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Jesus: Truth Or Myth?

We have a lot of Jesus threads - so, eeny, meeny, miny... Here!

Sir Elton John says Jesus was super-intelligent gay man

Sir Elton John has claimed Jesus was a "super-intelligent gay man" in an interview with a US magazine.

The singer also told Parade Jesus was "compassionate", forgiving and "understood human problems".

A spokesman for the Church of England said: "Sir Elton's reflection that Jesus calls us all to love and forgive is one shared by all Christians."

"But insights into aspects of the historic person of Jesus are perhaps best left to the academics," he added.

Sir Elton said in the interview: "On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving.

"I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East - you're as good as dead," he added.

In the interview, the singer also said he did not like being a celebrity any more because "fame attracts lunatics".

"Princess Diana, Gianni Versace, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, all dead. Two of them shot outside their houses. None of this would have happened if they hadn't been famous. I never had a bodyguard, ever, until Gianni died," he said.

The full interview will be published on Parade's website on Friday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8523538.stm
 
Does Elton want us to think he's a bit like Jesus? Will religious leaders be saying "insights into aspects of the historic person of Elton are perhaps best left to the academics" in two millennias time? He certainly sounds quite reflective here.
 
Indian state confiscates 'blasphemous' Jesus textbooks
By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

The government in the Indian state of Meghalaya has confiscated textbooks showing pictures of Jesus Christ holding a cigarette and a can of beer.

The book has been used for primary classes and has caused a furore in the north-eastern state, where more than 70% of the population are Christians.

State Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said legal action against the publishers was being contemplated.

The company, based in Delhi, has so far not responded to the complaints.

"We are now considering legal action against the Skyline Publications of New Delhi who published the controversial textbooks," Mr Lyngdoh said.

The controversial picture of Jesus was discovered in cursive writing exercise books being used at a private school in the state capital, Shillong.

The minister said that although private schools were not obliged to use textbooks prescribed by the Meghalaya Board of Secondary Education, his government has taken speedy action by seizing all the copies of the textbook from schools and bookshops.

"We are deeply hurt by the insensitivity of the publisher. How can one show such total disrespect for a religion?" asked Dominic Jala, the Archbishop of Shillong.

"Just think how this would impact on students at such a tender age."

The Catholic Church in India has banned all textbooks by Skyline Publications from all its schools.

"We have told all our member schools across the country to ban this publisher," said Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) spokesman Babu Joseph.

The Church has also asked the government to take strict action against the publisher and to ban any such "objectionable publications" from all schools in future, he said.

"Jesus Christ is central to Christian faith and Christian life. The attempt to tarnish his image is highly objectionable and goes against the spirit of religious tolerance in India," Mr Joseph said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8524043.stm

I can accept the beer and cigarettes, but I just wish he didn't go on about God all the time... :twisted:
 
Not a carpenter: Jesus 'was the son of a middle-class architect', new book claims
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:48 AM on 02nd April 2010

Jesus was the son of a middle-class, highly educated architect and rose to become the highest ranking Rabbi of his age, according to a new book.
The Jesus Discovery, by Dr Adam Bradford, claims that his revered position in the Jewish faith explains why Christ was able to exert such influence and why his teachings became such a concern to the authorities.

Dr Bradford, who works as a GP, drew his conclusions after studying and comparing the original Greek and Hebrew scriptures.
He also used human psychology to analyse the behaviour towards Jesus as depicted in the Bible.

Biblical scholar Dr Bradford said: 'Jesus's high ranking position as a Jew seems to have been written out of history but in fact it makes more sense of the Bible.
'If Jesus was the son of a poor itinerant carpenter with some radical ideas nobody would have been that concerned about what he said.
'But, because Jesus was trained up to become the most educated Jew of his time it gave him the chance to exert extraordinary influence and let him get away with acts that normal Jews would have been imprisoned or chastised for.
'For example, when Jesus turned the money changers out of the temple there is no mention in the Bible of the police guards getting involved or there being a backlash.
'The money changers were an essential part of gaining revenue for the Temple so if Jesus was an ordinary Jew he would have been arrested or physically attacked.

'Christ enjoyed social privileges that would not have been available to an uneducated itinerant carpenter.
'Not only was he able to clear the official Temple market on two occasions without interference but he was also able to teach unhindered in the Temple courts and synagogues.

