B31-BibleE.txt
Graham L. Kendall
Modified 9/3/2008
Email grahamkendall74135@yahoo.com
I am found on IRC Efnet/Undernet/Dalnet as glk
Files found at http://www.grahamkendall.net/
All are free to use any of this material without limit.
The author of this page is heavily influenced by experience and rationalism. 
*******************************************************************************
===
"Most scholars will reject the possibility that the Israelites destroyed 
Jericho in about 1400 B.C.E."
"One major problem remains: the date, 1400 B.C.E. Most scholars will reject 
the possibility that the Israelites destroyed Jericho in about 1400 B.C.E. 
because of their belief that Israel did not emerge in Canaan until about 150 
to 200 years later, at the end of the Late Bronze II period.
But recently, new evidence has come to light suggesting that Israel was 
resident in Canaan throughout the Late Bronze II period
Israel did not conquer the area, rather they emerged from the existing
population about 1250-1200BC. In other words Israelites are Canaanites
from the outset.
Jericho, on the other hand, was destroyed around 1600BC and by
earthquake not war.
==
Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest
who represents the LORD your God must be put to death.  Such evil must be
purged from Israel.  (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)

Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed.
(Exodus 22:19 NAB)

A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death
by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death. 
(Leviticus 20:27 NAB)

 If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him,
"You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord." 
When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through. 
 (Zechariah 13:3 NAB)
==
Paul compared Christ with Adam. If Christ is a historical figure, 
then Adam had to be an historical figure. And the earth is REALLY flat.
==
Intelligence Design is religion. ID fails the 'falsifiability' test. Even if
it is false, it can never be shown to be false. How convenient. You can always
say that maybe some God is secretly making little changes to the world which
only appear natural.
We are very interested in learning more about nature, and make progress to
that end. But we don't feel the need to speak some vague word formula to feel
good about grasping the universe with certainty.
In an important way Atheism is an 'empty' position. It doesn't have a phrase
like 'God did it' to soothe any fear of uncertainty a person might have. 
What Atheism offers is an affirmation that it is ok to be careful and
conservative with the truth. Curious, but content to let our knowledge of the
world grow slowly and more surely than the pre-conceived and contradictory
religious molds.
Compared to the various religions which are quick to assert things about the
fundamental nature of life, the universe, and everything, the body of
scientific knowledge can seem 'empty' when it does not [currently] offer
answers to those same questions. On the other hand, the level of solid detail
is much higher in science. Religious schemes may reach far, but they tend to
look like insubstantial fluff for all their scope.
Christians have a mandate to turn other people to their religion.
Non-religious people have no mandate to convert people to atheism under any
doctrine.
If Christianity is true, what does that mean? 
On the good side it means god was very kind to give his only son to save us
from hell.
On the bad side it means genocide and slavery are often acceptable. 
==
Common sense approaches are not always a good way to find out the truth. 
They're just good at making people feel like they have the truth.
==
Different religious beliefs in conflict with each other seem like common sense
to various people. Obviously there is a general attraction to religions in
humanity, but the differences make it clear this attraction is a poor guide
to truth. 
Part of this is a common human failing: the notion that any answer is superior
to no answer. People just like to be able to express certainty, even if that
certainty is vague or not well supported. Religions say "Your purpose in life
is [x]", and many people will latch onto that no matter what [x] is just
because they want to be told something.
==
A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death
by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death. 
(Leviticus 20:27 NAB)

Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. 
(Exodus 21:15 NAB)

All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. 
They are guilty of a capital offense.  (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)

A priest's daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and
thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death.
(Leviticus 21:9 NAB)
==
The Catholics won't let the Mormons into their records any more.  
The Mormons keep baptizing the dead ones.
==
If God wrote the Bible, He wrote it with all the appearances of
having been written by several people - fallible humans with the
knowledge and attitudes of their culture. Written for an audience
of other people of the same culture. For example, it has the
appearance of having been written by people with the same level
of understanding of the natural world and the universe as most
other people of the Ancient Near East. 
==
Thomas Sheehan.  Professor at Stanford University... 
 "The Historical Jesus"
==
2Thessalonians 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie: (King James Version)
==
"If Jesus is God, then it means that God sent himself down to earth to
sacrifice himself to himself because it was the only way that he could
convince himself to forgive all of us and change a rule that he made in the
first place." - John Armstrong 
==
Mark 9:1 And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing
here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come
with power." (Revised Standard Version)
==
"What each evangelist... preserved...  is not a photographic reproduction of
the words and deeds of Jesus, but an interpretative portrait delineated in
accord with the special needs of the early church."
- The New Testament, Its Background, Growth, and Content, 1965,
p86, by Bruce Metzger
==
"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of
what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human
beings." - Albert Einstein
==
"The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept I am unable to take
seriously." - Albert Einstein [Letter of 1946, Hoffman and Dukas]
==
Few intelligent Christians can still hold to the idea that the Bible is an
infallible Book, that it contains no linguistic errors, no historical
discrepancies, no antiquated scientific assumptions, not even bad ethical
standards. Historical investigation and literary criticism have taken the
magic out of the Bible and have made it a composite human book, written by
many hands in different ages.
The existence of thousands of variations of texts makes it impossible to hold
the doctrine of a book verbally infallible. Some might claim for the original
copies of the Bible an infallible character, but this view only begs the
question and makes such Christian apologetics more ridiculous in the eyes of
sincere men."
Rev. Dr. Elmer G. Homrighausen, United Presbryterian clergyman, American
theologian, former Dean of Princeton Theological Seminary - source
"Christianity in America", p. 121
==
www.atheiststation. org
==
Proverbs 24:6 For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude
of counsellors there is safety.0 (King James Version)
==
I can understand where religion came from. Our ancestors looked around our
world in amazement, and could not understand ANYTHING. They had no idea what
that huge ball of fire in the sky was, they had no idea what made plants grow,
and water falling from the sky was a "miracle". They had to explain it somehow,
so our ancestors created gods. Each civilization created their own gods, and
thought the other civilizations were
crazy heathens.
==
Religion seems very useful for getting people to act and work together.
Kings got their irrigation systems constructed or palaces built by
telling the peasants that a god decreed it. Also very good for
inciting the troops to fight against nonbelievers and other assorted riff-raff.   
==
"Many translations do not convey exactly what the orginal biblical languages
- Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek - say. In this way translators avoid shocking
people by making the Bible seem like one book with internal consistency, rather
than an anthology, exhibiting developments of doctrines and a concomitant
inconsistency" - Bible Scholar Michael Coogan
==
King James 1 was a known homosexual who murdered his young lovers and
victimized countless heretics and women. His cruelty was justified by his
"divine right" of kings. Otto J. Scott, James the First
==
DEUTERONOMY 21:21  And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones,
that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall
hear, and fear. -KJV
==
LEVITICUS 20:2 "You shall also say to the sons of Israel, 'Any man from the
 sons of Israel or from the aliens sojourning in Israel, who gives any of his
offspring to Molech, shall surely be put to death; the people of the land
shall stone him with stones. -NASB
==
Lev24:16 And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put
to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the
stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of
the Lord, shall be put to death. (KJV)
==
Prov  8:26,27 "when He drew a circle on the face of the deep"
==
Isa40:22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants
are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And
spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. (NAS)
==
If there is a god who will make countless people suffer (including his
own son) to fulfill some prophecy, then I want no part of it. If this god
loves us so much and is so powerful then why subject the innocent to
unspeakable cruelties?
==
A wise person should doubt documents that come decades after the fact by
unknown
authors, and hardly anyone believes the hundreds of gurus today who claim to
see and speak to the spirits of the dead, heal, and predict the future. Every
reasonable person expects and requires extensive corroboration by contemporary
documents and confirmed eyewitness accounts.
==
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience: 
==
Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image
of God, should shine unto them. 
==
niv num 31:17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a
man,
niv num 31:18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a
man.
==
DEUTERONOMY 13:15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with
the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its
cattle with the edge of the sword. -NASB

deu 13:16 Gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public
square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt
offering to the LORD your God. It is to remain a ruin forever, never to be
rebuilt.

deu 20:13 When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword
all the men in it.
niv 2deu 20:14 As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything
else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may
use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your enemies.
==
Many people quite simply just want to believe," said Brian Cronk, a
professor of psychology at Missouri Western State University. "The
human brain is always trying to determine why things happen, and when
the reason is not clear, we tend to make up some pretty bizarre
explanations. "
===
Eccl. 9:5,10: "The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the
dead, they are conscious of nothing at all ... All that your hands find to do,
do with your very power, for there is no work, nor devising, nor knowledge,
nor wisdom in Sheol 
In the NT, the dead rich man held a converstaion and remembered his family.
==
Delusional disorder is characterized by the presence of recurrent, persistent
non-bizarre delusions. Delusions are irrational beliefs, held with a high
level of conviction, that are highly resistant to change even when the
delusional person is exposed to forms of proof that contradict the belief.
Non-bizarre delusions are considered to be plausible; that is, there is a
possibility that what the person believes to be true could actually occur a
small proportion of the time. Conversely, bizarre delusions focus on matters
that would be impossible in reality. For example, a non-bizarre delusion might
be the belief that one's activities are constantly under observation by federal
law enforcement or intelligence agencies... By contrast, a man who believes he
is pregnant with German Shepherd puppies holds a belief that could never come
to pass in reality. Also, for beliefs to be considered delusional, the content
or themes of the beliefs must be uncommon in the person's culture or religion.
Generally, in delusional disorder, these mistaken beliefs are organized into a
consistent world-view that is logical other than being based on an improbable
foundation.
Unlike most other psychotic disorders, the person with delusional disorder
typically does not appear obviously odd, strange or peculiar during periods of
active illness. Yet the person might make unusual choices in day-to-day life
because of the delusional beliefs. Expanding on the previous example, people
who believe they are under government observation might seem typical in most
ways but could refuse to have a telephone or use credit cards in order to make
it harder for "those Federal agents" to monitor purchases and conversations.
Most mental health professionals would concur that until the person with
delusional disorder discusses the areas of life affected by the delusions, it
would be difficult to distinguish the sufferer from members of the general
public who are not psychiatrically disturbed. Another distinction of
delusional disorder compared with other psychotic disorders is that
hallucinations are either absent or occur infrequently.
Here are the relevant elements for this case:
1. Stubborn insistence on holding demonstrably untenable beliefs
2. "Reasonable" basis for assuming this belief -- "reasonable" here is defined
by large numbers of adherents creating the psychological foundation needed
3. The belief arises from a cogent worldview insofar as the holder has
assigned truth values to undeserving propositions
4. Believers are indistinguishable from non-believers in all aspects of life
outside of the belief's sphere of influence
5. Believers adopt irrational and inflexible stances and are moved to
illogical actions by their beliefs
There are many examples of well educated believers (Francis Collins, etc.) so
the militant inflexibility of these beliefs is not strictly a function of
education though education is an important variable in this equation. And the
compartmentalizatio n of their beliefs does not lie outside of the definition
of a delusional mind. I singled out the line that makes religious belief
impervious to classification as a pathology but I disagree. I think this is a
case of affording the majority a "necessary" deference to avoid conflict. But
the behavior is a fit for the pathology in every other way. And, if I may
inject some of my own intuitions, I believe that neuroscience will in time
identify a distinct difference between the neurochemistry of a fundie and that
of a frethinker (to use a catchall term).

==
The Church after greater study, reflection and prayer was able to announce
the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854..
the Immaculate Conception is the belief that "the most Blessed Virgin Mary
was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and
privilege of almighty God and in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the
Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original
sin..." (Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus). 
We believe, therefore, this exceptional, grace-filled holiness extended to
the very beginning of her life, her conception. 
==
Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity
By John W. Loftus 
==
 SSol5:4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels
were moved for him. (KJV)   True Love
==
"The Jesus I Never Knew" by Philip Yancey
==
Deu25:3 Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should
exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should
seem vile unto thee. (KJV)
==
http://www.skeptic.com/
==
Ronald Aronson  Living Without God, to be published next Oct 08 by 
Counterpoint Press.
==
2Kings 2:24 And he looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name
of Jehovah. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty
and two lads of them.0 (American Standard Version)
SumOfwHoly: ?kjv 2kings 2 24
2Kings 2:24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed
them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the
wood, and tare forty and two children of them.0 (King James Version)
==
Genesis 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it
grieved him at his heart.0 (King James Version)
==
Intelligence is the ability to learn from experience. Gods already know
everything so they are not intelligent.
==
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_claimed_to_be_Jesus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_messiah_claimants

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_been_considered_deities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messianic_complex
==
Examples of life-death-rebirth deities: Ishtar, Quetzalcoatl, Baal, Jesus,
Adonis, Cronus, Cybele, Dionysus, Orpheus, Persephone, Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma,
Horus, Osiris, Amun, Inanna, Odin, Balder, Attis, Mithras, Bacchus, Prosperina.
==
I know a few people who are otherwise intelligent,
but their brains contain the religious mind-virus that allows them to
believe that evolution did not happen, and that the earth is less than
10,000 years old.
==
After all, anyone who thinks that the sun *actually* moved all over
the sky on one day in a field in Portugal (but nowhere else in Europe)
just because a crowd of people there said it did is hardly an expert
in judging what is or is not science.

