I have to say that this book was very big, fairly expensive and NOT HELPFUL. I got a 60 on the Humanities exam, but not ONE question on the actual CLEP exam was in this book. I would suggest saving your money & going to the library to look at art books, listen to classical music, read literature and rely more on your stock knowledge of the fine arts. Had I not had a good background, I would have surely not passed. Not worth the study time.

This book proved to be a comprehensive study guide for the Humanities CLEP. However, it is not enough to pass on its own. I would highly recommend purchasing additional general CLEP studies guides in order to take more sample tests. The sample tests in this CLEP guide are much more basic than the test. Also, you must supplement this guide with a good visual book of art & architecture from B.C. to present day. There are quite a lot of visuals of paintings, sculptures and architectural items to identify.

THIS REVIEW IS FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED TO TAKE THE CLEP GENERAL EXAMS, BUT HAVE LITTLE OR NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE IN THE TEST SUBJECTS

I just took the new computerized Natural Sciences General exam.I took it on May 16th, 2002.

I reviewed information in this book, and Cracking the Clep, and Comex Books. THANK GOODNESS I HAD THIS BOOK. Every review I read said that that Cracking the Clep was best. After I studied that book, I thought I would Ace the test. The questions in Cracking the Clep was a lot easier than the ones on the new test.

When I was studying this book, I couldn't answer more than 60%-70% correctly. The material in this book was diverse and alot harder than the other books.

This turned out to be the KEY! Not one question in any of the books showed up on the test. NONE! However, since this book asked the broadest array of question, and had the broadest array of material, I was exposed to a vast expanse of what COULD be on the test. I learned the CONCEPTS. And That is the KEY to Passing.

I scored in the 94th Percentile. and finished the test 34 minutes early.

I do recommend Cracking the Clep as your first review. However, if you can get about 60%-70% of the answers right in this book, you should be well versed to pass the newer computer version of the Natural Sciences test. Get this book. Take the Practice Tests, and review your wrong answers.

7/18/02 Update ***
I used this book to study for the Social Science and History general exam also. I passed last week with 98% (percentile) in 42 minutes! -Before I studied, I knew virtually nothing of this subject nor Natural Sciences. This book, The companion book "Best review..., and Cracking the Clep (plus the Comex books) are all slightly different. However, If you know NOTHING about your subjects, these four books are essential. They are all you need.

I also just passed the English Comp with Essay using these books.

Remember, no matter what anyone says, NONE of these books will give you the answers directly on the test. What they do is expose you to general concepts, so many in fact, that when you see one on the test, you will have a good chance to choose the correct answer.

The CLEP is designed to be a general test. To pass, you have to know a little bit about a lot. This book, along with the others do just that. If you can pass the sample tests in this book with even 60% correct, using the scoring system in the book, you
can be assured that you will pass the clep. Don't waste your time at the library pouring over questionable material.
Use the above books. Read each. take the practice tests. Review your wrong answers only.

If you can get even 60% correct on all of the practice tests in this book, you will pass the Clep handily.

One final word: None of these books alone expose you to enough information if you previously did not know the subject. Use the books like this:

1. Best Review ... - Best general reading material
2. Cracking the Clep - Closest structure to the actual test, but
questions are very easy. Good confidense builder.
3. Best Test Prep (this book) - Hard diverse questions
4. Comex Books - Good Hybrid of all books, but not complete on
it's own.

If you use all four of these books, you will go into the tests with confidence and will score a lot higher than you would imagine.

This book is great for actually stepping through installing and configuring the infrastructure. All chapters have sections that have screen shots and how to instructions. However, if you are trying to pass the 70-217 you need more than step by step how to instructions. You need answers to why something works, and this book does not provide those answers.

New Riders belong to my top 5 MCSE book authors, but I am a little disappointed about this one.

There are several errors in the book, and some wrong cross referrals. Which means they say to look in a particulair chapter to find specific information, and after re-reading the chapter several times you cannot find to what the referred.

Furthermore I think they don't go deep enough on some subjects. There could be more challenging Step-by-steps then provided in the book, like more step-by-steps for problems you may encounter real-world.

So why is New Riders still in my Top 5?
A very positive thing about New Riders books is that they are easy to read, and make difficult and technical problems more consumable for the less experienced users. Especially users whose native language isn't English (like me :-D).

