in his book “Ethics for the New Millennium”.

Christ a superstition and a “fable”—Pope Leo X,

At a lavish Good Friday banquet in the Vatican in 1514.
Raising a chalice of wine into the air, Pope Leo toasted:
“How well we know what a profitable superstition this fable of Christ has been for us and our predecessors.” 
The pope’s pronouncement is recorded in the diaries and records of both Pietro Cardinal Bembo (Letters and Comments on Pope Leo X, 1842 reprint) and Paolo Cardinal Giovio (De Vita Leonis Decimi, , op. cit.), two associates who were witnesses to it. 

From: http://www.nairaland.com/372231/pope-leo-x-most-infamous

Later, Pope Paul III,  expressed similar sentiments, saying that there was no valid document to demonstrate the existence of Christ. He confessed that “Jesus never existed”, adding that he was “no other than the sun, adored in its Mithraic sect…”

Court of Justice, Viterbo,  Italy : no 45/b

http://www.luigicascioli.eu/traduzioni/en_proceso4.htm  (See last paragraph)

David Jenkins, a former Anglican Bishop of Durham and university professor, has stated that

“There is absolutely no certainty in the New Testament about anything of importance.” http://www.church.org.uk/resources/csdetail.asp?csdate=01/04/2007

Retired Episcopal Bishop says Hell is an invention of the church to control people with fear.

He also said God doesn’t want you to grow up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMfuZqjFDT8

17 year advisor to the Pope exposes Bible Fraud and Forgery

http://beyondallreligion.net/2011/08/28/advisor-to-the-pope-exposes-bible-fraud-and-forgery/

SHORT REVIEW OF “JESUS, INTERRUPTED”, by
Samuel Butler 7/10/2010
Bart D. Ehrman, the author of “Jesus Interrupted,
Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and
Why We Don’t Know About Them”) (HarperCollins, 2009)
was a fundamentalist evangelical Christian, who was
certain that every word in the Bible had been inspired by
God when he entered Princeton Theological Seminary,
intending to become a Professor of the Bible.
49
As a seeker of truth, things did not turn out as he planned.
He found in historical-critical bible study classes things
that biblical scholars have unearthed in the last two
hundred years that graduates that even go on to become
pastors don’t and won’t mention in their sermons:
That the authors of the New Testament have diverging
views about who Jesus was and how salvation works.
That it contains books that were forged in the name of the
apostles by Christian writers who lived decades later.
Established Christian doctrines-such as the suffering
messiah, the divinity of Jesus, and the trinity were
inventions of still later theologians.
The idea that Jesus was divine was a later Christian
invention found only in John, the last gospel, written some
60 years after the events described, and written by an
unknown author. The raising of Lazurus from the dead,
and the divinity of Jesus are not found in any of the other
3 gospels.
The belief that Jesus was God or divine was not the belief
of Jesus’s earliest followers, nor of Jesus himself.
Bart D. Ehrman now describes himself as “an agnostic
scholar of the New Testament.”

You want details of the Crucifixions before Christ. Here are details of 16. Six would suffice to make the point that it was common for a “GOD” to be crucified :http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/kersey_graves/16/chap16.html

“These things are clearer than the light to all men; and the Church of Rome, formerly the most holy of all Churches, has become the most lawless den of thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the very kingdom of sin, death, and hell; so that not even antichrist, if he were to come, could devise any addition to its wickedness.”

Letter of Martin Luther to Pope Leo X (Wittenberg, 6th September, 1520)

http://www.bartleby.com/36/6/1.html

Mormon Whistleblower:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/helen-radkey-mormon-baptisms-harassment-accusation_n_1333267.html

Post by Kathleen Waters about a Mormon Whistleblower on Huffington Post:

“Helen Radkey is the Mormon Karen Silkwood (Whistleblower on a nuclear plant exposing workers to radioactive plutonian -movie made staring Meryl Streep called “Silkwood”. -Author)……  Radkey has been publicizing their baptisms for the dead and the marrying of men to their mistresses in polygamy FOR YEARS. Mormons did not care until she stepped into a media spotlight and let the public know what they were up to. It is a violation of a standard of American culture to disrespect the wishes of the dead. Regular Americans do not desecrate graves or baptize people against their wishes (based on their lives we can know that). …..   This is an example. Another example of disrespect for the dead is the fact that Mormons took the remains from the Mountain Meadows Massacre to BYU for study. (Mormons massacred 120 men, women and children in an emigrant wagon train that they tricked into disarming on September 11, 1857 in Southern Utah –Author Samuel Butler-see his YouTube “Beyond All Religion”). That’s like Nazis taking the bodies of holocaust victims ‘for research.’ Where was the outrage there? I suspect it was paid to go away. The Mormons own the land upon which they committed mass murder and they control what is said about the massacre. There isn’t even a sign on the highway directing tourists to the site, should they care to pay their respects” ….

“Anagrammy
(under my real name Kathleen Waters)”

“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”
― Bishop Desmond Tutu

The Christian Religion: Two Popes even admitted that Christ was a Fable.  Pope Leo X, died 1521. “How well we know what a profitable superstition this fable of Christ has been for us and our predecessors.”

Pope Leo X

Later Pope Paul III expressed similar sentiments, saying that there was no valid document to demonstrate the existence of Christ. He confessed that “Jesus never existed”, adding that he was “no other than the sun, adored in its Mithraic sect…”

Pope Paul III

In regards to the “Mithraic sect..”  Christianity is a copycat religion, invented by Constantine, for political purposes, based upon that myth, of Mithra (Mithras) son of a god, born of a virgin on December 25th.

