The Parthenon and the Theotokos

Few people realize that the Parthenon existed as a Christian Church for most of its existence, between approximately the 5th - 15th century AD. It was dedicated at first to Hagia Sophia, or the Holy Wisdom of God, but soon after was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and bore the name Panagia Atheniotissa. It was also one of the most popular Christian pilgrimage sites during this time. The Christians found no need to destroy it, as many unbelievers would assume and have falsely read into Christian history, but they transformed it to the glory of God. And not only was the Parthenon a Christian Church, but the Propylaea housed the bishop of Athens.

Following the Fourth Crusade in 1204 the Franks took the Parthenon over and built a bell tower next to it, dedicating it to Notre Dame. In 1458 the Parthenon was turned into a mosque for a few hundred years before it was destroyed and came to ruins.

Read more on this history of the Acropolis here and here.

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2 Hour Documentary: Saint Nikolai the Serb

Saint Nikolai the Serb is a wonderfully produced documentary depicting various aspects of the life and works of a truly monumental 20th-century saint! Nearly 2 hours concerning the life of this prolific writer and Saint!

See the video in either English or Serbian here.

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German Catholic Church Returns Looted Cross to Serbia

October 19, 2010
EarthTimes

The Catholic Church in Germany returned a looted gold cross to Serbia on Tuesday, 65 years after it was stolen from an Orthodox monastery by an unidentified German soldier.

Hans-Josef Becker, archbishop of Paderborn, handed over the cross at the Serbian embassy in Berlin, an embassy spokeswoman said.

The treasure is a gilded cross with a base so it can stand upright on a table and a hollow space for a religious relic.

It had been on display in the bishop's diocesan museum in Paderborn since after the Second World War. It had been looted from the 800-year-old monastery at Zica, south of Belgrade, at the end of the Second World War and taken to Germany by the soldier.

Germany has been stepping up efforts to recover its own lost art which was seized by the Soviet Union in reparation after the war, and has also been working to identify looted art on German soil so it can be sent home to other nations.

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If a Chimp Did This, Darwinists Would Claim They Figured Out How Boating Evolved

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On the Stench of Demons and Sin

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Among other mysterious perceptions from the world of spirits, the saints also had perceptions of sweet fragrances from good spirits and foul stenches from impure spirits.

During every appearance of luminous, pure spirits, a life-giving and sweet fragrance wafted about; and during every appearance of dark and impure spirits, a suffocating, unbearable stench filled the air.

The saints were able to discern which passion possessed a man by the kind of stench he emanated. Thus it was that St. Euthymius the Great recognized the stench of the passion of adultery in the monk Emilian of the Lavra of St. Theoctistus. Going to Matins one morning, Euthymius passed by Emilian's cell and smelled the stench of the demon of adultery. Emilian had not committed any physical sin, but had adulterous thoughts that were being forced into his heart by the demon, and the saint already sensed it by its smell.

The power of this perception once revealed itself even more wondrously in St. Hilarion the Great. A certain avaricious miser had sent some of his vegetables to Hilarion. When they were brought to Hilarion for a meal, the saint said: "Take these away from here. I cannot stand the stench that comes from these vegetables! Do you not smell how they reek of avarice?" When the brethren were amazed by these words, Hilarion told them to take the vegetables to the oxen, and they would see that not even the oxen would eat them. Indeed, the oxen merely sniffed at them, and turned their heads away in disgust.

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The Spirits of Diveyevo Nuns Photographed?

Sarov Resident Believes He Took Pictures Of Nuns' Souls

June 5, 2008
Interfax

A resident of Sarov was very surprised when he looked at the photos he had made during his pilgrimage to St. Seraphim Monastery in Diveyevo as besides his relatives he saw strange figures that were not present when he took the pictures.

The photos conveyed to Interfax-Religion on Thursday show silhouettes dressed in monastic robes and hoods going to the canal of the Mother of God. The canal near the Trinity Cathedral was dug by the first nuns of the monastery on the instruction of St. Seraphim of Sarov as, according to him, he saw the Mother of God passing that way.

The photo's author was impressed and came back to Diveyevo for studying the pictured place behind the altar of the Trinity Cathedral. According to him and other numerous witnesses and nuns there is only an untouched green lawn and no path there.

Many miracles and mysterious signs are connected with St. Seraphim Monastery and its founder St. Seraphim. According to the pilgrims, miracles often take place today.

Many of the miracles have happened in the canal of the Mother of God. St. Seraphim believed in the holiness of this place and instructed nuns to go along the canal every day saying the "Rejoce, Mother of God..." 150 times. He stressed: "Whoever goes along the canal and says a hundred and fifty prayers to Our Lady, will have everything here: Athos, Jerusalem, Kiev!"

The elder's covenant has been fulfilled in the monastery up to day.

Read also: The Holy Canal of the Theotokos at Diveyevo Monastery

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The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano

In the city of Lanciano, Italy, around A.D. 700, a Basilian monk and priest were assigned to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the small Church of St. Legontian. Celebrating in Greek and using leavened bread,* that monk had doubts about the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

During the Divine Liturgy, when he said the Words of Consecration ("This is my body"; "This is my blood".), with doubt in his soul, the priest saw the bread change into living flesh and the wine change into live blood, which coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing in shape and size (this number corresponds to the number of wounds Christ suffered on the cross: one in each hand and foot from the nails, and the wound from the centurion's spear).

Since 1574, various ecclesiastical investigations of varying degrees of detail have been conducted upon the miracle. The first appears to consist of a weighing, in which each different globule though varying in size, all each weigh the same and always produced the same weight no matter what the amount of these globules was. Thus all of them put together was the equivalent to any one of them or any three or any four all equaled the same weight no matter what combination. Also an examination in 1971 conducted by Professor Doctor Odoardo Linoli which were confirmed by Dr. Bertelli. The flesh was found to be human striated muscular tissue of the myocardium (the heart wall), type AB, and to be absolutely free of any agents used for preserving flesh. The blood at Lanciano has divided into five irregularly shaped pellets. At scientific examinations conducted in 1971 these pellets were found to be human blood, type AB ("the universal receiver"), with proteins normally fractionated and present in the same percentage ratio as those in normal fresh blood.

- February 17, 1574 by Bishop Rodriguez
- 1636 by Father Serafino from Scanno
- October 23, 1777 by Bishop Gervasone
- October 26, 1886 by Bishop Petrarca
- 1971, by Professor Odoardo Linoli

This most recent examination was performed by Professor Odoardo Linoli, Professor in Anatomy and Pathological Histology and in Chemistry and Clinical Microscopy, and Professor Ruggero Bertelli of the University of Siena. The report was published in Quaderni Sclavo di Diagnostica Clinica e di Laboratori in 1971.

The following conclusions were drawn by Odoardo Linoli:

- The flesh is real flesh and the blood is real blood.

- The flesh and the blood belong to the human species.

- The flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the heart.

- In the flesh we see present in section: the myocardium, the endocardium, the vagus nerve and also the left ventricle of the heart for the large thickness of the myocardium. The flesh is a heart complete in its essential structure.

- The flesh and the blood have the same blood type, AB.

- In the blood there were found proteins in the same normal proportions (percentage-wise) as are found in the sero-proteic make-up of fresh normal blood.

- In the blood there were also found these minerals: chlorides, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium.

The flesh and blood of the alleged miracle can still be seen today. The flesh, is fibrous and light brown in colour, and becomes rose-coloured when lighted from the back. The blood consists of five coagulated globules and has an earthly colour resembling the yellow of ochre.

* The piece today is deceptively stretched out to appear as if it was unleavened according to later Catholic practice.