User who still think they need some extra information on this particulair exam, I would recommend Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure Administration: Study Guide with ISBN 0782129498.
70-216 is one of, if not the most, tough exam in the MCSE track, so I think you'll need it.

This book is not a bad book. It covers the topics from the Table of Contents quite well. Unfortunately, it does not cover ALL of the exam topics. Newriders is my publisher of choice for MCSE 2000. This book is the weakest link in the series so far (6 down, 1 to go, passed each exam on first attempt) To be fair to the publisher, this is probably the toughest exam of the series. Quite the skull scratcher.

My feelings about the prep books on the market for this exam leave me a bit torn. Seems reasonable that the toughest exam would cause a writer to generate a weak book, then again, wouldn't you expect the publisher to put their absolute strongest writing up against the toughest MCSE exam? I used 2 other books to prep for this exam, Exam Cram for 216, and belive it or not, Exam Cram for TCP/IP, since both the Newriders 216 book and the Exam Cram 216 book refer you to other works when it comes to covering subnetting. I guess they felt that previous books covered that material so well, that to try again would offend the gods.

My point is this: this is a tough exam, and all of the prep companies have sold us short. This is the thinnest book in each publisher's series. You might need more that one vendor's prep book for this test. Using 2 other books got me through it first time. My coworker needed 2 tries to pass. Best of luck to you. Hope this helps you in your efforts.

As a practicing Taoist, I find this book very silly and just a book to appeal to a christian whom is disatisfied being a christian...As a Taoist I find christianity does not relate and the thinking is primitive...why do christians have to bother with other peoples views if their religion "worked" for them to begin with..study on this...

To be part
and object part
is to set apart
from the whole (hole)
Be at rest
and be
Enjoy..

Book is part -
take from, give to or be with it
your part.
Add to - take from - be with it
make it part of you and you a part of it.

Not bad - not great - good book and many stars.

I am puzzled over the hateful reviews of this book. The reviewers cannot have read the book, and seem to have a borderline pathological hatred of Christianity, or what they think is Christianity. The subtitle of this work really gives away its intentions: it is 1. experimental, and 2. understanding.

My family is Chinese, and my grandfather was a Taoist priest back in China. We are practising Taoists, not new-age Taoists or disgruntled ex-Christains who read the Dao Deh Ch'ing and decided to call themselves Taoists. So I think that I can speak about this book. I find nothing offensive about its content, and I think that Jesus has much to teach Taoists. I wish a Taoist "theologian" would write a similar book, and I smile to think that maybe we are talking about the same thing. After reading this book, I am glad to be a Taoist, but I am appreciative of people like Br. Loya in the Christian tradition who take the time to understand and experiment with the edges of human faith.

After reading 'My Life Without God' & the reviews here of it, i'll say this. It's an interesting story; I could have done without the graphic details of his life & his mother, which is why someone compared this to 'Mommy Dearest.' Also, Mr. Murray did have a tendency to blame everything on Madalyn, including getting his girlfriend pregnant. Hey, Bill; you could have abstained from sex or used a condom. That's YOUR fault, not your moher's. Virtually no parents, even athiest parents, want their sons to get their girlfriend pregnant. Also, William Murray used to smoke 3 packs of cigarettes a day, & was drunk most of the time. Once again, Bill; your choice, not Madalyn's. William Murray truly believes that the problems of our schools stem from lack of school prayer. I disagree; as a Libertarian, I believe it's too much Washington, D.C., not too little God. That's my opinion. Also, society was far from perfect in the so-called 'Fabulous 50's.' That supposedly pure decade was rife with war & juvenile violence in the USA; hardly the Ozzie & Harriet era it was made out to be. As I said before, it's an interesting book in some ways, but much too negative in others.

The subject of this book pretty much guaranteed the book would see print. As such, Murray didn't have to worry about style or form. Neither did his editors. Murray does try though, I suspect; at any rate, something is going on. Every verb seems to have been run through his word processor's thesaurus, and I wonder if this might be his idea of finely crafted writing. Rather than a winning narrative voice, however, in the end the book rings with the voice of someone who is not a native speaker of English.

If it were not for that complaint, I probably would have given the book three stars.

