Tiny church finds original King James Bible

A little English village church has just made a remarkable discovery.

The ornate old Bible that had been sitting in plain view on a table near the last row of pews for longer than anyone could remember is an original King James Bible - one of perhaps 200 surviving 400-year-old original editions of arguably the most important book ever printed in English.

In fact, the Bible at St. Laurence Church in Hilmarton, England, was sitting right under a hand-lettered sign saying it was an original.

The sign said it had been found in "the parish chest" in 1857, that the cover had been added, and that it was the second of the two impressions published in 1611 - the year of first publication.

But no one knew whether to believe it, parish council member Geoff Procter said. As the anniversary of publication in 1611 approached, they decided it was worth investigating.

"We had no way of knowing whether it really was a 1611 Bible so we had to get it verified somehow," he said.

He and two other church members took it to a specialist, the Rev. David Smith at the Museum of the Book in London.

Smith knew immediately what he was looking at, Procter said.

"We put it on his table and he opened it and immediately he said, 'Yes, this is a 1611 Bible,'" Procter remembered. ...

via Tiny church finds original King James Bible – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs.

Pope Benedict appears in TV question-and-answer show

Pope Benedict XVI has made history as the first pontiff to take part in a televised question-and-answer session.

The pre-recorded programme was broadcast on the Italian Rai channel on Good Friday afternoon.

Seven questions were chosen from thousands submitted for the Pope to answer during the 80-minute programme.

Most of the questions, from people across the world, dealt with the struggle with suffering.

TV viewers saw a split screen, with the Pope sitting in the Vatican library and those asking the questions filmed near their homes.

The first question was asked by a seven-year-old Japanese girl traumatised by the recent devastating earthquake and tsunami.

She asked why she and other children should have to feel afraid. The Pope replied that he had also asked himself the same question.

"We do not have the answers but we know that Jesus suffered as you do," he said.

Another question came from the Italian mother of a boy in a long-term coma. She asked if he still had a soul, to which the Pope replied that, yes, his soul is still present in his body.

"The situation, perhaps, is like that of a guitar whose strings have been broken and therefore can no longer play," he said.

"The instrument of the body is fragile like that, it is vulnerable, and the soul cannot play, so to speak, but remains present."

To a Muslim woman in the Ivory Coast who asked his advice about how to cope with the conflict that has afflicted her country, he said people should look to Christ as an example of peace.

"Violence never comes from God, never helps bring anything good, but is a destructive means and not the path to escape difficulties," he said.

He told Christian students in Iraq - when asked how to encourage fellow Christians not to flee the country - that the Church was encouraging dialogue between religions.

The BBC's Duncan Kennedy, watching the programme, said it would be viewed by critics as very controlled and a little sanitised...

There was no opportunity to ask tough questions of the Church, such as about the priestly sex scandals that overshadowed the Church's Easter celebrations last year.

But the Vatican will have viewed it as a first step in their overall effort to be more accountable and transparent, arising from accusations that the Church was failing to be open about the abuse scandal, our correspondent adds.

Until now, he has only ever taken questions from journalists on planes during foreign trips. ...

via BBC News - Pope Benedict appears in TV question-and-answer show.

It's about time the Pope pipped up. Plenty of people he oversees overseas could use practical prescriptions for peace.  What else is the purpose of the position? Not to placate people, nor to persuade a population of puppets they are protected by some prosperous papal pallium. Pope powers, activate!

1866 Letter: Honest Abe Lincoln was not a Christian

He won the Civil War, ended slavery, had his bust carved into Mount Rushmore and now beams from five dollar bills. But the God-fearing patriots of Middle America are about to receive a reminder that Abraham Lincoln had a strained relationship with one of their most respected institutions: organised religion.

A three-page letter highlighting the 16th president's unconventional relationship with the Almighty has just been put on sale. It offers a possible insight into why he was never baptised, did not attend a church and, in defiance of political protocol of the era, would refuse to publicly discuss his spiritual beliefs. Such was his reluctance to embrace piety that, if he were standing for office today, there is a good chance he would be unelectable.

The letter was written by William Herndon, a legal partner and close friend of "Honest Abe" in 1866, a year after Lincoln had been assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. And while the letter is at pains to stress that Lincoln did believe in "a God" at the time of his death, it reveals that he took a long time getting to that point. "Mr Lincoln's religion is too well known to me to allow even a shadow of a doubt; he is, or was, a Theist and a Rationalist, denying all extraordinary, supernatural inspiration or revelation," it reads, before detailing the president's spiritual evolution in the years after Herndon met him in Springfield, Illinois, in the 1840s.

"At one time in his life, to say the least, he was an elevated Pantheist, doubting the immortality of the soul as the Christian world understands that term. He believed that the soul lost its identity and was immortal as a force. Subsequent to this, he rose to the belief of a God, and this is all the change he ever underwent. I speak knowing what I say. He was a noble man – a good great man for all this."

Historians have long debated Lincoln's religious views, and how they affected his political career. He was born into a humble Kentucky family in 1809 and raised as a Baptist, but became sceptical and rejected organised religion. He never joined a church in his adult life. ...

A couple of decades after Lincoln's death, several biographers attempted to portray him as a Christian. They were helped by the fact that he often quoted the Bible during speeches.

In today's political environment, it is almost unthinkable that someone could be elected president without being a member of a congregation. Barack Obama, who cites Lincoln as a political hero, regularly attends churches in Chicago and Washington, even if roughly a half of Republican voters (according to several polls) believe he is a Muslim – despite the fact that he smokes, occasionally drinks, and eats pork....

via 'Pantheist' Lincoln would be unelectable today - Americas, World - The Independent.

Scientists claims historic meal was TWO days before crucifixion

Christians have long marked Jesus Christ's Last Supper on Maundy Thursday but new research by a leading academic suggests they have got the wrong date.

Professor Colin Humphreys, a scientist at the University of Cambridge, has now concluded that the final meal took place on the Wednesday before the crucifixion, a day earlier than previously accepted.

He believes his findings, which are likely to cause ripples among millions of Christians, could present a case for finally introducing a fixed date for Easter.

They also present a solution to apparent contradictions in the Gospels and logistical issues relating to the hours before the crucifixion.

In a new book, The Mystery Of The Last Supper, Prof Humphreys uses a combination of Biblical, historical and astronomical research to address the precise nature and timing of Jesus's final meal with his disciples.

Researchers have long been puzzled by an apparently fundamental Biblical inconsistency.

