Why I Wrote Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World*

Several years ago, while in  England, I was invited to participate on a two-hour television program hosted by Melvin Bragg, on the UK's ITV channel. The topic was the future of religion in general and of Christianity in particular. There were three other panelists one of whom was Cristopher Hitchens, well known as a literary and political critic, but he had not yet published his bestselling attack on religion entitle God Is Not Great.

In the course of that panel discussion, Hitchens, attacking Christianity, tossed out many of his verbal grenades that would someday show up in his book. He sought to demonstrate both the inconsistencies and the contradictions found in supernatural religion as well as in the pages of the Bible. He spoke of the damage done to human beings as a result of religious claims and biblical teaching. To his surprise, I, as a representative of institutional Christianity, agreed quite publicly with him, citing the fact that biblical scholarship over the last 200 years has come to these same conclusions long before Hitchens discovered them. My problem with Hitchens was not his analysis, but that he obviously knew very little about contemporary Christian scholarship. In the televised debate I sought to articulate an understanding of Christianity radically different from the simplistic version he was attacking so scathingly.

Following this debate, Cristopher Hitchens was heard speaking with Melvin Bragg and criticizing my membership on the panel since I was not what he called an "adequate representative of Christianity." I was certainly not the "representative Christian" that he had so easily demolished in the past. Over the years the charge of not being an adequate Christian has been leveled against me many times by conservative Catholics and Protestant evangelicals. This was, however, the first time I had been found unacceptable to an atheist! I was delighted.

That experience served as the background for writing my newest book for it seemed to me to capture the problem facing institutional Christianity in our day. There is an enormous gap at present between the Christianity understood in the great academic centers of learning in the world and the Christianity understood by those who occupy the pews and, in some cases, the pulpits of our local congregations. Knowledge that is commonplace in the academies is frequently heard in the pews as profoundly controversial, probably heretical, and even as an attack on all that they hold sacred. This in turn causes critics like Cristopher Hitchens to attack Christianity because they are unaware of any form of Christianity other than the literalized supernatural view that so frequently emerges in and from our churches.

This enormous gap between the academy and the pew is openly fed by ecclesiastical leaders from the Pope to the various denominational heads, who do not make it easy for the people in the pew to access to biblical scholarship. They instead create and participate in a conspiracy of silence. They fear that the people they serve will be scandalized if they knew the truth. The fact remains, however, that both the common theistic definition of God as an "external, supernatural being, who does miracles and answers prayers" and the understanding of the Bible as a book of authoritative divine revelation of the "Word of God" are not now taken seriously in Christian academic circles and this has been the case for almost two hundred years! Church leaders seem to prefer for their Sunday worshipers to remain in the dark. Let me illustrate this by stating some little known, and among scholars, not controversial biblical facts.

The gospels were not written by eyewitnesses, They are the products of a time between two and three generations after the crucifixion of Jesus. The gospels were written in Greek, a language neither Jesus nor the disiples could either speak or write. We can find no evidence that miracles were associated with the memory of Jesus prior to the 8th decade. The stories of Jesus' miraculous birth to a virgin did not enter the developing Christian tradition until the 9th decade. The account of Pentecost and the ascension of Jesus are 10th decade additions to the story. Resurrection was not understood to be the resuscitation of a deceased body until the 9th decade. Paul does not seem to be aware of the story of Judas as a traitor nor does he ever refer to the narrative of his Damascus Road conversion, which was not written until Paul had been dead for thirty or so years. Furthermore, there are no camels in the biblical story of the wise men and there is no stable in the Bible in which Jesus was presumably born. The New Testament does not agree on who the twelve disciples were or on the details of the Easter story. That is just the beginning of facing the gap between the academy and the pew.

Let me turn to theological topics for a moment. Ni biblical scholar today, post-Darwinians as they are, will defend as literally accurate either of the creation stories in the book of Genesis. More importantly, no educated person in the 21st century believes either the astrophysical formula in which the Bible portrays the earth's relationship to the universe or the dominant anthropological ideas that underlie the classical way in which Christians still tell the Christ story. The familiar narrative posits an original perfection for both the world and for human life, which was presumably ruined by the disobedience of the heretofore sinlass human beings, which brought about a fall into "original sin." That "fall," in turn, necessitated a rescue operation, which this storyline suggests was accomplished by Jesus' death on the cross. How can one fall from a perfection human beings have never possessed if all of us to have evolved? How can we then be rescued from a fall that never happened? How can we be restored to a status we have never possessed? The story breaks down in a thousand ways.

