THE CONSPIRACY OF THE RED LIGHT

O.K., let’s file this one under…

THE CONSPIRACY OF THE RED LIGHT

Here’s a basic truth:  Sex sells. 

So, at the very least, this particular blog entry, with sex at the heart of it, should assure that this site gets some extra hits from Google searches. 

After all, bloggers like an audience.  So cut me some slack on this one.

This blog my soapbox, the very same box outside of which we all have to think. 

That little soap box sometimes feels about size the tiny East Village apartment in which me and my roommate Jeff continuously have that battle which has given the blog it’s theme.  Jeff offers a conspiracy theory, I search for the truth. 

Right, or wrong, the truth rules.

I know, as a culture, we are all too fascinated with what happens, say, between The President and the intern, or the Congressman and the missing intern, or the movie star Governor and the mother of the love-child. 

I did not have sex with that woman –

Each of those revelations, or accusations, have the potential to be career ending, inciting a scandal that gets so out of control that it dominates the twenty four hour news cycle.

We become horrified by the lurid conduct of our leaders and icons.  They get shunned, and then we forgive them. 

Sometimes somewhere in between the casting out, and the reeling in, comes a conspiracy theory.

This morning, Jeff came storming into the small living room that we share, those little dot-like pupils in the center of his eyes burning red with anger.  Right or wrong, Jeff takes his conspiracy theories very seriously.

I instantly knew an investigation, and an idea for a blog was in the offing.

Jeff: It’s a set up.

Me: I was hoping it would be, I have no ideas for my next blog.  I need a set up.

Which circles back around to this blogger’s dream post of the week, a conspiracy theory with lurid sexual details.

At the center of this conspiracy theory is Dominique Strauss-Kahn.  Strauss-Kahn is the former head of the International Monetary Fund.

On May 14th. Strauss-Kahn was pulled off a plane on the way to his native France and arrested by the New York City police.  In true move style, the plane was minutes from taking off. 

Law and Order style -

It is nearly impossible to get an extradition from the French authorities – remember poor movie director Roman Polanski.  He couldn’t even come back for his Oscar, so maybe it’s a long time for forgiveness. 

Bottom line in connecting the dots, improper sexual conduct, real or perceived, the alleged predator most often goes off the R.A.D.A.R. for years.

Harken back to the Salem Witch Trials.  The mere act of accusation brought the ultimate penalty.

Anyone got a marshmallow? –

Anyway, Strauss-Kahn was accused by the maid at his hotel of forcing her to take part in both oral and anal sex. 

The maid, a Guinean immigrant, told authorities that when she entered Strauss-Kahn's suite to clean it on Saturday afternoon, he emerged naked from the bathroom and chased her down a hallway before pulling her back inside.

Strauss-Kahn was indicted on two counts of a first degree criminal sexual act, two counts of sexual abuse, attempted rape, unlawful imprisonment, and forcible touching.    

You see, I’m really going for maximum hits this week.  There are all sorts of great search words in that paragraph.

Strauss-Kahn faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

According to Jeff, it was all a set up by rivals inside the International Monetary Fund, to bring Stauss-Kahn down with his push for more regulation.  The woman is just like those finger pointers in The Crucible, cry “rape”, and the victim becomes the alleged perpetrator.

Add to the fact that his name had been mentioned for potential candidacy for the highest office in the land, and you’ve got the makings of a great conspiracy theory.  Do the accusing in the United States, where sex sells, and the story is assured to dominate what’s left of the front pages.

The conspiracy theory flames have been fanned by the fact that certain political figures, supporters of Strauss-Kahn, have seemed unwilling to exclude the possibility of a trap or of manipulation.

During an interview with the French newspaper Libération that took place on April 28, Strauss-Kahn himself had alluded to the possibility that such a setup could be organized by his enemies.

A poll performed on Monday even found that fifty seven percent of the French public believes that he was the victim of a plot.

Now, this poor maid.  Raped.  Plastered all over the media in the twenty four hour news cycle.  What’s in it for her to go along with this plot?

Also, there is the messy matter of the medical personnel who performed a full sexual assault examination in hospital.  Were they in on it too?  Or was a rape faked to accuse Strauss-Kahn of rape?

The maid claims she then briefly fought him off before he dragged her into the bathroom and forced her to perform oral sex on him.

