Dameyo

Jesus Christ Returned

// April 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // General, News

His name is Jose Luis de Jesus. In 1973, he said angels came to him in a dream and told him he is the second of coming of Jesus Christ.

Jose Luis de Jesus refers to himself as ‘The Man Christ Jesus‘ and he believes there is no sin, the devil does not exist, and 666 is the number of God himself.

Puerto Rican-born Jose’ Lui’s de Jesus Miranda calls himself the Man Christ Jesus, and he leads the international Growing in Grace organization, based in Miami. He cites Biblical passages and claims to be the second coming of Jesus, according to information distributed by his followers.

And the group believes the new Jesus has come and replaced Jesus of Nazareth, which makes him the Antichrist. While mainstream Christian beliefs view the Antichrist as evil, Miranda’s followers say that’s a misinterpretation.

Traditional Christian views often consider 666 the mark of the beast or Satan.

Growing in Grace followers also cite Bible entries that mention 666, none of which call it evil. They say King Solomon, a figure from the Old Testament, collected taxes in the amount of 666.

De Jesus and his followers celebrate Christmas each year on April 22, as this is the day De Jesus was born and therefore they claim it is the “real” Christmas.

Much controversy began to rise after De Jesus made comments about the Roman Catholic Church. De Jesus claims, “There is no sin” as written in the Bible and the “Catholic Church is evil.”

De Jesus has been labeled as a “con man” by both Christian and non-Christian groups due to his comments about children in his ministry. He claims the youth in his church are the “super raza” or “super race” because they have been brought up “pure with no stain of religion.”

“Miami is the bridge for all nations,” said De Jesus, “That’s where Hispanics are, and then eventually I’m going to find a lot of beautiful English-speaking people who will want to believe in me and I’m going to have millions of them.” Creciendo en Gracia has also stirred controversy with its protest demonstrations directed at religious gatherings.

Below is the list of people who also claimed to be Jesus consists of notable people who have made statements claiming to be Jesus of Nazareth.

John Nichols Thom (1799–1838): Cornishman who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and his body temple of the Holy Ghost. He was killed by British soldiers at the Battle of Bossenden Wood, on May 31, 1838 in Kent, England.

Jim Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978): Claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine. Organized a mass murder suicide at Jonestown, Guyana).

Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997): Applewhite posted a famous Usenet message declaring, “I, Jesus—Son of God—acknowledge on this date of September 25/26, 1995: …”. This was two years before he and his Heaven’s Gate cult committed suicide to rendezvous with a spaceship hiding behind the comet Hale-Bopp.

Suma Ching Hai (Born May 12, 1950): A meditation teacher who claims to be an incarnation of Avalokitesvara and a living reincarnation of the Buddha and Jesus Christ.

Force Strong For New Jedi Church

// April 21st, 2009 // 1 Comment » // General, News

Strathclyde police have admitted eight of their officers are Jedi Knights.

And another two civilian police workers have also registered their official religion as Jedi.

With more than 400,000 members in the UK, the Jedi religion is inspired by the Star Wars films.

The Jedis represent the “light side” in the fight against Darth Vader’s “dark side”.

Strathclyde were the only ones to confirm the existence of Jedi officers after Freedom of Information requests were sent to all police forces in the UK.

A spokesman said: “At the time of your request, eight police officers and two police staff had recorded their religion as Jedi.”

Strathclyde Police are the only Scottish force to have a diversity recruitment team to raise awareness of jobs for minority groups.

One Strathclyde officer , who did not want to be named, said: “We do see ourselves as the good guys fighting crime, but it’s hardly in the same league as Luke Skywalker battling Darth Vader is it?

“Most of the time, we just give people a caution rather than fight off hordes of stormtroopers with lasers and lightsabers.

” As long as they don’t try to start using ‘ the force’ to try to solve crimes, I’m sure it’s harmless.”

Chris Herbert, editor of Jane’s Police Review, said: “The force appears to be strong in Strathclyde Police. Criminals should be quaking in their boots.”

FORCE STRONG FOR NEW JEDI CHURCH
Two Star Wars-loving brothers planning a Jedi church hope it will be much nearer than a galaxy far, far away.

Barney and Daniel Jones want fellow devotees to be able to join them close to their home on Anglesey.

Barney, 26 - or Master Jonba Hehol - and Daniel, 21 - Master Morda Hehol - head the UK Church of the Jedi, in honour of the film’s good knights.

They say their services will include sermons on “the Force,” light sabre training, and meditation techniques.