Source with photos

Read also:

Eucharistic Miracle

The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, Italy

Lanciano, 700's A.D.: The Heart of Christ

Physician Tells of Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano

Important note from the Russian Sluzhebnik (Priest's Service Book):

"If after the consecration of the bread & wine a miracle is revealed, ie, if the bread manifests the appearance of a child or the wine the appearance of blood, and if in a short time this appearance does not change, ie, if they do not appear again under the form of bread & wine, but if they remain thus without change, then let the priest not take communion because it is not the Body & Blood of Christ, but a miracle from God manifest only because of the lack of faith or some other reason."

The instruction goes on to say that if the Body assumes another appearance then the priest must make another Lamb as he did at Proskomedia. He then resumes the Liturgy with the prayer "With these blessed hosts..." which is the prayer said at the Anaphora while the choir sings, "Holy, holy, holy..." If the Blood changes appearance, then he must pour new wine into the chalice. The purpose of this is so the faithful may still receive the Body & Blood of Christ at the Liturgy.

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Video: Plum Island, Lyme Disease and Monsters

Plum Island: Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura, Season 2 Episode 1

In the opening episode of Season 2 of Conspiracy Theory, former Governor Jesse Ventura investigates the mysteries of Plum Island. The top secret disease research that goes on there is said to be linked to the ‘Montauk monster,’ which raised public interest after it washed up on the shore of Montauk without explanation. Later, it is linked to another mystery – a deformed human body found on the shore of Plum Island with ‘elongated fingers’ and drilled holes in the skull.

Is Plum Island’s ‘godfather’ – the Nazi Scientist Dr. Erich Traub – the common link behind these odd occurences, as well as the launch of Lyme Disease and other aspects of bio-research and warfare? Jesse Ventura and his team investigate.

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Saint John the New Martyr of Monemvasia

St. John of Monemvasia (Feast Day - October 21)

Saint John was born in 1758 near the city of Monemvasia. His father was a priest, and from a young age he tried to emulate his father's life by working in the church. He was known for his exemplary behavior, and referred by other children as the "priest's son".

In the year 1770 the army of the Albanian Hatzi Osman defeated the Greek resistance, and arriving in Monemvasia they killed John's father and enslaved both him and his mother. They were taken to Larissa, where they were sold-off two or three times separately.

After two years they were bought by the same man, a Turkish landowner. This Turk did not have any children, and seeing John's talents (who was exceptionally smart for his age, obedient and a hard worker) he thought, along with his wife, to make John their God-child. Therefore, every day they tried to convince him to leave the faith of the Christians and become a Turk. Initially they tried to convince him with flattery and promises, but later they used terrible tortures to try to overcome the steadfastness of John (who was only 15 years old), who kept his Christian faith unwavering.

One day his master, tired of trying to convince him to convert, in anger lead him to the courtyard of the mosque. Many Muslims were gathered there, and with blows and terrible threats they urged him to convert and become a Turk. John's answer, however, was clear: "I am not a Turk, I am Christian and I want to die as a Christian."

Besides this, the Turk and his wife tried every day with magic and evil seductions to get the Saint to lose his mind and give in to carnal desires and then to become a Turk. But John, having God inside of him, remained pure from everything. Divine Grace protected him from all diabolical devices of the Turk's wife.

Soon came the fifteen days of fasting before the Dormition of the Theotokos. The Turk realized that John did not want to spoil the fast, so he locked him up in a barn. He kept him there for the entire fifteen days and hung him up, lit fire to the straw to cause smoke, and hit him with a sword, all while trying to make him eat and to spoil the fast. But Saint John did not even taste the food, but prayed to the Virgin Mary to help him not to break the fast, preferring to be killed than to spoil his fasting.

The master, seeing that he remained unconvinced, left him without food for two and three days. His mother, on seeing him deadened by the tortures and the fasting, tried to convince him to give in, saying: "Eat from these dishes my son so you won't die, and God and the Panagia will forgive you, because they're not your wishes, for you are doing them out of necessity. Console me, your poor and upset mother, and don't seek death and leave me alone in this slavery and exile."

To his mother's pleas, John replied: "Why are you doing this mother, and why are you crying? Why don't you emulate the Patriarch Abraham, who for the love of God wanted to sacrifice his only son, but you only cry and weep. I am a priest's son and I should be keeping the laws and customs of our Church more than the sons of lay-people, for when we don't keep the small things [of the faith], how can we keep the large things?"

Soon after this response the furious Turk, on October 19th 1773, gave him a fatal stab in the heart. After two days Saint John died and received the crown of martyrdom. His memory is honored by our Church on the 21st of October.

Apolytikion in the Third Tone
Divine offspring of Monemvasia, who grew and bore the fruit of faith by grace, O John; who kept the commandments of the fathers, and put to shame those of Hagar by your struggle. O glorious Martyr, entreat Christ God to grant to us the great mercy.

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The Term 'Kingdom of God' Is Not In the New Testament

By Fr. John Romanides

Both fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist biblical scholars, who have been victims of Augustinian and Carolingian presuppositions, become prone to misunderstandings of what they read in the Bible, especially when terms and symbols denoting glorifications which produce prophets are alluded to.

A classical example is 1 Cor. 12:26. Here St. Paul does not write, "If one is honored," but "If one is glorified," i.e. has become a prophet. To be glorified means that one has seen the Lord of Glory either before His incarnation or after, like Paul did on his way to Damascus to persecute the Incarnate Lord of Glory's followers.

Another example is the phrase "kingdom of God" which makes it a creation of God instead of the uncreated ruling power of God. What is amazing is that the term "kingdom of God" appears not once in the original Greek of the New Testament. Not knowing that the "rule" or "reign of God" is the correct translation of the Greek "Basileia tou Theou," Vaticanians, Protestants and even many Orthodox today, do not see that the promise of Christ to his apostles in Mt.16:28, Lk. 9:27 and Mk. 9:1, i.e. that they will see God's ruling power, was fulfilled during the Transfiguration which immediately follows in the above three gospels.

Here Peter, James and John see Christ as the Lord of Glory i.e. as the source of God's uncreated "glory" and "basileia" i.e. uncreated ruling power, denoted by the uncreated cloud or glory which appeared and covered the three of them during the Lord of Glory's Transfiguration. It was by means of His power of Glory that Christ, as the pre-incarnate Lord (Yahweh) of Glory, had delivered Israel from its Egyptian slavery and lead it to freedom and the land of promise.

The Greek text does not speak about the "Basileion (kingdom) of God," but about the "Basileia (rule or reign) of God," by means of His uncreated glory and power.* At His Transfiguration Christ clearly revealed Himself to be the source of the uncreated Glory seen by Moses and Elijah during Old Testament times and who both are now present at the Transfiguration in order to testify to the three apostles that Christ is indeed the same Yahweh of Glory, now incarnate, Whom the two had seen in the historical past and had acted on behalf of Him.

* For a typical Augustinian misunderstanding of Mk 9:1ff see "Promise and Fulfillment, The Eschatological Message of Jesus," by W. G. Kummel, p 25-28, 44, 60 f., 66f., 88, 133, 142, 149. This so-called kingdom promised by Christ does not yet exist when He pronounces this promise, but will come into existence sometime in the future.

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Saint Artemius of Verkola the Righteous Youth

St. Artemius of Verkola (Feast Day - October 20 and June 23)

Artemius was born in 1532 to the pious Kosma and Apollinaria, in the village of Verkola (on the banks of the Pinega River, Dvinsk District). He was brought up in God-fearing Christian piety. By the time he was five years of age, he had begun to distance himself from childish habits: he did not enjoy playing games, was quiet, meek, God-fearing, and was obedient to his parents, assiduously helping his father at the farm as much as he could at his age.