Emperor Constantine

Mithras - Louvre, Paris

Mithras- Louvre, Paris

If I tell you to accept an untrue myth as true, I am asking you to believe a LIE, no matter how much you may adore the untrue myth.

Judaism:

Sargon I

Based on another LIE. Moses was based upon the life and legends of Sargon the Great, the

King of Akkad.

The story of Sargon’s birth and childhood is given in the “Sargon legend“, a Sumerian text ….. In particular, the image of Sargon as a baby castaway set adrift on a river picked up by a gardener…

Moses never existed: Amongst the hundreds of thousands of Egyptian monumental inscriptions, tomb inscriptions and papyri, there is complete silence about the ’600,000 men on foot, besides women and children’ who The Book of Exodus tells us escaped from Pharaoh’s armies.  The Egyptians were great record keepers. If a silo broke in Nubia, they recorded it.

Mormonism is based on a LIE. The founder, Joseph Smith, was convicted in a court of law on March 20, 1826 of being an impostor (we call it fraud now-a con man).

Joseph Smith

Later, Joseph Smith claimed that on September 22, 1827 he ran 3 miles, running at the top of his speed through the woods, jumping over logs, and knocking down not one or two, but three assailants in the process, all the while with the 200 pounds of gold plates safely under his arm!  Lead is close to the weight of gold. Try running 3 miles with 200 pounds of lead tucked under one arm. Once at home, he verbally translates the plates to scribes (who are forbidden to see them) into the Book of Mormon.

Islam: Question: You decide: Does the text of the verses of the Qur’an correspond exactly to those revealed to Muhammad directly as the words of God, delivered to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, as claimed?

The above is from my new book:  “Beyond All Religion”, available at Amazon, here: http://tinyurl.com/7cz2cwv  (152 pages, $9.95) Also an ebook on Smashwords ($3.49), OR send $9.95 to Sam Butler, SB 197, PO BOX 25292, Miami, FL 33102.

Website: www.beyondallreligion.net

It’s in a treaty:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tripoli

…”receiving ratification unanimously from the U.S. Senate on June 7, 1797 and signed by Adams, taking effect as the law of the land on June 10, 1797.

The Treaty is much discussed in the 21st century because of the text of article 11, as ratified by the Senate:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

Quotations from the 5 Founding Fathers of the United States:

 “The fable of Christ and his twelve apostles…is a parody of the sun and the twelve signs of the Zodiac, copied from the ancient religions of the Eastern world…. Every thing told of Christ has reference to the sun. His reported resurrection is at sunrise, and that on the first day of the week; that is, on the day anciently dedicated to the sun, and from thence called Sunday…”

James Madison:  

Fourth president and father of the Constitution, was not religious in any conventional sense. “Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.” 

Benjamin Franklin:

As to Jesus of Nazareth…. I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity

Ethan Allen, whose capture of Fort Ticonderoga while commanding the Green Mountain Boys helped inspire Congress and the country to pursue the War of Independence, said, “That Jesus Christ was not God is evidence from his own words.” In the same book, Allen noted that he was generally “denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed, being conscious that I am no Christian.” When Allen married Fanny Buchanan, he stopped his own wedding ceremony when the judge asked him if he promised “to live with Fanny Buchanan agreeable to the laws of God.” Allen refused to answer until the judge agreed that the God referred to was the God of Nature, and the laws those “written in the great book of nature.”

From:  Religion of the American Enlightenment by G. Adolph Koch, p. 40 (1968

POST-GAZETTE:

To hear the religious right tell it, men like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were 18th-century versions of Jerry Falwell in powdered wigs and stockings. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Unlike many of today’s candidates, the founders didn’t find it necessary to constantly wear religion on their sleeves. They considered faith a private affair.

Contrast them to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (who says he wouldn’t vote for an atheist for president because nonbelievers lack the proper moral grounding to guide the American ship of state), Texas Gov. Rick Perry (who hosted a prayer rally and issued an infamous ad accusing President Barack Obama of waging a “war on religion”) and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (whose uber-Catholicism leads him to oppose not just abortion but birth control).

There was a time when Americans voted for candidates who were skeptical of core concepts of Christianity like the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus and the virgin birth. The question is, could any of them get elected today? The sad answer is probably not.

Here are five founding fathers whose views on religion would most likely doom them to defeat today:

GEORGE WASHINGTON

The father of our country was nominally an Anglican but seemed more at home with Deism. The language of the Deists sounds odd to today’s ears because it’s a theological system of thought that has fallen out of favor. Deists believed in God but didn’t necessarily see him as active in human affairs. He set things in motion and then stepped back.

Washington often employed Deistic terms. His god was a “supreme architect” of the universe. Washington saw religion as necessary for good moral behavior but didn’t accept all Christian dogma. He seemed to have a special gripe against communion and would usually leave services before it was offered.

Washington was widely tolerant of other beliefs. He is the author of one of the great classics of religious liberty — the letter to Touro Synagogue (1790) — in which he assured America’s Jews that they would enjoy complete religious liberty in America; not mere toleration in an officially “Christian” nation. He outlines a vision of a multi-faith society where all are free.

“All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship,” Washington wrote. “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”

Stories of Washington’s deep religiosity, such as tales of him praying in the snow at Valley Forge, are pious legends invented after his death.

JOHN ADAMS

The man who followed Washington as president was a Unitarian, although he was raised a Congregationalist and never officially left that church. Adams rejected belief in the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, core concepts of Christian dogma. In his personal writings, Adams makes it clear that he considered some Christian dogma to be incomprehensible.