Yet Protestant preachers and lay people still say things like "Jesus died for my sins" and Catholics still refer to the "sacrifice of the Mass," as the moment when they reenact liturgically the drama of salvation of the price God required Jesus to overcome the fall. So, because we know the alternatives to this traditional formula we modern Christians either close our minds  to reality in order to remain believers or we abandon Christianity because it no longer makes sense. This almost unchallenged vision of the past in turn provides the fodder for the secular critics like Cristopher Hitchens to attack the traditional Christian articulation as if they are the first to dicover its inadequacies,  revealing in the process their own biblical and theological ignorance.

It was to speak to the gap between the academy and the pew that I wrote Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World. In this book, I seek to open the windows into Christian scholarship and to make it available to ordinary people. I want to challenge the cover up engaged in by clergy who know better, but who seem to believe that truth, honesty and scholarship will "alienate the faithful." I want to force the religious debate into a new arena of honesty. I want to call people to look at a new way to read the scriptures, a new way to be the church in the 21st century. So in this book I have walked through ther Bible from Genesis to Revelation, facing and revealing its contradictions and even pointing out places where the biblical text seems to endorse and support attitudes that most of us today regard as immoral. Should slave be taught in the name of God to be obedient? Of course not! Yet for centuries we Christians quoted Colossians and Ephesians, among other biblical sources, to perfume the indignity of slavery and then segregation. Should wives be taught to be subservient because that was God's plan? Of course not! Yet the fact is that the apostle Paul seems to think that his definition of the inferiority of women is "God given!" and on the basis of that definition we Christians have not just denied educational opportunities to women, but also refused to allow them the right to vote until the twentieth century. Should homosexuals be discriminated against or even put to death? Of course not, but we Christians have done that to countless numbers of gay and lesbian people and justified it by quoting the book of Leviticus. These attitudes reflect nothing other than uninformed prejudice and are based not only on a profound ignorance of the Bible, but also of the origins of homosexuality. Should wars be blessed and birth control condemned because of quotations from "Holy Scripture"? I shake with rage at such conclusions!

To look at the Bible from the perspective of contemporary scholarship is to call the traditional understanding of the Bible and of Christianity itself into question, yet despite the fear that religious npeople feel at this prospect, to fail to do so is nothing other than a prescription only for a slower death. Why would any church or church leader choose to walk that path?

I have two audiences in mind in the writing of this book. One is a church audience made up of people who appear to know that the old words no longer make sense, yet in the absence of an alternative still cling to the meaningless past. The second audience is made up of those who have abandoned traditional Christianity because for them it has become unbelievable. I want them to know that there is a view of Christianity beyond the one they have abandoned or the one that Cristopher Hitchens attacks. It has just never been introduced in the pews. My goal in this book is to take people beneath both literal and contradictory words of the Bible and the convoluted concepts of theology to explore realms of spiritual truth present but unseen.

I believe Christianity has to do not with guilt and sin, but with increased humanity and heightened awareness; with breaking barriers that separate us from one another in our quest for survival and with calling us to move beyond self-consciousness into universal consciousness where, I believe, we touch the edges of eternity. Will this book succeed in this mission? Time will tell, but, regardless, the need to address these issues is real and I have now made that effort.

I want to live to see a new Christianity for a new world. Indeed I want to assist in its birth. This book is designed to be a shot across the bow to inaugurate that campaign.

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*Bishop John Shelby Spong is one of the leaders of the Center for Progressive Christianity in America today. His works had been quite controversial, especially among fundamentalist Christians. So far he has received 16 death threats. He is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Church of America and now resides with his second wife in New Jersey.

U.S. Undocumented Immigrants are Optimistic of their Future

As of today, there are at least 11 million undocumented immigrants who are now in the U.S. They are called "TNT" (tago ng tago). But lately, after president Obama got reelected for his second term, there seems to be some sign of optimism among these TNTs.

 Frank Sharry, executive director and founder of America's Voice, said "this optimism comes from a confluence of factors: 'The president promised it, the Democrats want it, the Republicans need it, the American people support it and the immigrant rights movement is strong enough to deliver it."

