Analyzing Jesus: Was he really the Jewish Messiah?

Analyzing Jesus
Part Two: Was he really the Jewish Messiah?

In Part One of this series, we analyzed Jesus as a historical figure in history. The second part of this series is to address if Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, but in order to do that, we need to understand what Messianic Prophecies are. Scholars (Jewish and Christian) believe that the Bible (Old Testament) contains over 300 predictions about the Jewish Messiah. These predictions do not come from one source, but are from multiple authors in a variety of books ranging about 1,000 years. In other words, what we have here is an enormous “library” of statements made about the Jewish Messiah (what he will be like, what he will do, and so on).

Bush is “secretly” planning to engage US forces in yet another war

By Robert D. Novak
Monday, July 30, 2007; Page A15
Washington Post

The morass in Iraq and deepening difficulties in Afghanistan have not deterred the Bush administration from taking on a dangerous and questionable new secret operation. High-level U.S. officials are working with their Turkish counterparts on a joint military operation to suppress Kurdish guerrillas and capture their leaders. Through covert activity, their goal is to forestall Turkey from invading Iraq.

Analyzing Jesus: The Historical Figure

Analyzing Jesus
Part One: The Historical Figure 

It’s about that time again. Time for me to start up a new series regarding religion/faith/Christianity. I can already tell that this series will be a long one, so get ready for the long haul. I will address Jesus on a variety of different fronts, trying my best to be objective (like a lawyer). Granted, I cannot completely rid myself of my preconceived biases, but I hope that you can, at the very least, respect my investigative reasoning.

17 Christians Convicted in Indonesia For Beheading Muslims

Well this is a sad story indeed. Apparently some people feel that revenge is a value of Christianity. I am saddened to see such barbaric behavior. Click the ‘read more’ link for the full article.

“[They] beheaded two Muslims to avenge the government executions of three Christians in Indonesia.” “The revenge killings were the bloodiest incident in several days of protests…” read more

Marijuana, Pot, Weed…

 Call it what you want, but it is likely that the U.S. government will start a stronger campaign against marijuana use in this country.  For years, marijuana advocates have preached that smoking pot is a benign drug, claiming that there are no true negative side-effects (and therefore should be legal).  I can recall plenty of times when someone I knew would get on their soapbox about how ”smoking pot is safe compared to cigarrettes, blah, blah, blah”.

Well not anymore.

a Letter to Atheists

The internet has opened a whole slew of avenues to obtain information, meet new people, and read up on different ideas. Until recently though (roughly about the time I started this blog) I had never had constant contact with individuals from the atheist community. Wow have things changed. Today I read (daily) atheist commentaries and I even contribute on a very popular atheist blog (as the Christian Contributor of course).

Worshipping the Flying Spaghetti Monster

 This post contains the best theist response I have found in regards to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.  In short, it analyzes the faults with the “theology” behind the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) and similiar Atheist creations by exposing the theological and philisophical flaws.  Props to Phillip for the post (you can also read it at his blog, Agkyra).

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How is belief in the God of the Bible different than belief in the Flying Spaghetti Monster god or Invisible Pink Unicorn goddess?

The FSM and IPU are, according to Wikipedia, the deities in two parody religions intended to help us theists realize how fatuous our beliefs seem to atheists.

the White House on Trial – Bush Impeachment imminent

Came across this today, thought some of you may find it interesting…

“President George W. Bush impeachment is going to happen, there is just no way around it. The next President can’t inherit powers that Bush has assumed, it could be disastrous for our country. The natives are restless, impeach him and move on to bigger and better things…”
[Click on "Read More" for full article.]

read more

Is America ready for a Black Man or White Woman?

 I was listening to one of my favorite radio talk shows this morning and the host posed an interesting question: is America ready for a black man or white woman president? The question was followed by a variety of callers that voiced their opinions, some were valid points, while others were an example of ignorance.

In the end, the overall consensus is “yes”, America is ready. I mean, the very fact that these two individuals alone have raised tens of millions of dollars should be a pretty clear indicator…but I would contend that it is not because we have “progressed” beyond all racial and sexist barriers, but because the desire for a change is so great that anything new and different is simply refreshing.

I could go on and on about why Bush is a horrible president…but people just get tired of the same old banter about the man (a man who I voted for in 2004). Instead let’s just skip that part and understand that Bush is, in a word, a pretty crappy president (the worst?).

