₦airaland Forum

ashley86:
lwkmd, my initial reaction when i heard of this issue was dere's no way they can win it, but as u come frame dis your defense, i can totally see them having a chance.

Enigma:
^^ Even if they couldn't "write", has anybody heard of amanuenses? In fact in one of the epistles, it was clear that it was dictated and the "dictator" later put his hand/signature. In Romans, Tertius stated clearly that he wrote down the letter for Paul.

In any event neither Ehrman's scholarship nor his arguments are new.

mazaje:
How far? How you dey?. . . . .

It's the bible that says they were illiterates and not Barth Erman. . . . .

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/09/eddie-longs-new-churches-raise-questions-about-pastors-behavior-after-scandal/

Eddie Long Announces the opening of 2 new church branches

(CNN) – If you're a famous pastor who has just survived a sex scandal, laid off church staff and lost a chunk of your congregation, what do you do to move forward? If you’re Bishop Eddie Long, you announce that your church is expanding.

Long, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Church outside Atlanta, Georgia, has announced that his church is opening two new satellite churches and is asking parishioners to donate up to $1,000 to support the expansion, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Long’s announcement comes two weeks after an out of court settlement with four young men who accused him of using his spiritual authority to coerce them into sexual relationships.

justwise:
I don't see them winning the case, to be selected and allowed to live in USA is privilege not a right, they were not asked to buy or forced to play the lottery.

blankees:
Halo pals

Am into a very serious relatnship which i pray will end up in marriage. My friend happens to be a virgin and i tink i will classify myself as one too since i have not had sex for over twenty years now. We had promised each other sex only after our marriage. Now,our challenge is dat, she had an irregularity in her menstraul period last month, after wch we decided it is neccessary she sees a doctor. After seeing the doctor, he said she had some bacterial infection in the stomach and prescribed some antibiotic drugs for her. He also said the only way to reduce such infections later is for her to get married on time cos frequent sex will reduce such, shez just 23 now and about to graduate and am 28 though am working. Am really afraid cos i dnt want to break my vow. I intend to settle down in da next one or two yrs after her service. Pls your advice will go a long way to help us overcome dis situation especially on medical grounds.

Tnx.

Fhemmmy:
when a team has 2 and half powerful star of a player, that happens.

armyofone:
what else do men want, with a beautiful and well educated woman as your wife, what do you want again
i'm beginning to get real angry at menfolk, i mean why are they carried away by women not as beautiful as their wife?

less than one year marrige and he is already phocking on tweeter smh and rme

Anyway have fun. Love ya( not that kind of love o)

Mariory:
Would you offer an apology to a roach? Would you sign an agreement to live side by side in peace with a rat? Would you sign a binding agreement to recognise the right of all pigs to exist?

Once one realises that this is how Hamas and their supporters view the Jews, then it begins to become clear that peace is no where near.

Seun:
It's a fact well known by theologians (this includes priests and pastors who went to the seminary) that many books in the bible were not written by the people they were attributed to traditionally. There's nothing new or controversial about that, really. This book is just promoting the stale gist.

mazaje:
I saw the Christian apologist on the write up trying to claim that Peter and John were literate when the bible says they aren't . . . . .He was saying because they were fisher men they had to be educated as if they aren't many illiterate business men and women around. . . .Even in Nigeria and the world over today there many people that do business that can not even write down their names. . . .

Sweetnecta:
^^^^^^^^^^^ MashaAllah. Allahu Akbaru Kabira.

omo girl, i see you in hijab. Allah will make my hope you a reality; for you and your husband and future children and all your folks.

MyJoe:
Yeah. But let's make it a niqab, Alhaji. That one is purer and omo girl JeSoul will probably prefer it.

By John Blake, CNN

(CNN) - A frail man sits in chains inside a dank, cold prison cell. He has escaped death before but now realizes that his execution is drawing near.