Murray doesn't so much document his life as he vomits it all over the pages. This is a man who hates his mother, and who seems to think solace will come from his readers hating her too. If that seems cruel beyond measure, I'm willing to mitigate it by Murray's enormous naiveté. Right on page one he writes

"Mine was not the typical American family, where a dad and a mom and the kids cuddled up on the couch with hot chocolate and popcorn to watch "Father Knows Best." (sic) At my house we argued about the value of the American way, whether or not the workers should revolt...."

If he really believes ANY family was or is like that, then he is sadly misinformed, or just not very bright. My family never cuddled on the couch, and we did discuss the value of the American way, albeit without throwing dishes, as the Murrays did. We also light Hanukkah candles, and pass the charoset at Passover, and I am quite grateful to William Murray's mother that in my generation, Jewish children did not recite the Lord's prayer in public school, as our parents had done.

Murray's story may be the study of an abusive childhood, but nowhere does he prove his thesis: he never succeeds in connecting O'Hair's atheism with her poor parenting skills. For this reason, and the bad writing, I consider this a less-than-good book.

However, this is still a book worth reading. Several chapters are devoted to biographical information about O'Hair. I learned all sorts of things about her I never knew, including things that suggest how she formed her values and opinions. The fact that her father used her when she was a very small child, to assist in his bootlegging, taught her the inconsistency of his values, and also how the fanaticism of a small group could oppress a larger group with normally formed ideas.

I recommend this book to people who want to know more about the Murrays, and O'Hair herself ("fans" will be upset, though). I DON'T recommend it to Christian apologists looking for ways to argue with atheists, because Murray's didacticism is just too weak.

First of all, for some historical context: William J. Murray published an earlier version of his memoir about his famous Atheist mother a few years after Christina Crawford's successful tell-all book about her late abusive adoptive mother, actress Joan Crawford, titled _Mommie Dearest_. Christina made a lot of money by breaking a taboo against revealing one's shameful family secrets to the public, and since then we've been assaulted by a series of similar whiny exposes by children of celebrities. William J. Murray, it seems, tried to cash in on the "Mommie Dearest" phenomenon, only unlike Christina, he had the bad taste to do so while his mother was still alive. Apparently he didn't consider breaking the Fifth Commandment sinful.

That aside, this book isn't what I expected from reading the other reviews. Murray may have had a miserable relationship with his mother, but that didn't result from "Atheism," which Murray clearly doesn't understand, especially regarding his mother's worldview. People who "hate god," or are "angry at god," or are "fighting god," are not Atheists. It's more accurate to describe them as "alienated theists." When you learn the real source of your Christmas presents in childhood, does that mean you henceforth "hate Santa Claus"? I have read enough of Madalyn O'Hair's writings to determine that she clearly was Atheistic in the proper meaning of the word. She understood the intellectual and practical problems surrounding this "god" business. But despite what Murray would have us believe, Madalyn's lack of belief in "gods" was independent of her defective personality and character. Murray sounds especially foolish when he tries to blame Madalyn's weight problem on Atheism, as if Christian churches aren't full of morbidly obese people like Jerry Falwell.

And despite Murray's portrayal of Madalyn's faults, I still came away from his book admiring her somewhat. Murray wants us to interpret Madalyn's single motherhood, strong-mindedness and inability to hold down a job as defects, as if she was bad for not living like a Christian Stepford wife. But I interpret these characteristics as evidence that Madalyn's real talents lay in entrepreneurship and celebrity, which she wasn't able to develop until late in life when she discovered that she could make a good living promoting Atheism. In a more Atheist-accepting society, Madalyn might have joined the ranks of successful businesswomen and media figures like Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey.

Murray also seems never to have met happy, well-adjusted Atheists, some of whom are well known. Plenty of miserable Christians come from dysfunctional Christian families, while plenty of cheerful Atheists have happy childhoods. Murray doesn't understand that for people traumatized by religious indoctrination (recovering Muslims take note), Atheism can become a source for liberation, enrichment and fulfillment. Atheists are certainly free of the anxieties Christians have about their salvation, the "end times," the activities of "satan" and similar primitive fantasies. If Andrea Yates had been an Atheist, her children might still be alive now, for Christianity and paranoid schizophrenia are practically made for each other.