In February 1756, Adams wrote in his diary about a discussion he had had with a conservative Christian named Major Greene. The two argued over the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity. Questioned on the matter of Jesus’ divinity, Greene fell back on an old standby: some matters of theology are too complex and mysterious for we puny humans to understand.

Adams was not impressed. In his diary he wrote, “Thus mystery is made a convenient cover for absurdity.”  As president, Adams signed the famous Treaty of Tripoli, which boldly stated, “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion …”

THOMAS JEFFERSON

It’s almost impossible to define Jefferson’s subtle religious views in a few words. As he once put it, “I am a sect by myself, as far as I know.”

But one thing is clear: His skepticism of traditional Christianity is well established. Our third president did not believe in the Trinity, the virgin birth, the divinity of Jesus, the resurrection, original sin and other core Christian doctrines. He was hostile to many conservative Christian clerics, whom he believed had perverted the teachings of that faith.

Jefferson once famously observed to Adams, “And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”

Although not an orthodox Christian, Jefferson admired Jesus as a moral teacher. In one of his most unusual acts, Jefferson edited the New Testament, cutting away the stories of miracles and divinity and leaving behind a very human Jesus, whose teachings Jefferson found “sublime.” This “Jefferson Bible” is a remarkable document — and it would ensure his political defeat today. (Imagine the TV commercials the religious right would run: Thomas Jefferson hates Jesus! He mutilates Bibles!)

Jefferson was confident that a coolly rational form of religion would take root in the fertile intellectual soil of America. And he took political stands that would infuriate today’s religious right. He refused to issue proclamations calling for days of prayer and fasting, saying that such religious duties were no part of the chief executive’s job. His assertion that the First Amendment erects a “wall of separation between church and state” still rankles the religious right today.

JAMES MADISON

Jefferson’s close ally would be similarly unelectable today. Madison is perhaps the most enigmatic of all the founders when it comes to religion. Scholars still debate his religious views.

Nominally Anglican, Madison, some of his biographers believe, was really a Deist. He went through a period of enthusiasm for Christianity as a young man, but this seems to have faded. Unlike many of today’s politicians, who eagerly wear religion on their sleeves and brag about the ways their faith will guide their policy decisions, Madison was notoriously reluctant to talk publicly about his religious beliefs.

Madison was perhaps the strictest church-state separationist among the founders, taking stands that make the ACLU look like a bunch of pikers. He opposed government-paid chaplains in Congress and in the military. As president, Madison rejected a proposed census because it involved counting people by profession. For the government to count the clergy, Madison said, would violate the First Amendment.

Madison, who wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, also opposed government prayer proclamations. He issued a few during the War of 1812 at the insistence of Congress but later concluded that his actions had been unconstitutional. He vetoed legislation granting federal land to a church and a plan to have a church in Washington care for the poor through a largely symbolic charter. In both cases, he cited the First Amendment.

THOMAS PAINE

Paine never held elective office, but as a pamphleteer his stirring words helped rally Americans to independence. Washington ordered that Paine’s pamphlet “The American Crisis” be read aloud to the Continental Army as a morale booster on Dec. 23, 1776. “Common Sense” was similarly popular with the people. These seminal documents were crucial to winning over the public to the side of independence.

So Paine’s a hero, right? He was also a radical Deist whose later work, “The Age of Reason,” still infuriates fundamentalists.  In the tome, Paine attacked institutionalized religion and all of the major tenets of Christianity. He rejected prophecies and miracles and called on readers to embrace reason. The Bible, Paine asserted, can in no way be infallible. He called the god of the Old Testament “wicked” and the entire Bible “the pretended word of God.” (There go the Red States!)

What can we learn from this? Americans have the right to reject candidates for any reason, including their religious beliefs. But they ought to think twice before tossing someone aside just because he or she is skeptical of orthodox Christianity. After all, that description includes some of our nation’s greatest leaders.

Rob Boston, a native of Altoona and graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, is a senior policy analyst at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. This originally appeared at Alternet.org.

http://tinyurl.com/85cd9e7

First published on January 22, 2012 Here:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12022/1204849-109-0.stm#ixzz1lr2tgfBZ 

Available on Amazon:  http://tinyurl.com/3jln7b2 

E-Book available $2.99:  http://tinyurl.com/4xh38xh

Ebook is  $1.02 with this discount code: YV54M

http://freethoughtnation.com/contributing-writers/74-barbara-g-walker/649-bible-morality-or-depravity.html

While we are on the subject of religion, to be fair, I must add for balance purposes: The Bible is not peaceful. The Koran is not peaceful. The Buddhists in Tibet were not peaceful, the Mormons: “Slit their Throats”-said Brigham Young… A rabbi said “a million Arabs are not worth one Jewish fingernail”.

The above said, let us move BEYOND ALL RELIGION, allowing the brilliant beacon of peace and truth to illuminate the world bringing love, tolerance and healing to all.

http://www.beyond all religion.net

When I was going to University of California, Berkeley, I was seated on a long table in the University Library with students like myself on either side. I was a little tired in the library, and put my head down on my book to rest. When I raised my head up, an attractive dark-haired girl seated across from me was looking at me, smiling, asked “Do you study by osmosis?” (Some people say one can absorb a book by resting their heads upon a book!).

Amused, I started a conversation with her. Her name was Barbara.

Later, we spent a lot of time together.  I had a car and my own apartment.  She lived in San Leandro, about 25 minutes south of Berkeley.  One time we stayed up all night to see the sunrise. We never consummated our relationship, but came close. She had incredibly soft skin, especially in the neck and shoulder area. She was very intelligent, and we coincided in liberal thinking, in a time of social germinating upheaval. It was 1958. We attended a meeting against the hydrogen bomb, among others.

