Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1

Is this book written by Satan? Is Neale Donald Walsch a hoax? Is this book anti-Christian? So many things have been said about the conversations with God series that it's clear that this book and it's successors have shocked many, shaken many, and helped many.I'm one of those people who have been helped by this wonderful book. I discovered it about a year ago when browsing the library. In hindsight, I'm convinced that I was lead to this book, but now is not the place to discuss that.What can be discussed is how the book and it's two follow ups changed my life. I used to be a born again christian, but after reading this series, I was...well...born again! This time however, to a new level of thinking and wisdom that surpassed anything Christianity ever offered me.I'm going to be blunt and say that this book has done more for me then the Bible ever did. The bible may have some great stuff in it (God's love, Love is the way to heaven), but it's full of errors and contradictions. Plus, it is a little outdated, having been written roughly two thousand years ago, when slavery was okay, we butchured animals to please the Gods, and stoning a person to death was still common place (fun fact: According to Leviticus, when your child disobeys you, take him or her to the city gates and stone them to death).But Conversations with God is written for the modern era. It's packed with wisdom and insight that's written in common sense, easy to read english. There are so many great messages within this book that it would take forever to list them all, but here are the most important.1. Love is everything2. God is totally loving. God does not judge, condemn, or punish. ever.3. There is nothing you have to do.4. There is no such thing as right or wrong, only individual views. You create your own morality.5. You come here not to learn, but to remember and create yourself anew.Some have said that the conversations with God books basically say that you're free to go out and do anything you want, because there is no such thing as right or wrong. Well, that's true. But as God points out, there are consequences for everything you do. Thus, if you go out and steal, you'll be arrested and go to jail. Negative consequence. If you go out and help the elderly, you'll feel good. Good consequence. So while you're free to do anything you want, there will be consequences of whatever you do. The question is, what consequence do you want?Many, many Christians hate this book and this series, convinced that it's a work of the devil, out to corrupt and turn people away from God. The book also goes against many of the Christian teachings and things said in the bible. I admit that the book does go against many established beliefs, but it's not anti-religious. It points out the mistakes that religion has made, but it is not condemning them. For example, here's how God explains religions (found on pages 152-155)"These areas and questions very often include the subjects most vital for your soul: the nature of God; the nature of true morality; the question of ultimate reality; the issues of life and death surrounding war, medicine, abortion, euthanasia, the whole sum and substance of personal values, structures, judgments. These most of you have abrogated, assigned to others. You don't want to make your own decisions about them."Someone else decide! I'll go along, I'll go along!" you shout. "Someone else just tell me what's right and wrong!"This is why, by the way, human religions are so popular. It almost doesn't matter what the belief system is, as long as it's firm, consistent, clear in its expectation of the follower, and rigid. Given those characteristics, you can find people who will believe in almost anything. The strangest behavior and belief can be-has been-attributed to God. It's God's way, they say. God's word.And there are those who will accept that. Gladly. Because, you see, it eliminates the need to think."I think this explains fundamentalists, bible beaters, and those who believe that Satan wrote these books pretty well.Religions are just another path to God. "Our way is not the way, it is a way". This book says that if you don't like it's messages, then dont read them. Don't believe them. Allow each soul to walk it's path.Some ideas in here are truely life changing. There is no such thing as the devil. Eternal damnation does not exist. There is a hell, but it is nothing like we've visualized it, and it's never eternal (in fact, you can get out whenever you want). God is true love, never judging, never condemning, never sending people to hell. God doesn't command us, God doesn't control us or want anything from us. Best of all, suffering is unnecessary!When comparing this book's messages with those who have visited the spiritual world (via Near Death Experiences), I found that almost all the information it gives (including everything in the above paragraph) is correct. Of course, it's my view that it's correct. You could see it as incorrect. That's okay because it's your view.It goes withought saying that it's best to be open minded when reading this book. Even then, it just won't be for some people. That's fine. They are free to believe whatever they want. Me? I choose to believe this book and it's predecessors.Some have said that the ideas in this book are not entirely origional. So what? Does that make thier value, thier worth any less? Just because the ideas are not origional, doesn't mean that it's worthless.This book is also very deep and has many layers and levels. It takes a long time to truely understand everything it says, so skimping through it isin't going to help you understand it.I've been applying this book and it's follow ups in my daily life for over a year. And you know what? I've had nothing but good things come my way. I now feel more alive, more open then ever before. I am truely free to see the world with a new view. Best of all, I no longer fear God! In fact, I love God more then I ever have in my life.This book wasn't written or inspired by Satan (if he existed). It's a wonderful book that brought me hope and love into my life like never before. It's brought me closer to God then ever before. It's given me an upbeat and optimistic view of life. This book changed my life for the better in every single aspect of it.It's a book of love, hope, and peace. Just look at how many people have been touched by it. The ones who hate it get the most attention, but judging by it's average rating (four stars with over 900 reviews), I think that this book has truely touched the lives of millions.There's a great moment in the classic movie "The Time machine" where a charachter asks at the end, "If you could take three books with you(into the future), what would you take?"My answer?: The conversations with God series.

Is it even possible to have a conversation with God, in the same everyday sense that we can have a conversation with another person? Neale Donald Walsch doesn't claim to have literally heard the voice of God, but he claims that God spoke to him nonetheless, and that he has simply transcribed God's words.* I don't think I'm the right person to take a position on Walsch's claim but I will say that he offers a beautiful and compelling vision of reality and our creative power. His book inspires the excitement and the feeling of recognition that we experience when encountering a deep insight or truth. Readers might find passages in Conversations with God, attributed to God, that sound more like Walsch. But maybe those passages reflect Walsch's limitations, or the reader's limitations in understanding them.In the book, we are told that God encompasses all things, including us. God created us - a part of Himself - so He could experience Himself. A thing can only be experienced in relation to what it is not, and we find both good and bad in the world. But we are urged not to condemn what we call bad in the world. Rather, when we encounter conditions that are inconsistent with what we are or what we want to be, we need to take responsibility for them and ultimately change them through our creative power.The discussion of this - the creative power that we share with God - is the most compelling part of the book. We are told that the creative process begins with thought, becomes more concrete through speech, and more concrete still through action. When we recognize our power to create, we recognize that we are responsible for what exists. This is obviously true on one level: "things are what you make of them" is a commonplace. We have all seen people live up to our high expectations or be dragged down by low ones. We have all transformed a bad situation into a good one (or maybe a good one into a bad one) through our thoughts and actions. But the assertion made here goes much further: we are being told that our creative power includes the ability to manipulate physical matter. This is surely hard for a rational person to accept, but a rational person might at least recognize that our understanding of the physical world is not complete, and that some of its workings might surprise us. A rational person might also accept the possibility that events might be connected in ways that we do not fully understand.Much of the rest of the book answers some metaphysical and cosmological questions: What happens when we die? Will we create a utopia on Earth, or destroy it? Who created God? Some of the answers given are surprising, and I would guess that they will offend some readers. But I think that the big picture presented here will comfort most readers.* A similar claim is made by Helen Shucman, who collaborated on A Course in Miracles, which predates Walsch's book by a couple of decades. Of the two, I much prefer Walsch's, mostly because Walsch is concrete where ACIM is mystical. Walsch's book is also fast and easy to read.