Hello.
I got the book and I am going to read it carefully.
I am a staunch believer , 68, of Latin descent.
I was born in Argentina of Italian parents and always went to religious schools. I was often first in Religion, I liked the subject a lot.
At the age of 19 we came to Europe (I wish we had never done) and it was only much later that I spent lots of times reading all kinds of essays in order to choose the kind of personality and beliefs I wanted to have.
As a result, considering also that I travelled a lot and had a chance to see the devastating state of mankind, I eventually decided that I was going to live the Gospel as literally as I could, because that was the only thing that made sense to me.
I am glad I did, because to me formal education is important but learning to live a satisfactory way of life is much more important.
I do not give a hoot whether the Universe and life appeared as the Bible says or not. That means nothing to me and it is certainly not on that issue that I am going to base my belief in God.
My belief in God and the Gospel is strong because it has given me the tools to understand almost everything I needed to understand about life and mankind.
Before I read all those essays I went around the world looking for someone who could teach me useful , honest and reliable things about why the world is as it is, how mankind eventually rotted to the state it is now and what to do about it. But I had no luck. I had to do the job on my own and today I can say I am satisfied.
There is no longer any Christian way that we could consider trustworthy in practice and it is certainly not the atheists who can teach me to live a purposeful life.
I did not travel as a tourist (that is a waste of time and money), I spent years in every place I went, South, East and West.
The result can be criticized (I don't care) but what is beyond any doubt is that at least I lived the way I wanted to live and I did not have to waste my whole life doing all the irrelevant things a boss would ask me to do only so that I could get to the age where I was entitled to pension money.
I did not get married or have children but that does not bother me. Luckily, I never felt I wanted to start a family. From an early age, what I wanted most was to have an adventurous life, and I did.
My parents wanted me to go to university and I did so for one year (and passed it) but I could not care less about becoming an engineer.
I had to sweat to get a job and I worked as an office clerk until I was 35 but that was not my cup of tea either. First I wanted to learn about life. Work was secondary. I said to myself: before I die, I want to get to know in what kind of world I am asked to live.
Today people sometimes tell me that I am one of a kind and I take it as a compliment. Having known the world and mankind well enough, I would hate to be just one more of many.
Not without enormous difficulties, I leart to live the Gospel way and I can testify that the result, including all the "irrational" aspects of it, do in fact happen once you got the hang of it.
After all, one could question the fact that Jesus died on the cross, but no one can deny that Gandhi was killed, Luther King was killed, Kennedy was killed. In this world, when you want to improve it, you have to have the guts to face hatred and opposition.
Anyway, I am going to read this book and post my comments.
Cheerio