One day, at the age of 12, Artemius accompanied his father into the fields. Without warning, there was a clap of thunder and a lightning bolt struck the boy, and he fell dead. This took place on June 23, 1545. Superstition about the bad omen of such an untimely death kept Artemius from being granted a proper funeral and burial. His body was placed in a small clearing in the woods, without being buried in the ground. A wooden shell was constructed over it, and a fence was built around it. In time the boy would no doubt have been forgotten, but it pleased God to reveal him to the world as a wonderworker equal in honor to some of the great ascetics.

Thirty-two years after Artemius' tragic death in 1577, one of the local deacons, by the name of Agafonik, was gathering wild berries when he saw a light emanating from the place where the youth's body had been laid. The deacon came closer and saw to his astonishment that the body of the boy showed no signs of decay; it looked, in fact, as if the boy were simply sleeping. Above the boy was a radiant light. The deacon hurried to the nearest village and told the priest and the local peasants what he had discovered. They all went to see for themselves and found it just as the deacon had described. The peasants brought St. Artemius’ body to the courtyard before the Church of St. Nicholas.

It had been a terrible year for the whole region. A bad flu epidemic was going around; some people had already died. The son of one of the peasants in Verkola, Kallinik, was sick with it. Seeking relief for his son, Kallinik prayed fervently to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Most Holy Virgin, to Saint Nicholas, and to the young Artemius. He venerated the youth's relics and took a piece of the birch-bark covering the coffin. Coming home, he put this piece of birch-bark on his son's chest, and the boy immediately recovered. The father related the miracle to the other villagers, who similarly took pieces of birch-bark and placed them on the sick in their households. These, too, were healed, and soon there was no trace of the epidemic.

Through the prayers of the Saint, many sick people received healing, especially those who suffered from ocular disorders. A certain Hilarion, a resident of Kholmogor, had lost his sight and become despondent. On the Feast Day of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Righteous Artemius, holding a staff in his left hand and a Cross in his right, appeared to the suffering man. Making the sign of the Cross over him with the Cross, he said, “Arise, Christ heals you by the hand of His servant Artemius. Go to Verkola, bow down before his coffin, and relate everything to the priest and to the peasants.” The sick man was immediately healed.

In 1584, thankful people who revered the venerable youth transferred his relics from the church courtyard to a side-chapel which had been especially prepared for them. In thanks for the healing of his son, Afanassy М. Pashkov, military commander of Monzensk, erected a church to Holy Great Martyr Artemius, heavenly patron of the righteous youth. On December 6, 1619 St. Artemius' holy relics were uncovered, and transferred to that church. Thirty years later, after that church burned down, the relics were again found. In 1649, during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovitch, a monastery was erected on the site, and the Saint’s relics were transferred to it.

God glorified the righteous one’s relics through miracles, and in 1639, Metropolitan Cyprian of Novgorod the Great issued a directive that “the local and area abbots, priests and deacons document [those miracles].” An account of the healings was prepared and presented to the Metropolitan. The following year, the Metropolitan issued a “full festal service to celebrate the Righteous Artemius: sticherae, magnification, a litya, aposticha, troparion, kontakion, and ikos, hymn of light, and praises, and banner chant sheet music.”

In 1918, the impious Soviets chopped the holy relics into pieces and threw them into a well, earning his title of Martyr.

Philip Zimmerman, an iconographer living in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was granted a vision of St. Artemius. Phil was told to paint his icon "for all children." With the blessing of Fr. John Namie, the Director of the Antiochian Village at the time, a site was selected on which to build a rock shrine to house the finished icon. The shrine stands to the right of the entrance to the St. Ignatius Church.

According to tradition, St. Artemius had a sister — the Righteous Paraskeva of Pirimin (Oct. 28) — who also gained renown as a worker of miracles.

Read also: ῞Αγιος ᾿Αρτέμιος τοῦ Βέρκολα

Troparion to St. Artemius
By the command of the Most High, the sky was darkened with rain clouds, lightning flashed, threat'ning thunder clashed, and you gave up your soul into the hands of the Lord, O Artemius most wise. Now as you stand before the Throne of the Lord of All, you grant healing unfailingly to those who come to you with faith and love, and you pray to Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

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The Cave of St. Gerasimos of Kefallonia on Mt. Athos

The Cave of Saint Gerasimos is found at the Skete of Saint Anna on Mount Athos.

Read also:

St. Gerasimos of Kefallonia and the Demon Possessed

5 Miracles of Saint Gerasimos of Kefallonia

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1894 'New York Times' Report on St. John of Kronstadt

Double-Click on images to enlarge them.

The New York Times
Published: December 9, 1894
Source

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A Miracle of Elder Joel Yiannakopoulos

By Metropolitan Meletios of Nikopoleos

Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos was a wise and holy personality (+1966).

Three years after his repose, on 19 October 1969 (the feast of the Prophet Joel), in the chapel of the Orthodox Christian Association "Three Hierarchs" in Athens, a vigil took place in memory of the blessed Fr. Joel. The Archimandrites Fr. Agathangelos Mihailidis (+1991), Fr. Epiphanios Theodoropoulos (+1989) and Fr. Meletios Kalamaras (current Metropolitan of Nikopoleos) were co-celebrants.

Towards the end of the Divine Liturgy, during the time for communion, many faithful, spiritual children of Fr. Joel, saw a strange vision.

In the middle of the church there appeared, at the place of the chandelier, on a throne full of light, like a bright cloud, Fr. Joel seated. The throne was hanging above the heads of the crowd, who were following with awe and devotion the Divine Liturgy. He then disappeared and Fr. Joel could be seen, dressed in his priestly vestments, among his three clerical friends.

This event was interpreted by the congregation as a sign of the holiness of Father Joel, as well as an affirmation of the faith of our Church that the departed pious priests descend to our churches at the time of the Divine Liturgy and co-celebrate with their beloved living priests.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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The Conspiracy Theory Of The Gospels

Charles E. Hill
October 18, 2010
The Huffington Post

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These are the Bible's familiar four Gospels, received as Holy Scripture by all major branches of Christianity. From ancient times to the present, these four books have been the gateway to Jesus and his teaching. Friends and foes alike have formed their ideas about Jesus mainly from these books. But why these? Weren't there once other Gospels which for some reason were excluded? How is it that just these four made it into the Bible, and who was it that chose them? If members of the general public have been paying attention, they may know the story by heart, for it has been told in recent best-selling books, novels, and in theaters. Recently, I heard it from a man on a plane and my son heard it in a university classroom. Here is the basic story line.

Gospels about Jesus once flourished. As one scholar has recently put it, they were "breeding like rabbits." Each of the varied Christian sects pushed its own version(s) and competition was lively. This "free market" for Jesus literature meant that, for many years and in many places, some now-forgotten Gospels were at least as popular as the ones that now headline the Christian New Testament. Gradually, however, one of the competing sects was able to gain the upper hand over its rivals. And when it finally declared victory in the fourth century, fully 300 years after Jesus walked the earth, it decreed that its four Gospels were, and had always been, the standard for the church Jesus founded. The "winners," supported by the powerful emperor Constantine the Great, then got to write the histories -- and make the Bibles.

As familiar as the narrative has become, however, it has serious flaws. I wrote Who Chose the Gospels? (Oxford, 2010) for any in the general public who might be interested in a readable account of the scholarship behind this popular story line and in a critique of that scholarship. If the story line has many of the qualities of a gripping conspiracy theory, it is because it basically is a conspiracy theory. And like most conspiracy theories, it tends to be long on drama and somewhat short on reality.

