HURST, Texas — AMDAS, INC. announces the release of “The Eleventh Commandment-A Novel” – Second Edition (ISBN: 978-0-595-40050-8 (pbk), ISBN: 978-0-595-84461-6 (cloth), ISBN: 978-0-595-84434-0 (ebk)), by Abraham B. Medina. The characters and the story, dialogue in this novel, and incidents within the story are fiction but the introduction, names of politicians, scientists, journalists, and theologians whose works are cited or quoted verbatim, the customs and traditions of the Amish people, the politics of the war, statistics of war casualties, and the Further Reading feature at the end of the novel are non-fiction.
This is a touching story of love between Matt, a rich medical doctor who is an atheist who falls in love with Annie, a plain and religiously conservative Amish. The basic theme of the first edition remains in this version with more added features.
Diametrically opposite at the start, Matt and Annie discuss religion, politics and science as they go through romantic, humorous, and poignant episodes in their courtship that culminates in a marriage that they envision as a relationship that will last forever in a universe with no limits.
While courting, Matt tells Annie why he does not believe in God. Instead of being slighted, Annie candidly explains why only God could have created everything in the world and in the universe. They discuss the most frequently asked questions in religion such as what it means to be “saved,” heaven, hell, and evolution.
The author comes from a family of Methodists, Baptists, and Roman Catholics and close relatives who are Seventh-Day Adventists, Mormons, and atheists. Add to this his experience as a Biologist and professional biomedical information scientist and we have Annie, who talks religion seriously, spiced with some humor to more than amuse even the most diehard atheist.
Before embarking for Iraq as a volunteer, Matt and Annie discuss the rationale of this war with friends from Washington, DC. They discuss credible documents to believe that a conspiracy and lust for power triggered a war that has so far killed almost four thousand volunteer American soldiers, thousands more maimed for life, wasted billions of taxpayer’s money and damaged the reputation of a president both here and abroad. For the Iraqis, credible evidence is presented on how this war has already directly or indirectly killed more than half a million of their men, women, and children, who had nothing to do with 9-11 or alleged WMDs.
Captured by insurgents, Matt is forced to serve the enemy but finds humanity even in enemy camp. A cloak-and-dagger rescue operation for Matt gets Annie directly involved in violence and killing people, two inevitable attributes of war vehemently opposed by her people.
The author has lived and worked with Muslims for more than three years which qualified him to give his opinions and predictions on why our president’s scheme to use democracy as a last resort to justify his troop’s presence in Iraq will not work, after WMDs, his principal pretext for war, were proven non-existent.
As an added feature on this edition, there are brief notes added after the story to discuss in more detail, the politics behind the war, the Big Bang, and Darwin, as they relate to the novel.
The story ends with a note on a non-religious and nonfictional proposal on how to achieve lasting world peace.
References are presented in simple html mark-up language for easy computerized retrieval of more information for anyone who may wish to research on the facts presented.
Mr. Medina holds a graduate degree in Biology and is a retired Biomedical Information Scientist.
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