Did Veda Vyasa write the Mahabharata before it happened?
Mahabharata is an ‘itihas’ (history) and by its very definition, is written after the event. Maybe a more insightful question is - WHY did Veda Vyasa write this tragic tale of fraternacide amongst his own descendants.Vyas’s mega family saga of “Jaya” (Mahabharata) is an epic of enormous proportion. He taught it to Vaishampayan and asked him to go and recite it at the ‘Sarpa-satra’ of Janmanjaya. Muni Aseet came to advise the king on the value of prudence and peace.It was the combination of Vyas muni’s powerful words, Vaishampayan’s expert rendition and Aseet muni’s sagely advise that eventually calmed the king’s blood lust and stopped the sarpa-satra.Nagas and Humans could now live in peace after all. Hatred of four generations – dissolved in timely, sagely advise.Most people see the epic war of Mahabharata. What they do not see is the opening scene where peace is established between nagas and humans. Rest of the epic is recited as “flashback” – almost as a prequel to the peace process.Most people do not see that the bulk of the epic is Shanti Parva – book of Peace. Shanti Parva is a repository of ancient wisdom taught by Bhishma pitamaha from his unique “bed of arrows”.Most people do not see that the overwhelming message of the epic is – “War is futile. Live and let live.”That indeed is the lesson we all need to learn from history - live and let live.Click here to read more of this article - http://www.pushti-marg.net/bhagw...
Why were the four canonical gospels written so long after Christ's death and resurrection?
The question commits the fallacy of the "Complex Question." The question implies that the period of time before the earliest manuscripts is, in vague measurements, "so long." Compared to all other manuscripts of that time or even as late as Dante, the gospels were actually written "so early."See John Simpson's answer for the New Testament manuscript ages, most completed within 70 years.From Can We Trust the New Testament as a Historical Document?Many people do not believe that the Bible is a reliable document of history. But, the fact is the Bible is very trustworthy as a historical document. If we were to look at a chart that compared the biblical documents with other ancient documents, we would see that the Bible is in a class by itself regarding the number of ancient copies and their reliability. Please consider the chart below.1Author | Date | Written | Earliest Copy | Approximate Time Span between original & copy | Number of Copies | Accuracy of Copies Lucretius | died 55 or 53 B.C. | 1100 yrs | 2 copies Pliny | 61-113 A.D. | 850 A.D. | 750 yrs | 7 copiesPlato | 427-347 B.C. | 900 A.D. | 1200 yrs | 7 copiesDemosthenes | 4th Cent. | B.C. | 1100 A.D. | 800 yrs | 8 copiesHerodotus | 480-425 B.C. | 900 A.D. | 1300 yrs | 8 copiesSuetonius | 75-160 A.D. | 950 A.D. | 800 yrs | 8 copiesThucydides | 460-400 B.C. | 900 A.D. | 1300 yrs | 8 copiesEuripides | 480-406 B.C. | 1100 A.D. | 1300 yrs | 9 copiesAristophanes | 450-385 B.C. | 900 A.D. | 1200 yrs | 10 copiesCaesar | 100-44 B.C. | 900 A.D. | 1000 yrs | 10 copiesLivy | 59 BC-AD 17 | ---- | ??? | 20 copiesTacitus | circa | 100 A.D. | 1100 A.D. | 1000 yrs | 20 copiesAristotle | 384-322 B.C. | 1100 A.D. | 1400 yrs | 49 copiesSophocles | 496-406 B.C. | 1000 A.D | 1400 yrs | 193 copiesHomer (Iliad) | 900 B.C. | 400 B.C. | 500 yrs | 643 copies | 95% accuracyNew Testament | 1st Cent. A.D. | (50-100 A.D. 2nd Cent. A.D. | less than 100 years | 5600 copies | 99.5% accuracy*Original table didn't paste very well, sorryIt should be obvious that the biblical documents, especially the New Testament documents, are superior in their quantity, time span from original occurrence, and textual reliability. People still question if the documents are reliably transmitted to us; but they should rather ask if the biblical documents record actual historical accounts.
Can someone summarize "in the time of the butterflies" by Julia Alvarez?
I don't know if it's any good, I just took this summary from enotes. Hope it helps. When people think of the Dominican Republic in the twentieth century, two words most often come to mind: Rafael Trujillo. He ruled the island nation from 1930 to 1961. His dictatorship was defined by greed, a rigid control over the Dominican people, and unspeakable brutality. But many would also have people remember another history of the Dominican Republic, a history of brave resistance and immense sacrifice. Two different words come to mind when thinking of this history: Las Mariposas, or The Butterflies. These were the code names of Minerva, María Teresa, and Patria Mirabal, three sisters who were key members in an underground movement to overthrow Trujillo. On November 25, 1960, the dictator's men ambushed their car, and the sisters were beaten to death. Since that time, they have become symbols of courage, dignity, and strength in their country. In 1994, Julia Alvarez brought the Mirabals' story to an American audience through her novel In the Time of the Butterflies. Alvarez's connections to this story run deep, since her own parents were involved in the underground movement and fled to America before being arrested. She does not write a history or a biography, however. She fictionalizes the Mirabal sisters and depicts their lives through the voices she creates for them. She even includes Dedé Mirabal, the only sister to survive, as a voice of the present reflecting on the past. Through her characters, she stresses the need to remember the past, even times of great pain, while also striving for happiness in the present and the future. Perhaps more importantly, she stresses the need to see heroes not as superhuman, but as people who fight their own fears in order to fight injustice.
