Saturday, July 18, 2009

[TC-Alternate-list] Jerome to Hedibia - Complete English Translation

Following on the heels of the translation of the first part of Ad Hedibia in a recent post, a new file is available here at TC-Alternate:
Jerome to Hedibia.
This is an English translation of Jerome's Epistle #120, in which Jerome answers a series of 12 questions, mainly about how various passages of Scripture should be understood. As far as I know, this is the first complete English translation of Jerome's Epistle #120!
In part of this composition, Jerome heavily utilizes Eusebius' earlier composition "Ad Marinum," so much so that three questions which are presented by Jerome as if they were asked by Hedibia are, in "Ad Marinum," asked by Marinus, and in the same order. Jerome's answers to these questions resemble the answers given by Eusebius.
Yours in Christ,
James Snapp, Jr.
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Dispraxis was edited

Recent changes on Dispraxis

Page Zecharia Sitchin

edited by John F. Felix (diagroup@)
Link to: Exposing the Work of Zecharia Sitchin, Part 1: ELOHIM in the Hebrew Bible.
Link to: Addendum to my Elohim Sitchin Searches.
wiki: Elohim
Elohim
as subject of a SINGULAR predicator. Right-click or ctrl-click to save, do not click this link. Used with Logos Bible Software only.
Link to: Plural Verb + Elohim (CCB. (CCB). Same instructions as above.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Freethought Examiner: Beware of "defamation of religion" censorship!

examiner logo

There's an ill wind in the air that should chill the blood of any thinking person: The odor of censorship based on "religious" sensitivities. The recent debacle in Ireland over "blasphemous libel" being criminalized there highlights ... Read more »


Freethought Examiner, D.M. Murdock


D.M. Murdock, also known as Acharya S, is an independent scholar of comparative religion and mythology from a "freethinking" perspective. She is the author of The Christ Conspiracy, Suns of God, Who was Jesus? and Christ in Egypt. Her work was featured in the movie Zeitgeist and Bill Maher's Religulous. Her main website is TruthBeKnown.com.



[Real World Atheism] A useful crutch: The folly of pretence

The folly of pretence
by Daniel Dennett, The Guardian
Thanks to Catalin for the link.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/16/daniel-dennett-belief\
-atheism
We must not preserve the myth of God--it was a useful crutch, but we've
outgrown it
As I explain in the chapter by that title in Breaking the Spell,
"belief in belief" is a common phenomenon not restricted to religions.
Economists realise that a sound currency depends on people believing
that the currency is sound, and scientists recognise that the actual
objectivity of scientific studies on global warming is politically
impotent unless people believe in that objectivity, so economists and
scientists (among others) take steps to foster and protect such beliefs
that they think are benign. That's acting on belief in belief.
Sometimes the maintenance of a belief is deemed so important that
impressive systems of propaganda are erected and vigorously defended by
people who do not in fact share the belief that they think is so
important for society to endorse. For instance, imbecile monarchs have
been kept on their thrones by widespread conspiracies of oblivion and
deception when it has been deemed too socially disruptive to confirm to
the populace what everybody suspects: the king is an idiot.
Religion offers an extreme case of this. Today one of the most
insistent forces arrayed in opposition to us vocal atheists is the "I'm
an atheist but" crowd, who publicly deplore our "hostility", our
"rudeness" (which is actually just candour), while privately admitting
that we're right. They don't themselves believe in God, but they
certainly do believe in belief in God. It's not always easy to tell who
just believes in belief, since the actions motivated by believing in
belief (while not actually believing in God) are â€" with the exception
of those rare sotto voce confessions â€" well-nigh indistinguishable from
the actions of genuine believers: say the prayers, sing the hymns,
tithe, proclaim one's allegiance, volunteer for church projects, and so
on. Sometimes I wonder if even 10% of the people who proclaim their
belief in God actually do believe in God. I am particularly unimpressed
by those who proclaim the loudest; they demonstrate by their very
activism that they fear the effect of any erosion of religion, and they
must think that erosion is likely if they don't put their shoulders to
the wheel. If they were more confident and secure in their religious
convictions, they probably wouldn't waste their time trying to
discredit a few atheists. For instance, since they are confident that
the moon landings really happened, they don't bother working to
discredit the moon-landing sceptics who lurk on the internet, even
though those people do pose something of a threat to public confidence
in the veracity of the media and the government.
I am confident that those who believe in belief are wrong. That is,
we no more need to preserve the myth of God in order to preserve a just
and stable society than we needed to cling to the Gold Standard to keep
our currency sound. It was a useful crutch, but we've outgrown it.
Denmark, according to a recent study, is the sanest, healthiest,
happiest, most crime-free nation in the world, and by and large the
Danes simply ignore the God issue. We should certainly hope that those
who believe in belief are wrong, because belief is waning fast, and the
props are beginning to buckle.
A national study by evangelicals in the United States predicted
that only 4% of their children would grow up to be "Bible-believing"
adults. The Southern Baptists are baptising about as many today as they
were in 1950, when the population was half what it is today. At what
point should those who just believe in belief throw in the towel and
stop trying to get their children and neighbours to cling to what they
themselves no longer need? How about now?
--
This article was amended on Thursday 16 July 2009. Moon-landing
sceptics were referred to as "loonies", contrary to the Guardian style
guide. This has been corrected.



