The Gospel of John is proof? (Philosophy)

I am in no way siding on any religion nor standpoint, but sometimes, I could not help but laugh on some of the craziest ideas and presumptions coming out, sadly, from my fellow Christian brothers.

Here is one, which I had found from Richard Dawkins' site. By the way, for those who doesn't know the guy, Richard Dawkins is a professor on Biology, and the author of Atheist books including "The God Delusion." In short, he is an atheist and a famous scientist.

And as much as Christians get bombarded with ridicule and insults by Atheists, the guys who were suppose to be holy are no different. They've also attack the Atheists with bashes, unfortunately, most of these bashes are unreasonable. To give an example, read the argument below:

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intellectual dishonesty and Damn Lies!
Hello! I am referring to your book, God delusion! I aleady sent you an email about your book, and you have not cared to answer my questions?? I specifically asked you two questions:
1. Jesus death & Resurrection ! Disciple John as eye-witness account! written in his gospel in around 70AD after Jesus' death. This event was foretold in the old Jewish Talmud (Old Testament 700 YEARS BACK. any arguments??? DO YOU WANT MORE PROOF???
2. John's gospel. do you believe it or not????
Go read the Gospel of John and you will realize that 8 authentic miracles are described!
any questions on these///
have a good day. Please reply!
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Now, what exactly makes this argument unreasonable? The claims do not match the opinions of the experts, moreover, this is a subjective presumption, meaning it simply relies on personal knowledge or opinion rather than supporting evidence.

This type of argument is called Argument from ignorance or argumentum ad ignorantiam or "appeal to ignorance," where "ignorance" stands for "lack of evidence to the contrary." It asserts that a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false, it is "generally accepted" (or vice versa). This represents a type of false dichotomy in that it excludes a third option, which is that there is insufficient investigation and therefore insufficient information to prove the proposition satisfactorily to be either true or false. Nor does it allow the admission that the choices may in fact not be two (true or false), but may be as many as four, (1) true, (2) false, (3) unknown between true or false, and (4) being unknowable (among the first three).

Obviously, this tactic was use as an attempt to shift the burden of proof away from the claimer and into the opponent (the Atheists).

Fact Finding

Upon further research, I find out that the Gospel of John is an account of the public ministry of Jesus. It begins with the witness and affirmation by John the Baptist and concludes with the death, burial, Resurrection, and post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus. This account is fourth of the canonical gospels, after the synoptics Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Note, the gospel's authorship is anonymous. Its Chapter 21 states it derives from the testimony of the 'disciple whom Jesus loved.' Along with Peter, the unnamed disciple is especially close to Jesus, and early-church tradition identified him as John the Apostle, one of Jesus' Twelve Apostles. The gospel is closely related in style and content to the three surviving Epistles of John such that commentators treat the four books together, yet, according to most modern scholars, John was not the author of any of these books.

Raymond E. Brown did pioneering work to trace the development of the tradition from which the gospel arose. The discourses seem to be concerned with the actual issues of the church-and-synagogue debate at the time when the Gospel was written c. AD 90 (90 CE). It is notable that, in the gospel, the community still appears to define itself primarily against Judaism, rather than as part of a wider Christian Church. Though Christianity started as a movement within Judaism, gradually, Christians and Jews became bitterly opposed.

John focuses largely on different miracles, including resurrecting Lazarus, which were given as signs to engender faith. Synoptic elements such as parables and exorcisms are not found in John. It presents a realized eschatology in which salvation is already present for the believer. The historical reliability of John is debated, particularly by secular scholarship. In contrast, Grace-oriented churches argue for the total pre-eminence of John.

Authorship

The gospel identifies its author as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." The text does not actually name this disciple, but by the beginning of the 2nd century, a tradition began to form which identified him with John the Apostle, one of the Twelve. Today, the majority of scholars do not believe that John or any other eyewitness wrote it, and trace it instead to a "Johannine community" which traced its traditions to John; the gospel itself shows signs of having been composed in three "layers," reaching its final form about 90-100 AD (CE). According to the Church Fathers, the Bishops of Asia Minor requested John, in his old age, to write a gospel in response to Cerinthus, the Ebionites and other Hebrew groups which they deemed heretical. This understanding remained in place until the end of the 18th century.

