I just ran across this group and noticed this thread so I had to join and post. Dear Soul Sister Claire, if you are really that naive of a person, I truly feel sorry for you. First off, let me explain that what he's doing is called a Balducci Levitation. He stands on the tip-toes of one foot. The audience must be placed 8 to 10 feet away at an exact 45 degree angle to the rear of the foot that's not "levitating". Then, it looks real and he films audience's reactions. Then, for his TV show, he has a wire attached to his belt, gets pulled up in the air by a big see-saw, and edits in the audience's reactions. But since you obviously believe everything you see and hear that also explains your literal interpretation of the bible. Another thing only a naive baffoon could possibly do. So, just for your info here's a little something you might want to research: In about year 382 Constantine the Emperor of Rome declared Christianity the official religion of Rome. This was done as a measure to squash an impending civil war between the Christians and the Pegans living there. He re-wrote the bible omitting all but the Gospels that catered to his master plan. His idea was to meld the 2 religious groups that were at odds into a single harmonious unit under Rome. He restructured Christianity and made Sunday the Sabbath. The day was already revered by the pagans as a day to worship the sun. He then made Jesus' birthday on December 25, an already recognized holiday for the birthdays of several other pagan gods. All this was to enable the pagans to go on doing what they were doing without changing their ways too much.
After this, all versions of the Christian bible ( of which there were about 200) were systematically siezed and destroyed and anyone claiming anything different than what was in Constantiene's bible was considered a traitor and a heritic and you can imagine what that means in ancient Rome. Here's the real kicker, up until that point Jesus was never considered to be the Son of God. He was revered by his followers as a prophet. A hand of God yes, but the Son of, no. The deification of Christ was VOTED on by a Roman council and since making Jesus the Son of God would help to solidify the new official Religion, and make Christianity the only and indisputable acceptable means to worship the one true God, they voted yes, and so it was.
So the bible you read was basically outlined by Romans and then of course edited numerous times by the Catholic church in later years as a means to control the masses during the monopoly on education by the church durring the middle ages. Therefore, the bible is nothing more than an archaic political agenda written and ammended by power hungry sinners and most definately not the work of God. Nothing in it can be taken seriously much less literally.
P.S. I am a devout Catholic. I believe in God and I go to church. However, organized Religion merely acts as a framework for me to build my own personal relationship with God. I'm not telling you how to worship but I feel obligated to say something when I see someone easily blinded by simple smokescreens in life. And Christianity, along with David Blaine are simple "pull my finger gags".
