Dr. Maier dissects and dispels Dan Brown's 'facts' in a chapter entitled 'The Da Vinci Deception.' For instance, Brown asserts,"Why is The Passion excoriated and The Da Vinci Code extolled? Why are Gibson’s motives denounced and Brown’s dignified? Why is Christ’s passion referred to as a “repulsive, masochistic fantasy” and his supposed marriage to MaryMagdalene touted as a researched material fact? The answer may surprise you.
It is not just that in our increasingly secularist culture it has become politically correct to cast aspersions on Christ and the church he founded. It is because of a great reversal of values. Fiction—such as the notion that Christianity was concocted to subjugate women—is being cleverly peddled as fact, while fact—such as the deity of Christ—is being capriciously passed off as fiction.
Nearly all of Brown’s assertions in The Da Vinci Code are based on several statements he presents on page 1 under the heading of “FACT”— before the novel even begins..."
“The Bible . . . has evolved through count-less translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book” (231).If you want more, you'll have to buy the book.
To say that the Bible has “evolved” implies a progression of constant change, as in the
term evolution. This is totally misleading. The only “changes” to the Bible that have taken place across the centuries have been an ever-more-faithful rendering and translation of the original Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament, without any additions to the text.
Part 2 will discuss this matter in further detail. “More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion” (231).
Brown’s statement implies that there was a general submission of gospels to some sort of earlychurch panel that reduced the field to the familiar four. This was not at all the case. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were foundation documents in what later came to be called the New Testament. Eusebius, the first church historian, tells how theywere the core of the canon from the start, and how their authoritywas determined on the basis of usage in such early Christian centers as Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. He also clearly identifies some of the later spurious writings, including the Gnostic gospels, that the church rejected as soon as they surfaced. Today they are known as the “New Testament apocrypha.”
Brown must have had this group in mind with his “eighty,” which is an exaggerated figure in anycase. Speaking of exaggeration, Brown outdoes himself in the following:...
"In an official complaint filed with the GAO, a watchdog agency, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus accuses Obama of "passing off campaign travel as official events," using taxpayer money to fund his reelection efforts.
"Given the recent excesses, waste and abuse uncovered in the General Services Administration, the GAO should be particularly sensitive to misuse of taxpayer dollars," Preibus wrote in a letter to Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro.
Priebus said "the most recent example" of abuse took place this week as Obama traveled to North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa, three battleground states to promote student loan legislation. The RNC chairman points out that Obama delivered speeches to "cheering crowds of college students" which resembled campaign events."The White House responded to the accusation with "Nanna-nanna, boo-boo."
"In 1952, at the invitation of Sinatra, they also played the newly integrated Copacabana. In 1954, Davis signed to Decca, topping the charts with his debut LP, Starring Sammy Davis Jr. That same year he lost his left eye in a much-publicized auto accident, but upon returning to the stage in early 1955 was greeted with even greater enthusiasm than before on the strength of a series of hit singles including "Something's Gotta Give," "Love Me or Leave Me," and "That Old Black Magic."
A year later, Davis made his Broadway debut in the musical +Mr. Wonderful, starring in the show for over 400 performances and launching a hit with the song "Too Close for Comfort."For this, and more, original hits from the 40's, 50's, and 60's, tune into John Christopher's streaming 24/7 musical extravaganza "The Neon Beat" by clicking here, or click the icon on the side of this page.
"The Justice Department argues that the tests have "disparate impact" on black firefighters because those firefighters get significantly lower scores than white firefighters...and therefore, the results can only be explained by racism, and such testing needs to be stopped immediately.
Based on this logic, we assume that Mr. Holder will also be filing suit against the SAT testing service, since Asians tend to score better than other ethnic groups...and therefore that test must be racist."Civil Writes Protest.
"You know Marx had a theory. So did Engels. So did Stalin. That theory - that people would work as hard for a collective as they would for themselves - ended up killing about 50 million people in forced starvations, executions, purges and labor gulags.
