But the names associated with it included A. Schweitzer.
Worth reading.
That the Bible was concocted is a fact, that it was compiled by Emperor Constantine to suit his political ambition is true.
As to Christ, I doubt he existed,
Please read my post on this.
Dead Christ supported_by the madonna and saint John pieta
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Even those who deny that Jesus existed – and I am one of them – must agree that whether the gospels are true or not they don’t give us any confidence in the sanity of Jesus Christ. Even if Jesus didn’t exist the gospels could have been based on stories about eccentrics and fairly obscure prophets of the time who did exist.
If we can prove that the Jesus Christ in them was mad then that is all we need to destroy Christianity. It would mean that the apostles he chose and the Church he founded were all very silly people indeed. It would mean that we have to be on guard against any other religious movement because if Christianity was founded on the ravings of a madman and was such a success any other religion could have been the same.
We can be sure that there is no evidence for Jesus’ sanity and plenty of evidence against it.
You will see plenty of Christian books written in defence of the faith that deny that Jesus was mentally ill and claim that he was the sanest person that ever lived.
It is possible that Jesus was a manic-depressive. He said he was the light of the world (John 9:5) and the only way to God (John 14:6) and the unique Son of God (John 17). That is the sign of severe mania. He was unnaturally full of himself. Even if it were true, we would expect him to let others say he was this great being instead of him trying to convince him. If he really had the power to influence people through using the Holy Spirit he did not need to make such declarations.”
The following information is worth thinking about as it throws quite a few questions about Bible and Jesus.
‘This study was published in Dutch as: Jezus de Messias. Was het christendom een vergissing ? Antwerpen, EPO, and as:Toen God sliep schreef de mens de Bijbel. De bijbel belicht door een psycholoog. Antwerpen, Facet.
Summary.
This psychopathological study of the Gospel resulted in a revolutionary view on the personality of Jesus and his life, the sources of his spirituality and ideas. The hypothesis of paraphreny was able to explain a number of otherwise unexplained events. Did Jesus survive the crucifixion ? Is the Apocalypse the first Christian document, earlier than the letters of Paul ? Was the resurrection a myth? These questions find an answer in this study.
About 1910 three competent psychiatrists: Ch. Binet-Sangle, G.L.De Loosten (G. Lomer) and W. Hirsch concluded after thorough examination of the texts, that Jesus was mentally ill and suffered from paranoia. They were criticised by A. Schweitzer who alleged that from an historical point of view most texts were dubious or certainly not historic, e.g. the quotations from the Gospel of St. John, and from a medical point of view that the alleged symptoms of paranoia or another mental disease were misunderstood.
Three objections seemed essential: first: there is no certainty about the historical truth of the texts, secondly: what seems to us like a symptom was possibly a normal trait, a cultural feature in that civilisation, thirdly: there are not enough sure elements in order to found on them a safe judgment.
If witnesses describe in a text correctly (according to modern psychopathology) a number of elements (symptoms) and if these symptoms are coherent and can be identified with a known syndrome, while these witnesses ignored completely psychopathology and moreover intended to prove a very different interpretation of the facts (a faulty one), there can be no more doubt about the authenticity of the described facts.
The decision consequently about the historicity of the facts will no more depend upon mere philological criteria, but also upon psychopathological ones. Schweitzer supposes incorrectly, that the philological criteria are the only ones that can decide about historicity; in fact: the psychopathological control is more efficient and safe. So the first objection of Schweitzer is eliminated.
The second objection of Schweitzer, that symptoms may be misunderstood cultural features, is at least superficial. It is very clear that the true pathological nature of the observed symptoms is culture-independent, although they may be coloured by the cultural background. Unadapted and strange behaviour as it is seen by extraneous observers, is on account of this fact itself matched against the own cultural background of the observers, but if this background is identical with the background of the subject no cultural interference exists any more. Therefore it is important to study the reaction of the own cultural milieu of the subject…
In the Gospel of Mark a child is described, possessed by the devil. The features, found in the text, are all coherent with the syndrome of epilepsy and especially with an infantile type: perinatal infection of the ear with inflammatory complications, causing thrombo-phlebitis in the brain with the consequence of epileptic seizures and deaf-muteness. In the text of Mark all symptoms are precisely described: the child is mute, falls in the water and the fire (loss of conscience), utters a cry and is agitated, has foam on his mouth, becomes like dead and after a while is “cured”.