“I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come,” the man –the Apostle Paul - says in the Bible's 2 Timothy. “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

The passage is one of the most dramatic scenes in the New Testament. Paul, the most prolific New Testament author, is saying goodbye from a Roman prison cell before being beheaded. His goodbye veers from loneliness to defiance and, finally, to joy.

There’s one just one problem - Paul didn’t write those words. In fact, virtually half the New Testament was written by impostors taking on the names of apostles like Paul. At least according to Bart D. Ehrman, a renowned biblical scholar, who makes the charges in his new book “Forged.”

“There were a lot of people in the ancient world who thought that lying could serve a greater good,” says Ehrman, an expert on ancient biblical manuscripts.In “Forged,” Ehrman claims that:

* At least 11 of the 27 New Testament books are forgeries.

* The New Testament books attributed to Jesus’ disciples could not have been written by them because they were illiterate.

* Many of the New Testament’s forgeries were manufactured by early Christian leaders trying to settle theological feuds.

. . .

initiate:
please what do these terms mean

whole grain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_grain
Whole grains are cereal grains that contain cereal germ, endosperm, and bran, in contrast to refined grains, which retain only the endosperm. Wholegrains can generally be sprouted while refined grains generally will not sprout. Wholemeal products are made by grinding whole grains in order to make wholegrain flour. Whole grains are a natural source of protein as well as a source of carbohydrates and are made into many different kinds of foods.

Common whole grains include:

Wheat
Oat
Barley - Hulled and Dehulled (not Pearl)
Maize
Brown rice
Farro
Emmer
Einkorn
Rye
Spelt
Millet
Quinoa
Amaranth
Triticale
Teff
Sprouted Grains
Buckwheat
Common whole grain products include:

Whole wheat flour
Whole wheat Bread
Whole wheat Pasta
Rolled oats or oat groats
Triticale flour
Popcorn
Teff flour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_food
Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.

http://www.wheatfoods.org/AboutWheat-What-is-Fiber/Index.htm
What Is Fiber?
Dietary fiber is a complex carbohydrate and is the part of the plant material that cannot be digested and absorbed in the bloodstream. Soluble fiber may help with weight loss as it makes you feel full longer, and research has shown it also may help lower blood cholesterol. Good sources of soluble fiber include oatmeal, oat bran, barley, dried beans and legumes, and citrus fruits. Insoluble fiber tends to speed up the passage of material through the digestive tract and reduce the risk of colon cancer and diverticular disease. Good sources of insoluble fiber include wheat bran, whole grain cereals, and fruit and vegetable skins.

logica:
I hope they brought their tithes.

Fhemmmy:
[b]You might not have seen Dirk Flop, but i have seen him couple of times, in game 3 of this series, he did once, however, he never got the call and he stayed back to whine,

while Miami punished them with nice layoff.

Tonight's game would be fun

montelik:
Him and his wife look a-like.

Besides as Prez will tell you, dems promote moral bankruptcy so you can't hold them to any standards. Its rep who should be held to account.

Araboy:
Democrats are hypocrites the same Nancy Pelosi the minority leader who called Christopher Lee to step down over a shirtless picture online  couldn't ask the same from her fellow democrat for an X rated picture of his private  posted
today online if that is not double standard what else you call it 

MyJoe:
@JeSoul

The way you make the point about moral countries and moral leadership makes it hard to argue against, as that is a view that resonates strongly with me. While no country is moral some do indeed appear to be more moral than others. Someone recently introduced to me Brian Gleck’s book War at Home, a book that details shocking atrocities committed by the FBI, particularly at the time of J Edgar Hoover, the criminologist who ran the FBI, some say the USA, for 48 years, and some of whose methods would make Genghis Khan look civilised. You read and think, wait a minute, these people are just as bad as whose they demonise. But in a more sober moment you recall checks and balances, Nixon and other leaders brought down by their own agencies once these things are found out, things done openly and with impunity in other climes. I think it was Bokassa of the Central African Republic who once had schoolchildren picked up and tortured for refusing to wear a shirt with his picture on it because they thought he was ugly. And His Majesty and Excellency remained in power for long after. An amoral country! I once heard, but could not confirm, that Col Gadaffi did something similar when some kids threw stones at his convoy. Another amoral country.