Mao had a theory, more or less the same thing, that probably killed another 50 million or so, sacrificed to that same blood thirsty god.
Economist Paul Krugman has a theory that says essentially if the govt. is spending so much money, that the non-partisan congressional budget office predicts that there will no longer be a U.S. economy by 2027, the solution to this problem is to spend more money! He believes - and Pelosi, and Obama, and Reid believe - that the reason we have not seen any prosperity from this obviously insane theory is because, as with the apologist for communism, we just didn't do enough of it. It's madness. They don't care.
Their emotional need for this theory to be true trumps everything else."
"LANSDOWNE, Va., April 21, 2012— Evangelical Christianity lost one of its most eloquent and influential voices today with the death of Charles W. “Chuck” Colson. The Prison Fellowship and Colson Center for Christian Worldview founder died at 3:12 p.m. on Saturday from complications resulting from a brain hemorrhage. Colson was 80.
A Watergate figure who emerged from the country’s worst political scandal, a vocal Christian leader and a champion for prison ministry, Colson spent the last years of his life in the dual role of leading Prison Fellowship, the world’s largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families, and the Colson Center, a teaching and training center focused on Christian worldview thought and application."Mr. Colson had undergone surgery in March to remove a blood clot and was recuperating when his health took a turn for the worse. The official cause of death was complications resulting from a brain hemorrhage.
“He transferred his huge drive, intellect and maniacal energy from the service of Richard Nixon to the service of Jesus Christ,” said his biographer, Jonathan Aitken, a former British government minister who endured a similar journey of political disgrace and personal redemption following a 1999 conviction for perjury."Of the many books by Chuck Colson, I was most impacted by 'The Good Life', co-written with Harold Fickett and published in 2005. No matter your opinion of Colson, I highly recommend this book. It is apologetics at its finest. Colson and Fickett utilize anecdotes and 'kitchen table' language, bolstered by Scripture, as an insight into the universal Truth of Christian theology and its application for successful Christian life.
“One of the most wonderful things about being a Christian is that I don’t ever get up in the morning and wonder if what I do matters. I live every day to the fullest because I can live it through Christ and I know no matter what I do today, I’m going to do something to advance the Kingdom of God.”- Charles Colson (1931- 2012)Semper fidelis. God bless you, Sir. Rest in Peace.
"President Obama declared today's 41st annual Earth Day proof of America's ecological and conservation spirit—then completed a three-day campaign-style trip logging 10,666 miles on Air Force One, eating up some 53,300 gallons at a cost of about $180,000. And that doesn't include the fuel consumption of his helicopter, limo, or the 29 other vehicles that travel with that car."And let's not forget this lil tone deaf gem from last month: Obama Flies Personal Trainer from Chicago to White House.
"I heard a cute little story, growing up in India. It is the story of a little boy who had lots of pretty marbles. But he was constantly eyeing his sister's bagful of candy. One day he said to her, "If you give me all your candy, I'll give you all of my marbles." She gave it much thought, and agreed to the trade. He took all her candy and went back to his room to get his marbles. But the more he admired them the more reluctant he became to give them all up. So he hid the best of them under his pillow and took the rest to her. That night, she slept soundly, while he tossed and turned restlessly, unable to sleep and thinking, "I wonder if she gave me all the candy?"
I have often wondered, when I see our angry culture claiming that God has not given us enough evidence, if it is not the veiled restlessness of lives that live in doubt because of their own duplicity. The battle in our time is posed as one of the intellect, in the assertion that truth is unknowable. But that may be only a veneer for the real battle, that of the heart."
"Olympic’s most notable achievement during the war was the ramming and sinking of of the German submarine U-103 on May 12, 1918. Olympic was the only merchant ship to sink an enemy warship during the war. Korvettenkapitän Claus Rücker, commander of the 9-month old U-103, had unsuccessfully fired two torpedo's at Olympic just missing her port bow. In what some historians consider a foolish maneuver, Olympic turned around and rammed the u-boat sinking her and killing the crew. It is believed that Olympic could have easily outrun the u-boat on a zigzag course and not have risked the lives of the thousands on board.The Olympic was decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1935 for about $500,000. Her luxurious fittings were removed and sold. Many of these items can be found today in various hotels, pubs and restaurants around the world.