Now, we will wait and see.
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(Frank Sharry was quoted by Elena Shore in her article, Immigration Reform: Who Could Be Left Out?, Filipino Press, March 3-8, 2013 issue, p. 4)

DUAL CITIZENSHIP OFFERED FOR FILIPINO-AMERICANS

About five years ago, I was asked by a representative of the Philippines to apply for a dual citizenship. He told me all the advantages and opportunities I can enjoy if I accept his offer. But I told him (in tagalog, of course): "Tama na ang isang nanloloko sa akin. Ayaw kong dagdagan ko pa ng isa."(One is enough in fooling me. I don't want to add one more).

My sentiments about the politics in the Philippines is just what Greg Macabenta wrote this past week about the politics in the Philipines(Filipino Press, Mar. 2-8, 2013 issue, p.7). He wrote: "The dynasties own most of the land, control most of the businesses, occupy the choicest positions in local government, and are the sources of employment, loans and favors for their constituents.
"It's a virtual master and serf relationship."

Dual citienship? No, thank you.

DO REPUBLICANS REALLY HATE ILLEGAL ALIENS?

Well, here's the latest news report published by San Diego Reader, March 7, 2013 Issue. The article is entitled "Fleeing Filner, San Diego Hoteliers Decamp for Texas"  I'll copy the whole article:

For Texas governor Rick Perry, it was a matter of right place, right time. The Lone Star leader had been on a big-game hunting expedition in California, his sights set on the state's trophy businesses: Apple, Facebook,ebay, and more. "I understand that business owners in the Golden State are frustrated with excessive government strangulation - er, regulation," said Perry. "They're collapsing under burdensome tax rates levied by out-of-touch legislators who keep ouring money into the broken system that they created. The California government drilled holes in the bucket, and now they want more water from the guys who built the well. Well, enough is enough. I'm here to invite all y'all to Texas, where we will understand why people headed out West."

He was just wrapping up his visit with a couple of days of R&R in America's Finest City when he got wind of socialist overlord mayor Bob Filner pushing the city's hotels to fork over a chunk of their room fees and provide something he calls "a living wage" to the fortunate people who get to work in America's playland. "I was staying in the Manchester Grand Del Mar, when  I read in the hotel's newsletter - what's it called, the U-T something? - about this cloun's attempt to horn in on a deal that got made before he even took office. As a Texan, I salute the big brass ones it takes to pull a stunt like that; but, as a Republican, I'm horrified at this intrusion of government into business. I got on the phone to the San Diego Hoteliers Association, and four hours later, I had the five largest chains in town ready to pull up stakes and turn Corpus Christi into the city that San Diego used to be."

"We had the boys in accounting to do a little homework overnight," says Mission Valley Double Tree general manager Ollie Garck, "and it turns out that actually dismantling our hotels brick by brick, hauling the pieces to Texas, and reassembling them would cost less than meeting all of Filner's demands. You know, as long AS LONG AS WE USE ILLEGALS FOR THE GRUNT WORK."(emphasis mine -jnr)

"Gnosis"*

A word can be understood in different meanings, depending upon ther context it is used. Each meaning of a particular word tells a person's state of being - physically, intellectually, or spiritually. Elaine Pagels, in her book, The Origin of Satan, uses the word "gnosis" which, she says, literally and most commonly translated as "knowledge." But, she says, "the translation is somehwat misleading, since gnosis differs from intellectual knowledge (as in phrases like "they know mathematics," which is characterized in Greek by the word "eidein," from which we derive the English word "idea." The English language, she says, is "unusual within its language group in having only one verb, "to know," to express, or mean, different kinds of knowing. The Greek word "ginosko" from which "gnosis" derives, refers to the knowledge of personal relationship, as in the phrase, "We know Christ," or in the words, "Know thyself." She offers a better term - and meaning - of "gnosis" as "insight," or "wisdom." A teacher, she says, "encourages his/her students to seek "gnosis" within themselves." To understand "gnosis" as wisdom or insight within oneself could then mean, to the one speaking, something much deeper and more personal. It reveals "who we are, and who we have become; where we are going; whence have we come; what is birth, what is rebirth." She goes on to say that to know "is that the gospel of Christ can be perceived on a level deeper than the one shared by all Christians." That the gospel, she says, is "more than a message about repentance and forgiveness of sins; it becomes a path of spiritual awakening, through which one discovers the divine within." (p.167). When one knows onself "at deepest level, one comes to know God as the source of one's being."

