Why do Christians worship Mary?

[ApologeticsCatholic]

The Gaia Hypothesis states that all the life forms on Planet Earth work together to keep the planet life-bearing. There is much evidence for this. The heat output of the Sun has changed much down through the ages, and yet the temperature of our planet has maintained the narrow range necessary to maintain Life.
The level of atmospheric gasses has also remained, for the most part, a steady constant despite changing conditions. This is extremely important. If there were not enough oxygen in the atmosphere, fauna would die. If there were too much oxygen and not enough carbon dioxide and methane, plants would die and the atmosphere would be so flammable, fires would overrun the Earth.
Too much of both oxygen and carbon dioxide would also be fatal. But a third gas, methane, (produced by termites and digestion) is just abundant enough to keep the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in check.
Some kind of biological feedback system must be working to keep all this balanced. As of yet, there is no evidence Gaia is sentient, but She is biological. I strongly suspect that any sufficiently advanced Gaia would evolve into Sentience.

believe in what I call the Hyper-Gaia Hypothesis, that all or some of the Gaias in the Universe or Multiverse work together, to keep the Universe or Multiverse Life Bearing just as life on Earth works to keep Earth life bearing. This is a simple, logical, rational explanation for the Strong and Modified Weak Anthropic Principle, and for the testimony of billions of people, (the author included) who have felt a loving "PRESENCE" when engaged in loving, submissive and welcoming prayer towards Christ, or Whatever the individual chooses to call Him/Her/It.
An article in the December 2001, Reader's Digest on page 141 on brain scan images of people experiencing the Divine indicates that feeling this PRESENCE is neither epilepsy nor Schizophrenia. We are hardwired to interact with what we call God, and you can be sure that, as with everything we are hard wired to experience, it has survival value.​

 

[ApologeticsCatholic]

Phase I Of Evolution and Beyond​

The biggest leap forward in evolution occurred when different life forms learned to cooperate with one another. We went from being single celled organisms to multicellular organisms and from that major change grew all the variety we see around us. Love and cooperation, not competition, is what drives much of evolution, and among other things, "Christ is Love." (First Epistle of John 4:8).
I propose that the term, "supernatural" does not mean "antinatural." God is as natural a Being as any other life form. I propose as Teilhard De Chardin did, that if the evolutionary process really is so strong that Humans and Whales can evolve from pond scum in just five billion or so years, God is perfectly capable of evolving in ten billion or so years. The pond scum did not even know where it was going and it had no will. We at least have a vague idea of where we are going, and we have the desire. Heaven also is buildable because Humanity is so tenacious we get what we want eventually. We saw birds fly we learned to build machines that let us fly. We saw the Moon, we went there. We want to live forever, we evolve into God and build Heaven, just as we built Manhattan, the Kennedy Space Center and Disney World. To understand the Universe, all of space and time, one must see it as a whole. The next five billion years are every bit as real as the five billion years that have just come. The Universe (and us) are works in progress and nowhere near finished yet. We are looking at a half unfinished construction site and seeing a mess. Do not judge any construction site by what it looks like while still half finished. Judge it only by its finished state. God is the natural result of a perfectly natural process we can understand. Every link in the long evolutionary chain is the natural result of the link right before it, one stair step after another, one long and difficult but far from impossible climb. The journey is difficult and often painful but I believe the results are well worth it!
The pressure to survive will make this evolution necessary. The Universe we live in will not last forever. And when it dies you can be sure Life will not peacefully roll over and play dead. That is not the nature of life. So Life will "grow into the Head which is Christ" (Ephesians 4:15), in order to survive the end of this Universe, (if we haven't already done it sooner). Life will either have to find or make another universe, "a new Heavens and a new Earth," or repair this one. Either way we can't do it at our present level of development. Life will have to "grow into the Head which is Christ" just to survive. If we don't make it, it is a big Universe, somewhere Somebody will. Trying to stop evolution all over the Universe from reaching its Ultimate Life Form is like trying to stop a tidal wave or a volcano. Natural Forces of Nature you cannot stop. Maybe you can slow them down for a while but you can NOT stop them!
Why not Buddha instead of Christ? Read their words. It is obvious to anyone who does so, Buddha doesn't want the job, Jesus Christ does.
In a way the Kingdom of Heaven is a cosmic democracy. Whatever the Man from Galilee was originally in some alternate time line, long extinct, Human kind, or Hyper-Gaia has chosen to make Him evolving Humanity's Head, and He has been given all the skills and powers necessary to hold down the job. If Humanity does not listen to Christ's message, that we FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER, it is only a matter of time before someone with nukes chooses to "get revenge." If the chain reaction of revenge is not broken by forgiveness, our species is doomed. But even if we don't make it, its a big Universe out there, God has plenty of breeding places. Will the Hyper-Gaia come out of us, other species, computers or all of these? We choose by our actions and decisions.