'Throughout the Bible he is addressed with formal titles of Rabbi and Doctor of the Law - the highest position in Jewish society, even by his enemies.'

To find out more about the life of Jesus as an historical figure, Dr Bradford first decided to try and discover more about Christ's father, Joseph.
In the English translation of the Bible Joseph has always been described as a 'just man'.

Dr Bradford discovered that the word "man" has been added and is not in the original Greek text at all.
He also found that the origins of the word translated into 'just' more accurately translates to describe Joseph's position in society - most likely as a scholar who helped teach the Torah and was involved in the judiciary.

Further to this, Dr Bradford re-examined Joseph's position as a carpenter.
Again, he concluded there had been a mistranslation and that the Greek word 'tekton', which describes Joseph's work, more accurately means master builder or architect.

Dr Bradford claims this would explain why Jesus, who would have been brought up in his father's trade, made so many references to building in his teachings.
Crucially, Dr Bradford says that it is Joseph's position as an architect that would have first Christ brought him into contact with the Temple authorities.
In about 22BC, King Herod ordered that a gigantic Jewish temple should be built in Jerusalem, the remains of which makes up the Wailing Wall.

Because only Jewish priests could build the sacred parts of the building, Herod conscripted ten thousand skilled craftsmen to assist and instruct one thousand Jewish priests in the skills of master craftsmen.
Dr Bradford said: 'Statistically, given that ten thousand skilled craftsmen were employed there is every likelihood that Joseph, who was a devout Jew, was one of these "tektons", skilled at working with large structures of stone and wood.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0jw87dhOt

This particular interpretation is new to me, although it agrees with ideas I've expressed elsewhere (most recently in the 'Did Jesus visit Britain?' thread) that Jesus held a high rank in society.
 
I remember I had read something about that at the height of the controversy about The passion of the Christ. They dismissed Mel Gibson's movie as old-fashioned and misinformed.
 
Rynner, that's so interesting. Does that make Jesus a Mason? As in Masonic, as in thousands of connect-the-dot conspiracies? Fun stuff.
 
And now, a book by some German geezer:

Jesus was born years earlier than thought, claims Pope
The entire Christian calendar is based on a miscalculation, the Pope has declared, as he claims in a new book that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly believed.
By Nick Squires, Rome
4:02PM GMT 21 Nov 2012

The 'mistake' was made by a sixth century monk known as Dionysius Exiguus or in English Dennis the Small, the 85-year-old pontiff claims in the book 'Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives', published on Wednesday.

"The calculation of the beginning of our calendar – based on the birth of Jesus – was made by Dionysius Exiguus, who made a mistake in his calculations by several years," the Pope writes in the book, which went on sale around the world with an initial print run of a million copies.
"The actual date of Jesus's birth was several years before."

The assertion that the Christian calendar is based on a false premise is not new – many historians believe that Christ was born sometime between 7BC and 2BC.
But the fact that doubts over one of the keystones of Christian tradition have been raised by the leader of the world's one billion Catholics is striking.

Dennis the Small, who was born in Eastern Europe, is credited with being the "inventor" of the modern calendar and the concept of the Anno Domini era.
He drew up the new system in part to distance it from the calendar in use at the time, which was based on the years since the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian.
The emperor had persecuted Christians, so there was good reason to expunge him from the new dating system in favour of one inspired by the birth of Christ.

The monk's calendar became widely accepted in Europe after it was adopted by the Venerable Bede, the historian-monk, to date the events that he recounted in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which he completed in AD 731.

But exactly how Dennis calculated the year of Christ's birth is not clear and the Pope's claim that he made a mistake is a view shared by many scholars.
The Bible does not specify a date for the birth of Christ. The monk instead appears to have based his calculations on vague references to Jesus's age at the start of his ministry and the fact that he was baptised in the reign of the emperor Tiberius.

Christ's birth date is not the only controversy raised by the Pope in his new book – he also said that contrary to the traditional Nativity scene, there were no oxen, donkeys or other animals at Jesus's birth.

He also weighs in on the debate over Christ's birthplace, rejecting arguments by some scholars that he was born in Nazareth rather than Bethlehem.

