Split (1)

train · 4k rows

category stringclasses 191 values	search_query stringclasses 434 values	search_type stringclasses 2 values	search_engine_input stringclasses 748 values	url stringlengths 22 468	title stringlengths 1 77	text_raw stringlengths 1.17k 459k	text_window stringlengths 545 2.63k	stance stringclasses 2 values
Marine Conservation	Is the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' larger than Texas?	yes_statement	the 'great pacific garbage patch' is "larger" than texas.. the size of the 'great pacific garbage patch' exceeds that of texas.	https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/23/pacific-ocean-plastic-trash-mapping-mission	Trash-mapping expedition sheds light on 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch'	Trash-mapping expedition sheds light on 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' Volunteers investigate collection of waste some say is twice the size of Texas Most trash seen in larger chunks, prompting call for urgent cleanup Associated Press in San Francisco Sun 23 Aug 2015 17.16 EDTLast modified on Fri 14 Jul 2017 16.44 EDT Scientists and volunteers who have spent the last month gathering data on how much plastic garbage is floating in the Pacific Ocean returned to San Francisco on Sunday and said most of the trash they found is in medium to large-sized pieces, as opposed to tiny ones. Volunteer crews on 30 boats have been measuring the size and mapping the location of tons of plastic waste floating between the west coast and Hawaii that according to some estimates covers an area twice the size of Texas. “It was a good illustration of why it is such an urgent thing to clean up, because if we don’t clean it up soon, then we’ll give the big plastic time to break into smaller and smaller pieces,” said Boyan Slat, who has developed a technology he says could start removing the garbage by 2020. A 171ft mother ship carrying fishing nets, buckets, buoys and bottles, among other items, and two sailing boats with volunteers who helped collect the garbage samples arrived at San Francisco’s Piers 30-32. The boats went on a 30-day voyage as part of the “Mega Expedition”, a major step in an effort to clean up what is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The expedition was sponsored by the Ocean Cleanup, an organisation founded by Slat, a 21-year-old innovator from the Netherlands. Slat said the group would publish a report of its findings by mid-2016 and after that hoped to test out a one-mile barrier to collect garbage near Japan. The ultimate goal is the construction of a 60 mile (96.5km) barrier in the middle of the Pacific. Slat said he became passionate about cleaning the oceans of plastic while diving in the Mediterranean sea five years ago. “I was diving in Greece and realised that there were more plastic bags than fish,” he said, “and I wondered: why can’t we clean this up?” After dropping out of university after six months, Slat dedicated his life to developing the technology the group will start testing next year. He has envisioned using long-distance floating barriers that will attach to the seabed and target swirling ocean currents full of waste to skim garbage from the surface while aquatic life and currents pass underneath. After a 2012 Ted Talk about his idea was viewed more than 2m times, Slat decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign and raised $2.27m, helping to start his organisation. Soon, his innovative solution got the attention of major philanthropists in Europe and Silicon Valley, including Salesforce.com chief executive Marc Benioff, who are helping pay for the data-gathering efforts and the technology’s development. The Pacific expedition, which will end in mid-September, will gather data more extensive than what has been collected in the past 40 years. It also will give a better estimate of the how much plastic waste is in the Pacific, Slat said. The boaters are using GPS and a smartphone app to search for and record the plastic. They take samples and ship them to the Netherlands, where the plastics are counted and recorded. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered by Charles Moore in 1997, as he returned home from the Transpacific Yacht Race.	Trash-mapping expedition sheds light on 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' Volunteers investigate collection of waste some say is twice the size of Texas Most trash seen in larger chunks, prompting call for urgent cleanup Associated Press in San Francisco Sun 23 Aug 2015 17.16 EDTLast modified on Fri 14 Jul 2017 16.44 EDT Scientists and volunteers who have spent the last month gathering data on how much plastic garbage is floating in the Pacific Ocean returned to San Francisco on Sunday and said most of the trash they found is in medium to large-sized pieces, as opposed to tiny ones. Volunteer crews on 30 boats have been measuring the size and mapping the location of tons of plastic waste floating between the west coast and Hawaii that according to some estimates covers an area twice the size of Texas. “It was a good illustration of why it is such an urgent thing to clean up, because if we don’t clean it up soon, then we’ll give the big plastic time to break into smaller and smaller pieces,” said Boyan Slat, who has developed a technology he says could start removing the garbage by 2020. A 171ft mother ship carrying fishing nets, buckets, buoys and bottles, among other items, and two sailing boats with volunteers who helped collect the garbage samples arrived at San Francisco’s Piers 30-32. The boats went on a 30-day voyage as part of the “Mega Expedition”, a major step in an effort to clean up what is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The expedition was sponsored by the Ocean Cleanup, an organisation founded by Slat, a 21-year-old innovator from the Netherlands. Slat said the group would publish a report of its findings by mid-2016 and after that hoped to test out a one-mile barrier to collect garbage near Japan. The ultimate goal is the construction of a 60 mile (96.5km) barrier in the middle of the Pacific.	yes
Marine Conservation	Is the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' larger than Texas?	yes_statement	the 'great pacific garbage patch' is "larger" than texas.. the size of the 'great pacific garbage patch' exceeds that of texas.	https://www.newsweek.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch-trash-island-pacific-ocean-857494	Great Pacific Garbage Patch: There Is an Island of Trash Twice the ...	Great Pacific Garbage Patch: There Is an Island of Trash Twice the Size of Texas Floating in the Ocean Updated \| You may have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. If you haven't, it's exactly what it sounds like: a massive vortex of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists studying this ocean trashcan have discovered it contains at least 79,000 tons of plastic—that's up to 16 times higher than previous estimates. Measuring about 620,000 miles², the island of rubbish stretches across an area twice the size of Texas. Although its often called a patch or island, the garbage is actually spread out like a soup of plastics, rather than a continuous mass of visible trash. Researcher Laurent Lebreton from The Ocean Cleanup and colleagues quantified the glut of debris in a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports. They discovered not only did the patch contain much more plastic than previously believed, but it is rapidly accumulating more and more microplastics. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a huge hoard of persistent ocean plastic, chemical sludge and other debris. Buoyant, hard-to-decompose trash becomes trapped over decades in the currents of a massive ocean vortex—in this case, the Northern Pacific Gyre. This patch floats in subtropical waters between California and Hawaii. Plastic trash is pictured strewn across a beach at Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean. Thomas Watkins/AFP/Getty Bottles, Fishing Nets, Ropes The team used aerial images as well as data from 652 net tows to give them a more accurate picture of the trash than previously described. They found that plastics made up 99.9 percent of the debris: 46 percent was made up of fishing nets and more than 75 percent of the plastic pieces measured more than 5cm. Researchers identified individual pieces of plastic: containers, lids, ropes and bottles. They even spotted production dates ranging from the 1970s to the present decade. One from 1977, 7 from the 1980s, 17 from the 1990s, 24 from the 2000s and 1 from 2010. Microplastics measuring 0.02 to 0.2 inches made up 8 percent of the total plastic. That might not seem like a lot, but it equates to 94 percent of the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the patch. The volume of microplastic in the Great Pacific Garbage patch, they discovered, has increased dramatically since the 1970s. "We knew most pieces are comprised of microplastics; however, when you look at the total available mass of plastic, most material is contained in large debris that may degrade into harmful microplastics over time," Lebreton told Gizmodo. This could be bad news for sea life. Fish end up eating dirty microplastics, and these might make their way up the food chain, Lebreton told Newsweek. "[A] small fish eats the dirty plastic, big fish eats the small fish and pollutants go up the food chain," he explained. Growth in Plastic Pollution A growth in the volume of plastic pieces—big and small—has likely fuelled the team's results. The authors suggest an increasing level of ocean plastic pollution could well be behind the results, particularly after the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. More research is needed, the authors wrote said, to work out exactly where all this plastic trash is coming from, and how long it can linger in the vortex. Changing plastic usage habits, Lebreton told Newsweek, could help stem the growth of the patch. "[Stepping] away from single use plastics is a good start," he said. "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!" This article has been updated to include comment from Laurent Lebreton.	Great Pacific Garbage Patch: There Is an Island of Trash Twice the Size of Texas Floating in the Ocean Updated \| You may have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. If you haven't, it's exactly what it sounds like: a massive vortex of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists studying this ocean trashcan have discovered it contains at least 79,000 tons of plastic—that's up to 16 times higher than previous estimates. Measuring about 620,000 miles², the island of rubbish stretches across an area twice the size of Texas. Although its often called a patch or island, the garbage is actually spread out like a soup of plastics, rather than a continuous mass of visible trash. Researcher Laurent Lebreton from The Ocean Cleanup and colleagues quantified the glut of debris in a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports. They discovered not only did the patch contain much more plastic than previously believed, but it is rapidly accumulating more and more microplastics. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a huge hoard of persistent ocean plastic, chemical sludge and other debris. Buoyant, hard-to-decompose trash becomes trapped over decades in the currents of a massive ocean vortex—in this case, the Northern Pacific Gyre. This patch floats in subtropical waters between California and Hawaii. Plastic trash is pictured strewn across a beach at Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean. Thomas Watkins/AFP/Getty Bottles, Fishing Nets, Ropes The team used aerial images as well as data from 652 net tows to give them a more accurate picture of the trash than previously described. They found that plastics made up 99.9 percent of the debris: 46 percent was made up of fishing nets and more than 75 percent of the plastic pieces measured more than 5cm. Researchers identified individual pieces of plastic: containers, lids, ropes and bottles. They even spotted production dates ranging from the 1970s to the present decade.	yes
Marine Conservation	Is the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' larger than Texas?	no_statement	the 'great pacific garbage patch' is not "larger" than texas.. texas is "larger" than the 'great pacific garbage patch'.	https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/great-pacific-garbage-patch-isnt-what-you-think/	The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Isn't What You Think It Is	Resource Resource The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Isnât What You Think It Is The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Isnât What You Think It Is Itâs not all bottles and strawsâthe patch is mostly abandoned fishing gear. Grades 5 - 12 Subjects Biology, Ecology, Conservation, Earth Science, Oceanography â â â â â â â â â â â â â â Loading ... Leveled by Selected text level Article originally published on July 3, 2019, this material has been adapted for classroom use. TheÂ Great Pacific Garbage PatchÂ is the worldâs largest collection of floating trashâand the most famous. It lies between Hawaii and California and is often described as âlarger than Texas,â even though it contains not a square foot of surface on which to stand. It cannot be seen from space, as is often claimed. The lack of terra firma did not deter a pair of advertising executives from declaring the patch to be an actual place. They named it the nation ofÂ Trash Isles,Â signed up former Vice President Al Gore as its first âcitizenâ and last fall, petitioned the United Nations for recognition. The publicity stunt perpetuated the myth. The patch was discovered in 1997 byÂ Charles Moore,Â a yachtsman who had sailed through a mishmash of floating plasticÂ bottles and other debris on his way home to Los Angeles. It was named byÂ Curtis Ebbesmeyer,Â a Seattle oceanographer known for his expertise in tracking ocean currents and the movement of cargo lost overboard, including rubber duck bath toys and Nike tennis shoes. The patch is now the target of a $32 million cleanup campaign launched by a Dutch teenager,Â Boyan Slat,Â now 23, and head of theÂ Ocean Cleanup,Â the organization he founded to do the job. Beyond those details, not much was known about the specific contents of the patchâuntil now. Whatâs Really in the Patch? MicroplasticsÂ make up 94 percent of an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch. But that only amounts to eight percent of the total tonnage. As it turns out, of the 79,000 metric tons of plastic in the patch, most of it is abandoned fishing gearânot plastic bottles or packaging drawing headlines today. A comprehensive new study by Slatâs team of scientists,Â published inÂ Scientific Reports, concluded that the 79,000 tons was four to 16 times larger than has been previously estimated for the patch. The study also found that fishing nets account for 46 percent of the trash, with the majority of the rest composed of other fishing industry gear, including ropes, oyster spacers, eel traps, crates, and baskets. Scientists estimate that 20 percent of the debris is from theÂ 2011 Japanese tsunami. Laurent Lebreton, an oceanographer with the Ocean Cleanup and the studyâs lead author, says the research team was looking to assess the larger pieces. âI knew there would be a lot of fishing gear, but 46 percent was unexpectedly high,â he says. âInitially, we thought fishing gear would be more in the 20 percent range. That is the accepted number [for marine debris] globallyâ20 percent from fishing sources and 80 percent from land.â Ghost nets, a term coined to describe purposely discarded or accidentally lost netting, drift through the ocean, entangling whales, seals, and turtles. An estimated 100,000Â marine animalsÂ are strangled, suffocated, or injured by plastics every year. Ocean Cleanup is currently working on a system to remove much of this abandoned fishing gear, with plans to launch later this year. âThe interesting piece is that at least half of what theyâre finding is not consumer plastics, which are central to much of the current debate, but fishing gear,â saysÂ George Leonard,Â the chief scientist at the Ocean Conservancy. âThis study is confirmation that we know abandoned and lost gear is an important source of mortality for a whole host of animals and we need to broaden the plastic conversation to make sure we solve this wedge of the problem.â Marine debris expertÂ Marcus Eriksen, co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute, cautions that the new study is based on only limited surveys, making it difficult to accurately estimate the complete size of the patch. The data are significant in showing such a high accumulation of fishing gear, he notes. A Sea of Plastic? Publication of the garbage patch study coincided with a new report from Britain,Â Foresight Future of the Sea, that found plastic pollution in the ocean could triple by 2050 unless a âmajor responseâ is mounted to prevent plastic from reaching the ocean. The report declared plastic pollution to be one of the main environmental threats to the seas, along with sea-level rise and warming oceans. The study included two aerial surveys in October of 2016 that took 7,000 images, and 652 ocean surface trawls conducted in July, August, and September of 2015 by 18 vessels. The surface trawls also filled in the rest of the story. Fifty plastic items collected had a readable production date: One from 1977, seven from the 1980s, 17 from the 1990s, 24 from the 2000s, and one from 2010. Researchers also found 386 objects with recognizable words or sentences in nine different languages. The writing on a third of the objects was Japanese and another third was Chinese. The country of production was readable on 41 objects, showing they were manufactured in 12 different nations. The study also concluded that plastic pollution is âincreasing exponentially and at a faster rate than in surrounding waters.â Others are not as confident that the conclusion indicates a dramatic change in distribution of marine debris. Much of the worldâs marine debris is believed to lie in the coastal regions, not in the middle of oceans. Leonard says he was impressed with the scope of the study. âItâs strong science,â he says. âBut at the same time, in this field, the harder we look, the more plastic we find.â Credits Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. Producer other Last Updated User Permissions For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact [email protected] for more information and to obtain a license. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. She or he will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to him or her, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. Media If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Text Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Interactives Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.	Resource Resource The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Isnât What You Think It Is The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Isnât What You Think It Is Itâs not all bottles and strawsâthe patch is mostly abandoned fishing gear. Grades 5 - 12 Subjects Biology, Ecology, Conservation, Earth Science, Oceanography â â â â â â â â â â â â â â Loading ... Leveled by Selected text level Article originally published on July 3, 2019, this material has been adapted for classroom use. TheÂ Great Pacific Garbage PatchÂ is the worldâs largest collection of floating trashâand the most famous. It lies between Hawaii and California and is often described as âlarger than Texas,â even though it contains not a square foot of surface on which to stand. It cannot be seen from space, as is often claimed. The lack of terra firma did not deter a pair of advertising executives from declaring the patch to be an actual place. They named it the nation ofÂ Trash Isles,Â signed up former Vice President Al Gore as its first âcitizenâ and last fall, petitioned the United Nations for recognition. The publicity stunt perpetuated the myth. The patch was discovered in 1997 byÂ Charles Moore,Â a yachtsman who had sailed through a mishmash of floating plasticÂ bottles and other debris on his way home to Los Angeles. It was named byÂ Curtis Ebbesmeyer,Â a Seattle oceanographer known for his expertise in tracking ocean currents and the movement of cargo lost overboard, including rubber duck bath toys and Nike tennis shoes.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-cb-amazon-fires-explainer-20190827-oneqsy6c6nfuxb33bictnewnbm-story.html	Is the Amazon really 'the lungs' of planet Earth? No, it's more like our ...	This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. By remaining on this website, you indicate your consent. Cookie Policy Is the Amazon really ‘the lungs’ of planet Earth? No, it’s more like our sink. By ANNA JEAN KAISER Associated Press • Published: Aug 27, 2019 at 12:13 pm Image 1 of 14 Fires burn in Brazil in this photo taken from space on Aug. 27, 2019, and released by NASA. (Luca Parmitano/AP) RIO DE JANEIRO — Fires across the Brazilian Amazon have sparked an international outcry for preservation of the world*s largest rainforest. Here's a look at the role the Amazon plays in regulating the world's climate: Is the Amazon rainforest ‘the lungs of the planet?’ The Amazon rainforest is frequently referred to as the "lungs of the planet," but it may not be the most accurate analogy for the forest's role. Advertisement Carlos Nobre, a University of Sao Paulo climate scientist, says a better way to picture the Amazon’s role is as a sink, draining heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Currently, the world is emitting around 40 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. The Amazon absorbs 2 billion tons of CO2 per year (or 5% of annual emissions), making it a vital part of preventing climate change. Is the world’s oxygen supply at risk? No. While it's commonly said that the Amazon produces 20% of the world's oxygen, climate scientists say that figure is wrong and the oxygen supply is not directly at risk in any case. That's because forests, including the Amazon, absorb roughly the same amount of oxygen they produce. Plants do produce oxygen through photosynthesis, but they also absorb it to grow, as do animals and microbes. Advertisement That doesn’t mean the fires aren’t a problem for the planet. The Amazon is a critical absorber of carbon of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels, like oil and coal. What do the fires mean for climate change? Fires in the Amazon not only mean the carbon-absorbing forest is disappearing, but the flames themselves are emitting millions of tons of carbon every day. Nobre says we're close to a "tipping point" that would turn the thick jungle into a tropical savannah. The rainforest recycles its own water to produce a portion of the region's rain, so deforestation makes rains less frequent, extending the dry season. Nobre estimates that if 20% to 25% of the forest is destroyed, the dry season will expand enough that it will no longer be a forest, but a savannah. "Unfortunately, we are already seeing signs of the Amazon turning into a savannah," he said, citing the increasingly long dry seasons. "It's not just theoretical anymore, it's happening already." What’s causing the fires? The current fires in the Amazon are not wildfires. They are manmade and are mostly set illegally by landgrabbers who are clearing the forest for cattle ranching and crops. Deforesting the Amazon is a long, slow process. People clear the land by cutting down the vegetation during the rainy season, letting the trees dry out and burning them during the dry season. Fully clearing the dense forest for agricultural use can take several years of slashing and burning. "When I'm talking about 21st century deforestation, I don't mean a family headed into the woods with a chainsaw," said NASA researcher Doug Morton. "I mean tractors connected by large chains. They're pulling trees out by their roots." He said researchers could see piles of trees months ago in satellite images. "They're burning an enormous bonfire of Amazon logs that have been piled, drying in the sun for several months." Advertisement "What has changed is the political discourse," Nobre said. President Jair Bolsonaro has decreased the power and autonomy of forest protection agencies, which he says get in the way of licensing for developing land and accuses of being "fines industries." “The number of fires increasing is because people think law enforcement won’t punish them,” Nobre said.	This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. By remaining on this website, you indicate your consent. Cookie Policy Is the Amazon really ‘the lungs’ of planet Earth? No, it’s more like our sink. By ANNA JEAN KAISER Associated Press • Published: Aug 27, 2019 at 12:13 pm Image 1 of 14 Fires burn in Brazil in this photo taken from space on Aug. 27, 2019, and released by NASA. (Luca Parmitano/AP) RIO DE JANEIRO — Fires across the Brazilian Amazon have sparked an international outcry for preservation of the world*s largest rainforest. Here's a look at the role the Amazon plays in regulating the world's climate: Is the Amazon rainforest ‘the lungs of the planet?’ The Amazon rainforest is frequently referred to as the "lungs of the planet," but it may not be the most accurate analogy for the forest's role. Advertisement Carlos Nobre, a University of Sao Paulo climate scientist, says a better way to picture the Amazon’s role is as a sink, draining heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Currently, the world is emitting around 40 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. The Amazon absorbs 2 billion tons of CO2 per year (or 5% of annual emissions), making it a vital part of preventing climate change. Is the world’s oxygen supply at risk? No. While it's commonly said that the Amazon produces 20% of the world's oxygen, climate scientists say that figure is wrong and the oxygen supply is not directly at risk in any case. That's because forests, including the Amazon, absorb roughly the same amount of oxygen they produce. Plants do produce oxygen through photosynthesis, but they also absorb it to grow, as do animals and microbes. Advertisement That doesn’t mean the fires aren’t a problem for the planet.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20130226-amazon-lungs-of-the-planet	Amazon: Lungs of the planet - BBC Future	Amazon: Lungs of the planet The Amazon in South America is the largest, most diverse tropical rainforest on Earth, covering an area of five and a half million square kilometres (2.1 million sq mi). I It accounts for more than half of the planet’s remaining rainforest and is home to more than half the world's species of plants and animals. But over the last 40 years, this great verdant tract has been increasingly threatened by deforestation. Clearing of the forest began in the 1960s and reached a peak in the 90s when an area the size of Spain was cleared, primarily to make space for cattle and soybean production. But the soil exposed by this clearing is only productive for a short period of time, meaning that farmers must continue to clear more land to keep their businesses viable. Although deforestation rates have now declined – hitting an all time low in 2011 - the forest is still gradually disappearing, reducing the region’s scale and biodiversity. But this felling also has an impact on the planet as a whole because the forest also plays a critical role in cleaning the air we breathe. It does this by sucking up the global emissions of carbon dioxide from things like cars, planes and power stations to name just a few. Without this “carbon sink” the world’s ability to lock up carbon will be reduced, compounding the effects of global warming. In this film, ecological economist Dr Trista Patterson, lead scientist with The Nature Conservancy Dr M Sanjayan, sustainability advisor and author Tony Juniper and environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev reveal the richness of life supported by the Amazon and the hidden contribution this great forest makes in helping regulate the planets climate. If you would like to comment on this video or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.	Amazon: Lungs of the planet The Amazon in South America is the largest, most diverse tropical rainforest on Earth, covering an area of five and a half million square kilometres (2.1 million sq mi). I It accounts for more than half of the planet’s remaining rainforest and is home to more than half the world's species of plants and animals. But over the last 40 years, this great verdant tract has been increasingly threatened by deforestation. Clearing of the forest began in the 1960s and reached a peak in the 90s when an area the size of Spain was cleared, primarily to make space for cattle and soybean production. But the soil exposed by this clearing is only productive for a short period of time, meaning that farmers must continue to clear more land to keep their businesses viable. Although deforestation rates have now declined – hitting an all time low in 2011 - the forest is still gradually disappearing, reducing the region’s scale and biodiversity. But this felling also has an impact on the planet as a whole because the forest also plays a critical role in cleaning the air we breathe. It does this by sucking up the global emissions of carbon dioxide from things like cars, planes and power stations to name just a few. Without this “carbon sink” the world’s ability to lock up carbon will be reduced, compounding the effects of global warming. In this film, ecological economist Dr Trista Patterson, lead scientist with The Nature Conservancy Dr M Sanjayan, sustainability advisor and author Tony Juniper and environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev reveal the richness of life supported by the Amazon and the hidden contribution this great forest makes in helping regulate the planets climate. If you would like to comment on this video or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.	yes
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-media/news/tropical-rainforests-lungs-planet-reveal-true-sensitivity-global-warming	Tropical rainforests, 'lungs' of the planet, reveal true sensitivity to ...	Breadcrumb Tropical rainforests are often called the “lungs of the planet” because they generally draw in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. But the amount of carbon dioxide they absorb, or produce, varies hugely with year-to-year variations in the climate. A new paper published this week in the journal Nature shows that these variations reveal how vulnerable the rainforest is to climate change. Dr Chris Huntingford, a climate modeller with the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) joined a team of scientists from the University of Exeter and the Met Office Hadley Centre to carry out the study. The study reveals a new way to find out how sensitive biological systems are to changes in climate. The key was to learn how to read the year-to-year variations in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The paper's lead author, Professor Peter Cox of the University of Exeter, explained that scientists have been struggling for more than a decade to answer the question of whether the Amazon forest will die back under climate change. He said, "Our study indicates that the risk is low if climate change is associated with increased plant growth under elevated carbon dioxide. But if this effect declines, or climate warming occurs due to something other than a carbon dioxide increase, we expect to see a significant release of carbon from tropical ecosystems." Carbon dioxide increases each year as a result of burning fossil fuels and deforestation. But the amount it goes up from one year to the next depends on whether tropical forests are absorbing carbon dioxide or releasing it – and this in turn depends on whether the tropical climate was warmer and dryer than usual, or wetter and cooler. So the trace of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere holds a record of how the lungs of the planet respond when the climate warms or cools. The team studied how these year-to-year variations in carbon dioxide concentration relate to long-term changes in the amount of carbon stored in tropical rainforests. They found that climate models that predicted tropical forest dieback under climate change also had a very large year-to-year variation in carbon dioxide concentration, while models in which the rainforest was more robust to climate change had more realistic year-to-year variation in carbon dioxide concentration. By combining this relationship with the year-to-year variation in carbon dioxide as seen in the real world, the team were able to determine that about 50 billion tonnes of carbon would be released for each degree Celsius of warming in the tropics. Peter Cox said the findings were initially a relief: “Fortunately, this carbon release is counteracted by the positive effects of carbon dioxide fertilisation on plant growth under most scenarios of the 21st century, so that overall forests are expected to continue to accumulate carbon.” The researchers are certain, however, that tropical forests will suffer under climate change if carbon dioxide doesn’t fertilise tree growth as strongly as climate models suggest, saying that the long-term health of tropical forests depends on their ability to withstand multiple pressures from changing climate and deforestation.	Breadcrumb Tropical rainforests are often called the “lungs of the planet” because they generally draw in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. But the amount of carbon dioxide they absorb, or produce, varies hugely with year-to-year variations in the climate. A new paper published this week in the journal Nature shows that these variations reveal how vulnerable the rainforest is to climate change. Dr Chris Huntingford, a climate modeller with the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) joined a team of scientists from the University of Exeter and the Met Office Hadley Centre to carry out the study. The study reveals a new way to find out how sensitive biological systems are to changes in climate. The key was to learn how to read the year-to-year variations in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The paper's lead author, Professor Peter Cox of the University of Exeter, explained that scientists have been struggling for more than a decade to answer the question of whether the Amazon forest will die back under climate change. He said, "Our study indicates that the risk is low if climate change is associated with increased plant growth under elevated carbon dioxide. But if this effect declines, or climate warming occurs due to something other than a carbon dioxide increase, we expect to see a significant release of carbon from tropical ecosystems. " Carbon dioxide increases each year as a result of burning fossil fuels and deforestation. But the amount it goes up from one year to the next depends on whether tropical forests are absorbing carbon dioxide or releasing it – and this in turn depends on whether the tropical climate was warmer and dryer than usual, or wetter and cooler. So the trace of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere holds a record of how the lungs of the planet respond when the climate warms or cools. The team studied how these year-to-year variations in carbon dioxide concentration relate to long-term changes in the amount of carbon stored in tropical rainforests. They found that climate models that predicted tropical forest dieback under climate change also had a very large year-to-year variation in carbon dioxide concentration,	yes
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/why-amazon-doesnt-produce-20-percent-worlds-oxygen	Why the Amazon rainforest doesn't really produce 20% of the world's ...	Why the Amazon doesn’t really produce 20% of the world’s oxygen Of the many important reasons to worry about the thousands of fires raging in the world’s largest rainforest, oxygen supply is not one of them. ByKatarina Zimmer Published August 28, 2019 • 6 min read As the news of fires raging in the Amazon spread across the world last week, so did a misleading yet oft-repeated claim about the rainforest’s importance: that it produces 20 percent of the world’s oxygen. Some have taken it to mean that we’re at risk of jeopardizing the world’s oxygen supply. “We need O2 to survive!” former astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted last week. However, the figure—which has earned the forest the title “lungs of the Earth”—is a gross overestimate. As several scientists have pointed out in recent days, the Amazon’s net contribution to the oxygen we breathe likely hovers around zero. “There are a number of reasons why you would want to keep the Amazon in place, oxygen just isn’t any one of them,” remarks Earth systems scientist Michael Coe, who directs the Amazon program at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. A hymn describes Porto Velho's sky as forever blue, but now it's grey with smoke from the Amazon fires. Think about it: For every batch of carbon dioxide molecules trees pull out of the air, they push a comparable number of oxygen molecules back out. Given that the atmosphere contains less than half a percent of carbon dioxide, but 21 percent oxygen, it’s not possible for the Amazon to generate that much oxygen. Several scientists have come up with more accurate estimates. Yadvinder Malhi, an ecosystem ecologist at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, bases his calculations on a 2010 study that estimates tropical forests are responsible for around 34 percent of photosynthesis occurring on land. Based on its size, the Amazon would account for about half of that. That would mean the Amazon generates around 16 percent of oxygen produced on land, explains Malhi, who detailed his calculations in a recent blog post. That percentage sinks to 9 percent when taking into account the oxygen produced by phytoplankton in the ocean. (Climate scientist Jonathan Foley, who directs the non-profit Project Drawdown which researches climate change solutions, arrived at a more conservative estimate of 6 percent). But that’s not the whole story. Trees don’t just exhale oxygen—they also consume it in a process known as cellular respiration, where they convert the sugars they amass during the day into energy, using oxygen to power the process. So during the night when there’s no sun around for photosynthesis, they’re net absorbers of oxygen. Malhi’s research team reckons that trees inhale a little over half the oxygen they produce this way. The rest is probably used up by the countless microbes that live in the Amazon, which inhale oxygen to break down dead organic matter of the forest. “The net [oxygen] effect of the Amazon, or really any other biome, is around zero,” he explains. Because of this balance between oxygen production and consumption, modern ecosystems barely budge oxygen levels in the atmosphere. Instead, the oxygen we breathe is the legacy of phytoplankton in the ocean that have over billions of years steadily accumulated oxygen that made the atmosphere breathable, explains Scott Denning, at atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University. This oxygen could only accumulate because the plankton became trapped at the bottom of the ocean before they could rot—otherwise, their decomposition by other microbes would have used up that oxygen. The processes that determine how much oxygen is found in the atmosphere on average occur over vast geological timescales and aren’t really influenced by the photosynthesis going on now, Denning explains in an article in The Conversation. Cradle of biodiversity Nevertheless, the 20 percent myth has been making the rounds for decades, though it’s unclear where it originated. Malhi and Coe reckon it stems from the fact that the Amazon contributes around 20 percent of the oxygen produced by photosynthesis on land—which may have erroneously slipped into public knowledge as “20 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere.” Obviously, none of this is to say that the Amazon isn’t important. In its pristine state, it makes a significant contribution to pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Coe likens it not to a pair of lungs, but to a giant air conditioner that cools the planet—one of our most powerful in mitigating climate change, alongside other tropical forests in central Africa and Asia—some of which are also currently burning. The Amazon also plays an important role in stabilizing rainfall cycles in South America, and is a crucial home for indigenous peoples as well as countless animal and plant species. “Very few people talk about biodiversity, but the Amazon is the most biodiverse ecosystem on land, and climate change and deforestation are putting that richness at risk,” notes climate scientist Carlos Nobre with the University of São Paulo's Institute for Advanced Studies. For its importance to the world, the Amazon might as well be a metaphorical pair of lungs, and this analogy may have been helpful in galvanizing action around deforestation. But to most researchers, it doesn’t make much sense—not least because actual lungs inhale oxygen rather than exhaling it. “If people want to relate it to a fundamental part of their body that maintains stability and maintains life, maintains wellbeing—symbolically, you can make some kind of association,” says Nobre. “But physically speaking, it’s not really the lungs of the world, no.” An oil rig that environmentalists love? Here’s the real story. Off the coast of California, an oil platform named Eureka is nearing the end of its lifespan and its time in the ocean—but it is home to a thriving ecosystem of marine life comparable to natural coral reef systems.	Why the Amazon doesn’t really produce 20% of the world’s oxygen Of the many important reasons to worry about the thousands of fires raging in the world’s largest rainforest, oxygen supply is not one of them. ByKatarina Zimmer Published August 28, 2019 • 6 min read As the news of fires raging in the Amazon spread across the world last week, so did a misleading yet oft-repeated claim about the rainforest’s importance: that it produces 20 percent of the world’s oxygen. Some have taken it to mean that we’re at risk of jeopardizing the world’s oxygen supply. “We need O2 to survive!” former astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted last week. However, the figure—which has earned the forest the title “lungs of the Earth”—is a gross overestimate. As several scientists have pointed out in recent days, the Amazon’s net contribution to the oxygen we breathe likely hovers around zero. “There are a number of reasons why you would want to keep the Amazon in place, oxygen just isn’t any one of them,” remarks Earth systems scientist Michael Coe, who directs the Amazon program at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. A hymn describes Porto Velho's sky as forever blue, but now it's grey with smoke from the Amazon fires. Think about it: For every batch of carbon dioxide molecules trees pull out of the air, they push a comparable number of oxygen molecules back out. Given that the atmosphere contains less than half a percent of carbon dioxide, but 21 percent oxygen, it’s not possible for the Amazon to generate that much oxygen. Several scientists have come up with more accurate estimates. Yadvinder Malhi, an ecosystem ecologist at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, bases his calculations on a 2010 study that estimates tropical forests are responsible for around 34 percent of photosynthesis occurring on land. Based on its size, the Amazon would account for about half of that.