The laws of Biology teach us that survival of the fittest favors a nurturing God. Sea turtles lay many eggs and then abandon them. Alligators lay many eggs and guard them carefully. Sea turtles are very endangered. Alligators are prospering. Survival of the fittest favors both a God who multiplies enormously and a God who nurtures His offspring. We can be sure God did not "wind up the Universe" and abandon it, as some Deists claim. The nurturing of offspring is a survival technique that works. He sticks around to guard His "nest." That is why prayer has been proved to affect organic tissue in double blind experiments.
Survival of the fittest also favors One who doesn't do too much for His children. Interfere too much and evolution ceases to be efficient, and we would have no motivation to grow up into the Head. Death must occur so there is room for evolution. Suffering must also occur so we may learn compassion for our fellow "cells of God,". It is more important that we learn love and compassion than any other lesson we could possibly learn. Without love and compassion we cannot evolve into He Who Is Love. It is also important that we are motivated to continue to learn medicine and other sciences. We are His past. He is our future.
More proof of God: Ecological niches. An ecological niche is the part of an ecological system that a particular life form occupies. There are predator niches, prey niches, plant niches, etc. Ecological niches tend not to stay empty. For example on the Galapagos Islands, the ecological niche of "woodpecker" was empty. So a little bird called the "Darwin's Finch" moved in and took that niche. They are one of natures few tool using birds. Lacking the ability to peck like woodpeckers, they actually fashion twigs into poking tools to pry insects out of the bark of trees. If necessary, even tools become part of evolution. We can be sure if the ecological niche of "God" really was empty for some reason, some Life Form would move in to fill the empty niche. As a friend of mine admitted, "There is probably a waiting line."
Once Christ evolves to a certain point, He will expand to fill all of time and space plus every part of all the other dimensions Quantum Physics has discovered. It is the normal nature of Life to overflow whatever container it happens to be in. Once life escapes from the time space bubble, it is no trick to reenter it again at any point. This is how a Being whose Body is made up of us (1 Corinthians 12:27), can make the Universe that evolved Him. The Universe is a warm starry nest in which God raises Himself. The Earth is a kind of egg. The Lord creates the Universe evolves the Lord. Outside the time space bubble God the Father is changeless. Inside the time space bubble, God the Son evolves into God. As John 15 puts it, : ."Gospel of John, Chapter 15:1 "I Am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower, 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit He prunes to make it bear more fruit." Christ evolves until He escapes this Universe. As Ephesians 4:9 puts it. "When it says, 'He ascended,' what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the Earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the Heavens so that he might fill all things."​

 

[ApologeticsCatholic]

Phase II of Evolution​

Phase I of evolution was single cells joining together into multicellular beings. Phase II is Individual brains joining into One Being; Christ. Each one of us can evolve into a piece of Christ by asking Him into our "hearts." We do not lose our individually by doing so. Just as every single cell in a multicellular being keeps its own nucleus, we keep our own minds when we join the "Body of Christ." Indeed we gain individuality. One amoeba must be exactly like every other amoeba because each has to perform all the functions necessary for life. Individuals in a colony can specialize, each doing what it does best. So it is with the Body of Christ. Each single member has its own "nucleus" its own gifts and its own consciousness, but together we form a Gestalt, something greater than the sum of each individual member. Matthew 18:20. "For where two or three are gathered in my Name, I Am there among them." and John 4:10 "On that day you will know that I Am in my Father and you in me, and I in you."​

 

[ApologeticsCatholic]

Evolution works best when it is guided. If a blind man tried to solve a Rubik's cube, and he made one move a second, the Universe would be over before he got it solved. But if a sighted man who knew how to solve it, stood behind him and told him what moves to make, it could be solved in a few minutes. Unguided evolution would take too long to create a Life form as sophisticated as a Blue Whale or a Human. The Universe would be over first, but if evolution is guided it can be done

 

[rhb100]

Evolution works best when it is guided. If a blind man tried to solve a Rubik's cube, and he made one move a second, the Universe would be over before he got it solved. But if a sighted man who knew how to solve it, stood behind him and told him what moves to make, it could be solved in a few minutes. Unguided evolution would take too long to create a Life form as sophisticated as a Blue Whale or a Human. The Universe would be over first, but if evolution is guided it can be done

Evolution is guided by the forces of natural selection.

