Knights Templar to Vatican: Give us back our assets

The Knights Templar are demanding that the Vatican give them back their good name and, possibly, billions in assets into the bargain, 700 years after the order was brutally suppressed by a joint venture between the Pope and the King of France.

If the Holy See doesn’t comply, the warrior knights, renowned for liberating the Holy Land, will deploy that most fearsome of weapons: a laborious court case through the creaking Spanish legal system. … - theregister

Scholars plan to reunite ancient Bible — online

The oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, a 4th century version that had its Gospels and epistles spread across the world, is being made whole again — online.

The British Library says the full text of the Codex Sinaiticus will be available to Web users by next July, digitally reconnecting parts that are held in Britain, Russia, Germany and a monastery in Egypt’s Sinai Desert.

A preview of the Codex, which also has some parts of the Old Testament, will hit the Web on Thursday — the Book of Psalms and the Gospel of Mark.

“Only a few people have ever had the opportunity to see more than a couple of pages of the (Codex),” said Scot McKendrick, the British Library’s head of Western manuscripts. The Web site will give everyone access to a “unique treasure,” he said.

Discovered at the Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai by German Bible scholar Constantine Tischendorf in the mid-19th century, much of the Codex eventually wound up in Russia — just how exactly the British Library won’t say, citing lingering sensitivity over the circumstances surrounding its removal from the monastery.

The British Library bought 347 pages from Soviet authorities in 1933. Forty-three pages are at the University Library in Leipzig, Germany, and six fragments are at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. And in 1975, monks stumbled on 12 more pages and 40 fragments stashed in a hidden room at the monastery.

Biblical scholars are thrilled at the news that the Codex Sinaiticus — divided since Tischendorf’s trip to the monastery in 1844 — is finally being put back together, albeit virtually. …

Handwritten in Greek more than 1,600 years ago — it isn’t exactly clear where — the surviving 400 or so pages carry a version of the New Testament that has a few interesting differences from the Bible used by Christians today.

The Gospel of Mark ends abruptly after Jesus’ disciples discover his empty tomb, for example. Mark’s last line has them leaving in fear.

“It cuts out the post-resurrection stories,” said Juan Garces, curator of the Codex Sinaiticus Project. “That’s a very odd way of ending a Gospel.”  …

The Codex itself is a fascinating artifact, representing the best of Western bookmaking, Garces said. The parchment was arranged in little multipage booklets called quires, which were then numbered in sequence.

“It was the cutting edge of technology in the 4th century,” he said. - yahoo

Baptist church in assault rifle giveaway

An Oklahoma baptist church has insisted it will proceed with its controversial plan to give away an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle* during a youth conference - a move described as “a way of trying to encourage young people to attend the event”, according to local Koko 5 news. Windsor Hills Baptist apparently has a history of worshipping God through firepower, and last year ran a shooting competition as part of its annual shindig. This year, it reportedly shelled out $800 for said trophy semi, but the church’s youth pastor, Bob Ross, claimed the main thrust of the conference wasn’t about guns but rather “teens finding faith”. He stressed that the event featured 21 hours of preaching between bursts of gunfire, and defended: “I don’t want people thinking ‘My goodness, we’re putting a weapon in the hand of somebody that doesn’t respect it who are then going to go out and kill. That’s not at all what we’re trying to do.” - the register

Atheist soldier sues Army for ‘unconstitutional’ discrimination

Like many Christians, he said grace before dinner and read the Bible before bed. Four years ago when he was deployed to Iraq, he packed his Bible so he would feel closer to God. He served two tours of duty in Iraq and has a near perfect record. But somewhere between the tours, something changed. Hall, now 23, said he no longer believes in God, fate, luck or anything supernatural.

Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist.

His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety. .. He also said he missed out on promotions because he is an atheist.

“I was told because I can’t put my personal beliefs aside and pray with troops I wouldn’t make a good leader,” Hall said….- cnn

Atheist Comedian Goofing on Religion

This is my friend KLJ, of “Why Lie I Need a Drink” fame, with some stand up comedy. I’m not posting this because I know him. In fact, I was preparing to just watch this and let it go… but the wheel of Samsara joke gave me a genuine laugh … and I really needed that tonight. Hope some of you like it too.