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/environment/real-lungs-of-the-earth/	Where Are the real lungs of the earth? \| OpenMind	Where Are the Earthâs Real Lungs? When in the summer of 2019 the Amazon rainforest suffered a particularly bad season of forest fires, French President Emmanuel Macron issued a warning on Twitter: “The Amazon rainforestâthe lungs which produce 20% of our planet’s oxygenâis on fire.” The truth is that Macron was merely repeating a factoid that is often quoted on the Internet, the origin of which is obscure. And it is incorrect. But leaving aside the strangely popular idea of calling the places where oxygen is produced lungsâwhat these organs actually do is consume itâwhere does the oxygen we breathe actually come from? Is there a terrestrial ecosystem that mostly takes on this function, and whose disappearance could literally cut off our ability to breathe? ï»¿ Oxygen, which all animals need to breathe, is the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust: almost half (46%) of all this matter is oxygen. In the total mass of the Earth, it is only narrowly surpassed by iron, at 32% compared to 30%, so itâs not exactly a rare chemical element on the planet. But oxygen is highly reactive, so it looks for any opportunity to bond with others, oxidising them, as it does with almost all the other elements. But we cannot breathe water (a hydrogen oxide) or sand (silicon dioxide); we need oxygen in its free form, O2, which fortunately for us represents 21% of the composition of the atmosphere. Oceans, the largest source of oxigen In living organisms, oxygen is also used for oxidation, a process by which we extract energy for our metabolic needs and whose end products, in the case of organic matter, are water, CO2 and minerals. Atmospheric oxygen must therefore be continually replenished to compensate for consumption. This happens thanks to photosynthesis, a marvellous evolutionary mechanism present in a multitude of terrestrial organisms, which reverses the process. Using water and CO2 as raw materials, and plugging the photosynthetic machinery into the energy of sunlight, these beings manufacture their organic matter, generating in exchange a very peculiar waste product: molecular oxygen, O2. In effect, their waste is the gas that allows us all to breathe. Oceans are the true lungs of the planet: we owe every second breath we take to the oceans. Credit: Alexandros Giannakakis The other half comes from terrestrial plants. Thus, “rainforests and phytoplankton are producing a major portion of the O2 that is being made today,” geochemist and environmental engineer Neal Blair of Northwestern University summarises for OpenMind. As for the Amazon’s actual contribution, it is barely 9% of the global total, according to Oxford University ecosystem ecologist Yadvinder Malhi. Other estimates put it as low as 6%, or perhaps less. Malhi points out that by rounding up this 9% figure and then counting only the contribution of the terrestrial fraction (which is equivalent to multiplying by two) may have been the source of the 20% figure cited by Macron and many others. However, there is a catch. This entire global production of oxygen through photosynthesis comes with a clause in the fine print: almost all of this oxygen, as it comes, so it goes. The photosynthetic organisms themselves breathe at night, when there is no sunlight, undoing the work they have doneâlike Penelope unweaving by night what she wove by day. According to Malhi, this consumes at least half of the oxygen produced. Added to this is the respiration of all other living things. No less important, when any organism dies, the microbes use that reaction-hungry oxygen to break down its organic matter, ultimately returning CO2, water and minerals to the environment. In Malhi’s words, “the net contribution of the Amazon ecosystem (not just the plants alone) to the world’s oxygen is effectively zero. The same is pretty much true of any ecosystem on Earth.” The Great Oxidation So where did the 21% of atmospheric oxygen that we enjoy today, and which remains constant, come from? “It is important to distinguish between O2 production rate (or flux) and O2 stock,” says Blair. “O2 production and consumption (respiration) are almost perfectly balanced but there is a small portion (maybe ~0.1% globally by some estimates) that is not consumed.” This tiny positive balance is due to a small anomaly in nature’s recycling process: when dead things are trapped in the soil without completing their decomposition, their carbon is stored as organic matter in the rock; this is what we know as fossil fuels. The oxygen that has not been consumed in this failed process is left as a surplus. “This tiny fraction that is not consumed has accumulated in our atmosphere for about 2 billion years,” says Blair. “We now have an atmosphere of 21% O2 because of that gradual accumulation.”Â The cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus is the world’s smallest photosynthetic organism and responsible for 5% of global photosynthesis. Credit: Wikimedia Commons “We are living on an inheritance,” Blair sums up. That inheritance began to develop in the first two billion years of Earth’s history with an atmosphere in which oxygen was almost non-existent, at 0.001%. Then, between 2.4 and 2.05 billion years ago, an unexpected plot twist occurred, the causes of which are still obscure: the first photosynthetic cells, cyanobacteria or perhaps other more primitive microorganisms, emerged. Then began the so-called Great Oxidation, the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere, which its epic name was infinitely slow and subtle: “It is important to realise that this event developed over more than a billion years,” oceanographer Jean-Pierre Gattuso of Sorbonne University (France) tells OpenMind; for the first 400 million years the increase was barely noticeable, Gattuso says. And in the last 500 million years, terrestrial beings have enjoyed an abundant level of the precious gas. Central regulatory controls of the earth’s climate So it follows that, to keep breathing, we don’t really need the forests and oceans. “If we do a thought experiment in which all the biosphere was burned, thereby stopping all photosynthesis and respiration, and consuming O2 from the combustion of the biosphere organic matter, the O2 content of the atmosphere would drop from 21% to ~20.8-20.9%,” Blair explains. In other words, even if humans were the only surviving species on the planet, breathing would never be a problem. But of course, we would be living in an uninhabitable world, since forests, oceans and other ecosystems are vital in many other ways, not just for providing food: they are the central regulatory controls of the earth’s climate, and the immense amount of carbon they sequester prevents the release of huge masses of CO2 that would cause a catastrophic greenhouse effect; unlike oxygen, the presence of CO2 in the atmosphere is measured in parts per million, so small variations have a big impact.Â Forests, oceans and other ecosystems are the central regulatory controls of the earth’s climate. Credit: Jacob Plumb This last point is of crucial importance in the context of climate change, as it provides a better understanding of the problem of fossil fuel burning. Terrestrial CO2, one of the main drivers of climate, is itself naturally regulated by the so-called carbonate-silicate cycle, which circulates oxygen between these two types of rocks and operates on a scale of millions of years. “Fossil fuel consumption is an almost instantaneous process,” says Blair, which “overwhelms the natural CO2 regulation.” In other words, it means reversing the slow work of photosynthesis, ripping carbon out of the rock cycle and rapidly injecting it into the atmosphere, forcing the Earth’s thermostat in a way that nature is unable to counteract: “If we were to stop fossil fuel combustion today, it would take a very long time for the natural process to catch up.” To sum up, and returning to the Amazon rainforest, we donât breathe thanks to it, but its importance for the health of the planet is almost indescribable: it is home to the greatest global biodiversity, from its 2.5 million species of insects and 20% of the world’s birds, to its 40,000 different types of plants of which we know of so far. One fifth of the freshwater that flows into the oceans flows through the Amazon River, and its role in the global water cycle and in regulating the earth’s climate is irreplaceable. No confusing lung metaphors are needed to understand why we cannot live without the Amazon, or without the oceans.	Where Are the Earthâs Real Lungs? When in the summer of 2019 the Amazon rainforest suffered a particularly bad season of forest fires, French President Emmanuel Macron issued a warning on Twitter: “The Amazon rainforestâthe lungs which produce 20% of our planet’s oxygenâis on fire.” The truth is that Macron was merely repeating a factoid that is often quoted on the Internet, the origin of which is obscure. And it is incorrect. But leaving aside the strangely popular idea of calling the places where oxygen is produced lungsâwhat these organs actually do is consume itâwhere does the oxygen we breathe actually come from? Is there a terrestrial ecosystem that mostly takes on this function, and whose disappearance could literally cut off our ability to breathe? ï»¿ Oxygen, which all animals need to breathe, is the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust: almost half (46%) of all this matter is oxygen. In the total mass of the Earth, it is only narrowly surpassed by iron, at 32% compared to 30%, so itâs not exactly a rare chemical element on the planet. But oxygen is highly reactive, so it looks for any opportunity to bond with others, oxidising them, as it does with almost all the other elements. But we cannot breathe water (a hydrogen oxide) or sand (silicon dioxide); we need oxygen in its free form, O2, which fortunately for us represents 21% of the composition of the atmosphere. Oceans, the largest source of oxigen In living organisms, oxygen is also used for oxidation, a process by which we extract energy for our metabolic needs and whose end products, in the case of organic matter, are water, CO2 and minerals. Atmospheric oxygen must therefore be continually replenished to compensate for consumption. This happens thanks to photosynthesis, a marvellous evolutionary mechanism present in a multitude of terrestrial organisms, which reverses the process.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/	The Amazon Rainforest	The Amazon Rainforest: The World's Largest Rainforest The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest rainforest on Earth. The basin -- roughly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States -- covers some 40 percent of the South American continent and includes parts of eight South American countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname, as well as French Guiana, a department of France. The Amazon rainforest in Peru. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Reflecting environmental conditions as well as past human influence, the Amazon is made up of a mosaic of ecosystems and vegetation types including rainforests, seasonal forests, deciduous forests, flooded forests, and savannas. The basin is drained by the Amazon River, the world's largest river in terms of discharge, and the second longest river in the world after the Nile. The river is made up of over 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are longer than 1000 miles, and two of which (the Negro and the Madeira) are larger, in terms of volume, than the Congo river. The river system is the lifeline of the forest and its history plays an important part in the development of its rainforests. The Amazon basin Country Tree cover extent 2020 Primary forest extent 2020 Tree cover loss since 2000 Tree cover loss 2010-19 Primary forest loss 2010-19 Bolivia 44,854,868 28,815,724 10.0% 3,335,988 1,630,465 Brazil 373,904,915 310,498,565 10.2% 22,238,014 12,940,179 Colombia 51,027,994 43,336,799 4.1% 1,229,310 774,500 Ecuador 10,929,034 9,093,550 3.5% 272,369 106,585 French Guiana 8,114,787 7,805,457 0.9% 43,026 30,305 Guyana 18,908,103 17,168,399 1.1% 143,957 92,979 Peru 76,035,841 67,149,825 4.0% 2,097,146 1,372,976 Suriname 13,856,308 12,648,491 1.3% 141,422 100,382 Venezuela 36,247,586 32,441,439 1.6% 375,760 249,075 TOTAL 633,879,436 528,958,249 7.9% 29,876,992 17,297,446 WHERE THE AMAZON RANKS AMONG GLOBAL RAINFORESTS The Amazon is the world's biggest rainforest, larger than the next two largest rainforests — in the Congo Basin and Indonesia — combined. As of 2020, the Amazon has 526 million hectares of primary forest, which accounts for nearly 84% of the region's 629 million hectares of total tree cover. By comparison, the Congo Basin has around 168 million hectares of primary forest and 288 million hectares of tree cover, while the combined tropical areas of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and Australia have 120 million hectares of primary forest and 216 million hectares of tree cover. THE HISTORY OF THE AMAZON RAINFOREST At one time Amazon River flowed westward, perhaps as part of a proto-Congo river system from the interior of present day Africa when the continents were joined as part of Gondwana. Fifteen million years ago, the Andes were formed by the collision of the South American plate with the Nazca plate. The rise of the Andes and the linkage of the Brazilian and Guyana bedrock shields, blocked the river and caused the Amazon to become a vast inland sea. Gradually this inland sea became a massive swampy, freshwater lake and the marine inhabitants adapted to life in freshwater. For example, over 20 species of stingray, most closely related to those found in the Pacific Ocean, can be found today in the freshwaters of the Amazon. About ten million years ago, waters worked through the sandstone to the west and the Amazon began to flow eastward. At this time the Amazon rainforest was born. During the Ice Age, sea levels dropped and the great Amazon lake rapidly drained and became a river. Three million years later, the ocean level receded enough to expose the Central American isthmus and allow mass migration of mammal species between the Americas. The Ice Ages caused tropical rainforest around the world to retreat. Although debated, it is believed that much of the Amazon reverted to savanna and montane forest (see Ice Ages and Glaciation). Savanna divided patches of rainforest into "islands" and separated existing species for periods long enough to allow genetic differentiation (a similar rainforest retreat took place in Africa. Delta core samples suggest that even the mighty Congo watershed was void of rainforest at this time). When the ice ages ended, the forest was again joined and the species that were once one had diverged significantly enough to be constitute designation as separate species, adding to the tremendous diversity of the region. About 6000 years ago, sea levels rose about 130 meters, once again causing the river to be inundated like a long, giant freshwater lake. Note: Human populations have shaped the biodiversity of the Amazon. See Amazon people for more. The extent of the Amazon depends on the definition. The the Amazon River drains about 6.915 million sq km (2.722 sq mi), or roughly 40 percent of South America, but generally areas outside the basin are included when people speak about "the Amazon." The biogeographic Amazon ranges from 7.76-8.24 million sq km (3-3.2 million sq mi), of which just over 80 percent is forested. For comparison, the land area of the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) is 9,629,091 square kilometers (3,717,811 sq km). Amazon rainforest cover by country in 2020 according to analysis of satellite data by Hansen et al 2020. THE AMAZON RIVER TODAY The Javari, a tributary of the Amazon river that forms the border between Peru and Brazil. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Today the Amazon River is the most voluminous river on Earth, carrying more than five times the volume of the Congo or twelve times that of the Mississippi, draining an area nearly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States. During the high water season, the river's mouth may be 300 miles wide and every day up to 18 billion cubic meters (635 billion cubic feet) of water flow into the Atlantic. That discharge, equivalent to 209,000 cubic meters of water per second (7.3 million cubic feet/sec), could fill over 7.2 million Olympic swimming pools per day or supply New York City's freshwater needs for nine years. The force of the current -- from sheer water volume alone -- causes Amazon River water to continue flowing 125 miles out to sea before mixing with Atlantic salt water. Early sailors could drink freshwater out of the ocean before sighting the South American continent. The river current carries tons of suspended sediment all the way from the Andes and gives the river a characteristic muddy whitewater appearance. It is calculated that 106 million cubic feet of suspended sediment are swept into the ocean each day. The result from the silt deposited at the mouth of the Amazon is Majaro island, a river island about the size of Switzerland. THE AMAZON RAINFOREST While the Amazon Basin is home to the world's largest tropical rainforest, the region consists of myriad other ecosystems ranging from natural savanna to swamps. Even the rainforest itself is highly variable, tree diversity and structure varying depending on soil type, history, drainage, elevation, and other factors. This is discussed at greater length in the Amazon rainforest ecology section. AMAZON BIODIVERSITY The Amazon is home to more species of plants and animals than any other terrestrial ecosystem on the planet -- perhaps 30 percent of the world's species are found there. The following numbers represent a sampling of its astounding levels of biodiversity: 40,000 plant species 16,000 tree species 3,000 fish species 1,300 birds 430+ mammals 1,000+ amphibians 400+ reptiles THE CHANGING AMAZON RAINFOREST The Amazon has a long history of human settlement, but in recent decades the pace of change has accelerated due to an increase in human population, the introduction of mechanized agriculture, and integration of the Amazon region into the global economy. Vast quantities of commodities produced in the Amazon — cattle beef and leather, timber, soy, oil and gas, and minerals, to name a few — are exported today to China, Europe, the U.S., Russia, and other countries. This shift has had substantial impacts on the Amazon. This transition from a remote backwater to a cog in the global economy has resulted in large-scale deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon — more than 1.4 million hectares of forest have been cleared since the 1970s. An even larger area has been affected by selective logging and forest fires. Conversion for cattle grazing is the biggest single direct driver of deforestation. In Brazil, more than 60 percent of cleared land ends up as pasture, most of which has low productivity, supporting less than one head per hectare. Across much of the Amazon, the primary objective for cattle ranching is to establish land claims, rather than produce beef or leather. But market-oriented cattle production has nonetheless expanded rapidly during the past decade. Industrial agricultural production, especially soy farms, has also been an important driver of deforestation since the early 1990s. However since 2006 the Brazil soy industry has had a moratorium on new forest clearing for soy. The moratorium was a direct result of a Greenpeace campaign. Mining, subsistence agriculture, dams, urban expansion, agricultural fires, and timber plantations also result in significant forest loss in the Amazon. Logging is the primary driver of forest disturbance and studies have shown that logged-over forests — even when selectively harvested — have a much higher likelihood of eventual deforestation. Logging roads grant access to farmers and ranchers to previous inaccessible forest areas. Deforestation isn't the only reason the Amazon is changing. Global climate change is having major impacts on the Amazon rainforest. Higher temperatures in the tropical Atlantic reduce rainfall across large extents of the Amazon, causing drought and increasing the susceptibility of the rainforest to fire. Computer models suggest that if current rates of warming continue, much of the Amazon could transition from rainforest to savanna, especially in the southern parts of the region. Such a shift could have dramatic economic and ecological impacts, including affecting rainfall that currently feeds regions that generate 70 percent of South America's GDP and triggering enormous carbon emissions from forest die-off. These emissions could further worsen climate change. PROTECTING THE AMAZON RAINFOREST While destruction of the Amazon rainforest is ongoing, the overall rate of deforestation rate in the region dropped between the mid-2000s and mid-2010s, mostly due to to the sharp decline in forest clearing in Brazil. However deforestation has been steadily rising in the region in more recent years. Brazil's decline in its deforestation rate between 2004 and 2012 was attributed to several factors, some of which it controls, some of which it doesn't. Between 2000 and 2010 Brazil established the world's largest network of protected areas, the majority of which are located in the Amazon region. In 2004, the government implemented a deforestation reduction program which included improved law enforcement, satellite monitoring, and the provision of financial incentives for respecting environmental laws. Independent public prosecutors offices played a particularly important role in pursing illegal activities in the Brazilian Amazon. The private sector also got involved, especially after 2006 when major crushers established a moratorium on new deforestation for soy. That soy moratorium was followed by the "Cattle Agreement", which major slaughterhouses and beef processors committed to source cattle only from areas where environmental laws were being respected. However these conservation initiatives started to break down in the Brazilian Amazon in the mid-2010s. Major cattle producers circumvented the rules through livestock laundering, while financial incentives for conserving forests failed to materialize at the expected scale needed to change landowners' behavior. The Temer and Bolsonaro Administrations dismantled environmental regulations, reduced environmental law enforcement, stripped conservation areas and indigenous territories of protections, and encouraged a wide range of industries (mining, logging, agribusiness) to expand extraction and conversion in the Amazon. In 2019, deforestation in the Brazilian started accelerating rapidly. THE LATEST AMAZON RAINFOREST NEWS Video: Five Tembé Indigenous activists shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’ (Aug 11 2023) - In just 72 hours, five Indigenous people were wounded by gunfire in violent attacks in the past few days in a part of the Brazilian Amazon dubbed the “palm oil war” region, sparking outrage and claims for justice. - This was the latest episode in a wave of escalating violence tied to land disputes between Indigenous communities and palm oil companies in the region, which Mongabay has consistently reported on over the past year. - In this video, Mongabay showcases the Tembé Indigenous peoples’ outrage against increasing violence in the area as they protest for justice. Can upcoming referendum in Ecuador stop oil drilling in Yasuní National Park? (Aug 11 2023) - On Aug. 20, Ecuadorians will vote in a binding referendum on whether they want oil drilling to continue in Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. - Environmentalists have been fighting for this referendum for nearly 10 years; meanwhile, drilling in ITT began in 2016, and today 225 wells produce 54,800 barrels of oil per day. - But the decision won’t be easy for Ecuadorians, as oil has been a major driver of economic growth for the country since the 1970s. Exports today account for more than 10% of the country’s GDP. - In August, Ecuadorians will also vote on whether or not to allow mining to continue in the Andean Choco forest. This is not the first time a referendum has been used in an attempt to control large-scale extractive projects in the country, and it likely won’t be the last. Indigenous activists demand justice after 5 shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’ (Aug 9 2023) - Between Aug. 4 and Aug. 7, security guards for a palm oil company allegedly shot and wounded five Tembé Indigenous people, in the latest flareup linked to a long-running land dispute. - The incidents occurred in a part of the Amazonian state of Pará that’s been dubbed the “palm oil war” region, where Mongabay has over the past year documented the escalating tensions. - Pará’s State Department of Public Security and Social Defense said the security guard identified as the mastermind of the initial shooting has been arrested, and inquiries to identify the other suspects are ongoing, along with increased security in the area. - Palm oil company Brasil BioFuels S.A. (BBF) has denied the accusations, saying the Indigenous people had invaded part of its property and initiated the attack on its private security officers during an attempt to evict them. Protecting the Amazon requires fresh thinking, eminent ecologist argues (Aug 8 2023) - An ecologist and conservation biologist with 30 years of experience living in the Amazon region, Tim Killeen wants conservationists to think outside the box when it comes to incentivizing Amazon protection. - He likens changing the deforestation pathway of the Pan Amazon to “turning an ocean liner” in that “pressure must be applied to the rudder of state” over a long period of time to drive change. - That change, he says, must come from taking into consideration a variety of economic factors and pressures that each state in the Amazon faces, to provide viable ideas and solutions that incentivize forest protection. - On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Killeen shares some key points from the second edition of his book, A Perfect Storm in the Amazon Wilderness; what inspired him to work in conservation; his advice for up-and-coming conservationists; and what gives him hope. Amazon deforestation continues to fall under Lula (Aug 5 2023) - Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon plunged sharply in July, continuing a downward trend since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office at the beginning of the year. - The analysis of satellite data from Brazil’s national space research institute showed that 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of tropical rainforest were cleared in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon during the month of July. This represents a 66% decline relative to July a year ago when Jair Bolsonaro was president. - The news comes just days before leaders from eight Amazonian nations will meet in Belém to discuss ways to protect and sustainably manage Earth’s largest rainforest. - The decline in Brazil’s rate of deforestation marks a sharp reversal relative to the trend under the Bolsonaro Administration, during which forest destruction surged. Amazon Summit sparks hope for coordinated efforts from the rainforest nations (Aug 4 2023) - From Aug. 7-9, eight Amazonian nations will meet in Brazil hoping to agree on future joint strategies that will protect the rainforest while sustainably developing the region. - A pre-summit in the three days before the event will unite thousands of civil society representatives to thrash out proposals that will be delivered to the heads of state to guide their discussions and decision-making. - Experts and conservationists have hailed the event as Brazil’s most critical environment summit so far this year and could be a turning point for the future of the Amazon Rainforest. - Some organizations demand greater Indigenous inclusivity in the Amazon Summit debate, although experts believe Amazonian populations will play an important role in shaping policies during the three-day conference. AI unlocks secrets of Amazon river dolphins’ behavior, no tagging required (Aug 1 2023) - Freshwater dolphins in the Amazon Basin navigate through flooded forests during the wet season using their flexible bodies and echolocation clicks. - Researchers have combined advanced acoustic monitoring and AI to study the habits of endangered pink river dolphins (boto) and tucuxi in seasonally flooded habitats. - They used hydrophones to record sounds in various habitats and employed convolutional neural networks (CNN) to classify the sounds as either echolocation clicks, boat engine noises, or rain — with high accuracy. - Understanding the dolphins’ movements and behaviors can aid conservation efforts to protect these endangered species, as they face various threats such as fishing entanglement, dam construction, mining, agriculture and cattle ranching. The Andean republics of the Pan Amazon (Jul 27 2023) - Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese. - Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years. - Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy. - Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023. ‘What we need to protect and why’: 20-year Amazon research hints at fate of tropics (Jul 24 2023) - In its bold outlines, many informed people understand that climate change is reducing tropical biodiversity and thereby degrading the functionality and ecoservices of tropical forests. But what are the specific mechanisms by which these forests are being diminished over long time frames? - One project on the slopes of the Peruvian Amazon has tried to make exactly that type of assessment, via a 20-year ongoing research project that meticulously observes a narrow transect of rainforest stretching from the Amazon lowlands near sea level to the Andean highlands above 3,352 meters (11,000 feet). - The international team conducting this work, the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG), is painstakingly observing changes in more than 1,000 tree species, birds, frogs, snakes and more to determine not only how much climate change is affecting them, but untangling how the change process works. - This type of in-depth research is vital to conserving tropical rainforest diversity, the carbon storage capacity it offers, and its assistance in maintaining long-persisting regional and global precipitation patterns vital to agriculture and other water needs. Mongabay contributor Justin Catanoso traveled to Peru to observe ABERG at work. Why should funding Amazon forest sustainability be the world’s top priority? (commentary) (Jul 20 2023) - In this opinion piece, Jonah Wittkamper, Mariana Senna, and Ricardo Politi argue that donors should urgently scale up support for the development of an Amazon bioeconomy based around protecting the world’s largest rainforest. - Without such intervention, there is a risk of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem collapsing, a development that would destabilize regional rainfall, unleash massive carbon emissions, and drive large-scale species extinction. - “Jumpstarting the region’s bioeconomy could create a permanent solution by shifting local financial incentives away from deforestation,” they write. “Philanthropy for Amazon bioeconomy development could only be necessary for several years. Catalytic funding could enable the economies of forest protection and regeneration to outcompete the economies of deforestation,” the op-ed argues. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay. PICTURES OF THE AMAZON RAINFOREST Blackwater lake and whitewater river in the Amazon Victoria water lilies Flowering tree in the Amazon rainforest canopy Waura shaman Oxbow lake in the Amazon Cock-of-the-rock Blue poison dart frog Leaf katydid Jaguar in the Colombian Amazon Hoatzin Creek in the Colombian Amazon Passion flower in the Colombian Amazon Woolly monkey Javari River Daybreak over the Amazon Amazonian wax-tailed fulgorid Amazon rainforest canopy in Brazil Discus Rivers in the Amazon rainforest Squirrel monkey in the Amazon Leaf-cutter ant in the Amazon Giant monkey frog Amazon rainforest canopy in Peru Orange planthopper in Peru Oxbow lake in the Amazon Indigenous man with bird eggs Indigenous Tikuna man in the Amazon rainforest Javari river in the Amazon Harpy eagle Mantid in Suriname Amazon leaf toad Amazon bat Angelfish Frequently asked questions about the Amazon, answered Where is the Amazon rainforest? The Amazon rainforest is located in South America. How big is the Amazon rainforest? The Amazon basin is roughly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States. The forest itself covered roughly 634 million hectares in 2020, of which about 529 million hectares was classified as primary forest. Where does the Amazon forest rank in terms of size among rainforests? The Amazon is Earth's largest rainforest. The Congo is the second largest rainforest. What countries make up the Amazon rainforest? The Amazon includes parts of eight South American countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname, as well as French Guiana, a department of France. Who owns the Amazon rainforest? The Amazon lies within several countries (see above). Within those countries, land may be privately owned, held by indigenous peoples in legally recognized territories, owned by collectives, or controlled by the government as national parks or public lands. How does the Amazon Rainforest get its name? The Amazon rainforest is named after the Amazon River, which is known as the Rio Amazonas in Spanish and Portuguese. "Amazonas" is derived from an ancient Greek myth about a tribe of mighty women warriors. It was bestowed on the river by Francisco de Orellana after a 16th-century attack on his expedition by long-haired native peoples. The attack was either led by women or men with long hair, prompting the name. Who lives in the Amazon rainforest? The Amazon has a long history of human settlement. Today, millions of people live in cities and towns across the Amazon. This urban population vastly outnumbers the people living in villages and remote communities. However there are still traditional indigenous peoples living deep in the rainforest in voluntary isolation. Learn more about people in the Amazon rainforest. Is the Amazon rainforest really Earth’s lungs? The Amazon rainforests is often called the "lungs of the planet" for its role in absorbing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and releasing moisture into the atmosphere through the process of transpiration. Rainforests produce oxygen during the day via photosynthesis and absorb oxygen at night via respiration. Therefore they aren't a major net source of oxygen in the atmosphere. What causes fires in the Amazon? Fires in the Amazon typically result from either natural ignition sources like lightning or intentional setting by humans. Human activities are worsening conditions that allow fires to move from dry areas — like farms, pastures, and logged forests — into rainforests. What animals live in the Amazon? The Amazon is home to more species of plants and animals than any other terrestrial ecosystem on the planet -- perhaps 30 percent of the world's species are found there. These range from jaguars to tapirs to bats; parrots to hummingbirds; poison dart frogs to anacondas; leaf-cutter ants to blue morpho butterflies, and stingrays to piranha, to name but a small selection of well-known animals. Why don't we just buy the Amazon? The countries that control the Amazon are sovereign nations. While it may be possible to buy some land to set aside for conservation, attempting to buy the entire Amazon is impossible. In general, the most effective conservation strategies in the region involve recognizing the land rights of indigenous peoples and ensuring that local people benefit from conservation and sustainable development initiatives. What can we do to stop the Amazon burning? Fires in the Amazon are often a product of government policies governing land use, enforcement of environmental laws, and corporate guidelines for commodity sourcing. Encouraging landowners to carefully manage fires can greatly reduce the likelihood of agricultural fires burning into rainforests. Why are forest fires getting worse? Deforestation and forest degradation increase the vulnerability of rainforests to fire by drying out the forest interior. At the same time, climate change is increasing the incidence of drought in the Amazon basin. When farmers, ranchers, and land speculators start fires, they can easily spread into the rainforest. What is the environmental impact of Amazon forest fires? Rainforest fires threaten biodiversity through habitat destruction. Fires also release substantial amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, drive local and regional air pollution, and can even affect rainfall patterns. The Amazon rainforest helps stabilize the world’s climate by sequestering carbon; provides a home for plant and animal species; helps maintain the water cycle, including generating rainfall at local, regional, and trans-continental scales; is a source for food, fiber, fuel, and medicine; supports forest-dependent people, including indigenous tribes living in voluntary isolation from the rest of humanity; and provides recreational, spiritual, and cultural value. There are a number of animals that are potentially dangerous to humans, ranging from venomous snakes to electric eels to the jaguar, among vertebrates. However it's the small things that generally pose the greatest risks: disease-carrying mosquitos, viruses and bacteria, and biting ants. And don't forget humans: violence against environmental defenders and indigenous peoples is a major issue in the Amazon. Why is the Amazon rainforest in danger? Accelerating deforestation, forest degradation, and drought in the Amazon is of great concern to scientists who warn that the entire biome may be near a tipping point where large areas of wet rainforest could transition to dry tropical woodlands and savanna. Such a transition could have dramatic implications for regional rainfall, with the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone potentially shifting northward, leading to drier conditions across South America's breadbasket and major urban areas. The impact on regional economies could be substantial, while the impact on ecosystem function and biodiversity of the Amazon could be devastating, according to researchers.	Who lives in the Amazon rainforest? The Amazon has a long history of human settlement. Today, millions of people live in cities and towns across the Amazon. This urban population vastly outnumbers the people living in villages and remote communities. However there are still traditional indigenous peoples living deep in the rainforest in voluntary isolation. Learn more about people in the Amazon rainforest. Is the Amazon rainforest really Earth’s lungs? The Amazon rainforests is often called the "lungs of the planet" for its role in absorbing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and releasing moisture into the atmosphere through the process of transpiration. Rainforests produce oxygen during the day via photosynthesis and absorb oxygen at night via respiration. Therefore they aren't a major net source of oxygen in the atmosphere. What causes fires in the Amazon? Fires in the Amazon typically result from either natural ignition sources like lightning or intentional setting by humans. Human activities are worsening conditions that allow fires to move from dry areas — like farms, pastures, and logged forests — into rainforests. What animals live in the Amazon? The Amazon is home to more species of plants and animals than any other terrestrial ecosystem on the planet -- perhaps 30 percent of the world's species are found there. These range from jaguars to tapirs to bats; parrots to hummingbirds; poison dart frogs to anacondas; leaf-cutter ants to blue morpho butterflies, and stingrays to piranha, to name but a small selection of well-known animals. Why don't we just buy the Amazon? The countries that control the Amazon are sovereign nations. While it may be possible to buy some land to set aside for conservation, attempting to buy the entire Amazon is impossible. In general, the most effective conservation strategies in the region involve recognizing the land rights of indigenous peoples and ensuring that local people benefit from conservation and sustainable development initiatives.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.in/blogs/save-lungs-earth-amazon-rainforest	Save the Lungs of Earth-Amazon Rainforest \| World Animal Protection	Save the Lungs of Earth-Amazon Rainforest The lungs of the earth “Brazil’s Amazon Forest” is on fire for a month declaring a state of emergency in the region. “Fire on fire would normally kill us With this much desire, together, we’re winners They say that we’re out of control and some say we’re winners But don’t let them ruin our beautiful rhythms.” The lungs of the earth “Brazil’s Amazon Forest” is on fire for a month declaring a state of emergency in the region. Approximately, 72,000 fires have been detected so far in Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, etc. by National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil’s research center. Amazon Rainforest--The most biodiverse region on earth Amazon rainforest is the most biodiverse region on earth, providing shelter to three million species on plants and animals. Billions of trees absorb tons of carbon dioxide every year and slow down the climate change along with producing 20% of earth’s oxygen, hence named ‘Lungs of Earth.’ The center also claims that about 99% of Amazon fires start from human actions, either on purpose or by accident. It has been mentioned by international bodies that fires have been set up to clear the land for cattle ranching, farming, and logging. The number of human-made fires is growing and growing, which has literally plagued the Amazon in recent years and disturbed the ecosystem drastically. Large animals like Jaguars and Puma might escape from fire, but slow-moving animals like sloths, pangolins, small creatures like frogs and lizards might die due to not having the capability to move out quickly from this fire. The wildfire effect The wildfires will have a devastating effect on the flora and fauna of the region. The impact on species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and bird species will come in two phases i.e. immediate and long-term. In the long run, the entire food chain will be disturbed due to opening of the canopy due to massive fire and destruction of the forest, as direct bringing in of sunlight will fundamentally change the energy flow of the entire ecosystem. Not just animals living on land, animals surviving underwater might also be affected due to change in water chemistry. There are certain species, who use land as well as water both for their survival, these species also bear the risk of getting killed by fire. Where will the animals go? There is no sign of rains, fire is growing day by day, where will the animals go? They can only try to hide in a burrow or maybe going into a water body. But in the current situation, most of the animals are dying due to flames and its heat/smoke. Not just multiple populations of different animals will be affected, but fires could portray a pressure on species which are already moving towards extinction like the white-cheeked spider monkey, Milton’s titi monkey, Mura’s saddleback tamarin and much more. These fires are not only destroying millions of our green land but also creating a chamber of large amounts of carbon dioxide. This ongoing channel of collecting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will create a reason for ice sheets to melt and cause catastrophic effects of climate change. Tribes are getting affected by the wildfires Not just animals, but several tribes are getting affected due to these wildfires. There will be no food available, the atmosphere will be more disturbed, the ecosystem will be drastically altered an much more worst consequences. The amazon forest doesn’t need any development as we are getting developed through a number of advantages from the forest. These fires have covered the Brazilian city in dark smoke and have framed a light on that fact that one of the most biologically diverse regions on earth might get shifted to the newly fragmented regime from land clearing operations and other activities intended to transform the land for agricultural use. What is our disaster team doing? Our disaster team is rushing to Brazil to assess the animals impacted from the record-breaking fires and our disaster response team is on standby and reaching to local authorities. These two baby sloths were rescued from a fire in Rio Branco, Brazil. Let’s protect animals affected by disasters and save the Lungs of Earth!	Save the Lungs of Earth-Amazon Rainforest The lungs of the earth “Brazil’s Amazon Forest” is on fire for a month declaring a state of emergency in the region. “Fire on fire would normally kill us With this much desire, together, we’re winners They say that we’re out of control and some say we’re winners But don’t let them ruin our beautiful rhythms.” The lungs of the earth “Brazil’s Amazon Forest” is on fire for a month declaring a state of emergency in the region. Approximately, 72,000 fires have been detected so far in Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, etc. by National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil’s research center. Amazon Rainforest--The most biodiverse region on earth Amazon rainforest is the most biodiverse region on earth, providing shelter to three million species on plants and animals. Billions of trees absorb tons of carbon dioxide every year and slow down the climate change along with producing 20% of earth’s oxygen, hence named ‘Lungs of Earth.’ The center also claims that about 99% of Amazon fires start from human actions, either on purpose or by accident. It has been mentioned by international bodies that fires have been set up to clear the land for cattle ranching, farming, and logging. The number of human-made fires is growing and growing, which has literally plagued the Amazon in recent years and disturbed the ecosystem drastically. Large animals like Jaguars and Puma might escape from fire, but slow-moving animals like sloths, pangolins, small creatures like frogs and lizards might die due to not having the capability to move out quickly from this fire. The wildfire effect The wildfires will have a devastating effect on the flora and fauna of the region. The impact on species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and bird species will come in two phases i.e. immediate and long-term.	yes