1. An initial version based on personal experience of Jesus;
2. A structured literary creation by the evangelist which draws upon additional sources;
3. The final harmony that presently exists in the New Testament canon, around 85-90 AD (CE).

In view of this complex and multi-layered history, it is meaningless to speak of a single "author" of John, but the title perhaps belongs best to the evangelist who came at the end of this process. The final composition's comparatively late date, and its insistence upon Jesus as a divine being walking the earth in human form, renders it highly problematical to scholars who attempt to evaluate Jesus' life in terms of literal historical truth.

Error in writing

Among others, Rudolf Bultmann suggested that the text of the gospel is partially out of order; for instance, chapter 6 should follow chapter 4.

4: 53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.
4: 54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.
6: 1 After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.
6: 2 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.

Chapter 5 deals with a visit to Jerusalem, and Chapter 7 opens with Jesus again in Galilee since "he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him" — a consequence of the incident in Jerusalem described in Chapter 5. There are more proposed rearrangements.

Gospel with Numerous Authors

One possible construction of the "internal evidence" states that the Beloved Disciple wrote an account of the life of Jesus. However, this disciple died unexpectedly, necessitating that a revised gospel be written. It may be that John "is the source" of the Johannine tradition but "not the final writer of the tradition." Therefore, scholars are no longer looking for the identity of a single writer but for numerous authors whose authorship has been absorbed into the gospel's development over a period of time and in several stages.

The hypothesis of the Gospel being composed in layers over a period of time had its start with Rudolf Bultmann in 1941. Bultmann suggested that the author(s) of John depended in part on an author who wrote an earlier account. This hypothetical "Signs Gospel" listing Christ's miracles was independent of, and not used by, the synoptic gospels. It was believed to have been circulating before the year 70 AD (CE). Bultmann's conclusion was so controversial that heresy proceedings were instituted against him and his writings.

Nevertheless, scholars such as Raymond Edward Brown continue to consider this hypothesis a plausible possibility. They believe the original author of the Signs Gospel to be the Beloved Disciple. They argue that the disciple who formed this community was both an historical person and a companion of Jesus Christ. Brown goes one step further by suggesting that the Beloved Disciple had been a follower of John the Baptist before joining Jesus.

Source: Gospel of John, Wikipedia

Conclusion

The book of John, being authored by numerous anonymous authors make it unreliable. There is doubt that it was doctored to match an ideology that was present on the community that wrote it. Therefore, it cannot serve as supporting evidence. However, religiously-minded people rely on faith rather than evidence, which often make their statements nonfalsifiable. Such nonfalsifiable arguments do not need further debate that's why Dawkins didn't even bother to respond to his emails.

Mutation can lead to psychiatric illness

In recent years, scientists have discovered several genetic mutations associated with greater risk of psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. One of such mutations, which is known as DISC1 — short for "Disrupted in Schizophrenia-1" — was first identified in a large Scottish family with high rates of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

Studies have since shown that DISC1 mutations can lead to altered brain structure and impaired cognition, but it was unknown exactly how this occurs. A new study from Li-Huei Tsai, director of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, shows that DISC1 mutations impair a specific signalling pathway in neurons that is critical for normal brain development.

In a genetic screen of 750 people — some of whom were healthy and some of whom had psychiatric diseases — the researchers found several common variants of the DISC1 gene. However, even though these mutations disrupted normal brain development, they were not necessarily enough to cause disease on their own.

"A lot of the human population may carry this genetic defect, and they probably actually have some defects in their brain development. However, it's also pretty clear that by itself, it is not sufficient to cause psychiatric disorder," Tsai says. "That's very consistent with the notion that there probably has to be a combination of several different genetic variations to trigger a clinically measurable outcome."

The study will appear in the Nov. 17 issue of the journal Neuron. Lead author of the paper is Karun Singh, a postdoc at the Picower Institute.

