Off the top of my rather-groggy-and-vaguely-ill head, there are a few major points to remember and consider before any attempt to answer this question is made:
Firstly, the 'Bible' is a collection of various texts which were written, edited and compiled over centuries by various authors who were...
Uneducated philistine that I am, I'm going to have to plump for Eddie Vedder. It may just that their music uncannily matches his voice, but to me he croons and warbles like a marsh-velum.
Nonsense. Lebanon, Turkey, Yemen and Iraq are all examples of democratic states within the Middle-East, and there are many more (such as Iran and Bahrain) which incorporate democratic tendencies into their governing structure.
Representative democracy is certainly less prevalent then in, say...
No one sees the Lib Dems... ;)
(I don't identify with a single party, and indeed our electoral system seems to unintentionally discourage one from doing so, but I tend to vote for the Libbies on a case-by-case basis. At the very least, as an oft-ignored third-party, I sympathise with their...
Well, firstly, I think I recall that most of the early converts to Christianity were actually diaspora Jews and God-Fearers, and not pagans. The early Church certainly operated under the umbrella of Judaism for the first few decades of its existence.
However, I'd be more interested in knowing...
*sighs*
It's times like these that I realise how much a broadband connection and an almost-insatiable curiosity have desensitised me to this kind o' thing.
(Can't tell if it's fake or not)
To quote the esteemed Karen Armstrong;
One of the central themes, perhaps even the central theme, of most mystical traditions within Judaism were that of God voluntarily restricting and limiting Himself. He has seperated Himself from Himself to create, and as a means of self-emptyingly loving...
In some of the Kemetic creation myths, the world and the 'gods' have come into being through the Uncreated's spontaneous attempts to converse and speak with the Primeval Ocean. Creation literally arises out of a divine* desire for communication and dialogue.
As humanity, as with all creation...
*smiles*
We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth, and to assimilate it from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign peoples.
For him who seeks the truth there is nothing of higher value then truth itself; it never cheapens or debases...
Who then knows whence it has arisen,
Whence this emanation hath arisen,
Whether God disposed it, or whether he did not,-
Only he who is overseer in highest heaven knows.
Or perhaps he does not know!
(Rig-veda; 10:29)
I came into being as 'One who becomes'; I came into being and Becoming became...
That would actually be really quite interesting. Shall we start a new thread-thingie for the demonstration of such proof?
*shrugs*
'Worth' is subjective.
Unless, of course, there were any ethical guidelines or social regulations from which a person, and the previous sum of their behaviour, could be judged against; or even if there were some form of otherworldly jurisdictional framework set-up to peacefully administer divine justice. Additionally...
Heck, a great many Christians fall on the outside.
As for the question; 'better' and 'worse' aren't really things that I try to move around with these days. :)