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.businessinsider.com/why-amazon-rainforest-is-important-life-support-is-burning-2019-8	Why the Amazon Rainforest Is Important: Our Life Support Is Burning	Francisco da Silva Vale and his son Hercules navigate during a fishing session at Vila Nova do Amana in the Sustainable Development Reserve, Amazonas state, Brazil, September 23, 2015. Bruno Kelly/Reuters David Sirota, a political commentator who writes speeches for Bernie Sanders, put the problem like this in a tweet: "We're all on a spaceship hurtling through a vacuum. The Amazon rainforest is our spaceship's life support system. Our spaceship's life support system is on fire." It's a fitting analogy, since the Amazon plays a major role in many of the processes that make our planet habitable: water cycles, weather patterns, and the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The rainforest is also home to more than 30 million people and over 10% of the world's biodiversity. Scientists see potential for new medicines in unstudied Amazon plants. The more than 2.5 million square miles of Amazon rainforest are also one of our greatest buffers against the climate crisis, since the trees absorb carbon dioxide, thereby keeping it out of the atmosphere. But deforestation threatens all of that. Humans have cut down nearly 20% of the Amazon in the last 50 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). If another 20% of the Amazon disappears, that could trigger a "dieback" scenario in which the forest would dry out and become a savannah. That process would release billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and raise global temperatures. A man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil August 20, 2019. Bruno Kelly/Reuters Here is what's at risk if we lose the Amazon. The 'lungs of the planet' The Amazon helps keep the atmosphere's carbon-dioxide levels in check. Plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air through the process of photosynthesis. This is why the Amazon is often referred to as the "lungs of the planet": It produces between 6% and 20% of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. (Estimates vary — climate scientists Michael Mann and Jonathan Foley calculated the 6% figure, while a report from the nonprofit Amazon Watch estimated it's closer to 20%.) The Amazon produces up to 20% of the world's oxygen, as plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen via photosynthesis. Reuters Researchers have calculated that the Amazon holds up to 140 billion tons of carbon dioxide — the equivalent of 14 decades' worth of human emissions. "The Amazon is a major bank of carbon," Ruth DeFries, an ecology professor at Columbia University, told Vice. "When trees gets burned and carbon is released into the atmosphere, that exacerbates our global warming." Fires aside, deforestation in the Amazon already releases half a billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, according to WWF. Last month, the Amazon saw record-breaking rates of deforestation, primarily due to infrastructure projects, logging, mining, and farming — much of which is not legal. Data from Brazilian satellites have indicated that about three football fields' worth of Amazonian trees are falling every minute. An anchor for weather patterns A man swims with his kid on the waters of the Parana do Amana river at Vila Nova do Amana community in the Sustainable Development Reserve, in Amazonas state, Brazil, September 22, 2015. Bruno Kelly/Reuters A 2018 report from the World Resources Institute (WRI) found that tropical deforestation disrupts the water cycle so much that it can threaten agriculture halfway around the globe. "Tropical forest loss is having a larger impact on the climate than has been commonly understood," the report authors wrote. The Amazon plays a large role in rain patterns because the moisture that its vegetation traps and releases travels as clouds for thousands of miles. Climate models show that the Amazon's moisture affects rainfall as far away as the US. If the Amazon were completely deforested, that would cut Texas rainfall by 25%, cut the Sierra Nevada snowpack in half, and reduce precipitation by up to 20% in the US coastal northwest. For that reason, large-scale deforestation in the Amazon can "pose a substantial risk to agriculture in key breadbaskets halfway around the world in parts of the US, India, and China," according to the WRI report. Villagers from the Rumao Island community paddle their canoes loaded with arapaima or pirarucu, the largest freshwater fish species in South America, while fishing in the Solimoes river, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon, in the Mamiraua nature reserve, November 24, 2013. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly The Amazon may also play a role in ocean currents, since the Amazon River accounts for over 15% of all fresh water that enters the oceans. Changes in the ocean's balance of fresh water and salt water can slow down or speed up ocean currents, which regulate weather across the globe. But scientists aren't yet sure how changes in the Amazon River would affect this complicated meteorological system. Degradation of the rainforest could also affect the biology of the Atlantic Ocean in unknown ways, since the Amazon River dumps debris from the forest into the Atlantic, and those nutrients feed phytoplankton that form the base of the ocean's food chain. Biodiversity that 'brims with promise' for new medicines Brazilian researchers inspect plants in the search for new cancer drugs in Sao Sebastiao de Cuieiras in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, October 30, 2009. Sergio Moraes/Reuters The Amazon is home to at least 10% of the world's known biodiversity — and that's just the life that we know about. A new species is discovered in the Amazon every two or three days. "Every species in this incredibly biodiverse system represents solutions to a set of biological challenges — any one of which has transformative potential and could generate global human benefits," ecologist Thomas Lovejoy told the World Bank. "This rich wealth of species brims with promise, awaiting discovery." People have used Amazonian plants to produce anti-cancer drugs and the first anti-malarial drug, quinine. Yet scientists estimate that they have only studied 0.5% of the world's flowering plants for their medicinal potential. A rainbow is seen over a tract of Amazon rainforest which has been cleared by loggers and farmers for agriculture, near Uruara, Brazil on April 22, 2013. Nacho Doce/Reuters The South American trees that absorb the most carbon dioxide rely on large birds and primates to eat their fruits and spread the large seeds inside, according to a recent WWF report. Thick vines also hold up the structures of the trees whose leaves send water vapor into the atmosphere. And a variety of animals pollinate forest plants, disperse seeds, and nourish the soil with their waste. "Amazon biodiversity also plays a critical role as part of global systems, influencing the global carbon cycle and thus climate change," Lovejoy said. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know. Subscribe to push notifications Read next NOW WATCH: These designs in the Amazon rainforest were created 2,000 years ago — and archaeologists are still baffled by them	But deforestation threatens all of that. Humans have cut down nearly 20% of the Amazon in the last 50 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). If another 20% of the Amazon disappears, that could trigger a "dieback" scenario in which the forest would dry out and become a savannah. That process would release billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and raise global temperatures. A man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil August 20, 2019. Bruno Kelly/Reuters Here is what's at risk if we lose the Amazon. The 'lungs of the planet' The Amazon helps keep the atmosphere's carbon-dioxide levels in check. Plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air through the process of photosynthesis. This is why the Amazon is often referred to as the "lungs of the planet": It produces between 6% and 20% of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. (Estimates vary — climate scientists Michael Mann and Jonathan Foley calculated the 6% figure, while a report from the nonprofit Amazon Watch estimated it's closer to 20%.) The Amazon produces up to 20% of the world's oxygen, as plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen via photosynthesis. Reuters Researchers have calculated that the Amazon holds up to 140 billion tons of carbon dioxide — the equivalent of 14 decades' worth of human emissions. "The Amazon is a major bank of carbon," Ruth DeFries, an ecology professor at Columbia University, told Vice. "When trees gets burned and carbon is released into the atmosphere, that exacerbates our global warming. " Fires aside, deforestation in the Amazon already releases half a billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, according to WWF.	yes
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/deforestation-brazils-amazon-has-reached-record-high-whats-being-done	Deforestation of Brazil's Amazon Has Reached a Record High ...	Deforestation of Brazil’s Amazon Has Reached a Record High. What’s Being Done? Scientists say the rain forest is approaching a critical tipping point at which the damage is irreversible. Deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest is threatening to accelerate past a point of no return. Countries and international organizations have called on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to strengthen environmental protections and Indigenous land rights that he has weakened since taking office. New data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research shows that more than 3,980 square kilometers of the Amazon—an area five times the size of New York City—were cleared in the first six months of 2022, the highest figure in at least six years. Continued deforestation of the rain forest is contributing to a loss in resilience, or the forest’s ability to recover from droughts, fires, and landslides. If this continues, it could cause the Amazon’s traditionally wet, tropical climate to dry out, a phenomenon known as “dieback.” It’s estimated that between 17 and 20 percent of the Amazon has been destroyed over the past fifty years, and some scientists believe that the tipping point for dieback is between 20 and 25 percent deforestation. International demand for beef and soy incentivizes ranchers to clear the land for cattle ranching and soybean production. Brazil is currently the world’s top exporter of beef and soy, exporting more than $35 billion worth of those products in 2020. Why does it matter? The World This Week A weekly digest of the latest from CFR on the biggest foreign policy stories of the week, featuring briefs, opinions, and explainers. Every Friday. Daily News Brief A summary of global news developments with CFR analysis delivered to your inbox each morning. Most weekdays. Think Global Health A curation of original analyses, data visualizations, and commentaries, examining the debates and efforts to improve health worldwide. Weekly. By entering your email and clicking subscribe, you're agreeing to receive announcements from CFR about our products and services, as well as invitations to CFR events. You are also agreeing to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. The Amazon plays a critical role in climate regulation. Often referred to as “the lungs of the Earth,” it produces between 6 and 9 percent of the world’s total oxygen and long functioned as a carbon sink, absorbing more carbon dioxide than it emitted. However, scientists say parts of the Amazon now emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb. This puts the Amazon’s rich biodiversity at risk: frequent fires, hotter temperatures, and changing rain patterns damage the habitats of the forest’s more than three million species, thousands of which are endangered. Also under threat are nearly four hundred Indigenous tribes. Deforestation has displaced several of them, inspiring Indigenous-led protest movements across Brazil. In 2021, there were 305 cases of illegal occupation of Indigenous land, which human rights groups have attributed to Bolsonaro’s continued efforts to dismantle protections for Indigenous communities. In August 2021, a coalition of Brazilian Indigenous rights groups petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate Bolsonaro for alleged crimes against humanity and genocide. A deforested area of the Amazon Rainforest in Apui, Amazonas State, Brazil. Bruno Kelly/Reuters How did we get here? Large-scale deforestation of the Amazon began in the 1960s, but it has accelerated under Bolsonaro, reaching a fifteen-year high in 2021. Since taking office in 2019, his government has scaled back the enforcement of environmental laws and pushed to open Indigenous lands to commercial exploitation. When widespread fires broke out in 2019, Bosonaro rejected millions of dollars in aid from the Group of Seven (G7), claiming the G7 sought to infringe on Brazilian sovereignty. His administration has also weakened existing environmental protections. In addition to approving a 24 percent cut to the 2021 environment budget, Brazil’s Congress passed several measures that reduced citizen representation on environmental policy counsels and replaced environmental policymakers with military officials. Other efforts, including bills that would legitimize illegal squatting and erode protections for Indigenous territories, are still being deliberated. Still, Bolsonaro has taken some steps to protect the Amazon. In January 2020, he announced the creation of an Amazon Council, consisting of fourteen cabinet members but no governors from Amazonian states, to oversee sustainable development efforts. And in May of that year, he tasked the country’s armed forces with responding to environmental crimes committed in the forest. His administration has also begun to increase the fines issued for environmental crimes. However, critics say the reliance on the military to enforce environmental protections has often undercut the work of federal environmental agencies and failed to achieve significant results. What are the options going forward? Bolsonaro faces growing international pressure to address deforestation. During U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2021 Leaders Summit on Climate, Bolsonaro promised to end illegal deforestation by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. At the United Nations’ twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow later that year, he made a more ambitious pledge to end deforestation by 2028. The president could also see financial pressure ramp up ahead of his bid for reelection in October 2022. Germany and Norway gave billions of dollars to Brazil’s Amazon Fund, created in 2008 to promote sustainable use of the rain forest, but those countries have frozen that support. Likewise, Brasilia and Washington have been negotiating a proposed $20 billion U.S. donation to help conservation efforts, but talks have stalled over Bolsonaro’s policies. Deforestation has also played a role in the European Union’s delay in ratifying a comprehensive trade agreement with the Mercosur trade bloc, of which Brazil is a member. Michael Bricknell and Will Merrow created the graphic for this article. Explore More on Brazil The Amazon rainforest absorbs more greenhouse gases than any other tropical forest. But in Brazil, deforestation has claimed nearly a fifth of its tree cover, which threatens biodiversity and contributes to climate change. The costs of hosting the Olympics have skyrocketed, while the economic benefits are far from clear. This has led to fewer states interested in playing host and a search for options to lighten the burdens of staging the big event.	You are also agreeing to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. The Amazon plays a critical role in climate regulation. Often referred to as “the lungs of the Earth,” it produces between 6 and 9 percent of the world’s total oxygen and long functioned as a carbon sink, absorbing more carbon dioxide than it emitted. However, scientists say parts of the Amazon now emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb. This puts the Amazon’s rich biodiversity at risk: frequent fires, hotter temperatures, and changing rain patterns damage the habitats of the forest’s more than three million species, thousands of which are endangered. Also under threat are nearly four hundred Indigenous tribes. Deforestation has displaced several of them, inspiring Indigenous-led protest movements across Brazil. In 2021, there were 305 cases of illegal occupation of Indigenous land, which human rights groups have attributed to Bolsonaro’s continued efforts to dismantle protections for Indigenous communities. In August 2021, a coalition of Brazilian Indigenous rights groups petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate Bolsonaro for alleged crimes against humanity and genocide. A deforested area of the Amazon Rainforest in Apui, Amazonas State, Brazil. Bruno Kelly/Reuters How did we get here? Large-scale deforestation of the Amazon began in the 1960s, but it has accelerated under Bolsonaro, reaching a fifteen-year high in 2021. Since taking office in 2019, his government has scaled back the enforcement of environmental laws and pushed to open Indigenous lands to commercial exploitation. When widespread fires broke out in 2019, Bosonaro rejected millions of dollars in aid from the Group of Seven (G7), claiming the G7 sought to infringe on Brazilian sovereignty. His administration has also weakened existing environmental protections.	yes
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/08/amazon-fire-earth-has-plenty-oxygen/596923/	The Amazon Is on Fire, but Earth Has Plenty of Oxygen - The Atlantic	The Amazon Is Not Earth’s Lungs As tongues of flame lapped the planet’s largest tract of rain forest over the past few weeks, it has rightfully inspired the world’s horror. The entire Amazon could be nearing the edge of a desiccating feedback loop, one that could end in catastrophic collapse. This collapse would threaten millions of species, from every branch of the tree of life, each of them—its idiosyncratic splendor, its subjective animal perception of the world—irretrievable once it’s gone. This arson has been tacitly encouraged by a Brazilian administration that is determined to develop the rain forest, over the objections of its indigenous inhabitants and the world at large. Losing the Amazon, beyond representing a planetary historic tragedy beyond measure, would also make meeting the ambitious climate goals of the Paris Agreement all but impossible. World leaders need to marshal all their political and diplomatic might to save it. The Amazon is a vast, ineffable, vital, living wonder. It does not, however, supply the planet with 20 percent of its oxygen. As the biochemist Nick Lane wrote in his 2003 book Oxygen, “Even the most foolhardy destruction of world forests could hardly dint our oxygen supply, though in other respects such short-sighted idiocy is an unspeakable tragedy.” The Amazon produces about 6 percent of the oxygen currently being made by photosynthetic organisms alive on the planet today. But surprisingly, this is not where most of our oxygen comes from. In fact, from a broader Earth-system perspective, in which the biosphere not only creates but also consumes free oxygen, the Amazon’s contribution to our planet’s unusual abundance of the stuff is more or less zero. This is not a pedantic detail. Geology provides a strange picture of how the world works that helps illuminate just how bizarre and unprecedented the ongoing human experiment on the planet really is. Contrary to almost every popular account, Earth maintains an unusual surfeit of free oxygen—an incredibly reactive gas that does not want to be in the atmosphere—largely due not to living, breathing trees, but to the existence, underground, of fossil fuels. Shanan Peters, a geologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is working to understand just how it was that our lucky planet ended up with this strange surplus of oxygen. At a presentation in June, at the North American Paleontological Convention in Riverside, California, he pulled up a somewhat unusual slide. “What would happen if we combusted every living cell on Earth?” it asked. That is, Peters wanted to know what would happen to the atmosphere if you burned down not just the Amazon, but every forest on Earth, every blade of grass, every moss and lichen-spackled patch of rock, all the flowers and bees, all the orchids and hummingbirds, all the phytoplankton, zooplankton, whales, starfish, bacteria, giraffes, hyraxes, coatimundis, oarfish, albatrosses, mushrooms, placozoans—all of it, besides the humans. Peters pulled up the next slide. After this unthinkable planetary immolation, the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere dropped from 20.9 percent to 20.4 percent. CO2 rose from 400 parts per million to 900—less, even, than it does in the worst-case scenarios for fossil-fuel emissions by 2100. By burning every living thing on Earth. “Virtually no change,” he said. “Generations of humans would live out their lives, breathing the air around them, probably struggling to find food, but not worried about their next breath.” To understand why requires a short tour of our planet. The two most abundant gases billowing out of volcanoes are water and carbon dioxide. Photosynthesizers—whether plants, algae, or cyanobacteria—use this raw material to pull off Earth’s greatest magic trick: harnessing photons from a giant thermonuclear explosion 93 million miles away (that is, sunlight), to strip that H2O of its H’s, and add them to that same volcanic CO2, to make the stuff of life. That’s namely stuff with lots of C’s, H’s, and O’s in it, like sugars and carbohydrates, wood and leaves. The O2 left over from this sorcery is released to the environment as waste. Of course, that’s not all that happens on our planet. All but a hundredth of a percent of this photosynthetic stuff is consumed by creatures like us (and many quite unlike us) in the exact reverse process. That is, we use up that same waste oxygen in order to burn that photosynthetic organic matter, whether by munching leaves, or flesh reconstituted from leaves, to steal that chemically captured sunlight for ourselves. We then release the original CO2 and H2O back to the environment as exhaust. This process of respiration, this metabolic burn, represents a perfect and complete reversal of photosynthesis. That is, after a tree spends a lifetime producing oxygen and tree stuff, that oxygen is used up in its own undoing—by decomposers such as fungi, or by bugs and animals that eat its leaves, and by bacteria that respire dead stuff in the earth. In the ocean, this unraveling is carried out by creatures that skim algal muck from the surface of the sea, and big things that eat one another, and bacteria that feed on the snowfall of tiny carcasses sinking through ocean depths, or larger ones resting on the seafloor. Organic carbon stuff does not like to sit around for long. In the long run, and from the perspective of oxygen, it’s a wash. As much is consumed as is created—and not only by life. Free oxygen likes to react with almost everything on the planet, whether that’s rocks at Earth’s surface, or sulfur in volcanic gases, or iron in ocean crust. Left to its own devices, oxygen will disappear all by itself. On their own, then, trees—and even entire forests and seas of plankton—are not enough to fill the atmosphere with a surplus of oxygen. If 99.99 percent of the vast reservoir of oxygen created by the living world is consumed by the living world, that gets you an atmosphere with 0.01 percent oxygen, not our modern 20.9 percent. Photosynthesis is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a world that is hospitable to white-hot oxygen-burning furnaces like us. “The notion that we owe the breath we breathe to the rain forest, or the [phytoplankton] off the rain forests’ coasts, is just a little bit misinformed on the long timescale,” says Peters. You don’t get to 20.9 percent, or an atmosphere that can host animal life, without geologic time, and without the fossil record. The tiny remainder of photosynthetic stuff that isn’t consumed and respired again by life—that 0.01 percent of plants and phytoplankton that manages to escape from this cycle of creation and destruction—is responsible for the existence of complex life on Earth. It’s the organic carbon that, once created, doesn’t get consumed again. Somehow this rounding error of plant stuff gets shuttled away after it dies, and is shielded from decomposition before it can be undone by the oxygen it produced in life. By not getting destroyed by oxygen, this conserved plant stuff gifts a tiny surplus of the unused gas to the atmosphere above. On the time scale of tens of millions of years, such meager gifts can accumulate—apparently to 20.9 percent. This minuscule leak out of the system requires a rare confluence of conditions. If a tree or mat of cyanobacteria or swirling hurricane of phytoplankton dies, and is quickly buried by sediment, or comes to rest at the bottom of a putrid, anoxic sea, it can escape underground before it’s unraveled. Over large swaths of time, this tiny trickle of organic carbon into the earth can swell to become a vast reservoir of buried life. And far above—at the surface world this life once inhabited—it leaves behind an equivalent gift of oxygen. These reservoirs of organic carbon underground—in places where they’re sufficiently concentrated that they’re useful to industrial civilization to dig up and burn—are called fossil fuels. Far more of this organic carbon exists in the geologic record, from all the life that ever lived, than in the thin, pulsating organic film of life at Earth’s surface. And so we breathe in not merely the thin wisp of oxygen created by living trees on Earth’s surface, but also the ancient oxygen gifted to us by these tens of millions of years of preserved forests and plankton blooms (coal, oil, and natural gas) that now rest under our feet. Underneath West Virginia and England are vast sleeping jungles, more than 300 million years old, filled with centipedes the size of alligators and scorpions the size of dogs. Under West Texas is a tropical coral reef from a 260-million-year-old ocean, visited, in its day, by sharks with circular saw teeth. Under Saudi Arabia are whole seas of plankton that pulsed with the seasons and sunbathed under the waves in the age of dinosaurs. This is what we are burning at Earth’s surface today. We’re not just burning down the Amazon. We’re burning down all the forests in Earth history that we can get our hands on. For every worrying part per million that CO2 goes up from burning fossil fuels, atmospheric oxygen goes down an equivalent amount, and then some. As a result, oxygen is dropping far faster from burning fossil fuels, and their untold forests, than it is from burning just the trees available on the planet’s surface. We’re reversing tens of millions of years of photosynthesis all at once. Luckily, unlike CO2, we measure oxygen not in parts per million, but in parts per hundred. In other words, we have been gifted such an absurd surplus of oxygen by deep geological time, and by strange ancient life we’ll never know, that it won’t soon run out by our own hand, whether by deforestation or industry. Thankfully, most of the organic carbon in the Earth can be found not in easily recoverable reservoirs of fossil fuels, available to feed our industrial appetites, but in rather more rarefied deposits—small whispers of this life diffused in mudstones throughout Earth’s crust. There’s plenty of oxygen. For now. Nevertheless, our geological bonfire illustrates just how unusual the project of humanity is. We are trying to retrieve, burn down, and metabolize all the forests and sea life ever buried, from alien worlds long past. We’re not merely lighting a match to the Amazon and imperiling everything that lives in it with extinction, but also summoning creatures long dead to return to Earth’s surface and give up the ancient energy they took to the grave. This global industrial metabolism, this heedless combustion of the life at the planet’s surface and throughout its history, is a new phenomenon on the face of the Earth. It is a forest fire of the eons.	The Amazon Is Not Earth’s Lungs As tongues of flame lapped the planet’s largest tract of rain forest over the past few weeks, it has rightfully inspired the world’s horror. The entire Amazon could be nearing the edge of a desiccating feedback loop, one that could end in catastrophic collapse. This collapse would threaten millions of species, from every branch of the tree of life, each of them—its idiosyncratic splendor, its subjective animal perception of the world—irretrievable once it’s gone. This arson has been tacitly encouraged by a Brazilian administration that is determined to develop the rain forest, over the objections of its indigenous inhabitants and the world at large. Losing the Amazon, beyond representing a planetary historic tragedy beyond measure, would also make meeting the ambitious climate goals of the Paris Agreement all but impossible. World leaders need to marshal all their political and diplomatic might to save it. The Amazon is a vast, ineffable, vital, living wonder. It does not, however, supply the planet with 20 percent of its oxygen. As the biochemist Nick Lane wrote in his 2003 book Oxygen, “Even the most foolhardy destruction of world forests could hardly dint our oxygen supply, though in other respects such short-sighted idiocy is an unspeakable tragedy.” The Amazon produces about 6 percent of the oxygen currently being made by photosynthetic organisms alive on the planet today. But surprisingly, this is not where most of our oxygen comes from. In fact, from a broader Earth-system perspective, in which the biosphere not only creates but also consumes free oxygen, the Amazon’s contribution to our planet’s unusual abundance of the stuff is more or less zero. This is not a pedantic detail. Geology provides a strange picture of how the world works that helps illuminate just how bizarre and unprecedented the ongoing human experiment on the planet really is. Contrary to almost every popular account, Earth maintains an unusual surfeit of free oxygen—an incredibly reactive gas that does not want to be in the atmosphere—largely due not to living, breathing trees,	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://fundtheplanet.net/the-importance-of-the-amazon-rainforest-for-climate-regulation-everything-you-need-to-know/	The Importance of the Amazon Rainforest for Climate Regulation ...	The Importance of the Amazon Rainforest for Climate Regulation: Everything You Need to Know 4 months ago Founding Team The Amazon Rainforest is often referred to as the “lungs of the Earth” because of its ability to absorb and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. It is the largest rainforest in the world, covering an area of over 6.7 million square kilometers across nine South American countries, including Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. Despite its importance, the Amazon Rainforest is under threat from deforestation, mining, and agriculture. In this article, we will explore the essential role of the Amazon Rainforest in climate regulation and the impact of its destruction. Discover the Importance of the Amazon Rainforest for Climate Regulation The Amazon Rainforest Helps Regulate the Earth’s Climate: The Amazon Rainforest plays a critical role in regulating the earth’s climate. It absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is a major greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. The trees and plants in the Amazon Rainforest use photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, which is then released back into the atmosphere. This process helps to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which helps regulate the earth’s climate. The Amazon Rainforest is a Carbon Sink: The Amazon Rainforest is a vital carbon sink that absorbs and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It is estimated that the Amazon Rainforest is responsible for absorbing around 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, which is approximately 5% of the world’s total emissions. Trees absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and store it in their leaves, branches, and trunks. When trees die, the carbon is released back into the atmosphere, but in a healthy forest, new trees will grow, ensuring that the carbon remains stored. The Amazon Rainforest is essential in mitigating the impacts of climate change by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Deforestation is a Threat to the Amazon Rainforest Deforestation is the leading cause of Amazon Rainforest destruction, with an estimated 20% of the forest already lost to human activities. When trees are cut down, the carbon they have stored is released back into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Deforestation also reduces the number of trees available to absorb carbon dioxide, which increases the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In addition to the environmental impact, deforestation has severe consequences for local communities and indigenous peoples who rely on the forest for their livelihoods. Climate Change Affects the Amazon Rainforest Climate change is also a significant threat to the Amazon Rainforest. Rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns can affect the growth of trees and plants, and make them more susceptible to diseases and pests. If the Amazon Rainforest is unable to adapt to these changes, it could result in the loss of biodiversity and the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Protecting the Amazon Rainforest Protecting the Amazon Rainforest is crucial for climate regulation and the survival of millions of animal and plant species. Here are some ways we can protect the Amazon Rainforest: Support sustainable agriculture practices that do not involve deforestation. Use sustainable forestry practices that do not involve clear-cutting. Reduce your carbon footprint by using public transport, cycling, and walking. Support companies that use sustainable products and avoid products that contribute to deforestation, such as palm oil. Support conservation organizations that protect the Amazon Rainforest. Learn more about how you play a tangible role in protecting the Amazon rainforest with FUND THE PLANET and Rainforest Tokens. FAQs: Q: What is the Amazon Rainforest? A: The Amazon Rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world, covering an area of approximately 6.7 million square kilometers. Q: What is the importance of the Amazon Rainforest for climate regulation? A: The Amazon Rainforest helps regulate the earth’s climate by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere. It is also a carbon sink, meaning it absorbs more carbon dioxide than it releases. Q: How does deforestation affect the Amazon Rainforest? A: Deforestation destroys the habitat of many animal and plant species and releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Q: What can we do to protect the Amazon Rainforest? A: We can support sustainable agriculture and forestry practices, reduce our carbon footprint, avoid products that contribute to deforestation, and support conservation organizations that protect the Amazon Rainforest. Conclusion The Amazon Rainforest plays a vital role in climate regulation, absorbing and storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, the forest is under threat from deforestation, which not only contributes to global warming but also destroys critical habitats and disrupts local communities. The loss of biodiversity in the rainforest can have far-reaching consequences, highlighting the importance of protecting this incredible ecosystem. By understanding the crucial role of the Amazon Rainforest in climate regulation, we can work towards preserving this incredible natural resource and ensuring a sustainable future for our planet. Protecting the Amazon Rainforest is not only crucial for the health of our planet, but it is also essential for the well-being of local communities and indigenous peoples who rely on the forest for their livelihoods. Sustainable land-use practices, such as agroforestry and ecotourism, offer alternatives to deforestation, creating economic opportunities while preserving the forest. As individuals, we can also make a difference by reducing our carbon footprint through actions such as driving less, reducing meat consumption, and supporting sustainable products. In conclusion, the Amazon Rainforest is a vital ecosystem that plays a critical role in climate regulation, biodiversity, and the well-being of local communities. The destruction of the Amazon Rainforest has far-reaching consequences, affecting not only the Amazon but the health of our planet as a whole. By understanding the importance of the Amazon Rainforest and taking action to protect it, we can work towards a sustainable future for all. So let’s Discover the Importance of the Amazon Rainforest for Climate Regulation and take action to protect it. FUND THE PLANET is on a mission to protect and conserve the Amazon rainforest and its natural ecosystems. We provide a trackable and sustainable environmental solution that enables people from around the world to adopt and protect endangered rainforests. You can play a part in preventing the collapse of the Amazon Forest and the fight against climate change by owning a rainforest token today. To learn more visit our documentation. You can also visit the Rainforest Explorer to view our rainforest conservation efforts in real-time. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Cookie Duration Description _ga 2 years The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. _ga_ETPYH96YTF 2 years This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress 30 minutes Hotjar sets this cookie to detect the first pageview session of a user. This is a True/False flag set by the cookie. _hjFirstSeen 30 minutes Hotjar sets this cookie to identify a new user’s first session. It stores a true/false value, indicating whether it was the first time Hotjar saw this user. _hjid 1 year This is a Hotjar cookie that is set when the customer first lands on a page using the Hotjar script. _hjIncludedInPageviewSample 2 minutes Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit. _hjIncludedInSessionSample 2 minutes Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit.	The Importance of the Amazon Rainforest for Climate Regulation: Everything You Need to Know 4 months ago Founding Team The Amazon Rainforest is often referred to as the “lungs of the Earth” because of its ability to absorb and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. It is the largest rainforest in the world, covering an area of over 6.7 million square kilometers across nine South American countries, including Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. Despite its importance, the Amazon Rainforest is under threat from deforestation, mining, and agriculture. In this article, we will explore the essential role of the Amazon Rainforest in climate regulation and the impact of its destruction. Discover the Importance of the Amazon Rainforest for Climate Regulation The Amazon Rainforest Helps Regulate the Earth’s Climate: The Amazon Rainforest plays a critical role in regulating the earth’s climate. It absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is a major greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. The trees and plants in the Amazon Rainforest use photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, which is then released back into the atmosphere. This process helps to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which helps regulate the earth’s climate. The Amazon Rainforest is a Carbon Sink: The Amazon Rainforest is a vital carbon sink that absorbs and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It is estimated that the Amazon Rainforest is responsible for absorbing around 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, which is approximately 5% of the world’s total emissions. Trees absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and store it in their leaves, branches, and trunks. When trees die, the carbon is released back into the atmosphere, but in a healthy forest, new trees will grow, ensuring that the carbon remains stored. The Amazon Rainforest is essential in mitigating the impacts of climate change by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.	yes