But those who contend that the West is hardly more moral have a compelling argument. I have no doubt if the UK prime minister were to order the police to shoot unarmed people marching silently through a street his order would not even be carried out. If they are carried out, I believe the PM, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and several officers would be looking for a job in a matter of days. Much less order the police to arrest and torture children for declining to wear a shirt! This may also apply to the US. So are they morally superior or do they just operate by a different kind of morality – “us” and “them”? Most people would remember Ariel Sharon’s horrible war crimes in Lebanon. But when you do you wonder why the West would insist (rightly) on the trial of people like Milosevic and Mladic but fete the likes of Sharon who was responsible for the death of civilians including women and children. You would wonder why the United States would throw things at efforts to bring Sharon to international trial for being responsible for the death of children.

But I’m rambling!

Actually, I don’t believe all the countries in the Middle East would matter if peace is to be made. I mean if Israel and the Palestinians themselves, along with Egypt, can agree on borders for a Palestinian nation, what would the rantings of a Jew-hating Ayatollah in Tehran or a Bedouin in Medina matter? The only other countries that will matter in this matter, the countries that need to AGREE, are the countries sharing a border with Palestine – Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. As for the remaining Middle Eastern countries, I would say that for every pathologically amoral country like Iran or Libya there is an enlightened one like the UAE or Bahrain to lend moral support. That is why I don’t think we need to have a moral Middle East before anything can be achieved. Israel and the Palestinians themselves are the problem, Israel more because they are the stronger party. The greatest obstacle to resolution of that matter is constituted by Hamas wing of Israeli politics and Hamas and the more militant groups on the Palestinian side. I had earlier talked about the Arabs saying “no more war” and then demonstrating a readiness to accept Israel.
That’s why there would be negotiations. 1967 is just one of the issues. During the negotiations all issues would be on the table and only when both parties are ready to make concessions and append their signatures to a document would progress be made. It would not be a case of Israel agreeing to 67 and the Arabs later asking for something else.

They are not fielding candidates for the presidency in the September election.

I think the president was merely setting out an agenda. I doubt even he expected Israel to accept it off hand. But I agree with you peace is not likely to come to that place soon. It's just that I place the blame for that squarely at the doors of the Israelis and the Palestinians themselves.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/08/weiner.risk.behavior/index.html

After a weeklong Twitter saga, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who represents New York's 9th Congressional District, confessed Monday that he sent lewd photos of himself to women, had inappropriate online relationships and had lied about them.

Photos of the married congressman in his underwear surfaced last week, turning Weiner into the center of a possible ethics investigation and an easy target in late-night comedy jokes.

Weiner joins a slew of high-profile men with sex scandals, such as former presidential contender John Edwards, who could face jail time, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Nevada Sen. John Ensign.

mazaje:
What exactly is the Christian life?. . . . .It seems every body is self projecting him/her self as God and telling others what he/she wants them to believe . . . .Any way thats how it has been and how it will continue to be. . . . . .



Are you sure?. . . . . In the Christianity I was raised in, faith, belief, trust in God are higher virtues than reason and logic. . . . .You are made to accept everything the bible says on faith even if there are so many evidence to the contrary and even if what is stated does not agree with the reality around you. . . . . One takes the Bible on faith that it's true and is a better Christian for it. To apply reason shows a lack of faith. .There are a number of methods of dealing with what seems to be unavoidable cognitive dissonance. One is, to suppress or deny the knowledge. This can be done by fervently throwing oneself into apologetics and research. Another (and I suspect more common) approach is to become very liberal in one's beliefs, substituting a vague and distant "universal force" for a personal God, and a metaphorical, allegorical reading of scripture for a literal one or just saying that every body is getting it wrongly and you alone is right like the OP is doing and other Christians on NL are fond of doing. . .In fact most Christians I know are now taking this position. . . .They throw every body that does not agree with their opinions and interpretation under the bus and claim monopoly of knowledge just to keep the faith alive since they are too fearful of dropping their deeply held beliefs. . . .

