Stephen Arvin says:
>Rene,
>Thank you for your comments regarding Tom Billings' interpretation of
>the cover of our book.

Support & validation is always great, but with its lack of content
Rene's post IMO borders on empty flatter.

>I believe that what a person gets out of our book is directly
>proportional to what s/he takes into it.

Is this not true with everything in life? Therefore, I fail to see the
significance of this in regards to debating the pro's and con's of your
book.

>For example, hard-core christians have come up to me at lectures, book
>signings, etc. and told me that they have a problem with the cover of
>our book.  They say, "You're trying to portray that we come from apes,
>but we come from god."

Evolution is a very threatening concept to any fundamentalist
Christian. Just like cooked food to any hard-core raw foodist ;-)

>Actually, we're trying to portray that it's more healthy to be out in
>a forest, climbing trees, and eating fruit than being cooped up in
>some artificial cave, with artificial lighting, in a three-piece suit,
>breathing polluted air, and eating cooked food.

The outdoor bit I have no problem with but climbing in trees? Are there
any parts of Tom's RFL posting that you disagree with, and is it not
true that we have evolved to being a lot less adept than our primate
ancestors to tree living? And if this is true might this not indicate
that we are less adapted to eating fruits than our primate relatives?


>Tom Billings, a.k.a. "Anonymous SF LIFE book reviewer," does not like
>us.

You mean it was not me anyhow? ;-) How do I know that you are speaking
the truth this time. ;-/

>We have had prior e-mail with him and we were not "civil"
>(milquetoast)enough so he would delete our e-mails unread.

When it comes to civility I am glad to see you changing for the better.

>He says we shouldn't be up in the trees picking avocados, we shouldn't
>be standing on the branches,and we shouldn't be calling our
>organization Nature's First Law.

His arguments are very compelling.

>Dude, get a life!

Please do not resort to name-calling.

>He believes that Nature's REAL First Law is: Survival of the Fittest.
>Survival of the Fittest doesn't exist anymore -- not even close.  In
>fact, in today's world, society goes out of their way to make sure
>that Survival of the Unfittest takes place.

Are you saying that all evolutionary forces have all been canceled out?
Yet, are you not in your book advocating some form of eugenics program?
Please explain.

>Sure, our cover is pretty outrageous and shocking to some.  Good!

Shocking - I thought it was cute and refreshing. Tell me what social or
spiritual changes have ever come about through shocking people? I guess
you regard this as a truth with modifications since you were dressed in
a business suit at your L.A. lecture rather than in some back-to-nature
outfit.

>As you can see, people bring in their prejudices and go from there.

If there is some kind of logic here, you have lost me.

>I came up with the idea for the cover one morning in the shower -- I
>thought it would be something totally new for a raw-foods book (I'm
>sure people are getting tired of seeing just a bunch of fruits and
>vegetables on the cover of books -- I sure am!).  We walked out of the
>forest that day with two great rolls of film and over 400 avocados --
>all of which were from off the ground.
>You haven't lived until you've ran nude through an avocado forest!
>There were so many leaves on the ground, it was like running on a
>surface of pillows!

Sounds like a lot of fun!

>Cooked food is poison!

Especially if you believe in it. :-/  The fact most people are able to
live to ripe old ages on cooked food diets, if they otherwise take care
of themselves, indicates that using the word poison to describe cooked
foods is somewhat of an exaggeration, and as arsenic and other poisons
often are lethal within a few seconds/minutes the word poison quickly
becomes inflated & meaningless if also used to describe the effects of
cooked foods.

>Stephen Arvin
>Nature's First Law
>http://W.W.II-online.com/~nature

It is nice for a change to be responding to a person.

Best, Peter
[log in to unmask]