 

[ApologeticsCatholic]

Evolution is guided by the forces of natural selection.

uninformed much?


Some People ( very sall group) logically derived from confirmable evidence, evolution is understood to be the result of an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection.

But.... Theists ( the smart people with degrees) object to claims that the world is unguided or caused by natural selcetion alone.

Asa Gray, one of Darwin's correspondents, and a leading ornithologist in America at the time, held that God provides the variations necessary for the outcome He (or She) wills in evolution

Though with the scintific question "is evolution Guided" then well.. no doesnt need to be.. plus there is no scientific proof that it is all down to natural selection" if the question is Do we need to believe that God guides the world?
then yes guideness (under the name of Providence) is a default assumption, and science is held, rightly, by them not to be able to reject the "providential hypothesis.

"Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." —Albert Einstein

Some of history's greatest scientific minds, including Albert Einstein, were convinced there is intelligent life behind the universe. Today many scientists say there is no conflict between their faith and their work.

"In the last few years astronomy has come together so that we're now able to tell a coherent story" of how the universe began, Primack said. "This story does not contradict God, but instead enlarges [the idea of] God."

The notion that science and religion are irreconcilable is totally false.

Most scientists—and theologians—maintain that it would be perfectly logical to think that a divine being used evolution as a method to create the world.

 

[logician]

"Evolution works best when it is guided."

Evolution has neither direction nor purpose, there is no "trend" towards advancement, only a trend towards adapting to changing surroundings.

 

[ApologeticsCatholic]

The peacock's tail is so large because a selection process (sexual selection) had a direction. To peahens, bigger was better.

So some eveolution does have a direction. and then unfair to make the statment that "Evolution has neither direction nor purpose"

And most scientists to this day will argue that evolution seems a little to perfect to have happened accidentally.

Here, considering the idea of purpose being not an absolute ending but a relative ending, not a finale but a reason or meaning, then evolution does have purpose. Similar to the proof style many philosophers have used in the past to explain abstract concepts, one can say: firstly, that a story is something which has purpose; secondly, that evolution is a story. Therefore, Evolution has purpose.

An idea not satisfying to some people is the idea that stories have purposes. Purposes are defined here as, "the action or fact of intending or meaning to do something; intention, resolution, determination.

Besides the definition of Evolution as it pertains to the scientific theory developed largely by Charles Darwin, evolution also means, "the process of evolving, developing, or working out in detail, what is implicitly or potentially contained in an idea or principle; the development of a design, argument, etc"

Similarly, one would not design without aiming towards some final creation. Writer Russell Friedman said, "The task of the nonfiction writer is to find the story–the narrative line–that exists in nearly every subject, be it the life of a person or the life of a cell,"

 

[rhb100]

Each one of us can evolve into a piece of Christ by asking Him into our hearts.​

Why would anyone with good sense want to do this. According to the Bible Christ is the person who said in Matthew 19:24, " And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. "
This statement suggests that Christ was a person of anti capitalistic mentality. But the works of the great Noble Prize winning economist, the late Milton Friedman, and the works of Adam Smith clearly show that capitalism is necessary for a moral society. Christ appears to have something against the acquisition of wealth. But the greatest benefactors of mankind, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, and others are all men who acquired great wealth.

Also Christ shows his disrespect for saving and investing by the statements he made in Matthew 6:25-26 . He said
"25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? "
Saving and investing are an important part of a moral life. People who disregard thrift by following the advice of Christ to take no thought for what they will eat, drink, or what clothes they shall wear live miserable lives as beggars and homeless persons and are a burden on society.

 

[ApologeticsCatholic]

@ wanderer "Who created God"

Consider the following descriptions of God from the Bible:

• 
  God is a Spirit:...
  ...for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in heaven.
  
  God is not a man, that He should...;
  

Obviously, the descriptions and concepts of God given in these passages are that God is a spiritual entity. He exists outside of the three-dimensional, physical world in which we live.
The Bible further supports this concept of God in the following passages:

• 
  Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? ...Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.
  But who is able to build a house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Him?...
  