Disrupted Development

In a study published in 2009, Tsai and her colleagues showed that the DISC1 gene regulates a cell signaling pathway known as Wnt. This pathway has been found to stimulate stem cell proliferation during embryonic development. Most importantly in terms of psychiatric disease, Wnt signaling promotes the proliferation of neuroprogenitor cells, immature cells that eventually become neurons.

"What we found is that DISC1 actually maintains the integrity of Wnt signaling," Tsai says. "So if DISC1, for whatever reason, is lost, then Wnt signaling is impaired. This also resulted in impaired neuroprogenitor proliferation and brain development."

Tsai and her colleagues showed that DISC1 regulates Wnt signaling by shutting off an enzyme known as Gsk3-beta. Notably, Gsk3-beta is also the target of lithium, a common treatment for bipolar disease. "We proposed in that paper that DISC1 is basically endogenous lithium, to maintain the integrity of Wnt signaling," Tsai says.

In the new Neuron paper, Tsai's laboratory investigated the impact of DISC1 mutations in the human population. Together with researchers from the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute, they sequenced the DISC1 gene in more than 700 people — about half of them had schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, the rest were healthy — and identified several variants of the DISC1 gene.

However, none of those single mutations were significantly more common in the diseased population than the healthy population. "That suggests that DISC1 variants in humans, by themselves, do not cause disease," Tsai says.

The researchers picked out four of the most common DISC1 mutations and tested their effects in mice, zebrafish and human cells. It turned out that three of those variants do lead to impaired Wnt signaling. However, some of those mutations were found in healthy people, so they are not enough to cause disease on their own.

The fourth variant did not affect Wnt signaling but did impair neurons' ability to move to the proper location during brain development and form circuits with other cells.

Albert Wong, an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Toronto, says the findings represent "an important step forward" in understanding how DISC1 mutations can lead to abnormal brain structure and function. "This paper by Tsai's lab makes the crucial link between disease-associated human DISC1 variants and Wnt/Gsk3-beta signaling and brain development," says Wong, who was not involved in this research.

A remarkable organ

Tsai says it is not surprising that even though the genetic defects clearly cause some malfunctions at the cellular level, they do not always lead to disease. "The brain is really a remarkable organ. It's just so plastic and has this enormous capacity to compensate for any kinds of defects," she says.

She expects that future studies will reveal other genetic mutations that are also necessary to produce schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

In the Neuron paper, the researchers also examined Wnt signaling levels in people with bipolar disease and found that they were much lower than in healthy people, suggesting that bipolar disease and schizophrenia may share some of the same origins. "A lot of genes implicated in schizophrenia are also implicated in bipolar. Now, biochemically, it seems to be the case as well," Tsai says.

Kamunyak, the Blessed One - The Lioness who adopts Oryx calves

Lioness Kamunyak with an
adopted Oryx calf.

This documentary had actually been published a long time ago, dating back as far as 2002. This documentary will serve its purpose to anybody who wish to know more about this unusual lioness.

The unique lioness was named "Kamunyak" or the "Blessed One."  She's the kind of lioness who adopts Oryx calves for some unknown reason. The news was treated with a lot of skepticism since an Oryx is a type of antelope upon which lions would normally prey. Experts were at a loss to explain the big cat's affection towards the calves. But the said lioness has been protecting her adopted young from danger and had allowed them to be nursed by their biological mothers.

Kamunyak resides in Samburu Game Reserve, Kenya.




The Heart of the Lioness

1st Adoption

The first adoption was the longest and became the first documentary of Kamunyak. The lioness had been suppressing her hunger just to guard the Oryx calf from predators. It was said that she had been guarding the Oryx 24 hrs. There was worry that the lioness may starve to death if it continues to put more time into protecting adopted oryx rather than hunting.

A Kenyan photographer famous for his big cat exploits, Jonathan Scott, says the lioness was foregoing hunting to protect the oryx and was certain to get weaker as a result.

"I have watched the lion ever since, and I have a feeling that she already needs human intervention to sustain her situation," he said. "In fact, her place in the wild is now questionable."