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Court: Exorcism is protected by law

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday threw out a jury award over injuries a 17-year-old girl suffered in an exorcism conducted by members of her old church, ruling that the case unconstitutionally entangled the court in religious matters.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices found that a lower court erred when it said the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God’s First Amendment rights regarding freedom of religion did not prevent the church from being held liable for mental distress triggered by a “hyper-spiritualistic environment.”

Laura Schubert testified in 2002 that she was cut and bruised and later experienced hallucinations after the church members’ actions in 1996, when she was 17. Schubert said she was pinned to the floor for hours and received carpet burns during the exorcism, the Austin American-Statesman reported. She also said the incident led her to mutilate herself and attempt suicide. She eventually sought psychiatric help.

Story continues on msnbc

Dumb. What if a particular type of exorcism involves taking money from a bank? Is that still protected?

Michelangelo ‘hid secret code in Sistine Chapel’

Michelangelo hid a secret code in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel made up of mystical Jewish symbols and insults aimed at the pope, according to a new book.

The Sistine Chapel was intended to be decoded, the authors believe

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which the renaissance artist worked on for four years in the early 16th century, is actually a “bridge” between the Roman Catholic Church and the Jewish faith, according to The Sistine Secrets: Unlocking the Codes in Michelangelo’s Defiant Masterpiece. - weirdpost

Cave where ‘70 beloved by God worshipped while Christ was alive’ is found

Jordan archaeologists have unearthed what could be the world’s oldest church dating back 2,000 years.

Resembling scenes out of an Indiana Jones movie, scientists explored the  underground cavern and discovered a cave underneath the church which they believe it is an even more ancient site of Christian worship than the church site above it.

Archaeologist Abdel-Qader Hussein, head of the Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies, Abdul Qader al-Husan told The Jordan Times:’We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD.

Jesus was an ultra-orthodox Jew as were all his disciples and followers. All members of the early “church” thought themselves wholly as Jews and were identified as such by others. The Christian religion was a much later development. If this cave dates from the period immediately after Jesus’ death, far from being a church it is actually a place of Jewish worship and thus a synagogue, though none of this is likely to cut much ice with those who would like to rewrite history and Jews out of it all together.

- Mike, Jerusalem, Israel, 11/6/2008 06:36

Hovind Debate v. Callahan (theistic evolution): Aliens

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This is an amusing mixture of weirdness. I found the end interesting. A religious friend of mine also does not believe in evolution. The basic argument is this: I’ve never seen one species become another species, therefore, such a thing does not exist.

The correct scientific answer is: Many things exist that you have never seen. My underpants, for example.

The longer version:
- Many things exist now which took millions of years to form, the grand canyon, for example. (6 to 17 million years or more)

- The fossil record is sparse because the conditions to make fossils rarely occur. Most bones vanish completely. Still, we do have an amazing fossil record which shows transitional species. Check out the extinct mammal-like reptiles, for example. More reptile to mammal transitional species here.

- The vast majority of species which have existed on the Earth are now extinct.

- Scientists have seen new species occur.

- The Earth, according to the geologic record is 4.54 billion years old.

- For eight hundred million years, nothing happened.

- Fossils shows that life started simply 3.65 billion years ago and got more complex with time. (Most likely, a comet brought organic material … seeds from outer space. See panspermia.)

- Three and a half billion years is an INCREDIBLY long time. You can’t even begin to grasp how long a MILLION years is. We are talking about a million years … three thousand six hundred times.

- It has only been 200,000 years since humans started looking like they do today.

- The transitions of life are thus: simple cells, complex cells, multi cellular life, simple animals,  arthropods (ancestors of insects, arachnids and crustaceans), complex animals (Cambrian explosion), fish and proto-amphibians, land plants, insects and seeds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds,  flowers,  dinosaurs died out, various human species.

