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> the most vicious grudges

Stross is probably hinting at this Emo Phillips joke:

http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=61;t=000011

Perhaps he should start his own religion? Reverend Bob Bigelow sounds just perfect, and inflatable space churches would be impressive.

Go for the deluxe model .. a flying cathedral!

For those that don't have a church handy, there are some portable solutions, even arrival by air.

For those that don't have a church handy, there are some portable solutions, even arrival by air.

'Procter & Gamble has answered more than 150,000 calls and letters about these false stories... Calls and letters peaked in 1982, 1985 and again in 1990... Procter & Gamble, which had worldwide sales of $19 billion last year, is still getting as many as 80 calls a month about the rumors. The high was as many as 15,000 a month, when Procter & Gamble had to add staffers to handle the deluge of calls on a nationwide toll-free consumers' line...' (full story)

'Procter & Gamble has answered more than 150,000 calls and letters about these false stories... Calls and letters peaked in 1982, 1985 and again in 1990... Procter & Gamble, which had worldwide sales of $19 billion last year, is still getting as many as 80 calls a month about the rumors. The high was as many as 15,000 a month, when Procter & Gamble had to add staffers to handle the deluge of calls on a nationwide toll-free consumers' line...' (full story)

Another Link

This suggests that there is no evidence for, and some evidence against, the validity of the Bartley story

"However, even if the New Testament happens to have all its historical facts straight, that doesn't give the slightest suggestion that any of the supernatural claims it makes are true. (Perhaps you've heard of historical novels?)"

The closest thing to a historical novel at the time were the "historical romances." These tended to cover love, adventure, quests, and miracles that are more "theatrical" than those of the Gospels The Gospels fit far better in the genre of ancient biography, and in comparison with the historical romances are less flowery. Some of the flourishes of historical romance show up in apocryphical gospels. An example of the difference in tone between the apocryphals and the canonical gospels is here.

"Some of the peripheral claims are testable and fail, e.g. the ability of believers to drink poison without coming to harm."

Um, that claim comes from an ending of Mark that is not in the earliest manuscripts of Mark and is nowadays known to be spurious. In fact, the earliest known manuscripts of Mark end in a conjunction, which is extremely unusual, like ending a book in mid-sentence. The likelihood is that the original ending has been lost; maybe the last page fell out of the codex. There are two "endings" of Mark found in manuscripts, one a very short ending, and the longer one with which you are familiar. See here.

This deals with the "kingdom" issues. Make of it what you will.

Ship of Fools held a competition some time ago. The results are highly amusing. For the record, the winner was:

dad@hvn,ur spshl.we want wot u want&urth2b like hvn.giv us food&4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz.don't test us!save us!bcos we kno ur boss,ur tuf&ur cool 4 eva!ok?

Not only is it l33t-ed, it's under 160 characters, and thus suitable for transmission via SMS.

Ship of Fools held a competition some time ago. The results are highly amusing. For the record, the winner was:

dad@hvn,ur spshl.we want wot u want&urth2b like hvn.giv us food&4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz.don't test us!save us!bcos we kno ur boss,ur tuf&ur cool 4 eva!ok?

Not only is it l33t-ed, it's under 160 characters, and thus suitable for transmission via SMS.

Depending on whatever century you (still) live in, Blashemy could be here, here, or even here.

Fortunately, we live in a country which protects individuals from charges of blas... oh,
never mind.

Another review at ship-of-fools.com.