There once were, of course, other Gospels. The public got to see one up close in the spring of 2006 when the recently recovered gnostic Gospel of Judas was unveiled in front of rolling cameras. A cadre of scholars was on hand to deliver the now less-than-startling news that "Christianity was once diverse." For a good many years, some academics have been stumping for another text that somehow slipped through the church fathers' fingers: the Gospel of Thomas. Some would like to make it the long lost conversation partner of the author of the Gospel of John. Not to be forgotten is the venerable "Q" (short for the German Quelle, meaning "source"), the hypothetical inventory of Jesus' sayings which many believe was used by both Matthew and Luke when they wrote their Gospels. Standing up for certain new-old Gospels has taken on an ideological importance, much like the cause of civil rights. Why should fighting discrimination end with people and not with books?

Yet before there were the many Gospels, there were only the four. Not that the four were necessarily the very first writings about Jesus ever scribed, but they are the earliest which we now have. And they are the earliest whose existence we are actually sure of. Yes, the Gospel writers may have used sources, like Q. They may have written earlier editions ("Proto-Matthew," "Proto-Luke," and the like, as they are named). Possibly there were even other Gospels from the first century which we don't know about. But if such things ever existed, we have no good evidence that they ever circulated, or were intended to circulate, among groups of churches as authoritative accounts of the life of Jesus.

That scholars spend good portions of their careers writing about these alternative Gospels and reconstructing Gospel sources that no one has ever reported seeing, though, is a good thing. Such efforts help us imagine how the Gospels were composed, and they give us valuable insights into all early forms of Christianity, both "winners" and "losers".

There is something attractive about the idea of a primordial, Edenic age of natural diversity, from which the church fell into the original sin of greater ecclesiastical unity. But then why do the remains of history seem to indicate that, even amid considerable second-century diversity, there was a mainstream of Christian thought which held a stable, core set of theological beliefs (e.g., that God really did make the world and that Jesus really was both divine and human), as well as a core set of ethical norms? And why does it appear that this Christian mainstream had more in common with the apostle Paul (they preserved his letters) and with the original disciples of Jesus than these other sects did? Here is where the conspiracy theory comes in. This imbalance in the surviving data is explained by the winners' successful campaign to destroy as much of the counter evidence as they could. (Never mind that time and the elements would have destroyed most of them anyway, as they have destroyed most of what the winners tried to preserve.)

Here I will mention one claimed proof for this conspiracy theory, and one stubborn problem it faces.

Proof is said to reside in the ancient papyrus documents which archaeologists have dug from the sands of Egypt over the past century and a quarter. The Christian books yielded up by the unbiased, ancient trash heaps are, we are told, mostly books which were excluded from the New Testament. This would seem to show that the four Gospels were once minority reports and that some popular alternatives have been suppressed by the "winners." All I will say here is that the papyri have both less and more to tell us than this argument lets on.

The problem for the conspiracy theory is a man named Irenaeus. Irenaeus was crystal clear in his claim that the church, from the time of the apostles, had received just four authoritative Gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- and that all the others were bogus. This is just what we would expect from a fourth-century re-writer of history. The problem is that Irenaeus wrote in the second century, long before the conspiratorial rewriting of history is supposed to have taken place.

Does, then, the conspiracy approach to early Christian history, in either its popular or its academic forms, have it right? Should it bother anyone that those who stress so loudly that the winners wrote the histories are the ones now writing the histories? Let the reader judge ... but also be aware of conspiracies.

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Bulgaria Govt Urged to Crack Down on Miracle Healers

Fortune-teller and miracle healer Totka Totevska from the northern town of Pleven was sentenced last week to three and a half years in jail following complaints by clients. Totevska used to compare herself to world famous prophet Vanga who died in 1996.

October 17, 2010
Novinite

Bulgaria's alternative medicine practitioners have threatened to approach the European Commission if the government delays plans to distinguish charlatanism from therapy and translate them into a law.

"Alternative medical therapy should be practiced only by people who have been educated in this field," representatives of the association told Darik radio.

"What we are fighting for is a legal framework, which will legalize the status of those healers, who have the necessary skills and training, and wipe out those who are just pretending to be healers, bringing nothing but problems to the people," says the association chair Zofia Shcherbak.

"When it comes to health care, the authorities' control is a must," she stresses and adds that Bulgaria's government is obliged to make sure that unconventional healing methods are in line with the European Union requirements.

But experts fear that the legislation wouldn't do much to put an end to the booming business of clairvoyants and miracle healers because too many Bulgarians believe in their services.

Numerous psychic programs of clairvoyants, soothsayers, fortune-tellers and astrologers with special powers have turned into a social phenomenon in Bulgaria.

The business of miracle healers is booming in Bulgaria as never before on the back of the economic crisis, Bulgarians' despair and their predilection for mysticism and superstitions.

These pushy women can be seen standing in front of hospitals, their ads feature in newspapers and on the internet. It is hard to avoid meeting them even in downtown Sofia.

More often than not, following these sessions, the patients end up with double-digit bills, rather than a solution to their problems.

The promise to solve virtually any problem whether it's regarding love, career, finance, stress or illness however have made the miracle healers so popular in Bulgaria that they successfully compete with the medics from the health care sector, left in tatters after the collapse of the communist regime.

According to social analysts the fear of the unknown, the feeling for being helpless when faced with corruption, the insecurity and instability that marked the period of big changes in the country, makes people seek refuge in superstitions.

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Holy Martyr Varus and the Devout Cleopatra

St. Varus, the Devout Clepatra, and those with them (Feast Day - October 19)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Varus was a Roman officer in Egypt and also secretly a Christian. When seven Christian teachers were cast into prison, Varus visited them, supplying them with necessities and ministering to them zealously. He was amazed at these martyrs and grieved that because of his fear he could not become a martyr for Christ. The men of God encouraged him, and Varus decided that he would go with them to be tortured.

One of these men of God died in prison, so that when the wicked eparch had the martyrs brought before him, there were only six remaining. He inquired as to the seventh. Varus said to him: "I am the seventh". The enraged governor tortured Varus first. He commanded that he be flogged with dry rods naked, and after that had him tied to a tree and sliced apart piece by piece until the saint gave his holy soul to God.

His body was thrown on a dung heap. A Palestinian woman named Cleopatra, the widow of an officer, was there with her son John. She secretly took Varus's holy relics from the dung heap and buried them in her house. Then she begged permission from the eparch to take the body of her deceased husband from Egypt to Palestine. As she was the wife of an officer, the eparch immediately gave his permission. However, the blessed Christian Cleopatra did not take the body of her husband but the relics of the Holy Martyr Varus instead. Thus, she brought the martyr's relics to Edras (the village of her birth) near Mount Tabor, and buried them with honor there. Afterward, she built a church to St. Varus and he often appeared to her from the other world, resplendent as an angel of God.

An Appearance of the Holy Martyr Varus

When the devout widow Cleopatra built a church to him, she summoned the bishop and priests to consecrate it. A large number of Christians gathered for this celebration, for the entire countryside venerated St. Varus as a great healer and miracle-worker.

Following the divine services, this pious benefactress went before the relics of St. Varus and prayed: "I beseech you, you who endured much suffering for Christ, implore God for that which is pleasing to Him; and for me and my only son, ask that which is beneficial."

Cleopatra's son John was ready for the army. Just as she left the church, John became ill. He was seized with a burning fever that grew steadily worse until, around midnight, John died. The grief-stricken, furious mother came before the tomb of St. Varus and spoke sharply: "O saint of God! Is this the way you help me?" and she said much more in her bitter lamentation until, utterly exhausted, she fell into a light sleep.