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.earth.com/news/the-amazon-rainforest-and-the-looming-threat-of-drought/	The Amazon rainforest and the looming threat of drought • Earth.com	The Amazon rainforest and the looming threat of drought The Amazon rainforest, often referred to as the “lungs of the Earth,” plays a vital role in the global carbon cycle by absorbing and storing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This critical ecosystem service helps regulate the Earth’s climate and mitigate the impacts of climate change. However, the rainforest’s ability to store carbon is under threat due to various factors, including deforestation, climate change, and increasing incidents of drought. A recent study involving 80 scientists from Europe and South America has shed light on how different regions within the Amazon rainforest are likely to respond to drier conditions brought about by climate change. The study, led by Dr. Julia Tavares and Professor David Galbraith of the University of Leeds, reveals that trees in the western and southern Amazon face the greatest risk of dying due to drought. The death of these trees, and consequently the loss of their ability to store carbon, could have significant implications for the global carbon cycle and climate change mitigation efforts. Historically, scientific investigations have focused on the central-eastern region of the forest, which is the least vulnerable to drought. This means that the potential impacts of drought on the entire Amazon rainforest may have been underestimated. The current study offers the first comprehensive assessment of how different regions of the Amazon might respond to an increasingly warm and dry climate. Professor Galbraith highlighted the importance of understanding the stress limits that the Amazon forest can endure: “Our study provides new insights into the limits of forest resistance to one major stressor – drought.” The Amazon is not a single, homogenous forest. It is composed of numerous forest regions that span various climate zones, ranging from extremely wet to very dry. Dr. Tavares explained that the research aimed to examine how these diverse forest ecosystems were coping with the stresses they faced. Published in the scientific journal Nature, the study’s findings remove a “major knowledge bottleneck of how climate change will impact this critical ecosystem.” How the research was conducted The research team, known as the “tree doctors,” collected measurements and samples from 11 separate sites across the western, central-eastern, and southern Amazon – covering Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia – over the course of a year. This comprehensive data set allowed the scientists to evaluate the drought resistance of 540 individual trees across 129 species. Despite the southern part of the Amazon Forest demonstrating the greatest degree of adaptation to cope with drought, the study revealed that trees in this region still faced the highest risk of dying due to drought. This increased vulnerability is likely a result of rapid climate change and disruption to rainfall patterns caused by deforestation, which have pushed trees to the limits of their adaptability. Conversely, tree species in the wettest parts of the Amazon Forest exhibited the lowest levels of adaptation to drought, yet were considered the safest in terms of future climate change risks. This is because these areas have not yet been significantly impacted by changes in rainfall. The researchers emphasize that their findings should be used to update and refine existing models on how the Amazon may be impacted by drier conditions, as previous studies may have underestimated the vulnerability of certain forest regions to climate change. With a more nuanced understanding of the Amazon rainforest’s response to drought, scientists and policymakers can better assess the potential consequences of climate change and develop targeted strategies to preserve this vital ecosystem. More about carbon storage in the Amazon rainforest Carbon storage in the Amazon rainforest plays a significant role in regulating global climate. The vast expanse of the Amazon, covering approximately 6.7 million square kilometers, is home to an estimated 390 billion individual trees belonging to over 16,000 species. These trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it in their biomass through the process of photosynthesis. The Amazon rainforest is responsible for storing an estimated 76 to 96 billion metric tons of carbon, making it one of the largest terrestrial carbon sinks on the planet. This carbon storage capacity helps offset human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, thereby mitigating the impacts of climate change. Furthermore, the vastness and diversity of the Amazon contribute to the stability of weather patterns, influencing precipitation and temperature. However, this vital ecosystem service is under threat from various factors. Deforestation, often driven by logging, agriculture, and infrastructure development, directly results in the loss of trees and, consequently, their ability to store carbon. When trees are cut down or burned, the stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere, contributing to increased greenhouse gas concentrations and exacerbating climate change. Climate change and drought also pose significant threats to the Amazon’s carbon storage capacity. As temperatures rise and rainfall patterns change, some regions within the rainforest become drier, increasing the likelihood of tree mortality. The recent study led by Dr. Julia Tavares and Professor David Galbraith revealed that trees in the western and southern Amazon face the highest risk of dying due to drought. This could lead to a decrease in the forest’s ability to absorb and store carbon, further accelerating climate change. To preserve the Amazon’s carbon storage capacity, it is crucial to implement targeted conservation strategies, such as sustainable forest management, reforestation efforts, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, enhancing our understanding of the Amazon rainforest’s response to climate change and drought will help inform policies and actions to maintain its health and resilience.	The Amazon rainforest and the looming threat of drought The Amazon rainforest, often referred to as the “lungs of the Earth,” plays a vital role in the global carbon cycle by absorbing and storing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This critical ecosystem service helps regulate the Earth’s climate and mitigate the impacts of climate change. However, the rainforest’s ability to store carbon is under threat due to various factors, including deforestation, climate change, and increasing incidents of drought. A recent study involving 80 scientists from Europe and South America has shed light on how different regions within the Amazon rainforest are likely to respond to drier conditions brought about by climate change. The study, led by Dr. Julia Tavares and Professor David Galbraith of the University of Leeds, reveals that trees in the western and southern Amazon face the greatest risk of dying due to drought. The death of these trees, and consequently the loss of their ability to store carbon, could have significant implications for the global carbon cycle and climate change mitigation efforts. Historically, scientific investigations have focused on the central-eastern region of the forest, which is the least vulnerable to drought. This means that the potential impacts of drought on the entire Amazon rainforest may have been underestimated. The current study offers the first comprehensive assessment of how different regions of the Amazon might respond to an increasingly warm and dry climate. Professor Galbraith highlighted the importance of understanding the stress limits that the Amazon forest can endure: “Our study provides new insights into the limits of forest resistance to one major stressor – drought.” The Amazon is not a single, homogenous forest. It is composed of numerous forest regions that span various climate zones, ranging from extremely wet to very dry. Dr. Tavares explained that the research aimed to examine how these diverse forest ecosystems were coping with the stresses they faced.	yes
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/12/09/amazon-rainforest-climate-change-deforestation-bolsonaro-lula/	Who Owns the Earth's Lungs?	Who Owns the Earth’s Lungs? The battle to save the Amazon goes beyond Brazil. By Robbie Gramer, a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy. Camp 41 in Brazil is seen. Camp 41, a remote scientific research station in the Amazon rainforest, is viewed from above in Brazil on Oct. 18. Photos By Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation Climate Change Environment South America Robbie Gramer CAMP 41, Amazon, Brazil—Thiago Kloss holds up a leaf with a speckled green smudge on it, showing off what is, in effect, the carcass of a zombie spider. He’s pretty sure it’s a newly discovered species. CAMP 41, Amazon, Brazil—Thiago Kloss holds up a leaf with a speckled green smudge on it, showing off what is, in effect, the carcass of a zombie spider. He’s pretty sure it’s a newly discovered species. That green smudge, Kloss believes, is a porous film of fungus covering the dead spider. It’s a fungus that appears to infect spiders and transform them into zombies, taking control of their bodies to go find just the right spots near other spiders to die and spread their fungal spores to new victims. This particular zombie spider carcass is one small part of the unforgiving and, at times, brutal life cycle in the dense Amazon undergrowth, a small cog in the complex ecosystem Kloss and his team of researchers with the Universidade Federal de Viçosa are studying at a remote research station in the central Amazon rainforest. The research station, called Camp 41, is a pinprick of civilization in a vast sea of untouched forest. The collection of tarp-lined shanties is Kloss’s home for several weeks as he and his team conduct research on spiders—and their fungal zombie overlords—in the region. “In the Amazon, the number of species that will be discovered in the next year is amazing, and it increases each year,” Kloss said, as he holds up a large vial of spiders that his team collected with “probably five, six, or seven” new spider species in it. The region Kloss and his team are in, and all of its species, is lucky. Unlike other parts of the southern and eastern Amazon, it hasn’t been wrecked by clearcutting for logging, mining, or cattle ranching—something that reached near historic highs under outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. A researcher shows a species of parasitic fungus that infects spiders and other insects, collected at the Camp 41 research station in Brazil on Oct. 18. A researcher shows a species of parasitic fungus that infects spiders and other insects, collected at the Camp 41 research station in Brazil on Oct. 18. Mario Cohn-Haft, a research ornithologist, curator of birds, and member of the graduate faculty in ecology at the Brazilian National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA), speaks about how climate change and deforestation affects the Amazon rainforest outside Camp 41 research station in Brazil on Oct. 18. Mario Cohn-Haft, a research ornithologist, curator of birds, and member of the graduate faculty in ecology at the Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research, speaks about how climate change and deforestation affects the Amazon rainforest outside Camp 41 research station in Brazil on Oct. 18. The integrity of the Amazon is critical not just for the spiders and myriad other species that inhabit it though. The rainforest also serves as the Earth’s lungs, absorbing massive amounts of carbon spewed into the atmosphere by human activity and making its preservation a key component of any war against climate change. Even here, in the (mostly) untouched rainforest, scientists are starting to see a tangible difference in the environment as the impacts of climate change hit home. The climate is transforming, becoming dryer with more extreme weather events, and the number of some species, particularly birds, is declining over time, said Mario Cohn-Haft, a researcher from the federally funded National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), who’s spent decades in this region of the forest. “Year after year coming out to the woods, you start to notice these changes,” he said. “There are sensitive species out here that are decreasing, even in untouched forest where there’s no reason to suspect any other outside human influence.” “We can’t say for sure why, but the strongest suggestion—and the only reasonable suggestion so far—is that the microclimate is changing,” Cohn-Haft added. “But the only thing left that’s changing the microclimate out here in these untouched woods is the macroclimate.” Scenes from the Amazon, from top left, clockwise: A flower blooms on the side of a tree; A bird at night on the banks of a tributary river off the Rio Negro; A spider next to a small creek; A group of squirrel monkeys; A researcher holds up a stick insect species; A sloth hangs from a tree. Scenes from the Amazon, from top left, clockwise: A flower blooms on the side of a tree, a bird at night stands on the banks of a tributary river off the Rio Negro, a spider crawls next to a small creek, a group of squirrel monkeys sit, a researcher holds up a stick insect species, and a sloth hangs from a tree. The altering climate and decline of species around Camp 41 is a microcosm of what’s going on in the rest of the Amazon. Preserving the Amazon rainforest as well as balancing it against the need for tapping natural resources and land as a boon for economic growth have been a generations-long struggle in Brazil. But that struggle has taken on new urgency as human activity releases more carbon into the atmosphere and accelerates global climate change. Similar battles are being waged in other countries that house some of the world’s last megaforests, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, and Russia. The Amazon rainforest and a number of other massive old-growth forests around the world act as a massive carbon sink. The Amazon alone contains more than 390 billion trees and retains some 123 billion tons of carbon, effectively acting as one of the last remaining lungs of Earth to dampen the effects of climate change. This makes preserving the Amazon a vital part of any climate solution. But not everyone is on board with preserving it on such a wide scale. Bolsonaro came to power on a surge of populist right-wing support, and he saw the Amazon as a resource to be tapped rather than preserved to gear up Brazil’s economic engines. He gutted the country’s environmental protection agencies and hobbled enforcement mechanisms against illegal miners, loggers, and cattle ranchers, sending deforestation rates surging to a 15-year high. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in the country’s most contentious presidential elections in recent history, vowed to roll back Bolsonaro’s environmental policies and reverse the trend on deforestation. But Brazilian environmental officials and outside experts said that pledge is easier said than done. There’s substantial money to be made in cattle ranching, logging, and mining, and organized criminal networks have already sunk their teeth into illegal deforestation. “In practice, for the last four years, what we have seen was a complete dismantling of Brazil’s environmental governance and policies,” said Carlos Rittl, an international policy advisor with Rainforest Foundation Norway. (Despite its distance from the Amazon, Norway has historically been one of the world’s largest donors of funds to protect the rainforest.) “Environmental criminals, they just feel safe to keep doing their business because there’s a complete sense of impunity on the ground,” he said. A bird is viewed through binoculars in the Amazon rainforest north of Manaus, Brazil, on Oct. 17. A bird is viewed through binoculars in the Amazon rainforest north of Manaus, Brazil, on Oct. 17. Drivers from Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) clear fallen trees from an unpaved road leading to the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragmentation Project (BDFFP) outside of Manaus on Oct. 17. Drivers from Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research clear fallen trees from an unpaved road leading to the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project outside of Manaus on Oct. 17. Others still fear there could be a last-minute surge in deforestation in different parts of the Amazon, as ranchers or loggers try to clinch more claims before Lula takes office in January and implements stricter environmental policies. Regardless, Bolsonaro will end his term overseeing a 59.5 percent increase in Amazon deforestation rates compared to when he entered office, with an estimated 11,568 square kilometers (or around 4,466 square miles) of the forest cut down in a singe period between August 2021 and July 2022, according to data from Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental advocacy organizations in Brazil. What happens in the Amazon won’t stay in the Amazon, and scientists fear the world is approaching the brink of a “tipping point” where if enough of the forest is destroyed, then it could throw off everything else, including hydrological cycles that, in layman’s terms, keep the rainforest rainy enough to continue being a forest. Without the Amazon’s continued role as a major carbon sink, international efforts to curb global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius would be dead in the water, some scientists predict. “We could possibly enter this … period where the rainforest is eventually replaced by something similar to a savanna,” Rittl said. “Parts of the Amazon are under huge pressure [from] a combination of deforestation and climate change,” he added. “They are drying out.” As the Amazon edges closer toward that brink, a hodgepodge of scientists, Indigenous communities, underfunded environmental protection officials, and foreign governments have scrambled to find ways to protect what they can and stave off that tipping point for as long as possible. It proved a particularly hard task during the Bolsonaro era, when the government responsible for the preservation of most of that forest was the very one speeding up its demise, even when it has such drastic ripple effects beyond Brazil’s borders. Their efforts reflect a nagging, existential, and at times deadly question at the heart of the Amazon’s future: Who owns the Earth’s lungs? The network of people battling to answer that question span the globe, from isolated Indigenous communities and research stations deep in the Amazon, to the capital in Brasília, to the corridors of power in Washington and capitals as far as Norway and Germany. At stake is preserving the world’s most critical carbon sinks, the communities that inhabit it, and the most biodiverse forest in the world—with all its unique species of flora, fauna, and yes, even zombified spiders. Each swath of land cut for development, ranching, logging, or mining can mean extinction on a microscale, even as the rest of the rainforest lives on. That revelation, coupled with the accelerated rate of climate change and deforestation worldwide, has prompted many scientists to take on a more activist role in preserving the environment. Even so, scientists alone can only do so much. When illegal ranchers and loggers come calling, it’s up to a collection of environmental enforcement officials to try and protect the forest and Indigenous communities who inhabit it. They’re often outmatched, outgunned, underfunded, and increasingly under threat themselves. A riverboat floats along the banks of the Rio Negro north of Manaus, Brazil on Oct. 22. A riverboat floats along the banks of the Rio Negro north of Manaus on Oct. 22. Carlos Travassos knows he has a job that could kill him. One of Brazil’s leading specialists on remote Indigenous groups, Travassos’s job is to work with Indigenous communities to monitor and protect their land in what has become an all-too-deadly game of cat and mouse between underfunded enforcement agents and a surge in illegal loggers, miners, and cattle ranchers. “This is something that’s very important,” Travassos said, now working for the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley, the main entity for remote communities in the region of the Amazon in western Brazil bordering Peru. “It’s not a fight that I’m going to back down [from].” Travassos’s predecessor and one of his closest friends was Bruno Pereira, who was murdered in June alongside British journalist Dom Phillips by poachers deep in Amazonas state. The gruesome murders brought an international spotlight to the perils that environmental activists and journalists face in Brazil as well as new scrutiny to the policies Bolsonaro enacted, which critics said emboldened environmental criminals and left the enforcers tasked with stopping them increasingly vulnerable to violent reprisals. International nongovernmental organization Global Witness ranked Brazil the third-deadliest country for environmental activists in 2021 as the battle between preserving the Amazon and harvesting its resources intensified and Bolsonaro defunded and dismantled many of the government institutions set up to protect the environment and Indigenous groups. Travassos said he has lost five friends in recent years, including Pereira, all in the line of duty trying to protect the Amazon and its Indigenous communities. He said he thinks of Pereira every time he ventures into the remote reaches of the Amazon now. “There’s always some flash thoughts [of him], some memories coming to me whenever I’m there. And I don’t think they’re going to go away,” he said. A local riverboat guide holds a caiman in the Amazon. A local riverboat guide holds a caiman, a reptile native to Central and South America that is related to the alligator, pulled from the waters of the Rio Negro in Brazil during a nighttime canoe expedition on Oct. 21. Mario Cohn-Haft shows a species of venomous ants in the Amazon. Cohn-Haft shows a species of venomous ants known as the bullet ant in the Amazon rainforest outside Camp 41 research station in Brazil on Oct. 18. Travassos and Pereira used to work at Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), the government agency that oversees the protection of its Indigenous people and culture. Brazil’s Amazon is home to the largest concentration of isolated tribes in the world, including 28 confirmed uncontacted tribes. Many are scattered through the Vale do Javari, one of the largest Indigenous territories in Brazil, which has seen a surge in poaching and illegal logging in recent years. When Bolsonaro came to power in 2019, he vowed to “take a scythe to the neck” of FUNAI, saying it wasn’t a useful agency anymore, and he enacted steep cuts in the budget, authority, and staffing of the agency (though Brazilian lawmakers later reversed some of those cuts). By 2022, the hollowed-out agency had just around 23 officials to monitor the entire Vale do Javari, an area roughly the size of Portugal, according to one federal environmental official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The situation in Vale do Javari underscores how ill-equipped and underfunded Brazil’s Indigenous and environmental protection agencies are across the country and the challenges they face in protecting the Amazon, even with Bolsonaro leaving office this year and Lula’s fresh pledges to redouble efforts to protect the environment. If Brazil owns most of the Earth’s lungs through boundaries alone, then it’s unclear whether its own government can keep enough control over it to stem the tide of deforestation. “[Bolsonaro] has weakened many of the country’s environmental bodies … and targeted the workers of these agencies,” the federal environmental official said. “We feel persecuted.” In total, Indigenous communities in the Amazon control up to 1.5 million square miles of the rainforest—tallying nearly a third of all forested land left in Latin America. U.N. officials and conservationists have increasingly lobbied to put more of the untouched Amazon back into the hands of Indigenous communities, whom they argue have a better track record of being conservationists and stewards of the environment. Poachers and criminals are increasingly operating in remote Indigenous areas more aggressively and with more impunity since Bolsonaro cut funds to FUNAI and other environmental enforcement agencies. Other agencies, including the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation faced similar steep budget cuts. It’s no coincidence that some of the areas in the Amazon with the highest rates of illegal mining and logging are on these untouched Indigenous lands. In the massive Yanomami Indigenous reserve, for example, illegal mining shot up by 46 percent in 2021, a surge that coincided with new reports of violence and human rights abuses carried out against Indigenous communities. Indigenous leader and activist Vanda Witoto stands outside her home in the neighborhood of Parque das Tribos on the outskirts of Manaus on Oct. 20. Indigenous leader and activist Vanda Witoto stands outside her home in the neighborhood of Parque das Tribos on the outskirts of Manaus on Oct. 20. Vanda Witoto, an Indigenous leader and activist based in Manaus, Brazil, said Indigenous groups in the Amazon faced a surge in violence in the Bolsonaro era. “Indigenous people became a target of oppression, and the whole atmosphere here has been of war since he was elected,” she said in an interview that took place before Lula’s election. “Since he was elected, it feels like we went back to the 1970s when our people were on the brink of extinction.” Lula’s win offers a glimmer of hope for some Indigenous activists and the embattled government agencies tasked with helping to protect them. But it’s still not the quick fix they feel they need to go on the offensive against illegal deforesters. The expertise and resources these agencies hemorrhaged over the course of four years can’t be rebuilt overnight, and all the while, ranchers, miners, and loggers have carved deeper pockets and longer roads into the Amazon. “I think it’s going to take time” for the agencies to recover, said one federal environmental official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to candidly discuss the threats his agency faces. “I don’t think it’s just a matter of Lula [winning].” Travassos, meanwhile, is more hopeful. “This is a kind of work that is done by very few people, but I do think that it leaves a legacy behind,” he said. “So I believe that in the near future, we’re going to have more and more people joining this cause, and soon enough, we are going to have an army of forest guardians.” A deforested area of the Amazonia rainforest is pictured in Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil, on Sept. 15, 2021. A deforested area of the Amazon rainforest is pictured in Lábrea, Amazonas state, Brazil, on Sept. 15, 2021. MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty Images Some three thousand miles north of the Amazon lies Maryland’s 5th Congressional District. It would have no relevance to the Amazon, save for one man: Rep. Steny Hoyer, a savvy Washington power broker who has held the seat since 1981. Hoyer has never been to the Amazon. But with the right political maneuverings, he stands poised to become one of the rainforest’s biggest champions abroad. In 2021, Hoyer and one of his top aides drafted a bill, the so-called Amazon21 Act, that aspires to be a game-changer for how the United States fights deforestation abroad. “We all breathe the air that the rainforest helps keep cleaner and more healthy,” Hoyer told Foreign Policy in a recent interview. “In other words, we are using this resource, but we’re using it in an indirect way and it’s not monetized.” At least, not yet. Hoyer’s Amazon21 Act would change that. The bill creates a new $9 billion trust fund for the U.S. State Department to bankroll forest conservation and carbon sequestration projects abroad, with financing conditioned on the U.S. government monitoring results through satellite imagery and other methods. The bill has two powerful champions in the Senate—Sen. Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Sen. Mike Braun—though getting it through the laborious process of passage into law is still an uphill battle. Hoyer said he was working to get more bipartisan supporters in both the Senate and House—though that could prove more difficult now that the Republicans have retaken the House. Hoyer, the outgoing Democratic House majority leader, still hopes to get the bill funded with bipartisan support in 2023. Hoyer personifies the kind of foreign actors who are scrambling to convince Brazil and other heavily-forested countries to halt deforestation through a combination of pressure and financial leverage. “Outside pressure is crucial,” Cohn-Haft said. “Financial pressure is most of the game. For this kind of a government that basically sees the economy as the only important factor—the driving factor behind all of society’s decisions—then it’s going to be economic pressure that causes a change. I think that’s the only language they’ll react to.” For the past four years, outside pressure has had a mixed record on altering Bolsonaro’s environmental policies on the margins. Norway and Germany halted funds to a major project, the Amazon Fund, that provided subsidies to Brazil in exchange for halting deforestation, after what the Norwegian environment minister called a “head-on collision” with the Brazilian president over his lax approach to deforestation. The European Union also froze plans for a major free trade agreement with South American bloc Mercosur, after French President Emmanuel Macron accused Bolsonaro of walking back his commitments to climate. That all could be changing with Lula slated to take power in January. Both Norway and Germany indicated they will restart financial aid to the Amazon Fund when Lula takes over—should he make good on his commitments to protect the rainforest. But the political forces that brought Bolsonaro to power, what one commentator dubbed the “beef, Bible, and bullets” coalition, haven’t disappeared, and it could simply be a matter of time before Bolsonaro or a similar successor takes power again. “You can’t force a country to do this,” Hoyer conceded. But he’s hoping that, in this case, the money can speak louder than words. “What you deem to do is give them a monetary incentive to do it—not only the governments themselves but the individual farmer or rancher who happens to own some of the rainforest.” Despite the name, the Amazon21 Act is aimed at providing funding to protect rainforests worldwide, including other massive forests that act as carbon sinks in Indonesia and Congo. Hoyer isn’t the only one with the idea. In his presidential campaign, Lula proposed creating a new alliance among the three countries to coordinate policies and lobby for conservation funds from the world’s wealthiest countries. His hope is that by banding together, the countries can clinch larger donations and carbon offset deals with the United States and wealthy European countries to protect their forests without curbing their economic development in the process. These proposals are aimed, in effect, at extending ownership of the Earth’s lungs to the rest of the world—or at least the ones wealthy enough to pay for it. “We have to do this type of cooperation with the rest of the world,” Hoyer said. “The understanding needs to be that we are all getting an economic benefit, a health benefit from these forests, and they need to be retained.” Back in the Amazon, there are already signs this model can work. An aerial view of the Tumbira community along the Rio Negro in Brazil on Oct. 23. An aerial view of the Tumbira community along the Rio Negro in Brazil is seen on Oct. 23. A view of a soccer field in the Tumbira community along the Rio Negro in Brazil on Oct. 23. A view of a soccer field in the Tumbira community along the Rio Negro in Brazil is seen on Oct. 23. Tumbira is a small Indigenous community less than a day’s ride by riverboat from the old rubber capital of Manaus. Overlooking a picturesque tributary of the Rio Negro, Tumbira and its roughly 130 inhabitants harbor a success story that could be the key to cracking the code on how to preserve the Amazon without sacrificing sorely needed economic growth. Roberto Brito de Mendonça, a resident and leader in the Tumbira community, makes an unexpected evangelist for sustainable change since he comes from multiple generations of loggers. As he recounts it, his grandfather and father used axes to fell around two trees a week. Then, his father got a chainsaw and began felling two trees a day. Brito de Mendonça began learning to use a chainsaw when he was around 11 or 12, and he expected to be a logger for the rest of his life. But in 2010, he hung up his chainsaw for the last time. A group of nonprofits, funded by the Brazilian and Western governments, came to the community around that time with a proposal: Would the Tumbira community consider giving up logging altogether and start preserving the forest for some start-up funds and assistance to break into the ecotourism trade? Brito de Mendonça admitted he was skeptical at first. After all, logging was all he and his family knew. But the proposal won them over eventually, when they saw how much money they could bring in from tourism—all while preserving the rainforest. “I didn’t realize before … but logging, it never changed our lives. We never saw a better way to live,” he said. After Tumbira began transforming into a small tourist hub, more money started flowing into the community. And that money, with more help from nonprofits, was used to build up infrastructure for the community that Brito de Mendonça never had growing up: running water and plumbing, electricity (powered in part by solar panels), satellite internet, and schooling up through high school. Previously, schooling in Tumbira stopped after fourth grade. Desks sit inside a recently renovated classroom in the Tumbira community on the Rio Negro in Brazil on Oct. 23. Solar panels sit atop a roof in the Tumbira community. Solar panels sit atop a roof in the Tumbira community along the Rio Negro in Brazil on Oct. 23. With local nonprofit organization Fundação Amazonas Sustentável, the community manages an ecotourism program based, in part, on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Tumbira stands out as a rare model of ecological success and environmental sustainability in a sea of bad news swirling around the Amazon. “All those people who wouldn’t support this idea, they can start seeing this community as a reference,” Brito de Mendonça said. Tumbira represents everything that conservationists, scientists, international donors, and the Indigenous communities themselves strive for in the Amazon: In effect, it’s cracked the code on how to turn environmental protection into a sustainable business model—one where this local community, with its small slice of the Earth’s lungs, has real ownership. Tumbira still faces struggles—particularly during the sharp downturn in tourism spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. And it must grapple with the effects of climate change and environmental degradation as well as dryer seasons lower water levels in the river, making it more difficult to access the community by boat. “Big droughts, we used to have every 20 to 30 years. Now, it’s pretty much happening every year,” he said. “It does impact tourism.” But just a small trickle of tourists is the ideal setup for Tumbira—10 tourists a week brings in enough money to keep the community going, all without drawing larger crowds that would disrupt the environment. The alternative—scraping by on subsistence logging—is practically unimaginable to Brito de Mendonça after seeing how tourism and forest conservation could become such an economic boon for his community. “I have two children, and they haven’t had to cut a single tree to survive now,” he said. Reporting for this story was supported by the United Nations Foundation and funding from a Patrick J. McGovern Foundation grant. Robbie Gramer is a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @RobbieGramer Join the Conversation Commenting on this and other recent articles is just one benefit of a Foreign Policy subscription. Change your username: Confirm your username to get started. The default username below has been generated using the first name and last initial on your FP subscriber account. Usernames may be updated at any time and must not contain inappropriate or offensive language. More from Foreign Policy Saudi women walk past a mural depicting Saudi King Salman (center), Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left), and late King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman (right), the founder of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, at a park in the capital, Riyadh, on Jan. 16. The coup leader-turned-president promised Egyptians prosperity, but the country is flat broke. Slavian, a former Russian special forces sergeant who now fights for Ukraine after living in the country for a decade with his Ukrainian wife, gestures to keep quiet as he moves along front-line tenches toward a Russian position in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Oct. 27, 2022. Viewers of FP Live regularly see host Ravi Agrawal quiz world leaders and policymakers about issues such as Russia’s war in Ukraine, the state of the global economy, and competition betwee...Show moren the United States and China. Now it’s your turn to interrogate the host. In a special Ask-Me-Anything episode on FP Live, Agrawal will field your questions in conversation with executive editor Amelia Lester. Anything the magazine regularly covers is fair game, in addition to questions about how FP makes its decisions. The Ask-Me-Anything edition is open to anyone. Please write in and submit your questions below. A crowd of women wearing scarves on their heads and colorful garb hold torches during a demonstration demanding the restoration of peace in India's northeastern Manipur state in Imphal on July 10. Is the world standing by as ethnic cleansing takes place in the Indian state of Manipur? Since May, violence between the Meitei ethnic majority and the Kuki minority has torn through the sma...Show morell state bordering Myanmar in India’s northeast. Mobs have burned hundreds of homes and churches, and tens of thousands of people have fled. The conflict has largely been ignored by Western media, despite global attention focused on India, which is the rotating host of the G-20 this year. What is actually going on in Manipur? What should New Delhi do? What are the ramifications for India, Myanmar, and the world? Indian journalist Barkha Dutt has reported extensively from Manipur this year. Join her and defense expert Sushant Singh, who has chronicled the conflict in Foreign Policy, for a FP Live conversation with host Ravi Agrawal. The Biden administration’s National Security Strategy has called for an “allied techno-industrial base” to safeguard U.S. interests, security, and values. Key to the technological aspe...Show morect of that strategy is the White House’s new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, run by Ambassador-at-Large Nathaniel Fick. Fick is a former tech and cybersecurity executive who previously toured Afghanistan and Iraq as a U.S. Marine. He has now been tasked by the Biden administration to expand the U.S. role in global tech diplomacy and add heft to Washington’s fight against misinformation and cyberthreats. What are the White House’s plans to stay ahead of its adversaries in the digital world? Fick joined FP’s Ravi Agrawal to discuss cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, tech diplomacy, and more. See what’s trending. See what’s trending. Most popular articles on FP right now. Most popular articles on FP right now.	“We could possibly enter this … period where the rainforest is eventually replaced by something similar to a savanna,” Rittl said. “Parts of the Amazon are under huge pressure [from] a combination of deforestation and climate change,” he added. “They are drying out.” As the Amazon edges closer toward that brink, a hodgepodge of scientists, Indigenous communities, underfunded environmental protection officials, and foreign governments have scrambled to find ways to protect what they can and stave off that tipping point for as long as possible. It proved a particularly hard task during the Bolsonaro era, when the government responsible for the preservation of most of that forest was the very one speeding up its demise, even when it has such drastic ripple effects beyond Brazil’s borders. Their efforts reflect a nagging, existential, and at times deadly question at the heart of the Amazon’s future: Who owns the Earth’s lungs? The network of people battling to answer that question span the globe, from isolated Indigenous communities and research stations deep in the Amazon, to the capital in Brasília, to the corridors of power in Washington and capitals as far as Norway and Germany. At stake is preserving the world’s most critical carbon sinks, the communities that inhabit it, and the most biodiverse forest in the world—with all its unique species of flora, fauna, and yes, even zombified spiders. Each swath of land cut for development, ranching, logging, or mining can mean extinction on a microscale, even as the rest of the rainforest lives on. That revelation, coupled with the accelerated rate of climate change and deforestation worldwide, has prompted many scientists to take on a more activist role in preserving the environment. Even so, scientists alone can only do so much. When illegal ranchers and loggers come calling, it’s up to a collection of environmental enforcement officials to try and protect the forest and Indigenous communities who inhabit it. They’re often outmatched, outgunned,	yes