Scott says Kenya Wildlife Service veterinary doctor should examine the lioness in order to determine her physical health. "If her behavior does not change, she may need to be moved out of the wild for own sake," says Scott.

According to Daphne Sheldrick, who runs a world famous program rehabilitating orphaned wildlife in Nairobi, the relationship is strange, "These creatures are simply not compatible, and the situation should be allowed to play itself out until the lioness learns to stop adopting oryx," she said.

The lioness first made headlines in early January, when, to the surprise of Kenya's wildlife experts, she adopted her first oryx calf. For 17 days, she starved while the baby antelope made regular visits to its lactating mother.

At one point, the lioness scared off a family of cheetahs that tried to kill the calf. Unfortunately, the union was short lived and the 1st calf's life was snubbed out by a hungry male King Lion while Kamunyak had gone to drink water from a river. The African Lion is known for being overly aggressive of cubs/calves sired by other males, let alone one from an Oryx.

Kamunyak was devastated, but this did not stop her from adopting another Oryx.

2nd Adoption

On the second adoption, the second adoptee has been taken away from the lioness by wildlife officials.

"It was either that or leave it to die. It was too weak and would not have survived another day without being fed," said senior Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) warden, Julius Kimani, who led the operations. "We will try and return it to its mother but we fear she might reject it," said Kimani.

Although it is not clear how the second calf and its true mother were separated, wildlife wardens this time mounted a 24 hour guard to make sure no predators took the calf away from its adopted lion mother. "The wardens were kept busy throughout the night, and at one time, they had to scare away a pride of lions that were prowling too close to the sleeping duo," said Kimani.

Game wardens tranquilized the frail Beisa oryx calf as it dozed under an acacia tree when the lioness went to hunt. The calf, dubbed Valentine, was taken first to Lewa Downs, a private game sanctuary near Nanyuki on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Later on, the oryx calf was flown by private plane to Nairobi and driven to the Animal Orphanage at the Nairobi National Park.

However, that has not deterred the lioness. After the second calf was taken away, she began following a herd of oryx at the 104 square kilometer Samburu Game Reserve, some 343 kilometers (213 miles) northeast of Nairobi.

"We do not know why it has adopted a strange liking for baby oryx. We would like researchers to tell us. Right now, it is following a new herd," says Kimani.

Before the second calf was taken away, a local tourist hotel manager, Kioko Musyoki said he saw the lioness carry the calf away and also put the calf's head inside its mouth. "The baby just stands there, flapping its ears, while the lioness stands guard over it. It hadn't moved more than five meters from it all day," observed Musyoki.

3rd Adoption

The 3rd adopted oryx was named "Easter," because she adopted it over the Easter weekend.

Her third, managed to stay in good health. Kamunyak repeatedly allowed the calf to return to its natural mother and feed, before taking the calf back into her care.

During the period of this most recent adoption, visitors to the reserve had plenty of opportunities to watch this most unusual natural drama unfold. At one stage, Kamunyak fought and held off a pride of 8 lions who were stalking her adopted offspring.

The relationship ended, however, when she again allowed the calf to return to its mother. The entire herd fled, taking the calf with it. Kamunyak tried to chase them and recover her calf, but failed.

4th Adoption

The fourth adoption was same as with the third. The mother of the oryx was able to rescue the oryx at a later stage.

After Kamunyak's last adoption ended with the calf returning to the herd, it seemed that she lost interest in becoming a surrogate mother, and she stopped following the herds.

5th Adoption

On Monday 7/10/02, Rangers were surprised to find her with her fifth adoptive "cub," a tottering 5 day old Oryx calf, and the story has once again made headlines.

Tourists and journalists were tracking down the unlikely duo, and experts are ascertaining whether she is again allowing the calf to return to its herd to feed.

Kamunyak herself is clearly undisturbed by all of this attention, and is busy playing the role of devoted- if unconventional- parent.

However, the fifth adoption also ended in a failure. The oryx starved to death, and when it was dead, it was eaten up by the lioness (lioness do this when their young ones die).

