Herons of Alexandria (10-75 AD) was a great inventor.
Watching a special on him on the History Channel was interesting.
He was far beyond his time on inventions.

My attention was especially drawn to his inventions for temples of worship.
He built a device, that when the alter fire was lit, a tank was heated which expelled air into a tank of water where the water was expelled into a counter-weight and opened the heavy doors showing a statue of the temples god. When the fire went out the air returned to the tank, pulling the water out of the counter-weight and closing the doors. This device was hidden under the temple and out of sight to the (believers) that thought this was the magic of the god opening and closing the doors.

According to the History Channel, this was at a time when there were many established and new religions with each one in competition for the public to financially support them.

"Magical" acts and "miracles" were used to attract the numbers needed. These acts were lies or man-made productions, yet seems to work on a public eager for "proof" of a gods power.

I remember the early years of my church going. The ministers would repeatedly speak of the miracles and magic acts mentioned in the Bible. At a young age I was awed at such happenings, then later, being more aware of the nature of humanity, I began to suspect the validity of such actions.

I watch Benny Hinn, (trinity networks superstar), touch people to heal them, and them immediately falling down from the touch, and realize that magic is still very much alive in the religions of today. Each plying for the numbers needed to financially support them.

It is sad, to me, to see the desperate and lost people of humanity taken advantage of by the charlatans of today as they were in the past. But, then again, who else is susecptible?
You go where the money is available.

I am a Christian,and Benny Hinn is a very dangerous,deceptive and manipulative individual whose beliefs are unscriptural in many respects.

I agree. I am an atheist and do not judge christians or christianity by the standards of such a blatant conman.

Originally posted by chaff
I am a Christian,and Benny Hinn is a very dangerous,deceptive and manipulative individual whose beliefs are unscriptural in many respects.
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I agree, as I have said before, there are many good people in all faiths.

Today, I watched some ministers on trinity asking people to call in and sign up to give a 58 dollar a month donation. In return they were promising miracles, miracles that would repay them many times the investment monitarily. Gave examples of people that received thousands of dollars after making the 58 dollar a month pledge.

Ya know what is odd about this, isn't it Christians that say magic is the root of evil? OF course that is unless it helps them make a buck, oooooppppsss.........................

Ya know what is odd about this, isn't it Christians that say magic is the root of evil? OF course that is unless it helps them make a buck, oooooppppsss.........................
What I think is funny is that they admit it exists, and then tell people not to do it. I don't know about you, but magic certainly seems a lot more interesting than sitting in church. If I believed that relgion stuff existed, I'd most certainly go for the magic.

Originally posted by mad dog
Ya know what is odd about this, isn't it Christians that say magic is the root of evil? OF course that is unless it helps them make a buck, oooooppppsss.........................



Matthew 7:21-23:

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"

I can think of a few who may be candidates for inclusion in that category-it's not wise to try to paint Christians in along with those who practise charlatanism.Jesus said that many would come and claim to know Him on the basis of the fact that they moved in power in His name, and they called Him Lord.

Originally posted by chaff
I am a Christian,and Benny Hinn is a very dangerous,deceptive and manipulative individual whose beliefs are unscriptural in many respects.

I find it incredible that Christians will -- with no reservations-- accept certain supernatural claims, such as a man born of a virgin, a man walked on water, a flood came that covered all the mountains on earth yet "drained away" somewhere, people rising from the dead, a person was saved by an "angel" and a host of other fantastic claims that (IMO) no sane person would believe...........yet a man comes on the television and claims to "heal" people and the same Christians who believe in "angels" and devils and that the dead can come back to life suddenly come to their senses and recognize that his supernaturalist claims are preposterous.

the problem with a lot of people is that they base their opinions of christianity on just what these tv evangelists do and say.If you actually took the time to do a bit of research into what they actually believe,you would discover that they don't have a lot to do with biblical Christianity at all...