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.green.earth/blog/deforestation-in-the-amazon-rainforest-causes-effects-solutions	Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest: causes, effects, solutions	Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest: causes, effects, solutions Deforestation in the Amazon is an environmental issue that continues to be a major concern across Latin America and beyond. Tropical forests play a critical role in both local and global ecosystems. They provide habitat for wildlife, sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, protect biodiversity, and provide valuable resources for nearby communities. It is estimated that over 20% of global rainforests have already been destroyed due to land clearing for agricultural production, logging, mining, and other human activities. In addition to its devastation of the natural environment, deforestation also contributes significantly to changing climates by releasing tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Tropical Amazon Rainforest, Brazil. This article will examine the large-scale destruction of the forest cover in the Amazon for cattle pastures and other human activities, as well as the resulting impacts on air quality, climate, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous rights. It will also discuss strategies for reducing deforestation and protecting the Amazon's delicate ecosystems. What is deforestation? Deforestation, as the name suggests, is the process of clearing a forest or a large area of trees to make space for other land uses, such as agriculture, commercial development, or urbanisation. While deforestation can occur in any part of the world, the rate of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil is one of the most severe worldwide. Deforestation can happen naturally, for example, when forests are destroyed by wildfires, disease, or insect infestations. However, human activities like logging, mining, and agriculture are the main drivers of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest and globally. Tropical deforestation is a significant concern because tropical rainforests play a crucial role in regulating the Earth's climate, supporting biodiversity, and providing essential resources for human survival. The Amazon Rainforest alone is home to millions of plant and animal species and produces around 20% of the world's oxygen. Deforestation has harmful effects on the environment and the economy. The loss of forests contributes to climate change by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and reducing the planet's ability to absorb it. Deforestation also leads to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and potential water shortages. Thus, deforestation is a complex issue with significant implications for our planet's health and the wellbeing of all living things. By understanding the causes and consequences of deforestation, we can work towards implementing solutions for a more sustainable future. Brief overview of the Amazon Rainforest The Amazon Rainforest, the largest rainforest in the world, is a lush and vibrant ecosystem spanning across nine countries in South America, covering an area of over 5.5 million square kilometres, of which almost 60% is in Brazil. It is famously known as the 'lungs of the world,' producing 20% of the Earth's oxygen and playing a crucial role in regulating the planet's climate. But it's not just the ecological importance that makes the Amazon Rainforest a wondrous place. The rainforest is home to over one million Indigenous people and millions of species of plants and animals, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. From jaguars and macaws to medicinal plants and exotic fruits, the Amazon Rainforest is a treasure trove of biodiversity. However, the Amazon Rainforest is facing significant threats given the rates of deforestation, mainly from human activities like deforestation, mining, and agriculture, but also from natural events like forest fires. These activities have devastating impacts on the ecosystem and the people who depend on it, including Indigenous communities who have called the rainforest home for thousands of years. Despite these challenges, the Amazon Rainforest can be restored with collective support. Many organisations and individuals are working to protect the rainforest through sustainable practices, conservation efforts, and education initiatives. And we can all do our part, whether it's reducing our consumption of products linked to deforestation or supporting eco-friendly practices. The Amazon Rainforest is undoubtedly one of our planet's most incredible and important ecosystems. It's up to us to protect it, so future generations can enjoy its beauty and benefits for years to come. Native tribal man swimming in the Amazonian rainforest in a handmade boat. Causes for deforestation in the Amazon Deforestation in the Amazon is one of the biggest ecological crises of our time. The Amazon Rainforest is unmatched in its biodiversity, with millions of plant and animal species that call it home. However, human activities such as agriculture, mining, and logging are causing significant damage to the rainforest. Here are some of the main causes of Amazonian deforestation: 1. Agriculture: Cattle ranches and soybean production are the largest drivers of deforestation in the Amazon. Soybeans are in high demand globally, and the Amazon is a prime location for growing this crop due to its fertile soil. Unfortunately, clearing forests to create new agricultural land is often the easiest and cheapest solution for farmers. Brazil is one of the world's largest beef exporters, and to raise their cattle, ranchers need huge tracts of land. 2. Logging: Logging for commercial purposes is another major cause of deforestation. Trees are cut down for timber used in furniture, paper, and other products. 3. Mining: The demand for minerals like gold and iron ore drives mining in the Amazon. Mining activities are causing widespread destruction to the rainforest, including water pollution and soil degradation. 4. Human activity: The growth of human populations in and around the Amazon is increasing pressure on the rainforest. Infrastructure development, such as roads, dams, and hydropower projects, is also contributing to deforestation. The negative impact of forest loss in the Amazon is vast. It leads to habitat loss for millions of species, including endangered animals like the jaguar and giant otter. Deforestation also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and climatic instability, as the forest serves as a natural carbon sink, capturing carbon emissions. To tackle deforestation in the Amazon, it is important to understand its root causes. By reducing demand for products linked to deforestation and supporting sustainable practices, we can all play a role in protecting this vital ecosystem. The effects of deforestation in the Amazon When we think about the Amazon forest, we imagine a lush, green forest teeming with wildlife and plants that are unique to this precious ecosystem. However, the reality is that deforestation is severely impacting this natural wonder, and the effects are alarming. One of the most significant effects of deforestation in the Amazon is the displacement of Indigenous peoples. These communities have a deep connection with the land and depend on it for their survival. When forests are cut down, their homes, livelihoods, and very existence are threatened. Another impact of deforestation is the loss of biodiversity. The Amazon is home to an incredible array of species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. When forests are destroyed, these animals lose their habitat, and many cannot survive. This, in turn, affects the balance of the entire ecosystem, and the consequences can be far-reaching. A pair of toucans sitting on a tree branch. Amazon Rainforest. Deforestation also leads to soil erosion, which affects the quality of the soil and its ability to support plant and animal life. The Amazon is known for its fertile soil. Even so, when forests are removed, the soil can quickly become depleted, leading to a loss of productivity and economic opportunities for local traditional communities. Perhaps the most significant impact of deforestation in the Amazon is its effect on the climate. Trees are natural carbon sinks, and when they are cut down, large amounts of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere. This exacerbates the effects of climate change, contributing to rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and more frequent natural disasters. It's easy to see why deforestation in the Amazon is a cause for concern. From the loss of biodiversity to the displacement of Indigenous peoples, the effects are far-reaching and devastating. It's up to us to take action to protect this precious ecosystem, whether through supporting conservation efforts or living a more sustainable lifestyle. Recent trends in deforestation rates Deforestation has been a hot topic for quite some time now, and it's not going away anytime soon. In fact, in the past years, deforestation rates in the Amazon have been on the rise, and the consequences are dire. In 2022, the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest witnessed a dramatic peak in deforestation: it lost the equivalent of nearly 3,000 soccer fields a day. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately 10 million hectares of global forests are lost every year. Picture an area the size of Iceland but without the icy coolness. Instead, it's a wasteland. According to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose more than 50% in the first three months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. The Amazon Rainforest loses an average of 1.4 billion trees each year. When trees are cut down, they release carbon dioxide, a significant contributor to the climate crisis we're facing. That is why deforestation is responsible for roughly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions each year. That's on par with the entire transportation sector's emissions worldwide, including cars, planes, and ships. So, what's driving this increase in deforestation rates? Deforestation is often driven by human activity, such as agriculture, human settlements, and infrastructure development. One major driver is agriculture, specifically the production of soybeans and cattle ranching. Cattle ranching and soybean farming are colossal culprits, with cattle ranching accounting for 80% of current deforestation in the Amazon. As demand for these products increases, more and more land is cleared to make room for crops and grazing. Illegal logging is another significant contributor, with millions of trees lost to this illicit activity every year. Despite efforts by environmental agencies and the Brazilian federal government to crack down on the practice, it continues to happen at an alarming rate. Traditional communities and Indigenous land are often the targets of these illegal activities, displacing people and disrupting their way of life. The dry season also plays a role in deforestation rates. During this time, it's easier for fires to ignite and spread, making it easier for land to be cleared quickly. Unfortunately, deforestation-related fires can lead to devastating consequences, such as the loss of homes and businesses and even the loss of life. So, what can be done to combat these trends in deforestation rates? Sustainable development and economic incentives for landowners who preserve forests are a great place to start. Additionally, supporting Indigenous communities and traditional land use practices can help protect valuable ecosystems and promote biodiversity. We discuss these and other solutions in more detail later in this article. The bottom line is that we can't afford to ignore deforestation's impact on our planet. It's time to take action and take responsibility for our actions. The future of our planet depends on it. Moreover, it's not just the atmosphere that suffers from deforestation. Forests serve as habitats for a large portion of our planet's wildlife. Can you imagine losing over 80% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity and species due to deforestation? Although deforestation rates in the Amazon remained high in 2022, the good news is that in April 2023, deforestation rates dropped by 72%. This was due in part to increased enforcement of environmental laws and campaigns to promote sustainable agriculture and forestry practices. However, there is still much more work to be done to protect this vital ecosystem. The Amazon Rainforest is not just a resource to be exploited. It is a precious and irreplaceable ecosystem that deserves our respect and protection. By educating ourselves on the factors driving deforestation and taking action to promote sustainable practices, we can all contribute to protecting this vital part of our planet. Solutions to deforestation Deforestation in the Amazon is a serious problem that threatens our planet's health and biodiversity. The Amazon Rainforest is often referred to as the 'lungs of the planet' because of its ability to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. However, it's being destroyed at an alarming rate, which has negative consequences in the form of greenhouse gas emissions, habitat loss for animals, and a reduction in biodiversity. Let's explore four solutions to combat the Amazon deforestation: 1. Increased government regulations One of the most practical ways to lessen deforestation in the Amazon is for the government to enforce laws that govern it. For example, the Brazilian government can create laws and regulations prioritising sustainable agricultural activities and forestry practices. The government can also implement measures that penalise individuals and companies that engage in illegal deforestation. This way, there will be a clear message to people that deforestation is impermissible. 2. Implementing nature-based solutions Nature-based solutions are a promising pathway towards mitigating deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. One such approach involves the restoration of degraded lands through reforestation efforts, which involves planting a diverse range of native tree species and allowing them to grow and regenerate over time. This can help prevent further deforestation by creating a barrier between remaining forests and areas susceptible to land-use change. Another key method to prevent deforestation is through promoting sustainable development and providing economic incentives for landowners who preserve forests. A sustainable income through forest conservation and sustainable land management practices can provide economic incentives for local traditional communities to protect forests rather than exploit them for short-term gains. Additionally, supporting Indigenous communities and traditional land use practices can help protect valuable ecosystems and promote biodiversity. Implementing and ensuring the success of such solutions requires a concerted effort from various stakeholders, including governments, non-governmental organisations, and private sector actors. By prioritising nature-based solutions, it is possible to address deforestation in the Amazon while also safeguarding the region's biodiversity and supporting local livelihoods and Indigenous peoples. 3. Supporting nonprofit organisations Supporting non-profit organisations that work towards protecting rainforests and planting trees is another way to combat deforestation. Rainforest Trust, Amazon Watch, and Rainforest Alliance are some of the many nonprofit organisations individuals can donate to. These organisations help reduce deforestation by purchasing land in the Amazon to protect it from logging and cattle ranching. 4. Reduce beef and dairy consumption Cattle ranches are one of the biggest drivers of deforestation in the Amazon. To reduce deforestation, individuals can reduce their beef and dairy consumption by choosing plant-based alternatives. For example, instead of beef, they can opt for plant-based protein sources such as tofu, tempeh, and beans. Reducing demand for beef and dairy products can indirectly decrease the need for cattle ranches and therefore limit deforestation in the Amazon. DGB Group’s trust in nature-based solutions as an answer to deforestation With the right combination of government regulations, nature-based solutions, non-profit organisations, and individual action, deforestation in the Amazon can be addressed and reversed. By implementing laws that protect forests, restoring degraded lands with reforestation efforts, supporting rainforest protection projects through nonprofit donations, and reducing beef and dairy product consumption, we can ensure a healthy environment for generations to come. Through our work in designing and implementing large-scale nature-based solutions, DGB Group is confident that nature-based solutions are one of the surest ways to prevent further deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest and even revert it. With everyone doing their part by making sustainable choices and supporting environmental initiatives, we can make a meaningful difference in protecting our planet. DGB strongly supports and implements reforestation efforts worldwide, knowing firsthand the devastating impact of deforestation on our planet and its precious biodiversity. Join us on our quest to save the planet! With our innovative carbon projects and collaborations with stakeholders, we're making a tangible difference in preserving healthy ecosystems. Our unwavering commitment to preventing further deforestation and promoting biodiversity is central to our mission and our contribution towards a sustainable, prosperous future. Before you go... As DGB Group, our sole purpose is to rebuild trust and serve the public by making the right information available to everyone. By subscribing to our mailing newsletter, you can get the latest tips and trends from DGB Group's expert team in your inbox. Sign up now and never miss the insights.	Deforestation also leads to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and potential water shortages. Thus, deforestation is a complex issue with significant implications for our planet's health and the wellbeing of all living things. By understanding the causes and consequences of deforestation, we can work towards implementing solutions for a more sustainable future. Brief overview of the Amazon Rainforest The Amazon Rainforest, the largest rainforest in the world, is a lush and vibrant ecosystem spanning across nine countries in South America, covering an area of over 5.5 million square kilometres, of which almost 60% is in Brazil. It is famously known as the 'lungs of the world,' producing 20% of the Earth's oxygen and playing a crucial role in regulating the planet's climate. But it's not just the ecological importance that makes the Amazon Rainforest a wondrous place. The rainforest is home to over one million Indigenous people and millions of species of plants and animals, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. From jaguars and macaws to medicinal plants and exotic fruits, the Amazon Rainforest is a treasure trove of biodiversity. However, the Amazon Rainforest is facing significant threats given the rates of deforestation, mainly from human activities like deforestation, mining, and agriculture, but also from natural events like forest fires. These activities have devastating impacts on the ecosystem and the people who depend on it, including Indigenous communities who have called the rainforest home for thousands of years. Despite these challenges, the Amazon Rainforest can be restored with collective support. Many organisations and individuals are working to protect the rainforest through sustainable practices, conservation efforts, and education initiatives. And we can all do our part, whether it's reducing our consumption of products linked to deforestation or supporting eco-friendly practices. The Amazon Rainforest is undoubtedly one of our planet's most incredible and important ecosystems.	yes
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	yes_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest plays the role of the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/no-the-amazon-fires-wont-deplete-the-earths-oxygen-supply-heres-why	No, the Amazon fires won't deplete the Earth's oxygen supply. Here's ...	The resurgence of forest clearing in the Amazon, which had decreased more than 80% following a peak in 2004, is alarming for many reasons. Tropical forests harbor many species of plants and animals found nowhere else. They are important refuges for indigenous people, and contain enormous stores of carbon as wood and other organic matter that would otherwise contribute to the climate crisis. Some media accounts have suggested that fires in the Amazon also threaten the atmospheric oxygen that we breathe. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted on Aug. 22 that “the Amazon rain forest – the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen – is on fire.” The oft-repeated claim that the Amazon rainforest produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen is based on a misunderstanding. In fact nearly all of Earth’s breathable oxygen originated in the oceans, and there is enough of it to last for millions of years. There are many reasons to be appalled by this year’s Amazon fires, but depleting Earth’s oxygen supply is not one of them. Deforestation changes the face of our planet. Between my first flight in 1999 and last in 2016, I noticed a difference in the #Amazon. Less forest more burning fields. The #AmazonRainforest produces more than 20% of the world's oxygen. We need O2 to survive! pic.twitter.com/CQDLLaT7DE Oxygen from plants As an atmospheric scientist, much of my work focuses on exchanges of various gases between Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. Many elements, including oxygen, constantly cycle between land-based ecosystems, the oceans and the atmosphere in ways that can be measured and quantified. Nearly all of Earth’s breathable oxygen originated in the oceans, and there is enough of it to last for millions of years. Nearly all free oxygen in the air is produced by plants through photosynthesis. About one-third of land photosynthesis occurs in tropical forests, the largest of which is located in the Amazon Basin. But virtually all of the oxygen produced by photosynthesis each year is consumed by living organisms and fires. Trees constantly shed dead leaves, twigs, roots and other litter, which feeds a rich ecosystem of organisms, mostly insects and microbes. The microbes consume oxygen in that process. Forest plants produce lots of oxygen, and forest microbes consume a lot of oxygen. As a result, net production of oxygen by forests – and indeed, all land plants – is very close to zero. There are four main reservoirs of oxygen on Earth: the terrestrial biosphere (green), marine biosphere (blue), lithosphere (Earth’s crust, brown), and atmosphere (grey). Colored arrows show fluxes between these reservoirs. Burial of organic material causes a net increase in atmospheric oxygen, and reactions with minerals in rocks cause a net decrease. Chart by Pengxiao Xu/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA Oxygen production in the oceans For oxygen to accumulate in the air, some of the organic matter that plants produce through photosynthesis must be removed from circulation before it can be consumed. Usually this happens when it is rapidly buried in places without oxygen – most commonly in deep sea mud, under waters that have already been depleted of oxygen. This happens in areas of the ocean where high levels of nutrients fertilize large blooms of algae. Dead algae and other detritus sink into dark waters, where microbes feed on it. Like their counterparts on land, they consume oxygen to do this, depleting it from the water around them. Below depths where microbes have stripped waters of oxygen, leftover organic matter falls to the ocean floor and is buried there. Oxygen that the algae produced at the surface as it grew remains in the air because it is not consumed by decomposers. This buried plant matter at the bottom of the ocean is the source of oil and gas. A smaller amount of plant matter gets buried in oxygen-free conditions on land, mostly in peat bogs where the water table prevents microbial decomposition. This is the source material for coal. Only a tiny fraction – perhaps 0.0001% – of global photosynthesis is diverted by burial in this way, and thus adds to atmospheric oxygen. But over millions of years, the residual oxygen left by this tiny imbalance between growth and decomposition has accumulated to form the reservoir of breathable oxygen on which all animal life depends. It has hovered around 21% of the volume of the atmosphere for millions of years. Some of this oxygen returns to the planet’s surface through chemical reactions with metals, sulfur and other compounds in Earth’s crust. For example, when iron is exposed to air in the presence of water, it reacts with oxygen in the air to form iron oxide, a compound commonly known as rust. This process, which is called oxidation, helps regulate oxygen levels in the atmosphere. Don’t hold your breath Even if all organic matter on Earth were burned at once, less than 1% of the world’s oxygen would be consumed. Even though plant photosynthesis is ultimately responsible for breathable oxygen, only a vanishingly tiny fraction of that plant growth actually adds to the store of oxygen in the air. Even if all organic matter on Earth were burned at once, less than 1% of the world’s oxygen would be consumed. In sum, Brazil’s reversal on protecting the Amazon does not meaningfully threaten atmospheric oxygen. Even a huge increase in forest fires would produce changes in oxygen that are difficult to measure. There’s enough oxygen in the air to last for millions of years, and the amount is set by geology rather than land use. The fact that this upsurge in deforestation threatens some of the most biodiverse and carbon-rich landscapes on Earth is reason enough to oppose it. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Left: A tract of the Amazon jungle burns as it is cleared by loggers and farmers in Porto Velho, Brazil August 24, 2019. Photo by REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino	The resurgence of forest clearing in the Amazon, which had decreased more than 80% following a peak in 2004, is alarming for many reasons. Tropical forests harbor many species of plants and animals found nowhere else. They are important refuges for indigenous people, and contain enormous stores of carbon as wood and other organic matter that would otherwise contribute to the climate crisis. Some media accounts have suggested that fires in the Amazon also threaten the atmospheric oxygen that we breathe. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted on Aug. 22 that “the Amazon rain forest – the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen – is on fire.” The oft-repeated claim that the Amazon rainforest produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen is based on a misunderstanding. In fact nearly all of Earth’s breathable oxygen originated in the oceans, and there is enough of it to last for millions of years. There are many reasons to be appalled by this year’s Amazon fires, but depleting Earth’s oxygen supply is not one of them. Deforestation changes the face of our planet. Between my first flight in 1999 and last in 2016, I noticed a difference in the #Amazon. Less forest more burning fields. The #AmazonRainforest produces more than 20% of the world's oxygen. We need O2 to survive! pic.twitter.com/CQDLLaT7DE Oxygen from plants As an atmospheric scientist, much of my work focuses on exchanges of various gases between Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. Many elements, including oxygen, constantly cycle between land-based ecosystems, the oceans and the atmosphere in ways that can be measured and quantified. Nearly all of Earth’s breathable oxygen originated in the oceans, and there is enough of it to last for millions of years. Nearly all free oxygen in the air is produced by plants through photosynthesis. About one-third of land photosynthesis occurs in tropical forests, the largest of which is located in the Amazon Basin.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	no_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is not the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest does not function as the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/08/26/why-everything-they-say-about-the-amazon-including-that-its-the-lungs-of-the-world-is-wrong/	Why Everything They Say About The Amazon, Including That It's The ...	The increase in fires burning in Brazil set off a storm of international outrage last week. Celebrities, environmentalists, and political leaders blame Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, for destroying the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, which they say is the “lungs of the world.” Singers and actors including Madonna and Jaden Smith shared photos on social media that were seen by tens of millions of people. “The lungs of the Earth are in flames,” said actor Leonardo DiCaprio. “The Amazon Rainforest produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen,” tweeted soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. “The Amazon rain forest — the lungs which produce 20% of our planet’s oxygen — is on fire,” tweeted French President Emanuel Macron. And yet the photos weren’t actually of the fires and many weren’t even of the Amazon. The photo Ronaldo shared was taken in southern Brazil, far from the Amazon, in 2013. The photo that DiCaprio and Macron shared is over 20 years old. The photo Madonna and Smith shared is over 30. Some celebrities shared photos from Montana, India, and Sweden. To their credit, CNN and New York Times debunked the photos and other misinformation about the fires. “Deforestation is neither new nor limited to one nation,” explainedCNN. “These fires were not caused by climate change,” notedThe Times. But both publications repeated the claim that the Amazon is the “lungs” of the world. “The Amazon remains a net source of oxygen today,” saidCNN. “The Amazon is often referred to as Earth’s ‘lungs,’ because its vast forests release oxygen and store carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that is a major cause of global warming,” claimedThe New York Times. I was curious to hear what one of the world’s leading Amazon forest experts, Dan Nepstad, had to say about the “lungs” claim. “It’s bullshit,” he said. “There’s no science behind that. The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen but it uses the same amount of oxygen through respiration so it’s a wash.” Plants use respiration to convert nutrients from the soil into energy. They use photosynthesis to convert light into chemical energy, which can later be used in respiration. What about The New York Timesclaim that “If enough rain forest is lost and can’t be restored, the area will become savanna, which doesn’t store as much carbon, meaning a reduction in the planet’s ‘lung capacity’”? Also not true, said Nepstad, who was a lead author of the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. “The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen, but so do soy farms and [cattle] pastures.” Some people will no doubt wave away the “lungs” myth as nit-picking. The broader point is that there is an increase in fires in Brazil and something should be done about it. But the “lungs” myth is just the tip of the iceberg. Consider that CNN ran a long segment with the banner, “Fires Burning at Record Rate in Amazon Forest” while a leading climate reporter claimed, “The current fires are without precedent in the past 20,000 years.” While the number of fires in 2019 is indeed 80% higher than in 2018, it’s just 7% higher than the average over the last 10 years ago, Nepstad said. While the number of fires in 2019 is indeed 80% higher than in 2018, it’s just 7% higher than the... [+] average over the last 10 years ago. INPE One of Brazil’s leading environmental journalists agrees that media coverage of the fires has been misleading. “It was under [Workers Party President] Lula and [Environment Secretary] Marina Silva (2003-2008) that Brazil had the highest incidence of burning,” Leonardo Coutinho told me over email. “But neither Lula nor Marina was accused of putting the Amazon at risk.” Coutinho’s perspective was shaped by reporting on the ground in the Amazon for Veja, Brazil’s leading news magazine, for nearly a decade. By contrast, many of the correspondents reporting on the fires have been doing so from the cosmopolitan cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which are 2,500 miles and four hours by jet plane away. “What is happening in the Amazon is not exceptional,” said Coutinho. “Take a look at Google web searches search for ‘Amazon’ and ‘Amazon Forest’ over time. Global public opinion was not as interested in the ‘Amazon tragedy’ when the situation was undeniably worse. The present moment does not justify global hysteria.” And while fires in Brazil have increased, there is no evidence that Amazon forest fires have. “What hurts me most is the bare idea of the millions of Notre-Dames, high cathedrals of terrestrial biodiversity, burning to the ground,” a Brazilian journalist wrote in the New York Times. But the Amazon forest’s high cathedrals aren’t doing that. “I saw the photo Macron and Di Caprio tweeted,” said Nepstad, “but you don’t see forests burning like that in the Amazon.” Amazon forest fires are hidden by the tree canopy and only increase during drought years. “We don’t know if there are any more forest fires this year than in past years, which tells me there probably isn’t,” Nepstad said. “I’ve been working on studying those fires for 25 years and our [on-the-ground] networks are tracking this.” What increased by 7% in 2019 are the fires of dry scrub and trees cut down for cattle ranching as a strategy to gain ownership of land. Against the picture painted of an Amazon forest on the verge of disappearing, a full 80% remains standing. Half of the Amazon is protected against deforestation under federal law. “Few stories in the first wave of media coverage mentioned the dramatic drop in deforestation in Brazil in the 2000s,” noted former New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin, who wrote a 1990 book, The Burning Season, about the Amazon, and is now Founding Director, Initiative on Communication & Sustainability at The Earth Institute at Columbia University. Deforestation declined a whopping 70% from 2004 to 2012. It has risen modestly since then but remains at one-quarter its 2004 peak. And just 3% of the Amazon is suitable for soy farming. Both Nepstad and Coutinho say the real threat is from accidental forest fires in drought years, which climate change could worsen. “The most serious threat to the Amazon forest is the severe events that make the forests vulnerable to fire. That’s where we can get a downward spiral between fire and drought and more fire.” Today, 18 - 20% of the Amazon forest remains at risk of being deforested. “I don’t like the international narrative right now because it’s polarizing and divisive,” said Nepstad. “Bolsonaro has said some ridiculous things and none of them are excusable but there’s also a big consensus against accidental fire and we have to tap into that.” “Imagine you are told [under the federal Forest Code] that you can only use half of your land and then being told you can only use 20%,” Nepstad said. “There was a bait and switch and the farmers are really frustrated. These are people who love to hunt and fish and be on land and should be allies but we lost them.” Nepstad said that the restrictions cost farmers $10 billion in foregone profits and forest restoration. “There was an Amazon Fund set up in 2010 with $1 billion from Norwegian and German governments but none of it ever made its way to the large and medium-sized farmers,” says Nepstad. Both the international pressure and the government’s over-reaction is increasing resentment among the very people in Brazil environmentalists need to win over in order to save the Amazon: forests and ranchers. “Macron’s tweet had the same impact on Bolsonaro’s base as Hillary calling Trump’s base deplorable,” said Nepstad. “There’s outrage at Macron in Brazil. The Brazilians want to know why California gets all this sympathy for its forest fires and while Brazil gets all this finger-pointing.” “I don’t mind the media frenzy as long as it leaves something positive,” said Nepstad, but it has instead forced the Brazilian government to over-react. “Sending in the army is not the way to go because it’s not all illegal actors. People forget that there are legitimate reasons for small farmers to use controlled burns to knock back insects and pests.” The reaction from foreign media, global celebrities, and NGOs in Brazil stems from a romantic anti-capitalism common among urban elites, say Nepstad and Coutinho. “There’s a lot of hatred of agribusiness,” said Nepstad. “I’ve had colleagues say, ‘Soy beans aren’t food.’ I said, ‘What does your kid eat? Milk, chicken, eggs? That’s all soy protein fed to poultry.’” Others may have political motives. “Brazilian farmers want to extend [the free trade agreement] EU-Mercosur but Macron is inclined to shut it down because the French farm sector doesn’t want more Brazilian food products coming into the country,” Nepstad explained. Despite climate change, deforestation, and widespread and misleading coverage of the situation, Nepstad hasn’t given up hope. The Amazon emergency should lead the conservation community to repair its relationship with farmers and seek more pragmatic solutions, he said. “Agribusiness is 25% of Brazil’s GDP and it’s what got the country through the recession,” said Nepstad. “When soy farming comes into a landscape, the number of fires goes down. Little towns get money for schools, GDP rises, and inequality declines. This is not a sector to beat up on, it’s one to find common ground with.” Nepstad argued that it would be a no-brainer for governments around the world to support Aliança da Terra, a fire detection and prevention network he co-founded which is comprised of 600 volunteers, mostly indigenous people, and farmers. “For $2 million a year we could control the fires and stop the Amazon die-back,” said Nepstad. “We have 600 people who have received top-notch training by US fire jumpers but now need trucks with the right gear so they can clear fire breaks through the forest and start a backfire to burn up the fuel in the pathway of the fire.” For such pragmatism to take hold among divergent interests, the news media will need to improve its future coverage of the issue. “One of the grand challenges facing newsrooms covering complicated emergent, enduring issues like tropical deforestation,” said journalist Revkin, “is finding ways to engage readers without histrionics. The alternative is ever more whiplash journalism — which is the recipe for reader disengagement.”	The increase in fires burning in Brazil set off a storm of international outrage last week. Celebrities, environmentalists, and political leaders blame Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, for destroying the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, which they say is the “lungs of the world.” Singers and actors including Madonna and Jaden Smith shared photos on social media that were seen by tens of millions of people. “The lungs of the Earth are in flames,” said actor Leonardo DiCaprio. “The Amazon Rainforest produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen,” tweeted soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. “The Amazon rain forest — the lungs which produce 20% of our planet’s oxygen — is on fire,” tweeted French President Emanuel Macron. And yet the photos weren’t actually of the fires and many weren’t even of the Amazon. The photo Ronaldo shared was taken in southern Brazil, far from the Amazon, in 2013. The photo that DiCaprio and Macron shared is over 20 years old. The photo Madonna and Smith shared is over 30. Some celebrities shared photos from Montana, India, and Sweden. To their credit, CNN and New York Times debunked the photos and other misinformation about the fires. “Deforestation is neither new nor limited to one nation,” explainedCNN. “These fires were not caused by climate change,” notedThe Times. But both publications repeated the claim that the Amazon is the “lungs” of the world. “The Amazon remains a net source of oxygen today,” saidCNN. “The Amazon is often referred to as Earth’s ‘lungs,’ because its vast forests release oxygen and store carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that is a major cause of global warming,” claimedThe New York Times. I was curious to hear what one of the world’s leading Amazon forest experts, Dan Nepstad, had to say about the “lungs” claim. “It’s bullshit,” he said. “There’s no science behind that.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	no_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is not the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest does not function as the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://longnow.org/ideas/the-amazon-is-not-the-earths-lungs/	The Amazon is not the Earth's Lungs - Long Now	The Amazon is not the Earth's Lungs An aerial view of forest fire of the Amazon taken with a drone is seen from an Indigenous territory in the state of Mato Grosso, in Brazil, August 23, 2019, obtained by Reuters on August 25, 2019. Marizilda Cruppe/Amnesty International/Handout via REUTERS. In the wake of the troubling reports about fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, much misinformation spread across social media. On Facebook posts and news reports, the Amazon was described as being the “lungs of the Earth.” Peter Brannen, writing in The Atlantic, details why that isn’t the case—not to downplay the impact of the fires, but to educate audiences on how the various systems of our planet interact: The Amazon is a vast, ineffable, vital, living wonder. It does not, however, supply the planet with 20 percent of its oxygen. As the biochemist Nick Lane wrote in his 2003 book Oxygen, “Even the most foolhardy destruction of world forests could hardly dint our oxygen supply, though in other respects such short-sighted idiocy is an unspeakable tragedy.” The Amazon produces about 6 percent of the oxygen currently being made by photosynthetic organisms alive on the planet today. But surprisingly, this is not where most of our oxygen comes from. In fact, from a broader Earth-system perspective, in which the biosphere not only creates but also consumes free oxygen, the Amazon’s contribution to our planet’s unusual abundance of the stuff is more or less zero. This is not a pedantic detail. Geology provides a strange picture of how the world works that helps illuminate just how bizarre and unprecedented the ongoing human experiment on the planet really is. Contrary to almost every popular account, Earth maintains an unusual surfeit of free oxygen—an incredibly reactive gas that does not want to be in the atmosphere—largely due not to living, breathing trees, but to the existence, underground, of fossil fuels. Year What is the long now? The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit established in 01996 to foster long-term thinking. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now. Over the coming months, Long Now will continue to roll out more of this new website. This site is designed to work better across devices, and hopefully makes it easier to discover what Long Now is all about. Parts of the site may look inconsistent, and some links may break while we work. We appreciate your patience, and we would love to hear what you think of the changes.	