Den kontroversielle schweizaren Erich von Däniken på spaning i Mexiko. Ansiktsfärgen..? Jo, han älskar Bordeauxviner, hehe..

I över 45 års tid har schweiziske författaren och f d fängelsekunden Erich von Däniken hävdat att tydliga spår av utomjordiska intelligenser finns i våra myter och fornlämningar. Nyare rön tycks tyda på att han i allt väsentligt nog har rätt i sina teorier…

Läs även andra insiktsfulla (?) bloggares åsikter om Aliens, UFO:s, ET:s, von Däniken, video, YouTube, utomjordingar, teknologi, bevis

Synopsis from Wikipedia:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction action film which was released on June 19, 2009 in the United Kingdom and June 24, 2009 in North America. It is the sequel to 2007’s Transformers and the second film in the live action Transformers series. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg return respectively as director and executive producer, while Shia LaBeouf reprises the role of Sam Witwicky, the human caught in the war between Autobots and Decepticons. The film introduces many more robots and the scope has been expanded to numerous countries, most notably France, Jordan and Egypt. The plot revolves around Sam, who has been having visions of Cybertronian symbols, getting hunted by the evil Decepticons under the orders of their long-trapped leader, The Fallen. The Fallen seeks to get revenge on Earth by finding and activating a machine that would provide the Decepticons with an energon source, destroying all life on the planet in the process.

My Take:
I really waited for a month or so before commenting on these violent, sex-angst laden film. It is more than 2 hours long-and filled with mythological (as in Von Danikennish myths) references to Egyptian gods and symbols. The difference is that they did not pursue the line that we were experiments of an alien race. However, it also put a doubt on our uniqueness as a creation of our God. In fact it posits a theory that the Primes are even much much older. There is also a ‘dream-vision’ portion field with the Primes-but no heaven.

The first movie was much fun-cartoon tv series turn into a movie. But it is no longer. You might even mistake it for  a continuation of “Black-Hawk Down” for the ferociousness of its battle scenes. And yes-we know Megan Fox is “hot”-but why emphasized it a lot. And the parents-they were fumbling in the first movie-but now-they are sex-crazed. Some people do not know when to stop. They had it going great the last time. They could have been on it instead of making a monster out of the transformers

Am 15. Mai wurde der Mystery Park in Interlaken für fünf Monate wieder eröffnet. Während der letzten sechs Wochen besuchten täglich über 500 Interessierte den Freizeitpark.Eigentlich hatte der Mystery Park im Dezember 2006 seine Tore geschlossen. Trotzdem wollten ihn die Betreiber in diesem Sommer nochmals eröffnen. Der Mut zu diesem Risiko habe sich gelohnt, sagt Geschäftsführer Marcel Meier am Mittwoch gegenüber bernerzeitung.ch. Seit der Wiedereröffnung besuchen täglich mehr als 500 Erwachsene und Kinder den Freizeitpark. «Damit sind die Erwartungen von 90′000 Besuchern bis Ende Oktober durchaus realistisch», betont Meier. Die Betreiber stellen fest, dass während der Woche besonders viele Familien aus der Region den Weg in den Park finden. Im Gegensatz dazu sei an den Wochenenden der Touristenandrang gross. «Wir profitieren zudem vom durchzogenen Wetter.» Die vergangenen Tage seien äusserst gut gelaufen, sagt Meier. «Bei der temporären Wiedereröffnung haben wir bewusst auf Familien gesetzt», erklärt er. Dieses Konzept habe bis anhin hervorragend funktioniert. Zum Erfolg würden besonders die zahlreichen Kinderattraktionen neben den traditionellen Pavillons beitragen. «Endlich können Eltern mit Kindern jeden Alters den Park besuchen.» Dieser Vorteil habe sich erstaunlich rasch herumgesprochen, freut sich der Geschäftsführer.