St. Varus appeared to her with her son John. Both were radiant as the sun in garments whiter than snow, bound with golden girdles, and had magnificent wreaths on their heads. God's saint said to her: "Did you not pray to me to implore God for whatever was pleasing to Him, and beneficial to you and your son? I prayed to God and He, in His unspeakable goodness, took your son into His heavenly army. If you so desire, here he is: take him and place him in the army of the earthly king." Hearing this, the young John embraced St. Varus and said: "No, my Lord, do not listen to my mother and do not send me back into the world, full of unrighteousness and iniquity, from which you have delivered me."

Awakening from the dream, Cleopatra felt great joy in her heart and left the church. She lived near the church for seven years, and St. Varus often appeared to her with John.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Thy Martyr Varus, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee received the prize of the crowns of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. For since he possessed Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons' strengthless presumption. O Christ God, by his prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful.

Kontakion in the Third Tone
Since thou hadst put on thyself thy Master's Cross as a breastplate, thou didst blunt and bring to nought the tyrants' wicked devices. Thou didst bear most savage tortures upon thy body; valiantly didst thou then finish thy godly contest. Hence from God, O noble Varus, thou wast adorned in a crown august and divine.

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
Following Christ, O Martyr Varus, you drank of His chalice; you received the crown of martyrdom and now rejoice with the angels. Pray for our souls unceasingly.

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How Embarrassing: Astronomers Lose Life-Friendly Planet

New Scientist is reporting: "Last month, a team of astronomers announced the discovery of the first alien world that could host life on its surface. Now a second team can find no evidence of the planet, casting doubt on its existence."



Source

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How About A New Slogan?

"Orthodox" Extremists have a slogan which reads "Orthodoxy or Death", and frankly, it has become a bit tiresome. Despite a well-meaning application by some, it still has its origins in an arrogant polemical stance of so-called "Orthodox Zealots" against other Orthodox Christians whom they think are less Orthodox than they are. Specifically it was aimed at the Ecumenical Patriarchate, whom they practically consider an agent of the Antichrist, yet it also applies to other clergy and laity of the Orthodox Church who disagree with their idealistic notions of Orthodoxy which only exist to serve their own egos. In other words, they want everyone to know that if "Saul has killed his thousands", that is, if the majority of Orthodox only have a portion of the truth, then they want everyone to know that "David has killed his tens of thousands", which is to say that their few have preserved Orthodoxy supposedly with exactitude and purity. A slogan like "Orthodoxy or Death" thus becomes a means to drive other Orthodox to jealousy over their supposed authenticity. In reality they have developed a persecution complex by declaring that they would rather die than become like other "lukewarm" Orthodox who have lost the fire of their zeal.

"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess' And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner'." (Luke 18:11-13)

Of course, such stands are nothing new to the Church. So-called Zealots have always existed within the Church, and the Lord has His way of dealing with them by exposing their schismatic ways when He finds it appropriate. He did it with the Judaizers, He did with the Donatists, He did it with the Novationists, He did it with the Bogomils, He did it with the Old Believers, and He is doing it with the schismatic Old Calendarists - all well-known groups who caused confusion within the Church by proclaiming a purer Orthodoxy over and against the Church at large, whom they charge with heretical teachings where no heresy in fact exists except in their extremist imaginations which are infected with the venomous snake of "zeal without knowledge", which can only be healed with the antidote of wisdom, love and humility. We ought to heed our Lord's words and be "wise as serpents", that is, not biting at a false enemy and being over-territorial out of irrational fear, and we ought to couple this with being "harmless as doves".

So how about a new slogan? Or should we call it an anti-venom? How about...

"Orthodoxy Is Death"

After all, ought not Orthodoxy be the death of one's ego.

But then again, whatever happened to "Jesus Christ Conquers"? It takes the focus off US and puts it back on HIM.

Since slogans are a part of our human fabric, it would probably be best to have a slogan which we ought always have on our lips...

"Glory to God for all things!"

It's no wonder that St. John Chrysostom died with these words on his lips, since they sum up the purpose of our existence, which is to glorify God instead of our ego's.

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Authenticating the Relics of Saint Luke the Apostle

The miracle-working relics of the Apostle Luke were transported to Constantinople during the 4th-century, under the reign of Emperor Constantius (357 AD), the son of Constantine. In 1204, the Crusaders of the IV Crusade stole the relic from Constantinople and transported it to Padova in Italy and it is still located there in the Catholic church of Santa Justina at the centre of the city.


In 1992, the then Metropolitan Ieronymos of Thebes and Levathia (currently the Archbishop of Greece) requested the return of a "a significant fragment of the relics of St. Luke to be placed on the site where the holy tomb of the Evangelist is located and venerated today". This prompted a scientific investigation of the relics in Padua, and by numerous lines of empirical evidence confirmed that these were the remains of an individual of Syrian descent who died between 130 and 400 A.D. The Bishop of Padua then delivered to Metropolitan Ieronymos the rib of St. Luke that was closest to his heart to be kept at his tomb in Thebes, Greece.


The tomb works miracles even today. In December 22, 1997 at 1:30 PM myrrh appeared on the tomb's marble and since then the interior of the marble sarcophagus is fragrant.The olive tree is still living to the right side of the cemetery in Thebes. On the right side of the sanctuary of this church is the Roman sarcophagus where the body of St. Luke had been placed. This tomb belonged to a Roman family of the 2nd-century BC but later on it was emptied and the Christians of Thebes used it as "honor" for St. Luke's relic since it was a majestic tomb.


Read more on the authentication of the relics of Saint Luke below:

Relics of Saint Luke the Evangelist Found in Padua

Saint Luke's Bones

The Beloved Physician

'Body of St. Luke' Gains Credibility

DNA Test Pinpoints St Luke the Apostle's Remains to Padua

Genetic Tests Shed Light On Biblical Body

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Thousands Gather in Georgia for Svetistkholoba

Sigrid Lupieri
October 18, 2010
The Georgian Times

Thousands of believers crowded the narrow streets of the historic town of Mtskheta on Thursday to celebrate “Svetistkholoba,” the national Georgian holiday on October 14, and to commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the Svetistkhoveli Cathedral.

Throughout the day, visitors, as well as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, attended religious services and watched traditional Georgian dances and concerts. In the morning, Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgians Ilia II held a service at 10.00 a.m. in the cathedral.

Despite the occasional rain shower, the entire town bustled with activity. Street vendors sold food and souvenirs, from watermelons to papakha, a type of traditional woolen hat. Within the town, children paraded in their national Georgian costumes. Young boys wore the chokha, or a black tunic with bandoliers stitched in vertical rows on both sides of the chest, over black pants and black leather boots. The chokha is further decorated with a thin leather belt around the waist which holds a small dagger in its sheath. Young girls, on the other hand, wore the khevsuruli dress, another traditional costume which consists of a finely embroidered crimson dress and a matching head covering.

Svetistkholoba is considered to be one of the most important religious festivals in Georgia, while the small town of Mtskheta and its cathedral are one of the main religious centers in the nation. For many Orthodox Christians, the town and the church represent the cradle of Christianity. “Mtskheta is like the second Jerusalem,” said Tamuna Apakidze, who participated in the festival together with her family. “It’s the second place from where Christianity started,” she said.

According to tradition, Svetistkhoveli Cathedral is a shrine built upon the robe worn by Christ during his crucifixion, which was brought to Georgia by an Mtskheta Jew called Elioz. When Elioz brought the robe back to his home, his sister Sidonia died in a passion of faith clutching the garment in her hands. Thus the early Christian woman and the bloodied robe are said to have been buried together.