1. It is an establish fact of history that at approximately 12 noon
(Portugal time) on Oct 17, 1917 in the neighborhood of 70,000 people
including many atheists and other enemies of the church witnessed the
event and were terrified. Apparently numerous atheists and enemies of
the church converted.

Here's a miracle that occurred in 1995,
fromhttp://www.crystalinks.com/milkmiracle.html
"The Hindu milk miracle was a phenomenon reported to have occurred on
September 21, 1995. (see below) Before dawn, a Hindu worshipper at a
temple in south New Delhi made an offering of milk to a statue of Lord
Ganesha. When a spoonful of milk from the bowl was held up to the
trunk of the statue, the liquid was seen to disappear, apparently
taken in by the idol. Word of the event spread quickly, and by mid-
morning it was found that statues of the entire Hindu pantheon in
temples all over North India were taking in milk, with the family of
Shiva (Parvati, Ganesha, and Kartikeya) apparently the "thirstiest".

By noon the news had spread beyond India, and Hindu temples in
Britain, Canada, Dubai, and Nepal among other countries had
successfully replicated the phenomenon, and the World Hindu Council
(an Indian Hindu organization) had announced that a miracle was
occurring. The apparent miracle had a significant effect on the areas
around major temples; vehicle and pedestrian traffic in New Delhi was
dense enough to create a gridlock lasting until late in the evening.
Many stores in areas with significant Hindu communities saw a massive
jump in sales of milk, with one Gateway store in England selling over
25,000 pints of milk, and overall milk sales in New Delhi jumped over
30%. Many minor temples struggled to deal with the vast increase in
numbers, and queues spilled out into the streets. "

It's a miracle! Only God's preferred name is Ganesha, not Yahweh.

Oh, wait: "Seeking to explain the phenomenon, scientists from India's
Ministry of Science and Technology travelled to a temple in New Delhi
and made an offering of milk containing a food coloring. As the level
of liquid in the spoon dropped, it became obvious that after the milk
disappeared from the spoon, it coated the statue beneath where the
spoon was placed. With this result, the scientists offered capillary
action as an explanation; the surface tension of the milk was pulling
the liquid up and out of the spoon, before gravity caused it to run
down the front of the statue. "

Miracles happen all the time, often witnessed by thousands or even
millions of people.

2. The event involving the sun was, by some reports, witnessed by
observers up to a radius of about 30 miles from the epicenter. The
fact that it was not witnessed by all potential observers in that
hemisphere is problem for Hershey given the 70,000 witnesses at or
near the epicenter not mine.

When I was a child, bored silly for hours every week in a country
Baptist church, one way I would pass time is to find a single spot - a
dot on the pew in front of me, or sometimes a sparkly point in a
stained glass window - and just stare at it without moving my eyes.
The struggle against my eyes natural tendency to vibrate, the peculiar
sensations invoked by exhaustion of the retina to an unmoving image,
would start a dancing psychedelic of afterimages. A welcome, if brief,
alternative to looking around the inside of the church (and in
retrospect, an introduction to the sixties). Staring at the sun far
longer than one ordinarily would (who wants to miss one second of the
miracle?) would produce far more vivid and enduring effects. Coupled
with the mass hysteria, I have no doubt that many folks experienced
this, especially in retrospect. I have accidentally created false
memories in other people, and I was shocked at how easy it was.
Coupled with the strong desire for it to be true, I am sure that many
people saw a dancing sun (I read some of the accounts, and note that
the colors and behavior of the sun were different for different
people). They remembered it more vividly as time went on, also.

But only the local faithful (and perhaps a few socially-minded
journalists) saw the miracle. Why did no one else in the area see it -
does God's miracles depend on strong social support? Nobody sees the
Emperor's new clothes unless they are described first, and put in
context ("Everyone with taste can see the remarkable finery!"). But no
farmers a short distance away noticed the shadows dancing about?

I created such miracles for myself when I was ten. And I induced false
memories with an off-hand comment in a half-dozen sober adults.

I don't uphold truth of Naturalism.

Meaning: why consider a mundane natural explanation, when an
untestable supernatural one works for you? Tsk. And we accused you of
being anti-science.

Which, of course, is the reason I resurrected this funny little tale.
To show just how anti-science Tony is. It is, of course, physically
impossible for the sun to literally and actually dance around in the
sky (the angle that a viewer on earth would recognize as movements
would require that the sun, a gaseous ball, move literally hundreds of
thousands miles in less than a second). It is even more impossible to
do so and not have it observed by *everyone* on the the side of the
earth facing the sun. Moreover if it *actually* happened there would
be gravitational consequences everywhere on the earth given that the
suns mass is what determines earth orbit. Yet Tony believes it
*actually* happened. Not that it *appeared* to happen in the minds of
the people present there.

The explanation you (and I) gave, OTOH, does make sense and is
possible. If you accept a God inducing this illusion in the crowd
(for illusion it has to have been) to be a "miracle", it can even be a
"miracle".

Of course natural explanations are the simplest for these accounts.
Your god's miracle, if such this is, is once again hidden from non-
believers, using more miracles to hide them. What's the point? Don't
you think there is a real sun up there?
I can only conclude that:
1. You don't beleive the sun is real, or
2. The miracle happened only in the minds of the people there, and
possibly after the fact, or
3. God made a star (or the Earth) dance about, used other miracles to
subdue the effects (e.g. planets being ripped apart, as well as the
sun), and other miracles to make this bizarre event invisible to
others.
==
1Sm6:19 And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the
ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and
ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the
people with a great slaughter
==
Deu17:2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD
thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight
of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant, (KJV)
Deu17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the
sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; (KJV)
Deu17:4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired
diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such
abomination is wrought in Israel: (KJV)
Deu17:5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have
committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman,
and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. (KJV)
==
Though "maybe, therefore probably" is not a logical way to arrive at any
belief, let's assume the Christian can somehow "prove" (with objective
evidence everyone can agree is relevant and true) that we have this power or
God has this desire. Even on that presumption, there are unsolvable problems
with this "additional" hypothesis. Right from the start, it fails to explain
why believers disagree. The fact that believers can't agree on the content of
God's message or desires also refutes the theory that he wants us to be clear
on these things. This failed prediction cannot be explained away by any appeal
to free will--for these people have chosen to hear God, and not only to hear
him, but to accept Jesus Christ as the shepherd of their very soul. So no one
can claim these people chose not to hear God. Therefore, either God is telling
them different things, or there is no God. Even if there is a God, but he is
deliberately sowing confusion, this contradicts what Christianity predicts to
be God's desire, which entails Christianity is the wrong religion. Either way,
Therefore, the fact that God hasn't spoken to us directly, and hasn't given us
all the same, clear message, and the same, clear answers, is enough to prove
Christianity false.
Christians can offer no evidence for their
most important claim, that faith in Jesus Christ procures eternal life.
Christians can't point to a single proven case of this prediction coming true.
They cannot show a single believer in Jesus actually enjoying eternal life, nor
can they demonstrate the probability of such a fortunate outcome arising from
any choice we make today. Even if they could prove God exists and created the
universe, it still would not follow that belief in Jesus saves us. Even if
they could prove Jesus performed miracles, claimed to speak for God, and rose
from the dead, it still would not follow that belief in Jesus saves us.
==
Pierre Lassalle (The Experience of Christ)
==
UNAM SANCTAM (Promulgated November 18, 1302) Pope Boniface VIII
"Urged by faith, we are obliged to believe and to maintain that
the Church is one, holy, catholic, and also apostolic. We believe in her firmly
and we confess with simplicity that outside of her there is neither salvation
nor the remission of sins....Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define
that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be
subject to the Roman Pontiff."
Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), Encyclical Annum Ingressi Sumus: "This is our last
lesson to you; receive it, engrave it in your minds, all of you: by God's
commandment salvation is to be found nowhere but in the Church."
StPeter_of: Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922), Encyclical Ad Beatissimi
Apostolorum: "Such is the nature of the Catholic faith that it does not
admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole, or
as a whole rejected: This is the Catholic faith, which unless a man believe
faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved."
 ==
Toddler starved to death
Last week I read the horrific story of a feral child, this week theres another
story of cruelty and neglect in the US papers: a toddler was starved to death
by members of a religious cult, including his own mother, for not saying amen
after meals.
Javon Thompson was 21 months old when he died.He would have been about 15
months old when members of the cult, Mind Ministries, stopped feeding him in
December 2006.
According to the Baltimore Sun, Javons mother, Ms. Ramkissoon allowed group
members to beat her son for trivial infractions such as disobeying orders to
say amen at meals, then slowly starved him to death. Apparently members of the
cult did not seek medical care for Javon when he stopped breathing. Hedied in
his mothers arms and was left in a room for more than week. The cultists
claimed that God was going to raise Javon from the dead. His little body was
eventuallystuffed into a suitcase anddumped in a storage shed in Philadelphia.
Ms. Ramkissoon and the other members of the cult were arrested in New York
this year. Along withsome of themembers of the group, his mother has been
charged with first-degree murder. She was also charged with child abuse and
reckless endangerment in relation to her sons death.
==
Encyclopaedia Britannica defines cognitive dissonance as "the mental conflict
that occurs when beliefs or conflicts are contradicted by new information" .
Wikipedia's headline gives it as the "uncomfortable feeling or stress caused
by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously" , further that the theory
"proposes that people have a fundamental cognitive drive to reduce this
dissonance by modifying an existing belief, or rejecting one of the
contradictory ideas"... or, from Britannica, by explaining away, avoiding the
new information, persuading themselves that no conflict exists, reconciling
the differences, or "any other defensive means of preserving stability or
order".
==
Exodus 12:29 -- the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the
captive that was in the dungeon
==
He's BACK!
He is known variously as Vissarion, The Teacher, and Jesus of Siberia and his
followers believe that he really is the Messiah.
Sergey Anatolyevitch Torop, (born January
14, 1961) known by his followers as Vissarion (?), is a Russian
mystic. He founded and heads a religious movement known as the Church of the
Last Testament with its head church in the Siberian Taiga in the Minusinsk
Depression east of Abakan, in the southern Siberia Kuraginsk district of
Krasnoyarsk territory. He has around 4,000 followers (called Vissarionites) in
around thirty villages in the immediate vicinity of his base at Sun City, while
having approximately 10,000 followers around the world.
Vissarion claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus. He teaches reincarnation,
veganism, and the impending end of the world, or at least of civilization as
we know it. In May 1990, aged 29, Vissarion claims to have experienced a
mystical revelation. He first spoke publicly in Minusinsk on 18 August 1991.
He founded the "Church of the Last Testament" (?  
Tserokvy Poslednego Zaveta), also known as "Community of Unified Faith".
He was born in Krasnodar; after service in the Red Army, he settled in
Minusinsk. He worked as a traffic policeman before losing his job in 1989. In
1991 he was "reborn" as Vissarion, the returned Jesus Christ. In his system
this does not make him God, but instead the word of God. His religion combines
elements of the Russian Orthodox Church with Buddhism, apocalypticism,
collectivism, and ecological values. His followers observe strict regulations,
are vegans,[1] and are allowed no vices such as smoking or drinking alcohol.
Money is banned. The aim of the group is to unite all religions on Earth.
Vissarion is also a painter.
Tiberkul, the settlement in the Taiga, was established in 1994 on a territory
of 2.5 square kilometres, and today counts some five thousand inhabitants,
largely living autochthonous and on ecological principles. It is centered
around the villages of Petropavlovka and Cheremshanka, at ca. [show location
on an interactive map] 5353N, 9345E. The settlement is now also called
Ecopolis and has a three-tiered structure: the Town itself (Abode of Dawn),
the Heavenly Abode, and the Temple Peak.
Vissarion's sect is estimated to have some ten thousand adherents, with claims
of up to 50,000 adherents in eighty-three communities spread over 150 square
kilometers.
Since 1992, biographer Vadim Redkin (born 1958) has published an annual volume
detailing Vissarion's activities. Vissarion has attracted a number of followers
from Germany's esoteric subculture, and seven volumes of Vadim's account have
been translated into German.
==
Job 1:18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and
said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest
brother's house:0 (King James Version)
JOB 1:19 and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck
the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died;
and I alone have escaped to tell you. "
==
Believing the natural laws of nature were suspended for some ramdom women in
the middle of the desert seems rather unlikely..
==
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Lutherans/luther-on_mary.htm
Luther worshipped Mary.
==
"Overall, translators know that the Bible is the product of cultures whose
modes of life and thought were very different from ours. In some cases, the
Bible's philosophy is so barbaric and violent that it defies explaining why
anyone would consider it sacred at all." - Bible Scholar Hector Avalos
==
 St Augustine said it quite openly: 'There is another form of temptation, even
more fraught with danger.  This is the disease of curiosity. It is this which
drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature,  those secrets which are
beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which man should
not  wish to learn'
==
"He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth, will proceed by
loving his sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself
better than all." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
==
It was Philo of Alexandria who introduce the concept of Logos, which he
called the Son of God, the  Paraclete, the mediator between God and man.
All these were later shamelessly plagiarized by Christians  to refer to Jesus.

