Archive for the ‘Christianity’ Category
Pope Performs Exorcism?
Exorcism is used in all religions.
Whether modern science believes in it or not,,Exorcism has cured many.
Science can deny this based on the success rate.
Pope performs Exorcism?
Can we apply the same Logic to Psychiatry ,especially treatment of Schizophrenia?
if people are cured only by faith in Exorcism, let it be.
“Cure” that is important.
Did Pope Francis Perform An Exorcism?
At the same time,some cruel practices in the name of Exorcism has to be avoided y following the rituals correctly.
“Pope Francis approached the children with disabilities who attended the Mass. He put both his hands on top of the head of one of the children. According to a journalist of TV2000, a channel owned by the Italian Episcopal Conference, this gesture represents an act of exorcism. The network, who has a weekly programme called “Vade Retro,” questioned a few exorcists who confirmed his interpretation.
The images in the video show Pope Francis having a brief conversation with the priest who is standing behind the child, after which his expression changes and his hands cover the child’s head.
“The exorcists who have seen the images have no doubt: this was a liberation prayer from evil, or a real act of exorcism,” adds TV2000. Their next episode of “Vade Retro” will focus on Pope Francis’ battle against the Devil and its temptations.
More from AP:
VATICAN CITY — Is Pope Francis an exorcist?The question has been swirling ever since Francis laid his hands Sunday on the head of a young man after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square. The young man heaved deeply a half-dozen times, convulsed and shook, and then slumped in his wheelchair as Francis prayed over him.
The television station of the Italian bishops’ conference said it had surveyed exorcists, who agreed that Francis either performed an exorcism or a prayer to free the man from the devil.
The Vatican was more cautious Tuesday, saying Francis “didn’t intend to perform any exorcism. But as he often does for the sick or suffering, he simply intended to pray for someone.”
Fueling the speculation is Francis’ obsession with the devil, a frequent subject of his homilies..
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/did-pope-francis-perform-an-exorcism_n_3308839.html
Exorcism.
In Catholic Christianity, exorcisms are performed in the name of Jesus Christ.[3] A distinction is made between a formal exorcism, which can only be conducted by a priest during a baptism or with the permission of a Bishop, and “prayers of deliverance” which can be said by anyone.
The Catholic rite for a formal exorcism, called a “Major Exorcism”, is given in Section 13 of the Rituale Romanum.[4] The Ritual lists guidelines for conducting an exorcism, and for determining when a formal exorcism is required.[5] Priests are instructed to carefully determine that the nature of the affliction is not actually a psychological or physical illness before proceeding.[3]
In Catholic practice the person performing the exorcism, known as an exorcist, is a consecrated priest. The exorcist recites prayers according to the rubrics of the rite, and may make use of religious materials such as icons and sacramentals. The exorcist invokes God, specifically the name of Jesus, and the Church Triumphant and Archangel Michael to intervene with the exorcism. According to Catholic understanding, several weekly exorcisms over many years are sometimes required to expel a deeply entrenched demon.[5][6]
In general, possessed persons are not regarded as evil in themselves, nor wholly responsible for their actions.[7] Therefore, practitioners regard exorcism as a cure and not some kind of punishment. The Catholic rite usually take this into account, ensuring that there is no violence to the possessed, only that they be tied down if deemed necessary for their own protection and that of the practitioner.
Man In Shroud of Turin Had Leprosy DNA Wrong
I posted in 2009 a blog that the man who was wrapped in the Shroud of Turin was found to be suffering from Leprosy and on this ground was dismissed as one not belonging to Jesus Christ.
Now there is another controversy raging on this subject.
History.
1.A cloth with Bloodstains and body image was found and it was belived to be the cloth that was used to wrap the body of Jesus christ before he was resurrected.
Carbon Dating of The Shroud of Turin
2.It was Carbon Dated by three scientists ,independent of each other.
3.It was proved to belong to belong to the 13th century.
4.It was later analysed for DNA and found that it was used to wrap the body of a man afflicted with leprosy.
