> How will it end?
>

A Spritual imbalance will cause some fringe lunatics to set of a man made holocast that will cause a natural disaster..

Or Fat B will fart too close to Yellow Stone and set off the Super Volcano

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I'd rather speak my mind because it hurts too much to bite my tongue.

American Spirit BBQ Proudly Serving those that courageously defend freedom.

>>>How will it end?>
It's about time the TV started showing something important
Like how the world will end
Still, it's not so important that I'll go and buy one of those TV sets
Is this like on 'pay per view'
Or can anybody watch it for free?
...cc

> >>>How will it end?>
> It's about time the TV started showing something important
> Like how the world will end
> Still, it's not so important that I'll go and buy one of those TV sets
> Is this like on 'pay per view'
> Or can anybody watch it for free?
> ...cc
>

NBC

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I'd rather speak my mind because it hurts too much to bite my tongue.

American Spirit BBQ Proudly Serving those that courageously defend freedom.

Good God! Will the fecal matter of the creative minds of television programming never cease? Just watch some early AM TV evangilists and see the real "truth" lol

What's sad is that many take it seriously

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<img src="http://www.boincstats.com/stats/banner.php?cpid=b3c0c2639ea110901bd0970a1c22efcd">

Whoa!!
How does NBC know anything?
The Pope just died yesterday and he's the only guy s'posed to know everything
Right?
On 'Pay per View' at least they've got experts
But NBC is just like 'The Tonight Show' and stuff
Right?
Personally, I pretty much think TV is bullshit-
Right?
...cc

The new Christianity?

By George J. Bryjak

April 13, 2005

The world's largest religion is on the verge of a major transformation as the center and influence of international Christianity moves from the Northern to Southern Hemisphere. In "The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity," Philip Jenkins argues that this monumental shift is rooted in population dynamics; slow-growth, wealthy Christian nations will be overwhelmed (in terms of both numbers and influence) by fast-growth, increasingly Christian developing countries.

In 1900, approximately 10 million Africans out of 107 million were Christians. By 2003, African Christians numbered 395 million and comprised 47.5 percent of the continental population. Just under 94 percent of Latin America's 535 million residents are Christians.

By 2025, 50 percent of global Christendom will reside in Africa and Latin America and another 17 percent will be in Asia. This latter figure could be significantly higher if the predictions of David Aikman prove correct. In "Jesus in Beijing," the former Time magazine Beijing bureau chief argues that in the next 30 years China's Christian population could swell from 12 million to nearly 400 million. Taking a cue from German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920), Aikman is of the opinion that Chinese leaders view Christianity (especially Protestantism) as highly conducive to economic growth.

However, it's not the number of followers per se in developing nations that will transform Christendom. Rather, it is the religious orientation of these believers that is pivotal to 21st century Christianity. While churches in the affluent Northern Hemisphere have become increasingly liberal (with the exception of Christian Fundamentalism) over the past 50 years, Christianity in the Southern Hemisphere is decidedly conservative on issues of contraception, abortion, homosexuality, gender roles (most notably the ordination of women in Roman Catholicism) and religious authority.

Jenkins notes that faith healing is a significant component of the new Christianity. Plagued by maladies such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and yellow fever, African churches have constructed "elaborate rituals" around healing practices. In countries where affordable Western-style health care is all but nonexistent, hundreds of millions of impoverished individuals rely heavily on spiritual healing. In addition to the scourge of physical disease, environmental degradation and pervasive political and social turmoil can easily lead people to believe "they are under siege from demonic forces and that only divine intervention can save them."

Unlike Christianity in the north that is often limited to an hour-long, Sunday morning service, Christendom in the south is a more "total-life" mind, body and spirit existence. Leaders of an increasingly vocal southern Christianity will call for social and economic justice at the international level. Such talk is likely to fall on deaf ears as the prospect of an egalitarian distribution of global wealth tends to make northern liberal and conservative Christians uncomfortable. The reluctance of northern Christians to "love thy neighbor" via significant economic aid to the south may be the greatest divide between the hemispheric churches.

If Jenkins is correct, the population explosion in the south already has had a profound impact on Roman Catholicism. The Pennsylvania State University history and religious studies professor argues that in the papal election of 1978, Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla won the support of his Third World brethren who would not accept "yet another Western European" as pope. In turn, the new pontiff elevated almost 50 theologically like-minded southern bishops to the rank of cardinal.

Of the 117-member conclave that will choose the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church, 39 are from Third World countries and seven reside in Eastern European and former Soviet states. While these men may not be able to elect one of their own to the papacy, they will certainly have a significant voice in determining who becomes the next pope.