Elaine Pagels cites the author of the Gospel of Philipn(one of the Christian literatures suppressed by the bishops who were authorized to determine the New Testament Canon). The writer of the Gospel of Philip, is one of the followers of Valentinus, (gnostic teacher). In the Gospel of Philip, Pagels says, the author uses "gnosis" to mean as "a natural progression from faith."

"Unlike the radical Christians of the "Reality of the Rulers," or the Secret Book of John" (all these gospels were excluded in the NT canon), Valentinus and his followers did not reject the moral injunctions taught by priests and bishops;  they did not despise or invert the Hebrew Bible, nor they did deny openly the authority of the priests and bishops. Instead, they accepted all these, but with a crucial qualification: they accepted the moral, ecclesiastical, and scriptural consensus as binding upon the majority of Christians, but not upon those who had gone beyond mere faith to gnosis - those who had become spiritually mature'". (p.167)

Valentinus is a Gnostic teacher who, together with his followers said that in the churches during their time "there were two different kinds of Christian. One kind is what they call, "ecclesiastic," or "psychic" Christian (p.168), that is, those who "function on the level of psyche" - which means the gnosis of Irenaeus, and the rest of what the Orthodox Christian Churches, know or believe, are "not deep enough," or "mature enough."

Valentinus and his followers offers another meaning of "gnosis" as "insight" or "wisdom," which, Elaine Pagelsa says, a secret initiation called "redemption" henceforth regarded themselves as "mature" Christians, they who have "advanced from mere faith toward spiritual understanding of "gnosis."(p.168)

Elaine Pagels mentions that Irenaeus and Tertullian, both representing the orthodox Christian churches's beliefs, are the true defenders of the true and "mature" faith of Christians, not Valentinus and his followers. This is why Irenaeus and Tertullian, and the rest of the orthodox Christian churches (which was of the majority group) won over Valentinus and his followers. And this also explains why the bishops who were recognized by the majoritynas ntheir officially designated "experts"(jnr) to determine the final NT Canon, which excluded many, if not all, the works of Valentinus and his followers.

But, thank you, Elaine Pagels, for letting us know how the New Testament Canon was determined. They were chosen, not because the books represented the Truth, and the only Truth, but the NT Canon, as we have it now, were finally decided because of a "majority" vote. As I learned before, voz populi is not always voz dei (the voice of the people (majority) does not necessarily mean the voice of God).

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Source: The Origin of Satan," by Elaine Pagels

"Parking" As a Business Term

How is this practiced? According to SEC (Aug. 30 - Sept. 5 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, p.76), a certain company ships hundreds of thousands of merchandise to distributors and repurchase them after they had booked the sales, disguising the repurchase as "assorted product." Effect: Huge business deductions as "capital investment." The truth: They only repurchased their own products.

This is what Bloomberg calls as "Grand Theft." That's why in 2005, Senator Hillary Clinto called for a federal investigation. A $7.5 million in penalties was "awarded" to one sneaky toy company in that same year. The said company paid a penalty without admitting wrongdoing. Plus, in 2007, this company's CEO was also "awarded" another $7.26 million for falsifying records in a stock option. Thank God this CEO has been fired by the company's governing board.

Another meaning of the term, "Parking," is when a businessman (or company) sends his profits to offshore banks and use these banks as tax havens, thus the businessman (or company) won't be paying taxes. Recently, it was reported that Mitt Romney used offshore banks in the Cayman Islands and other offshore banks to "park: or hide his money from Uncle Sam. This practice is a loophole found by investment "experts" and many investors use it.

Moral of the story: NO PARKING!
Posted March 10, 2013

Daniw: Silahis*

Adda maysa a banag a nasken unay nga iparangko,
Ta immapay a nangsukisok ti ricna toy gayyemyo,
Isu nga inkarigatanna ti nangpatibker barukongna,
Tapno adda turedna a mangyeg kadakay amin ita,
Kadaytoy maysa a banag a dinan pulos maidulin.

Tay tao a kapadatayo, binatilyo man wenno nataengan,
Adda riknana a di maawatan dagiti kapadana a parsua;
Adu a tawtawen  nga inna pinampanunot ken indulin,
Dagitoy a rikna iti tukot puso ken panunotna,
Ket no saludsodenyo no sinno daytoy: "Silahis" a cuna.

Nadumaduma a tattao ditoy, idiay ken ti met aglawlaw,
Agsusupadi ti ammoda panggep ken "Silahis: a kaduada,
Adu kadagitoy ti agpungtot no makitada,
Tay gunay tay kabsatda ta "saan nga umisu" kunkunada.
Dida pay kaabay ta amangan kunada a kakolkolorda.