The present controversy is,
1.The Shroud of Turin, historically speaking surfaced in the 13th century AD.
Earlier it was in Byzantine Empire.
It was called the Edessa Cloth and was in Constantinople for three hundred years, which then puts it date around 100 AD.
Now ,it the Shroud was forged, the Forger had to use advanced technologies not known to Man then, either in the 13th century or in the 10th Century.
To explain, the image was found to be impressions on the Cloth and did not contain any brush strokes.
If it is a Forgery the forger would have had to have the Blood stains first and draw the image later;this is not possible without advanced technology which was not available till the later part of the 19th century.
2.The depiction of Crucifixion in the 13th century shows Crucifixion as having been done with the palms being nailed, while the fact is that the wrists were nailed.
Crucifying by the palm would not have supported the body weight.
So, this is anachronism if the Shroud had been prepared in the 13th century.
Crucifixion by Wrist
3.Carbon dating could have been incorrect because of the Bacteria that grow on the Cloth, which might affect the Date.
External Links:
The Shroud of Turin in 3D
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Scholar Raymond Rogers, who was a director of the Shroud of Turin Research Project, [53] argued in the scientific journal Thermochimica Acta that: “The fact that vanillin cannot be detected in the lignin on shroud fibers, Dead Sea scrolls linen, and other very old linens indicate that the shroud is quite old. A determination of the kinetics of vanillin loss suggest the shroud is between 1300- and 3000-years old. Even allowing for errors in the measurements and assumptions about storage conditions, the cloth is unlikely to be as young as 840 years”.[42]
It has however been stated that Roger’s vanillin-dating process is untested, and the validity thereof is suspect. The deterioration of vanillin is heavily influenced by the temperature of its environment – heat strips away vanillin rapidly – and the shroud has been subjected to temperatures high enough to melt silver and scorch the cloth.[54] Rogers’ analysis is also questioned by skeptics such as Joe Nickell, himself a non-scientist, who reasons that the conclusions of the author, Raymond Rogers, result from “starting with the desired conclusion and working backward to the evidence”.[55]
The sample was contaminated
In 1993 Dr. Leoncio A. Garza-Valdes discovered the presence of polyhydroxyalkanoate (mcl-PHA)-producing bacteria Leobacillus rubrus on Shroud’s fabric and confirmed their presence on three Egyptian mummies.[56] According to Garza-Valdes, “the scientists that carried out the radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin in 1988, were not aware of the presence of this unsuspected contaminant (natural plastic coating)”. Garza-Valdes outlines further, that while studying thin sections from the Shroud fibers it was found that “more than 60% of the fibers’ area is bioplastic“.[56]Pictorial evidence dating from c. 1690 and 1842[57] indicates that the corner used for the dating and several similar evenly spaced areas along one edge of the cloth were handled each time the cloth was displayed, the traditional method being for it to be held suspended by a row of five bishops. Wilson and others contend that repeated handling of this kind greatly increased the likelihood of contamination by bacteria and bacterial residue compared to the newly discovered archaeological specimens for which carbon-14 dating was developed. Bacteria and associated residue (bacteria by-products and dead bacteria) carry additional carbon-14 that would skew the radiocarbon date toward the present.
In 1994, J. A. Christen applied a strong statistical test to the radiocarbon data and concludes that the given age for the shroud is, from a statistical point of view, correct.[81]
However critics claim to have identified statistical errors in the conclusions published in Nature:[35] including: the actual standard deviation for the Tucson study was 17 years, not 31, as published; the chi-square distribution value is 8.6 rather than 6.4, and the relative significance level (which measures the reliability of the results) is close to 1% – rather than the published 5%, which is the minimum acceptable threshold.[82][83][84][85] None of these errors would however produce an altered dating supportive of a 1st Century manufacture.
In 2008 the director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Christopher Ramsey, told the BBC that “With the radiocarbon measurements and with all of the other evidence which we have about the Shroud, there does seem to be a conflict in the interpretation of the different evidence”.[86] Ramsey has stressed that he would be surprised if the 1988 tests were shown to be far off, let alone “a thousand years wrong”, but said that he would keep an open mind.