About three centuries after Sidonia’s death, however, when the entire nation was converted to Christianity, King Mirian planned to build the first church at Mstkheta. According to legend, the first wooden pillar which was designed to support the building could not be moved in any manner. But when St. Nino prayed next to the column, the wooden balk moved of its own accord and placed itself over the unmarked grave of Sidonia. Thus, the name “Svetistkhoveli” signifies “Life-Giving Column.”

Still today, visitors reunite every year to pray in the church where the miracle of the moving column occurred. The Cathedral of Mtskheta was in fact so packed that many faithful had to watch the ceremony from screens outside the building. Apakidze, who attends Svetistkholoba almost every October, said that big crowds were not a surprise. As the two main roads to the town have gradually become more accessible, more visitors are able to visit the town.

Fifteen-year-old Nini Grigolia, who was also at the festival, underlined the religious significance of the event. “It is a big day and everyone should go [to Mtskheta] to pray,” she said. Like many other visitors, she also said she enjoyed the beauty of the town.

Mtskheta itself, which is about 20 km from Tbilisi along the main highway, is indeed beautiful. The village and its medieval churches lie among the rugged mountains of the Caucasus and are surrounded by woodland and shrubs. To the east of Mtskheta, overlooking the valley below lies Jvari church, one of the holiest places in Georgia. Built in the 6th century, the building appears to have grown out of the cliff and can be seen from miles away. Though its interior is rather simple, the view over Mtskheta and the converging Mtkvari and Aragvi rivers is spectacular. Some of the walls of the church lie in ruins and overlook the craggy, windswept cliffs of the Caucasus.

Even for tourists and visitors from abroad, the combination of ancient traditions, of medieval Georgian architecture, and of the stunning views from Mtskheta and from Jvari help to create an almost mystical atmosphere. But for Georgian citizens the festival is much more than that.

Notwithstanding the crowds and the sometimes dubious weather, Apakidze says that October 14 is very important to her and her family. Though sometimes an entire year may pass without visiting Mtskheta, she says she always finds time to attend Svetistkholoba.

“It’s part of our old tradition,” she says, referring to her family’s yearly pilgrimage to the church. “At some point it’s a part of all of us.”

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The Paranoid Style in American Politics

By Richard Hofstadter

Harper’s Magazine, November 1964, pp. 77-86.

It had been around a long time before the Radical Right discovered it—and its targets have ranged from “the international bankers” to Masons, Jesuits, and munitions makers.

American politics has often been an arena for angry minds. In recent years we have seen angry minds at work mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated in the Goldwater movement how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. But behind this I believe there is a style of mind that is far from new and that is not necessarily right-wind. I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind. In using the expression “paranoid style” I am not speaking in a clinical sense, but borrowing a clinical term for other purposes. I have neither the competence nor the desire to classify any figures of the past or present as certifiable lunatics., In fact, the idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant.

Of course this term is pejorative, and it is meant to be; the paranoid style has a greater affinity for bad causes than good. But nothing really prevents a sound program or demand from being advocated in the paranoid style. Style has more to do with the way in which ideas are believed than with the truth or falsity of their content. I am interested here in getting at our political psychology through our political rhetoric. The paranoid style is an old and recurrent phenomenon in our public life which has been frequently linked with movements of suspicious discontent.

Here is Senator McCarthy, speaking in June 1951 about the parlous situation of the United States:

"How can we account for our present situation unless we believe that men high in this government are concerting to deliver us to disaster? This must be the product of a great conspiracy on a scale so immense as to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man. A conspiracy of infamy so black that, which it is finally exposed, its principals shall be forever deserving of the maledictions of all honest men.…What can be made of this unbroken series of decisions and acts contributing to the strategy of defeat? They cannot be attributed to incompetence.…The laws of probability would dictate that part of…[the] decisions would serve the country’s interest."

Now turn back fifty years to a manifesto signed in 1895 by a number of leaders of the Populist party:

"As early as 1865-66 a conspiracy was entered into between the gold gamblers of Europe and America.…For nearly thirty years these conspirators have kept the people quarreling over less important matters while they have pursued with unrelenting zeal their one central purpose.…Every device of treachery, every resource of statecraft, and every artifice known to the secret cabals of the international gold ring are being used to deal a blow to the prosperity of the people and the financial and commercial independence of the country."

Next, a Texas newspaper article of 1855:

"…It is a notorious fact that the Monarchs of Europe and the Pope of Rome are at this very moment plotting our destruction and threatening the extinction of our political, civil, and religious institutions. We have the best reasons for believing that corruption has found its way into our Executive Chamber, and that our Executive head is tainted with the infectious venom of Catholicism.…The Pope has recently sent his ambassador of state to this country on a secret commission, the effect of which is an extraordinary boldness of the Catholic church throughout the United States.…These minions of the Pope are boldly insulting our Senators; reprimanding our Statesmen; propagating the adulterous union of Church and State; abusing with foul calumny all governments but Catholic, and spewing out the bitterest execrations on all Protestantism. The Catholics in the United States receive from abroad more than $200,000 annually for the propagation of their creed. Add to this the vast revenues collected here.…"

These quotations give the keynote of the style. In the history of the United States one find it, for example, in the anti-Masonic movement, the nativist and anti-Catholic movement, in certain spokesmen of abolitionism who regarded the United States as being in the grip of a slaveholders’ conspiracy, in many alarmists about the Mormons, in some Greenback and Populist writers who constructed a great conspiracy of international bankers, in the exposure of a munitions makers’ conspiracy of World War I, in the popular left-wing press, in the contemporary American right wing, and on both sides of the race controversy today, among White Citizens’ Councils and Black Muslims. I do not propose to try to trace the variations of the paranoid style that can be found in all these movements, but will confine myself to a few leading episodes in our past history in which the style emerged in full and archetypal splendor.

Read the rest here.

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The Occult Origins of the Photocopy Machine

When one studies the origins of much of modern technology, one inevitable comes across some sort of spirit guidance leading the inventor towards their "great idea". Medical scientist Andrija Puharich, holder of more than 50 patents, gave his opinion about these strange inspirations:

"I am personally convinced that superior beings from other spaces and other times have initiated a renewed dialogue with humanity. While I do not doubt [their existence] ... I do not know what their goals are with respect to humankind." [Andrija Puharich, Uri: A Journal of the Mystery of Uri Geller (New York, 1975), p. 213.]

One of the most famous examples of this is Chester Carlson (1906-1968), inventor of the Xerox photocopying process, who received guidance for his invention from the spirit world. By the fall of 1938, Carlson's wife had convinced him that his experiments needed to be conducted elsewhere. He rented a room on the second floor of a house owned by his mother-in-law at 32-05 37th Street in Astoria, Queens. He hired an assistant, Otto Kornei, an out-of-work Austrian physicist. Chester Carlson devoted long hours to meditation at the behest of his wife in order to develop his psychic abilities and converse with the other side. He thoroughly believed that he received the knowledge necessary to create his breakthrough photocopying method from the spirit realm! On October 6, 1942, the Patent Office issued Carlson's patent on electrophotography. The home of Doris and Chester Carlson in Rochester, NY was known as a Zen meditation center and many would daily gather there to meditate. In June 1966 Philip Kapleau Roshi founded the Rochester Zen Center with the support of the Carlson's. After he became wealthy from xeroxing, Carlson donated significant sums for paranormal research to Duke University’s Parapsychology Laboratory and the American Society for Psychical Research (for which he served as a trustee).