I also find it ironic that Murray is unwittingly still practicing Atheism through his charitable activities. Giving distressed people tangible help -- food, medicine, clothing, etc. -- is consistent with the rules of a materialistic universe and an Atheistic worldview. Swiss Atheist Henri Durant understood that when he founded the Red Cross in the 19th Century. Religion as such involves symbolic, make-believe activities like prayer, preaching, witnessing about one's deity and so forth, which do no tangible good at all.

I give this book two stars for its literary competence and historical information probably hard to document elsewhere. But Madalyn O'Hair's troubled life in no way establishes the existence of "gods," regardless of what Murray wants people to believe.

Although when I first found out about this book, I was very excited, I was totally disappointed when I got it. I am an ethnic Tajik, and a professional translator, and this book was very poorly done. As another Tajik reader said, this book is full of misspellings, and words that are just completely wrong. Also, many of the words that are given do not reflect the Tajik dialect of Persian. Even the introduction (in English) is factually incorrect, because Tajik is not a separate language, it is a dialect of Persian/Farsi, that, during Soviet times, was written in Cyrillic. A Tajik who speaks English should have assisted in this project, in order to have a more satisfactory outcome.

The authores should definitely get a credit for writiing a book on such a rare language as Tajik. However, I am not sure what to think about the script used throughout the book. It is not clear what script Cyrilllic, Romance or Arabic will be used for this language in the future. However, even if the Romance alphabet is approved for use, it will probably look different from what is presented by the authors. I doubt that digraphs like GH, KH, SH, and ZH will be in use. We also do not know how the Tajik are going to use the Romance alphabet to present their vowels. So, ignoring the modern Tajik alphabet lowers the value of this book. E.g., what if the reader finds an authentic Tajik sentence ? Then, knowing all the words and grammar, will not help figure out what it is about. So, I believe that the authors should have given a table presenting contemporary Tajik script at least for references.

First, you should know that this book was written in conjunction with a Tajik national living in Dushanabe. It's not like the text didn't have any authentic input. On that count, maybe you're better off taking up a gripe with the publishers. Second, there was debate as to whether this book should be presented in Cyrillic, something which would have been no problem for the collaborators. However, it was decided that due to political sensitivities within Tajikistan itself, the Roman alphabet would prove a better option. Third and last, just how many English speakers do you believe are aware of the Tajik language or Tajikistan itself? This book does something that few books are able to do--provide a clear window onto the Tajik world which may otherwise never exist. This book opens up the world in a very real way, and any text that can do this deserves five stars and lots of applause.

What a bad book. I feel bad for all those students using this book in class.Half the time I'm not sure what the author is talking about. I just finished a college course using this book. I love the idea of being programmer, but at this point I don't feel confident enough to go on to the next level of programming.With this book I wasn't sure what was going on. I am going to take another Visual Basic's class, just so that I can get a better grip on Visual Basic. By the way I received a B+ in the class, no thanks to this book.What a terible book.

It has many practical examples including database access, DBGrid. It explans many commonly-use VB tools clearly.

The layout of content is very friendly and colorful. It is better than other colorful VB books which have many fantastic layout.

I would recommend this book to the VB beginners who like to read more pictures.

Great book for a beginning programmer, doesnt dwell with too much detail, just the basics to get going.

the death of mainline Protestantism.

It's hilarious to see the term "fundamentalist" tossed about in defense of Bishop Sprague's thesis. If "fundamentalist" means (as it has to here) "one who tends to take the Bible and the historic witness of Christianity seriously," then I guess I'm a "fundamentalist." And proud of it. If nothing else, it is solid evidence that my leaving the church of my youth was the proper decision.

Admittedly, though, as a Catholic, I have yet to be called a "fundamentalist." First time for everything, I suppose.

Now that that the Bishop's fans have successfully conjured up the image of "American Gothic" meets Fred Phelps in demonizing their critics, let's look at the substance of the Bishop's witness to Jesus, The Really Neat But Safely Dead Palestinian Guy. Fellow fundies can start, and end, with Chapter 4, "Fully Human Jesus."

Boy, does the Bishop mean it! None of that "virgin birth," "divinity of Christ" nonsense for him. No, sir! The Resurrection was an event all the truer for never having occurred in a crudely real, physical sense.