Related articles
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Crucifixion of Jesus Christ(as)
With the arms outstretched, the wrists were nailed to the cross. It has been shown that the ligaments and bones of the wrist can support the weight of the body but the palms cannot.[8,11,16,17] The nail in the wrist might pass between the bony elements and thereby produce no fractures, the likelihood of painful periosteal injury, i.e. injury to the outer layers of bones, which are rich in nerves and hence very sensitive to pain, wound seem great.[7,8,16] (see image below).
- The Bible Christ Shroud Of Turin, Myths (ramanan50.wordpress.com)
- http://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/shroud-of-turin-not-jesus-tomb-discovery-suggests/
Christianity Distribution Traditions PEW Study
Research Study by PEW Research Center has revealed some interesting facts.
1.Christianity has ‘width , not depth in distribution’
Christianity in The World.
I am using Corporate jargon as Christianity of the day is run like a Corporate.
‘
A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are also geographically widespread – so far-flung, in fact, that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity.
A century ago, this was not the case. In 1910, about two-thirds of the world’s Christians lived in Europe, where the bulk of Christians had been for a millennium, according to historical estimates by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.2 Today, only about a quarter of all Christians live in Europe (26%). A plurality – more than a third – now are in the Americas (37%). About one in every four Christians lives in sub-Saharan Africa (24%), and about one-in-eight is found in Asia and the Pacific (13%)…
2.Regional Distribution of Christians.
Regional distribution of Christians.
The number of Christians around the world has nearly quadrupled in the last 100 years, from about 600 million in 1910 to more than 2 billion in 2010. But the world’s overall population also has risen rapidly, from an estimated 1.8 billion in 1910 to 6.9 billion in 2010. As a result, Christians make up about the same portion of the world’s population today (32%) as they did a century ago (35%).
3.Christian Traditions.
Christian Traditions.
About half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic (50%), while more than a third are Protestant (37%). Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the world’s Christians. Other Christian groups, which make up the remaining 1%, include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Christian Science Church.
he Catholic Church includes the international body of churches in full communion with the bishop of Rome, the pope. These churches include the Western (or Latin) church and 22 Eastern Catholic churches.1 Each of these churches has a distinct hierarchy and traditional liturgy, prayers and religious observances. The Western (Latin) church is the largest of these autonomous churches. Among the major branches of the Eastern churches are the Alexandrian, Antiochene, Armenian, Byzantine and Chaldean.2
Catholicism, taken as a whole, is the world’s largest Christian tradition. The Catholic Church teaches that its bishops are the successors of Christ’s apostles and that the pope, as the successor to St. Peter, possesses a unique authority in the church.3 Catholic doctrine maintains that the church is infallible in its dogmatic teaching on matters of faith and morals.4 Catholic worship is centered on the Eucharist, in which, according to the church’s teaching, the bread and wine are supernaturally transformed into the body and blood of Christ. 5
Protestant
Protestants are broadly defined in this report to include three groups.6 The first group is made up of historic Protestants who belong to churches originating (or reformulated) at the time of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation in Europe, as well as other denominations that came later, such as Methodists. The Protestant Reformation was led by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other theologians who “protested” the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Catholic Church, leading to the creation of new national churches. The doctrines of the various Protestant denominations vary, but most include belief in grace through faith alone (known as sola fide or “by faith alone”), belief in the Bible as the ultimate authority in matters of faith and order (known as sola scriptura or “by scripture alone”) and belief in the priesthood of all believers.7
Anglicans are the second group of Christians categorized in this report under the broad banner of Protestantism. This category refers to Christians who belong to churches with historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs, worship styles and church structures. The great majority of Anglicans are members of churches that are part of the international Anglican Communion, which recognizes the archbishop of Canterbury as its “Focus for Unity.”8 The Church of England emerged as a distinct Western Christian ecclesial tradition in the early 16th century, when King Henry VIII declared his supremacy over the English church and its independence from papal authority.9
The third group broadly defined as Protestants in this report is independent Christians. Independent Christians have developed ecclesial structures, beliefs and practices that are claimed to be independent of historic, organized Christianity.10 Independent Christians include denominations in sub-Saharan Africa that identify as independent from historically Protestant denominations, churches in China that are not affiliated with official religious associations and nondenominational churches in the United States.