While Matthew, Mark and Luke all assert that the Last Supper coincided with the start of the Jewish festival of Passover, John claims it took place before Passover.

The contradiction has presented what has been described as 'the thorniest problem in the New Testament'.

But Prof Humphreys has now concluded that Jesus - along with Matthew, Mark and Luke - may have been using a different calendar to John.

Whatever you think about the Bible, the fact is that Jewish people would never mistake the Passover meal for another meal, so for the Gospels to contradict themselves in this regard is really hard to understand,' Prof Humphreys said.

'Many Biblical scholars say that, for this reason, you can't trust the Gospels at all. But if we use science and the Gospels hand in hand, we can actually prove that there was no contradiction.'

In his theory, Jesus went by an old-fashioned Jewish calendar rather than the official lunar calendar which was in widespread use at the time of his death and is still in use today.

This would put the Passover meal - and the Last Supper - on the Wednesday, explaining how a large number of events took place between the meal and the crucifixion.

It would mean Jesus' arrest, interrogation and separate trials did not all take place in the space of one night but in fact occurred over a longer time frame.

By ironing out all the perceived discrepancies in the timing of events, Prof Humphreys believes a date could be ascribed to Easter in our modern solar calendar. Working on the basis that the crucifixion took place on April 3, Easter Day would be on April 5. ...

via Was the Last Supper 24 hours earlier? Scientists claims historic meal was TWO days before Jesus¿ crucifixion | Mail Online.

German 'thought car' could be driven on Sabbath, Rabbi says

A German-designed car that can be driven by thought alone could allow Jews to drive on the Sabbath, a young Rabbi and artificial intelligence scientist says.Rabbi Dror Fixler, an electro-optics expert from Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, told The Local that the distinction between thought and action could mean that driving on the traditional Jewish day of rest was mutar, or permitted.

In October, scientists at Berlin’s Free University announced they had tested a “proof of concept” car that could be driven by thought. An electroencephalography headset with sixteen sensors measures the brain’s signals and sends them to a computer that operates the car.

Last week, Rabbi Fixler gave a lecture at the “Torah and Science Conference” at the Jerusalem College of Technology, during which he showed a video of the car being test driven at the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin.

That lecture, he said, has sparked a debate in Israel about whether such devices that integrate the mind with machinery would be permitted on the Sabbath, when driving is typically forbidden.

“When you are making only thoughts, it is no action at all. There is a difference – if you are thinking, it is not the same thing, so you can’t say it’s forbidden,” he said. “That was what I asked the audience to think about. ...

Fixler stressed he personally did not think driving thought-controlled cars should be permitted on the Sabbath, as it would destroy the whole purpose of having a rest day. ...

via German 'thought car' could be driven on Sabbath, Rabbi says - The Local.

Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics

They could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, surviving almost 2,000 years in a Jordanian cave. They could, just possibly, change our understanding of how Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and how Christianity was born.

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007.

A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.

That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims they were smuggled into Israel by another Bedouin. ...

The books, or "codices", were apparently cast in lead, before being bound by lead rings.

Their leaves - which are mostly about the size of a credit card - contain text in Ancient Hebrew, most of which is in code.

If the relics are of early Christian origin rather than Jewish, then they are of huge significance.

One of the few people to see the collection is David Elkington, a scholar of ancient religious archaeology who is heading a British team trying to get the lead books safely into a Jordanian museum.

He says they could be "the major discovery of Christian history", adding: "It's a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the Church."

He believes the most telling evidence for an early Christian origin lies in the images decorating the covers of the books and some of the pages of those which have so far been opened.

Mr Elkington says the relics feature signs that early Christians would have interpreted as indicating Jesus, shown side-by-side with others they would have regarded as representing the presence of God. ...

tests by metallurgists on the badly corroded lead suggest that the books were not made recently.

The archaeology of early Christianity is particularly sparse.

Little is known of the movement after Jesus' crucifixion until the letters of Paul several decades later, and they illuminate the westward spread of Christianity outside the Jewish world.

Never has there been a discovery of relics on this scale from the early Christian movement, in its homeland and so early in its history.

via BBC News - Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics.

Parts of Bible's New Testament written by 'pretend apostles'

Parts of the Bible were written by people who lied about their identity, an author has claimed.

Bart D Ehrman claims many books of the New Testament were forged by people pretending to be the apostles Peter, Paul or James.

Writing in the Huffington Post, Professor Ehrman, best selling author of 'Misquoting Jesus' and 'Jesus, Interrupted', said religious scholars were well aware of the 'lies' of the Bible.

While some were happy to acknowledge them others refer to them as 'pseudepigrapha' - meaning a falsely attributed work -, he wrote.

In his new book , Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are, Professor Ehrman claims The Second Epistle of Peter - or 2 Peter - was forged.

'...scholars everywhere - except for our friends among the fundamentalists - will tell you that there is no way on God's green earth that Peter wrote the book.

'Someone else wrote it claiming to be Peter,' he writes.

He then suggests scholars who say it was acceptable in the ancient world for someone to write a book in the name of someone else, are wrong.

'If you look at what ancient people actually said about the practice, you'll see that they invariably called it lying and condemned it as a deceitful practice, even in Christian circles,' Professor Ehrman writes.

Many scholars think six of the 13 letters allegedly written by Paul were actually authored by somebody else claiming to be Paul, Professor Ehrman claims.

'In the ancient world, books like that were labelled as pseudoi - lies,' he writes.

Professor Ehrman also claims the author of the book of 1 Timothy claimed to be Paul but in actual fact was someone living after Paul had died.

The author then used the apostle's name to address a problem he saw in church, according to Professor Ehrman.

'Women were speaking out, exercising authority and teaching men. That had to stop,' he writes.

'The author told women to be silent and submissive, and reminded his readers about what happened the first time a woman was allowed to exercise authority over a man, in that little incident in the garden of Eden.

'No, the author argued, if women wanted to be saved, they were to have babies (1 Tim. 2:11-15).'

Paul is known as one of history's great misogynists, largely based on this passage from the Bible.

But Professor Ehrman argues this label is not necessarily justified because he wasn't the one to write it.

'And why does it matter? Because the passage is still used by church leaders today to oppress and silence women,' writes Professor Ehrman. ...

via Bart D Ehrman: Parts of Bible's New Testament written by 'pretend apostles' | Mail Online.