America is ready for a refreshing change as it seems quite apparent being a “maverick” in today’s society is a pretty stupid path to choose. Nonetheless, I think the public is fooling themselves if they think the next president will just make everything fine and dandy. Consider that the majority of the country wants to get out of Iraq yet our legislators can’t make it happen (despite democrats having the majority).

In fact, I will argue that it will take at least one term for the next president to begin turning around the American perception in this world, whether he or she is a democrat or republican.

I am looking forward to the next election because it is quite clear that America is ready for a change, be it black, white, yellow, purple, male, female, democrat, republican, or independent.

(picture from cnn.com)

a Christian on the Sidelines

Below is a post that I did for an atheist website I contribute for… enjoy.
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Christian Commentary 

Well I have a bit of a confession to make to this website…I have been struggling as of late as to what to contribute (especially since traffic has exploded the past couple weeks). During my time on the sidelines, I have enjoyed reading the various posts and people’s reactions to them. I admit that I have not jumped in as frequently as I once did due to an upcoming move I am preparing for.

It was during my time on the outskirts of this forum that I began to ponder the (for lack of a more sensitive term) “point” of atheist websites such as de-conversion. Now this is not meant to be an insult, but maybe more of a sociological question and hypothesis. To do a comprehensive study on the posts of this blog would take a substantial amount of time. However, in my informal examination, I came a few conclusions.

Agnostic and Atheist contributors/commentors usually come from one of two backgrounds (I apologize for the dichotomy, but the simpler the better). In one camp, there are the individuals who lost their faith because of resentment towards Church establishments. These individuals could not deal with the hypocrisy of their particular religious institution and began to turn away from their faith – and who could blame them? The unfortunate corruption of scripture (through the travesty of strict literalism) has put a big black spot on “religion”. Not too long ago, a post was done on this blog that criticized people for saying they were “spiritual”, not “religious”. I think that this distinction has to made given the nature of “religion” today (particularly by the 20th century Christian fundamentalist movement.) In the effort to avoid digressing too far, I will just say that separating spirituality from religion coincides with Jesus’ irreligion purpose:

“…How terrible it will be for you experts of religious law! For you crush people beneath impossible religious demands and you never lift a finger to ease the burden.” (Luke 11:46)

“How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest part of your income, but you ignore the important things of the law – justice, mercy and faith…” (Matthew 23:23)

It is clear that many Agnostic/Atheists walked away from Christianity (or whatever religion) because they were tainted by the hypocrites, and were burdened with “impossible religious demands” (perhaps aA falls into this category as I recall him once saying how free and clear his conscience felt once he renounced his faith). Sadly, religious fundamentalists tend to avoid the “important things of the law- justice, mercy, and faith”. Agnostic/Atheists in this group are often angry, and their writing/comments reflect their displeasure with corruption.

The second camp of agnostic/atheists are usually individuals who feel that it does not make sense logically, scientifically, etc. for the events that are recorded in say, the Bible, to have occurred. Posts by these contributors tend to create interesting “online debates” in the comments section. Naturally though, there is a distinct flaw within having such “debates” because, in most cases, definitions are improperly defined and there are too many assumptions made on both sides. In other words, the paradigms of the individuals are holding back any real progress in regards to Atheists and Theists. The Agnostic/Atheist is attempting to explain religion through empirical methods while Theists attempt the same by using theology. The mixing of these concepts into the other field is a clear injustice to both disciplines.

If you can recall, the purpose of this post was to try to figure out the point of such forums like this one… it is quite apparent that the main goal is to provide a haven for like-minded (and sometimes “unlike”-minded) individuals to have a community to fall back on…hm, kind of sounds like a Church . In other words, everyone wants to know others who believe the same. Yet what is it that Atheists and Agnostics believe? If the “De-Conversion Wager” on the side menu bar is an indicator of anything, then it appears that perhaps Atheists and Theists are not that different. Beyond the corruption, close-mindedness, and ignorance of both the religious and a-religious camps lies a similar desire. Boiled down, it looks as if the only difference that remains is determining where that “desire” comes from…and frankly, it doesn’t matter, because Atheists and Theists alike still have not fully embraced the concepts of love, mercy, compassion, and tolerance.