Dank der vorübergehenden Inbetriebnahme des Parks konnten laut Meier 35 Arbeitsplätze geschaffen werden. Zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt sei man weit entfernt von Kurzarbeit. «Wir haben keinen Mann zu viel», sagt Marcel Meier. Zu einem Drittel besetzen ehemalige Mystery Park Crew-Mitglieder die Temporärstellen. Für den Rest seien neue Arbeitskräfte rekrutiert worden. «Einige Ehemalige hatten bereits andere Stellen gefunden», begründet Meier. Mit manchen hätte eine erneute Zusammenarbeit aus Betreibersicht nicht mehr funktioniert.

Trotz positiver Zwischenbilanz wird es den Mystery Park in dieser Form nur noch bis im Herbst geben. Ende Oktober soll das Konzept für das Nachfolgeprojekt präsentiert werden. Momentan werden vier Ansätze diskutiert, welche sich laut Meier stark voneinander unterscheiden. Klar sei allerdings, dass das neue Projekt weiterhin eine touristische Nutzung in Form eines Freizeitparkes vorsehe. (Quelle: Tages-Anzeiger)

ancient egyptian pillars of light

Zowie! The continued interested in ancient Egyptian Lightbulbs has inspired me (Dr. Z) to post yet another fact filled article on this mysterious subject.

Dr Z

www.zbulbs.com

 

The Denderah “Lightbulb”

Beneath the Temple of Hathor at Dendera there are inscriptions depicting a bulb-like object which some have suggested is reminiscent of a “Crookes tube” (an early lightbulb). Inside the “bulbs” a snake forms a wavy line from a lotus flower (the socket of the bulb). A “wire” leads to a small box on which the air god is kneeling. Beside the bulb stands a two-armed djed pillar, which is connected to the snake, and a baboon bearing two knives. In “The Eyes of the Sphinx”, Erich Von Daniken suggested that the snake represented the filament, the djed pillar was an insulator, and the tube was in fact an ancient electric light bulb. The baboon was apparently a warning that the device could be dangerous if not used correctly.

The crypts are generally considered to be store-rooms, and only a few are decorated. At the southern end of the temple there are five subterranean crypts. They were thought to house the most valuable of the temple statues and objects including the “ba” of Hathor, used during ritual processions at New Year. A gold statuette of Hathor sat within a large kiosk formed by four gold posts, a gold base and roof. Fine linen hung from copper rails between the posts, so that the goddess remained hidden. According to the texts written on the walls, we know that the kiosk consisted of a gold base surmounted by a gold roof supported by four gold posts, covered on all four sides by linen curtains hung from copper rods. The strange inscriptions are in the easternmost of the small chambers.

The temple is constructed of sandstone, but a large block of limestone had been installed in the wall as the surface for the carving. This indicates that the architects went to some effort to allow the production of fine quality carving.

We do not know the exact origin of the Djed pillar, but its hieroglyphic meaning (“enduring” or “stability” and sometimes “column”) is not doubted. There is no apparent connection between the concept of “enduring” and the process of insulating, but even if there was, the Djed wouldn´t work as an insulator. In a light bulb, the glass bulb itself insulates the filament, and no extra component is required.

The “cable” is described in the text beside the depiction as a symbolic sun barge moving across the sky (in a form which is by no means unique to these carvings). It seems to be a bit of a stretch to describe this as a cable, although I suppose you could argue that the movement of the sun mirrored the movement of electricity. However, the “cable” is attached to what proponents describe as a “socket”, but is in fact a lotus flower. This flower appears in this form all over Egypt, and is always a lotus flower. Furthermore, the text beside the depiction confirms that it is a lotus flower.

Unfortunately, it seems that modern eyes have seen what they want to see in an ancient scene without considering the text provided by the ancient people to explain exactly what they were doing.

In the carvings, Harsamtawy (a form of Horus known as Horus who joins the two lands), son of Hathor, takes the form of a serpent (although he also appears as a hawk). According to one myth, Horus sprung into existence out of a lotus flower which blossomed in the watery abyss of Nun at dawn at the beginning of every year. The “light-bulbs” are in fact lotus flower bulbs, mythologically giving birth to the snake. Another panel shows the bulb opening into a lotus blossom and the snake standing erect in the centre as a representation of the god Horus. On the southern wall of the last room, a falcon, preceded by a snake emerges from a lotus blossom within a boat.