  For in Him we live, and move, and have our being;...
  

Not only is God described as being outside space, but He is also described as being outside of time. Consider the following:

• 
  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
  For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
  
  But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
  
  ...It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His power.
  

If God is a being that is unlimited in time, and if He has access to every piece of time as if it were now, the question of who created God is an invalid question. The problem is like asking a student to draw a four-sided triangle. The terminology is self-contradictory.
When asked “Who or what created God?,” we are making the assumption that God was created. If God exists outside of time and space, and if He is the Creator of time and space, He obviously was not created! God began the beginning! This is why He says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”
God created time. The statement of Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” is making reference to the creation of time. The reason that things like heat death, the expansion of the universe, and the depletion of hydrogen do not apply to God is because He is outside of time. God has always been. He not only began time; He will also end it. When time ends, all matter and all mankind will enter eternity—a timeless condition free of the negative things that time brings upon us now.

• 
  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,...
  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
  

The agnostic position that there is nothing that can be said to support God’s existence that cannot be said against that existence cannot, in the opinion of the author, stand in the face of this evidence

 

[ApologeticsCatholic]

Why is it that everytime someone qoutes the Bible they leave out the texts, meaning, and purposes and makes assumptions based on all thoughts and not jesus teachings?

Jesus taught his disciples that friendship with God was more important than money:
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:...
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
"No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
"Therefore! tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you as well." (Matt. 5:1-2 6:19-21, 24-33)
Here we see Jesus in the role of charismatic teacher. His disciples follow him away from the crowds and up onto a mountain. And there he initiates them into the Way. He shares with them the secret of successful living.

 

[Random]

Why would anyone with good sense want to do this. According to the Bible Christ is the person who said in Matthew 19:24, " And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. "
This statement suggests that Christ was a person of anti capitalistic mentality. But the works of the great Noble Prize winning economist, the late Milton Friedman, and the works of Adam Smith clearly show that capitalism is necessary for a moral society.

Bollocks. :no:

Saving and investing are an important part of a moral life. People who disregard thrift by following the advice of Christ to take no thought for what they will eat, drink, or what clothes they shall wear live miserable lives as beggars and homeless persons and are a burden on society

i just feel the milk of human kindness dripping from you.

 

[ApologeticsCatholic]

Does the Way that Jesus teaches lead us out of the system that Smith has described? Is Matthew 5-7 an appeal to us to drop out of society, to refuse to compete, to despise wealth? Does God care nothing for money? When Jesus told his disciples, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth," was he attacking the economic system upon which our material security depends? Was he cutting the vital nerve between work incentive and work results? Was he pointing an accusing finger at the owners of the land, the holders of capital, or the organizers of wage-laborers?
Stored-up treasure drives our economy. Adam Smith said:
"Parsimony [saving], and not industry, is the immediate cause of the increase of capital. . . . It puts into motion an additional quantity of industry, which gives an additional value to the annual produce." To the high priests of commerce, which one sees on "Wall Street Week" on Friday evenings, these are sacred truths. In 1929 America saw what happened when the nation forgot these truths: Profits on the trading of stocks became more important than corporate profits. The economy went into a tailspin, people were out of work, the factories stood idle, mortgaged farms were lost, banks closed, futures were blighted. The nations of Eastern Europe are now being put through an economic wringer because, evidently, they thought Smith’s dicta about markets, profits, land ownership, and wage incentives were smoke and mirrors.
How are we to interpret Jesus’ teaching on the mountain? What is the effective, dynamic force of his statements about anxiety and money? How can we apply what he said then to the system of production and distribution in which we find ourselves now? If Jesus were writing a contemporary best-seller, what might it be called and what would be its thesis? Might it be something like this?


(The Grand Illusion of our times is financial security: Everybody wants it, nobody gets it. It is like the horizon - the more eagerly you approach it, the faster it recedes. You say that you would be happy if only you could attain financial security, if only you never needed to worry about bills or taxes, or how to afford a new car. And so you try to earn all you can and to put aside all you can for tomorrow.
Foolish folk! That secure tomorrow never arrives. What comes instead? Inflation, recession, bank failures, crime, illness, environmental disasters, war, layoffs, takeovers, forced retirement. The harder you try for financial security, the less secure you are!
Why do you persist? Why do you court stress by seeking greater security? The effort only produces more stress, which in turn produces worry; and worry saps your ability to make good decisions and to work properly. So you are on a treadmill: The faster you run, the sooner you will have a heart attack and be unable to work, and then where will you be?
Foolish, foolish folk! Look around you at the world God created. Lilies do not work; birds have no savings banks. And yet they survive as well as you do. If God cares for them, how much more will God reward your work with enough to eat, to wear - and a roof over your head.
Look at the godless, who do not know your heavenly Father. They worship material success. And what is their end? But you know God and what God wants: Love for neighbor and enemy alike, justice, mercy, kindness, fidelity. If you will make these - and not wealth - your priorities, then food and clothing and shelter will be there for you in sufficient supply. Let God worry about money; that’s God’s business.)