 

Theory: Nephilim were Neanderthal man

I'd like to explore the idea that the Nephilim mentioned in the bible were Neanderthal man, a distant memory, or perhaps a clan of Neanderthal that actually survived and lived in Canaan. I have four points to support my theory.

#1. The first thing I'd like to point out is that people "of great size" does not necessarily mean tall "giant" people.

The term "Nephilim" occurs just twice in the Hebrew Bible, both in the Torah. The first is Genesis 6:1-4, immediately before the Noah's ark story:

... The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. ...

The second is Numbers 13:32-33, where the Hebrew spies report that they have seen fearsome giants in Canaan:

And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.

We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

The reference could refer to strength, not height. Neanderthal men were of great size, and powerful. Even the women were powerful:

"... even Arnold Schwarzenegger at his muscular peak no match for a Neanderthal woman ... Regarding the inadequacy of Schwarzenegger, McAllister studied the remains of "La Ferrassie 2", a Neanderthal lass discovered in a French cave in 1909. She boasted ten per cent more muscle than modern European men, and her upper arm strength was more than enough to "slam him to the table without a problem”. - link

#2. The second point is the location of the sighting mentioned in the bible.

... The Mount Carmel caves outside Haifa set the geographical limits for Neanderthal fossils. One skeleton found buried in the Kebara cave is so well preserved that it has provided the best data yet on Neanderthal anatomy and led scholars to reassess the function of the Neanderthal pelvis and linguistic capabilities, following the discovery of the hyoid bone in the throat.  ... - link

The obvious question: Was Kebara Cave, Mt Carmel, Israel in what was known as  Canaan? According to this map, Mt. Carmel is very close to Galilee in ancient Israel. And according to worldatlas.com "Israel occupies about 75% of an area long known as Canaan."

Below is a map of Canaan. In what was called Asher, you can see Mt. Carmel where the Neanderthal bones were found. Neanderthal man was in Canaan, and so were the Nephilim!

 

#3. The third supporting point is that the bible states that some men were descendants of the Nephilim and we now know that Neanderthal man interbred at least twice with Homo sapiens. The bible says, "We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim)." Who was Anak?

Anak ... was a well known figure, and a forefather of the Anakites who have been considered "strong and tall," they were also said to have been a mixed race of giant people, descendants of the Nephilim. ' - wiki

"Using projected rates of genetic mutation and data from the fossil record, the researchers suggest that the interbreeding happened about 60,000 years ago in the eastern Mediterranean and, more recently, about 45,000 years ago in eastern Asia." - nature.com

Yes, Israel (Canaan) is considered to be in the eastern Mediterranean.

#4. Fourth the phrase "The land we explored devours those living in it." and "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them," I think, are references to cannibalism.  Having worked with locusts in some of my research, I can definitely tell you that they eat each other. It is revolting. It is something you never forget.  This would not have escaped the observation of early men, for whom locusts (super grasshoppers) devouring your crops were one of the worst things that could happen.

We now know from archaeological research that our ancestors ate Neanderthal men.

... fossil expert Fernando Rozzi of Paris's Centre National de la Récherche Scientifique, ... based [the conclusion that we ate Neanderthal men] on a jawbone from a Neanderthal clearly butchered for food by someone with Homo Sapiens tools...  - link

Ancient men seemed to be saying, "We are cannibals. We know it, and our food knows it." We ate them!

Did Neanderthal man eat Homo sapiens? Perhaps not. Perhaps the tricky Homo sapiens felt guilt at his behavior and blamed his own "sins" on the enemy he killed and ate.  The winners of a war get to rewrite history.

Once the giant Nephilim hybrids were born, these legendary warriors (Titans) of renowned fierceness began to kill off all the humans from the earth. In Numbers 11 we are told that they were not only giants but cannibals as well.  The book of Enoch states that they ate the flesh and drank the blood of the people on earth. They were also the number one enemy of Israel."

And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings

In fact, rather than them killing off all of the humans, it was our human ancestors who killed off all of the Titans, if "the Titans" is, as I suspect, another name for Neanderthal. And we at them.  I tend to think the book of Enoch is a guilty historical rewrite.

#5. The fifth point of evidence is the fate of Neanderthal and the meaning of the word "Nephilim".

"Nephilim" (נְפִילִים) probably derives from the Hebrew root npl (נָפַל), "to fall" which also includes "to cause to fall" and "to kill, to ruin". The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon gives the meaning as "giants"[1] Robert Baker Girdlestone argued the word comes from the Hiphil causative stem. Adam Clarke took it as passive, "fallen", "apostates". Ronald Hendel states that it is a passive form "ones who have fallen", equivalent grammatically to paqid "one who is appointed" (i.e. overseer), asir, "one who is bound", (i.e. prisoner) etc.

via Nephilim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The large powerful Neanderthal men were eventually wiped out. They were the fallen, the ruined, the killed, and it would not be a stretch to believe that they were once made prisoners by their more tricky, more deceptive, better planning Homo sapien cousins.  Genesis says, "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days". Now the Nephilim, like the Neanderthal, are no longer on the earth.

Arguments Against the Nephilim being Neanderthal Man

The major problem with my theory, if you accept that "giant" could just mean "a bit taller and much more muscular," is, of course, the timing.  Could a story in Genesis really be describing something that happened 60,000 years ago? When did the spies of Israel see the Nephilim in Canaan? One source puts the conquest of Canaan at 1406 to 1399 BC. Another says The Conquest of Canaan by Joshua took 6 years from 1487 to 1493 BC.

The 7 nations that confronted Joshua were GIANTS and they were like the sands of the sea in number. The Lord told Joshua to completely destroy these corrupt nations

 

Evidence suggests that dates in the bible must be wrong:

A 1401 BC date of the beginning of the conquest is supposed to violate the assured results of archeological findings in Palestine, notably at Ai, Lachish, and Debir. The problem of Ai is indeed acute, if the mound of et Tell is actually the biblical city. Excavation of the site by Mme. Judith Marquet-Krause in 1933 and 1934 has shown that there was an occupational gap in the history of the mound from about 2200 BC until after 1200 BC, so that supposedly there was nothing but a ruin there when Joshua and Israel are said to have captured and destroyed it... - theology.edu

For my theory to hold, the story of the Conquest of Canaan in Genesis would be drawn, in part, on more ancient sources than anyone has so far believed. Genesis, fantastically, may tell of the defeat of the last Neanderthals who survived as late as up to 24,000 years ago.

After wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, Moses handed over leadership to Joshua, whose responsibility it was to bring the nation of Israel into the promised land of Canaan. After entering Canaan, Joshua had to go to war with the people who occupied the land. - link

Perhaps Neanderthal man was around in the time of Moses, but there is, so far, no evidence for Neanderthal being around after 24,000 years ago. Another possibility is that an older story was woven into the real Conquest of Canaan.

Neanderthals, prehistoric cousins of humans, ate grains and vegetables as well as meat, cooking them over fire in the same way homo sapiens did. ... The squat, low-browed Neanderthals lived in parts of Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East for around 170,000 years but all evidence of them disappears some 28,000 years ago, their last known refuge being Gibraltar. Why they died out is a matter of debate, because they co-existed alongside modern man. - physorg

Neanderthal died out because they were out planned and because they were not deceptive cannibals like "modern" man.

 

Mustaine: Black magic haunts me

Megadeth rocker Dave Mustaine refuses to play heavy rock anthem The Conjuring live - because the track is laden with black magic imagery and occult spells.

The singer became fascinated in witchcraft as a teen and he's convinced spells he cast have come back to haunt him.

Now a strict Christian, he's keen to distance himself from his dark past - and refuses to play his song The Conjuring from 1986 album Peace Sells... but Who's Buying on tour - because the lyrics about black magic still affect him.

He tells Total Guitar magazine, "Performance wise, The Conjuring is one of the heaviest songs on the record, but unfortunately it's got black magic in it and I promised that I wouldn't play it any more, because there's a lot of instructions for hexes in that song.

"Although it seems kinda corny, anybody who's a Wiccan (witch) or a warlock or anything like that will know that all of that stuff is instrumental.

"When I got into black magic I put a couple of spells on people when I was a teenager and it haunted me forever, and I've had so much torment. People say, 'Goddamn, Dave never gets a break, he's had such a hard life,' and I just think, 'No, Dave didn't - he got into black magic and it ruined his life.'

"Fortunately for me, with all the work and the love of my friends, and not giving up with my guitar playing, I got over it. So I look back now and I think, 'Hmm, I don't wanna play The Conjuring'."

via Mustaine: Black magic haunts me | Music | Entertainment | Toronto Sun.

He has always had an active imagination. Still does. Nice bass sound around 1:25. I have no idea what he is saying. Can't really hear the lyrics.

‘God is a Myth!’ Raelian Movement launches atheistic campaign

The International Raelian Movement (www.rael.org) has just launched the next phase of its atheistic campaign by purchasing very high profile billboard space on the busy I-15 southbound freeway in Las Vegas. Each month for the next six months, hundreds of thousands of people will see the huge “GOD IS A MYTH” message while commuting or visiting the city.

Ricky Roehr, leader for the North American Raelian Movement, explained why the Raelians plan to make this huge public statement that will possibly upset so many Christians and members of other religious faiths.

“If you drive the freeway between Vegas and Los Angeles, you’ll see several signs warning drivers to follow the Bible or else face eternal hell,” he said. “Those signs are designed to make viewers feel fear and guilt. We want to counterbalance that fear by letting them know there is no God or Devil. There’s no need to live in fear. We should enjoy our precious lives to the fullest while of course giving love all around us. Surely that’s a message even Christians recognize as one that Jesus taught. But, whether the source is the Bible, the Koran, or Greek or Roman mythology, all gods are myths, just as there’s no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny etc. What there are, however, are human beings who were advanced scientists who created all forms of life, known as the Elohim. You can read about them in the oldest versions of the Bible, and the oldest versions are always the less polluted versions.”

Roehr said the Raelian explanation about the extraterrestrial origin of life has become even more popular in the United States after the History Channel’s “Ancient Astronauts” series presented evidence of this advanced race’s interaction with us thousands of years ago.

“Making people live in fear not only greatly diminishes the quality of life; it facilitates intolerance and hate,” Roehr said. “But religious leaders know that fearful masses are much easier to control. Humanity is paying a huge penalty for all this fear because when people live in fear, all higher thinking like love and compassion shuts down. That’s why violence continues on Earth, and this is why we cannot stay silent like most atheists do when we see god believers maintaining people in fear and promoting their scriptures full of hatred and encouraging so many crimes.”

Raelians are conducting their annual Happiness Academy (seminar) in Las Vegas from March 27 to April 2 at the Alexis Park Hotel. Raelian seminars are known for teaching tools for attaining happiness and for promoting hedonistic values, science and art. ...

via Raelian Press Site: ‘God is a Myth!’ Raelian Movement launches atheistic campaign.

I don't know what the Raelians teach, but be aware that there are different "hedonistic values". The one I like is the modern utilitarian hedonism where you perform whichever action maximizes the aggregate good.  This does not mean living selfishly only for the moment.  If your personal goal is to maximize long term happiness, the Golden Rule still applies: Treat other people the way you want to be treated.

In the movie "Paul" which I saw last night, there is a funny depiction of a religious person going wild after realizing that God is a myth.

Sex domain .xxx given final approval by Icann

Internet overseer Icann has given final approval to the creation of an internet domain dedicated to pornography.

The move to create a top level ".xxx" domain - similar to ".com" and ".org" - ends a 10-year battle over the virtual red-light district.

Icann gave initial approval last year, but carried out further consultation checks over the application.

It is now poised to sign an agreement with the ICM Registry, which is backing the domain, to make .xxx a reality.

Supporters say the domain will make it easier to filter out inappropriate content.

But many pornographers worry that the move could ghettoise their content. Religious groups have argued that giving pornography sites their own domain legitimises the content.

via BBC News - Sex domain .xxx given final approval by Icann.

How about an .adv domain which is only for advertisements, so we can block that if we want too.

'Internationally significant' Roman altar stones are unveiled

Two rare Roman altars discovered when a cricket pavilion was dug up have gone on display.

The “internationally significant” stones were found in Lewisvale Park, Musselburgh last March and have been lying face down in storage ever since.

It was not until this month that the stones were turned over and the engravings revealed. It is hoped that the pictures will help uncover more about the Roman occupation of Inveresk.

They are the furthest north that dedications to the Mithras religion have been found and the altars are unique in Scotland.

The first stone has side panels showing a lyre and a griffon as well as pictures of a jug and bowl. The front is inscribed with the altar to the god Mithras.

The second stone shows female heads wearing headdresses which represent the four seasons. In the centre is a carving of the face of a God with holes for the eyes, mouth and solar rays. The rear shaft is hollow and would have had a light in it which would shine through the holes.