==
Justin Martyr can offer no better explanation why Christianity is so similar
to other preexisting  religions other than declaring it to be the work of
"wicked devils". 
==
Once again, it appears to me that all I have been taught about the inspiration
of the Bible is false.  Deep down inside me, I have a very, very strong
suspicion that the Bible is human and not divine through  and through...
" - (Ken Daniels "From Missionary Bible Translator to Agnostic" )
==
"If the concept of a father who plots to have his own son put to death is
presented to children as  beautiful and worthy of society's admiration, what
types of human behavior can be presented to them as  reprehensible?"
- Ruth Green, author of "The Born Again Skeptic's Guide to the Bible"
==
Few intelligent Christians can still hold to the idea that the Bible is an
infallible Book, that it contains no linguistic errors,
no historical discrepancies, no antiquated scientific assumptions, not even
bad ethical standards. Historical investigation and literary criticism have
taken the magic out of the Bible and have made it a composite human book,
written by many hands in different ages.
The existence of thousands of variations of texts makes it impossible to hold
the doctrine of a book verbally infallible. Some might claim for the original
copies of the Bible an infallible character, but this view only begs the
question and makes such Christian apologetics more ridiculous in the eyes of
sincere men."
Rev. Dr. Elmer G. Homrighausen, United Presbryterian clergyman, American
theologian, former Dean of Princeton Theological Seminary - source
"Christianity in America", p. 121
==
Mat 3:17  And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. 
==
Religion rapes minds but its greatest victims are the
innocent and impressionable youngsters taught at a young age to close their
minds to all but a narrow and impoverished view of the world.
==
How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded,
This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets
said, grander, more subtle, more elegant? Instead they say, No, no, no! My god
is a little god, and I want him to stay that way. A religion, old or new, that
stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might
be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the
conventional faiths.`
-Carl Sagan

I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have
expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then
it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our
science can reveal it.
-Albert Einstein
==
Deu21:11 And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire
unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;
Deu21:12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her
head, and pare her nails;
(KJV)Deu21:13 And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and
shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month:
and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be
thy wife.
Deu21:14 And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou
shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for
money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.
(KJV)
==
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara
"During the Christian celebration of Lent, capybara meat is especially
popular as it is claimed that the Catholic church, in a special
dispensation, classified the animal as a fish in the 16th century
[it's the largest living rodent]. There are differing accounts of how
the dispensation arose. The most cited refers to a group of 16th
Century missionaries who made a request which implied that the semi-
aquatic capybara might be a fish and also hinted that there would be
an issue with starvation if the animal wasn't classified as suitable for lent."
==
Ronald Enroth, a sociology professor at Westmont College in Santa Barbara 
wrote his 1992 book "Churches That Abuse,
==
http://ffrf.org/nontracts/freethinker.php
Freethinkers are convinced that religious claims have not withstood the tests
of reason. Not only is there nothing to be gained by believing an untruth, but
there is everything to lose when we sacrifice the indispensable tool of reason
on the altar of superstition.
==
Marvin Olasky and John Perry's book, "Monkey Business: 
The True Story of the Scopes Trial" (2005).

Edward Larson's "Summer of the Gods" about trial
==
"Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely
necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman
Pontiff." Pope Boniface VIII (Papal Bull 'Unam Sanctam'))
==
What is a Good Righteous Person?
Please answer the following questions.
1. Does a good righteous person strive for peace in this world?
Jesus didnt. In Matthew 10:34, Jesus states, You must not think that I have
come to bring peace to the earth: I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a
sons wife against her mother-in-law; and a man will find his enemies under his
own roof.
In Luke 12:49-53, Jesus says: I have come to set fire to the earth, and how I
wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint
I am under until the ordeal is over! Do you suppose I came to establish peace
on earth? No, indeed, I have come to bring division. For from now on, five
members of a family will be divided, three against two and two against three;
father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and
daughter against mother, mother against sons wife and sons wife against her
mother-in-law.
2. Does a good righteous person respect other peoples beliefs?
Jesus didnt. In fact, he didnt respect anyone who disagreed with him. In John
10:1417, it is stated that Jesus said: I am the good shepherd; I know my own
sheep and my sheep know meas the Father knows me and I know the Fatherand I
lay down my life for the sheep. But these are other sheep of mine, not
belonging to this fold, whom I must bring in; and they too will listen to my
voice. There will then be one flock, one shepherd. In Luke 19:27, not only
does Jesus show no tolerance for another persons beliefs, but orders his
followers to kill them. Jesus says, But as for those enemies of mine who did
not want me for their King, bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.
3. Does a good righteous person steal or order others to steal for him?
Jesus did. In Matthew 21:13, it states that Jesus ordered some of his
followers to steal for him: They were now nearing Jerusalem; and when they
reached Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples with these
instructions: Go to the village opposite, where you will at once find a donkey
tethered with her foal beside her; untie them, and bring them to me. If anyone
speaks to you, say, Our Master needs them, and he will let you take them at
once.
In Luke 6:13, not only did Jesus and his disciples take what was not his (ears
of corn), but they did this on the holy Shabbot when work, including gathering
food from the fields, was not permitted. At that time farmers left the corners
of their fields for the needy. Jesus went through the fields, not just the
corners, picking ears of corn. One Sabbath he was going through the
cornfields, and his disciples were plucking the ears of corn, rubbing them in
their hands, and eating them.
4. Does a good righteous person believe in beatings?
Jesus did. In Luke 12:4748, it states that Jesus says, The servant who knew
his masters wishes, yet made no attempt to carry them out, will be flogged
severely. But one who did not know them and earned a beating will be flogged
less severely. 5. Does a good righteous person believe you should let another
person take advantage of you?
Jesus did. In Matthew 5:3942, Jesus says, Do not set yourself against the man
who wrongs you. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn and offer him
your left. If a man wants to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as
well. If a man in authority makes you go one mile, go with him two. Give when
you are asked to give; and do not turn your back on a man who wants to borrow.
6. Does a good righteous person honor his or her parents?
Jesus didnt. Even though many times Jesus told his followers to honor their
parents, his actions were otherwise. This is illustrated in Matthew 12:4650.
He was still speaking to the crowd when his mother and brothers appeared: they
stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone said, Your mother and your
brothers are here outside; they want to speak to you. Jesus turned to the man
who brought the message, and said, Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? and
pointing to the disciples, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers.
Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, my sister, my
mother.  Obviously, he didnt speak to them or acknowledge them as his family.
Again in Matthew 8:22, Jesus shows disrespect for a parent, but this time it
is for the dead father of one his followers. It is reported that Jesus says,
Another man, one of his disciples, said to him, Lord, let me go and bury my
father first. Jesus replied,  Follow me and leave the dead to bury their dead.
7. Does a good righteous person believe in marriage for those who choose it?
Jesus didnt. In Luke 20: 3437, Jesus says, The men and women of this world
marry; but those who have been judged worthy of a place in the other world and
of the resurrection from the dead, do not marry, for they are not subject to
death any longer. They are like angels; they are sons of God, because they
share in the resurrection. In other words, if one marries, that person isnt
worthy of going to heaven.
8. Does a good righteous person tell people to give up all their personal
belongings and follow him?
Jesus did. He told one of his rich followers that in order to win eternal
life, You know the commandments: . . . There is still one thing lacking: sell
everything you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have riches in
heaven; and come, follow me. (Luke 18:20 and 18:2223) Jesus wants the wealthy
to give all ones assets to the poor. Jesus didnt think about the followers
family or the followers future. A wise person who gives to others at the same
time takes care of himself or herself and his or her familys needs. Why does
the Catholic Church, which professes to follow Jesus, keep its vast wealth
instead of distributing it to the poor?
9. Does a good righteous person abandon his family or tell others to do so in
order to follow him?
Jesus did. In Luke 18:2830, Jesus said, I tell you this: there is no one who
has given up home, or wife, brothers, parents, or children, for the sake of
the kingdom of God, who will not be repaid many times over in this age, and in
the age to come have eternal life.
10. Does a good righteous person only have disciples who hate their parents?
Jesus did. In Luke 14:26, Jesus states, If any man come to me, and hate not
his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple (a Christian).
11. Does a good righteous person show respect for nature?
Jesus was disrespectful toward nature. In Matthew 21:1820, it is stated: Next
morning on his way to the city he felt hungry; and seeing a fig tree at the
roadside he went up to it, but found nothing on it but leaves. He said to the
tree, You shall never bear fruit anymore! and the tree withered away at once.
Maybe it was not the season for the fig tree to bear more fruit!
12. Does a good righteous person treat animals cruelly?
Jesus did. In Matthew 8:2832, Jesus transferred demons from two men to a herd
of innocent pigs, which then perished. Jesus did not even seek out the owner
of the pigs, or care how it would affect the owners livelihood or even try to
compensate the owner for his loss.

==
The review of government records, undertaken by The Hill, found at least 24
trips for staff members to President Bush were paid for by churches or other
religious groups. Faith-based organizations paid for the most travel in the
time period, followed by universities and think tanks, which paid for 15 trips
each.
Groups paying for trips include the United Pentecostal Church, the
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and
the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
Among presidential aides, the most frequent traveler was Goeglein, a former
special assistant to the president considered a key part of the presidents
political team. He took 23 trips worth more than $23,000.
[Former White House aide Tim] Goeglein, who is close to Bushs former top
political aide Karl Rove, often served as the presidents liaison to social and
religious conservative groups and helped found the Faith-Based Office.
Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for the Separation of Church and
State , said his wish is to see the office shut down altogether.
The office has become a system of rewards for conservative Christian groups
who support the Bush administration, Boston said.
This story is yet another example of how this administration has no respect
for separation of church and state.
==
"Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on
pain of loss of life and limb." - Martin Luther
==
One problem with Pascal's Wager is that assuming an infinite payoff is a
cheat of sorts--one that renders calculations of expected value nonsensical.
As the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy points out, it turns out that
flipping a coin and believing in God only if it comes up heads also yields
an infinite expected value.
Another problem with Pascal's Wager is that it presupposes only two
possibilities: Either God exists more or less as Christians conceive of him,
or he doesn't exist at all. But from a standpoint of pure logic, this is
completely arbitrary. What if God exists and it is Muslims or Mormons or
atheists who go to heaven?
==
http://gods4suckers.net/archives/category/crazy-fundies/
==
"The differences among the manuscripts have become great, either through the
negligence of some copyists or through the perverse audacity of others... ..
[Copyists] make additions or deletions as they please." - Early Church father
Origen
==
According to the Harper's Bible Dictionary, "The ancient Hebrews imagined the
world as flat and round, covered by the great solid dome of the firmament
which was held up by mountain pillars, (Job 26:11, 37:18). The blue color of
the sky was attributed to the chaotic waters that the firmament separated from
the earth (Gen. 1:7).
floydfp: The earth was thus surrounded by waters above and below (Gen 1:6,7,
cf. Psalms 24:2, 148:4, Deut. 5:8).
floydfp: The firmament was thought to be substantial; it had pillars (Job
26:11) and foundations (2 Sam. 22:8). When the windows of it opened, rain fell
(Gen. 7:11-12,8:2).
floydfp: The sun, moon, and stars moved across or were fixed in the firmament
(Gen. 1:14-19; Ps. 19:4,6). It was also the abode of the birds (Gen.
1:20;Deut. 4:17). Within the earth lay Sheol, the realm of the dead (Num.
16:30-33;Isa. 14:9,15)."
==
The Duke of Alba in 1567 imposed a tribunal, the Council of Troubles, to
question and sentence heretics (Protestants). The Dutch called this council
the "Council of Blood," for it managed to publically execute thousands of
people before Alba was forced from the Netherlands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Troubles
==
http://webferret.search.com/click?wf6,+%2BMalleus+%2BMaleficarum,,www.malleusmaleficarum.org%2F,,alltheweb,1
Witch hunt handbook
==
George Lakoff  "Don't Think of an Elephant". Authority
and control is at the core of the modern conservative thinking.
==
Catholics could go to hell for purposely missing mass on Sunday or a holy day.
And eating meat on Friday was also a sin that could send you to hell. 
In the Œ60s the pope decided it was OK to eat meat on Friday after hundreds of
years of prohibition. I¹ll bet that really pissed off all those people who
went to hell for doing it. Of course, it was also possible to murder someone
and go to heaven if you were sorry for your sin and made a Œgood¹ confession.
==
By the reckoning of some, the Scriptures include 8,362 verses containing
1,817 predictions concerning more than 700 different matters. Of these, there
are more than 300 prophecies dealing with the coming Messiah.
==
The same surreal Christian nonsense still being peddled by the criminal
half of our society to the gullible half.  
==
Ephesians 6:5-9  Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters,
with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ.