I was bored, so I found the Ark of the Covenant using Google.

The biblical Ark of the Covenant mysteriously disappeared from Jerusalem sometime before Christ. However, Ethiopians and some western theorists say they know exactly where it is: enshrined in a chapel in Axum, Ethiopia.

History

The Ark of the Covenant was a great shrine that contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments that were received from God by Moses on Sinai. According to the Old Testament, the Ark was made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. It measured 1.15 m long, 0.7 m wide and 0.7 m high and was carried by two long bars, also made of gold-plated acacia wood. The Ark was guarded by cherubims that “spread forth their two wings over of the place of the ark” (I Kings 8:7).

According to the Old Testament, the Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant with them wherever they went, and it contained great divine power that proved fatal to many. When the Temple of Jerusalem was built, the Ark was enshrined there in the Holy of Holies and only seen by the High Priest.

At some point, the Ark disappeared from Jerusalem. The mystery of what became of such an important and sacred artifact continues to fascinate archaeologists, historians and believers alike. There are no shortage of theories as to its fate and current location, which include a Jerusalem tunnel and the top of Mt. Nebo in Jordan.

To Ethiopian Christians and Jews, the location of the Ark of the Covenant is no mystery. According to the Ethiopian royal chronicles, the Ark left Jerusalem much earlier than generally thought — in the days of King Solomon — and went to Ethiopia by the hand of Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. (The Old Testament tells of a meeting between the monarchs (1 Kings 10), but not a marriage or Prince Menelik.)

The Ark was then kept safe in Ethiopia over the millenia, carefully hidden during wars, and today it is enshrined in a special treasury next to the Church of St. Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia.

This theory was popularized outside of Ethiopia through a 1990s book by British journalist Graham Hancock entitled The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. Hancock argues that after the Ark was brought to Ethiopia by Menelik, it was kept there for 800 years by a Judaic cult. Then it was seized by the Knights Templar, who thought that it was the Holy Grail. The Knights converted the Jews, who then kept the Ark in a great church.

Several other researches have explored the possibility that the Lost Ark is in Ethiopia, reaching various conclusions. In The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant, Stuart Munro-Hay argues that Axum’s shrine contains a stone altar that was probably produced long ago as a replica of Moses’ stone tablets.

Munro-Hay’s theory is a variation of what seems to be the most common consensus of scholars: there is something old and sacred enshrined at Axum, but it is probably not the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant was long enshrined in the Church of St. Mary of Zion at Axum, and constructed specially for the purpose by Emperor Haile Selassie in the early 1960s

What to See

The Ark of the Covenant at Axum cannot be seen by anyone but the High Priest of Axum, an elderly and especially holy monk who is charged with its care and preservation for life. He cannot leave the small yard that surrounds the chapel, and he is expected to name his successor on his deathbed. The present custodian with this privilege and burden is named Abba Tesfa Mariam.

The authors of the abovementioned books on the Lost Ark were unsuccessful in their attempts to gain access to the relic. In fact, not even the Ethiopian president is allowed to see it. The Ark used to be taken out on a procession once a year, but due to the recent war and tensions in the area, it remains locked in its shrine full-time.

One recent British explorer was told that these restrictions are for his own safety, for “if I approached the Ark I would be punished - the theory is that would become invisible and unleash upon me its terrible power - I would be killed outright, probably incinerated.” He was told that even seeing one of the blessed replicas placed in all Ethiopian churches could have this effect. [1]

What visitors can see is the building in which the Ark is kept. Referred to as a relic chapel or the Treasury, it also contains the cathedral’s treasures such as the crowns of Ethiopian kings and silver processional crosses. The other treasures are regularly brought out and displayed for visitors, but no one is allowed inside the building.

Quick Facts

The Treasury containing the Ark of the Covenant is located right next to the old St. Mary of Zion Church in Axum, Ethiopia. It can be viewed from a fairly close distance at any reasonable hour of the day, but the inside is not open to visitors. - sd

Is it radioactive?