Hairdresser Barney became interested in the Jedi faith after 390,000 other Star Wars fans across England and Wales declared it as their religion on the 2001 census.

An internet campaign was fought to see Jedi officially included in the list and although this did not happen, collators included a special code to register the Jedis.

He said: “As children we always watched the Star Wars films anyway. We noticed that there were a couple of sites on the internet, Jedi church sites.

“We printed off a couple of sermons and did a sermon in our house for a couple of friends one night.”

Barney and his musician brother Daniel, from Holyhead, help run four websites devoted to the development of the “faith”.

They plan to go to the official opening of a Surrey-based branch or “chapter” of the UK Church of the Jedi in April, and hope to hire an Anglesey venue for their own services.

Already six followers regularly meet in north Wales to discuss setting up the “church”.

“My brother and I would hold sermons, do talks and get guest speakers,” explained Barney.

“We would read out essays members of the congregation have submitted on their feelings about the Jedi and the Force: do meditation, relaxation and visualization techniques and a bit of light-sabre training.”

Watching the films as children gave the brothers a good understanding of the “faith,” said Barney.

“We had a knowledge of the Force from that and the teachings of Yoda. We’ve read the teachings on the internet.

“Our father is a karate black belt, we used to train with him, which is where we got the martial arts.”

Barney, who has watched the Star Wars films “multiple dozens of times,” does not wear film-themed clothing in public, but he and his brother would do so at Jedi church meetings.

SENSE OF UNITY
He said: “My brother and I will wear the Jedi robes, the dark brown robes… the congregation would be in black. Really to bring a sense of unity to the meetings.”

Although the current members are all men, women are not excluded, as Barney Jones points out: “Princess Leia helped them out a lot.”

However, any congregation member drawn to the dark side of the Force, embodied in the film by Darth Vader, would be advised they are following the wrong path and could face expulsion.

Barney explained: “Obviously, if someone starts to try and use the good force for greed and power, they are going to bring negative interference into the meetings.

“We cannot have the Force disrupted by negative interference.”

[via BBC ]

100 Most Influential People

// April 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // General

The following list is based on the book of “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History” written by Michael H. Hart. In the book, he provides brief biographies of each of the individuals and the reasons for their rankings.

If you are guessing that Jesus must be number on on the list and you don’t want to read further. Well, there’s a little twist in the end. So, let’s find out.