Daumas has suggested that the sacred procession which was held on the eve of the first day of the New Year, began in these rooms. Thus the inscriptions represented the myth which was being celebrated. Of course, the myths have nothing to say regarding lightbulbs, and there is no evidence to substantiate their use from Egyptian remains or text. This is fairly damning as the building of huge stone monuments required the maintenance of detailed and thorough accounts, yet there is no record of any electric devices or the movement of raw materials to create them.

Some are still unwilling to entirely give up on the idea. Instead of claiming that the Egyptians used light bulbs under normal conditions, they suggest that the priests performed a ritual which created a small amount of light during the New Year celebrations. Proponents claim that the reliefs describe a three stage process; first the “bulb” is supported by a kneeling figure making three “waves” emanate from the serpent, then the “bulb” is supported by a Djed pillar making four “waves” emanate from the serpent, finally the “bulb” is placed against a vertical Djed pillar causing five “waves” to emanate from the serpents body. The waves are thought to be evidence of a vibratory process increasing in frequency as the scenes progress.

This is certainly a more creative theory which neatly avoids the lack of any supporting evidence by claiming that the ceremony was ritual and secret. The problem remains that all of the elements are known to have specific meanings from numerous other sources, and the text confirms those meanings. However, it is still possible that the priests encoded a deeper meaning in the text and images. ]]> http://cheesegreen.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/sitting-on-richard-dawkins-fence/ Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:17:52 +0000 Chris http://cheesegreen.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/sitting-on-richard-dawkins-fence/

You tell me that there is an all seeing God,
Doesn’t that seem to you a trifle, well, odd?
Or is it not as weird as the thing I believe,
That in fact we were designed and conceived,
By mystical beings from the distant stars,
Who came to our Earth from the planet Mars,
But before you laugh and criticise my song,
It’s only in death that we find we’re all wrong.

A whirlwind world tour of some of the craziest unanswerable questions archaeology and history has to offer us. And, yeah, as pointed out below, the music is great.

Illustration zum Ende des Maya-Kalenders im LIFE-Voices-Interview mi Erich von Däniken auf vimeo

Vor kurzem haben sich der “Sonntagsblick”, gefolgt von news.ch und anderen Medien, eine schöne Blamage geleistet. Sie titelten, dass Erich von Däniken in einem Interview die Meinung geäussert habe, dass die Welt im Jahr 2012 untergehen werde. Einmal mehr hat sich gezeigt, wie schlecht Journalisten zum Teil recherchieren und wie schnell einem das Wort im Mund umgedreht wird. In einer Berichtigung schreibt denn auch von Däniken auf seiner Webseite: “Ich stelle hiermit richtig, dass ich keineswegs dieser Weltuntergangsmeinung bin und dem Interviewtext nicht zustimme. Im Interview habe ich das Gegenteil gesagt. Selbstverständlich geht die Welt weiter – der Maya-Kalender beschreibt einen Neuanfang der Zeitrechnung der Maya Mittelamerikas.”

Wer mein aktuelles Video-Interview mit Erich von Däniken in der Serie “LIFE voices” sehen möchte, kann sich selbst von den Worten von Dänikens überzeugen. Es ist zu sehen auf vimeo. Weitere Infos über von Däniken auf seiner Webseite oder SagenhafteZeiten.com. - Kedar Misani

Cyclones in Myanmar, and an oppressive dictatorship digs in its isolationist heels before finally beginning to accept international aid. Earthquakes in China. Earthquakes in Illinois last month?! Florida and California wildfires every time we turn around. Devastating storms last week in Oklahoma, Georgia, … heck …find me a state in the past three years that hasn’t faced billion-dollar damages due to extreme environmental conditions. Again and again we’re faced with questions about the climate, the global infrastructure, and humanity’s ability to sustain itself on a planet that we’ve wrecked, like a teenager treats his bedroom.

