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Ask HN: What book changed your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#481

Post by parksy »

spicymaki wrote: post #446
parksy wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atheism is a rejection, non-acceptance, or indifference to theism, which boiled down to its essence is just a non-acceptance of deities being the creator or essence of reality. One can be atheist and hold hard-line rationalist views about the nature of reality, but one can also have spiritual beliefs and be atheist. Agnostics believe that in some way, metaphysical intelligences are involved in the creation or fabric…

Agnosticism does not mean you believe in a metaphysical intelligence that is involved with the creation of the universe. An agnostic believes the answer to the ultimate creation of the universe is unknowable due to the lack of data. I would take it a bit further and say it is impossible to ever know. Even if a powerful being were to appear and perform miracles, I would claim that the evidence is still not sufficient.…

Ah, you're right, I misremembered. Has been a long time since I delved into this stuff. The main gist I guess is the two terms are an axis rather than exclusive. Thanks for the correction and apologies for any misinformation.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#482

Post by kirso »

Bhilai wrote: post #445
kirso wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard so much about Sanderson but never read anything. Where should I start?

I would highly recommend it. If you wanna go systemically, look up guides on how to go about Cosmere. Or you could start anywhere. Stromlight is definitely,imo,his best work.

Wah its like going into a rabbit hole of new universe, love it!

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#483

Post by sn9 »

rsync wrote: post #461
sn9 wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frank Herbert only wrote six books. You only have to read them in order of publication. His son's books aren't as good and in the opinion of many aren't worth the trouble of reading.

Herbert only wrote six Dune books - but he wrote many other books… Jesus Principle / Lazarus Effect / Ascension Factor (trilogy) are very good and very thought provoking.

Fair point. I was only referring to the Dune saga.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#484

Post by nprateem »

emptysongglass wrote: post #423
nprateem wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out Goenka's lectures on YouTube - search "Goenka 10 day". Blew my mind. So much clearer than TMI

I would say TMI is much more technical because it's written for the "Hardcore Dharma" community which is far more technique-oriented than Goenka. Goenka doesn't approach the stages of insight adaptively, which can easily frustrate practitioners of mindfulness whose first intro to meditation is body-scanning. I would rank body-scanning as one of the least efficacious techniques with very poor results when applied to t…

TMI does do a good job of not providing difficult techniques, but the I think Goenka explains watching the breath much more simply and better. He emphasises not grasping or being averse to what arises, and only working with your reality in that moment instead of wishing for things to be different. TMI does mention some of those points but I found the way Goenka reemphasised them to be very helpful

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#485

Post by jasonkester »

kcartlidge wrote: post #468
grecy wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wanted to read the Dune books, but have no idea where to start. It seems like there are so many, and so many prequels and so many optional side stories. Is there an agreed on book to start with and an order to follow?

> Is there an agreed on book to start with and an order to follow? No, so I'll get shot for this but ... read the first (Dune) then stop.

This is the correct order. If you need more dune in the future, you can read dune again.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#487

Post by p0d »

tomjen3 wrote: post #432
Double_a_92 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I'm also slightly confused by those comments. I tried reading it from start to end, and it wasn't that enjoyable. It was mostly lost listings of names about peoples grand grand parents... and things that didn't really fit what was say two sentences ago. Am I missing the "proper" way of reading it? But if there is, that would eventually just leave to cherry picking...

I tried the same, gave up after Lot's daughters got their father drunk and raped him.

The bible is the story of Israel, the life of Jesus, and the birth of the new testament church. It is history, teaching, prophecy and songs. The penny dropped for me many years ago that because it says it in the bible doesn't mean God is happy about it. Just as I am not happy about my own mistakes or many of the goings on in the world today.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#488

Post by thorin »

nsantos wrote: post #332

- The Dune books. The depth of everything in it awes me. Every time I re-read them, I find some nuance I missed from the last reading. The way it portrays politics, religion, and basically the entangled web of life in general blew my mind when I first read it, and still does. - Bio of a Space Tyrant series by Piers Anthony. I'm not sure I can put into words how it has impacted me, though, but it has. I guess it's mor…

I loved Heinlein, but he's not very PC/Woke and it's probably quite dated now. Also very few people in the UK were into it, compared to America. My friends dad introduced both of us, he had stacks of sci fi from second hand shops. He was also the first person I knew who had an IBM compatible PC, as he wanted to "be an author".

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#489

Post by Minor49er »

kk6mrp wrote: post #352
Minor49er wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's important to compare translations and understand why they exist and where they differ. Books like "New Age Bible Versions" by G. A. Riplinger give insight into changes with modern versions like the NIV and NKJV that make deliberate alterations to the text. But even still, it's important to remeber that translations like the KJV has replaced words like "She'ol" and "Hades" with "hell", or even replacing the name…

I agree that there is a huge difference between literal and dynamic translations of the text. That being said, I was recommended "New Age Bible Versions" before and was not impressed, I read through the first several chapters and compared the accusations to the other translations actual text and found most of them to be blatantly false. False as in, her charts said the other translations used words they did not use.…

I'll have to look into that further. I wasn't aware of there being discrepancies between her book and the sources she used. I wonder if it's related to some of the newer translations being constantly updated. For example, the NKJV has been revised since it was originally printed. Here's a short example showing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD_r3_aCvsw

Another book similar to Riplinger's is "Corruptions in the New King James Bible" by Jack Mundey. The writing style is a little enthusiastic, but the author compares several editions of various bibles, showing where and how they changed over time. Both Mundey and Riplinger draw the conclusion that the NKJV and NIV are deliberately changed to mislead people, and therefore are Satanic, though neither one makes any point about the KJV's edits themselves, such as the name of God or translations of "Hell" as I've mentioned earlier.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#490

Post by Minor49er »

JoeyBananas wrote: post #322
Minor49er wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's important to compare translations and understand why they exist and where they differ. Books like "New Age Bible Versions" by G. A. Riplinger give insight into changes with modern versions like the NIV and NKJV that make deliberate alterations to the text. But even still, it's important to remeber that translations like the KJV has replaced words like "She'ol" and "Hades" with "hell", or even replacing the name…

The only translation of the bible that I can tolerate is the "plain english" translation. Otherwise it's just too cryptic and give me a headache

Do you also read commentaries or study guides? They can help with grokking some of the more difficult parts of the text
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