100. Mahavira; Hinduism, Jainism (founder of Jainism).
99. Justinian; Catholic (Roman Emperor; reconquered Mediterranean empire; accelerated Catholic Monophysite schism).
98. Homer; Greek paganism (epic poet).
97. Charlemagne; Catholic (Holy Roman Empire created with his baptism in 800 AD).
96. Menes; Egyptian paganism (unified Upper and Lower Egypt).
95. Mikhail Gorbachev; Russian Orthodox (Russian premier who helped end Communism in USSR).
94. Queen Elizabeth I; Anglican (British monarch; restored Church of England to power after Queen Mary).
93. Zoroaster; Zoroastrianism (founder of Zoroastrianism).
92. Mencius; Confucianism (philosopher; founder of a school of Confucianism).
91. Henry Ford; Protestant (developed automobile; achievement in manufacturing and assembly).
90. Francis Bacon; Anglican (philosopher; delineated inductive scientific method).
89. Mao Zedong; Atheist, Communism, Maoism (founder of Maoism, Chinese form of Communism).
88. Peter the Great; Russian Orthodox (forged Russia into a great European nation).
87. Cyrus the Great; Zoroastrianism (founder of Persian empire).
86. Vasco da Gama; Catholic (navigator; discovered route from Europe to India around Cape Hood).
85. Sui Wen Ti; Chinese traditional religion (unified China).
84. Lenin; Russian Orthodox, Atheist, Marxism/Communism (Russian ruler).
83. Mani; Manicheanism (founder of Manicheanism; once a world religion which rivaled Christianity in strength).
82. Gregory Pincus; Jewish (endocrinologist; developed birth-control pill).
81. John F. Kennedy; Catholic (U.S. President who led first successful effort by humans to travel to another planet).
80. Thomas Malthus; Anglican (cleric) (economist; wrote essay on the Principle of Population).
79. Nicoli Machiavelli; Catholic (wrote The Prince; influential political treaties).
78. Jean-Jacques Rousseau; born Protestant, converted as a teen to Catholic, later Deist (French deistic philosopher and author).
77. Leonhard Euler; Calvinist (physicist, mathematician, differential and integral calculus and algebra).
76. Enrico Fermi; Catholic (initiated the atomic age, father of atom bomb).
75. Johannes Kepler; Lutheran (astronomer, planetary motions).
74. Voltaire; raised in Jansenism (writer and philosopher; wrote Candide).
73. Lao Tzu; Taoism (founder of Taoism).
72. Johann Sebastian Bach; Lutheran; Catholic (composer).
71. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (discovered X-rays).
70. Edward Jenner; Anglican (discoverer of the vaccination of smallpox).
69. Sigmund Freud; Jewish, atheist; Freudian psychology/psychoanalysis (founded Freudian school of psychology/psychoanalysis i.e., the “religion of Freudianism”).
68. William the Conqueror; Catholic (laid foundation of modern England).
67. Julius Caesar; Roman state paganism (Roman emperor).
66. Joseph Stalin; Russian Orthodox; Atheist; Marxism (revolutionary and ruler of USSR).
65. Queen Isabella I; Catholic (Spanish ruler).
64. Thomas Jefferson; Episcopalian; Deist (3rd president of United States).
63. Hernando Cortes; Catholic (conquered Mexico for Spain; through war and introduction of new diseases he largely destroyed Aztec civilization).
62. Francisco Pizarro; Catholic (Spanish conqueror in South America; defeated Incas).
61. Nikolaus August Otto (built first four-stroke internal combustion engine).
60. Joseph Lister; Quaker (principal discoverer of antiseptics which greatly reduced surgical mortality).
59. Max Planck; Protestant (physicist; thermodynamics).
58. Gregor Mendel; Catholic [Augustinian monk] (Mendelian genetics)
57. John Calvin; Protestant; Calvinism (Protestant reformer; founder of Calvinism).
56. Ernest Rutherford (physicist; pioneer of subatomic physics).
55. William Harvey; Anglican [nominal] (described the circulation of blood; wrote Essays on the Generation of Animals, the basis for modern embryology).
54. St. Augustine; Greek state paganism; Manicheanism; Catholic (Early Christian theologian).
53. Asoka; Buddhism (king of India who converted to and spread Buddhism).
52. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab; Islam (Second Caliph; expanded Muslim empire).
51. Pope Urban II; Catholic (called for First Crusade).
50. Michelangelo; Catholic (painter; sculptor; architect).
49. Rene Descartes; Catholic (Rationalist philosopher and mathematician).
48. Simon Bolivar; Catholic [nominal]; Atheist (National hero of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia).
47. Louis Daguerre (an inventor/pioneer of photography).
46. Werner Heisenberg; Lutheran (a founder of quantum mechanics; discovered principle of uncertainty; head of Nazi Germany’s nuclear program).
45. Ludwig van Beethoven; Catholic (composer).
44. John Locke; raised Puritan (Anglican); Liberal Christian (philosopher and liberal theologian).
43. Alexander Fleming; Catholic (penicillin; advances in bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy).
42. Alexander Graham Bell; Unitarian/Universalist (inventor of telephone).
41. Oliver Cromwell; Puritan [Protestant] (British political and military leader).
40. Plato; Platonism / Greek philosophy (founder of Platonism).
39. Adolf Hitler; Nazism; born/raised in, but rejected Catholicism (conqueror; led Axis Powers in WWII).
38. Guglielmo Marconi; Catholic and Anglican (inventor of radio).
37. William T.G. Morton (pioneer in anesthesiology).
36. Antony van Leeuwenhoek; Dutch Reformed (microscopes; studied microscopic life).
35. Thomas Edison; Congregationalist; agnostic (inventor of light bulb, phonograph, etc.)
34. Napoleon Bonaparte; Catholic [nominal] (French conqueror).
33. Alexander the Great; Greek state paganism (conqueror).
32. John Dalton; Quaker (chemist; physicist; atomic theory; law of partial pressures (Dalton’s law)).
31. Edward de Vere a.k.a. William Shakespeare; Catholic; Anglican (literature; also wrote 6 volumes about philosophy and religion)
30. Adam Smith; Liberal Protestant (economist; philosopher; expositor of capitalism; author: The Theory of Moral Sentiments)
29. Genghis Khan; Mongolian shamanism (Mongol conqueror).
28. Orville and Wilbur Wright; United Brethren (inventors of airplane)
27. Karl Marx; Jewish; Lutheran; Atheist; Marxism/Communism (founder of Marxism, Marxist Communism)
26. George Washington; Episcopalian (first president of United States)
25. Martin Luther; Catholic; Lutheran (founder of Protestantism and Lutheranism)
24. James Clerk Maxwell; Presbyterian; Anglican; Baptist (physicist; electromagnetic spectrum)
23. Michael Faraday; Sandemanian (physicist; chemist; discovery of magneto-electricity)
22. James Watt; Presbyterian [lapsed] (developed steam engine)
21. Constantine the Great; Roman state paganism; Christianity (Roman emperor who completely legalized Christianity, leading to its status as state religion. Convened the First Council of Nicaea that produced the Nicene Creed, which rejected Arianism (one of two major strains of Christian thought) and established Athanasianism (Trinitarianism, the other strain) as “official doctrine.”)
20. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier; Catholic (father of modern chemistry; philosopher; economist)
19. Nicolaus Copernicus; Catholic [priest], (astronomer; taught heliocentricity)
18. Augustus Caesar; Roman state paganism, (ruler)
17. Shih Huang Ti; Chinese traditional religion (Chinese emperor)
16. Charles Darwin; Anglican (nominal); Unitarian, (biologist; described Darwinian evolution, which had theological impact on many religions)
15. Moses; Judaism (major prophet of Judaism)
14. Euclid; Platonism / Greek philosophy, (mathematician; Euclidian geometry)
13. Aristotle; Platonism / Greek philosophy, (influential Greek philosopher)
12. Galileo Galilei; Catholic (astronomer; accurately described heliocentric solar system)
11. Louis Pasteur; Catholic, (scientist; pasteurization)
10. Albert Einstein; Jewish, (physicist; relativity; Einsteinian physics)
9. Christopher Columbus; Catholic (explorer; led Europe to Americas)
8. Johann Gutenberg; Catholic, (developed movable type; printed Bibles)
7. Ts’ai Lun; Chinese traditional religion, (inventor of paper)
6. St. Paul; Judaism; Christianity, (proselytizer of Christianity)
5. Confucius; Confucianism, (founder of Confucianism)
4. Buddha; Hinduism; Buddhism, (founder of Buddhism)
3. Jesus Christ; Judaism; Christianity, (founder of Christianity)
2. Isaac Newton; Anglican (rejected Trinitarianism, i.e.,
Athanasianism; believed in the Arianism of the Primitive Church), (physicist; theory of universal gravitation; laws of motion)
1. Muhammad; Islam, (Prophet of Islam; conqueror of Arabia; Hart recognized that ranking Muhammad first might be controversial, but felt that, from a secular historian’s perspective, this was the correct choice because Muhammad is the only man to have been both a founder of a major world religion and a major military/political leader.)