You see, the primitives who assembled the creeds of Christianity were a half-step removed from working on cave paintings. They didn't have the sophisticated understanding of the Force--er, "God"--that we merlot drinkers do. The scriptures and creeds were actually "poetry," and it is only now, in our enlightened era that we now understand what they were *really* trying to say.

For example, here's the Bp's take on the Virgin Birth:

"I believe that Jesus the Messiah, the Christ of God, was fully human. The myth of the Virgin Birth (a theological myth is not a false presentation but a valid and quite persuasive literary device employed to point to ultimate Truth that can only be insinuated symbolically and never depicted exhaustively) is found neither in Mark, the earliest gospel account, nor in John, the latest. This powerful myth was not intended as historical fact, but was employed by Matthew and Luke in different ways to point poetically to the Truth about Jesus as experienced in the emerging Church. The Church believed that Jesus was the long-expected Messiah, the Christ of God, whose revelation was unique and normative. Said differently, in Jesus, God's Essence found confluence with a human being and the Kingdom/Reign was incarnated and ushered into being. The theological myth of the Virgin Birth points to this wondrous mystery and ultimate Truth. To treat this myth as an historical fact is to do an injustice to its intended purpose and to run the risk of idolatry, namely, treating a means as an end itself."

The theo-flatulence can be filtered to the following: Belief in historic virgin birth = idolatry. Got it.

Watch now as the Resurrection goes out the winn-der (you know how we fundies talk) as more literalist idolatry:

"I affirm resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus. God's Essence cannot be killed, buried or kept from being active in creation and history. God is from everlasting to everlasting. But, resurrection, including that of Jesus, does not occur through bodily resuscitation. God does not work this way. The issue is not the absence of God's power but God's own "self" limiting role of revelation in history. God works within the boundaries God has established. And while I do not pretend to know the limits of these boundaries and realize that we all see but through a glass darkly, I am certain that the miracle of resurrection, pre-eminently that of Jesus, is not tied to bodily resuscitation. The linking of resurrection with bodily resuscitation is to make a literal religious proposition of a metaphorical, symbolic expression of Truth itself. This is the kind of idolatry from which I dissent."

He also denies Jesus is the "the way, the truth and the life" for anyone other than Christians. Wouldn't be "ecumenical" to assert otherwise, I guess.

You get the idea. I am not entirely unsympathetic to the Bishop, who perhaps unwittingly reveals the key to his thought in recounting the tragic death of his baby boy. Perhaps he could not reconcile the traditional understanding of Christianity with his loss. It's hard to say how any of us would react.

But that does not give anyone the license to remake the ancient faith for which Christians died and are dying for today. We worship a Father who cruelly lost his own blameless Son, and understands pain. That example should cause us to draw closer, not away from, the historic understanding. Which, after all, makes better sense of the evidence of Christ.

To see the Bishop's take revealed to be the unclothed emperor it truly is, read Anglican scholar N.T. Wright's "Resurrection of the Son of God." There you will see all the evidence, pro and con, handled in a careful, objective, scholarly manner.

Instead of being mangled in an exercise in pseudo-midrashic wish-fulfillment.

I am a member of a church in the Northwestern Illinois Conference of United Methodists whose Bishop is Bishop Sprague. I have heard Bishop Sprague on two occasions, and have followed the contoversy that surrounds him and his beliefs.

Whether you agree or disagree with him, this is a book for all to read. For I get the feeling that Bishop Sprague's real objective is to open a dialogue, not just between Christians, but people of all faiths. Perhaps there is a common ground we can all reach that will end much of the trouble in the world. He does assert in the book that this is his own personal way of looking at things. By stating that, I believe he has opened the door for dissent from his beliefs, not only in the United Methodist denomination, but all peoples of faith.

Whether you agree or disagree with him, this is a man that has devoted his life to not only preaching the Gospel, but living it as best he can. For his service to people and to God, he deserves the opportunity to be heard without the charges of heresy and the threats on his life that he has endured. And I would say that any person, no matter what their belief, should have the same right.

Whether a person follows Christ, Buddha, Mohammad, Moses, or Joe Blow from Kokomo makes no difference to me. If your belief causes you to do good towards others, to throw off the rampant self-centeredness that the world is full of, and causes you to be a good person, then your faith is real.

