24/12/2009I made my annual pilgrimmage to church, tonight. We had a really good meal before, and I managed to stay awake for much of the service. A nice time.
26/10/2008 I've always wondered if Jesus existed. I'm not talking about the separate question of whether he was the son of God. I'm talking about whether he existed at all. I can't find any evidence that he did. There are no Roman records of him, and the Romans were meticulous record keepers. Actually, there are no records of him at all that I can find other than the Bible which, when taken alone, is no more convincing than any other book to me. I don't believe Alice in Wonderland existed because she's mentioned in a single book. The other day, I stumbled across the story of Horus, the Egyptian falcon god, from 3000 years before Christ was allegedly born. Here are some interesting facts about Horus (credit to various sources around the net).
- Horus was born of a virgin on December 25 in a cave/manger with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men.
- His earthly father was named Seb (Joseph).
- At at 12, he was a child teacher in the Temple, and at 30, he was baptized having disappeared for 18 years.
- Horus was baptized in the river Eridanus or Iarutana (Jordan) by Anup the Baptizer (John the Baptist), who was decapitated.
- He had 12 desciples, two of who were his witnesses.
- He performed miracles, exorcised demons and raised El-Azarus from the dead.
- Horus walked on water.
- His personal epithet was Iusa, the ever-becoming son of Ptah, the Father. He was thus called Holy Child.
- He delivered a Sermon on the Mount and his followers recounted the Sayings of Iusa.
- Horus was transfigured on the Mount.
- He was crucified between two thieves, buried for three days in a tomb, and resurrected.
- He was called the Way, the Truth, the Light, Messiah, God’s Anointed Son, the Son of Man, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, the Word made flesh, the Word of Truth, etc.
- He was called the Fisher and was associated with the Fish, Lamb and Lion.
- He came to fulfill the Law.
- Horus was called the KRST, or Anointed One.
- Horus was supposed to reign one thousand years.
I could've sworn I've heard some of that stuff before.
19/04/2008
Not being a Christian, it is always interesting to me to watch Christians come to grips with their own holy book. I've maintained for a long time that Christians, even fundamentalist Bible-belt types, tend to pick and choose which Bible verses to follow. This is never more true than in the case of Paul's declaration that women should cover their heads while praying or prophesying. Here's the verse.
1 Corinthians 11:5-6
And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is just as though her head were shaved. If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. The most common arguments made to justify ignoring this verse (and ignore it most Christians do) are below, along with my responses:
- Hair is given to women as a covering (1 Cor 11:15)
This is the most common argument used to twist this verse. It defies common sense, however. If hair is a covering in this context, how could any woman ever have her hair cut off? If she had hair to cut off, she would be covered. The verse would be meaningless.
- This is a metaphor for some other vague meaning
Ok, I can't refute that as there's no way to know if it was or not, but if you go down that path, be aware that you leave the door open to everything being metaphorical. This is the argument used by many who reject the prohibitions against homosexuality, saying they were metaphors of some other meaning. Heck, if you open this door, maybe the entire salvation thing is a big metaphor. Maybe the creation story is a metaphor of evolution and Darwin was right.
- This only applied to certain people
Paul clearly stated that his letter was "To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours" (1 Cor 1:2). Beyond this, the argument above applies -- if this prohibition only applied to the Corinthians, then maybe the prohibition against homosexuality only applied to the Levites. A study of the actual Textus Receptus clearly states that the word used refers to a veil. "Christian women were expected to cover their heads—but not their faces—in religious exercises, and especially in meetings." Source Paul was an educated Pharisee, a blunt, plain-spoken man who called a fool a fool. Well, I'll call a rationalization a rationalization. When Paul says women should cover their heads, I interpret that as his meaning that women should cover their heads. It is absolutely clear that this is what was meant: 
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