John Barton, Professor of the Interpretation of the Holy Scripture at Oriel College, Oxford University, said most academics agreed with the Pope that the Christian calendar was wrong and that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly thought, probably between 6BC and 4BC.
"There is no reference to when he was born in the Bible - all we know is that he was born in the reign of Herod the Great, who died before 1AD," he told The Daily Telegraph. "It's been surmised for a very long time that Jesus was born before 1AD - no one knows for sure."

The idea that Christ was born on Dec 25 also has no basis in historical fact. "We don't even know which season he was born in. The whole idea of celebrating his birth during the darkest part of the year is probably linked to pagan traditions and the winter solstice."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religio ... -Pope.html
 
Yawn. Slow news day. Non of the above is controversial among educated Christians of the mainstream denominations.
 
We've had Jesus in India and England and a few other places - now, it is Jesus in Japan:

The Little-Known Legend of Jesus in Japan

On the flat top of a steep hill in a distant corner of northern Japan lies the tomb of an itinerant shepherd who, two millennia ago, settled down there to grow garlic. He fell in love with a farmer’s daughter named Miyuko, fathered three kids and died at the ripe old age of 106. In the mountain hamlet of Shingo, he’s remembered by the name Daitenku Taro Jurai. The rest of the world knows him as Jesus Christ.

It turns out that Jesus of Nazareth—the Messiah, worker of miracles and spiritual figurehead for one of the world’s foremost religions—did not die on the cross at Calvary, as widely reported. According to amusing local folklore, that was his kid brother, Isukiri, whose severed ear was interred in an adjacent burial mound in Japan.

In Shingo, the Greatest Story Ever Told is retold like this: Jesus first came to Japan at the age of 21 to study theology. This was during his so-called “lost years,” a 12-year gap unaccounted for in the New Testament. He landed at the west coast port of Amanohashidate, a spit of land that juts across Miyazu Bay, and became a disciple of a great master near Mount Fuji, learning the Japanese language and Eastern culture. At 33, he returned to Judea—by way of Morocco!—to talk up what a museum brochure calls the “sacred land” he had just visited.

Having run afoul of the Roman authorities, Jesus was arrested and condemned to crucifixion for heresy. But he cheated the executioners by trading places with the unsung, if not unremembered, Isukiri. To escape persecution, Jesus fled back to the promised land of Japan with two keepsakes: one of his sibling’s ears and a lock of the Virgin Mary’s hair. He trekked across the frozen wilderness of Siberia to Alaska, a journey of four years, 6,000 miles and innumerable privations. This alternative Second Coming ended after he sailed to Hachinohe, an ox-cart ride from Shingo.

The key to Shingo’s Christ cult lies in a scroll purported to be Christ’s last will and testament, dictated as he was dying in the village. A team of what a museum pamphlet calls “archeologists from an international society for the research of ancient literature” discovered the scripture in 1936. That manuscript, along with others allegedly unearthed by a Shinto priest around the same time, flesh out Christ’s further adventures between Judea and Japan, and pinpoint Shingo as his final resting place. (As luck would have it, the graves of Adam and Eve were just 15 miles west of town.)

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-a ... z2HS356RMR
 
Jesus could fly and walk on water, so it's only inevitable that he would have visited every continent and country on the planet. :)
 
Shape-shifting Jesus spent his last supper with Pontius Pilate, claims just-deciphered 1,200-year-old Egyptian manuscript


A 1,200-year-old Egyptian manuscript tells the story of the crucifixion with incredible plot twists - including the revelation that Jesus could change shape.

The ancient illuminated text's claim explains why Judas used a kiss to betray Jesus, since the Christian Messiah had the ability to transform his appearance.

It also claims Jesus in fact spent his last supper with the man who ordered his execution, Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, who is said to have offered to sacrifice his own son in Jesus' place.

And it defies the official Easter timeline by putting the day of Jesus' arrest on Tuesday evening, rather than the canonically agreed Thursday.

The translation from the original Coptic has been revealed for the first time in a new book by Roelof van den Broek, emeritus professor of the History of Christianity at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

The newly-deciphered text explains that, far from a sign of affection or guilt, the kiss was Judas' way of forestalling any shapeshifting confusion.

'The Jews said to Judas: How shall we arrest him [Jesus], for he does not have a single shape but his appearance changes. Sometimes he is ruddy, sometimes he is white, sometimes he is red, sometimes he is wheat coloured, sometimes he is pallid like ascetics, sometimes he is a youth, sometimes an old man...' it reads.

