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--- jn_en_2019_12_05 [2019/12/05 07:54] – potthast
+++ jn_en_2019_12_05 [2019/12/05 09:04] (current) – potthast
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 ====== Birth of Jesus - History and Perception II ... ======
-Wednesday, Dec 05, 2019. Talking about facts and history, we are discussing the
+Thursday, Dec 05, 2019. Talking about facts and history, we are discussing the
-birth of Jesus.
+birth of Jesus. There are many things to say here about the gospels and their way
+to present the story. You might read the Christmas story following Luke, from Chapter 2.
+Or you look into Matthew Chapters 1 and 2.
+There are several events told in connection with the birth of Jesus. Also,
+Matthew and Luke have a slightly different way to put the event into historical
+context - Matthew referring to Herod the Great, Luke to Quirinius and the many
+censuses, which the Roman emperor Augustus initiated during his lifetime. We
+have discussed this already earlier. In any case, both Gospels name relatively
+clear reference points which are well-known historical periods, with the
+exception that Quirinius was governor in Palestine from 6-21 AD, before that
+he held many positions between Northern Africa, Rome, modern Turkey and Syria,
+which might have included Palestine, but that is not fully clear. He conducted
+a census in 7 AD, but it is not known if this was the first census Luke refers
+to. References to the Roman emperor Tiberius and to the governor Pilate fit
+into the story completely, supporting a birth of Jesus about 6-4 BC.
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 ** Events around the birth of Jesus ... **
+There are more events told about the birth of Jesus. We have already discussed
+the fact that he is born in very poor circumstances in a town which was
+completely insignificant with respect to worldly and even spiritual standards.
+But there are the shepherds, to which an angel comes and tells them to
+see the kid. We hear about heavenly praise on this particular occasion.
+You could, of course, put these stories into a box of fairy tales. Today,
+modern worldly theology has big difficulties to accept angels and supernatural
+events. They are not acceptable as "scientific" - they are not accessible to
+experiments. We would not be able to explain them with our understanding
+of natural laws. They are not standard experience of humans today, at least not
+in a way which we would be able to pin down to something we could investigate.
+Science as it stands has no other choice than to classify the supernatural
+elements of the story as perception or interpretation or later legends which
+arose from oral communication of the early church.
+My point here, as a scientist, is to fully understand the way science works
+and has to work. We need to understand the strength of the scientific method.
+We need to understand how science interacts with many of the biblical stories.
+And we need to understand the limitations of the scientific approach.
+Science will not accept that an angel appeared to the shepherds. It will
+not be able to accept it, since it is based on the assumption that all events
+can be understood by natural laws, which might include statistical laws today.
+But an angel is neither a part of our natural world nor is it a statistical
+phenomenon.
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-**  ... **
+** What happened? ... **
+Still, we need to ask: what happened around the birth of Jesus? Is it possible
+that there were angels and the multitude of the heavenly host?
+It is clear that science cannot explain it. It is also clear that science, as
+it works, has not any tool or eye or approach to take supernatural events
+into its lines of arguments. It can look at the outcome of some events. It
+can investigate someone who is healed. But when the healing took place in
+a supernatural way, it cannot say much about it.
+We also need to understand that the approach of science, looking for natural
+causes, has led to many inventions and a very far reaching understanding of
+the natural world. We have learned so much about the atmosphere, about human
+medical conditions, our body, biology, chemistry, physics, sociology, history
+etc etc. It is good to have a mode of mind which tries to understand the
+natural laws of a world which seems to be governed by such laws to a large
+extent!
+Still, we also need to understand that our understanding of this world is
+still extremely limited. Often, we understand some parts of the processes.
+We understand some laws. But we do not understand them completely, and we
+do not understand the complete depth and breadth and complexity of events
+and processes. Mathematics can do a lot, and has improved in an astonishing
+way in the past 500 years. Yet, we still have deep difficulties to understand
+intelligence, emotion, will, desire and the full functioning of our environmental
+system!
+You might ask, if the spiritual world exists. It is an old question - and
+our world is coming back to it. Esotericism is growing in a world longing
+for more. The question of angels and heavenly hosts is linked to this spiritual
+world, and to its interaction with the physical world as we know it.
+If you ask me, I am very much convinced that the spiritual world exists.
+There is matter, and there is spirit. God is spirit. And humans also have
+their spirit, we are part of both worlds. The spiritual world exists and is
+alife as it always was. This is the basis of my understanding - and from
+this I can ask in what way the spiritual world interacts with the physical
+world. I am also convinced that wonders are possible, that God has the
+power and all possibilities to do what he wants at the interface between
+our natural world, our spiritual world and our whole life, with all what
+is in it. There is much to discuss and to discover here - stay patient
+and let us go step by step.
 (Roland Potthast)