The woman said she was able to break free again as he tried to remove her underwear and ran downstairs to tell hotel staff what had happened.

I guess as an aspiring filmmaker, I can believe that these events can be faked and set up, except it just doesn’t ring true.  The woman did everything she could do to get him to stop.  She involved people in the hotel immediately after the incident.  It just doesn’t feel like a clean set up.

But that’s for the jury to decide I guess.

Meanwhile, I guess Strauss-Kahn won’t be seeking higher office.  But, then again, neither will Arnold Schwarzenneger, John Edwards, or Gary Condon. 

So the moral of the story is, sex sells, but the bill is huge.  Let that red light blink in your head, not over the door fellas.

Until next time, emails and comments are always welcome.

THE CONSPIRACY OF “LOOK MA, NO WIRES”

O.K., let’s file this one under …

THE CONSPIRACY OF “LOOK MA, NO WIRES”

When inventor Guglielmo Marconi did those first experiments with radio broadcasting, I seriously doubt that he foresaw the proliferation of wireless transmission that has become woven into the fabric that connects modern society.

Wireless is now the way or the world.

For instance, as I type this blog on my wireless keyboard, I am also trying hard to avoid being distracted by the easy ability to surf the web through my wireless base station, or the temptation of reaching for my wireless cable remote to check the constantly repeating news circle of my employer, NY1.

It’s a reminder of just how many of these waves are passing through my body at any of the individual moments that are being counted by the constantly updating digital clock on my wireless cell phone.

And, amazingly, these wireless signals rarely seem to cross. 

The technology to me seems almost like magic. 

Somehow the wireless cell phone call finds it’s destination and rings on your tiny cell phone, wherever you are.  Somehow the numbered button you press on the cable box remote takes you to the desired channel, rather than mysteriously taking you to The Robyn Byrd Show. 

Even more impressive is the fact that my TV remote never opens the doors of the cars parked outside the window.  At least I don’t think that it does.  Somehow each signal finds the one actual device and function that the user intends.

This is on top of the very radio broadcasts, the television transmissions, the ham radio signals, the walkie talkie chatter, the baby monitors, and all manner of wireless cameras that conspirators use to spy on us (It’s a joke, Jeff).

I doubt Marconi could have imagined that his discovery would contribute to rise to the mass media that provides us so much information, including so many conspiracy theories. 

Nor could Marconi predict that the direct descendant of his discovery, wireless remotes, would finally, itself be the focus of so many conspiracy theories.

With the proliferation of electronic remotes and systems, a brand new conspiracy theory involving wireless has come upon Jeff’s R.A.D.A.R. (pun intended).

This is not the run of the mill interception of cell phone signals, which unfortunately goes on every day.  Nor is it the supposed use of subliminal messages for brainwashing, made popular by the film The Parallax View.

Jeff thinks that by giving all of our electronic devices over to remote control, it gives other, sinister, forces the chance to seize control of everything we do, like snatching the very remotes from our hands.  They can turn our devices on and off at will, just like in the classic The Day The Earth Stood Still (not the one with Keanu Reeves, the good one with Michael Rennie).

Klaatu Barata Nikto –

In that movie the Aliens did not have to raise a single gun, they merely rendered all of the world’s mechanical and electrical devices inactive for an hour. 

This was before cell phones and personal computers, and it was still effective.

Like the aliens, those who hold the override remote will be able to operate from afar, using our own infrastructure against us.  It will allow them to control everything we see and do without ever revealing themselves.

Jeff thinks there is a pilot program of this underway in midtown Manhattan.

Here’s how it all went down:

Jeff:  They’re testing something.

Me:  My patience?

Jeff:  Sam.  At The Empire State Building.  They’re testing something that causes cars to go dead.  Once they can do that, they can restrict our movements at the press of a button.

Actually, we live in the East Village, and, for the record, neither of us has a car and we walk everywhere, but I will put that aside for now. 

My very network actually reported on the events that gave rise to this new conspiracy theory the other day the other day, so I had some familiarity with it already, before Jeff turned it into evil-doing.

It seems that in the shadow of the former tallest building in the world, there’s now a five-block radius in which cars mysteriously lose their ability to start up.

There have been between 10 and 15 cars everyday that simply will not start according to Citywide Towing, which is the exclusive roadside assistance provider of AAA below 42nd Street.