But shapeshifting is not the only superpower the ancient manuscript attributes to Jesus - it also says that he could even turn himself invisible.

It claims that on the night before his crucifixion, Jesus ate dinner with Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect who decided his sentence - who, it is said, remarkably offered his son to be crucified in place of the Messiah.

Jesus declined the offer, explaining that if he could escape from his fate if he wanted to.

'Pilate, then, looked at Jesus and, behold, he became incorporeal: He did not see him for a long time,' the text says.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z2NZ58J7uS

What's next - Jesus = Reptilian Alien?

Later Edit - too late, it's been done!

As one race of Lesser Gods, the reptilians have the ability to transmute into whatever incarnate form they desire. Their intermingling with the daughters of Man on Earth is no less awkward or conspicuous than the appearance of the "serpent" to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Just as the Virgin Mary was "overshadowed" by the "Spirit of God" (a "Shining One") to produce Jesus, so it was and is with the breeding of all enhanced beings who are the offspring of the Lesser Gods. This process is normal for the conception of both Christ and Melchezedek beings, having the ability to self-actualize generally at puberty to full knowledge and empowerment.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sumer ... iles13.htm

Whatever the hell that means. :roll:
 
I think we can safely say this comes under the heading of Jesus myth. Besides, everyone knows the Dominion were the baddies in this scenario, though it might make sense the old sci-fi cliché of the evil double could have started with a version of the Bible stories.
 
'One of the earliest images of Jesus' unearthed in Egyptian tomb

Image buried deep within crypt shows a young man with curly hair, who appears to be giving a blessing

A team of Catalan archaeologists believes it has unearthed one of the earliest images of Jesus Christ buried deep in an ancient Egyptian tomb.

Experts at the University of Barcelona discovered an underground structure in the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchu which may have acted as a resting place for a number of priests.

More than 45 tonnes of rock had to be moved in order to access the hidden room. Another unidentified structure found nearby during this process is currently being investigated.

Once inside, the team found five or six coats of paint on the walls, the last of which was from the Coptic period of the first Christians.

The underground structure was also reportedly decorated with Coptic images and may contain one of the earliest-known representations of Jesus Christ, The Local has reported.

Dr Josep Padró, the Emeritus Professor at the University of Barcelona who led the expedition, described the find as “exceptional”.

He told the La Vanguardia newspaper that the figure is that of "a young man with curly hair, dressed in a short tunic and with his hand raised as if giving a blessing".

"We could be dealing with a very early image of Jesus Christ," he added.

A team is now working to translate inscriptions surrounding the figure.

The tomb of a writer who had been buried with his tools was also discovered during the excavation.

Mr Padro explained: “Another exceptional find of the expedition is the tomb of a scriber who was buried together with his working tools: a metallic inkpot which is still full of ink and two new pens for the deceased to write during the eternal life.”

There are inscriptions to identify the tomb, but Mr Padro said he believed the archaeological remains allowed them to conclude the writer was aged around seventeen years.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 07256.html
 
Was Pantera Really the Father of Jesus?

Back at the start of the year, I made a very brief reference to the claim that the true father of Jesus was a Roman soldier named Pantera, Pandera, or Panthera. The claim originates in Jewish anti-Christian lore and first appears in the historical record in Origen’s Contra Celsus 1.32, where the Church Father relates with disapproval the fact that the pagan philosopher Celsus had said of the Virgin that “when she was pregnant she was turned out of doors by the carpenter to whom she had been betrothed, as having been guilty of adultery, and that she bore a child to a certain soldier named Panthera.” This particular tale also appeared in the Jerusalem Talmud and the satirical Jewish anti-Gospel called theSefer Toledot Yeshu. Some Late Antique Jewish texts call Jesus the “son of Pantera,” and imply that the story originated in the first century CE. What I didn’t know is that James Tabor, advocate of the Talpiot Tomb, takes this seriously!

I discovered this fact in a roundabout way after a Facebook posting linked me to an article from last year that not only rehearsed this claim, which was well known to me, but included the full name and career of Pantera, which was not known to me from any ancient or medieval source. According to the article, this soldier was Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera, from Phoenicia, who died at the age of 62, having served 40 years as an archer in the Roman army. This was rather specific, given that none of the medieval or ancient sources provided any such claim for the alleged rapist who sired Jesus. Even better, the article gave the text of his tombstone! ...

http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/was-pantera-really-the-father-of-jesus
 
Was Pantera Really the Father of Jesus?