2000 years ago nobody was aware of the true nature of epilepsy and the typical features in young children. (Hippocrates described the epilepsy as a disease, but we can consider that this was largely ignored in Judaea.)
In the Bible numerous texts mention the hearing of voices, especially the voice of God. Current exegesis (Kittel, Theologisches Woerterbuch des Neuen Testaments, s.v. “Phone”) interbreeds these texts as metaphorical: hearing the voice of God is simply the expression for a vocation by God. However in psychopathology “hear a voice” is a current expression for an auditive (sensory) hallucination. Often the voice heard is identified as the voice of God. So the question is, if the voices heard by Jesus ( Baptism, desert, Thabor) were hallucinatory ones as even Schweitzer suggests.
The narrative of the baptism of Jesus shows a text-evolution. In the Gospel: as Mark says that Jesus saw the Heaven opened, Matthew says that the heaven opened and that Jesus saw a bird… Luke lays a heavy accent on the physical appearance of a dove and eliminates any allusion to a vision, John adds the testimony of John the Baptist, the latter saw the ghost… The text-evolution seems to intend to change a subjective vision into an objective happening. Of course Mark has always the most original version: Jesus saw the heaven opened, he saw a bird, he heard a voice. This is the evidence, if one considers the complete narrative of Jesus baptism and his stay in the desert. Psychopathological investigation discovers in Mark, Luke and Matthew, regardless of the fact that especially Luke adapted the original version, a number of well-known symptoms of an hallucinatory state: hearing the voices of God and the devil, seeing wild beasts (zoopsie), having the impression to fly (vestibular hallucination), having visions of the whole world, suffering from anorexia (fasting). In that light the vision of the Baptism also is certainly another manifestation of this hallucinatory state: a well-localised (heavenly) vision, seeing a light (opening of heaven) , of a bird, the hearing of a voice, communicating a grandiose genetic message (you are my beloved son), a voice speaking in the second person as hallucinatory voices often do.
Date Contradcition about the date of birth of Jesus
It is important to see the essential difference between the Gospel of Infancy and the baptism-Thabor episode. Most biblical students see the Gospel of Infancy as a mythical corpus in the New Testament and they mention numerous reasons. First there are the chronological contradictory data. According to Matthew Jesus should be born (between 6 and 4 B.C.) during the reign of the great Herod, who died in 4 B.C.; the census which according to Luke, obliged the parents to travel to Bethlehem, was executed by Quirinius, who according to the precise indications of Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, became procurator of Syria in 7 A.D.., i.e. 11 to 12 years later. Furthermore the beginning of Jesus public life, when he was about thirty years, is situated by Luke (3,1) in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius (1 October 27-30 September 28). According to that indication Jesus should be born in 4-3 B.C . The historians never solved these difficulties.
Secondly: the divergence between Matthew and Luke is striking. For Luke an angel appears to Mary and to Elizabeth. For Matthew each event is predicted in the Old Testament; for Luke the quotations of the O.T. are replaced by occasional prophecies by Hannah and Simeon. For Matthew a star appears, magicians come, there is a flight to Egypt and a killing of innocents by the great Herod. For Luke there are only shepherds, angels and music, the circumcision in the Temple and a simple return to Nazareth. He does not mention Egypt, or the Innocents. In the Protevangelium Jacobi another series of divergent elements can be found. Herod kills Zechariah, while John is sought for; there is no star, no magicians, no prophecies, only the angels and their message to Mary and to Elizabeth.