In his essay "Half a Career with the Paranormal", researcher Ian Stevenson describes Carlson's philanthropic style. According to Stevenson, Carlson's wife, Dorris, had some skill at extrasensory perception, and convinced Carlson to help support Stevenson's research. Carlson not only made annual donations to the University of Virginia to fund Stevenson's work, but in 1964 he made a particularly large donation that helped fund one of the first endowed chairs at the University. Stevenson was the first incumbent of this chair. Although Carlson insisted on anonymous donations, wrote Stevenson, he was unusual in that he closely followed the details of the research, maintaining contact with Stevenson. "He rarely made suggestions, but what he said always deserved attention," wrote Stevenson.

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Do You “Believe” In “Evolution”?

Gil Dodgen
14 October 2010
Uncommon Descent

Yet again, we have this utterly meaningless question asked of an electoral candidate during a debate, in an attempt to discredit her. My response, had I been asked this question, would have been as follows:

Does evolution mean that living things have changed over time? Does evolution mean universal common ancestry? Does evolution mean that random errors filtered by natural selection explain all of biology, including the origin of the functionally specified information encoded in the base-four digital code of the DNA molecule, along with the information-processing machinery that translates it, performs error detection and repair, and much more?

If your definition of “evolution” is the latter, can you supply us with adequate evidence that the probabilistic resources have existed to make this hypothesis a reasonable inference?

Had the debate host, who asked the question in the title of my post, been presented with such a challenge, I can guarantee what his answer would have been:

Huh?

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Neanderthals Are Human Too

The Human Face of Neanderthal Man

David Tyler
October 8, 2010
Science Literature

The archetypal image of Neanderthals has been one that reinforced the Darwinian story of human evolution. A Washington Post story puts it like this: "Early study of Neanderthals described them as very hairy, brutish, unable to talk or walk like more-modern humans." Although things have changed slowly, media presentations have continued to create an impression that does not differ much from this description. However, the evidence for their humanity has accumulated rather rapidly in recent years, and the past month has seen two significant additions to the literature. A Wired Science report introduces one of these studies like this:

"For decades, Neanderthal was cultural shorthand for primitive. Our closest non-living relatives were caricatured as lumbering, slope-browed simpletons unable to keep pace with nimble, quick-witted Homo sapiens. However, anthropologists have found evidence in recent years suggesting considerable Neanderthal sophistication, and not only in tool-making and hunting, but in their ability to feel [i.e. to show compassion]."

Read the rest of the article here.

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The Holy Canal of the Theotokos at Diveyevo Monastery

The Holy Trinity St. Seraphim-Diveyevo Convent was founded in 1760 when the Mother of God appeared to the nun Alexandra in a dream at the village of Diveyevo and promised to base a great and unrivalled convent there. In 1767 on that very spot where the Holy Virgin appeared, Sister Alexandra began to build the church dedicated to the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. As Sister Alexandra drew closer to the end of her life, she asked the elders of Sarov not to leave her fellow sisters without spiritual guidance. It was Fr. Pakhomy who took it upon himself to look after the community of nuns and after his death the job was taken on by Saint Seraphim of Sarov.

As St. Seraphim was working in the convent one day, he saw the Mother of God walking around the boundaries of the monastery. He understood that this had been given not only as a sign of her protection, but that the very path she walked would be a blessing for those who followed in her steps. In 1830 Saint Seraphim had asked Diveyevo's nuns to dig the Holy Canal (or Holy Ditch), which would surround the elected place chosen by the Mother of God for the building of the Convent. Saint Seraphim said: "He who walks along the Holy Canal praying 'Theotokos and Virgin, Rejoice...' 150 times, for him this place will be Athos, Jerusalem, and Kiev." He and his nuns spent many months digging a deep canal of 2 meters along the Holy Virgin’s path. Through cold winters and snow they would dig this canal, and St. Seraphim would dig as if it was his final mission; in fact, he died on January 2, 1833 soon after its completion. The Elder would encourage pilgrims to walk the canal, and that if they did so, the Mother of God would unfailingly answer their prayers.

Since then Diveyevo Convent has been known as one of the four domains of the Theotokos. Saint Seraphim of Sarov predicted that Diveyevo would become a stronghold of Orthodoxy and a place where worldwide repentance would begin. St. Seraphim’s relics are now enshrined at the convent in Diveyevo, as the elder himself predicted a century and a half earlier. After the relics of St. Seraphim, the most widely visted spot at Diveyevo is the Holy Canal. In 1922 the Hieromartyr Seraphim Zvezdinsky saw the Theotokos walking along the Holy Canal. It is said that when the Antichrist comes, he will not be able to enter Diveyevo Monastery because of the Holy Canal.


Every night after dinner, the Diveyevo nuns walk the canal in procession, carrying a cross and icons of the Mother of God and St. Seraphim, often with several hundred pilgrims in their wake.

Dr. F.A. Timofievich describes his canal walk in 1926:

"It had already grown dark when we, having left the church, made our way to the canal, which was sanctified, according to the words of St. Seraphim, by the steps of the Mother of God herself, and to which he attributed such special significance. Slowly the silent figures of the nuns were moving along the canal with prayer ropes in their hands, quietly whispering prayers: 'Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast borne the Savior of our souls.'

The canal was actually a rather large embankment with a ditch on the outside, and on top of it ran a well-trodden pathway planted with large trees. The sides of the canal were overgrown with grass and field-flowers, which the believers pick and preserve as holy objects. We also walked along the canal with a prayer.

Inexpressible was the feeling of contrition of heart when we also touched this mystery so full of grace and were, so to speak, engulfed in the stream of human souls which for over 100 years ceaselessly continued, according to the commandment of St. Seraphim, to follow in the steps of the Queen of Heaven ... Several times we walked around the canal with prayer and did not want to leave, so light and joyful were we in soul. With the last breath of St. Seraphim this canal was finished, and it is destined in the future to be a defense against Antichrist himself. The whole meaning, the whole completion of this sacred mystery, of course, was open to St. Seraphim alone, but to us sinners it is given only to touch it, like the hem of a garment, and to wholly believe the words of the Saint that not a single stone in Diveyevo was laid without the instruction of the Queen of Heaven." (Source)


Since Dr. Timofievich’s time the canal has almost completely eroded and is no longer in its original form as an embankment, though it is being restored. Although it has been both purposely and naturally filled in, its path was not forgotten and thousands of contemporary pilgrims still trod the well-worn boundary walked by the Mother of God. Since the convent’s closure, the village has encroached on what was previously monastery property, and now the path winds past a school, near a power station and through the backyards and alleys of Diveyevo. Nevertheless, Dr. Timofievich’s experience of the canal walk is as true for pilgrims today as it was for him in 1926, and the nuns themselves recount the tradition that each day, unseen, the Mother of God visits her canal.


According to one pilgrim, Ann Johnson, who visited in 2006, this is how it now takes place:

"We were fortunate enough to join in the procession around the 'kanavka', which takes place every evening. St. Seraphim said that the Mother of God was the real abbess of Diveyevo, and that it was she who marked out the boundaries of the monastery which he caused to be built. He himself began the task of digging the ditch and dyke and the nuns continued it. When our friend Alison first visited Diveyevo about 10 years ago, she helped to dig it out along with many other pilgrims, so that the ancient tradition of praying around the kanavka every evening could be revived. A procession of nuns and priests lead the way walking slowly along the path in total silence, each person silently praying the prayer “Virgin Mother of God, Rejoice…” It took about 45 minutes to walk right round the kanavka, and the sky was darkening when we reached the end. We guessed that there might have been about one thousand pilgrims walking and praying in silence." (Source)


Below is a Russian documentary on the Holy Canal of the Theotokos at Diveyevo Monastery:

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The Festering Wounds of Sin

By St. Nikolai Velimorivich

"My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness" (Psalm 38:5).