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Thursday, July 16, 2009

[Real World Atheism] Hindu Leader Criticizes Pope for Being too Hard on Nontheists

Hindu Leader Criticizes Pope for Being too Hard on Nontheists
http://americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2009-07-hindu-leader-criticizes-pope-for-being-too-hard-on-nontheists
For HumanistNetworkNews.org
July 15, 2009
Rajan Zed, a well known Hindu leader, criticized the Pope for his rough handling of atheists and humanists in the Pope's recent encyclical "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in Truth) issued in Rome.
In it, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI wrote: "...ideological rejection of God and an atheism of indifference, oblivious to the Creator and at risk of becoming equally oblivious to human values, constitute some of the chief obstacles to development today. A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism."
More than two years in the making, this 144-page and more than 30,000-word encyclical letter of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI to "all people of good will" is considered the highest form of papal teaching.
Zed said that as Catholics and Hindus and others had freedom of their belief systems and were respected for their respective choices, so should atheists. Zed thinks that a religious leader of the Pope's stature should have been more inclusive.
"Although the Pope talked about 'right to religious freedom', 'cooperation of the human family', 'truly universal human community', etc., in this document, he apparently condemned the beliefs of a considerable chunk of world population called atheists, humanists, etc.", said Zed.
Zed, who is based in Reno, Nev., and is president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, asked "Who were we as human beings to judge publicly that other humans' beliefs different than us were 'inhuman'?"
While applauding Pope Benedict for his call for the "common good", which encompasses taking greater social responsibility through reform of financial bodies, sharing the earth's resources equitably and lessening the growing divide between poor and rich, among other things mentioned in "Caritas in Veritete", Zed feels that the leader of the Catholic Church "needs to learn to be more inclusive and large-hearted."
(Editor's Note: On July 12, 2009, Zed made history by becoming the first Hindu chaplain to offer the U.S. Senate's morning prayer. Unfortunately, three Christian extremists disrupted the proceedings by shouting "this is an abomination" among other insults , from the visitors' gallery before being led away by police. Police arrested them and later charged them with disrupting Congress, a misdemeanor. Zed chose not to comment on the incident when requested by HNN.)
Rajan Zed is the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, an Interfaith Leader Award recipient, and chairperson of the Indo-American Leadership Confederation. He is also a panelist on an online conversation , "On Religion," jointly produced by Newsweek magazine and washingtonpost.com.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

[TC-Alternate-list] Eznik of Golb - Confirmed Witness to Mark 16:18

Finally! Another legend is verified: Conybeare stated that Eznik of Golb, the Armenian translator/writer, is a witness for Mark 16:9-20, but I was never able to actually see the quotation, until now.
It is found on p. 85 of
A Treatise on God Written in Armenian by Eznik of Kolb (430-450)
by Monica J. Blanchard and Robin Darling Young, 1998.
(Easter Christian Texts in Translation series)
(This is the same composition otherwise known by the Latin title "De Deo" and as "Against the Sects.")
Paragraph 112:
"But Satan is unable to prevail over true believers by his temptations, nor are sorcerers able to do so by demons, just as the Lord Himself said to His disciples: "Behold, I gave you power to tread under foot serpents and scorpions, and all the powers of the enemy" (Luke 10:10) And again, "Here are signs of believers: they will dislodge demons, and they will take serpents into their hand, and they will drink a deadly poison and it will not cause harm." (Mark 16:17-18)"
That's an interesting form of the quotation. Because, among other things, it has the "And in their hands" phrase which is an Alexandrian variant.
450. Let's see . . . that's about 400 years earlier than any Armenian witness against Mark 16:9-20, as far as I know.
Jerome, btw, had nothing on Eznik. Eznik makes many quotations in the course of this composition, and sometimes mentions the contents of Hebrew and Syriac texts.
Yours in Christ,
James Snapp, Jr.

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Production of the feature film about CHARLES DARWIN called CREATION: ORIGINS: UNIVERSE, LIFE, HUMANKIND, AND DARWIN

A message from Dr. Terence Meaden to all members of ORIGINS: UNIVERSE, LIFE, HUMANKIND, AND DARWIN on Atheist Nexus!
A trailer to this film has been released which can be seen on the web. What do you think?
Visit ORIGINS: UNIVERSE, LIFE, HUMANKIND, AND DARWIN at:
http://atheistnexus.org/groups/group/show?id=2182797%3AGroup%3A109911
--

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Keyword News: [atheism]

Yahoo! Alerts


Tuesday, July 14, 2009 2:21 PM PDT
Counter Intelligence: Summer Camp for Atheists
NBC Philadelphia Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:59 AM PDT
Check out what summer camp for atheists is like and take a look at our list of must-reads that will have you chatting at the lunch counter, over IM or wherever it is that people actually talk these days. Sponsored Topics: Summer Camp - Atheism - Recreation - Camps - United States






Sunday, July 12, 2009

Dispraxis was edited

Dispraxis writes: I was trying to reproduce the search results from Logos Bible software as shown in the video here: http://michaelsheiser.com/PaleoBabble/2008/06/exposing-the-work-of-zecharia-sitchin-part-1-elohim-in-the-hebrew-bible/, but the video doesn't show the last part, and for some unknown reason Dr. Heiser cannot access the saved query as shown in the video apparently.

However, my total results were different (317 as opposed to 322). I have since created a syntax search that does give 322 returns, but I'm not sure that the syntax is exactly like Dr. Heiser's. Below are links to the saved syntax query search (do not click the link, rather save it to My Documents/Libronix DLS/SyntaxQueries, if you own Logos Bible Software only!).

Recent changes on Dispraxis

File Elohim as subject of a SINGULAR predicator.lbxstq

uploaded by John F. Felix (diagroup@)