6th Adoption

The sixth calf manage to escape the lioness and return to its mother. It was reported that there was a battle between Kamunyak and the mother Oryx.

Theories

Wildlife experts have offered a range pf scientific explanations, with most attributing the adoption to unfulfilled maternal instincts.

Belinda Otieno, a wildlife researcher, says that the lioness "may be unable to conceive her own cub, and has taken to satisfying her natural instincts through another species."

But there is still no explanation on why she is so fond of the oryx, nor why she turned to a prey species instead of adopting a lion cub.

Ditte Dahl Lisbjerg, an animal behavior scientist who works with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Nairobi says, "Scientists need more information on the history of the lioness to understand its behavior."

Kamunyak had been seen hunting warthogs and other small prey. During the first adoption when she remained with the Oryx for 16 days, she kept a 24 hour vigil over the Oryx. Despite being very thin and hungry, when she caught sight of prey, she refused to let the Oryx out of her sight.

In February 2003, she was seen in a big fight with two females who are thought to come from the same territory. She was skulking around the edge of a giraffe carcass that the pride of 7 lions had been feeding on. There are several theories that have been proposed to explain this extraordinary behavior of the female African lion.

The question has been raised whether this could have begun on a hunt with an unusually long game of cat and mouse, where after 24 hours she bonded with the calf. Sub-adults have been known to play with mongooses and other small species over a short period of time. However, three weeks suggests that the cat and mouse game turned into something else. But now on her 6th adoption, it seems that the lioness actively goes in search of Oryx calves to kidnap.

The Samburu people suggested Kamunyak is barren. However, this seems unlikely considering that her body is responding to an overactive maternal drive. Plus she was so young and it is very difficult to tell whether a female is barren.

She could have a serious hormonal imbalance, which is triggering this abnormal behavior with another species. There have been records of lioness with huge cysts on their ovaries that affect their behavior, but perhaps not to this degree.

According to a scientist who has studied elephant reproduction, phantom pregnancies are quite common in feline species. It could be compared to domestic dogs that have phantom pregnancies and start lactating. If a lioness' rank affects their endocrinology, perhaps a phantom pregnancy is a possible explanation.

Kamunyak only adopted Oryx calved. Like all cats, lions have acute vision primed especially to pick up on movement. But they do not seem to be very good at individual recognition from a distance, and rely primarily on their sense of smell at close quarters to identify one another. Oryx calves are remarkably similar in color to the tawny coat of an African lion, and it is possible that once the lioness had locked onto the smell of "cub" in the calf then it's lack of a feline physique ceased to matter.

The park rangers suggested that she found the calf shortly after it was born and the smell of the amniotic sack on the calf's body triggered some kind of maternal response.

The fact is that we will never really be sure by in the middle of the Kenyan game reserve, a young female African Lion decided to start adopting Oryx calves. And not just one, but six different calves at different days and for increasingly longer duration. Sometimes even to her expense as she could not effectively hunt so as to keep guard; a fact that emaciated her to a point of near death.

Kamunyak's Adoption History

Dec - Jan 2002 1st Adoption: lasted for 16 days – calf was eaten by a male lion prowling near the river where the two drank.

Feb 14, 2002  2nd Adoption: Calf was named "Valentine," it lasted for 2-3 days – calf was rescued by Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS).

Apr 2002 3rd Adoption: Calf was named "Easter," it lasted for 2 days – calf was rescued by its biological mother, and this incident had left the lioness injured.

May 2002 4th Adoption: lasted only for 24 hrs – calf was abandoned by Kamunyak and was rescued by its biological mother at a later stage.

Sept 2002 5th Adoption: lasted for 2 days – calf starved to death, and when dead, it was eaten by the lioness (lions sometimes eat their own cubs when they die).

Jan 2003 6th Adoption: lasted only for 24 hrs. – calf escaped and returned to its mother, shortly after Kamunyak and the mother Oryx fought.

