Free Republic

The Indian government on Friday began digging for treasure near an ancient temple after a tip off from a holy man who said he dreamed 1,000 tons of gold was buried there. Swami Shoban Sarkar said he was approached in a dream by a 19th century ruler called Rao Ram Bux Singh who told him about the $40 billion bonanza buried near an ancient temple. But despite having no money, land, or even a bank account, Sarkar did not keep the mystical vision to himself. Instead the civic-minded citizen informed the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) in the hope the...

Indian doctors are studying an 83-year-old holy man who claims to have spent the last seven decades without food and water. Military doctors hope the experiments on Prahlad Jani can help soldiers develop their survival strategies.The long-haired and bearded yogi is under 24-hour observation by a team of 30 specialists during three weeks of tests at a hospital in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.Two cameras have been set up in his room, while a mobile camera films him when he goes outside, guaranteeing round-the-clock observation.His body will be scanned and his brain and heart activity measured with electrodes."The observation...

Spare me the true believers. I don’t mean the people who support Barack Obama for president. I support Barack Obama for president. I mean the people who worship him to the point that anyone who says anything raising questions about the inevitability of his rise to sainthood, much less the perfection of him and his wife and his campaign, is deserving of damnation. I wrote a column last week about how the Obama campaign needed to guard against the arrogance that many people tell me they have detected in dealing with them. I didn’t condemn the candidate. I didn’t say...

Page 39: "Jesus is moved to repentance by the preaching of John and submits to his baptism. Perhaps his manual labor was sometimes less than perfect, perhaps he cheated a customer even if unintentionally. John was announcing 'forgiveness of debts' using a word, forgive, which in peasant experience was always linked with forgiveness of debts. Even Jesus as an artisan could plausibly have needed forgiveness of debts." Page 40: "Scholars note that Jesus initially was a disciple of John, even baptizing others with the baptism of John (John 3:22). No doubt he also learned the basic skills of a Holy...