As soon as the car is towed outside the radius they start right up.

Do they take credit cards? -

All signals seem to point to that symbol of the city, once climbed by King Kong, which stands at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. 

Have I reached the person to whom I am speaking? –

Of course the conspiracy is fueled by the fact that the building management will not disclose a list or the purposes of the antennas on top of its spire.  This drives conspiracy theorists crazy, and of course they instantly suppose the worst.

Doormen of the upscale buildings in the neighborhood, and the tow truck drivers often called to the scene, even have a name for the dead car affliction.

They call it The Empire State Building Effect.

Some automotive experts have gone on record as saying that there must be some radio frequency broadcast which jams certain remote keyless entry systems.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, which is the agency responsible for assigning the frequencies that are used by remote wireless key systems, there have been no formal complaints made by consumers or manufacturers.

So is it, as Jeff claims, a test of some nefarious jamming technology that can render our cars and other electronics instantly inactive?

Would not it be so much easier to test this at some remote facility like Area 51?  Wouldn’t it be much easier, and unnoticeable to have the secret organization bent on forcing us all to walk buy up a few cars and a tract of land and go nuts. 

Why test it in midtown Manhattan?

Is the idea to use some subliminal way to terrorize bankers and lawyers who then get so angry that they eventually become postal?

Also, isn’t the more likely explanation that the large concentration of waves in the area finally caused a situation of a simple broadcast having the unintended consequence of being on the same frequency as the keyless remote? 

It could also be a case of a simple screw up.  Perhaps wave 9999x999 was supposed to be left only for keyless remotes, but it was assigned also to say the to the robotic communication that makes the new air conditioning system work in one of the surrounding buildings.  Now the person in charge of those wavelengths might have some splainin’ to do.

But Jeff’s theory does give some reason for pause to think that the more we give ourselves over to wireless technology, and the more dependent we become on it, the more vulnerable we become.

On August 14th, 2003 a blackout effected a large portion of the Northeast United States and Canada for more than a day. 

Things go bump in the night -

Telephones, refrigerators, elevators, transportation systems, and a host of other electrically based necessities went offline. 

Food spoiled, communication was severely limited, people were stranded in all sorts of uncomfortable places, and all other symptoms of an end-of-the-world scenario came quickly into play.

In all seriousness, without electricity, and maybe even without wireless transmission, civilization as we know it would exhibit a certain tenuousness that makes me uncomfortable to really think about.

So while people are seeing their cars towed from midtown, I’m wondering if buying a good, old-fashioned, reliable, classic car is the best solution. 

Add to that list: an old-style phone and an apartment on a lower floor.

O.K. Jeff, maybe I don’t buy your conspiracy theory, but the issue deserves careful thought.

Pretty soon, I’d have to break out the typewriter. 

But then how would you read this…

E-mails, messages and comments are welcome, as always.  Wirelessly, of course.

THE CONSPIRACY TO USE MAY 1st TO BRING CLOSURE TO SEPTEMBER 11th

O.K., let’s file this one under …


THE CONSPIRACY TO USE MAY 1st TO BRING CLOSURE TO SEPTEMBER 11th


Regular followers of the blog know that I’m much more interested in dots than I am in numbers.


But the connections of the calendar are powerful (See THE CONSPIRACY OF THE LONG COUNT), and I am aware that yearly anniversaries of major, or personal events bring back a flood of vivid memories.


My father has often told me how vivid his boyhood recollection was of the events of December 7th, 1941.  I’ve heard and read the same thing from scores of folks about November 22nd, 1963, July 20th, 1969, and August 9th, 1974.


I even have one of these strong memories from my own youth.  I am sure many of you will do a quick Google search on before saying, “Oh yeah” to my mention of this date:


Where were you on May 25th 1986?


Almost everyone has similar where were you when that happened... stories.


Anniversaries of these widely shared experiences often bring retrospectives and re-examinations.


Some, like what happened at Dealey Plaza on November 22nd, 1963, are endlessly fodder for conspiracy theorists like Jeff.   Each and every November the failure of the single bullet theory returns like a Thanksgiving Turkey.


Sometimes these anniversaries also bring about the opening old wounds, sometimes they inspire others to no good.


Like August 20th.


