Egyptian Empires, though they are relatively close to our time frame. The ancient civilizations are still many years before these empires and time has eroded their presence. There are but shards of evidence left behind. All this is difficult to put in perspective for the average person trying to get through life with some type of understanding and survive day to day.
The ancient religions of India and the Far East far predate Buddhism, which is usually confused as a religion and not a way of life. That is really more of what religion and belief are supposed to do—meld together so one would practice their beliefs in everyday life. We must begin to recognize the humanness of mistakes and faults and to reach out and spread love to help each other through this short life. These are the real reasons for faith. Faith in one’s self to do the moral and human things necessary to make life bearable. All we have is our ability to create great happiness or great sorrow for others.
Many of us, both religious and non-religious, want to feel what we do is righteous. In order to be righteous, we must do the righteous thing. By this I mean to forgive and forget and to move on with the knowledge, in the end, all that matters is the laughter you’ve spread, the love you made. We cannot control those who have the power to create horrible experiences for their fellow man, but we do have control over those with whom we surround ourselves everyday and our loved ones. Don’t let the big picture overwhelm the importance of your contribution to making the world a better place. It is not as hard as you think.
It begins with you. A mere smile can change someone’s day. A good gesture can make the difference in someone wanting to live or die. Tackle what is around you and leave the worry of what could be harmful for the time being. Do what you can to fight inhumanness and that is all you can do. Struggle is what we humans must do and it never ends. Change is inevitable. It is hard to manage, but it is all we have.
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