Living Beyond Belief

Living Beyond Belief PDF

Author: Jaia Lee

Publisher: Beyond Belief Pub

Published: 2005-06-01

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9780975297704

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"It was the summer of 96. At the time I was 100 pounds overweight, severely depressed, engulfed in various addictions, and involved in an eleven year relationship tinged with abuse on every level. Then one day everything changed."Through poetry, personal stories, humor and insights Jaia shares her experience of transformation and offers encouragement and instructions on how to live a 'Life Beyond Belief'

Beyond Belief

Beyond Belief PDF

Author: Jenna Miscavige Hill

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2013-02-05

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 0062248499

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Jenna Miscavige Hill, niece of Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, was raised as a Scientologist but left the controversial religion in 2005. In Beyond Belief, she shares her true story of life inside the upper ranks of the sect, details her experiences as a member Sea Org—the church's highest ministry, speaks of her "disconnection" from family outside of the organization, and tells the story of her ultimate escape. Piercing the veil of secrecy that has long shrouded the world of Scientology, this insider reveals unprecedented firsthand knowledge of the religion, its obscure rituals, and its mysterious leader—David Miscavige. From her prolonged separation from her parents as a small child to being indoctrinated to serve the greater good of the Church, from her lack of personal freedoms to the organization's emphasis on celebrity recruitment, Jenna goes behind the scenes of Scientology's oppressive and alienating culture, detailing an environment rooted in control in which the most devoted followers often face the harshest punishments when they fall out of line. Addressing some of the Church's most notorious practices in startling detail, she also describes a childhood of isolation and neglect—a childhood that, painful as it was, prepared her for a tough life in the Church's most devoted order, the Sea Org. Despite this hardship, it is only when her family approaches dissolution and her world begins to unravel that she is finally able to see the patterns of stifling conformity and psychological control that have ruled her life. Faced with a heartbreaking choice, she mounts a courageous escape, but not before being put through the ultimate test of family, faith, and love. At once captivating and disturbing, Beyond Belief is an eye-opening exploration of the limits of religion and the lengths to which one woman went to break free.

Faith Beyond Belief

Faith Beyond Belief PDF

Author: Margaret Placentra Johnston

Publisher: Quest Books

Published: 2012-09-25

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 0835609057

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Faith Beyond Belief gives a much-needed voice to the “good” people who have left their church but whose spirituality continues to mature. Johnston uses first-person stories as well as known spiritual authorities in describing various stages of religious growth. Some of these real-life accounts are by nonbelievers; others are by those among the growing numbers of the “spiritual but not religious.” All are thoughtful people with too much integrity to live what they consider a lie. The stories of the nonbelievers-including an ex-Catholic, a former Mormon, and a clandestine Muslim apostate who left his community after the attacks of 9/11-show how complete confidence in human reason can lead away from literal religious interpretation. But, while that step is a necessary one on the spiritual path, it is only intermediate. Her second set of stories are of people at the “mystic” level who can tolerate paradox and see truth and reality as multidimensional. Johnston’s book will help doubters to see things in a new light as well as those who are struggling to clarify their own spiritual vision. It also points beyond the atheist/believer controversy wrecking such divisive havoc in our culture today.

Beyond Belief

Beyond Belief PDF

Author: V. S. Naipaul

Publisher: Vintage Canada

Published: 2018-08-21

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0307401456

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Beyond Belief is a book about one of the more important and unsettling issues of our time: the effects of the Islamic conversion of Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, and Malaysia. It is not a book of opinion. It is - in the Naipaul way - a very rich and human book, full of people and stories. Islam is an Arab religion, and it makes imperial Arabizing demands on its converts. In this way it is more than a private faith, and it can become a neurosis. What has this Arab Islam done to the histories of these converted countries? How do the converted peoples, non-Arabs, view their past - and their future? In a follow-up to Among the Believers, his classic account of his travels through these countries, V. S. Naipaul returns after seventeen years to find out how and what the converted preach. In Indonesia he finds a pastoral people who have lost their history through a confluence of Islam and technology. In Iran he discovers a religious tyranny as oppressive as the secular one of the Shah, and he meets people weary of the religious rules that govern every aspect of their lives. Pakistan - in a tragic realization of a Muslim re-creation fantasy - inherited blood feuds, rotting palaces, antique cruelty; then President Zia installed religious terror with $100 million of Saudi money. In Malaysia, the Muslim Youth organization is alive and growing, and the people are mentally, physically, and geographically torn between two worlds, struggling to live the impossible dream of a true faith born out of a spiritual vacancy. A startling and revelatory addition to the Naipaul canon, Beyond Belief confirms the author's reputation as a masterly observer, a "finder-out" of stories, as well as a magnificent teller of them.

Beyond Belief

Beyond Belief PDF

Author: Cami Ostman

Publisher: Seal Press

Published: 2013-04-02

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 1580054420

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"With stories by women from a wide range of religious communities--including Evangelical Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, Calvinist, Moonie, the Unification Church, and Jehovah's Witnesses--the writers in Beyond Belief pull back a heavy curtain to reveal what they love about their lives within these communities, along with the pain that comes from the rigid expectations and diminishment of women so often built into religious orthodoxy."--Back cover.

Living Beyond "What If?"

Living Beyond

Author: Shirley Davis

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Published: 2021-08-10

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1523093285

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Free yourself from self-limiting beliefs and fears that keep you stuck. This book lays out a blueprint for how to take control of your life and begin living your dreams. We all dream. We all imagine. And we all want to live our best life. But why is it that 90 percent of people admit that if they got to live their life over, they would live it differently? What keeps us comfortable with the status quo and unable to get beyond “What if”? In part 1 of this book, Dr. Shirley Davis addresses these and other questions by guiding the reader through a personal journey of self-discovery, a search for significance, and an examination of the self-imposed limitations that can hijack our purpose, power, and possibilities. In part 2, she details the readers' journies toward realizing their dreams by reimagining their lives, identifying their “why,” and developing a life plan to stay focused and accountable. She describes the right questions to ask, the right mindset to adopt, and the right relationships to build that will enable everyone to live the life he or she has always imagined. Dr. Davis reveals the necessary steps for releasing the limits we place on ourselves as a result of life's tests, wrong thinking, and bad decisions. She helps readers overcome paralyzing fears that keep dreams on pause and inspires the confidence to jump first and grow wings on the way down.

Beyond Belief

Beyond Belief PDF

Author: Elaine Pagels

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2004-05-04

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 140007908X

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In Beyond Belief, renowned religion scholar Elaine Pagels continues her groundbreaking examination of the earliest Christian texts, arguing for an ongoing assessment of faith and a questioning of religious orthodoxy. Spurred on by personal tragedy and new scholarship from an international group of researchers, Pagels returns to her investigation of the “secret” Gospel of Thomas, and breathes new life into writings once thought heretical. As she arrives at an ever-deeper conviction in her own faith, Pagels reveals how faith allows for a diversity of interpretations, and that the “rogue” voices of Christianity encourage and sustain “the recognition of the light within us all.”

Beyond Belief to Convictions

Beyond Belief to Convictions PDF

Author: Josh McDowell

Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 9780842380096

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If the church doesn't act now, we will lose a whole generation to postmodernism. Most young people believe that truth is relative to individual beliefs. McDowell insists that truth matters, and that truth changes who we are and how we act. McDowell introduces "relational apologetics, " proving that objective truth is founded on a relationship with Jesus Christ.