Exodus 21:7 And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not
go out as the menservants do. (KJV)
==
 The putsch that imperiled America
In an administration in which ideology trumped justice, some said no.
Areport released Tuesday by the Justice Department has documented the Bush
administration's unprecedented -- and illegal -- effort to politicize the
ranks of the agency's prosecutors and civil service employees with
conservatives and true believers in the religious right's agenda.
Under then-Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, a thirtysomething lawyer named
Monica M. Goodling -- a graduate of a law school founded by Pat Robertson --
had virtual veto power over the appointment of U.S. attorneys, other
prosecutors and immigration judges. Goodling, as the Washington Post reported,
demanded that candidates "espouse conservative priorities and Christian
lifestyle choices," especially on issues such as abortion and same-sex
marriage. The goal, according to the report, was to create a Republican "farm
system" inside the Justice Department.
==	 
Science Speaks: Scientific Proof of the Accuracy of Prophecy and the Bible
(Mass Market Paperback)
by Peter Winebrenner Stoner (Author), Robert C. Newman (Collaborator) 
==
Ge7:21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of
cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth, and every man: (KJV)
==
Mat24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all
these things be fulfilled. (KJV)
==
John A.T. Robinson, in his book Redating the New Testament.
==
The earliest unambiguous attribution of the first gospel in the canon to
Matthew is by Irenaeus around 180 CE, almost a century after the work was
written. It's attribution seems to be partly based - erroneously - on
Papias' remark about a different document - a collection of sayings by
Jesus in Hebrew.
==
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/
==
Enoch was quoted as a prophetic text in the New Testament (Letter of Jude
(in Jude 14-15) with also a probable reference in I Peter 3:19,20 to
Enoch 6-36, especially 21, 6; 2 Enoch 7:1-5)
==
mat 24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into
the ark,
mat 24:39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall
also the coming of the Son of man be.
==
Jesus' populist message is probably why he amounted to more than a
blip on the historical radar, because it was in a time where most people felt
oppressed, and liked the idea of a god who was on their side.
==
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Camp
==
Why in the garden of eden was there a flaming sword when men had not made
swords yet or gone to war?
==
For me, the relevant point for us
is to note the toxic connection between
right-wing ("conservative" ) politics and the
Christian faith, which too
often links violence born of ignorance,
frustration, and impotence with an assurance
of righteousness, a promise of foregiveness,
and the promise of everlasting reward.
==
Man has always used god(s) to explain things we couldn¹t
explain. Over time we have been able to explain more and more. No longer do we
believe in a sun god that must be angry during long droughts. Why is it that
ancient polytheist religions are seen as mythology; we look at the ancients as
perhaps ignorant in their beliefs, such as sacrificing people to a god in hopes
that this year¹s crops will fare better than last year¹s. 
==
Don't forget Atum and Nahosh, Ananta, Avastis, Shesha, Ahi. Aapep, 
Quetzalcoatl, Bobbi-Bobbiand that unnamed serpent who stole the secret of 
eternal life from Gilgamesh. Isn't it funny that creation myths all over 
the world involve snakes?
===
Kenneth Copeland's prosperity empire

In the gentle hills of north Texas, televangelist Kenneth Copeland has built a
religious empire teaching that God wants his followers to prosper.
Over the years, a circle of Copeland's relatives and friends have done just
that, The Associated Press has found. They include the brother-in-law with a
lucrative deal to broker Copeland's television time, the son who acquired
church-owned land for his ranching business and saw it more than quadruple in
value, and board members who together have been paid hundreds of thousands of
dollars for speaking at church events.
Church officials say no one improperly benefits through ties to Copeland's
vast evangelical ministry, which claims more than 600,000 subscribers in 134
countries to its flagship "Believer's Voice of Victory" magazine. The board of
directors signs off on important matters, they say. Yet church bylaws give
Copeland veto power over board decisions.
While Copeland insists that his ministry complies with the law, independent
tax experts who reviewed information obtained by the AP through interviews,
church documents and public records have their doubts. The web of companies
and non-profits tied to the televangelist calls the ministry's integrity into
question, they say.
"There are far too many relatives here," said Frances Hill, a University of
Miami law professor who specializes in nonprofit tax law. "There's too much
money sloshing around and too much of it sloshing around with people with
overlapping affiliations and allegiances by either blood or friendship or just
ties over the years. There are red flags all over these relationships."
Copeland, 71, is a pioneer of the prosperity gospel, which holds that
believers are destined to flourish spiritually, physically and financially _
and share the wealth with others.
His ministry's 1,500-acre campus, behind an iron gate a half-hour drive from
Fort Worth, is testament to his success. It includes a church, a private
airstrip, a hangar for the ministry's $17.5 million jet and other aircraft,
and a $6 million church-owned lakefront mansion.
Already a well-known figure, Copeland has come under greater scrutiny in
recent months. He is one target of a Senate Finance Committee investigation
into allegations of questionable spending and lax financial accountability at
six large televangelist organizations that preach health-and-wealth theology.
All have denied wrongdoing. But Copeland has fought back the hardest, refusing
to answer most questions from the inquiry's architect, Republican Sen. Charles
Grassley of Iowa.
Copeland's church also has invited an Internal Revenue Service audit, which
would keep information private, and has launched a sophisticated Web site,
Believers Stand United, to "help set the record straight."
The Senate committee didn't set out to determine whether Copeland or the
others broke the law, although it could provide information to the Internal
Revenue Service if something seems flagrantly wrong, a committee aide said.
The main goal, Grassley has said, is to figure out whether existing tax laws
governing churches are adequate, which could carry sweeping implications for
all religious organizations.
The committee could subpoena Copeland if he remains uncooperative. Neither he
nor John Copeland, his son and the ministry's chief executive officer,
responded to interview requests.
But Lawrence Swicegood, spokesman for Kenneth Copeland Ministries, said in
written responses to questions that no Copeland family members receive
improper benefits through their ties to the church.
All revenue from the church's business interests _ including an oil and
natural gas company it owns _ go into the church, Swicegood said.
He said that Kenneth Copeland has never exercised his veto power over board
decisions, a provision meant for emergency use. Even so, Swicegood said, the
board is scheduled to meet in August to vote on taking away that ability.
____
Kenneth Copeland has always dreamed big.
Growing up in West Texas next to an Army air base, Copeland wanted to fly. He
also wanted to sing pop songs. He realized both ambitions and didn't stop
there.
In 1957, when he was 20, Copeland scored a Top 40 hit called "Pledge of Love"
and sang on "American Bandstand."
The journey that led to the pulpit began several years later. Copeland had a
born-again experience and enrolled at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla.
He worked as a pilot and chauffeur for Roberts himself.
Copeland was greatly influenced by Tulsa prosperity preacher Kenneth Hagin,
locking himself in the garage with Hagin's tapes for seven days before moving
back to Texas to start his ministry in the late 1960s.
Now a 500-employee operation with a budget in the tens of millions of dollars,
Kenneth Copeland Ministries has won supporters worldwide through its crusades
and conferences, prayer request network, disaster relief work, magazine and
television program.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries is organized under the tax code as a church, so it
gets a layer of privacy not afforded large secular and religious nonprofit
groups that must disclose budgets and salaries. Pastors' pay must be
"reasonable" under the federal tax code, a term that gives churches wide
latitude.
Copeland's current salary is not made public by his ministry. However, the
church disclosed in a property-tax exemption application that his wages were
$364,577 in 1995; Copeland's wife, Gloria, earned $292,593. It's not clear
whether those figures include other earnings, such as special offerings for
guest preaching or book royalties. Another 13 Copeland relatives were on the
church's payroll that year.
In the 1980s, Copeland's church purchased land on the shores of Eagle Mountain
Lake from the estate of a Texas oilman. Afterward, it discovered added value
underground: an oil and gas field.
Grassley, the senator leading the televangelist inquiry, has quizzed Copeland
about Security Petrol Inc., a wholly owned _ and for-profit _ subsidiary of
the church created in 1997 to manage that resource.
Swicegood said Security Petrol was established to protect the church from the
liability risk of oil and gas production and to minimize interference with the
church's religious activities.
No company officials _ including John Copeland, its president _ has received
compensation or profits from the company, and all revenue goes to the church
for general operations, Swicegood said. Reserves from gas wells in the
church's name were valued at $23 million last year, county records show.
Speaking at a ministers' conference in January, Kenneth Copeland accused
Grassley of twisting reality to make it look like the natural gas "was making
us rich off of the ministry's property. Bull. That's stupid."
It's not the only business venture tied to the church.
While natural gas platforms sprouted on church land, John Copeland, a
self-described "cowboy at heart," pursued a side business in cattle and
horses. Beginning in 1993, John Copeland leased church land to run his
business, El Rancho Fe, Spanish for "Ranch of Faith."
Five years later, the church separately sold John Copeland land for his ranch
and residence, Swicegood said.
Swicegood said appraisals were done to determine fair market value for leasing
and selling the land, adding that the lease benefits the church. John Copeland
must improve the land, and county officials confirmed the church gets a
roughly $100,000 annual tax break for putting it to agricultural use. The
church board approved the transactions.
While the purchase price is not public record, the 33-acre property would have
been worth about $93,000 that year, said John Marshall, executive director of
the Tarrant Appraisal District.
The land is now valued at $554,160 by the district.
Until recently, El Rancho Fe sold registered American Quarter Horses and three
other horse breeds. On its Web site, convenient location and the integrity of
the Copeland name were used as selling points.
"We are a family you know and a family you trust," it said.
John Copeland and his wife, Marty, no longer sell horses but continue to
operate the cattle business, Swicegood said.
Ellen Aprill, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a former
U.S. Treasury Department official, said leasing and selling land to the
church's top executive raises concerns. Under IRS rules, nonprofits can be
penalized or lose their tax-exempt status if an executive, board member or
other insider receives an economic benefit above and beyond what the
organization gets in return.
"The church and its board must take great care to make sure the payments are
fair to the church," Aprill said. "The church says it does. But is not clear
how we can know."
___
Located in an office complex in a north Dallas suburb, Integrity Media is the
kind of company that plays a little-known but important role in the world of
televangelism: negotiating the purchase of television time for Christian
ministries.
Douglas Neece, the company's president, said Kenneth Copeland Ministries is
Integrity Media's biggest client, accounting for just over 50 percent of its
business.
Neece is Kenneth Copeland's brother-in-law. Neece's son, Joel, also works for
the company.
The church's board was informed of Neece's relationship to the Copelands,
Swicegood said. Their television time is bought at market rates and the
ministry gets a discount from Integrity Media, he said.
Douglas Neece said his company charges a "deeply discounted" commission below
the industry standard of 15 percent. "We earn our money," Neece said. "That's
just the way it is.
"We have nothing to hide."
The money involved is substantial. In a 1997 filing in Tarrant County,
Copeland's church said it paid a "related party" $22 million for "telecast and
mass media expense" that year and received a discount of $1.7 million on the
transaction. Similar figures were cited for 1996.
Integrity Media, meanwhile, is the parent company to a horse-breeding
operation and real estate company that owns a Learjet, records show. Although
they are wholly owned subsidiaries of Integrity Media, Neece played down the
connections.
"The subsidiaries don't have anything to do with the media-buying
corporation," he said. "We've had several through the years, and these things
are not connected with the Copeland ministry."
Whatever the venture _ whether it's buying TV time, land deals with a church
executive or natural gas wells _ Kenneth Copeland Ministries cites its
11-member board of directors as an important check on the organization's
integrity.
Kenneth Copeland serves as board chairman, and his wife, Gloria, is a board
member. Records show other members include or have included fellow
televangelists Jesse Duplantis, Mac and Lynne Hammond, and Jerry and Carolyn
Savelle; Oklahoma architect Loyal Furry; retired Texas pastor Harold Nichols;
and Arkansas businessman John Best.
As chairman, Copeland has veto power over any resolution he deems "not in the
best financial or operational interests of the Church or not in furtherance of
the nonprofit religious purposes of the Church," church bylaws say.
Such veto power is highly unusual, say academics who study nonprofits.
Swicegood said the provision was meant to give Copeland emergency power to
prevent the church from doing anything "repugnant to its Christian purposes
and mission" _ although the bylaws don't lay that out. Swicegood said the
church plans to remove that provision and adopt others that "reflect
contemporary best practices in nonprofit governance."
Board member Best, in a written response to questions, said he's received "100
percent accessibility to anything I wanted to see and have always seen the
highest level of integrity and honesty."
Other board members either declined comment, did not respond to interview
requests or could not be located. The church has emphasized that board members
act in the church's best interest.
Some board members, however, receive a perk that experts like Hill, of the
University of Miami, said undermines their independence. While board members
don't get salaries, some who are ministers get paid for speaking at church
events through offerings and honorariums, Swicegood confirmed.
The sums involved are usually kept secret. But in seeking tax exemption for
its aircraft fleet in the late 1990s, the church revealed that it paid board
members a total of $87,000 in "cash contributions" and almost $1 million in
honorariums and "benefit purposes" in 1996 and '97.
Swicegood said the church's independent compensation committee approves all
payments to board members.
Marilyn Phelan, a Texas Tech University law professor and author on nonprofit
law, said the practice could pose problems in an IRS audit. Both the IRS and
Texas state law prohibit benefits beyond reasonable compensation for insiders,
including board members, she said. If violations are found, nonprofits can lose
their tax-exempt status and board members can face penalty taxes.
As the Senate Finance Committee considers its next step, Copeland is not
backing down. His ministry is portraying the inquiry as an attack on religious
liberty.
At the same time, it is moving forward with a big fund-raising project:
soliciting donations for new television equipment so Copeland can be broadcast
in high-definition.