Back at the start of the year, I made a very brief reference to the claim that the true father of Jesus was a Roman soldier named Pantera, Pandera, or Panthera. The claim originates in Jewish anti-Christian lore and first appears in the historical record in Origen’s Contra Celsus 1.32, where the Church Father relates with disapproval the fact that the pagan philosopher Celsus had said of the Virgin that “when she was pregnant she was turned out of doors by the carpenter to whom she had been betrothed, as having been guilty of adultery, and that she bore a child to a certain soldier named Panthera.” This particular tale also appeared in the Jerusalem Talmud and the satirical Jewish anti-Gospel called theSefer Toledot Yeshu. Some Late Antique Jewish texts call Jesus the “son of Pantera,” and imply that the story originated in the first century CE. What I didn’t know is that James Tabor, advocate of the Talpiot Tomb, takes this seriously!

I discovered this fact in a roundabout way after a Facebook posting linked me to an article from last year that not only rehearsed this claim, which was well known to me, but included the full name and career of Pantera, which was not known to me from any ancient or medieval source. According to the article, this soldier was Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera, from Phoenicia, who died at the age of 62, having served 40 years as an archer in the Roman army. This was rather specific, given that none of the medieval or ancient sources provided any such claim for the alleged rapist who sired Jesus. Even better, the article gave the text of his tombstone! ...

http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/was-pantera-really-the-father-of-jesus

This could all be a myth, of course, or counter-myth: dependent on ones belief of an historical Jesus.
Certainly, the idea that Jesus was the son of a Roman archer would have been seen as a dangerous concept to the Christian system of belief. Hence Origens' theological destruction of the claims made by Celsus.
One could almost say that Celsus was the anti-Christ! Celsus was a Greek, of course and a philosopher and one has to ask; was he also a Jew? It is known that he mixed freely amongst the Jews and he must have gathered much of his
insight from them. Yet, he also took them to task. My own idea is that he was first and foremost a philosopher, attempting to get at the truth. He had no more knowledge of the historical accuracy of the birth of Jesus, than anyone else. Therefore; any attempt to link these archaeological finds to an historical Jesus must be taken as speculation only.
 
jesushitsdeck.gif
 
Wasn't jesus reffered to as the morning star? So was Lucifer.
 
Wasn't jesus reffered to as the morning star?
Wasn't he referred to as the servant of all? Washed his disciples feet as a parting gesture before this happened to him?

6f959603.jpg



I don't think himself and Lucifer share much in terms of characterisation at all. Quite distinct.
 
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Wasn't he referred to as the servant of all? Washed his disciples feet as a parting gesture before this happened to him?

He also wasn't averse to having his feet washed in perfume by a lovely laydee. Bit of a double standard, Jeez.
 
Wasn't he referred to as the servant of all? Washed his disciples feet as a parting gesture before this happened to him?

6f959603.jpg



I don't think himself and Lucifer share much in terms of characterisation at all. Quite distinct.

No, but if you wanted to start up another religion in a region already dedicated to a religion(to cause friction) maybe Lucifer would be happy to pretend to be nice.
Also, they do share one key characteristic...they both fell to earth.
 
The legend of Pantera as Jesus' father is the main reason I believe a first-century Jewish healer/prophet named Yeshua existed, because it sounds like an actual rumour, not a folktale or a myth.

I came across an article on page 381 in Volume 8 of Notes and Queries from 1913 called 'The Barabbas Incident in the Gospels' which says that in a lost Jewish source Barabbas and Jesus were the same person; the idea is that Barabbas was originally 'Bar Abdas', which was a patronymic for Jesus and referred to the first name of the soldier who was supposed to be his father, Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera.

In some early Jewish document charges of illegitimacy and insurrection were made against Jesus. The first charge was at least earlier than the time of Celsus, who wrote in the middle of the second century.
The omission of all reference to it in the canonical Gospels is easily intelligible. The latter charge, the only one which Pilate could entertain, they mention {Luke xxiii. 2, 5 ; John xix. 12). In the existing Acts of Pilate, or of Nicodemus, however, the first charge made by the Jews, when confronted with Jesus before Pilate's tribunal, is that of illegitimacy.

