Discover a Solid Foundation for Everything The first pages of the Bible cause great turmoil in the minds of many well-educated people because the words of this book are contradicted by much of what we have been taught in twenty-first-century education. Geology teaches us that this world is billions of years old (deep time). Biology makes use of deep time to allow for the evolution of life. Evolution teaches that it is through death and struggle that life continuously improves and advances. In evolution, death is a vital selection mechanism in the removal of less evolved life forms. This death-selection mechanism is imagined as the means in which random changes in DNA is filtered to advance higher life forms. When one opens the Bible, you are given a totally different scenario. Life was specially created on this earth and not very long ago. The creator of life is not death and struggle as Darwinian evolution teaches. Rather the Creator is an all-powerful intelligent Being. He willfully created the universe, the planet Earth, and all life therein. God imposed death upon all living creatures as a result of the original sin of the first humans and is a curse, not a creator. People of faith and those struggling to discover faith are challenged by this battle between science and the Bible. Many Christian believers have decided to consider the first pages of the Bible to be a myth and not to be taken literally. Who is to say, per this view, that God did not simply use evolution to bring about life? Yet when we stop and are honest with ourselves, this compromise causes an ever-present doubt about the validity of the Bible. After all, if it is not correct on the first page, dare we trust the rest of it? There is much more at stake. There exist issues, questions that people want to ask God, which cannot be answered if the first pages are simply myth. In contrast, these questions are answered when the Bible is allowed to mean what it says; let me explain this further: when people of the twenty-first century approach the first three chapters of Genesis, they are tempted to explain away the clear meaning of the original Hebrew text in order to make the text fit into our cultural understanding of origins. But when we allow the Bible to speak for itself following standard rules of Hebrew grammar, it is amazing how much it addresses seminal questions of life. It is then that a person will build a solid foundation for a jubilant life of faith. The first pages of the Bible lay the foundation for all that follows. You might well say that the first pages of the Bible inform us of how everything came to be and forms the true foundation of everything!

Basing his discussion on everyday life in France, Lefebvre shows the degree to which our lived-in world and sense of it are shaped by decisions about which we know little and in which we do not participate.

Reproduction of the original: Mary Wollaston by Henry Kitchell Webster

In his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel treats the religions of the world under the rubric "the determinate religion." This is a part of his corpus that has traditionally been neglected since scholars have struggled to understand what philosophical work it is supposed to do. In Hegel's Interpretation of the Religions of the World, Jon Stewart argues that Hegel's rich analyses of Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Egyptian and Greek polytheism, and the Roman religion are not simply irrelevant historical material, as is often thought. Instead, they play a central role in Hegel's argument for what he regards as the truth of Christianity. Hegel believes that the different conceptions of the gods in the world religions are reflections of individual peoples at specific periods in history. These conceptions might at first glance appear random and chaotic, but there is, Hegel claims, a discernible logic in them. Simultaneously, a theory of mythology, history, and philosophical anthropology, Hegel's account of the world religions goes far beyond the field of philosophy of religion. The controversial issues surrounding his treatment of the non-European religions are still very much with us today and make his account of religion an issue of continued topicality in the academic landscape of the twenty-first century.

Book 5: The Great Commission The Life and Times of Elijah. Glad Tidings Ministry of Reconciliation

Before the Manhattan Project, before nuclear warfare and the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was the twentieth century's great scientific quest to fathom the secrets of the atom. The unlikely story of an Antipodean friendship that changed the world forever. Centered on the inter-war years - within the ivy clad walls of Cambridge University's famed Cavendish Laboratory, amid the windswept valleys of north Wales, and in the industrial heartland of Birmingham - The Basis of Everything is the story of the coming of the atomic bomb, and how the unlikely union of two scientists - Ernest Rutherford, the son of a New Zealand farmer, and Mark Oliphant, a peace-loving vegetarian from a tiny Australian hills village - would change the world. The story that bonds Ernest Rutherford and Mark Oliphant is as extraordinary as it is unlikely. They were kindred souls, schooled and steeped in the furthest frontiers of Britain's empire, whose restless intellect and tireless conviction fused in the crucible of discovery at Cambridge University's celebrated Cavendish Laboratory, at a time when nature's deepest secrets were being revealed. Their brilliance illuminated the sub-atomic recesses of the natural world and, as a direct result, set loose the power of nuclear fusion. It was a heartfelt, enduring partnership, born at the University of Adelaide's modest physics department and then flourishing further in the confines of the Cavendish before ultimately driving the famed Manhattan Project, which produced the world's first nuclear weapons, unleashed to such devastating effect on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rutherford and Oliphant were men with a shared devotion to pure science, who, through circumstance and necessity, found themselves betrayed as instruments of wars they detested but were duty-bound to prosecute. Consequently, their influence was pivotal in the last great global conflict the world witnessed and in engendering the thermonuclear threat that has held the planet hostage ever since. Yet their pioneering work also lives on in a vast array of innovations seeded by nuclear physics, from radiocarbon dating and TV screens to life-saving diagnostic-imaging devices. PRAISE FOR THE BASIS OF EVERYTHING "In The Basis of Everything, journalist Andrew Ramsey has succeeded in telling a story so detailed and compelling that even knowing where it leads does not distract from the journey." The Sydney Morning Herald

What if the Hebrew Bible wasn't meant to be read as 'revelation'? What if it's not really about miracles or the afterlife – but about how to lead our lives in this world? The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture proposes a new framework for reading the Bible. It shows how biblical authors used narrative and prophetic oratory to advance universal arguments about ethics, political philosophy and metaphysics. It offers bold new studies of biblical narratives and prophetic poetry, transforming forever our understanding of what the stories of Abel, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and David and the speeches of Isaiah and Jeremiah, were meant to teach. The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture assumes no belief in God or other religious commitment. It assumes no previous background in Bible. It is free of disciplinary jargon. Open the door to a book you never knew existed. You'll never read the Bible the same way again.

"The texts in this volume represent earlier contributions to the ongoing conversation about the meaning of "the freedom of speech, and of the press," collected and selected to help the reader situate and understand what has gone on before and to advance the contemporary argument in a more informed way."--Introduction, page v.

Books in the Westminster Bible Companion series assist leaders and students in their study of the Bible as a guide to Christian faith and practice. Each volume presents the text under discussion, explains the biblical book in its original historical context, and explores the text's significance for faithful living today. These books are ideal resources for preparing text-based sermons and a worthy addition to seminary courses and advanced Bible study groups. In this volume, John Proctor provides an accessible study on First and Second Corinthians. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians addresses the basic components of human life, such as leadership, marriage, hospitality, and bereavement. The second letter mostly revolves around the pains and joys of a pastoral relationship. Proctor's volume provides insightful commentary that examines how the letters spoke to the people of Corinth and how they are received today.