Thirdly: the only elements, which all witnesses have in common are: 1° the exceptional pregnancy of Mary, 2° the hesitation of Joseph, 3° the birth of Jesus, 4° the exceptional sphere of wonders. Each witness surrounds these historical events with a scenery of marvellous elements of his own…
As has been said, if all symptoms coherently are in accordance with a well-known syndrome, there can be no more doubt about the historical truth of the described facts because it was impossible in Hebrew antiquity to describe accurately and correctly what twenty centuries later became known as a mental disease without having observed it. The fact that can be shown is that in the Gospel an image is found of Jesus, which is entirely coherent with the syndrome of paraphrenia, and that it is quite sure that this was not the intention of the authors of the Gospel. Nothing specifically divine or even superior is noted. Paraphrenia has to be understood as a mental disease sometimes also classified in the category of paranoia and opposed to schizophrenia. In opposition to the schizophrenic the paraphrenic remains adapted to his milieu, has a coherent thinking and a well-organised behaviour. Generally hallucinations are rare, but initiate a delusional state, often with a grandiose genetic theme. The paraphrenic is very sensitive to the opposition against his ideas: he is often full of resentment and hate. This is exactly the image the Gospel has painted of Jesus. If miracles are the only argument for the supposed divinity of Jesus, one must take into account that a number of these are certainly pseudo-miracles (cf. the epileptic child ‘(Mc. 9) or the possessed of Gerasa (Mc. 5)).
Many of the Charities proclaiming to be dedicated for the welfare of the Children and the downtrodden are ,in fact, Christian Organizations with the sole purpose of converting Hindus and non Christians into Christianity.
Advertisement for Charity?World Vision Advertisement
The methods adopted by the Church are:
1.Gifts.
By far the most common means of conversion is by buying the poor. In one tribal village, Missionaries promised the head of each household pair of nylon pants if he converted to Christianity and a motorbike if he converted his whole family. In a matter of a few months, the Missionaries had “spread the gospel” along with pants and motorbikes to the entire village.
2.Adoption & Child Sponsorship – Many innocent looking child sponsorship programs, such as Christian Children’s Fund and World Vision, that often advertise on U.S. television are guilty of forced conversions. Many often say, “For 50 cents a day, you’ll make a real impact on the life of a child and their community!”
3. Jobs – In 1999, the Indian Church of Christ in Assam was caught red-handed for forcibly converting at least 14 Hindus. Over a period of six months the missionaries belonging to this Church offered money, jobs and other economic benefits to these extremely poor Hindus if they adopted Christianity.
4. Loans – When conversions by force not being possible, the methods that are applied are inducements and fraud. Inducements are called “social service” or “charitable” activities.
Yet another trick where you pay for Conversion to Christianity by unwittingly donating to Organizations posing as Social outfits.
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Child Fund International
This organization was formerly known as Christian Children’s Fund. They are a Christian organization with the goal of converting Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and people of other religion in India into Christians. It is a form of crusade (Christian war) with the single goal of converting India into a Christian nation. The “charity” part is just a front for their heinous intentions in the background.
The fact that they changed their name to remove the Christian part is proof that they are trying to deceive the public, and using common person’s money to destroy their valuable culture, traditions and faith.
Do they actually support the poor and the under-privileged Children?…..
Sridevi – the well-known Indian movie actress – has been recruited to raise funds for this organization. This is likely to boost the fundraising and hence increase the pressure on non-Christians to convert. It is pathetic that a leading public figure is helping anti-social and anti-national organizations. Does Sridevi not know about the intentions of this organization, or has she sold her soul in return of money? These are questions that only Sridevi can answer…
This is another charity-in-disguise that has launched a crusade against India and its heritage by converting everyone into Christians. The snapshot of their webpage (at the time of writing this article) is shown here and speaks of itself. Their goal is to collect money from the same people who they intend to harm.
