DO YOU WONDER ABOUT THE BIBLE? LOOK HERE!

The following information comes from a wonderful site for looking into the truth about the supposedly infallible Bible, called “The Fallible Gospels”. This is the kind of information that fundamentalist Christians don’t want you to get ahold of. These findings, many of them, were developed not by non-Christians nor atheists, but by Christian scholars who preferred truth to fiction and who wanted to get at the truth of the origins and sources of the collection of writings that early Roman prelates decided would be accepted as the authentic spiritual sources of their religion. The following few paragraphs are just the lead in to much interesting information about the Bible writers:

“The Gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke have numerous differences in style and emphasis as well as events, but, nevertheless, there are many sayings and incidents which are in two or all three of them. They can therefore be set out in three parallel columns, so that scholars can study corresponding passages side by side (and extract individual features). In 1774 a German scholar called Johann Griesbach first described these three Gospels as the ‘synoptic’ gospels, from the Greek for ‘seen together’.

“The favourite Gospel of the Church quickly became Matthew, and a tradition was handed down that Matthew had been written first. It therefore took scholars some time to set this aside and realize that these synoptic correspondences could only be explained if Mark had been written first, and both Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source document.

“They were not three separate ‘witnesses’ at all, but one original document and two edited and expanded copies.

“There were about another 200 verses which did not appear in Mark but on which Matthew and Luke agreed. As Matthew and Luke were probably writing at around the same time but many hundreds of miles apart, they did not know about each other. Neither of them used the other for this extra material they had in common. As the wording often agrees exactly, this indicates the use of another written source by both of them. It was German New Testament scholars who first referred to this lost document as Q, from Quelle - the German for ‘source’.”

More to follow in future posts.


TIME MARCHES ON

In a recent Newsweek (October 25, 2004), some interesting concepts for the future are almost here.

1) One scientist, Bradley Edwards, believes that someday, humans can send robots into space by having them climb “space ribbons” made of carbon nanotubes, a “molecular chain many times stronger than steel”. Of course, I can also imagine huge spider webs of nanotubes anchored over the U.S. to trap and explode incoming missiles too. Of course, the airline industry might have something to say about all these nanotubes dangling in the atmosphere also.

2) Scientists are now “wiring together genes” to make circuits for injecting into bacteria. “Scientists are already inserting genes into bacteria to make them produce precursors to insulin. . . . The first programmable cells may serve as sensors that detect biowarfare agents or produce drugs that aren’t possible with genetically engineered bacteria. . . . It may be possible to make gene therapy far more precise by injecting entire gene circuits into human cells.”

3) Ted Berger, a biomedical engineer. . . “is designing a computer chip that might one day bolster the brain’s memory banks. The most immediate beneficiaries would be victims of stroke, Alzheimer’s and other ailments. . . . Berger has devised computer programs that replicate the cells’ behavior and has built chips to run them. "

Here’s what I say. Imagine an American world of science so altruistic that all America does is use its might and wealth to produce medical and scientific breakthroughs which benefit mankind and does it in such a world-benefiting way that everyone wants to be on our bandwagon rather than blowing it up with roadside bombs. Islam may resist our modern social culture, but if our scientific culture produces many good things, perhaps they’ll have second thought about destroying the hen that lays the golden egg of health for all the globe. The hell with Bush and his medieval views of science which still talks of when an egg is “ensouled”. There ain’t no science in it, the stupid ass!
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"I have an intense desire to return to the womb. Anybody's. —Woody Allen