It is a painful to recall that the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birth of Adolph Hitler inspired two high school students to go on a shooting rampage in Colorado on August 20th, 1999.

It Was Once A Calm High School -

It is also painful to have to connect the dots between the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Courthouse and the siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Texas, exactly one year earlier.

The Courthouse Aftermath –

The Compound Aftermath –

Such is the power of the calendar.


Which brings me to Jeff’s latest conspiracy theory.


Or should I say, "Mayday! Mayday!"


Here’s how it all went down this morning:


Jeff:   You don’t think the date has some significance.  They chose it on purpose.


Me:  They? The same they who killed Kennedy?   Or the same they who faked the moon landing?


Jeff:  Sam, telling the world that they had captured and killed Bin Laden on May 1st… He was already dead and they picked that day as symbolic.


O.K.  The symbolism of May 1st is not lost on me.


Nor am I surprised that conspiracy theories would circle around bin Laden’s demise like the currents of the very sea that now hold his lifeless body.


Even as crowds gathered outside the White House and at Ground Zero to celebrate and remember lost loved ones, conspiracy-minded theorists like Jeff were busy speculating as to the true nature of this announcement and the circumstances surrounding it the timing.


Like Jeff, many conspiracy theorists believe that bin Laden was long dead.


Many government officials agreed with them as well. Former CIA case officer Robert Baer said of bin Laden in 2008, "Of course he’s dead." FBI counterterrorism chief Dale Watson thought he was "probably" dead. Former U.S. foreign intelligence officer and Boston University professor Angelo M. Codevilla went even further: " All the evidence suggests Elvis Presley is more alive today than Osama bin Laden."


Still more questions have been raised with the publication of a book called Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive?  Written by political analyst and philosopher Professor David Ray Griffin, former Emeritus Professor at California's Claremont School of Theology, the book goes into far more detail about his supposed death and suggests there has been a cover-up by the West.


The book claims that Bin Laden died of kidney failure on December 13, 2001, while living in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains close to the border with Waziristan.


His burial took place within 24 hours, in line with Muslim religious rules, and in an unmarked grave, which is a Wahhabi custom.


Rather than a burial at sea?  This is the basis of a whole different conspiracy theory which I know Jeff will hit me with at some point.


The author insists that the many Bin Laden tapes made since that date have been concocted by the West to make the world believe Bin Laden is alive.


Jeff’s theory is that United States intelligence forces have longed faked various recordings and videos to keep the threat alive to justify foreign adventures such as Iraq and stoke the fears of a country rapidly losing enthusiasm for the war in Afghanistan.  He’s been kept on ice all this time.


The fact that the death announcement came eight years to the day from former-President George W. Bush’s Mission Accomplished speech.

On The Intrepid -

It’s also the anniversary of the announcement to the world of the death of Adolph Hitler in 1945.  It was also the one-year anniversary of the Times Square bomb.


Curiously, it is also the fifty-year anniversary of the very first airplane hijacking.


Now I am not going to bother with any sort of debunking of the theory that bin Laden was being kept on ice, even though I certainly agree that a man who is said to have needed kidney dialysis should be easier to find than he seems to have been.


Nor am I going to deal with any of the other swirling theories, like he is still alive and being tortured, or that he never had anything to do with the terrorist attacks of September 11th at all.


But the choice of the date and the specific timing and significance of the announcement seems like an easy one to debunk.


Was the day and time of the announcement picked for another significance other than the fact that Celebrity Apprentice was in the midst of airing in the Eastern and Central time zones?


Plus May 1st may have significance, but of all the days in the year it seems to have lesser value than ones that feel way more obvious choices…


Think about other days of significance:


Like the one that falls each year on the first Tuesday after the first Monday each November.


Election Day.


Thee terrorist attack of September 11th happened on the day of the New York primary.  That may have saved a lot of lives.


Think back to the mid-term elections last November.   The Democrats took a "shellacking" at the polls.  Would it not have been helpful to have this happen on the Sunday night before Election Day?


Think ahead to the 2012 election?  What away to secure a landslide victory…


Of course, the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the towers and The Pentagon is coming up.   Rebuilding has begun.  It’s a time for closure.


But if the date was meant to give closure and have a greater symbolic meaning, it eludes me.  Despite hijackings, speeches, deaths of dictators, the public does not celebrate any one of those, nor are they burned into the public conscience.


