
A Secret of the Universe
A Story of Love, Loss, and the Discovery of an Eternal Truth
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Narrado por:
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Stephen L. Gibson
Ian wants answers his faith can't provide, so he abandons traditional religion and its magic, mysticism, and supernaturalism, turning instead to a worldview of pure science and reason.
Bill's path has become that of a devoted Christian who sees the bountiful harvest that can be achieved through spirituality and faith.
When profound revelations lead each friend to uncover shocking historical "secrets" in support of his own worldview, their odyssey plays out on a global stage, with tragic consequences. Only by embracing the inherent mystery and pain of their quest do Ian and Bill make the discovery that really matters - a genuine secret of the universe.
As emotional and hopeful as it is hard-hitting and brutally honest, Gibson's dramatic allegory is fundamentally about beliefs. It's about how we come to form "knowledge" about the big questions in life: God, sexual ethics, morals, political ideology - even which medical treatments we will choose to fight our cancers. More importantly, it's about how those beliefs affect our actions, our lives, and the world around us! Told through two friends' struggle to make sense of life's triumphs and tragedies - which they interpret through very different religious filters.
A Secret of the Universe is both a mirror through which each of us can view our human fallibility, and an illuminating path out of the dogmatism and violence that ail us.
©2007 Truth-Driven Strategies LLC (P)2008 Truth-Driven Strategies LLCListeners also enjoyed...




















There was a lot of promotion of the school of thought that Jesus never existed and the Christian Bible is a collection of recycled myths from other cultures. This could help listeners understand the details of these theories but these arguments are certainly not new. The book says most people don't know about these alternative views because the church has repressed the truth, but many Biblical scholars might say they haven't gained traction in the spiritual market of ideas due to their own lack of merit. The Secret Of The Universe in the book was delivered wrapped in a bunch of spiritual babble and by then end of the book the main characters were making weepy speeches and sounding like they could be members of Oprah's team of spiritual advisors.
Those who embrace more traditional Christian views may have issues with some aspects of the book such as profanity, pre-marital sex by the main characters not seen as inconsistent with their Christian faith, a long-term extra-marital affair portrayed as God's provision of intimacy, an ongoing lesbian relationship approved by the husband because he is glad his wife was able to find another person who could love her as much as he does.
There are discussions in the book about many topics of interest that those who embrace, study, or disagree with Christianity will find helpful and thought provoking. Both sides of controversial ideas are presented for balance, but the balance definitely is not 50/50.
What Secret?
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This was not worth 21+ hrs time to me-21+ hrs about people who mistake cultural norms of some forms of conservative N. America culture for Christianity and slowly see the light. I wish I had downloaded the author's shorter nonfiction instead. Literature can convey philosophy in concise, intuitive fashion; however, this rambles and deals with critical thinking more than epistemology. It lacks female voice and is a very N American (even WASP) centred view of scholarship. Most believers of all faiths are not as intolerant as portrayed. The differences between Islam and Islamist politics are not made clear. Empire & institutional terrorism are not considered. The book could make readers less open to scholarship, not more.
While pre-modern and modern understandings of faith do not suit a postmodern world, faith should not so easily be identified with superstition. Rather than denegrating Christian (or Islamic etc.) faith, the scholarship this novel attempts to popularize needs to be contextualized in experience and creed by adherents. Also, while rationality is important, empirical methods aren't infallible. Being able to perceive and accept paradox and generous orthodoxy better suits the postmodern. Only the very end of the novel hints at this.
The novel underestimates the current availability of ideas: Search Audible (or a bookstore) for the novel's cited Spong, Erhman, Crossman, Borg, Armstrong, or Pagels! Better off reading them for 21 hrs.
While the middle contains an imaginative overview of research such as the Jesus seminar, I recommend fastforwarding to hour 6:25 of part 3, or Googling the parable of the three rings. That's the allegory and essential of the Secret.
Well-intentioned wordy soap
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Readers familiar with Spong, Doherty, and Price will find the material introductory. However, the meat of the story depicts the thought journey of two men, one of which investigates Christian origins and dogma. Gibson shows how life details develop beliefs. I found this interesting.
Works by authors Dan Barker and Tom Loftus focus on the problematic issues of Christian dogma, Gibson takes the reader to the middle ground, where very different views play out in the characters minds. Here I find "A Secret" a bridge between faith and reason.
I would recomend downloading "A Secret" discussion guide from his web site to reference the names of works/authors mentioned in the book.
A good read, hope the book does well.
Bridge from Faith to Reason
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It's not the Da Vinci Code
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