I eventually asked her to marry me.

First, she wanted to meet my family. Both of my parents had died, but I had brothers in Northern California. We went and visited (briefly) my brother Bob and his wife Mary in San Francisco, and my brother Tom and his wife Shirley in Santa Cruz, and my sister Kay, in Santa Clara County, as I recall.

I believe Barbara truly loved me, but there was an obstacle to our being married, other than her family being wealthier than my family.

Barbara’s father owned a factory in San Leandro.  There was something else. She was Jewish.  My remaining  family at the time were all Christians.  As it turned out, her very rich grandfather did not want her to marry a gentile, and if she did, she was told that he would dis-inherit/disown  her.  She would be an outcast to an important part of her family.

I seemed to get along very well with Barbara’s mother, and didn’t see much of her father.

So because of religion, two people in love, couldn’t marry.

The irony of the story is that I found out later that my grandparents on my father side are both buried in a Jewish Cemetery in New York. My mother was full blooded Norwegian. Her mother was a lady in waiting to the Queen of Norway. My mother’s father was a Lutheran minister.

My mother, I heard, told my Jewish father that she would marry him only if he agreed to bring up the children as Christians.

My father agreed, and his Jewish background was suppressed.

My mother, Catherine Dahl Butler, eventually had 6 children, me being the last. I didn’t know I was part Jewish until I was 18.

Later, doing genealogy, I found out that I am probably close to 50% Jewish!

Maybe her grandfather wouldn’t have dis-inherited her if he was informed of that information.

If I had known of my Jewish background at the time that I asked Barbara to marry me, would Barbara’s grandfather have approved ?  This will always be a mystery.

I do know religion kills and/or poisons potential marriages between otherwise compatible lovers.

I later married Marcy, the mother of my son Matthew. Marcy was brought up Catholic, but she was not devout. We needed a facility in which to get married, but we were forbidden to marry in the Catholic Church, because she had a previous divorce. We were married by a Justice of the Peace in San Francisco City Hall instead.

In a perfect world Beyond Religion, many potential marriages between very otherwise compatible potential partners wouldn’t be arbitrarily blocked.  In many religions, to marry a person of a different religion means being ostracized from your church/temple and even family.  It means death in certain parts of the Middle East.

Does this odyssey matter to me, today?

I am now happily married after several attempts at a lasting married relationship. Besides that, Barbara’s family (grandfather?)  would probably have tried to make me convert to Judiasm, and I would be a captive INSIDE religion, not FREE and BEYOND ALL RELIGION.

Emperor Constantine

Christianity is a copycat religion created by Emperor Constantine (for political purposes) based upon a myth (The Persian savior god Mithra, crucified 600 B.C. ?  400 B.C.?), which was based on other similar myths, all the way back to Chrishna of India (a mythical god that some claim was “crucified” around 1200 B.C.). There were 16 mythical crucifixions before Christ. The belief in the crucifixion of Gods was prevalent in various oriental or heathen countries long prior to the reported crucifixion of Christ.  Of the 16 crucifixions, most were born of a virgin and about half of them on December 25th.

There were too many religions in Rome in 325 A.D.  A Council was called in an endeavor to amalgamate the many religions of the Roman Empire into one.  Christianity plagiarized older myths and legends historicized to suit the Roman Catholic Church while combining the numerous religions existing at the time (Krishna, Horus, Mithraism, Osirian, Isis, and many other mystery religions).  For unity and to stop all the conflicts between the numerous religions…

Christianity was INVENTED.

Eusebius (Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine  “Father of Church History“) attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. and was a friend of Emperor Constantine, who also attended and made the keynote speech. Constantine  instructed Eusebius to organize the compilation of a uniform collection of new writings developed from primary aspects of the religious texts submitted at the council.  Eusebius has been described as  follows:  Jacob Burckhardt (19th century cultural historian) dismissed Eusebius as ”the first thoroughly dishonest historian of antiquity”. He has been also described as “a political theologian”. He favored doctoring his history in his own words to “be useful first to ourselves and afterwards to posterity”. Edward Gibbon (18th century historian –“The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”) dismissed his testimony on the number of martyrs and impugned his honesty.

(To be clear on this matter, I say don’t trust Eusebius’s  reports of the Apostles or how the Apostles died, and be suspicious of all of his writings.)  - Author Samuel Butler

Eusebius then arranged for scribes to produce fifty sumptuous copies to be written on parchment in a legible manner, and in a convenient portable form, by professional scribes thoroughly accomplished in their art (ibid.).

Bishop Eusebius

These orders, said Eusebius, were followed by the immediate execution of the work itself we sent him [Constantine] magnificently and elaborately bound volumes of three-fold and four-fold forms (Life of Constantine, vol. iv, p.36).  They were  the New Testimonies, and this is the first mention (c. 331) of the New Testament in the historical record. With his instructions fulfilled,  Constantine then decreed that the New Testimonies would thereafter be called the word of the Roman Saviour God (Life of Constantine, vol. iii, p. 29) and official to all presbyters sermonising in the Roman Empire.

He then ordered earlier presbyterial manuscripts and the records of the council burnt and declared that any man found concealing writings should be stricken off from his shoulders (beheaded).

NONE OF THESE 50 NEW TESTAMENTS EXIST TODAY OR ARE ADMITTED TO EXISTING!