Dagiti kakabsat a makunkuna a pasurot ni Cristo Jesus,
Ukradenda tay libroda a tawagenda, "Nasantuan a Biblia,"
Tapno ibasada dagiti pinilida a paset dayta a libroda
Dagiti bilbilin dagiti immun-una maipapan ken "Silahis."
Awan pagnaan ti naurnos a sarita ta narikpanen ti ridawda.

Ti met bangir padpadasenda a sukimaten tay naun-uneg,
No apay kastoy ti gungunay tay kabsatda nga "Silahis".
Agsaludsodda kadagiti ad-adut ammona a kaarrubada,
Tay pagsasao nga englis, "psychologists", ken "geneticists."
Ket ad-adu ti agcuna kadakuada: "nayanak dagitoy a kasta."

Umanay daytoyen ti agmalem nga sinniplag,
Ta tay bangir naigameren ket dinto pulos mabalbaliwan.
Ngem kuna tay bangir dida koma met unay agdardaras,
Ta no maysa a ramay ti pangitudoda, tallo met ti bagida,
Tayla tanganda ti mangtangtangel tay tallo a mangitudo.

Ditoy illi a simmangladantayo, adu metten ti naruk-atan,
Ngem ad-adu pay laeng dagiti matmata a siririkep,
Ta ammo ti kaaduan "manangbasol" ni kabsat "Silahis."
Adu pay ti nainayon: manursuro, husgado ken politico,
Ad-adalenda no ania ti baro a dana a masapul a surotenda.

Ammok a dagiti rikriknayo masair ken mapnot' riru,
Ta nabayagen unay a kayattayo ti nalawlawag a dalan,
Ngem nayunantay coma ti nawadwadwad a panunot,
Ta daytoy a banag dakkel ti ibagbagana iti siak ken sika,
Tapno ditay koma maitapuak iti nauneg unay a lugnak.

Daydi tatangko managbasa ken nasaririt bassit ti utekna,
No ukradem tay Bibliana adut paspaset a kinuloranna;
Ket nasarakak a ni tatangko silulukat ti panunotna,
Kadagiti banbanag ken panunot makasali ti pammatina.
Kunkunak iti bagik, "maaringan to met koma tay anakna."

Ala ngarud ituloyko tay saok ken kabsattayo a "Silahis."
Ket padasek nga iturong panpanunotyo iti baro a dana,
Didakto met koma laisen, iwaksi kas maysa a gayyem,
Ta ti panangad-adalko kas met la pudno daydi tatangko;
Ket padasentay met koma a suroten tay dana a makaruk-at.

Ta ditay mabalin a sublien dagiti dandanatay idi kalman,
Ti laeng mabalintayo a suroten ket tay dana nga agpadaya,
Ta no agpalaudka, lilennekan ni Apo Init ti tumpuaram.
Ngem no agpadayaka, adda baro a bigat a sumabet kenka.
Partakam ti kumamakam ta adut kadduam nga immun-unan.
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*Silahis = bakla, bading, gay

Pinutar ni Manong Juan

BUTYOG (Ilocano Daniw)

Adda maysa a gayyemko a di pulos makatalna,
Ta agparangen dagitay kuribetbet ti kudkudilna;
Kasta met tay puraw ken naing-pis nga bubuokna,
Amanganto ket no awanton tumaliaw kencuana,
Adun ti ag-agas nga us-usarenna a "cosmetics" a cuna.

Ngem cunak pamarang laeng dagitoy a pamuspusan,
Ket dida magabenan tay panagkessen ti pammagida,
Kasta met kadagitay mangpabaro ti dumaanen a ruprupa,
Ngem ad-adda ketdi nga rusanger ti pagmurdonganna,
Dida met mabaelan a sukatan ta naungkurandan piman.

Adda met dadduma idiay "24-Hour Fitness" a pappapanak,
Napalalot' ling-etda, ken nadadagsen dagiti bitbitenda;
Adda met lallaki a sarsarunnuenda piman tay buksitda,
Ta barbareng mapucawton tay kunatayo a butyogda,
Ta bareng manayunan tay ungtot' biagda a maymaysa.

