.... they practice a “Folk Religion”, one that fuses elements of Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity, and Taoism. This “Folk Religion” is what influences Japanese holidays, weddings and funerals. The religion of Japan is a mosaic of religions, some are foreign, others are they’re own . Then they are all assimilated into the same, making it uniquely Japanese. Of all the religions in Japan, Shintoism is the oldest. Shintoism is a religion that worships nature. A Shintoist believes that kami , deities that reside in all natural objects, are forces of nature and are to be worshipped in Shinto shrines, where worshippers ask for blessings. Today in modern Japan, no one .....

.... I say it. I do ask that if you choose to read this material, please suspend your judgment of it until enough time passes for its validity to be proven or disproven. Please don't let your personal beliefs cause you to want to deprive others of receiving this. Written October 20, 1996 NOTE: This document is quite lengthy, so it might be best to either print it or copy it to your word processor so it may be read off-line. Dear Friend, The choice of whether or not to read this message all the way through may have important consequences for you as the events of our immediate future unfold. This is being done sole .....

.... It was customary for the condemned man to carry his own cross from the flogging post to the site of crucifixion outside the city walls. He was usually naked or had only a minimal amount of clothing. Since the weight of the entire cross was probably well over 300 lb. (136 kg), only the crossbar was carried. The crossbar, patibulum, weighing 75 to 125 lb. (34 to 57 kg), was placed on the victim's neck and balanced along both shoulders. Usually, the outstretched arms then were tied to the crossbar. The procession to the site of crucifixion was led by a complete Roman military guard, headed by a centurion. One of the soldiers carried a sign, titulus, on whic .....

.... the Israelites from Goliath's evils. David mentions that Goliath had defied the armies of the living God, and for that he would be punished. David's strength, it seems, dwelled in "the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel" (1 Samuel 17:45). However, Goliath was dependent on the power of weapons, and was sure that a sword and spear would win the battle. It's difficult to say what this meant to the Hebrews, but I interpreted it as symbolizing that the superiority and strength of their Lord was stronger than was any weapon. I gathered this, since one of the statements mentioned in 1 Samuel was: "the Lord does not save by sword and spear .....

.... they are not aloud to partake in it (197). That is for their own good though, Mithraism is not meant for women or the weak, their are some things they just can not understand. No, the people of this land do not believe in Mithraism, but they do have their own god to worship. In fact it is all my wife can speak of, this Christianity. The faith the people of Rome are demonstrating for this man Jesus and his teachings is very uncanny, and it is only hurting my creed. The nerve these Christians have, putting their most holy of days on the same day as ours (197). This must be some sort of conspiracy in trying to finish off a dying religion. If that is not .....

.... subsequent appearance to many (Matthew 27:52-53) were witnessed by thousands of people. The stopping and reversal of the sun would have been visible worldwide. The idea that people could have witnessed these events without having been amazed by them is, quite simply, ludicrous. Other cultures having witnessed this would certainly have offered their own explanations in keeping with their own cultural and religious beliefs. Surely a society existing at the time would have documented this miraculous event. Yet nowhere have such works been found. In the instance of the resurrection of the saints, Matthew is the only person to mention this occurence in the Bible. .....

.... these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights. . .” Certainly, it talks about God, creations, God-given moral rights, the providence of God, and the final Day of Judgment-all of which are religious teachings. And school prayer has been an important part of our religious experience from the very beginning. Our very First Amendment didn't separate God and government but actually encouraged religion. It reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibit the free exercise thereof,” (Encarta 96). The first part simply says that the federal go .....

.... to support that Aztec priests tried to reduce the multiple divinities to different aspects of the same god. When they adopted the gods of conquered peoples or received gods from peoples of more advanced cultures, the priests would always try to incorporate them, like the Romans, into their own national pantheon, by considering them as diverse manifestations of the gods they had inherited from the great civilizations which preceded them and from which they had derived their culture ( Leon-Portilla, 1970 ). Although the Aztec priests tried to unite in a single concept the different gods of the different tribes the people as a whole would not admit that th .....