John Gooder, operations director at AOC Archaeology Group, is the archaeologist who discovered the altar stones.

He said: “It was a fantastic moment when I first realised that the stones we were cleaning were in fact ornately sculptured Roman altars.

“Their survival is testament to the merits of our statutory protection system and the planning process, which will also ensure that they are appropriately analysed, conserved and curated and that information about them is available to everybody in due course.”

Although the discovery of the altar stones held up the construction of the cricket pavilion it is now finished and will be open for the new season.

East Lothian Council said it is excited about the discovery of the stones as they reveal more about Inveresk’s past.

Councillor Ruth Currie said: “This is enormously exciting and its significance could be huge. These beautiful artefacts could reveal a whole new strand of East Lothian’s history and possibly even shed light on the way the Romans lived on an international scale. ...

via 'Internationally significant' Roman altar stones are unveiled | Edinburgh and East | STV News.

Mithra was the Roman sun god.  Read about some debated similarities between Mithra and Jesus.  Did the Roman sun god morph into the son of god over time? Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." and is not the sun also the light of the world?

Origin of SUN-day

... Sun worship infects ancient Israel: In the ancient world, 'sun worship' was one of the most common forms of pagan idolatry. Immediately after Israel left Egypt, God warned His people against being "driven to worship the sun." Deuteronomy 4:19…..' And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.' ….. Yet Israel later yielded to temptation, compromised with the nations around them, and dedicated their "horses ... to the sun." 2 Kings 23:11. During a time of revival, King Josiah purged much of Israel and "burned the chariots of the sun with fire." 2 Kings 23:11. Before the Babylonian captivity, many Israelite leaders rejected their Creator, yielded again to idolatry, and "worshipped the sun toward the east." Ezekiel 8:16……' And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.' …… Sounds a lot like the 'sunrise service' many churches have at easter.

At the same time, God declared that they "hid their eyes from My Sabbaths." Ezekiel 22:26. Thus ancient Israel shifted from Sabbath keeping to sun worship.

Sun worship, the day of the sun, and Sunday: The Romans called the sun god Mithra and Apollo, and they especially worshiped the sun on "the first day of the week," also called "Dies Solis" (Latin), which means, day of the sun. The name Sunday was adopted because……'this day was anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its worship. The first day of the week.' Webster's Dictionary; 1929 edition.

"The retention of the old pagan name of Dies Solis, for Sunday is, in a great measure, owing to the union of pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his subjects - pagan and Christian alike - as the 'venerable' day of the sun." Arthur P. Stanley, History of the Eastern Church, p. 184 …… "On the venerable day of the Sun let the Magistrates and the people residing in the cities rest, and let all workshops be closed." Edict of Constantine A.D. 321

The names of days in today's English come from ancient paganism, where they were originally associated with celestial objects and heathen gods.

dies solis...................Sun day .......................................................Sunday
dies Lunae................Moon day....................................................Monday
dies Martis...............Mars's day...................Tiw's day...............Tuesday
dies Mercurii ...........Mercury's day............Woden's day..........Wednesday
dies Jovis..................Jupiter's day.............. Thor's day.............Thursday
dies Veneris..............Venus's day................ Frigg's day.............Friday
dies Saturni..............Saturn's day

via Endrtimes

Creator Of 'A Note To God' App In Coma

The creator of an iPhone app called "A Note To God" is in a coma after being hit by a car early Sunday morning.

Allen Wright, 18, left a friend's house and was walking at Sunrise Boulevard and Arcadia Drive at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday morning when he was hit by a car, Josh Hart, Wright's brother-in-law, confirmed with KCRA 3.

In 2009, Wright developed an iPhone application that allows users to send up prayers that go into cyberspace and can be viewed by others.

Hart said that a friend was on the phone with Wright when he was hit. After the collision, the friend said he could hear cars driving by but no sound from Wright.

When family members got to the scene, they found one of Wright's shoes in the road. A family member eventually found the Del Campo High School senior sitting down on an island in the middle of the roadway, conscious but bleeding from the ears and not talking.

At some point, Wright suffered a seizure and lost consciousness. He has been in a coma at Mercy San Juan Hospital since the crash, Hart said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, police were still looking for the driver of the car that hit Wright.

via Creator Of 'A Note To God' App In Coma - Most Popular News Story - KCRA Sacramento.

The messages people post on this app (I just got it after reading this news) are really interesting. People need money, they drink, they are depressed, lonely, self conscious, disconnected from the world and some are bipolar. They thank him for good days.  They really believe that God exists, that he is listening and that he cares.

These are much better than kid's notes to Santa Claus.  Great app. Great insight into people's deepest concerns and hopes.

But God, why did you smite the young App creator? Jealous? Don't have an iPhone and feel left out? Hmmm. Anyway, here's hoping Allen Wright recovers quickly and fully.

Anti-fox hunting views given the same legal footing as religion

Anti-fox hunting views have been given the same legal footing as religion after a judge ruled that an animal rights campaigner's opinions amounted to philosophical beliefs.

Joe Hashman won the right to sue a garden centre for discrimination after he claimed he was sacked when its pro-hunting bosses discovered he was a leading animal welfare activist.

The management of Orchard Park Garden Centre, in Gillingham, Dorset, fought to prevent Mr Hashman bringing the case, claiming his views did not qualify as philosophical beliefs under employment tribunal rules.

But on Tuesday, an employment judge ruled in favour of Mr Hashman, who is a Western Morning News gardening columnist. In a decision that could pave the way for a procession of similar claims, Judge Lawrence Guyer said: "The claimant has a belief in the sanctity of life.

"This belief extends to his fervent anti fox hunting belief (and also anti-hare coursing belief) and such beliefs constitute a philosophical belief for the purposes of the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003."

The country's leading pro-hunting organisation yesterday told the WMN it was "a shame" Mr Hashman himself failed to respect the beliefs of those in favour of fox hunting. A spokesman for the Countryside Alliance said: "This issue is not about hunting as much as it is about respect for beliefs, which is important to everyone, even though in this case it could be taking employment legislation to an extreme.

"It is a shame that Mr Hashman, who is so keen that his own beliefs be respected, has so little respect in return for those he has monitored and disrupted over the years as they hold to their own beliefs and manage the fox population in the UK."

The League Against Cruel Sports backed the decision, saying: "It is no-one's right to be cruel to an animal and an individual certainly shouldn't be discriminated against for holding this view."