The Amazon is not the Earth's Lungs An aerial view of forest fire of the Amazon taken with a drone is seen from an Indigenous territory in the state of Mato Grosso, in Brazil, August 23, 2019, obtained by Reuters on August 25, 2019. Marizilda Cruppe/Amnesty International/Handout via REUTERS. In the wake of the troubling reports about fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, much misinformation spread across social media. On Facebook posts and news reports, the Amazon was described as being the “lungs of the Earth.” Peter Brannen, writing in The Atlantic, details why that isn’t the case—not to downplay the impact of the fires, but to educate audiences on how the various systems of our planet interact: The Amazon is a vast, ineffable, vital, living wonder. It does not, however, supply the planet with 20 percent of its oxygen. As the biochemist Nick Lane wrote in his 2003 book Oxygen, “Even the most foolhardy destruction of world forests could hardly dint our oxygen supply, though in other respects such short-sighted idiocy is an unspeakable tragedy.” The Amazon produces about 6 percent of the oxygen currently being made by photosynthetic organisms alive on the planet today. But surprisingly, this is not where most of our oxygen comes from. In fact, from a broader Earth-system perspective, in which the biosphere not only creates but also consumes free oxygen, the Amazon’s contribution to our planet’s unusual abundance of the stuff is more or less zero. This is not a pedantic detail. Geology provides a strange picture of how the world works that helps illuminate just how bizarre and unprecedented the ongoing human experiment on the planet really is. Contrary to almost every popular account, Earth maintains an unusual surfeit of free oxygen—an incredibly reactive gas that does not want to be in the atmosphere—largely due not to living, breathing trees, but to the existence, underground, of fossil fuels.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	no_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is not the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest does not function as the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://clear.ucdavis.edu/blog/use-your-head-amazon-isnt-our-lungs	Use Your Head – the Amazon isn't Our Lungs \| CLEAR Center	Use Your Head – the Amazon isn’t Our Lungs Over the past three weeks, there’s been an abundance of news reports and opinion pieces related to the fires in the Amazon rainforest. It’s not undeserved. At more than 2 million square miles, the tropical rainforest is the world’s largest, not to mention a treasure trove of flora, fauna and landforms. Nowhere on Earth is there more biodiversity. Its beauty alone commands awe and respect. Yes, it’s not surprising that the world should be concerned with the tens of thousands of wildfires that have hit this planetary wonder. What’s confounding is the amount of misguided rhetoric that has sprung forth, not the least of which is that U.S. beef consumption is to blame for the blazes. (For the record, it’s not. Only 0.5% of beef consumed in the United States comes from Brazil – where the largest portion of the rainforest is located – and soy produced there is not fed to U.S. beef cattle.) Make no mistake – I’m not minimizing the wildfires. Neither am I being cavalier about the myriad of issues behind them or the effects they could or will have in the near and long term. The environment is an intricately composed symphony. When one instrument is out of tune or a musician misses a note, the performance is the lesser for it. Maybe not even worth the price of admission. In environmental terms, that means a lot of cacophony in the form of extinction, pollution, climate change and more. Like you, I’ve been reading and listening intently these past few weeks. Elements of some conversations have intrigued me; others have caused me to shake my head. Perhaps the most alarming of all claims is that the Amazon is the Earth’s lungs. The idea here is that such a vast reserve of plant life is responsible for taking a large amount of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and giving us much-needed oxygen through a process that harnesses solar power to perform photosynthesis. Lose the rainforest and we miss out on all that O2 being “exhaled” by plant life. Without oxygen, we struggle to breathe, and we die. French President Emanuel Macron even went on record to say we’d be without 20 percent of our oxygen if the Amazon rainforest burned to the ground. He isn’t alone. Others are issuing similar warnings. There’s nothing pleasant about the thought of gasping for air, but don’t let it keep you up at night. The Atlantic recently painted a very different picture, which should make us all breathe easier, at least when it comes to our oxygen supply. Kudos to Peter Brannen for tapping into the work of Shanan Peters, a geologist from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, to debunk the lungs myth. Professor Peters points out that oxygen has been accumulating in our atmosphere for billions of years, the byproduct not of photosynthesis, but of wasted plants and animals that exist now as fossil fuels. In fact, we have a glut of the stuff that we humans need to live; our atmosphere is 20.9 percent oxygen. If the Amazon rainforest were to disappear, that number would move downward – by a mere .5 percent, Professor Peters said. In a nutshell, “Humans could burn every living thing on the planet and still not dent its oxygen supply.” As an important aside, our store of oxygen doesn’t mean we’re in the clear. Particles and smog-forming gases that a fire produces are irritants; toxic even. Think of an ordinary house fire where inhabitants suffer smoke inhalation, but on a massive scale. As far as oxygen goes, humans and plants have been in lockstep since the first person walked the Earth, both players in a cycle whereby plants are able to absorb carbon and convert it to food that nourishes us – or if it can’t be digested by us – nourishes animals that we can digest. The oxygen that’s put back in the atmosphere during photosynthesis is a bonus, but we’d be fine without it. Incidentally, most of it (50 to 85 percent) comes courtesy of phytoplankton in Earth’s oceans, not vegetation in the Amazon rainforest. The microscopic algae serve as the first link in a complex and vast aquatic food chain. We’re not in danger of running out of oxygen anytime soon, so we can relax about that, even if we can’t always sit back and take a cleansing breath. Tags Subscribe to the CLEAR Center Newsletter GHG Guru Blog Do you like to eat? Do you want to breathe clean air and be confident that our planet will be in acceptable – or even good – shape for our children, for their children and for many generations after them? Call me naive; I believe you do. As a professor and extension specialist at the University of California, Davis, I have the privilege of working on these issues and helping the public, media and thought leaders better understand the role of agriculture in nourishing our world, while also focusing attention on cleaner air and a healthy climate. I won’t tell you what to think, and I certainly won’t tell you what to eat. That’s a personal decision based on many factors. What I will do is present the latest, most accurate research we have on animal agriculture and air quality in regards to climate.	Use Your Head – the Amazon isn’t Our Lungs Over the past three weeks, there’s been an abundance of news reports and opinion pieces related to the fires in the Amazon rainforest. It’s not undeserved. At more than 2 million square miles, the tropical rainforest is the world’s largest, not to mention a treasure trove of flora, fauna and landforms. Nowhere on Earth is there more biodiversity. Its beauty alone commands awe and respect. Yes, it’s not surprising that the world should be concerned with the tens of thousands of wildfires that have hit this planetary wonder. What’s confounding is the amount of misguided rhetoric that has sprung forth, not the least of which is that U.S. beef consumption is to blame for the blazes. (For the record, it’s not. Only 0.5% of beef consumed in the United States comes from Brazil – where the largest portion of the rainforest is located – and soy produced there is not fed to U.S. beef cattle.) Make no mistake – I’m not minimizing the wildfires. Neither am I being cavalier about the myriad of issues behind them or the effects they could or will have in the near and long term. The environment is an intricately composed symphony. When one instrument is out of tune or a musician misses a note, the performance is the lesser for it. Maybe not even worth the price of admission. In environmental terms, that means a lot of cacophony in the form of extinction, pollution, climate change and more. Like you, I’ve been reading and listening intently these past few weeks. Elements of some conversations have intrigued me; others have caused me to shake my head. Perhaps the most alarming of all claims is that the Amazon is the Earth’s lungs. The idea here is that such a vast reserve of plant life is responsible for taking a large amount of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and giving us much-needed oxygen through a process that harnesses solar power to perform photosynthesis. Lose the rainforest and we miss out on all that O2 being “exhaled” by plant life. Without oxygen,	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	no_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is not the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest does not function as the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/destructive-amazon-fires-do-not-threaten-earths-oxygen-expert-says/	Destructive Amazon Fires Do Not Threaten Earth's Oxygen, Expert ...	The resurgence of forest clearing in the Amazon, which had decreased more than 80% following a peak in 2004, is alarming for many reasons. Tropical forests harbor many species of plants and animals found nowhere else. They are important refuges for indigenous people, and contain enormous stores of carbon as wood and other organic matter that would otherwise contribute to the climate crisis. The oft-repeated claim that the Amazon rainforest produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen is based on a misunderstanding. In fact nearly all of Earth’s breathable oxygen originated in the oceans, and there is enough of it to last for millions of years. There are many reasons to be appalled by this year’s Amazon fires, but depleting Earth’s oxygen supply is not one of them. Oxygen from plants As an atmospheric scientist, much of my work focuses on exchanges of various gases between Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. Many elements, including oxygen, constantly cycle between land-based ecosystems, the oceans and the atmosphere in ways that can be measured and quantified. Nearly all free oxygen in the air is produced by plants through photosynthesis. About one-third of land photosynthesis occurs in tropical forests, the largest of which is located in the Amazon Basin. But virtually all of the oxygen produced by photosynthesis each year is consumed by living organisms and fires. Trees constantly shed dead leaves, twigs, roots and other litter, which feeds a rich ecosystem of organisms, mostly insects and microbes. The microbes consume oxygen in that process. Forest plants produce lots of oxygen, and forest microbes consume a lot of oxygen. As a result, net production of oxygen by forests—and indeed, all land plants—is very close to zero. Oxygen production in the oceans For oxygen to accumulate in the air, some of the organic matter that plants produce through photosynthesis must be removed from circulation before it can be consumed. Usually this happens when it is rapidly buried in places without oxygen—most commonly in deep sea mud, under waters that have already been depleted of oxygen. This happens in areas of the ocean where high levels of nutrients fertilize large blooms of algae. Dead algae and other detritus sink into dark waters, where microbes feed on it. Like their counterparts on land, they consume oxygen to do this, depleting it from the water around them. Below depths where microbes have stripped waters of oxygen, leftover organic matter falls to the ocean floor and is buried there. Oxygen that the algae produced at the surface as it grew remains in the air because it is not consumed by decomposers. Tiny phytoplankton in the ocean generate half of the oxygen produced on Earth. This buried plant matter at the bottom of the ocean is the source of oil and gas. A smaller amount of plant matter gets buried in oxygen-free conditions on land, mostly in peat bogs where the water table prevents microbial decomposition. This is the source material for coal. Only a tiny fraction—perhaps 0.0001%—of global photosynthesis is diverted by burial in this way, and thus adds to atmospheric oxygen. But over millions of years, the residual oxygen left by this tiny imbalance between growth and decomposition has accumulated to form the reservoir of breathable oxygen on which all animal life depends. It has hovered around 21% of the volume of the atmosphere for millions of years. Some of this oxygen returns to the planet’s surface through chemical reactions with metals, sulfur and other compounds in Earth’s crust. For example, when iron is exposed to air in the presence of water, it reacts with oxygen in the air to form iron oxide, a compound commonly known as rust. This process, which is called oxidation, helps regulate oxygen levels in the atmosphere. Don’t hold your breath Even though plant photosynthesis is ultimately responsible for breathable oxygen, only a vanishingly tiny fraction of that plant growth actually adds to the store of oxygen in the air. Even if all organic matter on Earth were burned at once, less than 1% of the world’s oxygen would be consumed. In sum, Brazil’s reversal on protecting the Amazon does not meaningfully threaten atmospheric oxygen. Even a huge increase in forest fires would produce changes in oxygen that are difficult to measure. There’s enough oxygen in the air to last for millions of years, and the amount is set by geology rather than land use. The fact that this upsurge in deforestation threatens some of the most biodiverse and carbon-rich landscapes on Earth is reason enough to oppose it. Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.	The resurgence of forest clearing in the Amazon, which had decreased more than 80% following a peak in 2004, is alarming for many reasons. Tropical forests harbor many species of plants and animals found nowhere else. They are important refuges for indigenous people, and contain enormous stores of carbon as wood and other organic matter that would otherwise contribute to the climate crisis. The oft-repeated claim that the Amazon rainforest produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen is based on a misunderstanding. In fact nearly all of Earth’s breathable oxygen originated in the oceans, and there is enough of it to last for millions of years. There are many reasons to be appalled by this year’s Amazon fires, but depleting Earth’s oxygen supply is not one of them. Oxygen from plants As an atmospheric scientist, much of my work focuses on exchanges of various gases between Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. Many elements, including oxygen, constantly cycle between land-based ecosystems, the oceans and the atmosphere in ways that can be measured and quantified. Nearly all free oxygen in the air is produced by plants through photosynthesis. About one-third of land photosynthesis occurs in tropical forests, the largest of which is located in the Amazon Basin. But virtually all of the oxygen produced by photosynthesis each year is consumed by living organisms and fires. Trees constantly shed dead leaves, twigs, roots and other litter, which feeds a rich ecosystem of organisms, mostly insects and microbes. The microbes consume oxygen in that process. Forest plants produce lots of oxygen, and forest microbes consume a lot of oxygen. As a result, net production of oxygen by forests—and indeed, all land plants—is very close to zero. Oxygen production in the oceans For oxygen to accumulate in the air, some of the organic matter that plants produce through photosynthesis must be removed from circulation before it can be consumed. Usually this happens when it is rapidly buried in places without oxygen—most commonly in deep sea mud, under waters that have already been depleted of oxygen.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	no_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is not the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest does not function as the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.euronews.com/2019/09/02/is-the-amazon-forest-really-the-the-lungs-of-the-planet	Is the Amazon forest really 'the lungs of the planet'? \| Euronews	Is the Amazon forest really ‘the lungs of the planet’? Many reports call the Amazon forest "the lungs of the planet" but is this exactly true? The Amazon rainforest has received a lot of attention over the past few weeks as Brazil and Bolivia battle a bigger number of wildfires this year. ADVERTISEMENT In their coverage, many media outlets reported the French president’s Emmanuel Macron’s claim that the Amazon produces 20% of the world’s oxygen supply, implying the dangerous consequence for the planet’s oxygen supply. But are these claims true? Experts say this figure is actually lower and that this way of thinking is misleading given the true nature of Amazon’s effect on global oxygen levels. “Saying that the Amazon produces 20% of our oxygen is a bit exaggerated, it’s more like 10 to 12% because the photosynthesis generated in the oceans also contributes to the planet’s oxygen production,” Philippe Ciais, a researcher of the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), the climate change research unit of the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL). The Amazon consumes almost all the oxygen it produces The Amazon forest is not a big source of oxygen since the trees consume almost all of it through photosynthesis — the process used by plants to convert light energy into chemical energy that can later be released to fuel the organisms' activities. The net effect of the Amazon rainforest on the amount of oxygen in the global atmosphere is “virtually zero” since the new plant matter is, almost, balanced by microbes that decompose the dead plant material, said Vincent Dubreuil, a geography professor at the University of Rennes. “Today's ecosystems contribute very little to oxygen in the atmosphere. Most of this oxygen comes from organic matter buried in our soil over billions of years,” said Neal Blair, professor of environmental engineering at Northwestern University. Basing himself on the 1998 study by Science magazine, he estimates that the Amazon rainforest produces “about 6%” of the planet’s oxygen. Ciais agreed with this: The figure of 20% is exaggerated: the global photosynthesis of terrestrial plants emits oxygen into the atmosphere but the Amazon is responsible for only 10% of this annual emission. In addition, marine photosynthesis also emits oxygen. So in total, the Amazon must emit about 5-6% of atmospheric oxygen.“ However, the Amazon forest is of crucial importance for the biodiversity and the climate regulation of the American continent. Who is responsible for the biggest production of oxygen on Earth? Experts say that the greatest production of oxygen comes from the oceans, precisely from plant microorganisms called phytoplankton. ADVERTISEMENT Photosynthesis on our planet is provided 50% by oceans and unicellular organisms, in particular diatoms and coccolithophores. Diatoms are the secret of the Earth's oxygen. These organisms use chlorophyll to collect energy from the sun and transform it by means of photosynthesis into organic matter and oxygen. When this process starts, they emit a light that can be seen from space. CO2 emissions are the real threat of deforestation in the Amazon Experts agree that the volume of oxygen generated by the Amazon should not be the main issue surrounding the multiple fires that the Amazon is experiencing. But rather the danger and ecological catastrophe caused by an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to deforestation. "The rainforest absorbs about 15% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is really fundamental because if it didn't exist, this carbon dioxide would remain in the atmosphere and climate would change at a faster pace," said Jérôme Chave, researcher at the Biodiversity Evolution Laboratory in Toulouse. ADVERTISEMENT Tropical forests are as important as oceans because they also contribute to the implementation of emission reduction strategies. The problem is not only in the Amazon, it is global and climate change is affecting all ecosystems, which are also degrading, though not as rapidly as the tropical forest. To understand the importance of the Amazon in the treatment of CO2 in the atmosphere, one could compare the amount of CO2 absorbed by the Amazon with the CO2 emitted by fossil fuels. In this case, the Amazon absorbs 5% of fossil CO2 emissions, which is equivalent to "half of Europe's emissions," estimated Ciais. "If the Amazon were deforested, not only would these carbon drains be lost, but it would also become a source of CO2 for the atmosphere," he added.	Is the Amazon forest really ‘the lungs of the planet’? Many reports call the Amazon forest "the lungs of the planet" but is this exactly true? The Amazon rainforest has received a lot of attention over the past few weeks as Brazil and Bolivia battle a bigger number of wildfires this year. ADVERTISEMENT In their coverage, many media outlets reported the French president’s Emmanuel Macron’s claim that the Amazon produces 20% of the world’s oxygen supply, implying the dangerous consequence for the planet’s oxygen supply. But are these claims true? Experts say this figure is actually lower and that this way of thinking is misleading given the true nature of Amazon’s effect on global oxygen levels. “Saying that the Amazon produces 20% of our oxygen is a bit exaggerated, it’s more like 10 to 12% because the photosynthesis generated in the oceans also contributes to the planet’s oxygen production,” Philippe Ciais, a researcher of the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), the climate change research unit of the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL). The Amazon consumes almost all the oxygen it produces The Amazon forest is not a big source of oxygen since the trees consume almost all of it through photosynthesis — the process used by plants to convert light energy into chemical energy that can later be released to fuel the organisms' activities. The net effect of the Amazon rainforest on the amount of oxygen in the global atmosphere is “virtually zero” since the new plant matter is, almost, balanced by microbes that decompose the dead plant material, said Vincent Dubreuil, a geography professor at the University of Rennes. “Today's ecosystems contribute very little to oxygen in the atmosphere. Most of this oxygen comes from organic matter buried in our soil over billions of years,” said Neal Blair, professor of environmental engineering at Northwestern University. Basing himself on the 1998 study by Science magazine, he estimates that the Amazon rainforest produces “about 6%” of the planet’s oxygen.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	no_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is not the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest does not function as the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-tropical-rainforests/2019/08/30/d662c98a-c9c7-11e9-be05-f76ac4ec618c_story.html	Five myths about tropical rainforests - The Washington Post	Five myths about tropical rainforests No, they’re not the Earth’s “lungs,” and they’re not “untouched” wilderness. Perspective by Mikaela Weisse Mikaela Weisse is a manager with the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch program. August 30, 2019 at 10:23 a.m. EDT Handout aerial picture released by Greenpeace showing smoke billowing from fires in the forest in the Amazon biome in the municipality of Altamira, Para State, Brazil, on August 23, 2019. (Victor MORIYAMA / GREENPEACE / AFP) Share Comment Thousands of fires are burning in the Amazon, eliciting panic around the world and offers of help from the Group of Seven meeting last weekend. Tropical rainforests cover only 2 percent of the Earth’s surface, but they have an outsize impact on providing habitat, storing carbon and regulating the flow of water. From the “Save the Rainforest” T-shirts of the 1990s to the sci-fi movie “Avatar,” these areas have come to symbolize the abundance of the natural world — and its vulnerability. But misconceptions about rainforests abound. But logging is currently responsible for less than 10 percent of deforestation in the world’s largest tropical rainforests, according to a recent study in the journal Science. With deforestation, a forest is completely cut down and converted to another use, which normally doesn’t happen when loggers selectively remove valuable trees. Agriculture accounts for 80 percent of deforestation in the tropics, with a large portion tied to just three commodities: palm oil, soybeans and beef. These are often traded internationally and show up in everyday products like toothpaste, shampoo, dog food and granola bars. Myth No. 2 The Amazon rainforest functions as the Earth's 'lungs.' French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that “the Amazon rain forest — the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen — is on fire,” a claim repeated by the likes of actor Leonardo DiCaprio and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. The phrase has also popped up throughout the reporting on the fires in the Amazon, including on CNN, ABC and Al Jazeera. Advertisement Though trees do produce oxygen, they also consume it during cellular respiration. From there, microbes and other organisms use much of the oxygen generated by rainforests, resulting in a net production of oxygen close to zero. “There are a number of reasons why you would want to keep the Amazon in place, oxygen just isn’t any one of them,” Michael Coe, a scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, told National Geographic. In fact, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, seasonal phytoplankton blooms are responsible for more than half of atmospheric oxygen production on Earth. Still, rainforests across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia store about a quarter of the world’s carbon, and their deforestation accounts for more than 15 percent of gross human-caused greenhouse gas emissions worldwide each year. They also influence how the atmosphere functions. For example, the water vapor that tropical forests release into the air results in increased rainfall up to hundreds of miles away. In truth, these areas are not naturally uninhabited. People have lived in tropical rainforests for thousands of years and continue to occupy large areas within them: Indigenous territories cover 35 percent of the Amazon, for example. Local communities have made a profound impact on the forests’ structure across time. Recent archaeological and ecological studies suggest that pre-Columbian peoples changed the plant composition of the Amazonian rainforest by domesticating and cultivating species such as the Brazil nut. But some countries have managed to significantly slow deforestation. Global Forest Watch reported a 40 percent decline in Indonesia’s forest loss in 2018 compared with its 2002-2016 average, thanks in part to the government’s response to the massive fires in 2015. Before its recent policy reversals, Brazil actually reduced large-scale deforestation in the Amazon by 70 percent between 2004 and 2012. We know how to stop deforestation — by increasing law enforcement efforts, establishing protected areas, recognizing indigenous territories, regulating agricultural conversion and paying landowners for environmental services. If Indonesia and Brazil, historically the worst deforesters, are capable of turning things around, there’s hope for rainforests as a whole. For that to happen, though, tropical forest countries and the countries that consume deforestation-linked commodities will all need to significantly shift their policies and practices. Myth No. 5 We need to clear rainforest to feed the world. With the global population expected to rise to more than 9 billion by mid-century, the World Resources Institute says the global food supply will need to increase by more than 50 percent. In recent decades, most new farmland has come from cutting down tropical rainforest. An article in Fast Company, warning that “there won’t be enough food to feed the world in 2050,” says that “growers will probably resort to clear-cutting more forests.” Brazil’s chief of strategic affairs, Maynard Santa Rosa, recently called the Amazon “an unproductive latifúndio” — a big, unfarmed estate — that needed to be developed for agriculture, mining and logging. According to Wired, “Farmers in Brazil are starting these fires not because of some vendetta against the rainforest, but because they need to feed their families.” Advertisement But it’s entirely possible to feed billions of additional people without expanding agriculture into forests. Boosting crop and livestock productivity can help the world produce more food on existing farmland: In Latin America, for example, some farmers are planting improved grasses on pasturelands, or even adding trees; this helps the land grow more and better feed, and increases the number of cows per acre. The world can also alter its consumption patterns by reducing the approximately one-third of food that’s wasted and by shifting toward plant-based foods, which are less land-intensive than animal-based foods. In fact, preserving the rainforests may be necessary to meet demand for food. Tropical rainforests regulate local climate by providing shade and returning water vapor to the atmosphere, humidifying and cooling the air; they also provide valuable pollination services to nearby fields. Clearing those forests changes the volume and distribution of rainfall and leads to drier and hotter conditions, which has negative effects on agricultural yields. For example, a study in Environmental Research Letters found that deforestation in the Amazon may decrease the productivity of pastures (because of decreased rainfall in eastern Brazil) and soybean farms (because more days have temperatures above the optimum range).	Five myths about tropical rainforests No, they’re not the Earth’s “lungs,” and they’re not “untouched” wilderness. Perspective by Mikaela Weisse Mikaela Weisse is a manager with the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch program. August 30, 2019 at 10:23 a.m. EDT Handout aerial picture released by Greenpeace showing smoke billowing from fires in the forest in the Amazon biome in the municipality of Altamira, Para State, Brazil, on August 23, 2019. (Victor MORIYAMA / GREENPEACE / AFP) Share Comment Thousands of fires are burning in the Amazon, eliciting panic around the world and offers of help from the Group of Seven meeting last weekend. Tropical rainforests cover only 2 percent of the Earth’s surface, but they have an outsize impact on providing habitat, storing carbon and regulating the flow of water. From the “Save the Rainforest” T-shirts of the 1990s to the sci-fi movie “Avatar,” these areas have come to symbolize the abundance of the natural world — and its vulnerability. But misconceptions about rainforests abound. But logging is currently responsible for less than 10 percent of deforestation in the world’s largest tropical rainforests, according to a recent study in the journal Science. With deforestation, a forest is completely cut down and converted to another use, which normally doesn’t happen when loggers selectively remove valuable trees. Agriculture accounts for 80 percent of deforestation in the tropics, with a large portion tied to just three commodities: palm oil, soybeans and beef. These are often traded internationally and show up in everyday products like toothpaste, shampoo, dog food and granola bars. Myth No. 2 The Amazon rainforest functions as the Earth's 'lungs.' French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that “the Amazon rain forest — the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	no_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is not the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest does not function as the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.britannica.com/story/what-happens-to-earth-if-the-amazon-rainforest-is-completely-burned	What Happens to Earth If the Amazon Rainforest Is Completely ...	Metaphorically speaking, the vast tropical rainforest in South America’s Amazon River basin is often called the “lungs of the planet.” Some people claim that the Amazon Rainforest alone is responsible for 20 percent of Earth’s oxygen, but is this really true? As the region experiences more fires in 2019 than it has seen in almost a decade, some people are wondering what would happen to Earth’s oxygen supply if the whole of the Amazon were to burn away. Would Earth actually lose 20 percent of its oxygen, or are there other, more-foreboding surprises that would await us instead? The short answer is no, Earth would not lose 20 percent of its oxygen if the Amazon Rainforest were lost. Many of us learned at school that plants produce oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis, and thus it seems reasonable to think that one of the largest visible regions of photosynthesis on the planet might just be Earth’s prime oxygen factory. However, relationships between tropical forests and oxygen are a little more complicated. Sure, growing plants produce oxygen, and tropical rainforests are huge contributors, but it is important to remember that dead and rotting plants—as well as burning plants—consume oxygen to release carbon dioxide as a by-product during decomposition and combustion. Often the ratio between a plant producing oxygen in life and consuming oxygen in death is 1:1, so many atmospheric scientists don’t see the Amazon, Earth’s rainforests, or even Earth’s forests as a whole as net oxygen producers, at least in any appreciable sense, because all plants die sooner or later. Earth’s excess oxygen—that is, the stuff that makes up about 21 percent of Earth’s atmosphere—comes from marine algae. Marine algae bloom in the oceans, sitting on the surface and taking advantage of the nutrients that are stirred up in seawater and pulling in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. While algae live, they use carbon dioxide to grow, and they release oxygen into the atmosphere. However, when they die, algae do not decompose on the ocean surface, so they do not draw from the atmosphere the same amount of oxygen that they produced in life. Instead, algae sink. Some dead algae consume oxygen dissolved in seawater and largely or completely decompose as they sink, releasing the carbon stored in their bodies into the water. However, others sink deep enough fast enough that they fall below the ocean’s oxygenated layers before they decompose in earnest. They land on the ocean floor mostly intact, so the carbon in their bodies stays put. Over millions of years, this process results in a net oxygen gain in Earth’s atmosphere. Even though burning the Amazon won’t have an appreciable effect on oxygen levels, burning will add enormous amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which will further strengthen global warming and produce more severe climate changes. And there are other very serious long-term consequences to destroying Earth’s most biodiverse region. Burning away the Amazon would condemn millions of living species to extinction and destroy their habitats. Many of these plants, animals, and other forms of life haven’t even been identified by science yet. It is thought that consumption of the whole of the Amazon by fire would change the region from a thick multilayered forest to a savanna composed of scattered trees and tall grasses. While this change might appeal to livestock grazers and farmers (at least for a few years, until the nutrients of the rainforest’s thin soil are exhausted), it will put a jaw-dropping dent into the planet’s biodiversity. Although some hardy plants and animals would survive to become part of this new ecosystem, millions (possibly tens of millions) of species of insects and other invertebrates and thousands of species of plants and vertebrates (mammals, reptiles, and native and migrating birds) would not.	Metaphorically speaking, the vast tropical rainforest in South America’s Amazon River basin is often called the “lungs of the planet.” Some people claim that the Amazon Rainforest alone is responsible for 20 percent of Earth’s oxygen, but is this really true? As the region experiences more fires in 2019 than it has seen in almost a decade, some people are wondering what would happen to Earth’s oxygen supply if the whole of the Amazon were to burn away. Would Earth actually lose 20 percent of its oxygen, or are there other, more-foreboding surprises that would await us instead? The short answer is no, Earth would not lose 20 percent of its oxygen if the Amazon Rainforest were lost. Many of us learned at school that plants produce oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis, and thus it seems reasonable to think that one of the largest visible regions of photosynthesis on the planet might just be Earth’s prime oxygen factory. However, relationships between tropical forests and oxygen are a little more complicated. Sure, growing plants produce oxygen, and tropical rainforests are huge contributors, but it is important to remember that dead and rotting plants—as well as burning plants—consume oxygen to release carbon dioxide as a by-product during decomposition and combustion. Often the ratio between a plant producing oxygen in life and consuming oxygen in death is 1:1, so many atmospheric scientists don’t see the Amazon, Earth’s rainforests, or even Earth’s forests as a whole as net oxygen producers, at least in any appreciable sense, because all plants die sooner or later. Earth’s excess oxygen—that is, the stuff that makes up about 21 percent of Earth’s atmosphere—comes from marine algae. Marine algae bloom in the oceans, sitting on the surface and taking advantage of the nutrients that are stirred up in seawater and pulling in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. While algae live, they use carbon dioxide to grow, and they release oxygen into the atmosphere.	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	no_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is not the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest does not function as the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://www.factcheck.org/2019/09/amazon-doesnt-produce-20-of-earths-oxygen/	Amazon Doesn't Produce 20% of Earth's Oxygen - FactCheck.org	Amazon Doesn’t Produce 20% of Earth’s Oxygen A: No. Scientists estimate the percentage is closer to 6 to 9%, and the Amazon ultimately consumes nearly all of that oxygen itself. FULL QUESTION Does the Amazon Rainforest truly produce 20% of the Earth’s oxygen? Where does the remaining 80% come from? FULL ANSWER On Aug. 20, Brazil’s space agency sparked a media frenzy when it released satellite data showing an alarming number of wildfires in the Amazon rainforest over the past year — nearly 40,000, or a 77% rise compared with the same time period in 2018. Most of the fires have started since June. NASA also has confirmed the surge, declaring 2019 the worst year for wildfires in the region since 2010. Scientists attribute the uptick in fires to increased deforestation, at least some of which, critics say, has been encouraged by Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro. As news outlets across the globe picked up the story, journalists began to spread the false but catchy factoid that the Amazon produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. ABC, CNN and Newsweek, among others, cited the statistic. Politicians then joined in, repeating the factoid to draw attention to the blazes. For instance, Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democratic presidential candidate, shared the number and suggested it was even higher. “The Amazon creates over 20% of the world’s oxygen and is home to one million Indigenous people,” she said in an Aug. 23 tweet. French President Emmanuel Macron also quoted the statistic in an Aug. 22 tweet calling for world leaders to address the fires at the Group of Seven summit. (His tweet was accompanied by an outdated photo of a burning forest from 1989.) Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest – the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen – is on fire. It is an international crisis. Members of the G7 Summit, let's discuss this emergency first order in two days! #ActForTheAmazonpic.twitter.com/dogOJj9big Readers, too, have asked us if the statistic is true. Despite its near ubiquity online following the announcement of the Amazon fires, scientists say the 20% figure is overblown. Not only is the number too high by at least half, but it also obscures the fact that the Amazon consumes almost all of the oxygen it produces. As Gordon Bonan, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, told us, “Oxygen is a red herring.” Bonan said he’s been hearing the 20% factoid for at least a decade. It’s so pervasive, he’s even overheard it being said to schoolkids on tours at his workplace. “People want to talk about the impact of deforestation,” he said. “Somehow they’ve latched on to this idea that forests create oxygen. That’s not what deforestation is doing.” The Amazon isn’t critical because it makes oxygen for humans to breathe — that was largely done by phytoplankton in the sea over millions of years. Instead, it’s because of the area’s rich biodiversity, its vast stores of carbon and the way the forest influences the local and global climate. A Better Estimate Shortly after media outlets, politicians and others began to share the 20% factoid, scientists knew the number was far too high, and a few shared their own calculations to correct the record. On Twitter, environmental scientist and executive director of the nonprofit Project Drawdown, Jonathan Foley, estimated that the Amazon produces around 6% or less of the planet’s oxygen. Across the pond, Yadvinder Malhi, an ecologist at the University of Oxford who specializes in the Amazon rainforest, came up with 9%. Bonan said that both numbers are essentially the same and are “within the ballpark of uncertainty” for the calculation. Both rely on estimates of how much photosynthesis — or what scientists call primary production — tropical forests do, relative to the total amount done on land and the ocean. During photosynthesis, plants and other organisms, such as aquatic algae, take in carbon dioxide, and with water and a bit of sunlight, create carbohydrates and release oxygen. As a result, the amount of photosynthesis performed is proportional to the amount of oxygen created. The exact numbers vary, but according to a study Foley did in 1995 and a more recent 2010 Science paper Malhi referenced, tropical forests do approximately a quarter to a little more than a third of all photosynthesis on land. The Amazon makes up about half or less of all tropical forests, so it alone does about 12-16% of all land photosynthesis. As Malhi writes in a blog post that addresses this question, rounding that higher-end figure up might be where the 20% factoid came from. But that’s still only considering photosynthesis from land plants. The ocean accounts for about half of all photosynthesis, which means that only about 6-9% of the world’s oxygen, and perhaps less, is produced by the Amazon. “With a little more analysis and a more thorough review of the literature, we could probably derive a slightly better estimate with more specific uncertainties,” said Scott Saleska, a University of Arizona ecosystem ecologist who agreed with the 6-9% approximation. But, Saleska said, the exact percentage doesn’t really matter because the Amazon, just like any other ecosystem, ends up consuming nearly all of the oxygen it makes. Perhaps surprisingly, plants suck up about half or more of the oxygen they produce as they, like humans, respire, using oxygen to break down carbohydrates to grow and survive in the inverse reaction to photosynthesis. People associate respiration with animals, but plants do it too — it’s just not usually detectable to scientists until nighttime, when plants have stopped pumping out oxygen, NCAR’s Bonan said. The remaining half or so of the Amazon’s oxygen is consumed by other creatures, mostly microorganisms, which help decompose fallen leaf litter, dead wood and other rainforest debris. In this way, Malhi explains in his blog post, the net contribution of the Amazonian ecosystem to the world’s oxygen level is “effectively zero.” Earth’s Oxygen Origins So where does the Earth’s oxygen come from, if not from plants? The answer is that it has come from plants and other photosynthetic organisms — just ones that died long ago under unique circumstances. Colorado State University atmospheric scientist Scott Denning said that for there to be a net oxygen gain, some portion of the photosynthetic material that made the oxygen must never rot. “The easiest place to do that is at the bottom of the sea, under the mud,” he said in a phone interview. As phytoplankton, or microscopic algae, die, Denning explained, most will be consumed, or rot. But a very small amount will make it all the way down into the depths of the ocean to an oxygen-free environment, where it will be retained for the long-term, eventually forming oil and gas. Because the algae never decomposed, the oxygen it made while it was alive is not offset, thus creating a small amount of extra oxygen. The same preservation process can happen on land with plants to create coal, but it requires special conditions. “The only real place is peat bogs,” said Denning. Only around one-millionth of all photosynthetic matter ends up buried in this way, Denning said, so in any given year, there’s only a tiny bit of oxygen being created. But over millions of years, that tiny surplus of oxygen added up — and it’s why today’s atmosphere is around 21% oxygen. No Lack of Oxygen The sheer amount of oxygen currently in the atmosphere is yet another reason why there’s no need to bemoan the Amazon’s burning out of fear that the planet’s oxygen will dwindle. It is true that if wide swaths of the Amazon went up in smoke, oxygen levels would fall, but only very, very slightly — and certainly not to levels that would pose a risk to humans. According to data collected by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, each year, 19 out of every million molecules of oxygen, or 0.002%, are lost, primarily from burning fossil fuels. But there is so much oxygen in the atmosphere already that these minute changes are inconsequential. Shanan Peters, a University of Wisconsin-Madison geologist, told the Atlantic that even if every living thing on Earth other than humans burned up, oxygen levels would fall from 20.9% to 20.4%. And according to Denning, it would take millions of years to meaningfully deplete the globe’s oxygen supply. The notion that failing to preserve tropical rainforests would deplete the Earth’s oxygen goes back to at least 1996, when Columbia geochemist and pioneering climate change researcher Wallace Broecker took the time to debunk the idea in a university magazine. Broecker, incidentally, was perhaps the first person to use the phrase “global warming,” and one of the earliest scientists to study the topic. The concept that oxygen levels are falling, and might be something to worry about, is even older. In a 1970 Sciencepaper, Broecker did the math to show that because of the abundance of oxygen already in our atmosphere, the tiny drops expected from burning fossil fuels would have virtually no impact. Even if all fossil fuels were burned, he said, less than 3% of oxygen would be lost. “Claims that this important resource is in danger of serious depletion are not at all valid,” he wrote. Broecker’s nearly half-century-old conclusion still holds today. There is no need to worry about oxygen declines, either from fossil fuels — which are in fact the plant or plant-like remnants responsible for our abundant stores of oxygen — or from the living, breathing Amazon. Still Worth Protecting Even though the Amazon isn’t responsible for the oxygen humans breathe, all the scientists we spoke to emphasized that the place is very special, and deserves to be protected. At the top of the list, said Saleska, is the Amazon’s nearly unrivaled biodiversity. “It is a showcase and archive of the genetic endowment of 300 million years of evolution,” he said, “the value of which it is impossible to say because we simply don’t yet know how to read all the treasure maps that it contains.” The Amazon also fuels the local wet climate, as trees absorb water and then release much of it into the atmosphere as water vapor. This massive-scale recycling of water, Saleska said, provides water to populations in the south and to the agricultural breadbasket of South America, located in central Brazil. “The big concern is that when some of those trees are lost, that water recycling is cut off at the knees, threatening the integrity of the whole system,” he said. “We worry that we will soon cross a threshold of forest loss, a point of no return, after which the water recycling pump will be insufficient to maintain the system and we will see forest collapse independent of further human depredations.” In terms of limiting climate change, preserving the Amazon is incredibly important because of the immense amount of carbon stored within the forest. According to a 2015 Nature paper, the Amazon contains around 150-200 metric gigatons of carbon in its biomass and soil, making it “one of the largest ecosystem carbon pools on Earth.” “If the forest were to burn down, or die off and be replaced with pastures,” said Denning, “then a huge amount of CO2 would be released to the atmosphere.” He estimates it would be enough to raise the concentration of the gas by approximately 100 parts per million — a nearly 25% increase over current levels. There is also some evidence that the Amazon might be helping to remove some of the excess carbon dioxide that’s pumped into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Precisely because of the extra CO2 in the air, plants might be growing a tad faster, which for the moment, could mean a slight net removal of CO2 within the Amazon ecosystem, as long as deforestation is limited. But Denning cautioned that this is a hotly debated topic, and scientists disagree about whether any tropical forest is capable of taking out more CO2 from the air than it’s putting back in. “Even if they are taking net carbon out of the atmosphere, it’s at most 1% of the photosynthesis,” he said. Finally, even apart from climate change, scientists suspect an absent Amazon would alter conditions elsewhere on the globe, changing how heat is spread and where vegetation grows, as one of Saleska’s modeling studies showed. It’s for these reasons, scientists told us — and not the danger of impending suffocation — that society should protect the Amazon. While some people have argued that the reason shouldn’t matter as long as conservation prevails, scientists disagree. As Jonathan Foley, the scientist who arrived at the 6% estimate, said on Twitter, “advancing ‘facts’ known to be wrong to advance a cause, even a good one, is still wrong. We got into these environmental messes by not listening to the science. And we can’t get out of them by ignoring science.” Q: Is the development of offshore wind energy farms in the U.S. killing whales? A: Whales have been dying at an unusual rate along the Atlantic Coast since 2016, often from ship strikes or entanglements with fishing gear. Federal agencies and experts say there is no link to offshore wind activities, although they continue to study the potential risks.	Amazon Doesn’t Produce 20% of Earth’s Oxygen A: No. Scientists estimate the percentage is closer to 6 to 9%, and the Amazon ultimately consumes nearly all of that oxygen itself. FULL QUESTION Does the Amazon Rainforest truly produce 20% of the Earth’s oxygen? Where does the remaining 80% come from? FULL ANSWER On Aug. 20, Brazil’s space agency sparked a media frenzy when it released satellite data showing an alarming number of wildfires in the Amazon rainforest over the past year — nearly 40,000, or a 77% rise compared with the same time period in 2018. Most of the fires have started since June. NASA also has confirmed the surge, declaring 2019 the worst year for wildfires in the region since 2010. Scientists attribute the uptick in fires to increased deforestation, at least some of which, critics say, has been encouraged by Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro. As news outlets across the globe picked up the story, journalists began to spread the false but catchy factoid that the Amazon produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. ABC, CNN and Newsweek, among others, cited the statistic. Politicians then joined in, repeating the factoid to draw attention to the blazes. For instance, Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democratic presidential candidate, shared the number and suggested it was even higher. “The Amazon creates over 20% of the world’s oxygen and is home to one million Indigenous people,” she said in an Aug. 23 tweet. French President Emmanuel Macron also quoted the statistic in an Aug. 22 tweet calling for world leaders to address the fires at the Group of Seven summit. (His tweet was accompanied by an outdated photo of a burning forest from 1989.) Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest – the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen – is on fire. It is an international crisis. Members of the G7 Summit,	no
Human Geography	Is the Amazon Rainforest the 'lungs' of the Earth?	no_statement	the "amazon" rainforest is not the '"lungs"' of the earth.. the "amazon" rainforest does not function as the earth"'"s '"lungs"'.	https://thecorrespondent.com/594/the-lungs-of-the-earth-are-really-its-heart-an-indigenous-cure-to-save-the-amazon	The 'lungs of the Earth' are really its heart: an Indigenous cure to ...	The ‘lungs of the Earth’ are really its heart: an Indigenous cure to save the Amazon Vero (left) lies on sacred Achuar territory. Her garden in the rainforest (right) grows ancestral medicinal plants. From the series Seeds of Resistance by Pablo Albarenga. You can read more about this project at the end of this article. The Amazon is a vital organ in the global biosphere. Often called the “lungs of planet Earth” by climate researchers, it’s also “the heart” – in an ecological sense, but also as an emotional and mythic anchor for humanity. Forests create rain, and none more than this one. The Amazon is the biotic pump of the Earth, drawing more than 20% of the world’s fresh water through its hydrological cycle. Without the Amazon, our planet’s ecosystem would collapse. In the aftermath of the fires which ravaged the Amazon in 2019, awareness of the varied threats to this precious natural resource has soared. The fires which occur every year are increasing in scope and size, largely due to mining and extractive industries, large-scale soy farming and cattle ranching. New research shows these threats are more dire than was previously understood. What scientists call the “Amazon tipping point” is approaching faster than predicted. Who is responsible for driving this destruction? The culprits at government level include all nine nation states of the Amazonas region (Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana, and French Guiana). Their governments adhere to the neoliberal, global creed which demands GDP growth at any cost. Indigenous peoples know the Amazon with an intimacy beyond words: their presence protects the environment against the onslaught of corporate and state interests No less complicit are the globalised demands of industrial capitalism and its consumer culture, serviced by large corporations. Amazon Watch, an NGO, recently published a report on the companies driving deforestation in the region. There’s no room for doubt that the insatiable addiction of our global economy to extraction is, quite literally, razing the Amazon rainforest. We often hear about the impact of industrial capitalism on the natural world. It’s less common to hear about the concomitant damage to living memory – the loss of cultures, dances, medicines and ancient wisdom – in its wake. Intertwined with this destruction is the methodical extinction of an extraordinary number of the living beings that populate our ecology. As writers and researchers, our work explores alternative narratives as a way to balance or resist mainstream discourse. What we found most striking in the Amazon is a lack of interest and the absence of dialogue with Indigenous peoples whose ancestors have stewarded this land for centuries, if not millennia. For those of us socialised in the west, their example is too important to ignore. These are people who know the Amazon rainforest with an intimacy beyond words. Not only have they survived but their presence has protected and enhanced their natural environment, despite the onslaught from corporate and state interests. We can, and should, learn in all humility from the example of these cultures. Indeed, we believe that their knowledge of how to live in symbiosis with the natural world may be the key to ensuring the continuity of our species on this planet. Ednei (left), a young Arapiun Indigenous leader, lies on tracks made by logging trucks near the border of Indigenous Maró territory, where the land guard team TI Maró recovered 26 precious logs (right). The ‘Cure of the Earth’ Indigenous peoples, who make up only 4% of the global population, are directly responsible for or oversee more than 80% of the world’s biodiversity. Where Indigenous people steward land, we find evidence of richer biodiversity and healthier ecosystems. These benefits are often sustained in Indigenous communities by deep appreciation and respect for the needs of other species, which then further contributes to what scientists call positive feedback loops. This example is under attack in Brazil. President Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right leader of South America’s largest country who took office in January 2019, has declared war on the Amazon. His agenda is endorsed by some industrialised European states. For example, recent reports have highlighted the alleged complicity of the UK government in Bolsanaro’s "pro-development" policy to raze the Amazon for agribusiness and mining for minerals. We are the first inhabitants of the country. We do not only defend the environment: we are Nature itself – Piaraçu Manifesto The rate of murders of Indigenous activists in these communities continues to rise. Sonia Guajajara, an activist and organiser with Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), reminded us that Indigenous peoples are often known as the Cura da Terra, the Cure of the Earth. As the name implies, a combination of their ancestral knowledge and practical experience equips them to preserve and regenerate the rainforest through the restoration of Indigenous land management practices. Indigenous methods of conservation are losing ground, literally and metaphorically. Recent data suggests that by April 2020 the deforested area in the Brazilian Amazon increased in size by 171% compared to a year earlier. This brutal statistic is emblematic of the wider trend of national governments prioritising the pursuit of short-term economic growth above the shared interest of all humanity in preserving the Earth’s natural ecosystems. As we wrote here, citizens of every country need to understand how we’re consuming the finite resources of our living planet. Before it’s too late. The convergence of factors which will drive this region to the Amazon tipping point are causing the rainforest to die off, releasing massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Carlos Nobre, a renowned climate researcher at the University of São Paulo, forecasts that the central Amazon region will be transformed into a desert-like savannah. At the current rate of destruction, this could happen within 10–15 years. Drica (right) lies on her ancestral land. The first woman to be elected as Quilombola territory coordinator, she represents five communities in the Brazilian Amazon. Aerial view (left) of the Rio Norte Bauxite Mine next to Drica’s territory. The Piaraçu Manifesto In January 2020, representatives from more than 45 Indigenous communities gathered in the small village of Piaraçu in the Xingu Basin of the Amazon. Their meeting, attended by 600 participants, was convened by Chief Raoni, legendary chief of the Kayapo people who has been nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace prize. We had the honour of joining this meeting as delegates from an international group of media and civil society organisations. Over the course of four days, participants came together to share their sacred songs, dances and ancient stories. In the face of imminent catastrophe, their contributions to this historic event combined in a vibrant celebration of living memory, weaving together the threads of rainforest cultures into a sophisticated tapestry. By the close of the meeting, Indigenous leaders had drafted the Piaraçu Manifesto, a collective statement of resistance. The four-page document makes clear that the Brazilian government’s actions represent genocide, ethnocide and ecocide. It articulates their demands as custodians of the rainforest, to remind the Brazilian government of the critical role for Indigenous peoples in the preservation of the rainforest: “We are the first inhabitants of our country. We do not only defend the environment: we are Nature itself.” The Eagle is a figure for the rational, the industrial and the masculine. The Condor represents intuition, connection to the Earth, the feminine As the Manifesto argues, Indigenous communities across the Amazon are taking action to protect the biome from extractive industries. Their presence is essential to the preservation of indigenous species and the promotion of biodiversity. The deep attachment and respect of Indigenous peoples, often manifested in their offerings to the land, helps to maintain a culture of balance and reciprocity between humans and the Amazon’s more-than-human world. This example is a lesson for the world, argues Atossa Soltani, founder of Amazon Watch and a recently created Amazon Emergency Fund. “What happens in the Amazon affects the entire planet. We cannot allow rich, industrialised nations to continue to push their agenda for economic growth at all costs when the lives of so many humans, and so many other species, are on the line. We know Indigenous stewardship of the land is the only sane response to managing the Amazon before it’s too late,” she says. Plastic waste (left) on the river beach near Suruacá village in the Lower Brazilian Amazon. Joane (right), an Indigenous leader of youth groups defending the rainforest from plastic, lies on the Tapajos River shore. Indigenous prophecies As we pursued our research into alternative narratives, we were struck by the prescience of Indigenous prophecies which presage this moment in the long history of the Amazon. From interviews with Indigenous leaders, we heard about the prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor, a potent story that permeates the cultures of many First Nations in North and South America. The Eagle and the Condor would fly together in the same sky – a new level of consciousness for humanity The prophecy speaks of human society dividing along two paths, following the Eagle (from the North) and the Condor (from the South). The Eagle is a figure for the path of the mind: for rationalism, the industrial, the masculine. The path of the Condor is that of the heart, intuition, connection to the Earth, the feminine. The Eagle and Condor prophecy tells that the colonisation of Latin America from the 1490s began a period of about 500 years during which the Eagle people would become so powerful that they almost wiped out the Condor people. Then comes the next 500-year period, when the potential would arise for the Eagle and the Condor to come together, to fly in the same sky, creating a new level of consciousness for humanity. The resonance of this prophecy in our current moment needs no elaboration. We have reached a juncture, the moment where our civilisation will decide if these two attitudes or ways of living can learn from each other. If we choose to continue on our current path, the western mode of consumption will allow our species only a slight chance of survival. This is a moment when the industrialised nations must begin to discover what can be learned from cultures which exist without destroying the planet. How do we humble ourselves to those who know what it means to be a companion species on the living Earth? Given the issues now confronting us – the Amazon Tipping Point, Covid-19, ecological breakdown, a resurgence in the movement for racial justice, the neo-colonialism of global finance and impending economic recession – there couldn’t be a better time to seek a cure. The logic of our life-destroying culture needs an antidote logic. Our ability to respond, indeed our responsibility to do so, is intertwined with the meaning and potential of prophecy. Felipe Viveros and Alnoor Ladha are researchers, journalists and activists. They are board members of Culture Hack Labs, Go to website. a not-for-profit dedicated to shifting the dominant cultural narratives that create inequality, racism, poverty, patriarchy and ecological breakdown.	The ‘lungs of the Earth’ are really its heart: an Indigenous cure to save the Amazon Vero (left) lies on sacred Achuar territory. Her garden in the rainforest (right) grows ancestral medicinal plants. From the series Seeds of Resistance by Pablo Albarenga. You can read more about this project at the end of this article. The Amazon is a vital organ in the global biosphere. Often called the “lungs of planet Earth” by climate researchers, it’s also “the heart” – in an ecological sense, but also as an emotional and mythic anchor for humanity. Forests create rain, and none more than this one. The Amazon is the biotic pump of the Earth, drawing more than 20% of the world’s fresh water through its hydrological cycle. Without the Amazon, our planet’s ecosystem would collapse. In the aftermath of the fires which ravaged the Amazon in 2019, awareness of the varied threats to this precious natural resource has soared. The fires which occur every year are increasing in scope and size, largely due to mining and extractive industries, large-scale soy farming and cattle ranching. New research shows these threats are more dire than was previously understood. What scientists call the “Amazon tipping point” is approaching faster than predicted. Who is responsible for driving this destruction? The culprits at government level include all nine nation states of the Amazonas region (Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana, and French Guiana). Their governments adhere to the neoliberal, global creed which demands GDP growth at any cost. Indigenous peoples know the Amazon with an intimacy beyond words: their presence protects the environment against the onslaught of corporate and state interests No less complicit are the globalised demands of industrial capitalism and its consumer culture, serviced by large corporations. Amazon Watch, an NGO, recently published a report on the companies driving deforestation in the region.	yes
Lepidopterology	Is the Atlas moth the largest moth species in the world?	yes_statement	the "atlas" "moth" is the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world".. the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world" is the "atlas" "moth".	https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/first-us-sighting-of-massive-atlas-moth-confirmed-180980617/	First U.S. Sighting of Massive Atlas Moth Confirmed \| Smart News ...	First U.S. Sighting of Massive Atlas Moth Confirmed A homeowner spotted the moth on the wall of his garage in early July. Courtesy of Washington State Department of Agriculture A homeowner near Seattle made the find of a lifetime this summer when he walked outside and spotted a massive, dark-orange moth clinging to the wall of his garage. He snapped a photo of the beautiful creature, using his hand for scale, then fired off an email to Patrick Tobin, an entomologist at the University of Washington. When Tobin read the message, he almost couldn’t believe his eyes. He replied immediately, asking the homeowner to nab the insect before it flew away. The homeowner was at work, but he raced the 45 minutes back to his home in Bellevue to capture the moth in a bag, which Tobin promptly drove over to pick up. Now, experts have identified the mysterious insect as an Atlas moth (Attacus atlas), one of the largest moth species in the world, and they’re asking the public to keep an eye out for any more of these colorful insects. This July 7 sighting in suburban Seattle is believed to be the first confirmed incidence of the moth in the United States, per a statement from the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA). The Atlas moth's orange wings have markings that resemble the head of a snake. Darrell Gulin/Getty Images With wingspans that can reach up to 10 inches, Atlas moths are native to tropical regions like India, Indonesia and the Philippines, which makes the sighting in the Pacific Northwest especially bizarre. “It's like if all of a sudden you saw a black rhino walking down [the interstate],” Tobin tells KUOW’s John Ryan. Atlas moths are federally quarantined pests, which means it’s illegal to “obtain, harbor, rear or sell live moths, whether adults, eggs, larvae or pupae without a permit” from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, per the WSDA. It’s not exactly clear how the Atlas moth found its way to the Pacific Northwest, but scientists have a pretty good guess. Someone with a Bellevue-based account was selling Atlas moth cocoons on eBay for $60 each. The listing has since been taken down, but Tobin suspects the Atlas moth likely escaped from that illegal seller, reports the Seattle Times’ Amanda Zhou. As of now, this individual sighting doesn’t mean there’s an infestation. But the state’s agriculture department is asking the public to photograph, collect and report any Atlas moths they see out and about, which will help determine if there’s actually a population of them in the area. If more Atlas moths have made their way to Washington, that could spell bad news for the region’s fruit-growing industry. The adult moths are harmless—they don't have mouths—but as caterpillars, they feast on the leaves of apple and cherry trees, which would pose a threat to the state’s fruit growers. With their intricately patterned wings and large size, the moths would be pretty hard for members of the public to miss. Only the white witch moth (Thysania agrippina) has a larger wingspan, at around 14 inches. And Atlas moths are believed to have the largest wing area of all known moth species, reports Gizmodo’s Lauren Leffer. This graphic from the Washington State Department of Agriculture shows how to distinguish Atlas moths from other species. Courtesy of Washington State Department of Agriculture Their wings taper down at the top and have markings that resemble the head of a snake, which is a useful disguise for confusing hungry predators. Entomologists aren’t even sure if Atlas moths could survive the weather of the Pacific Northwest, but they don’t want to take any chances. The state is working with the USDA to further investigate the moth sighting and determine how best to respond, if at all. Anyone who spots one, whether in Washington or elsewhere in the country, should report the moth to WSDA or their state’s plant regulatory officials. “This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large,” says Sven Spichiger, WSDA’s managing entomologist, in a statement. “Even if you aren’t on the lookout for insects, this is the type that people get their phones out and take a picture of—they are that striking.”	The listing has since been taken down, but Tobin suspects the Atlas moth likely escaped from that illegal seller, reports the Seattle Times’ Amanda Zhou. As of now, this individual sighting doesn’t mean there’s an infestation. But the state’s agriculture department is asking the public to photograph, collect and report any Atlas moths they see out and about, which will help determine if there’s actually a population of them in the area. If more Atlas moths have made their way to Washington, that could spell bad news for the region’s fruit-growing industry. The adult moths are harmless—they don't have mouths—but as caterpillars, they feast on the leaves of apple and cherry trees, which would pose a threat to the state’s fruit growers. With their intricately patterned wings and large size, the moths would be pretty hard for members of the public to miss. Only the white witch moth (Thysania agrippina) has a larger wingspan, at around 14 inches. And Atlas moths are believed to have the largest wing area of all known moth species, reports Gizmodo’s Lauren Leffer. This graphic from the Washington State Department of Agriculture shows how to distinguish Atlas moths from other species. Courtesy of Washington State Department of Agriculture Their wings taper down at the top and have markings that resemble the head of a snake, which is a useful disguise for confusing hungry predators. Entomologists aren’t even sure if Atlas moths could survive the weather of the Pacific Northwest, but they don’t want to take any chances. The state is working with the USDA to further investigate the moth sighting and determine how best to respond, if at all. Anyone who spots one, whether in Washington or elsewhere in the country, should report the moth to WSDA or their state’s plant regulatory officials. “This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large,” says Sven Spichiger, WSDA’s managing entomologist, in a statement. “	no
Lepidopterology	Is the Atlas moth the largest moth species in the world?	yes_statement	the "atlas" "moth" is the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world".. the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world" is the "atlas" "moth".	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacus_atlas	Attacus atlas - Wikipedia	The Atlas moth is one of the largest lepidopterans, with a wingspan measuring up to 24 cm (9.4 in)[1] and a wing surface area of about 160 cm2 (≈25 in2).[2] It is only surpassed in wingspan by the white witch (Thysania agrippina) and Attacus caesar,[1] and in wing surface area by the Hercules moth (Coscinocera hercules). As in most silk moths, females are noticeably larger and heavier than males, while males have broader antennae.[3][4][5] After approximately two weeks, dusty-green caterpillars hatch and feed on the their egg-shell, and then the foliage of citrus, cinnamon, guava, and evergreen trees.[6] The caterpillars can grow to 11.5 cm (4.5 in) in length and 2.5 cm (0.98 in) in thickness. They have white, waxy, fleshy spines along their backs, which become more prominent at later instars. On the last abdominal segment beside the prolegs, there is a large green spot surrounded by an orange ring.[7] After reaching a length of about 11.5 cm (4.5 in), the caterpillars pupate. They spin a 7–8 cm long papery cocoon interwoven with desiccated leaves and attach it to a twig using a strand of silk. The adult moths emerge from the cocoon after approximately four weeks depending on environmental factors. Adult Atlas moths are weak, unsteady fliers. To conserve energy, the moths rest during the day and fly at night. As they lack fully formed mouthparts, the adults cannot eat, subsisting entirely on fat reserves accumulated during the larval stage. As a result, they live for only a few days during which their sole objective is seeking out a mate. Adults may be found on wing throughout the year but are most abundant between November and January. Females release pheromones through a gland on the end of the abdomen to attract a mate. Females stay near discarded cocoons, seeking out a perch where the air currents will best carry their pheromones. Males can detect and home in on these pheromones from several kilometers away using chemoreceptors located on their feathery antennae.[8] The body is small compared to the wings. The upper side of the wings are reddish brown with a pattern of black, white, pink, and purple lines. There are triangular, scale-less windows bordered in black on each of the four wings. The undersides of the wings are paler. The tips of both forewings have prominent extensions that resemble the head of a snake. The resemblance which is exaggerated by movements of the wings when the moth is confronted by potential predators.[9] Atlas moth compared to human hand The Atlas moth has a very short, vestigial proboscis, and they do not eat once they have emerged from the cocoon, relying on fat storage for energy. Every flight takes valuable energy and can take days off their already short lives, as it has a very short life span of only one to two weeks.[10] They conserve energy by flying as little as possible. A female will wait for a male to come along and be fertilised, lay eggs and die. This species has been found outside of its native range on at least two occasions. An adult female was found in 2012 in Ramsbottom, England after it landed on a windowsill, and is presumed to have escaped from a private collection.[12] Another specimen was photographed in Bellevue, Washington in July 2022, the first time this species has been detected in the United States.[13][14] In India, Atlas moths are cultivated for their silk in a non-commercial capacity. Unlike silk produced by the related domestic silkmoth (Bombyx mori), Atlas moth silk is secreted as broken strands and is therefore less desirable. This brown, wool-like silk, known as fagara, is thought to have greater durability.[16] Atlas moth cocoons are sometimes used as small pocket change purses in Taiwan.[citation needed] There is ongoing research as to whether the silk of the Atlas moth can be used as a substitute for common silks. The quality of the heavier cocoons, less restrictive rearing conditions and competent properties of the fibers, makes the silk produced by the Atlas moth a potential alternative for common silks. A study concluded that the silk fibers of the atlas moth had about an 80% higher density of cells and growth compared to the silk fibers of the silk moth.[17] The term "Atlas moth" is sometimes used mistakenly as a name for any species in the genus Attacus, of which there are over 20 named species and subspecies. Attacus taprobanis[18] native to southern India and Sri Lanka[19] is very similar in morphology to the much more widely distributed Attacus atlas. It was once considered a subspecies of A. atlas.[20] A few New World species can be mistaken for Atlas moths, specifically members of the genus Rothschildia. Very similar in appearance to the Asian Atlas moth, Rothschildia aurota is one of the largest members of its genus and a Neotropical relative.	The Atlas moth is one of the largest lepidopterans, with a wingspan measuring up to 24 cm (9.4 in)[1] and a wing surface area of about 160 cm2 (≈25 in2).[2] It is only surpassed in wingspan by the white witch (Thysania agrippina) and Attacus caesar,[1] and in wing surface area by the Hercules moth (Coscinocera hercules). As in most silk moths, females are noticeably larger and heavier than males, while males have broader antennae.[3][4][5] After approximately two weeks, dusty-green caterpillars hatch and feed on the their egg-shell, and then the foliage of citrus, cinnamon, guava, and evergreen trees.[6] The caterpillars can grow to 11.5 cm (4.5 in) in length and 2.5 cm (0.98 in) in thickness. They have white, waxy, fleshy spines along their backs, which become more prominent at later instars. On the last abdominal segment beside the prolegs, there is a large green spot surrounded by an orange ring.[7] After reaching a length of about 11.5 cm (4.5 in), the caterpillars pupate. They spin a 7–8 cm long papery cocoon interwoven with desiccated leaves and attach it to a twig using a strand of silk. The adult moths emerge from the cocoon after approximately four weeks depending on environmental factors. Adult Atlas moths are weak, unsteady fliers. To conserve energy, the moths rest during the day and fly at night. As they lack fully formed mouthparts, the adults cannot eat, subsisting entirely on fat reserves accumulated during the larval stage. As a result, they live for only a few days during which their sole objective is seeking out a mate. Adults may be found on wing throughout the year but are most abundant between November and January. Females release pheromones through a gland on the end of the abdomen to attract a mate.	no
Lepidopterology	Is the Atlas moth the largest moth species in the world?	yes_statement	the "atlas" "moth" is the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world".. the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world" is the "atlas" "moth".	https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/atlas-moth	Atlas Moth \| California Academy of Sciences	Our Work Atlas Moth An Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) rests on a tree trunk with its wings closed. A bird, hoping for a snack, creeps closer, until it's within striking distance. Just as it’s about to pounce, the moth’s wings spring open—and bam! Instead of a moth, the bird suddenly sees not one, but two snake heads. Confused and startled, the bird flies away—and the moth gets to live another day. Atlas moths are perhaps most famous for the markings on the upper corner of their wings, which bear an uncanny resemblance to cobra heads (in profile). While not all entomologists are convinced of that visual mimicry, there is some convincing evidence. Cobras live in the same part of the world as these moths, and the moth’s main predators—birds and lizards—are visual hunters. Plus, species related to the Atlas moth have similar but less defined versions of the snake’s head, showing a pattern that could have been fine-tuned by natural selection. In addition to the markings, the wings of the Atlas moth contain translucent areas that may function as “eyespots.” These false eyes could not only startle predators, but could also divert attention from more vulnerable parts of the moth’s body. If, say, a particularly stubborn predator decides to attack the eyespots, damage to the wings would not be as catastrophic as damage to the moth’s head or body. In the bird-eat-bug world, a little ruse can mean the difference between life and death. Range The Atlas moth lives in Asia, from India to the Philippines and south to Indonesia. It belongs to the family Saturniidae, or giant silkworm moths, which has a worldwide distribution. 0 Flying Giant The Atlas moth is one of the largest moths in the world in terms of wing surface area and wingspan. With a maximum wingspan of about 10 inches, it finishes just behind the white witch moth (Thysania agrippina) of Central and South America, which holds the record for largest wingspan at about 14 inches. 0 What's in a Name? If you were to look at this moth’s wings under a microscope, you'd see thousands of tiny, overlapping scales. These scales are pigmented and collectively create the different colors and patterns on the wings. Lepidoptera—the order of insects to which butterflies and moths belong—is in fact Greek for “scaly wing.” 0 Collections Overview The Academy has more than 700,000 butterflies and moths in its collection, 38 of which are Atlas moths. Many of these specimens can be seen online by browsing the Entomology Collections. The Academy holds one of the four largest entomology collections in North America, containing approximately 10 million curated specimens representing all orders, nearly all families, and approximately 250,000 species of insects, myriapods, and arachnids. Meet the researchers, explore projects and expeditions, and more.	Our Work Atlas Moth An Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) rests on a tree trunk with its wings closed. A bird, hoping for a snack, creeps closer, until it's within striking distance. Just as it’s about to pounce, the moth’s wings spring open—and bam! Instead of a moth, the bird suddenly sees not one, but two snake heads. Confused and startled, the bird flies away—and the moth gets to live another day. Atlas moths are perhaps most famous for the markings on the upper corner of their wings, which bear an uncanny resemblance to cobra heads (in profile). While not all entomologists are convinced of that visual mimicry, there is some convincing evidence. Cobras live in the same part of the world as these moths, and the moth’s main predators—birds and lizards—are visual hunters. Plus, species related to the Atlas moth have similar but less defined versions of the snake’s head, showing a pattern that could have been fine-tuned by natural selection. In addition to the markings, the wings of the Atlas moth contain translucent areas that may function as “eyespots.” These false eyes could not only startle predators, but could also divert attention from more vulnerable parts of the moth’s body. If, say, a particularly stubborn predator decides to attack the eyespots, damage to the wings would not be as catastrophic as damage to the moth’s head or body. In the bird-eat-bug world, a little ruse can mean the difference between life and death. Range The Atlas moth lives in Asia, from India to the Philippines and south to Indonesia. It belongs to the family Saturniidae, or giant silkworm moths, which has a worldwide distribution. 0 Flying Giant The Atlas moth is one of the largest moths in the world in terms of wing surface area and wingspan. With a maximum wingspan of about 10 inches, it finishes just behind the white witch moth (Thysania agrippina) of Central and South America, which holds the record for largest wingspan at about 14 inches. 0 What's in a Name?	no