THIS NEW TESTAMENT WAS THE OFFICIAL BOOK OF THE NEW UNIFIED RELIGION OF CONSTANTINE NOT THE BIBLE!

ALL OTHER BOOKS TO BE BURNED ,THAT WOULD INCLUDE THE TORAH/OLD TESTAMENT

IT INCLUDED BURNING THE GREAT LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA IN EGYPT 391 A.D.

In 391 A.D., Christian Emperor Theodosius I ordered the destruction of all pagan (“heathen” they were also called) temples. The Christian Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria (Egypt) complied with this request. Seizing this opportunity, Theophilus exerted himself to the utmost to expose the pagan mysteries to contempt, the Serapeum also he showed full of extravagant superstitions, (and) the commander-in-chief of the troops in Egypt, assisted Theophilus in demolishing the heathen temples (and) then he destroyed the Serapeum. -Historia Ecclesiastica

The Serapeum housed the Great Library of Alexandria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_alexandria

Why there are no records of Jesus Christ?

Federic William Farrar

It is not possible to find in any legitimate religious or historical writings compiled between the beginning of the first century and well into the fourth century any reference to Jesus Christ and the spectacular events that the Church says accompanied his life. This confirmation comes from Frederic Farrar (1831-1903) of Trinity College, Cambridge:

“It is amazing that history has not embalmed for us even one certain or definite saying or circumstance in the life of the Saviour of mankind … there is no statement in all history that says anyone saw Jesus or talked with him. Nothing in history is more astonishing than the silence of contemporary writers about events relayed in the four Gospels.”  (The Life of Christ, Frederic W. Farrar, Cassell, London, 1874)

This situation arises from a conflict between history and New Testament narratives.  Dr Tischendorf made this comment:

“We must frankly admit that we have no source of information with respect to the life of Jesus Christ other than ecclesiastic writings assembled during the fourth century.” (Codex Sinaiticus, Dr Constantin von Tischendorf, British Library, London)

There is an explanation for those hundreds of years of silence: the construct of Christianity did not begin until after the first quarter of the fourth century, and that is why Pope Leo X (d. 1521) called Christ a “fable” (Cardinal Bembo:  His Letters…, op. cit.), and later Pope Paul III expressed similar sentiments, saying that there was no valid document to demonstrate the existence of Christ.  He confessed that Jesus never existed, adding that he was no other than the sun, adored in its Mithraic sect…”

BUT WAIT, WHAT DOES THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SAY ABOUT THIS?

You will be surprised:

From: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biblianazar/esp_biblianazar_40.htm :

What (your local) Church doesn’t know and/or wouldn’t want you to know,  if they knew.

It has often been emphasized that Christianity is unlike any other religion, for it stands or falls by certain events which are alleged to have occurred during a short period of time some 20 centuries ago. Those stories are presented in the New Testament, and as new evidence is revealed it will become clear that they do not represent historical realities.

The Church agrees, saying:

“Our documentary sources of knowledge about the origins of Christianity and its earliest development are chiefly the New Testament Scriptures, the authenticity of which we must, to a great extent, take for granted.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. iii, p. 712)

The Church makes extraordinary admissions about its New Testament. For example, when discussing the origin of those writings, “the most distinguished body of academic opinion ever assembled” (Catholic Encyclopedias, Preface) admits that the Gospels “do not go back to the first century of the Christian era” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. vi, p. 137, pp. 655-6).

This statement conflicts with priesthood assertions that the earliest Gospels were progressively written during the decades following the death of the Gospel (sic) Jesus Christ. In a remarkable aside, the Church further admits that, “the earliest of the extant manuscripts [of the New Testament], it is true, do not date back beyond the middle of the fourth century AD”– (Catholic Encyclopedia, op. cit., pp. 656-7).

That is some 350 years after the time the Church claims that a Jesus Christ walked the sands of Palestine, and here the true story of Christian origins slips into one of the biggest black holes in history. There is, however, a reason why there were no New Testaments until the fourth century: they were not written until then, and here we find evidence of the greatest misrepresentation of all time.  It was British-born Flavius Constantinus (Constantine, originally Custennyn or Custennin) (272-337) who authorized the compilation of the writings now called the New Testament.

Yes, but what about references to the four Gospels supposedly before the 3rd Century A.D.?

For example: What about Tacitus, Roman Historian, who wrote about the persecutions of the early “Christians”?

Regarding Tacitus, (Senator and Historian of the Roman Empire) these writings supporting the persecution were mysteriously found in the 15th century in the forests of Germany, following a reward offered by Leo X for old writings, and following a history of forgeries in Catholicism:  In any case, there has been serious questions about the integrity of the famous passage about Christians.

From: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/tacitus.html

Gordon Stein denied the authenticity of this passage, arguing:

(1) no corroborating evidence that Nero persecuted the Christians
(2) there was not a multitude of Christians in Rome at that date
(3) Christian was not a common term in the first century
(4) Nero was indifferent to various religions in his city
(5) Nero did not start the fire in Rome
(6) Tacitus does not use the name Jesus
(7) Tacitus assumes his readers know Pontius Pilate

Yes, but what about Josephus?

His reference to Jesus in Testimonium Flavianum has been claimed as a later addition, (Forgery-Author) not questioning the authenticity of the main work.

See: http://www.truthbeknown.com/josephus.htm

Yes, but what about Pliny the Younger’s letter to Emperor Trajan 112 A.D. (Pliny was not a contemporary of Jesus, and he never mentions “Jesus”?) Pliny the Younger (c. 61 – c. 112), the provincial governor of Pontus and Bithynia, wrote to Emperor Trajan c. 112 concerning how to deal with Christians, who refused to worship the emperor, and instead worshiped “Christus”.