Is the writing on the wall?

I was teaching my students a few things last week about ancient Aztec culture, specifically the complex glyphs or picture-writing system they used to record their history, laws and religious ideas. Not surprisingly, a couple of my junior high kids asked if I thought the world was going to end in 2012, the last year accounted for on the Mayan calendar (and probably the Aztec one also, though I’m too lazy and rushed to look it up at the moment). It was the first time the question had been posed to me by anyone, child or adult. I responded that I did, in fact, think something huge for the entire world would happen in 2012. It’s been an idea circulating among “pagan prophecy” buffs at least since Erich von Daniken’s 1968 bestseller Chariots of the Gods. I think I was in junior high myself –and therefore ripe for the picking with regard to sensationalist ideas– when I stumbled upon this book. Plus there was also a film version, awhile after the book’s release, which caught my imagination even more.

So despite all rational argument and education to the contrary, I’ve still gone through the past thirty or so years with a vague but noncommittal sense that yes, I would be around to see the end of the world in around 2011 or 2012… despite Jesus’ assurance that we would not know the time or the place of his return, nor of the Apocalypse or Armageddon (not words Jesus himself used, by the way… one reason I take most attempts to interpret John’s Revelation with a grain of salt, because it didn’t seem to be much of a concern for the Son of God when he walked among us).

Yes, I believe I will be here to hear the fat lady sing. It’s an interesting stance to take, precisely because it can’t be proven or disproven until that dreaded/long-awaited target year arrives. It’s fun– in a weird, dark kind of way that only twisted minds like mine can understand– to let that anticipation build as if there’s some kind of grand fireworks display on the way, which I will be priveleged to see firsthand. (Never mind the grinding and gnashing of teeth and the Left Behind and all of that… rapture or no rapture, I don’t believe Yahweh is looking to judge and test and hurt those who willingly choose to follow Him… and He might not even allow those who don’t follow Him to be lost forever. He’s that merciful.)

I know it’s nearly impossible to reconcile these two worldviews (the “pagan” and the Christian, the predictive/magical and the “don’t worry about tomorrow” pragmatism of Christ’s own advice). Nevertheless, whenever things get real messy — either politically or environmentally — I can’t help but experience a moment of both thrill and mild terror, thinking, “This is it! Isn’t it? Wait, let’s look for the signs…” And then I look, checking off items on some unwritten mental list that has no clear qualifications for what IS a sign and what IS NOT. Silly, I know. But probably harmless.

As I mature (a theoretical concept, I will admit…), it’s mostly the environmental stuff that sets me off on that train of thought, not so much the human or political turmoil. When humans mess up, I take that “nothing new under the sun” attitude, like the writer of Ecclesiastes, and dismiss it as just this year’s manifestation of the latest trends in sinning, both personal and global. For example, remember all the people who dug up strange new “after-the-fact” interpretations of Nostradamus in the weeks after Sept. 11th, 2001? Where are those people now? How much does mass hysteria contribute to the snowball effect, once such ideas get started? How many people are out there fearmongering right now, quietly circulating emails proposing that the U.S. presidential election and its outcome will be a sign of the end times? [If you get any of these emails, forward them to me... I'm a big fan...]

With every transition or large-scale human undertaking, superstition inevitably gets mixed in with fact, and we come out the other end with more questions and vague fears than we had going in. Let’s call it a “philosophical earthquake” effect. That’s why, when it comes to “wars and rumors of wars”, that’s one area where I really do let Jesus have the last word:

” Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.”

(Mark 13:6-8, New International Version)

See, nice and vague, just the way I like it. Leaves room for conjecture, but says not to be alarmed. Could be in 2012, …or else the “beginning” could be something that lasts a thousand years, all by itself.

Which is not to say that some well-intentioned but lazy Christians won’t stretch these words of Jesus in their efforts to scare more people into becoming his disciples. Sure, I’d like to see God have more followers, too. But I want those who genuinely love God, and love their fellow man sacrifically, not some shallow, frightened hanger-on just looking to cover his ass in case this end-times stuff turns out to be true.