Rank number 100 (top left) to rank number 1:

Images of 100 Influential People in the History

It is not uncommon for people to wonder why Jesus is not ranked first on this list. The answer is simple: We have reproduced Hart’s list in exactly the order he wrote it.

But it is true that many people, both Christians and secular historians, would have ranked Jesus first on a list of the world’s most influential people.

Hart said that he himself would have ranked Jesus first, if all the people who today identify themselves as Christians actually followed Jesus’s teachings more substantially. He considers contemporary Muslims more influenced by Muhammad than contemporary Christians are by Jesus.

He did consider the doctrinal role of Jesus in human salvation as taught by Christianity. Muhammad, on the other hand, carved out an actual, geographic empire during his lifetime. Christians as well as historians agree that Jesus himself conquered no lands and led no armies during his lifetime.

Excerpt from Hart’s book:

My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels…

Muhammad founded and promulgated one of the world’s great religions, and became an immensely effective political leader. Today, thirteen centuries after his death, his influence is still powerful and pervasive… Like all religions, Islam exerts an enormous influence upon the lives of its followers. It is for this reason that the founders of the world’s great religions all figure prominently in this book. Since there are roughly twice as many Christians as Moslems in the world, it may initially seem strange that Muhammad has been ranked higher than Jesus. There are two principal reasons for that decision. First, Muhammad played a far more important role in the development of Islam than Jesus did in the development of Christianity. Although Jesus was responsible for the main ethical and moral precepts of Christianity (insofar as these differed from Judaism), St. Paul was the main developer of Christian theology, its principal proselytizer, and the author of a large portion of the New Testament.