Refitted and converted to oil fuel, Olympic returned to service in July of 1920, . With Britannic's sinking during the war, Olympic became the last remaining ship of the original Olympic Class trio of liners envisioned by WSL chairman Bruce Ismay. She was a favorite among the passengers in her own right as well as for the fact that she was about identical in appearance to lost sister Titanic. Interestingly, Olympic was the first White Star liner to sell out passage booking after Titanic sank, until Majestic ( "The Magic Stick") came along."
B.J. Thomas - Hooked on a Feeling (1969)
Billy Joe Thomas achieved success in both the pop/rock and country genre during 1960s & '70s.
As a child, Thomas sang in church. In his teen years, he joined a Houston-based band called the 'Triumphs', which achieved only local recognition, and no record contracts.
Thomas began his solo career in 1966 by recording a version of Hank Williams' standard "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." It reached number 8 on the pop charts. It wasn't until two years later that Thomas hit the big time once again when "Hooked on a Feeling" was released and became a number-five, gold single.
Then in 1969, he scored his biggest hit with Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," from the hit film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
From the succinct and erudite Larry Elder:
"Students are immersed in an education that emphasizes the wrongs done to minorities, women, gays and other groups. Gender, ethnic, religious and sexual orientation grievances are highlighted as representative of an imperial, racist, exploitative capitalist superpower that continues to engage in widespread racism, sexism, homophobia and worldwide domination.And from these ivory sewers of indoctrination crawl the ilk of Occupy Wall Street, et al. Partially subsidized by your tax dollars, of course.
"We wuz wronged" takes center stage over a basic understanding of economics, of the concept of federalism, and of the values that turned a struggling bunch of colonies into a political and economic superpower. Indeed, the very mission statements of many departments on UC campuses stress their commitment to activism for enacting social change, or to bring about social or racial or fill-in-the-blank justice."
“We trust you to decide about your sexuality, having your children, and planning your family,” says a flier promoting the Humbolt County Clergy for Choice event. “We are religious leaders who value all human life. We accept that religions differ about when life begins. We are here to help.”
“We believe that human life is holy. That’s why we believe in your right to choose to be a parent or not,” the pro-abortion religious leaders continue..."Got that? "Religious leaders." Probably 'molech.'
I stole this image from the Perfessor at L.I.
"I write this essay with a heavy heart. I’ve always considered myself an ardent advocate for education. But a recent rally staged by teachers and students in favor of school funding forced me to reluctantly acknowledge an awful truth: We have to destroy education in order to save it.
Let me explain how I came to this miserable conclusion..."
“You know what man? I am going to literally — if she gets elected president, I am going to hang out on the grassy knoll all the time, just loaded and ready — because you know what? It’s for my country."Obviously, another moron who couldn't read the 'new civility' memo.
"The panel will be responsible for providing recommendations to the president on investment in rural areas, as well as coordinating with a variety of rural interests, including agricultural groups, small businesses, and state, local and tribal governments.I guess Pres. Obama never heard about the United States Dept. of Agriculture, or it's plethora of sub-divisions including, but not limited to, the USDA's own 115 billion dollar Rural Development agency, or the USDA's Farm Service Agency, which already have legions of bureaucrats on the ground addressing all the president's concerns.
It will focus on 10 areas that affect nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population of 308 million. But the panel's initial focus will be on job creation and economic development.
Rural residents are eager for better educational opportunities, transportation alternatives, better access to health care and reliable access to the Internet, among other issues.
The remaining subject areas will be: agriculture, access to credit, innovation, health care, education, Internet access, infrastructure, conservation and developing regional economies."
"The Cleaver Company failed and refused, and continues to fail and refuse, to pay the outstanding obligations due and owing ... under the note and other loan documents," the lawsuit said.But, wait! There's more: Taxpayers could have to cover Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s bad loan.