 

[*Paul*]

Would someone mind telling me if this is an official prayer to Mary? DOes it have the imprimataur or approval of the church?

THIRD NOVENA PRAYER TO OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP

0 Mother of Perpetual Help, thou art the dispenser of all the gifts

which God grants to us miserable sinners; and for this end He has made thee so powerful, so rich, and so bountiful, in order that thou mayest help us in our misery. Thou art the advocate of the most wretched and abandoned sinners who have recourse to thee: come to my aid, for I recommend myself to thee.

In thy hands I place my eternal salvation, and to thee I entrust my soul. Count me among thy most devoted servants; take me under thy protection, and it is enough for me. For, if thou protect me, I fear nothing; not from my sins, because thou wilt obtain for me the pardon of them; nor from the devils, because thou art more powerful than all hell together; nor even from Jesus, my judge, because by one prayer from thee He will be appeased.
But one thing I fear: that in the hour of temptation I may through negligence fail to have recourse to thee and thus perish miserably. Obtain for me, therefore, the pardon of my sins, love for Jesus, final perseverance, and the grace ever to have recourse to thee, O Mother of Perpetual Help.---3 Hail Marys.​

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http://www.themissionchurch.com/omph.htm​

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[ApologeticsCatholic]

Would someone mind telling me if this is an official prayer to Mary? DOes it have the imprimataur or approval of the church?

http://www.themissionchurch.com/omph.htm​

Yes it is a legitimate NOVENA

no·ve·na http://javascript<b></b>:play('N0178400') (n

-v

n

)
n. pl. no·ve·nas or no·ve·nae (-n) Roman Catholic Church A recitation of prayers and devotions for a special purpose during nine consecutive days.

 

[fullyveiled muslimah]

Hmm. In spite of all the things said in this thread about prayers not being offered to Mary, just asking Mary to pray for you this certainly is a prayer to her. Just in the title it says "Third Novena Prayer to Our Mother of perpetual Help." The person making this prayer places their eternal salvation in the hands of Mary (not God), and they entrust their soul to her.

Paul raises a good question though in all fairness which is if it is approved by the churh or not. Is a person who prays this prayer wrong in doing so? If yes why? If no why not?

 

[*Paul*]

Yes it is a legitimate NOVENA


n. pl. no·ve·nas or no·ve·nae (-n) Roman Catholic Church A recitation of prayers and devotions for a special purpose during nine consecutive days.

Thanks, didn't realise that;s what a novena was. Just checking anyway.

 

[ApologeticsCatholic]

"Despite strong pressure to accept evolutionism, many intelligent and experienced scientists either openly or secretly dismiss Evolution as highly unlikely or impossible. In the 1980s, researcher and lecturer David Watson noted an increasing trend that continues today, disturbing those who want evolutionism to be perceived as the accepted scientific consensus"

Science Digest
"Scientists who utterly reject Evolution may be one of our fastest-growing controversial minorities… Many of the scientists supporting this position hold impressive credentials in science." 3

"The Evolutionary model says that it is not necessary to assume the existence of anything, besides matter and energy, to produce life. That proposition is unscientific. We know perfectly well that if you leave matter to itself, it does not organize itself - in spite of all the efforts in recent years to prove that it does" Dr. Wilder-Smith

according to a impartial list 600 + well established scientist and 300 + scientists with masters science or engineering in creation matters agree with all the above.

Books of Reference.