Regional Distribution of Christians.
Christian Population by Region.
According to a Pew Forum analysis of estimates from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, there are about 279 million pentecostal Christians and 305 million charismatic Christians in the world. (For definitions, see Defining Christian Movements.) This means that, according to this analysis, pentecostal and charismatic Christians together make up about 27% of all Christians and more than 8% of the world’s total population.15 (As noted in the Executive Summary, these estimates are based primarily on numbers provided by Christian organizations and are derived differently from the other figures in this study, which are based mainly on censuses and surveys.
Christian Movements data Christianity
Source:
http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Global-Christianity-movements-and-denominations.aspx
Related articles
The Bible Christ Shroud Of Turin, Myths
There is a widely held belief that the Christians were persecuted from The days of Christ and the point is stressed and reinforced by Christian Literature.
The three facts(?)of Christianity.
Christ did not exist.
‘The Christ myth theory (also known as Jesus myth theory or Jesus mythicism) is a range of arguments that question the existence of Jesus of Nazareth or the entirety of his life story as described in the Christian gospels.[1][2][3][4] The most sweeping version of the myth theories contends that there was no real historical figure Jesus and that he was invented by early Christians. Another variant holds that there was a person called Jesus, but almost all teachings and miracles attributed to him were either invented or symbolic references. Yet another version suggests that the Jesus portrayed in the New Testament is a composite character constructed from multiple people over a period of time..
Historical Evidence.
The historical Proof for the existence of Christ is very thin.
Christ.
- “Jesus never existed: The gospels describe a virtually, and perhaps entirely, fictitious person. There are no grounds for supposing that any aspect of the Jesus narrative is rooted in history.
- Jesus existed but little is known about him: There is enough historical evidence to conclude that Jesus existed, but the reports are so unreliable that very little can be said about his life and teachings with confidence.
- Jesus existed and we can know about him: Historical research can reveal a core of historical facts about Jesus, but he is often different from the portrayals in the New Testament. Many of the sayings and miracles attributed to him are likely to be myths.
- The gospels present a mostly historical Jesus: When the New Testament accounts are compared with other sources they provide a by and large reliable historical portrait of Jesus, and critical historiography should not rule out the possibility of supernatural occurrences.”
So much for the founder of Christianity.
The Bible.
The Bible was composed nearly after three years after the death of Christ(?) by Constantine by assembling a Conclave of Cardinals an analysis of over three hundred versions of the would be Bible and the one that would suit the policies of Constantine to consolidate his Empire was chosen.
Not only that.
Constantine too became a Christian Convert to hold on to his Kingdom.
The New Testament , of King James’s version was more of a retort to the Pope., because he did not give permission to King James to marry Anne Boleyn.
“The First Council of Nicaea was convened by Emperor Constantine the Great upon the recommendations of a synod led by Hosius of Córdoba in the Eastertide of 325. This synod had been charged with investigation of the trouble brought about by the Arian controversy in the Greek-speaking east.[16] To most bishops, the teachings of Arius were heretical and dangerous to the salvation of souls. In the summer of 325, the bishops of all provinces were summoned to Nicaea (now known as İznik, in modern-day Turkey), a place easily accessible to the majority of delegates, particularly those of Asia Minor, Georgia, Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, and Thrace.
This was the first general council in the history of the Church since the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem, the Apostolic council having established the conditions upon which Gentiles could join the Church.[17] In the Council of Nicaea, “The Church had taken her first great step to define doctrine more precisely in response to a challenge from a heretical theology.”[18]“
Constantine also established the Church, the temporal Authority to consolidate his Kingdom.
The Shroud of Turin.
The Shroud of Turin.
