to you what is divine canon?do you consider all books in the old and new testament of the bible divine works inspired by god and christ?do you consider old testament apocrypha to be canonical?how about new testament apocrapha?

this website has all kinds of religious stuff:this here is the new testament apocrapha
http://www.comparative-religion.com/...ity/apocrypha/

how about mysticism,and gnosticsm?

why come alot of books contradict and people get different interpretations?

do you think the missing books of the bible will ever surface again and the ones with just bits the full ones will be found?

some of these books on this site say different things like almost all the people say they were jesus favorite(the apostles and his followers)do you think he had such a thing?

in the bible i was raised with it says judas hanged himself but their is a gospel of judas which says differently.

then the gospel of mary says she is the holy spirit(also spirit is a feminine word)who is the holy spirit is it jesus,god,how would one sin against it?

do you believe it was adam and eve or adam and two other women before eve one who woudlnt submit to adam and one who adam was scared of cos he saw her made.what do you think happened to them?or do you think they never existed and thats false prophecy.i know its not in genesis but its in something i was reading lately either on wikipedia or on the site with all the bits and pieces of the bible.

also the way churchs conduct their services are very different.

the koran also mentions alot of the same people and about adam being made from dust.

do you believe the god in the old testament is the same as in the new one?
do you think there is more then one god when god says hes a jealous god and shall have no other gods before me or do you think he means things such as money and power and material goods?
do you think there are more then one way to heaven?

do you believe in one heaven?ive heard 5 heavens i think?i think also once 7?then read the other day 72 heavens?isnt 72 also the number of virgins supposedly that those suicide bombers say they get for dying for god.

what is the devils number ive heard 666,665 and 616?

ok, that's alot of questions.
and i don't think it's so important what you believe, but that you do believe.

and i also think religion has the power to be the most unifying force on earth, but also the most divisive, and that of late, it's be used primarly for the latter. and many of the languages that origional religious texts were written in, have been lost or barely put back together. and with translation, after translation, after translation along with historical methods and ethics changing at the same time, it's only sensible that there are this many variations.

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also some of those writings they have as apocrypha they mention names used in mythology as well so perhaps they were real people and mentions hell as hades.

one of them says the cross was moving with jesus on it.
one says jesus didnt die on it that it was just an illusion his spirit left his body.

what about with the fall of the angels and how they taught men to fight war?and what about the angels sleeping with people and creating giants(no giant bones have ever been found)and the giants killing and harming the people and being really evil and having great appetities and they were one of the main reasons for the great flood of the earth.

one says jesus came back to earth for so many yrs to help his followers start christiianity.

even jesus birth some say she had sex with joseph and when jesus was baptized god adopted his as his son others say she was immaculate therefore the immaculate conception.i read also that the angel of gabriel went on her and put himself inside her to be born.

sorry for all the questions.i am on a quest.i want the truth.i dont know if wikipedia is the greatest source to go to and then this other site which i posted above.

here is the old testament apocrypha for those interested
http://www.riseisrael.com/apocrypha.htm

here is the list of books actually referenced to in what is revered as bible canon but arent in the bible

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-can...d_in_the_Bible

There are several texts which would be considered part of the apocrypha, which are mentioned in many ancient sources, but for which no known text has survived:

The Gospel of Matthias (probably not to be confused with the Gospel of Matthew)
The Gospel of the Four Heavenly Realms
The Gospel of Perfection - Used by the followers of Basilides and other Gnostics. See Epiphanius, Haer. xxvi. 2.
The Gospel of Eve - A quotation from this gospel is given by Epiphanius (Haer. xxvi. 2, 3). It is possible that this is the Gospel of Perfection which he touches upon in xxvi. 2. The quotation shows that this gospel was the expression of complete pantheism.
The Gospel of the Twelve
The Gospel of Thaddaeus - this may be a synonym for the Gospel of Judas, confusing Judas Iscariot for Judas Thaddaeus
Memoria Apostolorum
The Gospel of the Seventy
The Grave-plate of the Apostles
The Book of spells of serpents
The Portion of the Apostles


(lost works of new testament-wikipedia)

also in heaven ive always heard no sex.i read the other day no food and drink then in another one said fountains of honey,wheat,milk,and water or something like that.

