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POPSTablet ignites debate on messiah and resurrection "This should shake our basic view of Christianity," he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. "Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story."
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POPS How modern evangelicals are ignoring their own history Today's Christian conservatives often note that Jefferson's famous line declaring that the first amendment had created “a wall separating church and state” was not in the Constitution but in a private letter. But in that letter, Jefferson was responding to one sent to him by a group of Baptists in Danbury, Conn. We usually read Jefferson's side of that exchange. It's worth re-reading what the Danbury Baptists had to say because it reminds us that for the 18th-century evangelicals, the separation of church and state was not only required by the practicalities of their minority status, but was also demanded by God. “Religions is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals,” the Baptists wrote, warning that government “dare not assume the prerogatives of Jehova and make Laws to govern the Kingdom of Christ.” Government had no business meddling in the affairs of the soul, where there is only one Ruler.
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POPS"paintings are talking you, beyond word" ...Buddhist art... "The Buddha did not initiate the creation of sacred images. Once he said to a disciple, who wanted to see him before dying: «Oh, Vakkhali, why do you want to see this body, composed of unclear substances? He who perceives Dharma, Vakkhali, perceives me. He who perceives me perceives Dharma». Thus, as far as we know, there was no worship of the Buddha’s image in the early Buddhist community after his Parinirvāṇa.
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POPSBUSH Best at American tradition: TORTURING since 1946 at least
What is unique is Bush making torture official government policy! What he said may never have in reality had any effect on how others treated captured Americans. BUT, now they have an excuse to justify their behaviour. In time his words may cause a large loss of US soldiers' lives. It was one thing to be torturing but very much different to make it US policy. This a clever man, at least in slippery sly way, behind the moronic appearance and demeanour and the consequences of his words should/would be known in advance of his flawed delivery. He has insured that there never will be American hostages, just dead ones, tortured for fun. This may have been the whole point. His job will be even easier now. No crying family member seeking their loved one's return. They are dead. Cindy Sheehan said he was a cold fish, deadly cold. He doesn't do funerals either. The president of DEATH doesn't do dead. Nor did he serve, unless holding up a bar counts. Some commander-in-chief. 'Elect' TWI
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POPSFour Facts About Fungi From about 4,400 species of fungi found in Europe, one third are close to extinction. The causes: contamination and overexploitation. In the western world, over 20% of the people have a fungus infection called Athlete's Foot
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POPSSaudi woman wants a divorce because her husband tried to sneek a look at her face
"She said her husband apologised and promised never to do it again, but she insisted she wanted a divorce. It is not the first example of Saudi husbands with wives forever shrouded in mystery. There was the case of Ali al-Qahtani whose wife had been wearing a face veil for the entire ten years of their marriage. When he tried to take it off she threatened to leave and only decided to stay after he swore never to try again. And neither the husband or children of Om Rabea al-Gahdaray, 70, have ever seen her face. It was a family tradition, also followed by her mother and sisters, which her husband accepted and never tried to change, she said. When asked how she could have children without her husband ever seeing her face, she replied: "Marriage is about love, not faces." I never knew that some Moslem women hid their faces from their own husbands (and children), I thought it was only in public that they they were covered. I learn something every day.
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POPSNew Mexico: Land of Enchantment , Clean Energy State. Although 25 states have approved their own RPS, a national standard has stalled in the face of resistance from traditional coal-powered utilities and their allies in Congress. Wind and biomass are popular in New Mexico, but the desert sun that draws millions of tourists here also makes its solar power potential the second largest in America. So it is that the Clean Energy State's future just may lie in the south corner of the capital city, at the end of a dry road marked by a mile-long sculpture of a snake with jewelled eyes. ... Guardian