1. Richard Milton, Shattering the Myths of Darwinism (Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 1992, 1997), p. 12.
2. David C.C. Watson, "Book Reviews," Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Terre Haute, Indiana: March 1989), p. 200 (emphasis added).]
3. Larry Hatfield, "Educators Against Darwin," Science Digest Special (Winter 1979), pp. 94-96. <A name=4>
4. Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith: Chemist / Lecturer / Creationist / Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry at University of Reading, England (1941) / Dr.es.Sc. in pharmacological sciences from Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich / D.Sc. in pharmacological sciences from University of Geneva (1964) / F.R.I.C. (Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry) / Professorships held at numerous institutions including: University of Illinois Medical School Center (Visiting Full Professor of Pharmacology, 1959-61, received 3 "Golden <A href="http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/apple.html">apple" awards for the best course of lectures), University of Geneva School of Medicine, University of Bergen (Norway) School of Medicine, Hacettepe University (Ankara, Turkey) Medical School, etc. / Former Director of Research for a Swiss pharmaceutical company / Presented the 1986 Huxley Memorial Lecture at the invitation of the University of Oxford / Author or co-author of over 70 scientific publications and more than 30 books published in 17 languages / Dr. Wilder-Smith was also a NATO three-star general. He was featured in the motion picture series ORIGINS: How the World Came to Be.
5. Arthur E. Wilder-Smith in Willem J.J. Glashouwer and Paul S. Taylor, The Origin of the Universe (PO Box 200, Gilbert AZ 85299 USA: Eden Communications and Standard Media, 1983). <A name=6>
6. Richard Milton, <A href="http://www.christiananswers.net/catalog/bk-shattering.html">Shattering the Myths of Darwinism (Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 1992, 1997), p. 277.

Most living scholars to this day state " the bible is authentic to the date"

1. a following test has been admited to prove the authenticity of the bible and the Christian bible as is, passes all the tests with flying colors.

1. Bibliographic Test - i.e. the number of documents and their age
2. Internal Test - i.e. the authorship references within the document
3. External Tests - e.g. archeology, extra-Biblical literature and secular writers

carbon dating shows the bible to be authentic and from the proper time frame.
the old testement far exceeds the new testiment in dating and has great signifiagance

The bible is not a ollection of flase stories but a ancient history book.
contridiction doesnt mean false, simply means the proposition, statement, or phrase that asserts or implies both the truth and falsity of something.

and as i have commented before in a prior post or another post all together, i belive the bible has some myths, some exagerated parts, but tthe truth remains, because of original sin man was not able to enter the kingdom of heaven and god promised a savior, one who will die for our sins, and we will one day eneter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus is that man, the man promised as savior, and now are sins are forgivin and i may enter into the kingdom of heaven where i will be granted eternal life.

 

[ApologeticsCatholic]

Further more, your research is one sided, i looked at the website posted by mastermind and researched it throughly my research is backed.

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE

Firstly, we need to find out the time span elapsed from when it happened/ when it was written, to when the first copy was found. Obviously, the shorter the time span, the less room for error and corruption of the original story by folklore or by fraudulent/ falsified copies.
Secondly, we need to find out how many original manuscripts there were. The more manuscripts there are concerning the same story, especially when written at the same time, but in different geographic locations, obviously adds to the integrity/ authenticity of the document

This is briefly how historians and scientists evaluate a document's authenticity.

• From the table above, we see that the earliest existing documents concerning Roman history were found 900 years (almost 1 whole millennium!!) after the events happened, and that only 20 original copies exist. Yet, how is it that we all believe without question that Roman Historical literature (Julius Caesar etc) IS the factual Truth?
• Consider then that the Bible manuscripts date from only 30 -150 years after they happened, and that more than 30 000 original manuscripts exist!! By comparison then, Roman History becomes a mere 'fairy tale' when compared to the Bible for authenticity, accuracy and integrity.

The late Professor FF Bruce was one of the world’s foremost Textual History critics (and a non-Christian) at the time that he said:
“The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, especially when compared to the dates of academically accepted Historical documents such as those detailing Roman History. The last foundation for any doubt that the scripts of the Old and New Testaments have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of these works may now be finally established and proved, probably to be the most authentic historical documents known to man.”

so why dont you do me a favor , learn more, open your mind and your heart, and type less till you listen to facts and stop obscuring truths

 

[logician]

The authors of the gospels are unknown, and certainly NOT the fictional Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Jesus tale bears such a remarkable resmeblance to pre-existant stories of othe other religions that it can be no coincidence, it was merely a rehash of prexistenct mythology rewritten with new names and characters. Certainly the bibilical Jesus never existed in reality any more than these other "gods", yet we're supposed to accept these tales hook, line and sinker with no supporting evidence whatsoever.

There is no greater quest than the pursuit of truth.