Why different interpretations. Well, basically cuz it's not written in a straight forward way, and it's translated I dunno how many times. So there's lots of room to move around.

Gospel of Judas ... it was from the Gnostics. From the little I know about it, it seems a lotta scholars are sceptical about stuff that comes from the Gnostics. I believe I read somewhere that Gnostics often wrote stuff just to upset the established religious order ...

Yer question whether the New and OLd testament Gods are different ... This is something I've been wondering about too. Cuz like I said before, it seems to me the New is about forgiveness and the Old is about punishment. I'm much more interested in the New Testament, I get more outta that. Maybe cuz the Old got older stories, everything is told at a greater distance, and meanings have got mixed up ....

They say 666 is the number of a man ... how the number is counted, I dunno. Seriously, I don't think anyone knows. Yer right, Wiki mentions a fragment of an old manuscript that says 616 instead ... which just goes to show how meaning can be lost over transcriptions and translations, if even numbers get changed!!

Churches ... personally I don't take Churches seriously ... cuz Jesus, he didn't start em, and he says that people should pray alone. Here's the passage:

Matthew 6:5-6: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men....when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret...."

Of course Churches don't talk about that passage much.

I wanna comment too on my feelings on Heaven, but I gotta think about it a little.

No, that would go for all the southern baptist holy rollers. The ones that make complete shows of themselves.......a nice good old fashined Catholic mass will sort 'em out. The discipline of trying not to fall asleep will do them good..

They say that "enter into thy closet" in other versions translates into "go into your inner room." "go away by yourself," "all alone," "your [most] private room," "enter into thy chamber," and "go into your room."

Jesus prayed in private:

Matthew 14:23: "And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone."

And .... ya, Churches get around that by saying that he only condemned prayer in public that is intended to show off. Which I think is totally misreading it, and they do only to save their butts. Cuz he says wHen you pray, do it alone. And he prayed alone. That's clear. Apparently only the Quakers follow that.

It's funny that many religious people are doing what he condemned, every Sunday, and maybe more often than that ...

Also: He freely talked and associated with women -- a forbidden practice for Jewish men of the day. Cool

Studies have shown that praying achieves fuck all

If it gives inner peace, it achieves something.

And, as soon as it's a study, it's no longer private prayer ...

What so you think you cant study private matters? what a bunch of BS.

It doesn't provide inner peace to those who are dying of cancer and are hoping for a "magical" cure. But I suppose if by 'inner peace', you mean 'false hope', then i guess you are right.

I'm saying it's supposed to be done in private, and not in public. Besides, if you do it in public, for a study, it's done for the wrong reasons ... It's like the Uncertainty Principle... if you try to measure it, you change it ... you know the Uncertainty Principle, Mr Science??

I mean ... inner peace ... inner calm ... so you don't believe in that, either, I guess. Anything you don't experience, doesn't exist. Guess going into space don't exist either, cuz you never done that. Oh well.

And it can provide inner peace to those dying of cancer. Yep, definitely ...

prayer has been totally effective to me. Courtney also talks about how prayer works, how you ask for things and you actually GET THEM!!!

It's true.

ah ok, so if you tell someone you pray, or do it in public, then god will ignore it until you do it in private. I wonder why they do mass prayers in church if he is just going to ignore it. He must be really proud by refusing to help those who pray when it isn't private.

Do those cancer sufferers that believe in prayer, and refuse to believe in the scientific method, refuse to take any medicine for their condition in the hope that god will cure them? or do they only believe in the scientific method when it suits them?

They can believe in prayer AND science. That's how God may choose to cure em, thru medicine ... God made science.

Who you talking about, the Jehovah Witnesses?

Well I'm saying that those that pray in public, together, are wrong, cuz they are doing it to show off .... I dunno if God would ignore it. Maybe not. I dunno.

Funniest thing I've heard in a while. Have you got proof yet? or don't you believe in that particular part of the scientific method?