If one's religion is not central to one's life, then a liberal interpretation can be sufficient to quell the cognitive dissonance and allow the faithful to continue to embrace a vaguely-defined feel-good social religion. It is those of us who fervently embraced religion who are really stuck when reality contradicts our faith. Compromise is not an acceptable solution, so we must either work furiously to justify our faith, or abandon it entirely. And YES I was a fundamentalist end of days enthusiast Christian back in the days. . . .

unphilaz:
You would agree with me that logic and reasoning for a particular field cannot be applied to another field, rather people in the other field will simply live by faith that what one says in the other field is true because he/she knows more. for example when i as a musician (having my logic and reasoning based on music) will willingly believe the medical doctor if s/he diagnose me as having malaria. do i simply reject that claim because it is contrary to my "logic and reasoning" from music? No i think i will simply by faith believe that what s/he is right and so i depend on such a one's judgment.

Fhemmmy:
Dallas had the opportunity in that game 3, but they dont seems to want it as bad as the Maimi, and now they have their backs against the wall, just hope they will not throw away the opportunity, however, i am a Maimi fan as well . . . So whoever win, i will dance, just would be nice for Dallas to win one for Dirk . . . but Dirk needs to play better and pass the ball when he is not sure of himself.

unphilaz:
Atheist i wish to appreciate the work you have done on the nairaland especially against the Christian religion. I am really impressed with the type and manner of questions u have posted and asked on quite a many thread. however, i wish to state that the more you ask questions on issues of spirituality especially God etc, i have instead been drawn closer to Him for this very reason: Christian Religion vs Christian Life.

In the churches today and most thread, what i read and hear is all about the christian religion- its dogma, its rules and a list of things to do and not to do and as a result it brings about what i believe is spiritual burnout where one becomes delusional about the things of God. On the contrary, Christian life is not based on rules/dogma by a selected few who decide for it but it is a life that transcends the rules regulated by the church. its no wonder a lot of people are turning to atheism because what we have today is a bunch of set rules that is stipulated to imitate the Life of the Vine.

A lot of Christians believe that just as all religions have laws/rules, so also must the christian religion also and this in no small measure has not differentiated Christians from the man on the streets. Muslims have sharia, Jews have the torah etc but is christian life based on the laws men stipulate or is it the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. and i guess could be the reason humanist now are stating their own universal law of love or whatever.

It is written that the Power that raised Christ from the grave dwells in a believer yet we have tried to exagerrate rules on how that power must operate and this has brought a lot of confusion and struggle in the christian. i believe that the life Christ has should be allowed to flow just as a branch does not struggle to bear leaves/fruits but simply remains in the vine so that the Life of the Vine will flow naturally to bear fruit so that the world may see which is not the case.

there is a lot of heated debate on riches/poverty, health/sickness in the church and one wonders whether there is anything really good news about Christianity. but is that the core of Christianity, issues that are here and tomorrow they become meaningless. i believe the simple message of what the Gospel brings is this, that in any message preached by any man of God should be based on exaltation of the Life of Christ in the believer, accepting the abundance of grace/gift of righteousness and finally what one hear if it doesn't give peace and Joy should be discarded.

Finally, athiest, i know u might try to reason out what i have said well that is ok but above all i want you to seek the Christian life not the religious nonsense in the church that has brought grief from the orthodox to the pentecostals.

Pastor AIO:
Oh yeah, I forgot. It's all about the Pishauns. (I bet you never knew I was reading those threads)

I might be wrong about this, but I think it's all a religious allegory about free will in a world with an all-knowing god. If god knows what choice you're going to make, did you have a choice in the first place? It's ultimately a modern telling of the garden of eden. The couple is Adam and Eve, the burned man is the snake, the button (and money) is the tree of knowledge, and their child represents their innocence (and whether they lose it in the end).

aletheia:
^
Surprised no one has mentioned the Matrix films. . .and how Neo is obviously an anagram of One; the allusions to Lewis Carroll's works; the names of the characters (e.g. Morpheus is the Greek god of sleep) embedded themes of Gnosticism, Free Masonry, Plato's ideal forms, Death and Resurrection, Man And Superman, the list goes on.