Muhammad, however, was responsible for both the theology of Islam and its main ethical and moral principles. In addition, he played the key role in proselytizing the new faith, and in establishing the religious practices of Islam. Moreover, he is the author of the Moslem holy scriptures, the Koran, a collection of certain of Muhammad’s insights that he believed had been directly revealed to him by Allah. Most of these utterances were copied more or less faithfully during Muhammad’s lifetime and were collected together in authoritative form not long after his death. The Koran therefore, closely represents Muhammad’s ideas and teachings and to a considerable extent his exact words. No such detailed compilation of the teachings of Christ has survived. Since the Koran is at least as important to Moslems as the Bible is to Christians, the influence of Muhammed through the medium of the Koran has been enormous It is probable that the relative influence of Muhammad on Islam has been larger than the combined influence of Jesus Christ and St. Paul on Christianity. On the purely religious level, then, it seems likely that Muhammad has been as influential in human history as Jesus.

Furthermore, Muhammad (unlike Jesus) was a secular as well as a religious leader. In fact, as the driving force behind the Arab conquests, he may well rank as the most influential political leader of all time… the Arab conquests of the seventh century have continued to play an important role in human history, down to the present day. It is this unparalleled combination of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history.

M. S. Abdullah’s (a comparative religion student)
Reasons Why Muhammad (Not Jesus)
Should be Ranked as Most Influential Person in History

I believe that Muhammad should be the first in the list even though Jesus was a great man, Muhammad was an even greater man and a greater influence to humanity. Michael Hart (a non-Muslim, in particular a Christian) was correct in taking a non-biased view and choosing Muhammad.

Just look at the statistics and history

Christianity (1.9+ billion people). 600 year head start on Islam

Islam (1.5+ billion people). Catching up at a rate of 10:1. Many of the converts are Atheists or Christians (including many Church leaders and ministers). By 2025 Muslims will out number Christians.

In America pre 9/11 40000+ people convert to Islam per year, post 9/11, people have became curious about what makes Muslims tick. They are now discovering that what Muslims like these do are completely in the opposite direction to the teachings of Muhammad and Islam, hence why the number of converts has increased to 78000+ a year.

Jesus’ message was 2.4 years, Muhammad’s 23 years

Jesus’ had 120 followers at the end of his time on earth Muhammad had millions

Muhammad confirmed Jesus and believed in him, as Jesus said to his disciples whilst in the Garden of Gethsemane that someone would come to confirm him

Jesus said he came to the tribe of Israel only, Muhammad said he came to all mankind.

The different denominations of Christianity don’t agree with each other about Mary, Jesus, the trinity, the many versions and revisions of the Bible etc, whereas the different denominations of Islam agree that Muhammad is the final Prophet, Jesus is a Prophet and performed miracles, God is One and Only, and the exact Quran as at the time of Muhammad is still used today by all the denominations, and the originals are still available.

10’s of millions of Muslims have memorised the entire Quran all over the world, whereas no Christian has memorised the bible and if they did they would have to memorise their own version and would have to update their memorisations every time a new revision was released.

The bible that we know today was written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John (who are they? Real name? Last name?) and Paul (Saul of Tarsus: A Christian Killer) who preached to the Gentiles which Jesus said not to do. None where direct disciples of Jesus.

What is known as Apocrypha today is the Gospels that the Roman (Origin Pagans: worshiped many gods, human gods etc) Catholic Church wanted to destroy because it denies the trinity and the divinity of Jesus and reveals the coming of another (Muhammad). “Eg. The Gospel of Barnabas was accepted as a Canonical Gospel in the Churches of Alexandria till 325 C.E. In 325 C.E., the Nicene Council was held, where it was ordered that all original Gospels in Hebrew script should be destroyed. An Edict was issued that any one in possession of these Gospels will be put to death” (http://www.barnabas.net/)

Jesus did not found Christianity and the Church (Paul did). Muhammad founded Islam.

Muhammad taught a way of life from birth to death. Things as simple as one should sit down when they put their shoes on etc (This has been medically proven that putting your shoes on whilst standing and hunching causes lower back pain). He taught every day life issues etc.

The Quran contains many scientific information that has been confirmed by science only in the last century. Would Muhammad have known all this stuff or is he a lucky guesser?

The world as we know it today was influenced by Islam, scientifically, mathematically, medically, agriculturally as well as through art etc. Islam promoted education for both men and women whereas the Church forbade it and called it blasphemy and the penalty was death to anyone who would go against the Church (http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/ a documentary by non-Muslim American historians and lecturers in religion)

Islam is in no way derived from Zoroastrianism but follows on from Judaism as Christianity did.

The list can go on for many pages, but I think that has said enough. So looking at the facts from a subjective point of view shows that there should be no doubt that Muhammad should be the first on the list.