The prophet speaks of the wounds of sin that he himself committed, and from which he sensed in himself the stench of sin. As much as this acknowledgment reveals the impurity of previous sins, so is the subsequent purity of the repentant one also shown. For as long as man follows the corrupt path of sin, he does not sense its suffocating stench; but when he withdraws from this path and sets off on the pure path of righteousness, he senses the inexpressible difference between purity and impurity, between the path of virtue and the path of vice.

Imagine a man who has spent the night in a stinking tavern and finds himself in a garden of roses the next morning. In the former there was stench, poison, debasement of soul and body, anger, discord, and the tormenting of himself and others. In the latter is God's great sun overhead, beautiful flowers everywhere, fresh air, wondrous fragrance, serenity and health. Imagine this, and understand that there is an even greater difference between the path of sin and the path of God.

My wounds are foul and festering. Thus the great king describes the fruits of his sinful past. Nothing is as foul as sin, nothing festers as much and nothing spreads as much as sin. The stench of bodily wounds suggests, in only a small way, the unbearable stench of a sinful soul. That is why every holy thing distances itself from such a soul. The pure heavenly spirits hide from such a one, and the impure spirits of hades seek its company. Every new sin is a fresh wound on the soul; every sin is corruption and stench.

How does sin arise? From my foolishness explains the prophet. A mind derailed from its divine track leads man to sin. Until the mind is cleansed, man cannot be cleansed. "But we have the mind of Christ" (I Corinthians 2:16), says the Apostle. In other words, we have a mind put back on track, as was Adam's mind before the sinful stench.

Hence brethren, all Orthodox teaching on asceticism concentrates on one main point: on the mind of man; on the cleansing and correcting of the mind.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Purity and eternal Source of purity, help us to reject our foolishness; help us to reason according to Thy mind. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.

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Holy Martyr Longinus the Centurion

St. Longinus the Centurion (Feast Day - October 16)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

The divine Matthew the Evangelist, in describing the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ, says: "Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, 'Truly this was the Son of God'" (Matthew 27:54). That centurion was this blessed Longinus, who with two other of his soldiers came to believe in Jesus, the Son of God.

Longinus was chief of the soldiers who were present at the Crucifixion of the Lord on Golgotha, and was also the chief of the watch that guarded the tomb. When the Jewish elders learned of the Resurrection of Christ, they bribed the soldiers to spread the false news that Christ did not resurrect, but rather that His disciples stole His body. The Jews also tried to bribe Longinus, but he did not allow himself to be bribed. Then the Jews resorted to their usual strategy: they decided to kill Longinus. Learning of this, Longinus removed his military belt, was baptized with his two companions by an apostle, secretly left Jerusalem and moved to Cappadocia with his companions. There, he devoted himself to fasting and prayer and, as a living witness of Christ's Resurrection, converted many pagans to the true Faith by his witness.

After that, he withdrew to a village on the estate of his father. Even there, however, the malice of the Jews did not leave him in peace. Due to the calumnies of the Jews, Pilate dispatched soldiers to behead Longinus. St. Longinus foresaw in the spirit the approach of his executioners and went out to meet them. He brought them to his home, not telling them who he was.

He was a good host to the soldiers, and soon they lay down to sleep. But St. Longinus stood up to pray, and prayed all night long, preparing himself for death. In the morning, he called his two companions to him, clothed himself in white burial clothes, and instructed the other members of his household to bury him on a particular small hill. He then went to the soldiers and told them that he was that Longinus whom they were seeking. The soldiers were perplexed and ashamed, and could not even contemplate beheading Longinus, but he insisted that they fulfill the order of their superior.

Thus, Longinus and his two companions were beheaded. The soldiers took Longinus's head to Pilate, and he turned it over to the Jews. They threw it on a dung heap outside the city.

Two Appearances of St. Longinus

The first appearance of the Holy Martyr Longinus was as follows: Much time had passed since his martyrdom when it happened that a widow in Cappadocia became blind. The doctors were unable to do anything at all for her. Suddenly, the thought came to her to go to Jerusalem and venerate the holy places there, hoping that she might find help. She had an only son, a boy, who served as her guide, but as soon as they arrived in Jerusalem, her son died of an illness. Oh, how immeasurable was her sorrow! Having lost her eyes, she now lost her only son, whose eyes had guided her. But in her pain and sorrow, St. Longinus appeared to her and comforted her with the promise that he would restore her sight and reveal to her the heavenly glory in which her son now dwelt. Longinus told her everything about himself, and told her to go outside the city walls to the dung heap, and there to dig up his head, and that she herself would see what would happen next. The woman arose and, stumbling, somehow managed to get out of the city. She cried out for someone to lead her to the dung heap and to leave her there. When she was led to the dung heap, she bent down and began to dig with her hands, having a strong faith that she would find that for which the saint asked. As she was digging, she touched the holy martyr's buried head, and her eyes were opened, and she saw a man's head beneath her hands. Filled with gratitude to God and great joy, she took the head of St. Longinus, washed it, censed it, and placed it in her home as the most precious treasure on earth.

The second appearance of the Holy Martyr Longinus: When Longinus appeared to the blind widow whose son had died, he promised to restore her sight and to reveal her son in great glory. Finding the relics of the holy martyr and touching them with her hands, the widow immediately regained her sight, and thus, one promise was fulfilled. The following night, St. Longinus appeared to the widow in radiant attire, holding her son by the hand, who was also clothed resplendently. Caressing the child like a father, Longinus said: "Woman, behold your son for whom you weep so much! Look at the honor and glory given him; look and be comforted. God has numbered him among the heavenly ranks who live in His Kingdom. I have now brought him from the Savior, and he will never be parted from me. Take my head and your son's body, and bury them together in one coffin. Mourn your son no longer, and let not your heart be troubled, for great glory, joy, and endless rejoicing is given him from God." Seeing and hearing all this, the woman was filled with great joy, and she returned to her home, saying to herself: "I asked for bodily eyes and I found spiritual eyes. I was saddened at the death of my son, and now I have him in heaven, where he remains in glory with the prophets and rejoices with them unceasingly."

HYMN OF PRAISE: The Holy Martyr Longinus

St. Longinus stood beneath the Cross
When, on the Cross, Christ breathed His last.
Longinus beheld the wrath of the mild sky,
Witnessed the earth as it shook,
And the bright sun as it lost its rays
And clothed the whole world in darkness.
The tombs of many were opened,
And many of the dead appeared alive.
Brave Longinus was filled with fear,
And exclaimed with a remorseful sigh:
"This Man was the Son of God!
Sinful men have crucified the Innocent One!"
Next to him, two other soldiers
Echoed the exclamation of their centurion.
Longinus was a witness of the Resurrection,
And he could attest to His humiliation as well.
An eyewitness, a true witness,
Longinus desired to not conceal the truth,
But proclaimed it everywhere he went,
And glorified the resurrected Christ God!
To his death he remained Christ's soldier;
And for Christ, Longinus gave his head.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Thy Martyr Longinus, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee received the prize of the crowns of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. For since he possessed Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons' strengthless presumption. O Christ God, by his prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful.

Apolytikion in the First Tone
Longinus, you beheld the King of Glory who was nailed to the Cross, yet shone on those in darkness. You were enlightened by His rays and became a martyr and save those who cry: Glory to Him who gave you strength! Glory to Him who granted you a crown! Glory to Him who through you grants healing to all!

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
With great joy the Church of Christ today rejoiceth on the festive memory of blest Longinus, the all-famed and godly prizewinner. And she doth cry out: O Christ, my foundation and might art Thou.

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