What about that?

Charles Guignebert

Charles Guignebert, who does not doubt that Jesus of the Gospels lived in Gallilee in the 1st century, nevertheless dismisses this letter as acceptable historical evidence:

“Only the most robust credulity could  reckon this assertion as admissible evidence for the historicity of Jesus” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

Nevertheless, I was concerned about the possibility of far older Gospels when I was stating that Christianity was invented around 325 A.D., but the research thread leads back to Eusebius, the FORGER, (“Papias, quoted by Eusebius…”).

Eusebius was the dishonest Church Father historian of antiquity who made up a lot of Church history. “we shall introduce into this history in general only those events which may be useful first to ourselves and afterwards to posterity”. The research thread (about older Gospels) also leads to the “spurious” writings of Irenaeus: http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/gospels-late-forgeries/blog-249881/ .

Yes, but what about  pre-nicene so-called “Early Christian” (Gnostic?) writings? They disagreed with each other, were riddled with conflict and forgeries, of questionable and confusing timing and origin , and not coherent enough for an organized religion. So the myth of Mithra, the Persian Savior God, was chosen by Emperor Constantine and Bishop Eusebius as the model to create the new religion , Christianity.

Yes, but what about Church father Justin Martyr’s purported use of the New Testament gospels?

From Acharya S., Biblical scholar: (http://www.freethoughtnation.com/contributing-writers/63-acharya-s/679-does-justin-martyr-quote-the-gospels.html)

“No verbatim quotes or unambiguous citations from the canonical gospels as we have them appear anywhere in Justin’s extant works.”

Matthew, Mark and Luke are never named by Justin; nor is John.

Nor does Justin Martyr name any of the evangelists in any known text

In any case, the Catholic Encyclopedia itself supports the thesis that the Gospels of Christianity were written no earlier than the 4^th Century:  ”the earliest of the extant manuscripts [of the New Testament], it is true, do not date back beyond the middle of the fourth century AD”– (Catholic Encyclopedia, op. cit., pp. 656-7).

Retired Episcopal Bishop says Hell is an invention of the church to control people with fear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=5BkP9-HG8-I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shelby_Spong

Information about Eusebius, Constantine, and Paul.

FATHER EUSEBIUS, FORGER:http://www.christianity-revealed.com/cr/files/fathereusebiustheforger.html (One view, for what it’s worth-a bit harsh)

_______________________________________

“Women are not a channel to God”, states Jack Schaap (Pastor of First Baptist Church- Hammond, Indiana). Very dogmatically, pounding his fist to the podium, in this very controversial video (below), the Pastor  professes with prideful conviction, “This is the message of the Lord.”  My goodness, this is a daunting find. People like Schaap are freely living in our communities and churches, locally and globally, preaching such extreme believes and affecting our future, children and our youth population.

Watch the video below– Unbelievable!

I can’t help it.  When I listened to Schaap I see gigantic crosses, men robed in white with their faces covered in hooded righteousness.  This man is putting down over 50% of the human population and all for the devotion to Jesus Christ, Their Savior?  It’s upsword, offensive and downright  ridiculous.  The scariest part?

People listen to him!  Lot’s and lot’s of very young people…

Can I be so optimistic and hope that Schaap is merely disfunctional entertainment for this young and impressionable crowd?  Unfortunately, he does have quit a following of worshiper’s.  This is the scary reality and fact…

The range of outreach Schaap has created is very alarming, targeting very young people who are trying to find their way in a troubled world, forced to believe, because of fear, and buying into Schaap’s sermons. It is shocking, or perhaps not so shocking, the startling statistics to whom Schaap has “saved” from going to hell  in the last five years?

A few examples of strange reality:

Believability can be catching, like a virus.

An unbelievable happening can lead you to be open to other beliefs that you normally wouldn’t consider believable.  An unbelievable event happened to me in a conference many years ago in Marin County.  A minister told us a story that, unbeknownst to his parishioners, he was under heavy sedation at San Rafael General Hospital on a Saturday night.

Later in the next week, a couple from Fairfax told him “That was a great conversation we had last Saturday night”.  The minister told the couple that that was impossible because I  was under sedation at San Rafael General Hospital.

They said no, that couldn’t be?  You talked to us for two hours. It was a great conversation, they insisted.  Not only that, another couple about 30 miles north in Novato told the minister  “That was a great conversation we had Saturday night.”  They also mentioned he had talked to them for about 2 hours.

Go figure: I believe the minister.  But that means that he teleported to two different places SIMULTANEOUSLY. Also it means that time is mysterious. Can we say he time-traveled here?

Now it gets worse.  At the same conference a guy said that he flipped his motorcycle, in front of a mack truck  and the mack truck’s tire was headed straight toward his head. He said that his whole life went before him.

Kind of skeptically, I guess, I said, “That’s interesting. Was it in technicolor?”  He said “Yes”  I said, “Tell me, was it from when you were a baby, up to that present moment?(on the pavement) or was it from that present moment to when you were a baby?”  He said, “It was from the present moment backward to when I was a baby”.  I said “Everything?”  He said “Everything.”

Go figure. If true, and I have no reason to think he was making this up, there is something weird about time.  It couldn’t have been more than fractions of a second or a second before the tire swerved and just missed him. So time can be compressed so that a lot of consciousness can fit into a short period of time. Others in accidents tell about time slowing down and things go into slow motion.

In Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda tells in Chapter 3 (“The Saint with Two Bodies”) about meeting in Banaras, when he was 12 years old,  with  Kedar Nath Babu, a person Paramahansa was supposed to contact on a business matter on behalf of  his father. His father told Paramahansa that another friend of his father,  Swami Pranabananda, would help him get in touch with Kedar Nath Babu.  Paramahansa was at the residence of the Swami, when  Kedar Nath Bagu appeared at the door of the Swami. He had been at the Ganges bathing when the Swami approached Kedar Nath Babu and told him of Paramahansa’s presence at the Swami’s residence.

This happened while  Paramahansa in the Swami’s residence, and while the Swami didn’t leave Paramahansa’s sight!  Swami Pranabananda said to Paramahansa “Why are you so stupefied at all this? The subtle unity of the phenomenal world is not hidden from true yogis. I instantly see and converse with my disciples in distant Calcutta.  They can similarly transcend at will every obstacle of gross matter.” 

There are other examples of what I would call teleportation in Autobiography of a Yogi.

Shirley Maclaine.. and Film Materializations http://sathyasaibabaji.blogspot.com/2005/07/shirley-maclaine-and-film.html

Shirley Maclaine, film star, spiritual teacher, political activist, was a guest on the Larry King Show.  She told his audience that her friend Richard Bock had gone to India to film Sai Baba. This is very difficult since Baba discourages publicity. Bock ran out of a color film while in India.. a film which could only be purchased in California. Baba excused himself from the room a moment… and came back with a film store bag which said Beverly Hills Camera Shop. A receipt was stapled to it. Inside was color film.

After he returned to California, Bock went to the shop where a clerk told him that on the day in question a man in an orange robe and Afro had come in to purchase the film, and had not waited for change.

Sai Baba 1927-2011

I heard another story about a ring that Sai Baba gave to someone and it had Tiffany’s inscribed inside it. When the person got to New York, he went into Tiffany’s and asked who bought this ring, and they said “you wouldn’t believe who bought this ring!”…. and described a man in an orange robe and Afro.

We have a personal friend, Suzanne,  that went to Sai Baba’s ashram and witnessed physical manifestations.

My wife Karen lived in India seven years as a student with a classical art major, met Mother Teresa twice, and was about to marry a young Indian man, but was somewhat worried about his dominant mother. She woke up from a dream where  Sai Baba appeared in white silk robe and she could feel the pressure of his hand on her left shoulder.  Actually for some time later during that day she continued to feel the pressure of his hand.  She took that as a message that she shouldn’t marry the young man, mainly because of the potential mother-in-law. THANK you, Sai Baba!

A TURNING POINT:   An Insane Night in the Basement of Children’s Hospital in San Francisco.  I was a logical “show-me- the-evidence” analytic type person in 1970.  After all, at University at Berkeley, my major was economics with a minor in mathematics.  BORING.  No spirituality or thinking outside the box there.

In that basement of Children’s Hospital in San Francisco everything changed after that.  At that time I was a commercial real estate broker, working as a Vice President for United States Real Estate Corporation which had offices in the Bank of America World Headquarters in San Francisco.  I had an offer on some commercially zoned land across from the Lake Tahoe Airport owned by a doctor in Palo Alto, 45 miles away.

I called the doctor and said “I have an offer on your land and I wanted to come down to Palo Alto and present the offer to you.”  He said “You don’t have to drive down,  because I am coming up tonight to a meeting in the basement of Children’s Hospital in San Francisco and you can present it to me there.

Like a good broker, I showed up 15 minutes early and sat in a chair outside the large room where the meeting was to be held.  People in white uniforms were showing up and I noticed an air of excitement. A nurse came up to me and excitingly asked me “are you Alexander Everett?” I said no, and wondered who the heck Alexander Everett was.

The doctor from Palo Alto was late, so I sat in the back of the room filled with doctors and nurses in front.  Alexander, a very impressive man,  explained the power of the alpha level of brain frequency, and said that by making your brain go to the alpha level, which I recall was 7 to 11 cycles per second, you can do amazing things.

As a demonstration, Alexander had a 17 year old boy with no medical training diagnose patients known to members of the audience. The only information the kid was given was the patient’s age, name and location.  Then this 17 year old kid from Laredo,Texas would close his eyes and go to the alpha level and “scan” the body of the patient, and would use medical terms giving his diagnosis.

After each diagnosis, Alexander would ask the doctor or nurse if that was accurate, and invariably the answer was “yes, that is correct”. There were many diagnoses and the answer was always that the diagnosis was correct.  Amazingly, one doctor asked the 17 year old if the patient was going to live or die from the particular problem, because the patient was the doctor’s mother! (she was in Switzerland, I recall)

I thought to myself that this was the weirdest thing that I had ever seen.

I did present the offer to the doctor who came up from Palo Alto, 45 miles away, and the next day when I went back to work in the Bank of America building I told one of the girls there about this amazing demonstration by Alexander Everett, who had learned this technique from Dr. José Silva in Laredo, Texas.

Alexander Everett, Author– “The Genius Within You  (1921–2005)

A couple of weeks later, the girl told me “you know the guy you told me about, Alexander Everett?  He is coming toSan Francisco and is going to give training on the alpha technique.  Of course, I signed up when he started the training, which was called “Mind Dynamics”. I learned the technique to get your mind to the alpha level, using the colors of the rainbow, and numbers declining from 7 to 1.