Finding this faith does not consist of blindly following ancient interpretations of even more ancient texts. Look at all the injustice done within the last nearly 2,000 years, and it's obvious it hasn't worked. This is a time for new thoughts about ancient truths.

I am proud of our Bishop in the Northern Illinois Conference. I do not agree with him 100%, nor should I. We were all created with a brain to feel, think, and reason with. I refuse to be a part of any religion or denomination that insists that I accept 2,000 year-old teachings without debate. I refuse to be a part of any religion that requires me to 'check my brain at the door'.

So I encourage all to read this book. Agree or disagree with his views, the dialogue will begin. And every Christian, from 'liberal' to 'fundamentalist' will benefit from that.

Well, it's either a ONE STAR book or a FIVE STAR book based upon whether or not you are a Religious Fundamentalist. Fundamentalists hate this book, along with most other books that do not march in lock-step with their conservative assumptions.

Do you believe that the bible is straight from God and must be blindly followed according to a narrow interpretation? You won't like this book.

Do you believe the bible was written by people, from a culture long ago, expressing their relationship with God? Maybe this book has something for you.

I thank Bishop Sprague for challenging the fundamentalist "take- over" of the United Methodist Church.

Just like what happened in the Southern Baptist Convention, the United Methodist Church is being saturated and consumed by religious fundamentalist organizations. The "Good News" movement, the "Confessing" Movement, Renew Women's Network, Lifewatch, Transforming Congregations, the Mission Society of United Methodists, and the Institute on Religion and Democracy are attacking the freedom of thought, expression, inclusiveness, and theology that stands as the backbone of the Methodist experience.

Do you want the UMC to continue to become a fundamentalist church? If not, then read this book.

Rev. Kevin Higgs
United Methodist Pastor
North Alabama Conference

More drivel condensed in one book you would be hard pressed to find -- that is, unless you read any of the other trash rushed out by this one-man publishing outfit. Note: "University Press" has absolutely nothing to do with the highly reputable University of California Press.

I read this book a while back, and although another reviewer calls it garbage, it's because he thought our intel agencies could do no wrong. Now, in hindsight, we know better. We see the chapter detailing the omissions by our intelligence agencies was Totally Correct. These authors were the First to reveal these truths, and this shows they are top notch investigators. They knew what the NY Times and Wash Post only published months and months later. Hopefully, their upcoming book, America Betrayed, will be even more prescient and revealing

This is a sad yet scary book, and probably the only book on the market that tells a true and coherent story as to the events leading up to and the events of September 11. Although the reviewer below might be surprised, not just the twin towers but the Pentagon was struck by a jet and it did cause extensive damage and it did open up a huge crater in the walls. This is a great book. It really tells it like it is. I could only find one error. The authors say that over 6,000 were killed. It is true that this was the estimate for several months after 9/11, but now they are claiming only 3000 were killed. Will we ever know for sure? Other than that, this was a great book. The authors even wrote about the so called "20th hijacker" and identified him months before the mass media even became aware of his existence. This is a great book that tells a sad but true story.

My grandmother once taught me: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days (Mormons) teaches its members that if they want to know whether the Book of Mormon is true or not they should pray about the matter. If they receive a "burning in their bosom" they will know that the book and the accounts depicted inside are accurate. For faithful members of the church this is the only way to discover the "truth" of the Book of Mormon.

Brent Metcalfe and Dan Vogel take a different approach. They present a number of articles from scholars who have attempted to get at "the truth" of the Book of Mormon in a totally different manner. They apply the tools of the scientific method, historical research, and logical analysis to formulate hypotheses and draw conclusions. As a result, people who use logic and science to resolve issues are likely to be impressed by this book. On the other hand, those who believe in a religion purely because of faith and answers they have received in prayer are not likely to be impressed by this work, or to want to read it for that matter.

The articles are quite interesting. My favorite three included the one on "automatic writing", Tom Murphy's article on DNA and the Lamanites (which he came close to being excommunicated for writing), and the article on former "Seventy" B.H. Roberts and what he really believed about the Book of Mormon.

What comes through to the educated person is that many things that have long been presented "as facts" by the church are not. The truth is far more complicated. One can read the Book of Mormon and conclude that Nephites and Lamanites were supposedly the only groups present in the Americas between 600 BC and 400 AD. However, DNA testing shows this is simply impossible. The vast, vast bulk of Native Americans are related to groups in Asia that crossed the Bering Straits into this continent 10,000 to 50,000 years ago. In fact, its virtually impossible to find any connection between Native Americans and either Jews or Egyptians as claimed in the Book of Mormon.