I don't know about impacting spiritually, morally etc but the Matrix films certainly gave me food for thought. Most people tend to focus on the fight scenes but the real message of the films is found in the dialogue between the characters, the meaning of their names and in the films imagery. For example has anyone researched on the meaning of "the Merovingian" and what that name hints at.

lagerwhenindoubt:
@aletheia matrix is heavily salted with biblical parallels and curried wit some 9_11 chatter. As u rightly pointed out it is all about purpose it defines who we r. Why we r here and where we r headed u cannot but love d fight scenes. Nuttin beats a good. Beatdown. For me matrix was highly philosophical than spiritual @

Pastor AIO:
Loved Eternal Sunshine. Very rich especially when you consider where the inspiration is coming from. True Love never dies. Could Okafor's Law be a crude manifestation of this? Even if the memory of the beloved is wiped out of your mind the Love still remains there. It is actually based on a true story. The story of Abelard and Heloise. Abelard was a great intellectual and musician who got employment with a noble man to teach his neice Heloise, one of the greatest beauties in europe at the time. He was given free reign to do as he please, and to discipline her to any extent he felt necessary. In his own words it was like presenting the lamb to the wolf. They soon became lovers. He composed many songs for her that were famous throughout europe. All this was in the medieval ages.
The uncle found out and had him beaten up and had his balls chopped off. Without his balls he considered himself useless and told Heloise to retire to a convent while he himself retired to a monastery and became a monk. Heloise told him that with or without his manhood she still loved him anyway and it didn't matter. But as far as he was concerned what was love if you couldn't koropa. Nothing remained for him in his life but God.
Their letters to each other from convent to monastery are still preserved. She even goes as far as denouncing God and swearing that the only thing that she is doing in the convent is because he ordered her there. But he tells her to pray for forgiveness for what she said that he is worthless to her now.
http://classiclit.about.com/cs/articles/a/aa_abelard.htm
http://bloggingtheclassics./2008/06/05/abelard-peter-the-letters-of-abelard-and-heloise-c1132-1138/

Centuries later Alexander Pope, the poet wrote the most famous poem about their love. It is a poem based on the letters of Heloise to Abelard in which she swears that even if her mind were wiped clean she would never forget him.
And that is where the title of the film and the theme of it comes from. How happy she would be if she, a nun, one whom the world has forgot, could also forget the world and bask in the eternal sunshine of a spotless mind.

I also like these lines

Far other dreams my erring soul employ,

Far other raptures, of unholy joy:

When at the close of each sad, sorrowing day,

Fancy restores what vengeance snatch'd away,

Then conscience sleeps, and leaving nature free,

All my loose soul unbounded springs to thee.

(kinda reminds me of wet dreams)

Come, Abelard! for what hast thou to dread?

The torch of Venus burns not for the dead.

Nature stands check'd; Religion disapproves;

Ev'n thou art cold — yet Eloisa loves.


Read the full poem here:
http://www.monadnock.net/poems/eloisa.html

lagerwhenindoubt:
Butterfly Effect - Change One Thing, Change Everything

A math proposition from a weather man called Lorenz who from his simple weather forecast model revealed a phenomenon known as "sensitive dependence on initial conditions." popularly known as the butterfly effect. you may have come across the phrase "a butterfly flapping its wings in South America can affect the weather in Central Park".  Think of it this way - a small change at one place in a[b] nonlinear system[/b] can result in large differences to a later state. In the movie Evan tried to fix events in past so the future is better for himself and his pals. he discovers that even the tiniest alteration to the past can have gravely unpredictable consequences for the present.

Jack Nicholson - Tell me you appreciated "A Few Good Men"

I can forgive you for not having seen the others - did you see China Town? or Doctor Zhivago?