Note how a Hindu child is depicted in the picture, which gives the impression to the unsuspecting public that the money is going towards the general population, when the real intention is to convert the poor into Christians
I have also posted some on the function of these people under the guise of NGOs-detaiks of donations received are provided there.
I came across some interesting expose by a Teheka Man,
Read.
Conversion of Hindus By Muslims
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The author, S.K. Shashikumar, is a noted investigative journalist for Tehelka. This article was prepared by him for IBNLive.com(the online arm of CNN-IBN, owned and funded by affiliates of the Southern Baptist Church in the US) under the title “Preparing for the Harvest”, which IBNLive so far has not published as it exposes World Vision’sChristian missionary activities in India. Donors to World Vision India – Rs 256 crores collected in 2008 – believe it to be the premier NGO working in India for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden. In fact it is the premier Christian missionary organisation working in India for the harvesting of souls for Jesus. Since the killing of Swami Lakshmanananda and the resultant communal violence in Orissa in August 2008, World Vision’s funding and missionary activities have come under the scanner of the Home Ministry in New Delhi. – Editor.
World Vision’s focus is children and community development. It is involved in more than 162 projects in 25 states. It projects its community development programmes as “holistic development”. This is implemented through Area Development Programmes (ADP). Each ADP works in an area that is contiguous geographically, economically or ethnically. These programmes provide access to clean drinking water, healthcare, education and setting up of income generating projects. But infused with such development works is the spiritual component – Bible classes. World Vision, the world’s largest Christian church mission agency, has traditionally been closely linked with successive American governments. The former US Ambassador for International Religious Freedoms, Dr Robert Seiple, was World Vision chief for 11 years till 1998 when he was picked by former president, Bill Clinton, to head the office of International Religious Freedom. Around the period when Seiple was the president of World Vision, its vice-president from 1993 to 1998 was Andrew S. Natsios. He is now the administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). For more than 40 years, USAID has been the leading government agency providing economic and humanitarian assistance to developing countries.”
Gandhi’s View on Christianity.
“So far as one can understand the present Christian effort, it is to uproot Hinduism from its very foundation and replace it with another faith.” – M.K. Gandhi
I call myself a Sanatani Hindu
I call myself a Sanatani Hindu, because I believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, and all that goes by the name of Hindu scripture, and therefore in avatars and rebirth; I believe in the varnashrama dharma in a sense, in my opinion strictly Vedic but not in its presently popular and distorted crude sense; I believe in the protection of cow. I do not disbelieve inmurti puja. (Young India: June 10, 1921)
Why I am not a convert
Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being. When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. (Young India: June 8, 1925)
Conversion is an impediment to peace
It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world’s progress toward peace. Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man? (Harijan: January 30, 1937)
No such thing as conversion
I believe that there is no such thing as conversion from one faith to another in the accepted sense of the word. It is a highly personal matter for the individual and his God. I may not have any design upon my neighbour as to his faith which I must honour even as I honour my own. Having reverently studied the scriptures of the world I could no more think of asking a Christian or a Musalman, or a Parsi or a Jew to change his faith than I would think of changing my own. (Harijan: September 9, 1935)
Only true religion?
I am not interested in weaning you from Christianity and making you Hindu, and I do not relish your designs upon me, if you had any, to convert me to Christianity. I would also dispute your claim that Christianity is the only true religion. (Harijan: June 3, 1937)
Conversion
Conversion must not mean denationalization. Conversion should mean a definite giving up of the evil of the old, adoption of all the good of the new, and a scrupulous avoidance of everything evil in the new. Conversion, therefore, should mean a life of greater dedication to one’s country, greater surrender to God, greater self-purification. (Young India: August 20, 1925)
The Present Kapaleeswarar Temple,MylaporeSanthome Church, chennai
This is not only a Church but a religious spot for the Christians.
The Church is dedicated to St,Thomas who is reported to have landed in Chennai around 300 AD and spread Syrian Christianity .
This Saint Thomas was infamous Acts of Thomas by Bardesanes, and this is the source of the legend of St. Thomas in India.