The needs of Third World Catholics are certain to be a high priority for the new pontiff. In the near future, cardinals from the developing world will constitute a majority of voting members in the papal selection process. The same geographic mind-set that kept Italians in the Vatican for almost all of the previous 2000 years may commence a long succession of popes from the Southern Hemisphere.

Jenkins believes that "the critical centers of the Christian world" have moved to Africa, Latin America and Asia," and that the balance "will never shift back." While Jenkins' assessment is likely correct, what shape a southern-dominated Christianity takes remains to be seen. History informs us that modernizing societies become increasingly secular as a concern for "this-world" activities supercedes a spiritual "other-world" orientation.

Pope John Paul II was painfully aware of this sociological truism when he admonished his countrymen on a 1993 visit to Poland. The pope was of the opinion that the first Iron Curtain country to shed communism (1989) was already showing signs of crass materialism. In the latter half of his papacy he was deeply concerned that the fall of global atheistic communism would be replaced by an equally godless self-indulgent consumerism.

Research by psychologist Shalom Schwartz and his colleagues at Jerusalem's Hebrew University lend credence to the late pope's worst fears about capitalism. Based on survey data collected from thousands of individuals in 40 countries, investigatorsconcluded that an emphasis on wealth, ambition and social recognition conflicted with values supporting strong relationships (loyalty, helpfulness, love) and with concern about the larger community (peace, justice, equality).

Will the conservative Christianity of developing nations eventually give way to the "cult of the individual," arguably the most influential religion in the north, or are we on the threshold of a new Christendom?

Bryjak is on leave as a professor of sociology at the University of San Diego.

> <img>

Reminds me of a cover of a magazine, I saw at the library yesterday, of the late pope saying "This man has caused more AIDS in Africa than prostitution and truckers together" (as far as I remember!)!

I was appalled when I watched his funeral on tv, that people want [url=http://www.terradaily.com/2005/050404155456.wwrbq6kk.html] this man<a> declared as a saint imidiately! "Pronto Santo" on signs and yelling the words!!

Some saint, huh?

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

Let's face it, the scandal took place once PJP2 wasn't in condition to deal with it.

All saints are human, and are therefore error prone. Law should have been excommunicated, and I think Pope /dev/urandom (For lack of better information) ought to make that the first thing he does after coronation.

Meanwhile, Santo subito!

---

>
> Meanwhile, Santo subito!
>

You're not serious? :-O

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

Wow! I just found this, and I'm fascinated by the diversity of opinions and interpretations of "religion". Is this an "American" thing? In England, where I am, folks are either religious, or they are not.

Surely, religion is about one's relationship with God. It's not about social rules, or power struggles, or oppression of the masses: those may be the outcome of (maybe distorted or abused) religion, but that's not the point of it.

I go to Church (and preach, and teach) because the faith I have received means something to me, works for me, and is real for me. I don't force it on anyone, but I will offer it to anyone who is interested. Many are. A relationship with God makes sense to me - and is the purpose in my life.

There's some good stuff back along this thread about the validity of scientific method versus religious method. No scientist ever proved or disproved the existence of God by scientific method, and I've not succeeded in deriving Einstein's theories from theology, either.

I don't think I ever heard of a court case here about the use of religious symbols in secular life. Maybe it's a cultural thing.

---

> Wow! I just found this, and I'm fascinated by the diversity of opinions and
> interpretations of "religion". Is this an "American" thing?

It's just one of the many things that makes Freedom of Religion so important.

>>Meanwhile, Santo subito!
>You're not serious? :-O
I'm also not Roman Catholic.

---

For those of you, who like betting:

here are the bets for the next pope.

---

Gruesse vom Saenger

For questions about Boinc look in the BOINC-Wiki

> For those of you, who like betting:
>
> here are the bets for the next pope.
>

My guess: Southamerican.

---

"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

> > Wow! I just found this, and I'm fascinated by the diversity of opinions
> and
> > interpretations of "religion". Is this an "American" thing?
>
> It's just one of the many things that makes Freedom of Religion so
> important.
>
"Freedon of Religion" also means to be protected from the religious.

---

Account frozen...

In America today, religion does not need protection from the government, ...but government does need protection from religion.

---

Ratman is the new Vatman?
Benny the Sixteenth
God help the Mother Church
Sorry faithful ones
Rubbers are still out of bounds
And will remain til the new Excellency
Flies on to Jesus
At least he'll be there before long
Catholics need an African Pope
Looking them all in the eye
And blessing the wrapping
Of the Rascal...cc

"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute -- where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote -- where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference ... I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish -- where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source -- where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials."

- president John F. Kennedy.

At the time, the speech was regarded as an attempt to refute anti-Catholic prejudice.

......Was Kennedy an enemy of "people of faith"?

Just asking.

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