Kamunyak: "The Blessed One"

Her story was recorded by Saba Douglas-Hamilton and her sister, Dudu, between January 2002 - August 2003. Their film, Heart of a Lioness, was first shown on the BBC and later premiered in the United States on Animal Planet in March 2005. Video clips from this film can be accessed on the Discovery Channel website, together with audio interviews with pictures and an extensive discussion.

It is thought that Kamunyak may be around 11 years old now. She was estimated to be about 2 to 3 years old when she adopted her first Oryx calf.

Kamunyak was most often alone. She seemed to move in the same territory as with the pride of 7 lions, which is in the heart of Samburu National Reserve, and is possibly one of the better feeding grounds for Samburu African lions. When she adopted Oryx calves, she moved in a very small area and when she was alone, she sometimes disappeared for months. She has not been seen since February 2004. If she shares the same territory as the pride of 7 African Lions, she could possibly have had a history with the pride in whose territory she resided.

It is believed that in the past, Kamunyak had a sister. However, her solitary life could be a result of being kicked out of a pride. Perhaps her pride became too large and sub-groups split off to form new lion prides. Perhaps she was cast out as a single lioness and had to fend for herself, in between warring territorial prides, as a vagrant nomadic female, eking out an existence on the periphery.

Kamunyak was last sighted in February 2004, then she eventually disappeared, and despite a number of searches, has not been seen since.

Additional Photos

Iran builds 3 more submarines for its navy

Iran has added three more domestically-built submarines to its naval fleet.

Iranian Army Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said Saturday that the Islamic Republic has added three more Ghadir-class submarines to its naval fleet.

"All parts of these submarines, including their body and their advanced radar equipment and defense systems have been designed and manufactured by our country's defense experts and with the help of the Defense Ministry," he said in a press conference.

The vessels had been said to have been delivered to the Iranian navy in southern port of Bandar Abbas. It said the submarines were from the Ghadir class, of which Iran already has four.

This class of submarine can fire missiles and torpedoes and operate in the Gulf's shallow waters.

The move is seen as part of Iran's effort to upgrade its defense capabilities amid escalating tension over its nuclear program. The West suspects Iran is aiming at developing nuclear weapons, which a charge Iran denies.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn scene can cause seizures?

The movie "Twilight: Breaking Dawn" has elicited shrieks of joy from Twilight fans, yawns from some film critics, and groans from unwilling partners dragged to the vampire love story.

Not only that, the film's gory birth scene, which contains rapid flashes of black and red light, has apparently also caused two men to have seizures!

Brandon Gephart of Roseville, California, began convulsing during the scene, according to CBS 13 in Sacramento. His girlfriend, Kelly Bauman, said he was "snorting and trying to breathe." Gephart said he cannot remember what happened.

An unnamed Utah man said he suffered from similar symptoms.

"I didn't really remember what happened after that, I think I blacked out. According to my wife, I was shaking and mumbling different noised," the man told ABC 4 in Salt Lake City.

The man, who did not want to be named over fears he would lose his job (not because he didn't want his buddies to find out he was seeing "Twilight"), claims another person suffered similar symptoms at the same theater. The theater's manager did not have knowledge of this, according to ABC 4.

Well, for those who don't want to dragged into watching the film, seizures seems to be a good excuse.

To a Friend (Poem)

To a Friend

By Anthony Yap

To the friend who I came to admire

Hope you read and feel

The feeling that resides within

For thou my dearest friend

Mine heart and soul commends

Thou hast been there when I need thee

Thou hast been there in my sadness

Thou hast been there in my happiness

And thus I love thee

For thou art my council in my solitude

I shalt treasure thee

For thou art more prettier than gold

For thou art more than anything else

In thine company

I lie for all eternity...

Lt. Pike becomes part of Meme Hall of Fame

Lt. John Pike, the UC Davis cop who pepper-sprayed non-violent student protesters about a week ago became part of the meme hall of fame, when tons of images had "stormed the front."

While these pictures look funny, it was actually meant to poke the officer.

Currently, Lt. Pike is on administrative leave, and recent news tells us that there are people who are going to file a law suit against him. What a pity... it's as if Anon, the memes, and the butt of jokes and ridicules aren't bad enough...

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