The fact is, whatever day bin Laden is killed, or his death is announced opens up to yearly commemorations.  Or yearly opportunities for crazies to try something like what the Time Square bomber tried one year earlier.


Rather than bringing closure, it could be a new anniversary... not unlike April 20.


Whether it’s May 1st, or September 11th, or any one of three hundred and sixty four other days it is very likely going to be more likely the cause of future events, not the balancing out ot those of the past.


I find it hard to believe that, in The White House situation room, there is a coven of witches, or team of astrologers, who decides what is the proper date to take out someone who runs a terrorist organization.


Unless maybe with Nancy Reagan involved.

Visits From The Astrologer -

Or, unless, of course, it was really all about interrupting or pre-empting Celebrity Apprentice.  Trump did really seem to have gotten under Obama’s skin about the birth certificate.


On August 4th The President is going to be 50 years old.  Maybe he just couldn’t wait three months to give himself a birthday present


You can send me presents, emails and comments at any time.

THE CONSPIRACY TO MAKE ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME

O.K., let’s file this one under …

THE CONSPIRACY TO MAKE ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME

Jeff and I rarely talk about religion.

However, last week he brought up the subject in one of those “shock value” moments. 

Sometimes Jeff can’t resist a button push when those secret black helicopters flying by our window give us a moment of peace and quiet.

So, as the church bell tolled atop the Saint Marks Church outside the window, Jeff announced that organized religion is a tool for enslaving the masses and that the Catholic Church has been conspiring to keep us all in a carefully docile flock for thousands of years. 

I'm the son of an Irish Catholic Dad and a Jewish Mom.  But I wasn’t really raised with any sort of organized religious upbringing. I guess my Mom and Dad sort-of cancelled each other out.  So this statement really did not resonate with me at all.  Readers of this blog know that I am far from docile.

I also haven't seen the inside of a synagogue or a church in years, except for the occasional wedding or Bar Mitzvah. 

So, I freely admit my ignorance on the whole subject of organized religion and whether it actually is an institution with the purpose on placing stranglehold on society.

Sure, I know the basics, like creation took six days, and that Abel was not the keeper of his brother.  I also know Moses sailed for weeks in an Arc full of animals, waiting for the rain to stop.

Did they eat the animals? -

But my knowledge of Chapter and Verse is as weak as the walls of Jericho were, and I can probably name more States than I can Apostles.

The only "who-begat-who" that I know are that those sex-charged Sons of God who went after the daughters of men, and bred Alien-Human hybrids that became the slaves that built the Pyramids.

But I know full well that the Catholic Church is a powerful institution and not unlike those closed societies that are Jeff’s favorite bogeymen.

Where The Popes Supposedly Hatch Their Plots -

Here’s how it went down, with Jeff full of fire and brimstone:

Jeff:  The Catholic Church is built on lies.

Me:  I though it was built on Saint Peters Square.  Or is it Saint Peter’s circle?

Jeff:  Go ahead Sam, make fun, but there's not one pieces of truth in anything the Church says and does, and you do pride yourself on truth.  As in “this blog has no greater agenda than…”

Me:  Let’s see... The truth is that the Church is built on a conspiracy of lies?  Didn’t Dan Brown write a novel about that?

Jeff:  Not exactly.  Brown said Jesus was married and had a child.  That’s impossible when no such person ever existed.


Woah...

See what I mean about shock value?

No such person as Jesus?  How can that be?

So I accept the challenge. 

Never mind all the religious mumbo jumbo.  I’m not going to argue or search for miracles or get tangled up in trying to connect Aramaic symbols.

Just the simple question:  Did the man known as Jesus Christ exist?  Or is it possible that he is a fabrication?

Jeff’s conspiracy theory is detailed in the book The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold .  The author theorizes that Jesus Christ and Christianity were created by members of various secret societies and religions to unify the Roman Empire under on State Religion, and that the architects of the faith drew on numerous myths and rituals which existed previously and then constructed them into the Christianity that exists today.

The story of Jesus Crist is not at all original.  There are remarkable similar stories in earlier cultures.  The Egyptian Osiris, The Zoroastrian Mithra, and The Greek Prometheus were all born around December 25th to a godly father and a virginal mother. 