What will happen on the day of judgement according to Islam?
“Before the Judgment day,Prophet Jesus pbuh,Messiah(Imam Mehdi) and the Anti Christ will arrive.”Anti Christ will deceive people and he will rule for some time,the following will happen in a sequence:Jesus pbuh will kill Anti Christ.Gog and Magog will be unleashed and they will kill everyone and drink and eat everything.True followers will be in a cave with Prophet Jesus pbuh.Prophet Jesus pbuh will pray for death of Gog and Magog and they will die.Prophet Jesus will pray for their bodies to be taken away,big birds will come and they will take away their bodies and everything will be clean.Prophet Jesus will rule for sometime and then he will die.Only bad people will be left in the worldWhat will happen on the Judgment day?Sun will rise from the West.Door of forgiveness will be closed.Mountains will melt.Sun will be very close to earth.Hazrat Israfeel A.S will blow the flute which will be pleasing at first but then it will get scarier and scarier.All people will run here and there to hide from the terror.People will gather at a place(even the dead ones will rise from graves),Arafah.Everyone will turn to dust.Meeting with Allah:Everyone will be given a book of their deeds.Those who receive it in left hand will go to hell.Those who receive it in right hand will go to heaven.People will be so terrified that although they will have no clothes but their will be deep in their sweat till their neck.The person will be told to read from the book.If a person denied his sins he will be asked where is your proof? He will reply, “I am.” so then his body parts will start speaking against that person.His hands and feet will also speak.Each and every person will be Judged.Only unbelievers will go to hell for eternity.
Are creation days not the same as 24-hour Earth days?
Some claim that because Moses—the writer of Genesis—later referred to theday that followed the six creative days as a model for the weekly Sabbath, each of the creative days must be literally 24 hours long.No, it does not. The fact is that the Hebrew word translated “day” can meanvarious lengths of time, not just a 24-hour period. For example, when summarizing God’s creative work, Moses refers to all six creative days as one day. In addition, on the first creative day,“God began calling the light Day, but the darkness he called Night.” Here, only a portion of a 24-hour period is defined by the term “day.” Certainly, here is no basis in Scripture for arbitrarily stating that each creative day was 24 hours long.A careful consideration of the Genesis account reveals that events starting during one “day” continued into one or more of the following “days.” For example, before the first creative “day” started, light from the already existing sun was somehow prevented from reaching the earth’ssurface, possibly by thick clouds. During the first “day,” this barrier began to clear, allowing diffused light to penetrate the atmosphere. On the second “day,” the atmosphere evidently continued to clear, creating a space between the thick clouds above and the ocean below. On the fourth “day,” the atmosphere gradually cleared to such an extent that the sun and the moon were made to appear “in the expanse of the heavens.” The Genesis account also relates that as the atmosphere continued to clear,flying creatures—including insects and membrane-winged creatures—started to appear on the fifth “day.”The Bible’s narrative allows for thepossibility that some major events during each day, or creative period, occurred gradually rather than instantly, perhaps some of them even lasting into the following creative days.Page on jw.org
Do you believe that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old according to science, or 6000 years old according to the Bible?
Nowhere in the Bible does it say the Earth is 6000 years old. Nowhere.The 6000 year idea comes from Bible scholars who add the geneologies in the Bible giving 40-45 yrs to individuals who are not given ages.One of the problems with this is that Paul warns us against this in Timothy when he says not to "devote yourselves to endless geneologies" because it promotes dissention and conflict. It creates false doctrines and we see today the endless arguments like this and the faith looking ignorant in the face of science.Further, the Bible says a day is like a thousand years to God and a thousand years a day. This shows that God is outside of our 3 or 4 dimensions of space and time, which if God is creator he would be.Next, when looking at the 7 days we have to define "day". This is a measurement of the time it takes for the Earth to rotate once on its axis. But if God is outside of our dimensions then perhaps we are talking about a Godly universal day. Perhaps a rotation of the universe.Further, even in our dimension of time said time is relative to distance from the the observation and velocity. Therefore time would have been "slower" as the Universe, so close to the point of "Big Bang" would have been moving at a much faster rate.There is also some debate about the Hebrew word day as it is used without a definite article. In Hebrew this would not have meant a single 24hr Earth day but a division of some undefined period.And given entropy as the Universe slows and cools the 4.5 Billon that Geology hypothesizes isn't correct either, as Geology fails to include space/time entropy into its calculations.Either way, since modern physics points to the fact that reality is not infinite but that we are living in a "digital simulation" or hologram arguing over time is irrelevant.Perhaps my hologram is 6000 years and yours 6 billion. Perhaps the world is only 6 seconds old. You can not mathematically prove that its isn't. And to try to otherwise is only mans arrogance.