I’d rather be a brother to someone interested in serving those in the cross-hairs of history, the ones upon whom these wars are perpetrated, who go hungry or die as a result of these extreme weather conditions. If they’re concerned only for people’s eternal souls, and not their present-day minds and bodies, then they’re not my brother or sister. No, sir. I serve the prophet and Lord who fed the 5,000, who calmed the storms on the seas, who saved Jews, Samaritans and Romans alike, who healed the lopped-off ear of the soldier trying to arrest him, then told his armed disciple not to live by the sword, lest he die by the sword.

To walk in the Spirit of the Lord is to lose your life while you’re still living it. It’s a daily decision not to care if today’s your last day. As long as you live it with integrity, in service to God and His people, take it on faith that you’ll be fine. Make the world a better place, in spite of the fact that it has a limited expiration date.

So I guess it’s okay to be curious about the end of the world, whether you’re 12 years old or 92. But don’t let it keep you up at night. It ain’t worth it…

Cross-posted at Freethought Fort Wayne.

I have finally completed Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Once again Jared Diamond has created a compelling and epic work detailing the reasons civilizations, modern and ancient, have chosen to collapse. Chosen being the operative word. The author details compelling reasons why societies have made choices that have direct and long-term negative impacts to the health of their societies.

I could blog endlessly about the stories and lessons that could be mined from this book. To spare everyone that grief I’ll simply highlight some of the… uh… highlights.

• Montana, what are the lessons that can be drawn from the mining industry that has been the source of environmental problems practically in our backyard? And why are the executives of Pegasus Gold bastards.
• Easter Island, What really happened to the original inhabitants of Easter Islands. Hint: It doesn’t involve alien astronauts (I’m looking at you von Daniken).
• Vikings in Greenland, why were the Vikings able to last for centuries in Greenland and then “suddenly” disappeared. And perhaps more importantly why have the Inuit been so much more successful, sort of.
• The Genocide in Rwanda, what were the underlying causes of the Rwandan genocide, primarily perpetrated by the Hutu on the Tutsi. What would explain the Hutu on Hutu killings?
• Hispaniola, Why do the Dominican’s owe much of their stability, environmental good fortune and higher economic status to a brutal dictator? Why do the poverty-stricken and environmentally devastated Haitians owe their misfortune to French democracy?
• “Mining” Australia, what are the consequences of British values on Australian soil. And what’s up with all those damn rabbits.

In addition to the previous stories are others that include, China, Japan, Indonesia, the Mayans and the Anasazi. Surprisingly the common threads that the author seems to tease from the history books and the clarity of hindsight are issues that modern man faces today. Climate change, intervention from outside societies and, perhaps most importantly, environmental mismanagement.

He goes on to detail in the last 100 pages or so the Practical Lessons that can be learned and immediately applied to this modern world. Mr. Diamond does an awesome job of applying the practical lessons directly to the stories he’s woven throughout the book. I could list out some of the reasons he comes up with but they lose their impact if they are not delivered to the reader within their proper historical context.

It’s easy to view this book (especially after this review) in a pessimistic light. And quite frankly there are a number of reasons why you should have a pessimistic outlook when you see some of the same disastrous choices being made today (ah-Bush-choo!). But Jared Diamond remains optimistic. He sees shafts of light, not only from “bottom-up” NGOs such as the World Wildlife Fund and the Forest Stewardship Council but also from “top-down” initiatives being instituted by governments who recognize the value of their environmental (and renewable) assets, such as the Dutch polders and off the top of my head the quotas imposed on crab fishing in the Bering Sea (most famous as the location of the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch series).