Dr. Elst studied under Jesuits at Katholieke Universiteit in Belgium, Europe’s oldest Catholic university at Leuven, has done extensive research on this
subject and says that At.Thomas is a Fraud perpetrated on the Indians by corrupt Catholic priests to spread Catholicism in India.
The original Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore was ransacked , demolished by The Portuguese . a Church was built and was named as San Thome
Cathedral Basilica on the Mylapore beach in Chennai.
The original structure was a Shiva Temple, that of Kapaaleswara.
Dr.Elst writes thus,
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According to Christian leaders in India, the apostle Thomas came to India in 52 AD, founded the Syrian Christian Church, and was killed by the fanatical Brahmins in 72 AD. Near the site of his martyrdom, the St. Thomas Church was built. In fact this apostle never came to India. The Christian community in South India was founded by a merchant called Knai Thoma or Thomas of Cana in 345 AD—a name which readily explains the Thomas legend. He led four hundred refugees who fled persecution in Persia and were given asylum by the Hindu authorities.
In Catholic universities in Europe, the myth of the apostle Thomas going to India is no longer taught as history, but in India it is still considered useful. Even many vocal “secularists” who attack the Hindus for “relying on myth” in the Ayodhya affair, off-hand profess their belief in the Thomas myth. The important point is that Thomas can be upheld as a martyr and the Brahmins decried as fanatics.
In reality, the missionaries were very disgruntled that the damned Hindus refused to give them martyrs (whose blood is welcomed as “the seed of the faith”), so they had to invent one. Moreover, the church which they claim commemorates St. Thomas’s martyrdom at the hands of Hindu fanaticism, is in fact a monument of Hindu martyrdom at the hands of Christian fanaticism. It is a forcible replacement of two important Hindu temples—Jain and Shaiva—whose existence was insupportable to the Christian missionaries.
No one knows how many Hindu priests and worshipers were killed when the Christian soldiers came to remove the curse of Paganism from the Mylapore beach. Hinduism does not practice martyr-mongering, but if at all we have to speak of martyrs in this context, the title goes to these Jina- and Shiva-worshipers and not to the apostle Thomas.—Dr. Koenraad Elst
*The Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple, third revised edition, 2010 is available from publisher Voice of India, New Delhi. It has an extensive bibliography and is a valuable tool for researchers and historians.”
*FAIR USE NOTICE Articles and images on this web site which contain copyright material that has not been specifically authorized for use by the copyright owner, have been made available here to advance learning and to inform the Hindu community at large of issues that may concern it. We believe this constitutes “fair use” of copyright material as understood in Indian and US copyright law.
Now this is being witnessed in the world, with Al Qaeda targeting the Christians.
Christian nations are reacting.
Unfortunately , others who are not concerned with this affair.
Islam seems determined to overtake Christianity in Population.
With their Religion asking them to increase population, Islam will overtake Christianity.
Whether it is going to be fundamental Islam or moderate Islam(which I doubt), one has to wait.
Here is a report.
“The number of Muslims in Europe has grown from 29.6 million in 1990 to 44.1 million in 2010.34 Europe’s Muslim population is projected to exceed 58 million by 2030. Muslims today account for about 6% of Europe’s total population, up from 4.1% in 1990. By 2030, Muslims are expected to make up 8% of Europe’s population. Although Europe’s Muslim population is growing, Europe’s share of the global Muslim population will remain quite small. Less than 3% of the world’s Muslims are expected to be living in Europe in 2030, about the same portion as in 2010 (2.7%).”
“Islam religion and hence Muslim population began around 640 AD and now there are 1,300,000,000 Muslims in this world. This is a historical growth rate of 1.51% per year. The world population now is 6,137,000,000 and the current growth rate of the world population is 1.30% per year (Source: PRB 2001 World Population Data Sheet). At these growth rates, mathematically, it will take 410 years for Muslim population to be 50% of the world population.
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