==
I have enough experience with schizophrenics to recognize one. hell, one of
my friends used to think he was the antichrist, saw signs everywhere.
==
Cor16:22 I pray that God will put a curse on everyone who doesn't love
the Lord. And may the Lord come soon. (CEV)
==
Until the 19th century, boy choristers of the Sistine Chapel were
routinely castrated to preserve their singing voice,
==
The ghetto in Nuremberg was burned down in the 14th century in order to
claim the property as a building site for the church....while the Jews were
still inside.
==
 REVELATION 1:16 And in His right hand He held seven stars; and out of His
mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining
in its strength. -NASB
==
"I always wondered if those WWJD bracelets worked, so I bought one the other
day. I was in movie theater and a guy starts talking on his cell phone.
Wha?!?! So I almost went off on him, but then I looked at my bracelet, and
thought: Wait a minute, what would Jesus do? So I lit him on fire and sent
him to hell.
==
Psalm 139 "I shall hate thine enemies with perfect hatred, I shall rise up
& slew them"

 Rom9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. (KJV)
==
"those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her
light, and the stars shall fall from heaven" 
Stars are suns.
==
"The last superstition of the human mind is the superstition that religion in
itself is a good thing, though it might be free from dogma. I believe,
however, that the religious feeling, as feeling, is wrong, and the civilized
man will have nothing to do with it. . . . [When the] shadow of religion
disappeared forever . . . I felt that I was free from a disease."
-- Samuel Porter Putnam, My Religious Experience, 1891 
==
Re 3:1  And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith
he that hath the seven Spirits of God 
==
Psalm 18:9  King James Bible
He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.
==
"How to Get Rich as a Televangelist or Faith Healer" Author Bill Wilson 
==
Texas: Bible Classes Approved
The states Board of Education gave final approval to establishing Bible
classes in public high schools, rejecting calls to draw specific teaching
guidelines and warnings that such approval could lead to constitutional
problems in the classroom. The Legislature passed a measure in 2007 allowing
Bible courses to be offered as an elective. State officials are still waiting
for an attorney generals ruling on whether the classes must be offered to
students or left to school districts to decide. Critics say the rule does not
provide specific enough guidelines to help teachers and school districts know
how to do that and avoid a First Amendment clash over freedom of religion.
Mark Chancey, associate professor in religious studies at Southern Methodist
University, has studied Bible classes already offered in about 25 districts.
His study found most of the courses were explicitly devotional with almost
exclusively Christian, usually Protestant, perspectives. It also found that
most were taught by teachers who were not familiar with the issue of
separation of church and state.
==
International radiocarbon dating experts confirm the Turin Shroud is a
medieval fake
The Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, in collaboration with an
international research team, has carried out further tests to examine
the evidence for the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, reputedly
Christ's burial cloth. Professor Christopher Ramsey, director of the
Unit that showed the cloth to be a medieval fake in 1989, was part
of a team looking at a new hypothesis that could put the date much
earlier.
Dr John Jackson, of the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado in the United
States, put the new hypothesis forward. Dr Jackson suggests that the
shroud might over time have been contaminated with carbon monoxide,
which is naturally enriched in radiocarbon. What is significant in
this particular hypothesis is that only a 2 per cent carbon
contamination from carbon monoxide is needed to move the medieval
radiocarbon date of the Shroud to the first century. However, initial
tests show that in normal conditions there is no contamination at the
level needed to alter radiocarbon dates at all. The researchers
conclude the original radiocarbon date of 14th century is correct,
based on current evidence, but they have yet to test whether there is
anything in the specific storage conditions of the shroud which might
affect this conclusion.
Dr Jackson was the leader of a 30-person scientific team from the
United States that conducted a five-day scientific study of the Shroud
in 1978.
==
(gamla) can mean "camel" but it's also a homophone for 
"thick shipbinding rope."
==
dan 12:2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to
everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
Daniel is fiction
==
No Catholic catechism class or message from Catholic pulpits ever contains
reference to the hundreds of thousands of Protestants that were brutally
hunted down and murdered by papal armies. Albigensis, Waldensis and others
were slaughtered until nearly thousands of them had been martyred. In one
night papal armies pulled thousands of French Huguenots out of their homes and
killed them.
==
Christians' faith does help them in times of need... it comforts them, makes
them feel special and gives them all the answers of the universe. They believe
this because it makes them feel better about living and dying.
==
At the end of Vatican I, Catholic popes are proclaimed infallible by chapter
four of the papal bull Pastor Aeternus. His declarations on matters of faith
are protected from error by the Holy Spirit.
==
Consider the supernatural Roman Catholic doctrine that a thin paper wafer is
actually
the body of Christ--to understand that all supernatural beliefs are irrational
and antirational beliefs. Had Quinn gone to Catholic school, she would have
anticipated trouble from the devout supernaturalists. In the 1950s, the nuns
used to tie bows around the water fountains on days when the students were
scheduled to receive communion
because, at that time, the church considered it a violation of supernatural
protocol to drink so much as a drop of water after midnight before taking
communion the next morning. The bows, of course, were a way of reminding us
not to profane the body of Christ with water--whether flouridated or
unflouridated. (This rule has since been rescinded.)
==
Many religious leaders, like John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist
Church, firmly believed in evil ghosts and witches.
===
"Beginning of Religion" by Ina Wunn 2000
==
Carl Baugh teaches about curing arthritis by standing on electric eels.
==
The liberal theists can't help because they're part of the problem roasting
overthe same fire of credulity as the extremists. It would be like
trying to stamp out belief with more belief,
==
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei#Church_controversy

http://www.catholic.com/library/galileo_controversy.asp
==
deu 22:28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married
and rapes her and they are discovered,
deu 22:29 he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must
marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long
as he lives.
==
IX/5: Then when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye
find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them
each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor- due,
then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
This verse tells us that muslims are free to convert non-muslims by force and
brutality. If unsuccessful in doing so, they are free to kill.
==
http://www.rationalistinternational.net/
==
I think that a lot of people never grow up emotionally and therefore
they cannot live apart from their parents without inventing a parent
inside their heads...and this christian god concept really works for
people who want a strong authoritarian father...that is why those who
prefer the 'conservative' religious beliefs are always authoritarian
as well
==
Hebrew Date Converter. Sun, 13 July 2008 = 10th of Tamuz, 5768 ..
==
Chapters were first added to the bible in A.D. 1227 (and verses in A.D. 1551)
==
Michael D. Goulder, a leading New Testament scholar, resigned the priesthood
and became an atheist, saying that he couldn't worship an unemployed God.
==
Romans 1:20, St. Paul says: "Ever since the creation of the world his
invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, have been clearly
perceived in the things that have been made."

What is clear?
==
God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist
(Hardcover) by Victor J. Stenger (Author) 

"Atheist Universe" by David Mills
==
According to Luke 10:19 (KJV), Jesus also bestowed power to harmlessly 
"tread on serpents and scorpions."
===
Pastor among suspects in illegal snake bust
FRANKFORT, Ky. - The pastor of a Kentucky church that handles snakes in
religious rites was among 10 people arrested by wildlife officers in a
crackdown on the venomous snake trade.
More than 100 snakes, many of them deadly, were confiscated in the undercover
sting after Thursday's arrests, said Col. Bob Milligan, director of law
enforcement for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.
Most were taken from the Middlesboro home of Gregory James Coots, including 42
copperheads, 11 timber rattlesnakes, three cottonmouth water moccasins, a
western diamondback rattlesnake, two cobras and a puff adder.
Handling snakes is practiced in a handful of fundamentalist churches across
Appalachia, based on the interpretation of Bible verses saying true believers
can take up serpents without being harmed. The practice is illegal in most
states, including Kentucky.
Coots, 36, is pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in
Middlesboro, where a Tennessee woman died after being bitten by a rattlesnake
during a service in 1995. Her husband died three years later when he was
bitten by a snake in northeastern Alabama.
Coots was charged Thursday with buying, selling and possessing illegal
reptiles. He had no listed telephone number and couldn't be reached for
comment. There was no phone listing for the church.
==
Morality is that instinctive sense of right and wrong that tells some people
how everyone else should behave.
==
Snake Handler
His name was George Went Hensley. He started the "Church of God with Signs
Following" in Tennesee, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia among the
"intellectually challenged." His foundation was the "They shall take up
serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they
shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." from Mark 16:18.
Venomous snakes rarely inject lethal amounts of venom in defensive
bites...around 10-15% of the time. Hensley had been bitten many times but
the odds fell against him in July, 1955. This practice wasmade illegal but
the nut cases still do it, including handing rattlesnakes to their children
as tests of faith. Deaths still occur.
==
Sam Harris: On the subject of religious belief, we relax standards of
reasonableness and evidence that we rely on in every other area of our lives.
We relax so totally that people believe the most ludicrous propositions, and
are willing to organize their lives around them. Propositions like "Jesus is
going to come back in the next fifty years and rectify every problem that
human beings create"
One of the things that is overlooked by many Christians is that there is a
wrathful Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus comes out and condemns whole
towns to fates worse than Sodom and Gomorrah for not liking his preaching. 
==
Job 29:18 Then I said: "In my own nest I shall grow old; I shall multiply
years like the phoenix. (New American Bible)
==
And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may
see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold,
the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
(2 Kings 6 17)
==
The concept of a deity is so fluid that it can easily be applied to any
situation whatsoever. That's why it fails as a scientific concept.
==
Intentionally abusing the Eucharist is classified as a mortal sin in 
the Catholic church, the most severe possible.
==
*TABLE I : CANONICAL AND NAZI ANTI-JEWISH MEASURES*

*CANONICAL LAW*

*NAZI MEASURE*

Prohibition of intermarriage and of sexual intercourse between
Christians and Jews. Synod of Elvira. 306

Law for the Protection or German Blood and Honor. September 15, 1935

Jews and Christians not permitted to eat together. Synod of Elvira. 306

Jews barred from dining cars (Transport Minister to Interior Minister,
December 30.1939)

Jews not allowed to hold public Office. Synod of Clermont, 535
 
Law for the Reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service. April 7, 1933

Jews not allowed to employ Christian servants or possess Christian
slaves, 3d Synod of Orleans, 538



Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor. September 15, 1935

Jews not permitted to show themselves in the streets during Passion
Week. 3 (1 Synod of OrlEans, 538.