If you pick up this book you will read about Chevron’s Kutubu oil fields in Papua New Guinea and their absolutely amazing and minimal environmental impact. It’s even more starkly contrasted with the environmental devastation of the Indonesian government’s Salawati Island oil fields off the coast of New Guinea. What you will hopefully learn from this book is that Chevron (the big evil oil company with an impeccable environmental record) is very much aware that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It took Exxon years to recover their former standing with consumers after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. When you have a choice to purchase gas from Texaco or Exxon people still to this day will pick Texaco because Exxon “was that company that killed all those poor birds and poisoned those penguins”.  In fact, Exxon was recently in the news again because of that accident from literally 2 decades ago, the PR (and 2.5 Billion dollars in punitive damages, yes billion) from that one oil spill is still being felt today.

The question is who do you boycott when a lumber company clear cuts hundreds of acres of lumber from old growth forests? Whose products do you avoid when a mine in Montana declares bankruptcy to avoid the exorbitant environmental remediation necessary to prevent the abandoned mine from poisoning an entire watershed? I don’t know either. Those are commodities that are in everyday products. You don’t boycott your cellphone because it has copper in it. Do you not buy a book shelf at Home Depot because it might be from one of these lumber companies. These are obviously rhetorical questions because we all know we don’t because we don’t have that direct connection between those companies and your choices as consumers.

I want to leave those who read my review with the biggest take-away lesson for myself. There are things you and I can do to begin to apply social and economic pressures to industries. When you purchase lumber look for wood marked with the Forest Stewardship Council’s seal, for example. Find products that have some assurance that they are being harvested, cut, fished, bred and grown in a sustainable way. This will protect our fisheries, forests and future.

There’s a new book coming out, called the “Third Jesus.” It’s written by Deepak Chopra who is this generation’s equivalent of Von Daniken. He writes a lot of best sellers about spirituality, especially of the New Age variety, and I have no doubt that this book will soon reach number one on the Times best sellers list.

It’s sad that this kind of junk theology can become so popular and soaked into the precious souls of millions of modern people. They lap up this kind of godless garbage and pore over its contents without opening up the Gospels to find the real Jesus. They would rather read the warped interpretations of a Hindu guru-author whose cosmology makes them feel special. Chopra is a bit like Oprah when it comes to the theological world – it’s all about feeling good about yourself and discovering the god within you, instead of feeling good about Christ and the God around us.

Here’s what Deepak has to say about Christ, or more precisely the Three Christ’s that we know:

First, there is the historical Jesus, the man who lived more than two thousand years ago and whose teachings are the foundation of Christian theology and thought. Next there is Jesus the Son of God, who has come to embody an institutional religion with specific dogma, a priesthood, and devout believers. And finally, there is the third Jesus, the cosmic Christ, the spiritual guide whose teaching embraces all humanity, not just the church built in his name. He speaks to the individual who wants to find God as a personal experience, to attain what some might call grace, or God-consciousness, or enlightenment. 

In other words, all that the world needs now is a Hinduistic Cosmic Christ and jettison the Christ whose church embraces and engages the world in the midst of its poverty, brokenness, and sin. For those of you who don’t know, this is classical Hindu teaching where the poor and miserable are neglected, whilst the priestly and noble classes are worshipped and exalted.

Deepak is so far off the beaten track as far as real Christianity is concerned. He’s falling into the old trap of syncretism – trying to get Christ to fit his theories instead of trying to fit his life into Christ’s ways. Deepak may be successful at selling millions of books with his meaningless mumbo-jumbo, but as far as doing the work of God’s Kingdom – well, let’s put it this way: you’ve got to be in it, to spin it.

Let me show you how today’s scripture reveals to us the One Complete Christ, and not the Three Jesus’ that Chopra is promoting.

Look at verse 6:6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.  

What does this tell us about Jesus historically? It reveals to us that Christ was a human being. He was tired and he was thirsty. He had walked for several miles, going from one town to the other. It was the sixth hour, which meant it was the middle of the day. Christ’s energy was sapped from the heat of the mid day sun. He needed to rest his weary feet. He needed to stop and relax for a while. And he desperately needed something to drink.

This is the historical Jesus. This is a man who is weary and exhausted; tired and thirsty; hungry and all alone. What Jesus needs now is a kind word and a smile, and a refreshing drink of cold water.