The Shroud of Turin was believed to be the cloth that was used to wrap the body of Christ after he was crucified.
Carbon Dating established beyond doubt that the Cloth belonged to the 13th Century AD!
‘The Shroud of Turin, a linen cloth commonly associated with the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ, has undergone numerous scientific tests, the most notable of which is radiocarbon dating, in an attempt to determine the relic‘s authenticity. In 1988, scientists at three separate laboratories dated samples from the Shroud to a range of 1260–1390CE, which coincides with the first appearance of the shroud in France in the 1350s.[1]
These results are generally accepted by the scientific community. This dating has been questioned by some, and doubts have been raised in particular regarding the representivity of the sample that was taken for testing.”
This is how th early Christianity was conceived , more as a Political tool.
Even the hunting down of Christ and eventual Crucifixion was more of a Political Act, the charge was Sedition!
Now onto the persecution of Christians.
References.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_14_dating_of_the_Shroud_of_Turin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_myth_theory
Related articles
- Historical Jesus Files: The Rationalistic View of Biblical History (mediainfidel.wordpress.com)
Meet Billionaire Bishop,True Follower of Christ!
We know that the Churches are run like Corporate.
The Vatican has a Budget for Religious Conversion.
This is cloaked under various Heads as Donations, Medicare, orphanage maintenance and the like.
Protestants openly do it in the Evangelicalism.
Religious Conversion by Carrot is the norm’
Targets are set for the Priests for this Noble venture and they are compensated as in a Corporate, by Money,promotions(?!).
In addition, these Saviors called Priests raise funds from the laity.
And they amass wealth.
How much?
Meet ,Edir Macedo, Brazil’s Billionaire Bishop.
Edir Macedo, Brazil’s Billionaire Bishop
He has more than 5 million followers, whose donations over the last 36 years have made him a billionaire..
“In Brazil, where he was born and raised, he is a major national figure, the subject of dozens of criminal inquiries, and the owner of Rádio & Televisão Record, a media conglomerate that runs the country’s second-largest television network. He is known to most everyone by the title he created for himself: He is O Bispo—“The Bishop.” Macedo is the founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a Pentecostal denomination specializing in prosperity theology, which links faith to financial success. He preaches twice a week, often in two different cities, and the sermons are fervently watched on church websites, his Facebook page, and the miniature TV sets that Brazilian taxi drivers like to keep on their dashboard. Now and then he holds outdoor events that draw crowds of half a million. In February he addressed 5,000 of his parishioners at one of his churches in Belo Horizonte, in southeastern Brazil. High overhead, a stained-glass cross lit by fluorescent bulbs took up most of the ceiling while a theater-size screen blew him up for the pews in the back. He paced back and forth on the stage, explaining the intersection of God and money. “Which is the largest country in the world, economically speaking? It’s America, the United States. Do you know why? Because way back—this is history, you can look it up on the Internet—the colonization was done by men who believed in the word of God. And they were tithers,” he said. “That’s why you see on the dollar bill: ‘In God we trust.’ ”
In Macedo’s teaching, tithing, or giving 10 percent of your income to the church, is a mandate from God…
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his wealth at $1.2 billion, entirely because of his ownership of Rádio & Televisão Record. The conglomerate’s namesake TV network produces standard commercial fare: telenovelas (sometimes Biblical), sex-infused reality shows, and journalism that dwells on grisly crimes. Record also runs a cable news channel, a handful of radio stations, three newspapers, a film-production company, and even a small bank, as well as cable and satellite units scattered around the world.
Macedo purchased Record, then just a debt-ridden TV network, in 1989 for $45 million. The transaction led to an investigation by Brazil’s tax agency, which found that he’d used interest-free loans from the Universal Church to fund it, and fined him for failing to declare the loans as income. In his defense, Macedo said he’d bought Record on behalf of the church to create the country’s first evangelical TV network.”
Source:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-25/edir-macedo-brazils-billionaire-bishop
The gullible who sway , swoon and pay up for these good for nothings.
Watch his facial expressions,tremendous actor!