Decree authorizing local authorities to bar Jews from the streets on
certain days (i.e. Nazi holidays), December 3, 1938

Burning of the Talmud and other books, 12th Synod of Toledo. 681

Book burnings in Nazi Germany

Christians not permitted to patronize Jewish doctors, Trullan Synod. 692

Decree of July 25,1938

Christians not permitted to live in Jewish homes, Synod of Narhonne, 050

Directive by Goring providing for concentration of Jews in houses,
December 28, 1938 (Bormann to Rosenberg, January 17, 1939)

Jews obliged to pay taxes for support of the Church to the same extent
as Christians. Synod of Gerona, 1078



The "Sozialausgleichsab gabe" which provided that Jews pay a special
income tax in lieu of donations for Party purposes imposed on Nazis,
December 24, 1940

Jews not permitted to be plaintiffs, or witnesses against Christians in
the Courts, 3d Lateran Council, 1179, Canon 26



Proposal by the Party Chancellery that Jews not be permitted to
institute civil suits, September 91942 (Bormann to Justice Ministry,
September 9,1942),

Jews not permitted to withhold inheritance from descendants who had
accepted Christianity, 3d Lateran Council, 1179, Canon 26



Decree empowering the Justice Ministry to void wills offending the
"sound judgment of the people," July 31, 1938.

The marking of Jewish clothes with a badge, 4th Lateran Council, 1215.
Canon 68 (Copied from the legislation by Caliph Omar II [636-644], who
had decreed that Christians wear blue belts and Jews, yellow belts)



Decree of September 1, 1941

Construction of new synagogues prohibited, Council of Oxford, 1222



Destruction of synagogues in entire Reich. November 10, l938 (Heydrich
to Goring. November 11, 1938)

Christians not permitted to attend Jewish ceremonies, Synod of Vienna. 1267

Friendly relations with Jews prohibited. October 24, 1941 (Gestapo
directive)

Jews not permitted to dispute with simple Christian people about the
tenets of the Catholic religion. Synod of Vienna. 1267

Compulsory ghettos. Synod of Breslau, 1267

Order by Heydrich, September 21, 1939

Christians not permitted to sell or rent real estate to Jews. Synod of
Ofen, 1279

Decree providing for compulsory sale of Jewish real estate. December 3, 1938

Adoption by a Christian of the Jewish religion or return by a baptized
Jew to the Jewish religion defined as a heresy. Synod of Mainz, 1310

Adoption of the Jewish religion by a Christian places him in jeopardy of
being treated as a Jew (Decision by Oberlandesgericht Konigsberg. 4th
Zivilsenat. June 26.1942)

Jews not permitted to act as agents in the conclusion of contracts,
especially marriage contracts between Christians. Council of Basel,
1434. Sessio XIX

Decree of July 6.1938. providing for liquidation of Jewish real estate
agencies. brokerage agencies, and marriage agencies catering to non-Jews

Jews not permitted to obtain academic degrees. Council of Basel, 1434,
Sessio XIX

Law against Overcrowding of German Schools anti Universities. April 25,
1933.

(from Hilberg, Raul. _The Destruction of European Jews_. 1985)
http://www.sonoma. edu/users/ g/goodman/ LOWE.htm# table
==
The Roman Catholic crusader Hitler was a at core a Catholic
superstition- ist and motivated by Roman Catholic anti-Semitism and
frenzied Catholic mythologies about 'Jewish Bolshevism' and the evils of
liberalism and modernism and motivated by megalomaniacal urges that is,
millennial expectations of a universal Catholic Reich.

Hitler was born and baptised Catholic; indoctrinated by monks (the
primarily source of his racialist ideology), and Catholic priests, and
raised a pious, habitual Catholic.

Hitler's 'racism' was based on the view that races were created distinct
by God. Obsessed by a belief in the evils of racial dilution as an evil
against god, Hitler prophesied that if no one did anything about the
purification of the races, the image of God would be corrupted:-

"But if out of smugness, or even cowardice, this battle is not fought to
its end, then take a look at the peoples five hundred years from now. I
think you will find but few images of God, unless you want to profane
the Almighty." --Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

Hitler took this religiously- based race beliefs seriously; he held
justification for a superior race on the foundation of his belief that
man should fit god's image:-

"A folkish state must therefore begin by raising marriage from the level
of a continuous defilement of the race, and give it the consecration of
an institution which is called upon to produce images of the Lord and
not monstrosities halfway between man and ape." --Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf.

From cradle to grave, Hitler remained a fervent servant to Catholic
superstition. "This human world of ours would be inconceivable without
the practical existence of a religious belief." --Adolf Hitler, Mein
Kampf, pp.152

"The fact that the Vatican is concluding a treaty with the new Germany
means the acknowledgement of the National Socialist state by the
Catholic Church. This treaty shows the whole world clearly and
unequivocally that the assertion that National Socialism [Nazism] is
hostile to religion is a lie. " --Adolf Hitler, 22 July 1933, writing to
the Nazi Party

Even as late as 1941, Hitler regarded himself as a devout Catholic right
until he seemed to sense the approaching end, "I am now as before a
Catholic and will always remain so," he told Gerhard Engel, one of his
generals. --John Toland, Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography, New
York: Anchor Publishing, 1992, p.507 ISBN 0-385-42053- 6. ]

*** For more detailed info, go to: "Nazi photos" ***

http://www.nobelief s.com/nazis. htm
==
The Roman Catholic Church considered the teachings of John Hus heretical;
consequently Hus was excommunicated in 1411, condemned by the Council of
Constance, and burned at the stake in 1415.
==
The Bible says so; how do you know the Bible is right? Because its the
word of God; how do you know its the word of God? The Bible says so...)
==
It was Luther, like Hitler who said "drive them
like mad dogs from the fatherland."  It was the Vatican, hardly a
cheering section for Darwin, who signed concordats, most priests,
bishops, Reichbishops, ReichArchbishops & ReichCardinals gave Hitler
the Seig Heil straight arm salute, nuns were eager to get autographs.
==
Eccl. 9:5,10: "The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the 
dead, they are conscious of nothing at all 

In the NT, the dead hold conversations, like the rich man in hell.

luk 16:23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth
Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
==
Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

JERUSALEM  A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars
believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a
quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may
speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.
If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a
developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since
it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but
part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.
The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some
scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings
from that era  in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.
It is written, not engraved, across two neat columns, similar to columns in a
Torah. But the stone is broken, and some of the text is faded, meaning that
much of what it says is open to debate.
Still, its authenticity has so far faced no challenge, so its role in helping
to understand the roots of Christianity in the devastating political crisis
faced by the Jews of the time seems likely to increase.
Daniel Boyarin, a professor of Talmudic culture at the University of
California at Berkeley, said that the stone was part of a growing body of
evidence suggesting that Jesus could be best understood through a close
reading of the Jewish history of his day.
Some Christians will find it shocking  a challenge to the uniqueness of their
theology  while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional
part of Judaism, Mr. Boyarin said.
Given the highly charged atmosphere surrounding all Jesus-era artifacts and
writings, both in the general public and in the fractured and fiercely
competitive scholarly community, as well as the concern over forgery and
charlatanism, it will probably be some time before the tablets contribution is
fully assessed. It has been around 60 years since the Dead Sea Scrolls were
uncovered, and they continue to generate enormous controversy regarding their
authors and meaning.
The scrolls, documents found in the Qumran caves of the West Bank, contain
some of the only known surviving copies of biblical writings from before the
first century A.D. In addition to quoting from key books of the Bible, the
scrolls describe a variety of practices and beliefs of a Jewish sect at the
time of Jesus.
How representative the descriptions are and what they tell us about the era
are still strongly debated. For example, a question that arises is whether the
authors of the scrolls were members of a monastic sect or in fact mainstream. A
conference marking 60 years since the discovery of the scrolls will begin on
Sunday at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where the stone, and the debate over
whether it speaks of a resurrected messiah, as one iconoclastic scholar
believes, also will be discussed.
Oddly, the stone is not really a new discovery. It was found about a decade
ago and bought from a Jordanian antiquities dealer by an Israeli-Swiss
collector who kept it in his Zurich home. When an Israeli scholar examined it
closely a few years ago and wrote a paper on it last year, interest began to
rise. There is now a spate of scholarly articles on the stone, with several
due to be published in the coming months.
I couldnt make much out of it when I got it, said David Jeselsohn, the owner,
who is himself an expert in antiquities. I didnt realize how significant it
was until I showed it to Ada Yardeni, who specializes in Hebrew writing, a few
years ago. She was overwhelmed. You have got a Dead Sea Scroll on stone, she
told me.
Much of the text, a vision of the apocalypse transmitted by the angel Gabriel,
draws on the Old Testament, especially the prophets Daniel, Zechariah and
Haggai.
Ms. Yardeni, who analyzed the stone along with Binyamin Elitzur, is an expert
on Hebrew script, especially of the era of King Herod, who died in 4 B.C. The
two of them published a long analysis of the stone more than a year ago in
Cathedra, a Hebrew-language quarterly devoted to the history and archaeology
of Israel, and said that, based on the shape of the script and the language,
the text dated from the late first century B.C.
A chemical examination by Yuval Goren, a professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv
University who specializes in the verification of ancient artifacts, has been
submitted to a peer-review journal. He declined to give details of his
analysis until publication, but he said that he knew of no reason to doubt the
stones authenticity.
It was in Cathedra that Israel Knohl, an iconoclastic professor of Bible
studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, first heard of the stone, which Ms.
Yardeni and Mr. Elitzur dubbed Gabriels Revelation, also the title of their
article. Mr. Knohl posited in a book published in 2000 the idea of a suffering
messiah before Jesus, using a variety of rabbinic and early apocalyptic
literature as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. But his theory did not shake the
world of Christology as he had hoped, partly because he had no textual
evidence from before Jesus.
When he read Gabriels Revelation, he said, he believed he saw what he needed
to solidify his thesis, and he has published his argument in the latest issue
of The Journal of Religion.
Mr. Knohl is part of a larger scholarly movement that focuses on the political
atmosphere in Jesus day as an important explanation of that eras messianic
spirit. As he notes, after the death of Herod, Jewish rebels sought to throw
off the yoke of the Rome-supported monarchy, so the rise of a major Jewish
independence fighter could take on messianic overtones.
In Mr. Knohls interpretation, the specific messianic figure embodied on the
stone could be a man named Simon who was slain by a commander in the Herodian
army, according to the first-century historian Josephus. The writers of the
stones passages were probably Simons followers, Mr. Knohl contends.
The slaying of Simon, or any case of the suffering messiah, is seen as a
necessary step toward national salvation, he says, pointing to lines 19
through 21 of the tablet  In three days you will know that evil will be
defeated by justice  and other lines that speak of blood and slaughter as
pathways to justice.
To make his case about the importance of the stone, Mr. Knohl focuses
especially on line 80, which begins clearly with the words Lshloshet yamin,
meaning in three days. The next word of the line was deemed partially
illegible by Ms. Yardeni and Mr. Elitzur, but Mr. Knohl, who is an expert on
the language of the Bible and Talmud, says the word is hayeh, or live in the
imperative. It has an unusual spelling, but it is one in keeping with the era.
Two more hard-to-read words come later, and Mr. Knohl said he believed that he
had deciphered them as well, so that the line reads, In three days you shall
live, I, Gabriel, command you.
To whom is the archangel speaking? The next line says Sar hasarin, or prince
of princes. Since the Book of Daniel, one of the primary sources for the
Gabriel text, speaks of Gabriel and of a prince of princes, Mr. Knohl contends
that the stones writings are about the death of a leader of the Jews who will
be resurrected in three days.
He says further that such a suffering messiah is very different from the
traditional Jewish image of the messiah as a triumphal, powerful descendant of
King David.
This should shake our basic view of Christianity, he said as he sat in his
office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior
fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies
at Hebrew University. Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed
before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in
the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier
messiah story.
Ms. Yardeni said she was impressed with the reading and considered it indeed
likely that the key illegible word was hayeh, or live. Whether that means
Simon is the messiah under discussion, she is less sure.
Moshe Bar-Asher, president of the Israeli Academy of Hebrew Language and
emeritus professor of Hebrew and Aramaic at the Hebrew University, said he
spent a long time studying the text and considered it authentic, dating from
no later than the first century B.C. His 25-page paper on the stone will be
published in the coming months.
Regarding Mr. Knohls thesis, Mr. Bar-Asher is also respectful but cautious.
There is one problem, he said. In crucial places of the text there is lack of
text. I understand Knohls tendency to find there keys to the pre-Christian
period, but in two to three crucial lines of text there are a lot of missing
words.
Moshe Idel, a professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, said that
given the way every tiny fragment from that era yielded scores of articles and
books, Gabriels Revelation and Mr. Knohls analysis deserved serious attention.
Here we have a real stone with a real text, he said. This is truly significant.
Mr. Knohl said that it was less important whether Simon was the messiah of the
stone than the fact that it strongly suggested that a savior who died and rose
after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus. He notes
that in the Gospels, Jesus makes numerous predictions of his suffering and New
Testament scholars say such predictions must have been written in by later
followers because there was no such idea present in his day.
But there was, he said, and Gabriels Revelation shows it.
His mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to suffer so his
blood will be the sign for redemption to come, Mr. Knohl said. This is the
sign of the son of Joseph. This is the conscious view of Jesus himself. This
gives the Last Supper an absolutely different meaning. To shed blood is not
for the sins of people but to bring redemption to Israel.


Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection
JERUSALEM  A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars
believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a
quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may
speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a
developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since
it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but
part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some
scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings
from that era  in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.

It is written, not engraved, across two neat columns, similar to columns in a
Torah. But the stone is broken, and some of the text is faded, meaning that
much of what it says is open to debate.

Still, its authenticity has so far faced no challenge, so its role in helping
to understand the roots of Christianity in the devastating political crisis
faced by the Jews of the time seems likely to increase.

Daniel Boyarin, a professor of Talmudic culture at the University of
California at Berkeley, said that the stone was part of a growing body of
evidence suggesting that Jesus could be best understood through a close
reading of the Jewish history of his day.

Some Christians will find it shocking  a challenge to the uniqueness of their
theology  while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional
part of Judaism, Mr. Boyarin said.

Given the highly charged atmosphere surrounding all Jesus-era artifacts and
writings, both in the general public and in the fractured and fiercely
competitive scholarly community, as well as the concern over forgery and
charlatanism, it will probably be some time before the tablets contribution is
fully assessed. It has been around 60 years since the Dead Sea Scrolls were
uncovered, and they continue to generate enormous controversy regarding their
authors and meaning.

The scrolls, documents found in the Qumran caves of the West Bank, contain
some of the only known surviving copies of biblical writings from before the
first century A.D. In addition to quoting from key books of the Bible, the
scrolls describe a variety of practices and beliefs of a Jewish sect at the
time of Jesus.

How representative the descriptions are and what they tell us about the era
are still strongly debated. For example, a question that arises is whether the
authors of the scrolls were members of a monastic sect or in fact mainstream. A
conference marking 60 years since the discovery of the scrolls will begin on
Sunday at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where the stone, and the debate over
whether it speaks of a resurrected messiah, as one iconoclastic scholar
believes, also will be discussed.

Oddly, the stone is not really a new discovery. It was found about a decade
ago and bought from a Jordanian antiquities dealer by an Israeli-Swiss
collector who kept it in his Zurich home. When an Israeli scholar examined it
closely a few years ago and wrote a paper on it last year, interest began to
rise. There is now a spate of scholarly articles on the stone, with several
due to be published in the coming months.

I couldnt make much out of it when I got it, said David Jeselsohn, the owner,
who is himself an expert in antiquities. I didnt realize how significant it
was until I showed it to Ada Yardeni, who specializes in Hebrew writing, a few
years ago. She was overwhelmed. You have got a Dead Sea Scroll on stone, she
told me.

Much of the text, a vision of the apocalypse transmitted by the angel Gabriel,
draws on the Old Testament, especially the prophets Daniel, Zechariah and
Haggai.

Ms. Yardeni, who analyzed the stone along with Binyamin Elitzur, is an expert
on Hebrew script, especially of the era of King Herod, who died in 4 B.C. The
two of them published a long analysis of the stone more than a year ago in
Cathedra, a Hebrew-language quarterly devoted to the history and archaeology
of Israel, and said that, based on the shape of the script and the language,
the text dated from the late first century B.C.

A chemical examination by Yuval Goren, a professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv
University who specializes in the verification of ancient artifacts, has been
submitted to a peer-review journal. He declined to give details of his
analysis until publication, but he said that he knew of no reason to doubt the
stones authenticity.

It was in Cathedra that Israel Knohl, an iconoclastic professor of Bible
studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, first heard of the stone, which Ms.
Yardeni and Mr. Elitzur dubbed Gabriels Revelation, also the title of their
article. Mr. Knohl posited in a book published in 2000 the idea of a suffering
messiah before Jesus, using a variety of rabbinic and early apocalyptic
literature as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. But his theory did not shake the
world of Christology as he had hoped, partly because he had no textual
evidence from before Jesus.

When he read Gabriels Revelation, he said, he believed he saw what he needed
to solidify his thesis, and he has published his argument in the latest issue
of The Journal of Religion.

Mr. Knohl is part of a larger scholarly movement that focuses on the political
atmosphere in Jesus day as an important explanation of that eras messianic
spirit. As he notes, after the death of Herod, Jewish rebels sought to throw
off the yoke of the Rome-supported monarchy, so the rise of a major Jewish
independence fighter could take on messianic overtones.

In Mr. Knohls interpretation, the specific messianic figure embodied on the
stone could be a man named Simon who was slain by a commander in the Herodian
army, according to the first-century historian Josephus. The writers of the
stones passages were probably Simons followers, Mr. Knohl contends.

The slaying of Simon, or any case of the suffering messiah, is seen as a
necessary step toward national salvation, he says, pointing to lines 19
through 21 of the tablet  In three days you will know that evil will be
defeated by justice  and other lines that speak of blood and slaughter as
pathways to justice.

To make his case about the importance of the stone, Mr. Knohl focuses
especially on line 80, which begins clearly with the words Lshloshet yamin,
meaning in three days. The next word of the line was deemed partially
illegible by Ms. Yardeni and Mr. Elitzur, but Mr. Knohl, who is an expert on
the language of the Bible and Talmud, says the word is hayeh, or live in the
imperative. It has an unusual spelling, but it is one in keeping with the era.

Two more hard-to-read words come later, and Mr. Knohl said he believed that he
had deciphered them as well, so that the line reads, In three days you shall
live, I, Gabriel, command you.

To whom is the archangel speaking? The next line says Sar hasarin, or prince
of princes. Since the Book of Daniel, one of the primary sources for the
Gabriel text, speaks of Gabriel and of a prince of princes, Mr. Knohl contends
that the stones writings are about the death of a leader of the Jews who will
be resurrected in three days.

He says further that such a suffering messiah is very different from the
traditional Jewish image of the messiah as a triumphal, powerful descendant of
King David.

This should shake our basic view of Christianity, he said as he sat in his
office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior
fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies
at Hebrew University. Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed
before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in
the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier
messiah story.

Ms. Yardeni said she was impressed with the reading and considered it indeed
likely that the key illegible word was hayeh, or live. Whether that means
Simon is the messiah under discussion, she is less sure.

Moshe Bar-Asher, president of the Israeli Academy of Hebrew Language and
emeritus professor of Hebrew and Aramaic at the Hebrew University, said he
spent a long time studying the text and considered it authentic, dating from
no later than the first century B.C. His 25-page paper on the stone will be
published in the coming months.

Regarding Mr. Knohls thesis, Mr. Bar-Asher is also respectful but cautious.
There is one problem, he said. In crucial places of the text there is lack of
text. I understand Knohls tendency to find there keys to the pre-Christian
period, but in two to three crucial lines of text there are a lot of missing
words.

Moshe Idel, a professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, said that
given the way every tiny fragment from that era yielded scores of articles and
books, Gabriels Revelation and Mr. Knohls analysis deserved serious attention.
Here we have a real stone with a real text, he said. This is truly significant.

Mr. Knohl said that it was less important whether Simon was the messiah of the
stone than the fact that it strongly suggested that a savior who died and rose
after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus. He notes
that in the Gospels, Jesus makes numerous predictions of his suffering and New
Testament scholars say such predictions must have been written in by later
followers because there was no such idea present in his day.

But there was, he said, and Gabriels Revelation shows it.

His mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to suffer so his
blood will be the sign for redemption to come, Mr. Knohl said. This is the
sign of the son of Joseph. This is the conscious view of Jesus himself. This
gives the Last Supper an absolutely different meaning. To shed blood is not
for the sins of people but to bring redemption to Israel.



==
When Spain invaded the Americas, it would have a priest read an ultamatum to
any tribe of indigenous people that encountered. In that ultamatum, they were
told, basically, to accept Catholicism or die. Since it was read in Spanish,
the Indians couldn't understand it anyway, and then the Conquistadors would
move in and start killing people.
==
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world. -- 1 John 2:2
The doctrine of propitiation isnt something thats talked about too much in
modern Christian circles. Hell, heaven, sin, repentance, prayer, Jim Dobson
these are all topics that get covered constantly, but propitiation? Not in any
church I attended. I think I know the reason. The doctrine is bizarre,
inconsistent and incoherent to even the most religiously brainwashed.
The definition of propitiation is An atoning sacrifice to gain or regain the
favor or goodwill of God. To propitiate is to appease or pacify God.
As in the verse quoted above, Jesus purported death on a cross was to placate
the wrath of a god who supposedly has a considerable grudge against humanity.
Humanity just didnt work out as He intended.
So, propitiation is a blood-soaked offering lifted up to appease the wrath of
blood-thirsty deity. When this deity sees hemoglobin, he feels better about
things and can finally overlook offenses that normally cause his eyes to blaze
with righteous indignation. When this deity sees hemoglobin, he feels better
about thingsBut modern ears and minds arent accustomed to thinking of God in
the throws of blood-lust. Why in the world would killing something and looking
at its plasma satisfy anyones  including a deitys  righteous indignation? Has
God got a thing for vampires? To tone things down a bit for 21st Century
Christians, propitiation has been repackaged for the modern ear. Christians
are now told that all humanity has a sin debt to God: We are in debt to God
for our sin and the debt must be paid. The death of Gods only son on the cross
paid that debt, so it is said.
==
 cockatrice n : monster hatched by a reptile from a cock's egg; 
able to kill with a glance, mentioned in the KJV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockatrice
==
While reading the King James bible as a young teenager, she decided: "It
sounded cruel. A God who would not forgive the world until his son had been
tortured to death--that did not strike me as the kind of father 
I would want to relate to."
==
Tim 1:10 is interestingly against slave-traders but not against slave-owners.
==
Chisto-Facism is a closed system that demands total obedience and
indoctrination into a culture of hate that demonizes all who do not believe.
==
According to recent statistics, there exists approximately 4,684 different
denominations, groups or sects of Christianity in America.
Each is the ONE TRUE CHURCH.
==
The two different birthdates of Jesus: 6 BC and 6 AD, as indicated by 
Mathew 2:1 and Luke 2:2
==
Matthew 27:52 the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who
had fallen asleep were raised, (Revised Standard Version)
Matthew 27:53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went
into the holy city and appeared to many. (Revised Standard Version)
Matthew 27:53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went
into the holy city and appeared to many. (Revised Standard Version)

Did these people ever die again? What if their wife had remarried?
Could they reclaim their estate goods?
==
I'm waiting for Lee Strobel's next book,
 "The Case for Buying Every Book I Write."
==
Theistic beliefs are not based on any preponderance of evidence. In
fact, theism ignores the preponderance of evidence that men create
gods and they do it all the time. Theistic hopes based on whim and
hearsay are absurd and non-falsifiable. Actions taken based on hopes
and beliefs of this sort produce a dysfunctional and unjustified faith.
==
It is remarkable that the Dalai Lama says that where science is found to
contradict Buddhist belief then science must stand and belief must be
modified. It's certainly a rare opinion for the leader of a major faith.
==
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.   
Psalm 51 5     What sin?
==
Somebody supposedly asked Augustine of Hippo once, "what was God doing before
he made the universe?  and his answer was... "he was busy making hell to put
people in who asked questions that were none of their damned business"
==
It is Enki who destroyed the ziggurat of EANNA, resulting in man losing One
world language and gaining many, just like the tower of Babel, and it was Enki
who warned Zi-su-adra to built an ark to ride out the flood.
==
http://firstchurchofatheism.com/
==
"American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, 
and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury"  Kevin Phillips; Hardcover; 
$5.99    A fabulous book

"The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for 
God"  Carl Sagan; Paperback; $5.99    Sagan is a fabulous writer.