Now we didn’t need Deepak to tell us that – we didn’t need his convoluted book to let us know that Jesus existed and was a frail human being just like the rest of us. All we had to do was read the Gospel and, lo and behold, there He is! In fact, Jesus is so human, so much of a pathetic, weary man that He has to turn to a woman to help Him out! Just another typical guy, needing a woman to take care of Him.

But what about this Second Jesus that Deepak writes about? What about this Son of God who institutes a new religion for devout believers?

Well, let’s look at the passage again. Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for water. Jews were not supposed to ask Samaritans for anything. It was beneath their dignity. Samaritans were unclean, unwashed, unholy people who were thought of as disdainful idolaters by the orthodox Jews. Because Jesus was a Rabbi, He should never have associated Himself with this Samaritan woman. And even worse, her own people didn’t even associate with her, which must have meant that she was immoral and adulterous, shameless and sinful.

But tired and weary as Jesus was, He wanted to reach out to this woman spiritually. Instead of being annoyed at her, Jesus says this to her: 10 “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  

What does this mean? What is Jesus trying to reveal to her? He’s letting the woman know that He is not just a Jewish man looking for a strange woman in a strange land to help Him out. He’s beginning to minister to her, to rouse her curiosity, and to attract her soul to Him. He’s reaching out to this woman, who has been abandoned by her own community, with kindness and compassion, respect and dignity that she hasn’t known in such a long time. He’s having a conversation with her; He’s connecting to her heart and soul, not her body and beauty. He’s helping her to confront her past in order to heal her. He’s intervening in her life, in order to save her from herself.

And this is what Christ does through the church, in the world, generation after generation. His words, His ways, His work continues every single day through the life, ministry, and mission of His church on earth. Our dogma reveals to us that Jesus is the Son of God and through Him alone salvation is found. He institutionalizes and sustains the Church, in order to make the world a better place, a loving place, a compassionate place. What the world needs now is this Jesus who reaches out to the outcasts and embraces sinners, in order to bring them in from the fields of sin to the compassionate Kingdom of God.

You know recently I was upset with an American Episcopal Bishop who apologized to the Hindus in India for the 200 years of Christian mission in Indian society. “There are enough Christians in the world and we are sorry for trying to convert your people to our faith.” What a load of Universalist baloney!

I am not sorry that 200 years ago missionaries went to India to try to convince people that worshipping trees and rivers, stone idols and thousands of god and goddesses was wrong. I am not sorry that Christian missionaries stopped the sacrificial slaughter of babies to appease vengeful gods. I am not sorry that Christians sought to stop the acts of ritual suicide that took place, where widows old or young had to cast themselves onto the burning remains of their dead husbands. And I am certainly not sorry that Christian missionaries worked with and helped the millions of people who lived in the gutters of cities like Bombay and Calcutta and were treated as human filth and manure just because they were born as pariahs – outcastes – who had no chance of changing their inhumane treatment by the other Hindu classes.

Jesus is the Son of God and we are His church in the world, which is called to reach out into the world to bring His Gospel of repentance and restoration, compassion and confrontation to all people. The Historical Jesus is the same as the Institutionalized Jesus – we just have to keep reading the real Gospels, instead of the book-marketing baloney that Deepak Chopra and his New Age, Prosperity Gospel cronies keep churning out.

Finally, we come to this Third Jesus of Chopra’s book – the New Age Cosmic Christ – the One who speaks to individuals who want to have a consciousness of God, but as Chopra said on CNN the other day – not necessarily as part of a personal relationship, more of a spiritual awareness that God exists. In other words, giving us the ability to know of God, but not to be influenced, guided, or even judged by God.

When Jesus speaks to this woman at the well to engage her in a conversation and to eventually confront her sinful ways, He does so in order to affect a godly change in her life. He’s not doing it to pass the time of day or to wile away the hours in small talk, Jesus speaks directly to this woman to get her reconnected to God, to redeem her from her foolish choices, and to restore her to God’s love and favor.