At the end of the training there was a graduation exercise where you were supposed to diagnose a person at a distance. I sat across from a lady who gave me a name, age and location of an individual who was 8000 miles away in the Philippines.  I closed my eyes and scanned the body, and I said, “I can’t see anything on his right arm beyond about the elbow.”  I heard a gasp from the lady sitting opposite.  She said “I was seeing if you could catch the minor ear operation he had recently.” She then told me that he had a withered right arm since he was a child, and it was so natural to her, that she didn’t even think of that.

Alexander was a teacher of teachers, and is known at the father of the human potential movement.  He had instructors who went on to teach others.One was Stuart Emory, from Australia, who taught “Actualizations” , which I took later.  Another was John Hanley, who started “Lifespring” and I took both the basic and the advanced courses.

Was this a turning point?  In steroids!

I became a “seminar junkie”. (But not taking est,  presented by Werner Erhard, who, after  investigating,  I determined to be pretty much a con man)

I was there when one of Alexander’s instructor, Werner Erhard,  announced  he was forming est,  Erhard Seminar Training). There were about 2000 people in the room at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, and here is an instructor announcing he is splitting off and forming his own awareness training.

In the lobby during a break, I asked Alexander “ What do you think about this person right under your nose forming his own training outside of yours?”  Alexander said “First there is the idea, then people start worshipping the person who has the idea, then they make images of the person who had the idea, then they build edifices to the person, then they create rituals around the person who had the idea, and then, people forget what the idea was.”

Alexander was the most spiritual person that I ever met.

While teaching at Pendragon Preparatory School that Alexander Everett founded in Sussex, England,  Alexander  contracted polio, and was told by his physicians that he would never walk again. Everett believed that he healed himself using the Unity School of Christianity’s “prayer of faith”.  After being a millionaire from England, he gave it all up and went the spiritual quest, going to India, Egypt and Greece.

Later Everett went to Texas and formed and coached a soccer team in Fort Worth.  During their first three years of existence, the team dominated their competition and never lost a single game (including a 3-1 Texas championship win in Houston in the Astrodome.  When he was in Texas, he met Dr. José Silva and learned the alpha technique from Silva, who had formed Silva Mind Control (another seminar that I took).  Although he had previously gone on the spiritual path of non-material emphasis, when I knew him he drove a Mercedes and was always impeccably dressed!

He made a turning point in my life, tipping me into spirituality and thinking outside the box.  I am indebted to and happy about that insane night at the basement of Children’s Hospital in San Francisco.  When you become aware of normally unbelievable extra-ordinary events , it opens you up to the belief in other “unbelievable” possibilities that you normally wouldn’t even consider. Like a virus, it’s catching.

Samuel Butler7/7/2011

Website : http://tinyurl.com/4na5zpv

Author: Book: http://tinyurl.com/4xyjh6r

Personal example of Viral Believability:

Mars Anomaly Research Society

Having experiences myself and acknowledging the experiences of others mentioned above, I was made more open to the mind boggling information presented at a conference on time travel given at Kona, Hawaii in June 2011 http://tinyurl.com/44xnywh where Andrew Basiago told awesome personal experiences in Project Pegasus.

There was a remarkable story about Andrew on Major U.S. Media on January 4th, 2012:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45878146/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.TwaoFdT9MV

Without my previous unbelievable experiences, I would not have been ready to accept what he said. (He spoke for two hours in detail about travel back in time and later being teleported for the CIA to Mars. I know you are probably unbelieving because you probably haven’t had enough personal unbelievable experiences). Then he answered questions without hesitations for one hour.

Look Andrew Basiago up on Facebook:  Mars Anomaly Research.

Also at the conference: Laura Magdalene Eisenhower

http://www.projectpegasus.net/ , and Laura Eisenhower said her great grandfather, Dwight D., as President  met separately with two groups of  E.T.’s . in California.

Lauren Drain, Before-After

A courageous young girl named Lauren Drain, daughter of Steven Drain, was kicked out of her church (West Boro Baptist Church) and family for asking questions about the religion she was raised with.

Aren’t we in the 21st Century where freedom of speech/press and Facebook, Twitter and Skype allow us to have our own voice?

Regardless of Drain’s practicing faith, this young spirited individual seeks her own truth, asking questions of her authorities, Pastor and Parents, being exiled from her church, community and friends for doing so.  Watch this…

…

When a nation wide TV Station (ABC) televises controversial topics such as “Religion”, we should all question, shouldn’t we?  Since the beginning of time we have been fighting over what is right/wrong which, for the majority of humanity, has been governed by Church and State.  When you meet brave people like Lauren Drain who move beyond religion, who merely ask a few questions, it makes us wonder?  What is right?  What is wrong?

West Boro Church picketing in San Francisco against Gay's

West Boro Baptist Church has been under the lens of Hippocratic attitudes and behavior, protesting against other religions, believes and lifestyles.  Known, by many who investigated the practices of the West Boro Ministry, under the leadership of Pastor Fred Phelps faith, they are teaching their children to HATE.  Isn’t this worthy of questions?

Where is Lauren Drain today?  Stay tuned in for the follow up on Miss Drain…

Why Christianity must Change or Die…   Today, everything needs to change!  Why would Christianity be any different?  Watch this video and you may better understand why religion may be under the new paradigm for change…

…

“For those seeking to experience Christianity in a new and vibrant way, Bishop John Shelby Spong offers fresh spiritual ideas. Over the past four decades, he has become one of the definitive voices for progressive Christianity. As a member of Bishop Spong’s online community, you’ll receive insightful weekly essays, access to all of the essay archives, access to message boards which will connect you with other believers in exile, and answers to Your questions from Bishop Spong himself!” — John Shelby Spong (Home Page)

If you care to read more about John Shelby Spong click here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shelby_Spong