In an email statement, Cleaver said, "This is a business dispute. The business has been run by an outside manager for years." He said because it was a legal matter, he would have no further comment.
According to court documents, the outstanding principal totals $1.2 million with interest totaling $240,545 as of March 6. Late fees have reached $54,587. Both Cleavers had personally guaranteed the debts, according to the suit."
"However, it isn’t clear how much a sale of the car wash would bring. Jackson County tax records show the land and improvements were appraised at $462,541 in 2011, roughly 8 percent less than five years ago, and far short of the $1.5 million the lawsuit claims that Cleaver owes in principal, interest, and penalties.Poor guy. We silly tax payers can only afford to pay this indolent politico $174,000/yr to misrepresent the 5th district in Congress, plus a $20K/yr kc mayor's pension.
It also isn’t known how much additional revenue the business itself might bring in a sale.
But in his May 2011 financial disclosure, Cleaver valued the car wash between $100,000 and $250,000. He valued all of his and his wife’s investment assets between $513,000 and $1.295 million."
"Carbon nanotubes are thin sheets of carbon rolled up into teensy tubes each with a diameter about 30,000 times smaller than a strand of hair.Sounds promising, in geek sorta way. Kinda like storing solar electricity via massive liquid metal batteries - which operate at 700 degrees Celsius!
When carbon — one of the most abundant elements on Earth — is rolled up into tubes, it exhibits some extraordinary properties such as high heat conduction, which the team exploited in the new study.
A carbon firecracker
The researchers coated the nanotubes with a fuel, such as gasoline or ethanol, and applied heat to one end. The result: The fuel reacts and produces more heat, which ignites more fuel to create even more heat.
The process creates “a wave that travels like dominoes falling in a line [down the length of the nanotube],” said study team member Michael Strano, a chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The resulting heat wave, it turns out, also creates a wave of electrons moving in one direction — aka electricity.
“The thermal wave squeezes electrons out of the nanotubes like a tube of toothpaste,” Strano explained.
The devices built in the MIT lab produced 10 times more power than a lithium-ion battery of equivalent mass."
"RALEIGH, NC—A coalition of geologists are challenging the way we look at global stone reserves, claiming that, unless smarter methods of preservation are developed, mankind will eventually run out of rocks.Sounds fishy. Didn't this guy make cars or something?
"If we do not stop using them up at our current rate, rocks as we know them will be a thing of the past," renowned geologist Henry Kaiser said at a press conference Tuesday. "Igneous, metamorphic, even sedimentary: all of them could be gone in as little as 500,000 years."
"Think about it," Kaiser added. "When was the last time you even saw a boulder?"
"James Hannam is the author of “The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution,” set to be officially released Monday."Finally, some real science and history - not usual revisionist progressive pap taught at university.
"But many university administrators have other priorities. The University of California system has been raising tuitions and cutting departments. But, reports John Leo in the invaluable Minding the Campus blog, its San Diego campus found the money to create a new post of "vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion."In short, these students are forced to pay for the privilege of prostrating themselves before the left turn only, demi-gods of Relativism and PC, but graduate these alters of indoctrination only slightly more possessed with practical 21st knowledge than the average fence post.
That's in addition to what the Manhattan Institute's Heather Mac Donald calls its "already massive diversity apparatus." It takes Mac Donald 103 words just to list the titles of UCSD's diversitycrats.
The money for the new vice chancellorship could have supported two of the three cancer researchers that the campus lost to Rice University in Houston, a private school that apparently takes the strange view that hard science is more important than diversity facilitators.
This doesn't just happen on the Left Coast. The University of North Carolina at Wilmington saved some money by lumping together two science departments and raised spending on its five diversity-multicultural offices.
But, to quote George W. Bush, is our students learning? Not very much, concludes the California Association of Scholars in its 87-page study of the University of California system."
“I believe in God the Father Almighty. And in Jesus Christ His only (begotten) Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary; crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried; the third day He rose from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father, from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost; the holy Church; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and life everlasting.”