"American Fascists"   Chris Hedges    $5.99     A fabulous book.

"Is Christianity Good for the World?"   Christopher Hitchens; Hardcover; $8.82

"Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading 
Atheists"    Dan Barker; Paperback; $10.17    Comes highly recommended

"Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" Daniel C. Dennett; 
Paperback; $10.88
==
ABC News reported on a shocking story about the Bush
Administration's so-called "faith-based" initiative: the Department of Justice
awarded a $1.2 million grant to be shared by an evangelical youth charity
called Victory Outreach and a consulting firm run by a former White House
staffer. Fully one-third of the grant would go to line the coffers of the
consulting firm, instead of funding services for children
This is not the first time we have seen political manipulation from the Office
of Faith-Based Initiatives. In 2006, former White House staffer David Kuo wrote
a tell-all book, documenting how federal funds were being funneled to
fly-by-night evangelical Christian charities without any congressional
approval or oversight.
Victory Outreach is a prime example of the type of organization the Office of
Faith-Based Initiatives likes to fund. It describes itself as a
"church-oriented Christian ministry called to the task of evangelizing and
disciplining the hurting people of the world, with the message of hope and
plan of Jesus Christ." In other words, they want to help people as long as
those people adhere to their particular brand of Christianity.
==
Smallpox
Imagine an Egyptologist's surprise when the mummified pharaoh he found and
unwrapped in 1898 bore the familiar scars of smallpox, a disease whose first
successful vaccination had been discovered only 100 years earlier.
Today it's a medical success story, but before it was eradicated, the smallpox
virus spent more than 3,000 years decimating communities across the globe.
The extremely infectious disease was class-blind, killing rich and poor alike,
and almost single-handedly wiped out the New World empires encountered by
European explorers.
Smallpox was finally controlled by the development of the world's first
vaccine in the late 1700s, but fears linger that a few cells remaining in
Petri dishes could be used as biological weaponry.
Empires fall
It is believed that smallpox first incubated 10,000 years ago in northern
Africa, spreading slowly to the rest of the ancient world. Repeat epidemics of
the highly contagious virus which caused a grotesque rash, fever and often
blindness began popping up a few millennia later.
Aside from speckling the face of Ramses V, the pharaoh who succumbed to
smallpox in 1156 B.C., the virus appears in contemporary texts from India and
China. Approximately 30 percent of those infected with smallpox died, and the
statistics were even worse for children. According to some ancient customs,
newborn babies were often left unnamed until they, inevitably, contracted the
disease and proved they could survive, historians say.
Smallpox continued to spread across Asia in the Middle Ages and reached Europe
by A.D. 700, killing indiscriminately. Waves of epidemics wiped out large rural
populations, but didn't spare royalty either: Queen Mary II of England, Holy
Roman Emperor Joseph I, French King Louis XV and Tsar Peter II of Russia all
died of the disease, the latter on the eve of his wedding.
Perhaps the most defenseless victims of smallpox were the Aztec and Inca
Indians of the New World who, with no immunity to European diseases, were
almost completely wiped out by the virus before Spanish conquistadors finished
them off with weapons in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Dairymaids help create vaccines
By the beginning of the 18th century, 400,000 Europeans annually and one out
of every seven Russian children were dying of smallpox, a disease that had now
been killing unhindered for at least 2,800 years. The only thing that tied its
devastating case histories together was the observation that those who were
lucky enough to survive smallpox never contracted it again.
The concept of inoculation exposing an individual to small amounts of a
disease in order to create immunity was known in Africa, India and China by
the 17th century and gained popularity in Europe in the early 1700s. Smallpox
was its first target there, and the risky procedure was fairly successful,
killing just a small fraction of those injected.
In 1796 a new discovery was made by Edward Jenner, a British doctor. Noting
that dairymaids rarely contracted smallpox after bouts of cowpox, a similar
but far less dangerous virus, Jenner injected a young boy with matter from a
cowpox lesion and later inoculated him with smallpox. The boy did not get
sick Jenner had performed the first "vaccination," a word derived from the
Latin vacca, meaning cow. Further testing proved conclusively that the cowpox
virus was able to build immunity against smallpox.
Using his theory, similar vaccines were later created for diseases such as
yellow fever, mumps, rubella and tetanus.
Biological weapon concern
Smallpox epidemics continued through the 20th century until vaccination
programs were regulated and implemented around the world.
In 1980, the World Health Organization declared smallpox completely
eradicated, but samples of the virus remain in two laboratories in the United
States and Russia, prompting fears of biological warfare should the virus land
in the wrong hands.
Revelations in 1992 by a Soviet defector that the USSR was developing a
smallpox weapons program, plus the anthrax scare in 2001, only heightened
those fears.
There is "credible concern" that the virus may have been obtained by
terrorists, according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
==
The black death
Seven thousand people died per day in Cairo. Three-quarters of Florence's
residents were buried in makeshift graves in just one macabre year. One third
of China evaporated before the rest of the world knew what was coming.
By the time the tornado-like destruction of the 14th-century bubonic plague
finally dissipated, nearly half the people in each of the regions it touched
had succumbed to a gruesome, painful death.
The Black Death  as it is commonly called  especially ravaged Europe, which
was halfway through a century already marked by war, famine and scandal in the
church, which had moved its headquarters from Rome to Avignon, France, to
escape infighting among the cardinals.
In the end, some 75 million people succumbed, it is estimated. It took several
centuries for the world's population to recover from the devastation of the
plague, but some social changes, borne by watching corpses pile up in the
streets, were permanent.
Quick killer
The disease existed in two varieties, one contracted by insect bite and
another airborne. In both cases, victims rarely lasted more than three to four
days between initial infection and death, a period of intense fever and
vomiting during which their lymph nodes swelled uncontrollably and finally
burst.
The plague bacteria had lain dormant for hundreds of years before incubating
again in the 1320s in the Gobi Desert of Asia, from which it spread quickly in
all directions in the blood of fleas that traveled with rodent hosts.
Following very precisely the medieval trade routes from China, through Central
Asia and Turkey, the plague finally reached Italy in 1347 aboard a merchant
ship whose crew had all already died or been infected by the time it reached
port. Densely populated Europe, which had seen a recent growth in the
population of its cities, was a tinderbox for the disease.
The Black Death ravaged the continent for three years before it continued on
into Russia, killing one-third to one-half of the entire population in ghastly
fashion.
The plague killed indiscriminately  young and old, rich and poor  but
especially in the cities and among groups who had close contact with the sick.
Entire monasteries filled with friars were wiped out and Europe lost most of
its doctors. In the countryside, whole villages were abandoned. The disease
reached even the isolated outposts of Greenland and Iceland, leaving only wild
cattle roaming free without any farmers, according to chroniclers who visited
years later.
New landscape
Social effects of the plague were felt immediately after the worst outbreaks
petered out. Those who survived benefited from an extreme labor shortage, so
serfs once tied to the land now had a choice of whom to work for. Lords had to
make conditions better and more attractive or risk leaving their land untended,
leading to wage increases across the board.
The taste of better living conditions for the poor would not be forgotten. A
few decades later, when lords tried to revert back to the old ways, there were
peasant revolts throughout Europe and the lower classes maintained their new
freedoms and better pay.
The Catholic Church and Jewish populations in Europe did not fare so well.
Distrust in God and the church, already in poor standing due to recent Papal
scandals, grew as people realized that religion could do nothing to stop the
spread of the disease and their family's suffering. So many priests died, too,
that church services in many areas simply ceased.
Jewish populations, meanwhile, were frequently targeted as scapegoats. In some
places, they were accused of poisoning the water because their mortality rates
were often significantly lower, something historians have since attributed to
better hygiene. This prejudice was nothing new in Europe at the time, but
intensified during the Black Death and led many Jews to flee east to Poland
and Russia, where they remained in large numbers until the 20th-century.
A study earlier this year found that despite its reputation for indiscriminate
destruction, the Black Death targeted the weak, taking a greater toll among
those whose immune systems were already compromised.
==
"Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go
with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an
abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your
child if he strays from the faith?
==
When my friend and I talk with Christians we often ask them why the Bible
doesn't condemn slavery. A common response is that slavery was an acceptable
practice during that time period but is not anymore. This is baffling because
on the one hand they understand that as a society we have progressed in the
past 2,000 years but at the same time they still believe that the Bible is
God's inspired words and relevant for us today.
All that it would have taken was one more commandment to end the practice of
slavery or Jesus to say, "Don't hold slaves!"
==
Bill Keller, an evangelist based in Florida, runs "Liveprayer.com," an
Internet call-in program. Because he receives a government tax exemption, he
is prohibited by law from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office.
But during the Republican primary battle, Mr. Keller proclaimed to his
followers and the news media that "a vote for Mitt Romney is a vote for Satan."
==
http://freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Laws_and_other_rules_against_atheists_and_agnostics
==
Faith in a supernatural skydaddy is irrational. 
You know it is. It's not quaint, it's not cute. It's a dogma that is 
programmed into our brains from childhood. 
It warps our brains with ideas such as "man is sinful", "sex is 
bad", "women are unclean" ...and yet, it does something worse, it 
let's people believe they can be "forgiven" for any act, from god. 
it actively advises that nonbelievers are evil and "fools". 
==
Deuteronomy 22:21  Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her
father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she
die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her
father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.
==
The snake-handling bit at the end of Mark is not part of the original text..
It first shows up in manuscripts of the 5th Century.
==
"Sergei Torop was a traffic cop in the small Russian town of Minusinsk until
1989, when he announced that he was the son of God. Now he commands a
following of thousands and rules over a large swath of the Siberian mountains.
==
 Acts 7:55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven
and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
==
They do not need medicine for their children 
because "God will heal" and if they die it was "God's will".
==
It is the "spirit of reason" that testifies to
the truth of science. Christians cannot understand or accept the witness of
the "spirit of reason" because they have already subjected themselves to a
lie. They are allowing another "spirit" to control their thought processes and
overrule reason.

William Lane Craig's book "Reasonable Faith" I was appalled to find early
in the book his caveat that "May I suggest that, fundamentally, the way we
know Christianity to be true is by the self-authenticating witness of God's
Holy Spirit?" (p31) He goes on to explain that "Therefore, the only role left
for argument and evidence to play is a subsidiary role". (p35)
Wow, how convenient is that? Whenever there is an argument that you can't
counter, you get to say you're still right because the holy spirit told you
so. This, to me, is just sophomoric and childish. People have
"self-authenticating" witness about a lot of things including many varied
religious beliefs. If that is your ultimate proof, it is very sad. 
==
Mut-em-ua, the virgin Queen of Egypt, supposedly gave birth to Pharaoh
Amenkept III through a god holding a cross to her mouth.
Ra, the Egyptian sun god, was said to be born of a virgin. So was Perseus,
Romulus, Mithras, Genghis Khan, Krishna, Horus, Melanippe, Auge and Antiope.
In the ancient world, great men were born of divine fathers and human mothers.
Alexander the Great and the Roman emperor Augustus were great men and
(therefore) said to have divine fathers.
==
A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a
superstition.   José Bergamín

One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by
religion.
Arthur C. Clarke Quotes
==
If we go back to the beginning, we shall find that ignorance and fear created
the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned them; that weakness
worships them; that credulity preserves them and that custom, respect and
tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve their own
interests. If the ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, the knowledge of
nature is calculated to destroy them.
==
Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Shake off all fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are
servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal
for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a
God, because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason
than that of blindfolded fear.

 We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily
life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy,
every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality
of what is. All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions,
reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic
nature of man and therefore of society.
==
George Carlin Quotes
Religion easily has the best bullshit story of all time. Think about it.
Religion has convinced people that theres an invisible manliving in the sky.
Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man
has a list of ten specific things he doesnt want you to do. And if you do any
of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and
smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and burn,
and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves
you and he needs money.
==
Hagee
Now 66 years old, the ambitious preacher divorced his first wife 30 years a