Members of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, which is based at the secularist Center for Inquiry, near the University at Buffalo North Campus, want to reignite the debate with a different emphasis.
Many of the scholars involved with the "Jesus Seminar" examined the question primarily from a theological perspective, said R. Joseph Hoffman, who heads the committee and will organize regular meetings of historians, classicists and other scholars for the "Jesus Project."
Others involved at this point include Robert M. Price, a former "Jesus Seminar" participant, and Gerd Ludemann, a history professor in Germany, Hoffman said.
The new investigation will differ from the "Jesus Seminar" because it won't be hamstrung by theology, he said.
The committee regards the belief that Jesus was a historical person as a "testable hypothesis," just like any other historical question.
Hoffman announced the "Jesus Project" on Sunday at the conclusion of a conference on "Scripture and Skepticism" at the University of California at Davis.
A village of small houses that may have sheltered the builders of the mysterious Stonehenge — or people attending festivals there — has been found by archaeologists studying the stone circle in England.
Eight of the houses, with central hearths, have been excavated, and there may be as many as 25 of them, Mike Parker Pearson said Tuesday at a briefing organized by the National Geographic Society.
The ancient houses are at a site known as Durrington Walls, about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from Stonehenge. It is also the location of a wooden version of the stone circle.
The village was carbon dated to about 2600 B.C., about the same time Stonehenge was built. The Great Pyramid in Egypt was built at about the same time, said Parker Pearson of Sheffield University.
Julian Thomas of Manchester University noted that both Stonehenge and Durrington Walls have avenues connecting them to the Avon River, indicating a pattern of movement between the sites.
Jalebi, or perhaps here in southern India, jangiri, makes a Krispy Kreme seem like a savory. They are made like a funnel cake, but smaller, then dipped in a syrup. Best hot, they're not at all bad cooled off. I was first made aware of them when watching Jeremy Piven's narcissistic Discovery program 'Journey of a Lifetime', when he ate them from a street vendor with Padma Lakshmi in Delhi. I thought at the time that I needed to try them. Thankfully, our hotel in Hyderabad makes them every evening, safer and handier (perhaps not as exotic, but you pick your spots) than a street vendor. Highly recommended.
VIJAYWADA--We have arrived at Vijaywada after a six hour drive from Hyderabad this morning. We are essentially having a mini-weekend meeting at the neighboring city of Guntur, with Berry Kercheville speaking tonight (Saturday) and me speaking on Sunday. Then we'll drive back to Hyderabad on Sunday afternoon. No one from our group has visited the church in Guntur since Bill Robinson did in 2004. We want to make sure to stay in contact with the bretheren there.Einstein, among others, found that a comforting idea. “This knowledge of the non-freedom of the will protects me from losing my good humor and taking much too seriously myself and my fellow humans as acting and judging individuals,” he said.