Mr Hashman, of Shaftesbury, Dorset, said he was "thrilled" that his case would be heard. ...

via Anti-fox hunting views have been given the same legal footing as religion after a judge ruled that an animal rights campaigner's opinions amounted to philosophical beliefs..

Dalai Lama resigns

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has announced a long-awaited plan to devolve his political responsibilities to an elected figure.

The Dalai Lama said he would begin the formal process of stepping down at a meeting of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile next Monday.

He said the move would be to the long-term benefit of Tibetans.

The announcement came in a speech by the Dalai Lama marking the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising.

"As early as the 1960s, I have repeatedly stressed that Tibetans need a leader, elected freely by the Tibetan people, to whom I can devolve power," he said in Dharamsala, the Indian town that has become his base.

"Now, we have clearly reached the time to put this into effect." ...

via BBC News - Tibet's exiled Dalai Lama to devolve political role.

Nation of Islam convention to include talk of UFOs

The Nation of Islam, long known for its promotion of black nationalism and self-reliance, now is calling attention to another core belief that perhaps isn't so well-known: the existence of UFOs.

When thousands of followers gather in suburban Chicago this weekend for the group's annual Saviours' Day convention, one of the main events will include a panel of scientists discussing worldwide UFO sightings, which they claim are on the rise.

The idea of seeking the divine in the skies is deeply rooted in the Chicago-based Nation of Islam, whose late leader Elijah Muhammad detailed in speeches and writings a massive hovering object loaded with weapons he called "The Mother Plane" - although religion experts, Nation of Islam leaders and believers offer very different interpretations of what exactly happens aboard the plane, its role or how it fits into religious teachings.

It's one of the group's more misunderstood - and ridiculed - beliefs, something organizers took into account when planning the convention, which starts Friday and ends Sunday with Minister Louis Farrakhan's keynote address.

"There's enough evidence that has been put before the world and public," Ishmael Muhammad, the religion's national assistant minister, told The Associated Press. "There have been enough accounts and sightings and enough movies (documentaries) made, I don't think you would find too many people that would call it crazy."

During last year's Saviours' Day speech, Farrakhan for the first time in years discussed in detail a vision he had in Mexico in 1985 involving an object he calls "the wheel." Using charts, photos and drawings, he spent almost four hours describing how he was invited aboard and heard Elijah Muhammad speak to him. Farrakhan says that experience led him to inklings about future events.

Farrakhan, 77, has said the wheel, with its great capacity for destruction, contains the "wisdom to purify the planet," but has harmed no one so far. He also claimed there have been governmental attempts to cover-up proof of the wheel, which he says many call UFOs.

Nation of Islam leaders often quote Biblical references to the prophet Ezekiel - along with Elijah Muhammad's teachings - when it comes to the wheel. In his book of articles on the subject, Muhammad described a planet-sized manmade vessel that orbits earth and is purported to be loaded with 1,500 planes or wheels, words that have since been used interchangeably. Their purpose is unclear. ...

via Nation of Islam convention to include talk of UFOs.

Vatican's space mission

"If the Big Bang was the start of everything, what came before it?"

That is one of the questions being posed by a new website being set up by the Vatican and Italy's scientific community.

After centuries of mistrust between religion and science, the intention is to give the public a greater understanding of both sides.

The website, which will be available in Italian and English, has information on everything from astronomy to theology, from space missions to philosophy and art.

It will have three portals - one for a general audience, one for students and their professors, and one for scholars.

Within each portal, there will be a variety of multimedia platforms, including a cosmology section, and one that will have the latest data collected by satellites and unmanned probes.

The venture is being run jointly by the Vatican and the Italian Space Agency, ASI. ...

He says: "From the Church's point of view, this is about getting religious people to see that scientists are not the enemy and getting scientists to see that religious people are not the enemy.

"The aim is for both sides to come together for the good of humanity." ...

the Vatican's senior astronomer has gone on record as saying intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space, and that alien life does not contradict Church doctrine.

That is why the Vatican is now supporting the new website, with its mixture of hard data and philosophical interpretation.

It is about uniting to overcome the divide between fact and faith - what is explicable and what is not.

The strength of Christian beliefs and the rigour of scientific endeavour make this a unique tool, with the message that when it comes to our origins, proof and trust can exist together.

via BBC News - Vatican's space mission.

Sounds nice, but at the heart of this, you have some people who are wrong trying to get in on some of the "being right" action without giving up being wrong. Let's have 1 + 1 = 3 holding hands and singing songs with 1+1 = 2.  See, we can all get along!

If time did not exist before the big bang(s), then nothing came "before" the big bang(s) because there was no time. Existing outside of time is hard for us to imagine, but that doesn't make it impossible.

This is a great question, but it is completely absurd to leap from "I don't know" to "Must be god, then" ... unless you just accept that "God" is the Christian word for "I don't know."

It's Valentine's Day, How are you doing?

Saint Valentine of Terni and his disciples.

Historical facts

Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine. The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae).] Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred about AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. His relics are at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome, and at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.

Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di San Valentino).

The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing more is known about him.

No romantic elements are present in the original early medieval biographies of either of these martyrs. By the time a Saint Valentine became linked to romance in the 14th century, distinctions between Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni were utterly lost...

The Early Medieval acta of either Saint Valentine were expounded briefly in Legenda Aurea. According to that version, St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman EmperorClaudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer.

Since Legenda Aurea still provided no connections whatsoever with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail.

There is an additional modern embellishment to The Golden Legend, provided by American Greetings to History.com, and widely repeated despite having no historical basis whatsoever. On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read "From your Valentine." ....

Historian Jack Oruch has made the case that the traditions associated with "Valentine's Day", documented in Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Foules and set in the fictional context of an old tradition, had no such tradition before Chaucer. He argues that the speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. In the French 14th-century manuscript illumination from a Vies des Saints (illustration above), Saint Valentine, bishop of Terni, oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni; there is no suggestion here yet that the bishop was a patron of lovers.

via Valentine's Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

So, the romantic part of the St. Valentine story is a happy lie added on much later to the real history involving  the killings of two real men named Valentine who were killed for their religious views?

Another interesting truth about today: The  Heart... is not a heart. The real human heart looks nothing like the Valentine's Day heart. It looks more like a fist. The red heart we all know is actually a butt, or as changizi puts it, "a Red, Engorged, Upturned Rump". Surprised? If you didn't already know this, you may never look at Valentine's Day hearts the same again.