The statement has been taken over from probably the earlier heathen Acts of Pilate described by Eusebius as "full of blasphemy" and ordered to be taught in the schools by an edict of the Emperor Maximinus at the beginning of the fourth century---- which these later Acts were intended to refute and displace. In the existing Acts the charge is found in close connexion with the mention of Barabbas.

In the majority of codices existing in the time of Origen, the "notable prisoner" is called "Jesus Barabbas" in Matt, xxvii. 17 and originally doubtless in the preceding verse also, though there omitted in the Latin rendering of Origen in loc. These readings are found in several important Greek MSS., in the Sinaitic, Syriac, and Armenian versions, and are accepted by eminent critical authorities.

The conclusions founded on these facts may be briefly stated thus: in an early Jewish source Jesus was described as the leader of an insurrection, and, in connexion with his patronymic (necessarily given in Roman legal procedure) Bar Abbas, or rather Bar Abdas, as the illegitimate son of a certain Abdas. An early Christian evangelist perhaps the same to whom is due the account of the guard at the sepulchre, in Matthew, where the Barabbas incident is given most fully may have met the Jewish changes by admitting that a notable prisoner named Jesus Bar Abdas was condemned about the same time, but was liberated at the request of the Jews, while Jesus the Christ suffered.
 
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Resurrection did not happen, say quarter of Christians

A quarter of people who describe themselves as Christians in Great Britain do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, a survey commissioned by the BBC suggests.

However, almost one in 10 people of no religion say they do believe the Easter story, but it has "some content that should not be taken literally".

A fifth of non-religious people believe in life after death, the poll suggests.

The Church of England said it showed many people held religious beliefs.

ComRes surveyed 2,010 British adults by telephone, between 2 and 12 February 2017. The research was commissioned by BBC local radio for Palm Sunday.

The survey suggested:

17% of all people believe the Bible version word-for-word
31% of Christians believe word-for-word the Bible version, rising to 57% among "active" Christians (those who go to a religious service at least once a month)
Exactly half of all people surveyed did not believe in the resurrection at all
46% of people say they believe in some form of life after death and 46% do not
20% of non-religious people say they believe in some form of life after death
9% of non-religious people believe in the Resurrection, 1% of whom say they believe it literally.

Reverend Dr Lorraine Cavenagh is the acting general secretary for Modern Church, which promotes liberal Christian theology.
She said: "I think [people answering the survey] are being asked to believe in the way they might have been asked to believe when they were at Sunday school.
"You're talking about adults here. And an adult faith requires that it be constantly questioned, constantly re-interpreted, which incidentally is very much what modern church is actually about.

"Science, but also intellectual and philosophical thought has progressed. It has a trickle-down effect on just about everybody's lives.
"So to ask an adult to believe in the resurrection the way they did when they were at Sunday school simply won't do and that's true of much of the key elements of the Christian faith."

Respondents were split evenly on the issue of life after death. While the majority of Christians say they do believe, just 46% of the general public do and 46% do not. The remaining 8% say they do not know.

Examples of life after death given in the survey included heaven, hell and reincarnation.

Three in ten Christians surveyed (31%) said they did not believe in life after death.

However a fifth of non-religious people surveyed said they did (21%).

Commenting for the Church of England, the Bishop of Manchester, the Right Reverend David Walker, said: "This important and welcome survey proves that many British people, despite not being regular churchgoers, hold core Christian beliefs.
"Alongside them it finds surprisingly high levels of religious belief among those who follow no specific religion, often erroneously referred to as secularists or atheists.
"This demonstrates how important beliefs remain across our society and hence the importance both of religious literacy and of religion having a prominent place in public discourse."

The survey found women were more likely to believe in life after death than men, around 56% of women surveyed compared with 36% of men.

Of those who did believe in life after death, two thirds of those surveyed (65%) said they thought their souls would go to "another life" such as heaven or hell while a third thought they would be reincarnated (32%).

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39153121
 
many British people, despite not being regular churchgoers, hold core Christian beliefs.
On the contrary, Bishop.
Looks more like a broadly scattered flock to me.
Neither here nor there.
Caution.

Can anybody recommend a good translation of the Gnospels? I like the NIV of the Gospels. Interested in something as contemporary for the Gnospels.
 
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