The Greek Dionysus transformed water into wine, rode an ass, fed crowds, suffered, and was mocked. 

The Hindu Krishna’s adoptive human father was a carpenter and was of royal blood.

But these details could have been embellishments around the actual man Jesus, who existed in First Century Palestine, and preached his own sect of Judaism.

Mythology built around iconic leaders is not new.  George Washington has his cherry tree. 

But iconic leaders can also be fabrications.  King Arthur, Camelot, and the round table probably never existed.

Much of what we know about Jesus comes from four accounts, the New Testament Biblical Gospels of Mark, Luke, Matthew and John. 

But the Gospels aren’t recognized as actual eyewitness accounts.  They were likely not even written by the actual Apostles.

The Last Supper -

The first independent historical reference to the Gospels themselves was in 130 A.D.  If Jesus was born in the year zero (or maybe earlier if he were born during the reign of Herod as is noted in the Gospels) and if he left the world at age 30, then the Gospels may have actually been written down almost 100 years later by people who were writing about him from hearsay. 

100 years is three or four generations that would have passed by the time of the writing.  In a time before telephone, that’s a hell of a telephone game. 

No wonder other popular stories were incorporated into the narrative.

There is no doubt that Emperor Constantine existed, or that Alexander the Great really lived, or that Ramses ruled over Egypt.  For each of those world leaders, there are multiple contemporary accounts as well as tangible evidence.  Paintings, writings, reliable eyewitness accounts, exist for each one of them. 

It seems to be the same for almost every other major historical figure, except for the ones in the Bible, and perhaps King Arthur.

Even if the Bible stories were written down at the time of Jesus, which they were not, the Bible simply is not a reliable historical account.

The Bible is not a history book.  No one really argues that Moses was a real person… Or Adam… Or Eve…

For two thousand years, scholars have known that much of what’s written in the Bible is often self-contradictory.  Even if it actually were a collection of contemporary eyewitness accounts, the internal inconsistencies make its use as any sort of historical record questionable. 

There are two conflicting stories of Creation.  There are two very different stories of Noah.  And there are four stories of Jesus, with precious few details.

So what about outside sources?  Are there any non-Biblical eyewitness accounts that make reference to Jesus Christ.  Is there any tangible evidence?

It is important to note at this point that in 70 A.D., the Romans invaded and destroyed most of Israel, slaughtering its inhabitants.

Entire cities, including Jerusalem, were literally burned to the ground.  


Much evidence of Jesus existence could easily have been destroyed.

The Destruction of the Temple -

But there are, actually, some third party references which survive.

First Century Roman documents mention the execution of a man who claimed to be the Messiah of the Jews.  But he was named Yehuda, and this was in 6 A.D.  That’s a miss of 25 years.  So it’s probably not a reference to the Biblical Jesus.

Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian, mentions a Jesus in Antiquities.  Josephus' birth in 37 A.D. means he was born well after the events in question.  He wrote Antiquities in 93 A.D.  That doesn’t count as an eyewitness account, or a contemporary document.

In the British Museum is a copy of a letter sent by a Syrian named Mara Bar-Serapion to his son Serapion in 73 A.D.  Part of the letter reads:  "What advantage did the Athenians gain from putting Socrates to death?  Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for their crime.  What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras?  In a moment their land was covered with sand.  What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King?  It was just after that their kingdom was abolished.  God avenged these three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the Jews, ruined and driven from their land, live in complete dispersion.  But Socrates did not die for good; he lived on in the teaching of Plato.  Pythagoras did not die for good; he lived on in the statue of Hera.  Nor did the wise king die for good; He lived on in the teaching which he had given..."

That letter would seem more solid proof.  However, there is no mention of Jesus by name in the document.  

But the circumstances match.  Jews.  King.  Teaching.

So is that evidence of the actual existence of Jesus?

It’s the best outside evidence that I was able to find, but it’s hardly conclusive.

Perhaps the greatest evidence that Jesus did exist is the fact that literally thousands of Christians in the first century A.D., including the twelve Apostles, were willing to give their lives as martyrs.

I can believe that people will die for what they believe to be true. 

I can not believe that anyone would die for what might not be true, or worse, be a lie.

What say you Jeff?

As always, emails, comments, and messages are welcome.

And please don’t shoot me, I am only the messenger, though not of God.

Peace out.