Some people call this "singles awareness day" (raise your hand if you aren't in a relationship...) otherwise known as SAD. I hope you aren't sad, even if you are single. But look on the bright side: if you are sad, according to one study, you won't eat as much chocolate!

Sadness and joy affected motivation to eat in opposite directions: joy increased and sadness decreased appetite ( p<0·001). In joy, a higher tendency to eat more chocolate was reported ( p<0·001), and chocolate tasted more pleasant ( p<0·001) and was experienced as more “stimulating” than in sadness ( p<0·01).  - sciencedirect

Without the sugar, chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is good for you, so go find some reason to be happy today! Like my logic? All cheekiness asside, it is nice that we have a day to celebrate love, but shouldn't every day be?

I've been eating chocolate every day for years.  I am currently single, not looking, happy and feeling fulfilled by my daily dose of interesting work and play, music, exercise, meditation and blogging about the daily strange news.  Actually I don't feel "happy" like "woo hoo!" ... I feel good, calm, even, steady, at peace... and I call this happy.

How do you really feel today?

Rabbi Adam Jacobs: An Open Letter to the Atheist Community

A Rabbi wrote me a letter via the Huffington Post, well, I don't consider myself part of a community, but close enough. I've never really talked to a Rabbi before, so, I decided to post and open reply to the open letter. I've added my comments below.

My dear atheist friend,

Sorry, never heard of you, but okay, we can be friends. Do you play any musical instruments? Have any good stories about UFOs?

I have been actively involved in the education of Jews of all stripes (especially those with a built-in apathy or antipathy to theology) for the last 11 years. I have had a lot of time to reflect on your position and I'd like to offer a few general observations that I've culled from my experience over the years - not to convince you to change your mind (which, I've discovered, is close to impossible) and not to judge your choices, but rather so that we can understand each other better and possibly "walk back" some of the clamorous dialogue. Certainly we can open by agreeing that all human beings should be respected and, assuming no egregious misdeeds, treated with civility.

Your last point about civility, correct or not, seems irrelevant to the topic, but I'm listening...

The first point I'd like to explore is that there really are no true atheists.

This seems pointlessly provocative, neither are there true theists.

It seems to me that in order to claim with certainty that there is no God you would have to have knowledge of the totality of the universe - seen and unseen - and I don't think any of you guys are ready to make that claim.

By this specious argument you would have people believing in a panoply of absurdities. By your logic, I have never seen the totality of the universe, so cannot claim that I do not believe very skinny leopards slip through the crack under my door and steal my socks.  :-/ (Damn them!)

You have not observed an overarching creative force, a God ... yet. Being a rationalist, of course, you know that failing to make such an observation is different from proving that there isn't one, which, by its very nature, is an impossible task. (You will counter that definitively proving the existence of God on purely rational grounds is similarly impossible, which, for the sake of argument, I will concede.)

For the sake of argument?! But... wait, you just admitted your entire argument to this point is pointless.

Given this, your assumption of the title, "atheist" isn't so much a statement of fact as it is a statement of principle, or intent -- a nom de guerre.

The direct translation from French is "name of war", but the phrase is used as "pseudonym" or a fictitious name. This name calling is plainly invalidated by your above concession. By your own argument, unless you can produce your god for inspection, "Jew" or "Christian" is just as much a statement of intent.

To define oneself as simply agnostic (which I believe you truly are) sounds unsatisfingly wishy-washy and degrades your ability to take a firm stand against deism, in its various forms. While this is certainly understandable, I suspect that you have traded accuracy for titular intensity.

Accuracy for titular intensity? Lovely high brow insult. Intensity in name only?  So, what you are really saying is we are faking it. Sorry, wrong. We really do believe that there is no magic sky daddy who made everything.

You may want to counter that you have many well-regarded and brilliant personalities who have provided more than sufficient evidence to knock theism back to the Bronze Age where it belongs. Hitchens, Dawkins, Weinberg, et al are big time, unapologetic, capital "A" atheists.

Don't assume we are like you. We are goats, not sheep. We believe what we do based on our own observations, not because someone else, brilliant or famous or not, agrees with us.

I've read many of their books and found much of them to be polemics against Christianity and ill-conceived take downs of classical philosophical and scientific arguments that make the idea of a Creator seem more than plausible. See here for a great rebuttal of Dawkin's "The Ultimate 747 Argument." But even if the arguments were more persuasive and comprehensive, surely you are aware that believers are ready to parry with many philosophers and scientists of our own, people like Anthony Flew, the Oxford philosopher and sparring partner of C.S. Lewis (who was a pillar of academic atheism until he reversed his position late in his life), theoretical physicist Dr. Andrew Goldfinger, and the mathematical physicist and cosmologist Frank Tipler. You will quote your expert and I will quote mine.

You fatally misunderstand the source of our conviction. I don't give a rats tail what experts on either side believe. I've considered the facts from our history, from human nature, psychology, physics, genetics, microbiology, evolutionary theory, geology, and it is clear to me that theism is simply superstitious wishful thinking.

Strangely, they disagree ... utterly. At the end of the day, it's always going to be a draw, each of us convinced that our own arguments are superior and that the other is (perhaps willfully) missing the point.

Having spent a sizable portion of my life as an atheist, I understand your perspective.

It is clear that you don't really understand my perspective. If you did, you would believe as I do. ;-)

What I have found hard to understand from my new vantage point, however, is why so many of you spend so much time trolling around the comments section of religiously-themed blogs or spend good money to buy billboards on the Jersey Turnpike asserting a negative. Wouldn't it make much more sense to just chuckle knowingly to yourselves and shake your heads at our folly in the way you might with children who believe they have magic powers? Yet, many of you seem to have a big axe to grind, and I only recently realized why. You believe that we are ruining the world and stunting its progress.

True. You nailed it. We believe that illogical magical thinking causes a lot of problems.

You will point out all of the violence carried out in religion's name. We will point out that equally severe evils have been perpetrated by secularists such as Hitler, Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot.

This is just wrong. Hitler is yours, not ours. Hitler was a Catholic, a staunch creationist. He spoke of the Lord and the Creator... not something atheists generally do.  I don't know about Mao and Pol Pot, but I think Stalin reinstated the church after Hitler invaded, also not an atheist move.  Even if they were all atheists, this would not remove the stain of the witch hunts, the crusades, or countless other religiously justified killings over many ages.   There are secular reasons for war as well, but a second wrong does not make the first wrong right.