Addada met babbalasang nga umabay iti pagarsisuak,
Saludsodek no dinnot' pagtrabahuanda ket ti sungbatda
"McDonald," "Burger King," wenno "Church's Chicken"
Sa isarunoda tay french fries, onion rings ken soda.
"Dagitoy ti mangpabutyog kadakami," ikatkatawada.

Adut' tagtagainepda maipapan ti masakbayan dagiti annakda,
Isut' gapuna nga ar-aramidenda amin a kabaelanda tapno
Kadi matungpal tay pagsayaatan dagiti adu nga annakda,
Ta didanto ket maulila a nasapa gaput' tangken ul-uloda,
Ta adun ti kakasta a pasamak ket dida koman mairaman.

Malagipko dagiti mannalon idiay away a naggappuak,
Inaldaw nga agmalmalemda iti kapagayan wenno kamaisan,
Ket uray no tay agtegtegerger a teltel ti baboy ti iyaponda,
Awan met tay kuna a "high blood pressure" kadakuada,
Naammuak a ti gapuna ta naduyos ti panagayus ling-etda.

Isut' gapuna ingungutek a kakabsat ditoy America,
Mapalagipantay koma tay baro a "lifestyle" a cuna,
Panangtarakentay' a naimbag bagbagitay' ken salun-at;
Tapno ditayto koma pumada kenni butyog a kaarruba,
Ta nadaras a napasamak ti iyu-una daydi maysa a kabsat.

Pinutar ni Manong Juan

INTO THE STORM, NO MATTER WHERE*

Public workers didn't hunker down. When Hurricane Sandy was bearing down on the East Coast we did what AFSCME(American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) always does: We surged forward, leaned into danger and took up our posts to help our fellow citizens.

We were dispatching ambulances and driving them. Shoring up utility and drainage systems ahead of the storm and repairing them after. Making sure citizens were getting the information they needed about the looming storm and helping them navigate the recovery process afterward. Evacuating infants and the elderly and disabled, even as power grids failed. Ensuring our communities were safe.

It's what we do, no matter what's raining down on us.

Too often though, politicians are raining a different type of disaster down on us. Attacks on retirement security, collective bargaining and the right to organize to strengthen our union are intensifying. Our resounding victory over anti-worker politicians in November election may have temporarily slowed the opponents of working families, but they're not going anywhere. We've got news for them though: neither are we. From Maine to Hawaii, we'll push back against efforts to undercut the very things that built the American middle class - strong unions, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Because we are AFSCME, and we will weather any storm.

Lee Saunders, President                                            Laura Reyes, Secretary-Treasurer

35 International Vice Presidents

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*The AFSCME is the largest voting bloc in the country, which catapulted president Barack Obama for his second term in November 2012 election. AFSCME is a member of AFL-CIO. Historically, no political candidate, federal, state or local, could be elected without the support of AFSCME.

Post-Modern Thought vs. St. Augustine

St. Augustine's doctrine of Original Sin has been challenged by post-modern thought and creativity. According to Augustine, humanity has fallen from his original condition because Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. To recover human's original condition, Augustine claims, our faith in Jesus Christ can rescue us and help us recover the image of God.

One professor of post-modern thought and creativity, however, told his students that "creativity is about making mistakes. In fact, there is no such thing as 'mistakes', in the creative process; there are only different ways of doing things.

"We should not be afraid to make mistakes. The moment we are afraid, we limit our chances of exploring new creative avenues. If our mistakes, or sins, do not lead us to anything creative this time, at least we can learn from them. Next time we'll know which steps to avoid to be closer to our goal."

"Do you mean Augustine was wrong?" his student asked.
"He didn't know he was wrong," his teacher answered. "That's always been the problem of Christians ever since," he concluded.
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*Source: CreativXpert.com/travel/accidental-discovery-port.

Christian Fudamentalism

The term refers to central elements of the traditional Christian teaching, such as the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Second Coming, heaven and hell, and inspiration and authority of the scriptures. It holds firm its belief in the doctrine of personal salvation and literal interpretation of the scriptures.