Christ doesn’t talk to her to make her aware that God merely exists; He talks to her because, although God is displeased with her sin, He has not stopped loving her. This isn’t about merrily co-existing in the universe as Creator and creatures; this all about the reason why God created us in the first place – to have a loving, caring, and everlasting relationship with Him. That’s why Jesus says He has Living Water – water sustains all life on this planet – but God’s Living water in Christ sustains all eternal life in the Universe!

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  

This is the Cosmic Christ that Deepak mentions, but not a Cosmic distant, uncaring, uninterested Christ – that’s Hindu theology – this is the One, True and Living Christ – who gets thirsty on a hot day, who preaches to lost souls, who offers eternal salvation to all who come and drink with Him! There is no such thing as a Third Jesus – just as there is no such thing as a third World, another false Hindu theology – we’re all part of One World and we all are called to believe in One Christ – historical, traditional, and cosmological – all Three in One!

The rest of John Chapter 4 deals with the confrontation and conversion of this Samaritan woman. In Christ, she finds what she truly needs – the love, mercy, and forgiveness of God. She takes this message back to her own people, who have shunned her and made her an outcast. Eventually, her own people are converted as well. They say to her: “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”  

In other words, they make the connection with Jesus and place their lives and souls into His saving hands.

The challenge we face today is this: are we willing to do the same?

Após um longo tempo sem vontade nenhuma de escrever resenhas, acabei optando por tirar uns minutinhos pré-pascoais pra apresentar os dois minguados livros que li nos últimos dias. Tirei uns dias pra ler bobagens e reler minha coleção de One Piece, e então acabou que só li dois tomos em quase um mês. Paciência.

O primeiro deles foi beem interessante. Peguei ele num sebo por ter esquecido o livro que estava lendo em casa e acabei terminando ele antes do próprio (tem pouquinhas páginas e muitas perguntas, o que o faz ser uma leitura bastante ágil). Em Eram os Deuses Astronautas? o autor Von Däniken traz, mais ou menos de acordo com suas próprias palavras “argumentos que não poderão ser desacreditados, ou pelo menos não ignorados pelos cientistas”.

Sua teoria é bem interessante até: em algum momento no passado, uma raça mais evoluida chegou à terra em uma nave e nos ensinou uma série de conhecimentos que antes simplesmente não possuíamos. Ele vai mais longe ainda, acredita que a humanidade possui sangue hibrido com essa tal raça, e que os demais povos que vinham evoluindo junto com a raça humana foram exterminados para que “nós” nos tornássemos dominantes.

“Mas hein?” você me pergunta. Bem, simplificando, esse camarada acredita e defende que não é possivel que simples coincidências tenham levado várias culturas espalhadas por todo o mundo a possuirem detalhes muito próximos em suas culturas (como a menção a gigantes, bolas de fogo, cidades que caem em chamas em poucos segundos, veículos com rodas que faziam os céus e a terra tremerem… essas coisas)… além disso, ele bate na velha tecla de que um homem sem recursos da época não poderiam (ou teriam porque) construir piramides com milhões de toneladas de blocos de pedra, moldar blocos de rocha com dezenas de metros ou erguer estátuas e desenhar linhas com centenas de metros no solo apenas por diversão.

Um exemplo bem divertido é a Piramide de Gisé, que mesmo empregando milhares de escravos durante algumas centenas de anos não teria ficado pronta a tempo para o velório de um rei que já teria morrido a pelo menos duzentos anos. Ou seja, muito trampo pra inflar o ego de um rei falecido.Ele fala ainda de uma série de lendas espalhadas em livros sagrados de muitas culturas falando da tal chegada dos astronautas, que para um povo meio bárbaro, só poderiam ser chamados de deuses.

Ficou curioso? Olha, o livro é bem interessante, mesmo que você não acredite em lhufas do que ele diz, vale pelo menos a pena para conhecer uma série de “coincidências” estranhas nesse nosso mundinho. E olha que a gente cria lugares fantásticos fora de nossa realidade, enquanto o nosso próprio mundo é mais confuso do que parece.