You deride us as anti-science, to which we respond that we're really not, but, rather, see scientific proof and inquiry as subject to certain inherent limits.

We think you want to be anti-science, but we know you can't. You've had to make so many concessions over the centuries. You know you keep losing ground, the churches finally agreeing with science on certain points after hundreds of years. Your desire for absolute certainty is unrealistic. We know you want it, but you can't have it. It is your lack of ability to accept this and to say, with bravery, "I do not know" that leads you to invent gods so you can feel certain about them and about the unknown.

You do not find our responses any more compelling than we find your criticisms to be insightful.

To me, however, the crux of the matter is incontrovertible. It is not the product of rational argument, nor expression of faith, but simple historical fact. The faith to which I ascribe has brought substantial light and unique meaning to the world.

You are speaking of "light" metaphorically. Your faith has not generated one watt of visible light. It has provided relief from suffering, by easing the discomfort people have at awareness of mortality. Should we reward well intentioned delusion?

Some great thinkers readily embrace this idea. Have a look at this quote from British historian Paul Johnson:

"To them (the Jews) we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of human person; of the individual conscience and so of personal redemption; of collective conscience and so of social responsibility; of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice, and many other items which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind. Without Jews it might have been a much emptier place."

Nice try, but this is overly self-important. I'm not saying Jewish thinkers didn't contribute these ideas in their time and place, but these same themes exist in parts of the world without Jewish influence.  Are you saying that without their superstitions, the Jews could not have seen the value of social responsibility?

Given this historical reality, since you're a rationalist who bases your world view on empiric evidence, could you be open to the possibility that religion isn't inherently bad?

I have many religious friends and I see the utility of people helping each other, creating social networks, connecting through shared rituals, and so on.  It can be adaptive to believe things that are not objectively true. I doubt we would have evolved successfully without mental blinders and defense mechanisms.

As an empiricist, you are only prepared to believe in that which can be seen or measured. You don't enjoy my conviction that there are aspects of existence that are, by their nature, beyond the reach of science. Fine. So when we Theists look carefully at the astounding complexity and improbable fine-tuning of our universe and conclude that there's no way that this happened randomly, you then turn around and ask us to accept that it is the result of undetectable organizational forces or of an un-testable (and thus non-scientific) multiverse.

Not every atheist believes in a multiverse. The "fine-tuning" you cite can be the unavoidable result of variations in "universal" constants. In other words, some of us believe that our one universe is enough, that it has enough variation in the different parts of it that our particular location having the conditions is not miraculous, but rather, unavoidable.

Isn't your argument every bit an assertion of faith, rather than knowledge?

There are already hints of variation, time will tell.

Maybe we can at least agree that forces unseen, however we conceive of them, seem to be playing a major role in our lives?

Perhaps you think God is a force, like gravity or electromagnetism?  We see almost none of the forces which play a major role in our lives. Almost all forces are unseen. But when we speak of forces, we mean, something you can measure. We don't accept a force that can not be measured as a real force.  Don't confuse ideas--love, faith, fear, anger, god--, with physical forces. Of course our thoughts and the ideas of others play a major role in our lives. The Star Ship Enterprise and its crews have played a major role in my life.  They have inspired me, caused me to make certain life decisions. They have given me courage, new ideas, hope, excitement, and I was even fortunate enough to be able to thank "Captian Picard" (Patrick Stewart) in person. Nevertheless, I am completely aware that these are fictional characters. There is no star ship, no phasers, no transporters, no Vulcans, no Prime Directive ... This entire self-cohesive world is a human invention, a teaching story, a celebration of our humanity.

Your "angels" do exist. Angels are the visible planets, once worshiped as gods, for which we have the names of several days of the week. Your holy spirit does  exist, the spirit in your bible is the wind, and the breath, the invisible force once seen as magical and now understood to be the motion of molecules of nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide which causes gas to exert pressure.

Charles Darwin added three interesting quotes to later editions of the Origin of Species. Of these, the third, from Francis Bacon's Advancement of Learning, is especially revealing:

"To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain that a man can search too far or be too well-studied in the book of God's word, or in the book of God's works; divinity and philosophy; but rather let men endeavor an endless progress or proficiency in both."

If Darwin himself could find room for belief in a God and stay faithful to his discoveries, maybe the common ground is much bigger than we currently imagine.

Again, I don't care about the cult of personality. It doesn't matter what Darwin believed. Darwin is not our Jesus. You are seeing our belief from your perspective, but you have it wrong. Our convictions come from evidence, not from the person pointing to the evidence. A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.

We still have a lot to discuss.

Yes, there are thousands of years of misunderstandings to unravel!

Let's do it with a caring heart, and open mind and a spirit of appreciation for our shared humanity.

Sincerely,

Adam

Sure Adam. I appreciate the fact that you took time to write to us. Write again when you have had time to consider our replies.

Regards,

Xeno

'Confession: A Roman Catholic App' allows iPhone, iPad users to repent for sins on the go

It's called, aptly enough, Confession: A Roman Catholic App.

And at $1.99, it offers Catholics with iPhones, iPads, and troubled consciences a cheap and easy way to get right with The Lord.

As an added bonus, it's got the blessing of the Vatican.

"This app invites Catholics to prayerfully prepare for and participate in the Rite of Penance," claims Little iApps, the Indianapolis-based developers of the app.

It lets the sinner pick a commandment - and then tick off his or her sins.

So say goodbye to those awkward silences in the confessional when the penitent rattles off the "Bless me father, for I have sinned" intro - and draws a blank.

The new app keeps a running tally of slip-ups so that no sin goes unforgiven.

It also keeps track of just how much time has elapsed since the penitent's last confession.

Because it's password protected, what's said in the confessional stays between the penitent and the priest.

The app also makes it easier for Catholics to do a "examination of conscience," which is when they privately review - usually at evening prayers - how they've lived up to their faith.

Taking account of the person's age and - for reasons unclear - occupation, the app then suggests a possible penance and comes with seven acts of contrition to choose from and recite.

The new app doesn't, however, doesn't replace the priest.

Only priests have the power to forgive sins here on earth, according to the Catholic faith.

via 'Confession: A Roman Catholic App' allows iPhone, iPad users to repent for sins on the go.

Image: Woody Allen in Sleeper. There is a scene in that movie with a robot priest, but I couldn't find an image of it.