The article on automatic writing challenges the allegation that it would be impossible for one uneducated person to "invent" or "write" the Book of Mormon by himself. In fact, such things have been documented to have been done several times in the past and perhaps on a more impressive scale.

This is a good book for a scholarly person who has questions about Mormon doctrine and seeks an answer that is not "faith-based". Whether all the writers have arrived at the correct conclusions or not, it does stimulate alot of powerful thinking.

Yet another in a fairly recent series of works designed to confront mormonism from a scholarly approach. While I appreciate the work these writers have put forth, this is not a book designed for the casual researcher into the murky world of mormon history and theology. These essays are ideally suited for a reader with a solid background in both Christianity as well as mormonism. For the average individual just looking for an intro to the fallacies of mormonism, Bill McKeever's "Mormonism 101" or Richard Abanes "One Nation Under Gods" are good materials.

I do find the approach of this book, along with "The New Mormon Challenge" to be a bit disturbing. They purport to discard the "tired old arguments" against mormonism, but these arguments still are as valid as ever. One cannot understand mormonism without looking at the history and character (or lack thereof) of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (see Fawn Brodie's "No Man Knows My History" on Smith), looking critically at the temple ceremony, the absolute laughable quality of the Book of Mormon and especially at Smith's bogus translation that makes up the "Book of Abraham". There are an awful lot of books on mormonism, of varying quality and it seems that many authors are trying too hard to look at new information, when the existing information is more than enough to quash mormonism as a serious theology.

As a side note, take some of these preceding reviews with a sizable grain of salt. One reviewer, John Tvedtnes, is a "professional" mormon apologist who gets his paycheck from Brigham Young University, so he has a vested financial interest in maintaining the mormon illusion. Kevin Christensen's review also mentions Tvedtnes and his "scholarly" friends at FARMS as sources. Anyone familiar with FARMS reviews of books will notice that a) they tend to be polemic and nasty in tone toward the authors and b) FARMS reviewers have a pretty mixed bag of backgrounds, including: "coordinator of performance tours at Brigham Young University", "self-employed artist currently writing a book on scrollsaw art " and "director of Parking and Transportation Services at the University of Utah". Certainly there is nothing wrong with these professions, but it makes you wonder how much of their reviews are mere parroting of what the top dogs at FARMS tell them to write.

The Golden Orange was a vivacious book that dealt with human emotion in both positive and negative ways. The toll that money takes on human spirit is very evident in this compilation. The use of symbolism is mysterious and links the book together all the more. The characters are described in such a way that you develope feelings for them. The Golden Orange is a well thought out book and the twist in the plot adds even more corruption to the pages. The book fools you in a way that you find amazing after the last page is read. Greed and luxary is the main focus for some characrters while for others it is excitement and a new start on life. The setting and description of the Golden Orange give you a real sense of the rich and the bad blood attitude. All in all the book is worth the time to sit and relax with.

The Golden Orange was a vivacious book that dealt with human emotion in both positive and negative ways. The toll that money takes on human spirit is very evident in this compilation. The use of symbolism is mysterious and links the book together all the more. The characters are described in such a way that you develope feelings for them. The Golden Orange is a well thought out book and the twist in the plot adds even more corruption to the pages. The book fools you in a way that you find amazing after the last page is read. Greed and luxary is the main focus for some characrters while for others it is excitement and a new start on life. The setting and description of the Golden Orange give you a real sense of the rich and the bad blood attitude. All in all the book is worth the time to sit and relax with.

The Golden Orange was a vivacious book that dealt with human emotion in both positive and negative ways. The toll that money takes on human spirit is very evident in this compilation. The use of symbolism is mysterious and links the book together all the more. The characters are described in such a way that you develope feelings for them. The Golden Orange is a well thought out book and the twist in the plot adds even more corruption to the pages. The book fools you in a way that you find amazing after the last page is read. Greed and luxary is the main focus for some characrters while for others it is excitement and a new start on life. The setting and description of the Golden Orange give you a real sense of the rich and the bad blood attitude. All in all the book is worth the time to sit and relax with.