Slashdot Mirror
British Library Puts Oldest Surviving Bible Online
Peace Corps Library writes "BBC reports that about 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible, the 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus manuscript, have been recovered and put on the Internet. 'The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the world's greatest written treasures,' says Dr. Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library. 'This 1,600-year-old manuscript offers a window into the development of early Christianity and first-hand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation to generation.' The New Testament of the Codex Sinaiticus appears in Koine Greek, the original vernacular language, and the Old Testament in the version, known as the Septuagint, that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians. For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery until it was found in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany, and Britain. It is thought to have survived because the desert air was ideal for preservation and because the monastery, on a Christian island in a Muslim sea, remained untouched, its walls unconquered. The British Library is marking the online launch of the manuscript with an exhibition which includes a range of historic items and artifacts linked to the document. 'The availability of the virtual manuscript for study by scholars around the world creates opportunities for collaborative research that would not have been possible just a few years ago.'"
Science is not truth, any more than a Hammer "is" carpentry.
To claim otherwise is superstitious "Scienceism" as foolish and ignorant as "Christianism" - the disease that believes documentary evidence for God is either necessary or defensible.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
How does one become a "former" scientist? By rejecting the scientific method, maybe? I'm not sure I like the sound of this. Hume would be disappointed.
So you were thinking of scientist in the sense of a literal job description, instead of in the sense of being a rational and prudent person. I get you.
If the law says that prostitutes are illegal, does the mere fact of the law stop you from going to one? Or does your moral conscience?
How does your moral conscience let you sleep at night, letting all of those poor prostitutes who can't find another form of gainful employment go without any customers and be harassed and jailed by the police? Aren't you contributing to their starvation and poverty by not allowing them to run their business?
This satire brought to you by the morality-is-relative department.