A Major Concept in the Book and Two Similar Books:

How unique or "far out" is The Primacy of Stewardship? Are there any other books like it, with similar content? Other books defending a similar position on the meaning of the Gospel message? Yes, there are two.

Lots of people helped me write The Primacy of Stewardship (POS), but I did not meet any of them. I read their books, and their names as authors are listed in my bibliography (225 authors) but there were others also. A few of the authors I read before writing POS suggested that many cultures around the world have religious myths about gods who came from the heavens to teach humans something, some form of valuable knowledge or technology. For example, the ancient Greek myth of the genesis of human civilization is when Prometheus (a Titan or god) stole the secret of how to make a fire from Zeus (The Boss God) and taught that secret about fire to humans. That was the beginning of human civilization. Actually, I believe that this ancient Greek genesis myth makes the most sense of any. It has scientific validity because we would have little or no technology if we were afraid of fire, as are all other animals, and if we did not make fires for any reason. Other authors, including anthropologists, have documented that many human religions or religious traditions, including Native-American religions, identify gods or a God who speaks to humans about physical science, factual information that is intended to be helpful to humans, like a parent teaching a child.

After writing my book, I combed through more recent books on the Christian religion, and I found only two that describe and defend concepts that are somewhat similar to my own viewpoint: Love Wins by Rob Bell and God is Red by Vine Deloria, Jr. If you found something you liked in either of these books, you are definitely ready to take another step toward the third level of doubt and read The Primacy of Stewardship.

Level #1 of doubt is about the existence of a Creator God (cannot be resolved by reason and scientific method); Level #2 of doubt is about the existence of life after death (cannot be resolved by reason and scientific method); Level #3 of doubt is about setting aside childhood indoctrination that the Gospel -- God speaking to us -- could only be about moral behavior and rewards and punishments, and thinking instead about how the Gospel could convey helpful scientific information. The third level of doubt can be resolved by reason and the scientific method, by asking: "What do the parables actually say?" and, "Is what the parables say credible?" For a bit more detail on this scientific method, you will find on this website The Two Principles and Five Questions (Synopsis), the experimental procedure that you can use to study the New Testament again, with new eyes, with eyes free to follow the path of the truth wherever it may lead. What I am saying, therefore, is that my mission is not just to sell my book. Instead of buying my book you can do the same thing that I did -- study the New Testament Gospel using the two principles and the five questions. That will require more work on your part. If you read my book instead, you will get the benefit of the thirty-five years of study I completed before feeling sufficiently certain that I received the right message. The right message, the message intended to be accurately sent from the source and accurately received by us, is really clear once you remove the bi-polar and punitive God from your brain and just relax and expect the Gospel message to give us important scientific knowledge. One of the fundamental principles in the science of human psychology is that people usually hear what they expect to hear. If you want to hear the science in the Gospel message, all you have to do is expect to hear it.

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