Because of its insistence that the scriptures are the word of God, fundamentalism stands in radical opposition to Roman Catholicism, and the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation. The roots of fundamentalism go back to the denominational orthodoxies of the 17th century and the revivalist movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. The conservative evangelicals or fundamentalists of the present era share with their forbears an apologetic mode of theology reflecting an historicist notion of truth as well as an insistence on the "fundamentals", especially creation, sin and redemption, the second coming, the Virgin birth and the divinity of Jesus, and the literalist interpretation of miracles. Their point of view is represented through preachers such as Billy Graham and Herbert Armstrong, Pat Robertson, and most of the American televangelists, as well through the press, for example, Biblioteca Sacra, the Evangelical Quarterly, and the publications of the Intervarsity Press.*

But many of their constituents are becoming more enlightened and they move out to seek other progressive church groups. One other reason they leave their church is they discovered their church leaders as involved in extra-marital relationships, and they also are secretly using their church funds for their own personal use to enrich themselves. That's why most of them have become multi-millionaires.
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*Source: The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology. Alan Richardson and John Bowden, eds.

Physics of the Future, by Physicist Michio Kaku

Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives, by Michio Kaku (by a book reviewer):

In Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku - the New York Times bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible - gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilerating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over 300 of the world's top scientists who are already inventing the future in their labs. The result is the most authoritative and scientifically accurate description of the revolutionary developments taking place in medicine, computers, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, energy proiduction, and astronautics.

In all likelihood, by 2100 we will control computers via tiny brain sensors and, like the gods of Greek mythology, move objects around with the power of our minds. Artificial intelligence will be dispersed throughout the environment, and Internet-enabled contact lenses will allow us to access the world's information base or conjure up any image we desire in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile, cars will drive themselves using GPS, and if room-temperature superconductors are discovered, vehicles will effortlessly fly on na cushion of air, coasting on powerful magnetic fields and ushering in the age of magnetism.

Using molecular medicine, scientists will be able to grow almost every organ and cure genetic diseases. Millions of tiny DNA sensors and nonparticles patrolling the blood cells will silently scan our bodies for the first sign of illness, while rapid advances in genetic research will enable us to slow down or maybe even reverse the aging process, allowing human life span to increase dramatically, perhaps even ten times longer.

In space, radically new ships - needle-sized vessels using laser propulsion - could replace the expensive chemical rockets of today and perhaps visit nearby stars. Advances in nanotechnology may lead to the fabled space elevator, which would propel humans hundreds of miles above the earth's atmosphere at the push of a button.

But these astonishing revelations are only the tip of the iceberg. Kaku discusses emotional robots, antimatter rockets, X-ray vision, and the ability to create new life-forms.

He also considers the development of the world economy, and addresses the key questions: Who will be the winners and losers of the future? Who will have jobs, and which nations will prosper?

All the while, Kaku illuminates the rigorous scientific principles, examining the rate at which certain technologies are likely to mature, how far they can advance, and what their ultimate limitations and hazards are. Synthesizing a vast amount of information to construct an exciting look at the years leading up to 2100, Physics of the Future is a thrilling, wondrous ride through the next hundred years of breathtaking scientific revolution.
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*Michio Kaku is a professor at the City University of New York; cofounder of the string field theory; the bestselling author of several widely acclaimed science books, including Hyperspace and Physics of the Impossible - the basis for his Discovery Channel Science TV show, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible - and the host of two radio programs, Explorations and Science Fantastic, broadcasting to over 400 radio stations.

LETHAL GIFT OF LIVESTOCK

Doctor asks his patient the wrong question which enrages his patient's wife. Here's what Professor Jared Diamond reports:*

"The links connecting livestock and crops to germs were unforgetably illustrated for me by a hospital case about which I learned through a physician friend. When my friend was an inexperienced young doctor, he was called into a hospital room to deal with a married couple stressed-out by a mysterious illness. My friend was also stressed-out from a long week of hospital work, and from trying to figure out what unusual risk factors might have brought on the strange illness. The stress caused my friend to forget everything he had been taught about patient confidentiality: he committed the awful blunder of requesting the woman to ask her husband whether he'd had any sexual experiences that could have caused the infection. As the doctor watched, the husband turned red, pulled himself together so that he seemed even smaller, tried to disappear under his bedsheet, and stammered out words in a barely audible voice. His wife suddenly screamed in rage and drew herself up to tower over him. Before the doctor could stop her, she grabbed a heavy metal bottle, slammed it with full force onto her husband's head, and stormed out of the room. It took a while for the doctor to revive her husband and even longer to elicit, through the man's broken english, what he'd said that so enraged his wife. The answer slowly emerged: he had confessed to repeated intercourse with sheep on a recent visit to the family farm; perhaps that was how he had contracted the mysterious microbe."
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*Source: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, pp. 195-196