Lepidopterology	Is the Atlas moth the largest moth species in the world?	yes_statement	the "atlas" "moth" is the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world".. the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world" is the "atlas" "moth".	https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/18/worlds-largest-moth-atlas-found-washington/10356499002/	One of world's largest moths, the atlas, found in Washington state	One of world's largest moths with 10-inch wingspan found in US for first time, officials say The atlas moth, a massive insect with a wingspan of about 10 inches, was found in the U.S. for the first time last month, Washington state officials say. The atlas moth is considered among the largest moths in the world, along with species like the white witch moth, which can have a wingspan up to 14 inches, according to the California Academy of Sciences. Sightings of the creature in the U.S. are extremely rare – and were thought to be nonexistent until recently. On July 7, a University of Washington professor reported an atlas moth in Bellevue, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture. The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Investigation Service confirmed it was an atlas moth on July 27. It's believed to be the first confirmed detection ever reported in the U.S. “This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large,” state agriculture department managing entomologist Sven Spichiger said in a news release. “Even if you aren’t on the lookout for insects, this is the type that people get their phones out and take a picture of – they are that striking.” The department and Washington state entomologists are asking the public to report sightings in hopes of determining whether more atlas moths are in the area. "The moths do not pose a public health threat and thus can safely be photographed, handled, and collected," the agriculture department wrote in a release Aug. 5. But atlas moths are a federally quarantined pest, the department adds. Under USDA regulations, it's illegal to obtain or sell the moths, for example, without a permit. Atlas moths usually live in tropical regions throughout Asia, which makes its presence in Washington all the more mysterious – and raises concerns about survival. There's still more research to be done, but the moths are believed to feed on apple and cherry trees, the state agriculture department says. “This is normally a tropical moth. We are not sure it could survive here,” Spichiger said in the news release. “USDA is gathering available scientific and technical information about this moth and will provide response recommendations, but in the meantime, we hope residents will help us learn if this was a one-off escapee or whether there might indeed be a population in the area.” Washington residents are encouraged to send possible photo sightings to [email protected]. Though there have been no confirmed reports outside Washington, if you're in another state and think you've spotted an atlas moth, you can contact local officials.	One of world's largest moths with 10-inch wingspan found in US for first time, officials say The atlas moth, a massive insect with a wingspan of about 10 inches, was found in the U.S. for the first time last month, Washington state officials say. The atlas moth is considered among the largest moths in the world, along with species like the white witch moth, which can have a wingspan up to 14 inches, according to the California Academy of Sciences. Sightings of the creature in the U.S. are extremely rare – and were thought to be nonexistent until recently. On July 7, a University of Washington professor reported an atlas moth in Bellevue, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture. The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Investigation Service confirmed it was an atlas moth on July 27. It's believed to be the first confirmed detection ever reported in the U.S. “This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large,” state agriculture department managing entomologist Sven Spichiger said in a news release. “Even if you aren’t on the lookout for insects, this is the type that people get their phones out and take a picture of – they are that striking.” The department and Washington state entomologists are asking the public to report sightings in hopes of determining whether more atlas moths are in the area. "The moths do not pose a public health threat and thus can safely be photographed, handled, and collected," the agriculture department wrote in a release Aug. 5. But atlas moths are a federally quarantined pest, the department adds. Under USDA regulations, it's illegal to obtain or sell the moths, for example, without a permit. Atlas moths usually live in tropical regions throughout Asia, which makes its presence in Washington all the more mysterious – and raises concerns about survival. There's still more research to be done, but the moths are believed to feed on apple and cherry trees, the state agriculture department says. “This is normally a tropical moth. We are not sure it could survive here,” Spichiger said in the news release.	no
Lepidopterology	Is the Atlas moth the largest moth species in the world?	yes_statement	the "atlas" "moth" is the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world".. the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world" is the "atlas" "moth".	https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-largest-moth-in-the-world.html	What Is The Largest Moth In The World? - WorldAtlas	What Is The Largest Moth In The World? Moths are insects that are closely related to butterflies. There are approximately 160,000 species of moths, some of which are yet to be described. Although moths closely resemble butterflies, there are differences between moths and butterflies. The distinguishing feature is the antennae. A moth has a feathery antenna while a butterfly has a thin antenna with a small ball at the end of it. Moths vary in sizes and shapes with some having a large surface area of over 60 square inches. The size of a moth can be measured using its wingspan which is the distance between the tip of one wing and the tip of the other wing. It can also be measured using the wing surface area also known as the wing platform area. The Atlas moth is generally considered the world's largest moth alongside the white witch and Hercules moth. 3. Atlas Moth The Atlas moth is a saturniid moth (a family of Lepidoptera consisting of over 2,300 species) endemic to Asian forests. It lives in the Malay Archipelago and draws a lot of attention from tourists because of its size. In fact, in Taiwan, the people use Atlas cocoons as purses. It is not entirely clear where the name Atlas comes from but it could be in reference to its large size referred to in Greek Mythology or because of the wing pattern. Atlas moths are the considered the largest moth species in the world due to its combined wingspan and surface area. The females are bigger and heavier than the male with the wingspan ranging from 10 to 12 inches and a surface area of approximately 62 square inches. Its wingspan and surface area are only surpassed by that of the white witch and Hercules moths. The wings are reddish-brown with white, black, pink, and purple patterns on the upper part while the undersides are pale. 2. White Witch The white witch moth is also known by several names including ghost moth, great owlet moth, and birdwing moth. It occurs mainly in Southern Mexico and throughout South America. The moth also appears as a stray in areas such as Texas in the US. Its main habitats include the valley of San Cristobal de Las Casas and areas surrounded by pine forest. Although the white witch is generally widespread, it is considered endangered in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sol. The white witch has the largest wingspan of all Lepidoptera which is estimated to be 10.6 to 11.4 inches. In Brazil, one was reported to have a wingspan on 12 inches. The wing underside is darker than the upper parts. The legs have long spurs. 1. Hercules Moth Hercules moths are endemic to the island of New Guinea and the northern parts of Australia. It is the largest exotic species of moth by wingspan in Australia, commonly found in the tropical Queensland. The adult moth is short-lived and does not feed. However, the larva feeds on celery wood and black cherry, as well as other plants while in captivity. Hercules moths have the largest wing surface area of all the moth species. The female has a wingspan of up to 11 inches. In males, the rear corners of the hindwings are stretched into long tails. Their caterpillar is always pale-blue and can grow to a length of 5 inches. The spectacular caterpillar has false eyes at the rear end to confuse any potential attacker.	What Is The Largest Moth In The World? Moths are insects that are closely related to butterflies. There are approximately 160,000 species of moths, some of which are yet to be described. Although moths closely resemble butterflies, there are differences between moths and butterflies. The distinguishing feature is the antennae. A moth has a feathery antenna while a butterfly has a thin antenna with a small ball at the end of it. Moths vary in sizes and shapes with some having a large surface area of over 60 square inches. The size of a moth can be measured using its wingspan which is the distance between the tip of one wing and the tip of the other wing. It can also be measured using the wing surface area also known as the wing platform area. The Atlas moth is generally considered the world's largest moth alongside the white witch and Hercules moth. 3. Atlas Moth The Atlas moth is a saturniid moth (a family of Lepidoptera consisting of over 2,300 species) endemic to Asian forests. It lives in the Malay Archipelago and draws a lot of attention from tourists because of its size. In fact, in Taiwan, the people use Atlas cocoons as purses. It is not entirely clear where the name Atlas comes from but it could be in reference to its large size referred to in Greek Mythology or because of the wing pattern. Atlas moths are the considered the largest moth species in the world due to its combined wingspan and surface area. The females are bigger and heavier than the male with the wingspan ranging from 10 to 12 inches and a surface area of approximately 62 square inches. Its wingspan and surface area are only surpassed by that of the white witch and Hercules moths. The wings are reddish-brown with white, black, pink, and purple patterns on the upper part while the undersides are pale. 2. White Witch The white witch moth is also known by several names including ghost moth, great owlet moth, and birdwing moth. It occurs mainly in Southern Mexico and throughout South America. The moth also appears as a stray in areas such as Texas in the US.	no
Lepidopterology	Is the Atlas moth the largest moth species in the world?	yes_statement	the "atlas" "moth" is the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world".. the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world" is the "atlas" "moth".	https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/state/washington/article264614606.html	Atlas moth, world's largest, found on Washington garage \| Tacoma ...	‘World’s largest moth’ found hanging out on a garage in Washington, photos show Aprofessor found an atlas moth on his garage in Bellevue. Washington Department of Agriculture The moth is usually only spotted in the tropics. It’s burnt orange and bigger than an adult hand, and its species isn’t supposed to be flying around Washington. A University of Washington professor, however, found one lurking on his Bellevue garage in July. It turned out to be the world’s largest moth, the state’s Department of Agriculture said. Washington Department of Agriculture “This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large,” Sven Spichiger, the department’s managing entomologist, said in a news release. “Even if you aren’t on the lookout for insects, this is the type that people get their phones out and take a picture of – they are that striking.” Officials identified the moth spotted at the professor’s home as an atlas moth, which can have a wingspan of up to 10 inches. “It is also a federally quarantined pest – meaning it is illegal to obtain, harbor, rear, or sell live moths whether adults, eggs, larvae, or pupae without a permit from USDA,” officials said. Experts don’t know that the atlas moth can survive in Washington because it thrives in tropical environments. There’s no evidence that other atlas moths are in Washington, but the Department of Agriculture is asking everyone to keep an eye out. Maddie Capron is a McClatchy Real-Time News Reporter focused on the outdoors and wildlife in the western U.S. She graduated from Ohio University and previously worked at CNN, the Idaho Statesman and Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism.	‘World’s largest moth’ found hanging out on a garage in Washington, photos show Aprofessor found an atlas moth on his garage in Bellevue. Washington Department of Agriculture The moth is usually only spotted in the tropics. It’s burnt orange and bigger than an adult hand, and its species isn’t supposed to be flying around Washington. A University of Washington professor, however, found one lurking on his Bellevue garage in July. It turned out to be the world’s largest moth, the state’s Department of Agriculture said. Washington Department of Agriculture “This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large,” Sven Spichiger, the department’s managing entomologist, said in a news release. “Even if you aren’t on the lookout for insects, this is the type that people get their phones out and take a picture of – they are that striking.” Officials identified the moth spotted at the professor’s home as an atlas moth, which can have a wingspan of up to 10 inches. “It is also a federally quarantined pest – meaning it is illegal to obtain, harbor, rear, or sell live moths whether adults, eggs, larvae, or pupae without a permit from USDA,” officials said. Experts don’t know that the atlas moth can survive in Washington because it thrives in tropical environments. There’s no evidence that other atlas moths are in Washington, but the Department of Agriculture is asking everyone to keep an eye out. Maddie Capron is a McClatchy Real-Time News Reporter focused on the outdoors and wildlife in the western U.S. She graduated from Ohio University and previously worked at CNN, the Idaho Statesman and Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism.	yes
Lepidopterology	Is the Atlas moth the largest moth species in the world?	yes_statement	the "atlas" "moth" is the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world".. the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world" is the "atlas" "moth".	https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/worlds-largest-moth-found-in-bellevue-wsda-says	World's largest moth found in Bellevue, WSDA says	World’s largest moth found in Bellevue, WSDA says World's largest moth found in Bellevue Washington state scientists are asking the public to be on the lookout and report sightings of the Atlas moth, which is the world's largest moth, that was found in Bellevue. BELLEVUE, Wash. - Washington state scientists are asking the public to be on the lookout and to report sightings after the world's largest known moth was recently found in Bellevue. The Washington State Department of Agriculture said a University of Washington professor initially reported the moth on July 7. It was found on a garage in Bellevue. The Atlas moth was reported to the Washington State Department of Agriculture by a University of Washington professor on July 7. (Washington State Department of Agriculture) Entomologists identified it as an Atlas moth and the USDA confirmed it later that month. It is believed to be the first confirmed discovery of the pest in the United States. "This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large," Sven Spichiger, WSDA managing entomologist, said. "Even if you aren’t on the lookout for insects, this is the type that people get their phones out and take a picture of – they are that striking." The Atlas moth is one of the world’s largest known moth and has a wingspan of up to almost 10 inches. The non-native atlas moth compared with large moths found in North America. (Washington State Department of Agriculture) Officials said the moth is also a federally quarantined pest, which means it is illegal to obtain, harbor, rear, or sell live moths whether adults, eggs, larvae, or pupae without a permit from the USDA. "This is normally a tropical moth. We are not sure it could survive here," Spichiger said. "USDA is gathering available scientific and technical information about this moth and will provide response recommendations, but in the meantime, we hope residents will help us learn if this was a one-off escapee or whether there might indeed be a population in the area." The moth does not pose a public health threat and scientists are looking to see if there are additional pests in the area. Entomologist at UW talks about world's largest moth found in Bellevue We're learning more about one of the world's largest moth species that was spotted in Bellevue. Anyone who believes they’ve seen the moth in Washington, is encouraged to send a photo to [email protected] for identification and include the location where it was spotted.	World’s largest moth found in Bellevue, WSDA says World's largest moth found in Bellevue Washington state scientists are asking the public to be on the lookout and report sightings of the Atlas moth, which is the world's largest moth, that was found in Bellevue. BELLEVUE, Wash. - Washington state scientists are asking the public to be on the lookout and to report sightings after the world's largest known moth was recently found in Bellevue. The Washington State Department of Agriculture said a University of Washington professor initially reported the moth on July 7. It was found on a garage in Bellevue. The Atlas moth was reported to the Washington State Department of Agriculture by a University of Washington professor on July 7. (Washington State Department of Agriculture) Entomologists identified it as an Atlas moth and the USDA confirmed it later that month. It is believed to be the first confirmed discovery of the pest in the United States. "This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large," Sven Spichiger, WSDA managing entomologist, said. "Even if you aren’t on the lookout for insects, this is the type that people get their phones out and take a picture of – they are that striking. " The Atlas moth is one of the world’s largest known moth and has a wingspan of up to almost 10 inches. The non-native atlas moth compared with large moths found in North America. (Washington State Department of Agriculture) Officials said the moth is also a federally quarantined pest, which means it is illegal to obtain, harbor, rear, or sell live moths whether adults, eggs, larvae, or pupae without a permit from the USDA. "This is normally a tropical moth. We are not sure it could survive here," Spichiger said. "USDA is gathering available scientific and technical information about this moth and will provide response recommendations, but in the meantime, we hope residents will help us learn if this was a one-off escapee or whether there might indeed be a population in the area.	yes
Lepidopterology	Is the Atlas moth the largest moth species in the world?	yes_statement	the "atlas" "moth" is the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world".. the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world" is the "atlas" "moth".	https://bugunderglass.com/atlas-moth-worlds-largest-moth/	Atlas Moth: World's Largest Moth \| BUG UNDER GLASS	The Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) is a species of moth in the family Saturniidae. The Atlas moth is widely considered the largest single species of moth in the world in terms of wingspan. An average Atlas moth female can have a wingspan up to 11 inches and have a wing surface area of 62in². Atlas moths are endemic to the tropical forests, secondary forests, and shrublands of south and east Asia. Atlas Moth Morphology Atlas moths have a narrow thing body with disproportionately large wings. Their upper wings are usually a reddish-brown with flecks of black, pink, and orange, though their color vary from darker to lighter with altitude and average climate of the surrounding region. The most distinguishing feature of Atlas moths is their extremely large and intricately patterned wings. Each wing has a curious fractal looking pattern of white and orange and each wing tapers into a prominent extension. These extensions resemble the profile of snakes head, which give the Atlas moth its Cantonese name which translates to “snake’s head moth.” Atlas moth caterpillars can grow to about 4.5 inches in length and are a pale greenish color. Atlas moth larvae are distinguished from other caterpillars due to the presence of white fleshy spines along their back that get more pronounced as the caterpillar matures. Atlas Moth Diet/Behavior Adult atlas moths actually do not have functioning mouthparts, so they do not eat. Instead, they rely entirely on the energy they stored up from eating as a caterpillar. Atlas moth larvae subsist on a diet of the foliage from citrus, cinnamon, guava, and evergreen trees. Feeding during the larval stage gives the organism enough energy for its entire adult lifespan. When Atlas moth adults emerge from their pupas after metamorphosis, they are initially very weak and cannot fly. After a few days, they strengthen up and forage out to find potential mates. Atlas moth adults only live for 2 weeks at max so they must spend all of their adult life looking for mating opportunities. Although Atlas moths are not seasonal breeders and reproduce continually throughout the year, populations generally reach their peaks between November and January. Atlas Moth Interesting Facts It is unknown whether the name “Atlas” comes either from the Greek myth of the titan Atlas who holds the Earth upon his back (due to the moth’s size) or from the map-like markings on its wings. Their unique snake-like wing protrusions give them an interesting defense mechanism. When threatened, adult Atlas moths drop to the ground and writhe their wingtips to emulate the movements of a snake head. The only other moths comparable in size to the Atlas moth are the Hercules moth and the great owlet moth (sometimes called the white witch moth).	The Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) is a species of moth in the family Saturniidae. The Atlas moth is widely considered the largest single species of moth in the world in terms of wingspan. An average Atlas moth female can have a wingspan up to 11 inches and have a wing surface area of 62in². Atlas moths are endemic to the tropical forests, secondary forests, and shrublands of south and east Asia. Atlas Moth Morphology Atlas moths have a narrow thing body with disproportionately large wings. Their upper wings are usually a reddish-brown with flecks of black, pink, and orange, though their color vary from darker to lighter with altitude and average climate of the surrounding region. The most distinguishing feature of Atlas moths is their extremely large and intricately patterned wings. Each wing has a curious fractal looking pattern of white and orange and each wing tapers into a prominent extension. These extensions resemble the profile of snakes head, which give the Atlas moth its Cantonese name which translates to “snake’s head moth.” Atlas moth caterpillars can grow to about 4.5 inches in length and are a pale greenish color. Atlas moth larvae are distinguished from other caterpillars due to the presence of white fleshy spines along their back that get more pronounced as the caterpillar matures. Atlas Moth Diet/Behavior Adult atlas moths actually do not have functioning mouthparts, so they do not eat. Instead, they rely entirely on the energy they stored up from eating as a caterpillar. Atlas moth larvae subsist on a diet of the foliage from citrus, cinnamon, guava, and evergreen trees. Feeding during the larval stage gives the organism enough energy for its entire adult lifespan. When Atlas moth adults emerge from their pupas after metamorphosis, they are initially very weak and cannot fly. After a few days, they strengthen up and forage out to find potential mates. Atlas moth adults only live for 2 weeks at max so they must spend all of their adult life looking for mating opportunities.	yes
Lepidopterology	Is the Atlas moth the largest moth species in the world?	yes_statement	the "atlas" "moth" is the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world".. the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world" is the "atlas" "moth".	https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/washington-state-residents-asked-watch-worlds-largest-moth/GTICWERCGZGOBK4KXSJCL6GOTE/	How largest moth in the world could cause problems after sighting in ...	How largest moth in the world could cause problems after sighting in Bellevue BELLEVUE, Wash. — State agriculture officials and entomologists are asking the public to be on the lookout for the world’s largest known moth after one was seen in Bellevue last month. A University of Washington professor initially reported a sighting of the atlas moth, which has a wingspan of up to nearly 10 inches, to the Washington State Department of Agriculture on July 7. Once WSDA entomologists identified it as an atlas moth, they sent it to the WSDA, who confirmed the specimen as an atlas moth on July 27. “This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large,” said Sven Spichiger, WSDA managing entomologist. “Even if you aren’t on the lookout for insects, this is the type that people get their phones out and take a picture of — they are that striking.” This is believed to be the first confirmed detection of the moth in the U.S. “This is normally a tropical moth. We are not sure it could survive here,” Spichiger said. “WSDA is gathering available scientific and technical information about this moth and will provide response recommendations, but in the meantime, we hope residents will help us learn if this was a one-off escapee or whether there might indeed be a population in the area.” WSDA spokesperson Karla Salp says one caterpillar wouldn’t cause problems. However, an infestation of the invasive species could do some serious harm to local cherry and apple trees. Frequently, the massive moth can be seen by visitors at the Pacific Science Center. Back in July, there were about 30 fluttering around the Tropical Butterfly House. Experts there tell KIRO 7 the massive moth lives for only six days, but in that time, a female can lay 100 eggs. In a controlled environment, they can’t harm the ecosystem, but if those eggs become caterpillars outside, they can pluck trees clean of leaves. WSDA is encouraging residents to photograph, collect and report atlas moths if they see them. The moths do not pose a public health threat and can safely be photographed, handled and collected, according to the WSDA. Washington residents who believe they have seen the moth are asked to send a photo to [email protected] for identification and include the location where it was spotted. The non-native atlas moth compared with large moths found in North America. (Washington State Department of Agriculture) The moths do not pose a public health threat and can safely be photographed, handled and collected, according to the WSDA. Washington residents who believe they have seen the moth are asked to send a photo to [email protected] for identification and include the location where it was spotted.	How largest moth in the world could cause problems after sighting in Bellevue BELLEVUE, Wash. — State agriculture officials and entomologists are asking the public to be on the lookout for the world’s largest known moth after one was seen in Bellevue last month. A University of Washington professor initially reported a sighting of the atlas moth, which has a wingspan of up to nearly 10 inches, to the Washington State Department of Agriculture on July 7. Once WSDA entomologists identified it as an atlas moth, they sent it to the WSDA, who confirmed the specimen as an atlas moth on July 27. “This is a ‘gee-whiz’ type of insect because it is so large,” said Sven Spichiger, WSDA managing entomologist. “Even if you aren’t on the lookout for insects, this is the type that people get their phones out and take a picture of — they are that striking.” This is believed to be the first confirmed detection of the moth in the U.S. “This is normally a tropical moth. We are not sure it could survive here,” Spichiger said. “WSDA is gathering available scientific and technical information about this moth and will provide response recommendations, but in the meantime, we hope residents will help us learn if this was a one-off escapee or whether there might indeed be a population in the area.” WSDA spokesperson Karla Salp says one caterpillar wouldn’t cause problems. However, an infestation of the invasive species could do some serious harm to local cherry and apple trees. Frequently, the massive moth can be seen by visitors at the Pacific Science Center. Back in July, there were about 30 fluttering around the Tropical Butterfly House. Experts there tell KIRO 7 the massive moth lives for only six days, but in that time, a female can lay 100 eggs. In a controlled environment, they can’t harm the ecosystem, but if those eggs become caterpillars outside, they can pluck trees clean of leaves. WSDA is encouraging residents to photograph, collect and report atlas moths if they see them.	yes
Lepidopterology	Is the Atlas moth the largest moth species in the world?	yes_statement	the "atlas" "moth" is the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world".. the "largest" "moth" "species" in the "world" is the "atlas" "moth".	https://adoptandshop.org/the-atlas-moth-largest-moth-wing-span/	The Atlas Moth: Largest Moth Wing Span \| Adopt And Shop	The Atlas Moth: Largest Moth Wing Span There are a few contenders for the largest moth wing span, with the Atlas Moth, White Witch, and Hercules Moth all having impressive wingspans. The Atlas Moth is native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, and can have a wingspan of up to 12 inches. The White Witch is found in Central and South America, and its wingspan can reach up to 11 inches. The Hercules Moth is found in the rainforests of New Guinea and can have a wingspan of up to 10.5 inches. All of these moths are impressive in size, but the Atlas Moth takes the title of largest moth wing span. Officials in the United States have discovered one of the world’s largest moths with a wingspan of 10 inches, making it one of the largest moths in the world. On July 7, a professor at the University of Washington discovered an atlas moth. The creature has only been spotted in the United States in the last few years, and it was thought to be extinct until recently. According to the Washington state agriculture department, Atlas moths are primarily found on apple and cherry trees. Atlas moths are typically found in tropical regions throughout Asia, making their presence in Washington all the more perplexing. Send photographs to p[email protected] if you have any suspicions about the pest. Which Is The Largest Moth In The World? Credit: blogspot The atlas moth is one of the largest insects on the planet; it is a gentle giant behind every large moth; its caterpillars are very hungry. Atlas moths are among the world’s largest insects, with a wingspan that extends to 27 centimetres and makes a human handpan look like a pike. The moths and butterflies belong to the Lepidoptera insect order, with 89 to 94 percent of the species being moths. The majority of moths fly at night, but a few species fly during the day. As you can see, there are ten of the largest moths on the planet measured on their wingspan. With the scent of a female cecropia, the Bolas spider mimics the pheromones of a male cecropia and attracts males to their webs. Giant silk moths are found primarily in deciduous rain forests and wooded areas. White silk, light brown, silvery brown, and brown are the different colors available. The Emperor moth or Eagle imperialis is primarily yellow with patches of pink/purple-brownish color on the inside. It is said to be the world’s heaviest moth, weighing in at just over one ounce. Giant Wood moths (Endoxyla Cinera) can grow to be as tall as 6 78 inches and weigh up to 300 pounds. Atlas moths have an intimidating wingspan of 10-12 inches. The White Witch has a zigzag pattern with brown, black, or grey hues. The Hercules moth is the largest of all moths on the planet. They can live for up to two years in the cocoon stage. (2) Cecropia moths are found on maple trees, but they can also be found on cherry and birch trees. This type of moths has long wingspans that can reach four inches in length, making them distinct from others. Cecropia moths have brightly colored wings, such as lime green, blue, or purple. The third type of hyalophora is Cecropia Cecropia moths, and it has been found on maple trees, as well as cherry and birch trees. These larvae are small, about the size of a poppyseed, and live in crevices on the bark. Hyalophora cecropia is a hygopharyngeal plant in the family Hyalophora. Cecropia moths are pests that live in the soil. For the most part, Luna moths live only one week and mate on an annual basis, laying a large number of eggs. Its wings are strikingly beautiful, with a deep blue-green sheen, and it is one of the most common moths in North America. Maple trees are the site of the most common host species, but they can also be found on cherry and birch trees. What Moth Lives The Longest? Credit: pinimg There is no definitive answer to this question as it largely depends on the species of moth in question. However, some estimates suggest that the lifespan of a moth can range from several months to a few years. Therefore, it is safe to say that there is considerable variation in the lifespan of different moth species. Are Moths Poisonous? moths are neither poisonous nor dangerous to humans, so they pose no harm or danger in terms of health and safety. Adults of moths are incapable of biting, making them less dangerous to humans than other insects. One type of insect in particular closely resembles another, and the two are classified as one type of insect. The moths are neither poisonous nor dangerous; in fact, they pose no danger to humans. Adult moths, because they lack mouths, cannot bite. A few caterpillars of the same species may sting and cause mild skin irritations. There are few human diseases caused by moths, but their larvae can cause mild skin irritation. It is possible that some people will develop allergic reactions as a result of coming into contact with caterpillar hairs. Insects that are known to sting and cause allergic reactions and skin irritations can be found in approximately 50 different moth species. There are hundreds of thousands of moths in the world. There will be a lot of moths stings you will experience, most of which will be caused by caterpillars. It is only when large amounts of mildly toxic moths are consumed that they cause harm. The best thing to do is to avoid them whenever possible, as moths and their larvae are typically not aggressive. Insects, when combined with edible plants, provide a variety of nutrition and are both nutritious and environmentally friendly. They are low in calories and fat, as well as high in protein, vitamins, and minerals. Furthermore, their consumption of plant material makes them environmentally friendly because it would otherwise be wasteable. Before selecting any of the edible insects for your meal, make sure you know what you want to eat. You’ll be able to choose from a wide range of insects to meet your taste and dietary requirements. What Is The Biggest Moth In The World The biggest moth in the world is the Hercules moth. It has a wingspan of up to 11 inches. One of the world’s largest moths has been discovered in the United States for the first time, but insect scientists are unsure where it came from or how it got here. Atlas moths are most commonly found in tropical and subtropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. The spotted lanternfly is becoming more popular as an invasive species. Authorities are encouraging people to squash and kill them rather than injure themselves or their pets because they are not harmful to humans or animals. Recently, a northern giant hornet, also known as the murder hornet, was discovered in Washington state. They also kill other bee and hornet species in addition to humans. According to the U.S. Forest Service, it is not a good idea to plant nonnative ornamental plants. Learn about the tools needed to remove invasive species and report any you have. Largest Moth In North America The largest moth in North America, the cecropia moth has a wingspan of five to seven inches (13 to 18 centimeters) and a long, slender, white wing. These nocturnal moths can be found in hardwood forests east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. There are numerous species of moths in North America, but the largest is Cecropia moth. Cecropia caterpillars can reach astounding heights (approximately 7 inches) in comparison to Monarchs with wing spans of around 3.5 inches. Adults have only one purpose in life: to mate, which takes about a week or so. Creepy Biggest Moth In The World The world’s biggest moth is the Atlas Moth. It has a wingspan of up to 11 inches and a body length of up to 6 inches. The Atlas Moth is found in the tropical forests of South America, Southeast Asia, and Australia. A single moths can grow to be several millimeters in size, while the largest species has a wingspan of ten centimeters. The Goliath tigerfish are a highly predatory and deadly freshwater fish species found in the rivers of Congo. This moth is named after its large surface area, which makes it the largest insect on the planet. The white witch moth is the largest of any insect on the planet. The Hercules moth, the largest, is the size of a dinner plate. The world’s largest mouth gape (female) can be opened by Samarra Ramsdell (USA), whose mouth gape measures 6.52 cm (2.56 inches). The Hercules moth, which measures roughly the size of a dinner plate, is one of the largest species. The Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae) is the world’s largest butterfly. A centipede can grow to be as long as a foot in length in the Amazon. We compiled a list of the largest insects in the United States after doing our best to keep things clean. The Atlas moth is the world’s largest single species of moth and has the longest wingspan. First evolved moths, and fossils suggest that they were around 200 million years ago (Martill 2018). When the full-time priest left in the 1960s, the Chamula Cemetery of San Juan Chamula was meant to be a Catholic church, with no formal mass held there since then. A moths is a type of insect found in the phylum Arthropods. This is the world’s largest ant, and possibly the world’s largest ant. The average wingspan for the White Witch is 31 cm (12in), but the largest species is a wingspan of 31 cm (12in). A typical life span is 3-4 weeks. Atlas moths have a more slender body than males, but they are both large and heavier females. Giant wood moths (Endoxyla cinereus) are the world’s largest species of moths. Collectors flock to this cat because it is so well-known and beautiful. Sam can hold a variety of objects in her mouth. A whole apple is what it is. The Atlas moth is one of the largest lepidopterans, with a wingspan of up to 24 cm (9 inches). There are only a few moths larger than the Hercules moths on the planet. A Stargazer, a member of the Uranoscopidae family of Perciform fish, is distinguished by its head-to-head gaze. The Atlas moth, which has a wingspan and a surface area comparable to that of the largest moths in the world, is the largest of all moths. A worker ant can grow to be more than 2.5 centimeters (1 in) long and resembles a wingless wasp. It is a prison island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, and it is perhaps the most well-known insect in American history. There are thousands of Hercules moths on an 11-inch dinner plate. Brown Sulawesi Plume moths, an eversible coremata, are derived from the Greek word for feather duster. The female Walking Stick, the world’s longest insect, has a wingspan of between 25-30 cm and 9.8-1.9 in, making it the longest insect on the planet. Dryocampa Rubicunda, the scientific name for Rosy Maple Moth, has a bright yellow and pink fuzz that attracts a lot of attention. A large isopod is similar to a woodlouse on land in terms of its unique and unusual shield. A massive moth with no flying ability was discovered outside a school in Australia. It was discovered near a school in Australia this week that a massive moth with a difficult flight was inside. The longest insect in the world is Phobaeticus chani, which belongs to the Chan’s Megastick insect family. In the United States, there are approximately 11,000 species of moths. Isopod has the ability to change its wings number 10, which is a first. Insects are one of the world’s most fascinating creatures, and they occupy the largest portion of a phylum of arthropods. A female Walking Stick (Phasmatodea) becomes a genuine moth after becoming a viable insect. There are numerous examples of this, ranging from golf courses to quarries to pits to fans. Which insect is the largest in terms of body mass? Sam’s mouth can hold an entire apple female Walking Stick (Phasmatode). In North Africa, its can weigh up to one pound and is found in forested areas. A Luna moth will be in your garden or near you if you see one. There are far fewer flies than there are moths. It’s a country with 62 square inches and a Megastick, chani. Awinged moths have wings that extend up to 14 inches. A Lived collection that is up to 12 inches long and up to 12 inches wide is the largest in the world. It is a member of the Uranoscopidae family, which means they have eyes over their heads. They are the world’s largest moths, and their heads (known as the name) are covered in creepy, creepy-looking fingernails. The largest moth on the planet is a species with a wingspan of 11 inches and a fat body. Insects that change their wings on plant roots, in addition to feeding on them. A lot in south Queensland that is close to the school has the potential to grow to be a rainforest.	The Atlas Moth: Largest Moth Wing Span There are a few contenders for the largest moth wing span, with the Atlas Moth, White Witch, and Hercules Moth all having impressive wingspans. The Atlas Moth is native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, and can have a wingspan of up to 12 inches. The White Witch is found in Central and South America, and its wingspan can reach up to 11 inches. The Hercules Moth is found in the rainforests of New Guinea and can have a wingspan of up to 10.5 inches. All of these moths are impressive in size, but the Atlas Moth takes the title of largest moth wing span. Officials in the United States have discovered one of the world’s largest moths with a wingspan of 10 inches, making it one of the largest moths in the world. On July 7, a professor at the University of Washington discovered an atlas moth. The creature has only been spotted in the United States in the last few years, and it was thought to be extinct until recently. According to the Washington state agriculture department, Atlas moths are primarily found on apple and cherry trees. Atlas moths are typically found in tropical regions throughout Asia, making their presence in Washington all the more perplexing. Send photographs to p[email protected] if you have any suspicions about the pest. Which Is The Largest Moth In The World? Credit: blogspot The atlas moth is one of the largest insects on the planet; it is a gentle giant behind every large moth; its caterpillars are very hungry. Atlas moths are among the world’s largest insects, with a wingspan that extends to 27 centimetres and makes a human handpan look like a pike. The moths and butterflies belong to the Lepidoptera insect order, with 89 to 94 percent of the species being moths. The majority of moths fly at night, but a few species fly during the day. As you can see, there are ten of the largest moths on the planet measured on their wingspan.	yes
Religion	Is the Bible infallible?	yes_statement	the "bible" is "infallible".. the "infallibility" of the "bible" is unquestionable.	http://copbiblestudy.blogspot.com/2018/02/cop-2018-bible-study-home-cell-week-6.html	COP Bible Study Lessons and Discussions: COP 2018 BIBLE ...	The Church of Pentecost has been founded on and is shaped by certain core beliefs which are referred to as the tenets of the church; one of these is The Bible. As a Church, we believe in the infallibility of the Word of God. To say that the Bible is infallible is to confess that the Scriptures are incapable of teaching any error. This therefore, strongly presents the Bible as perfect in its declaration. When we say the Bible is God’s word, it does not mean that any statement in it was spoken by God. Rather, it only means that, God guided every word to be written. Questions for Discussion 1. How was the prophecy of the Scriptures received? Verse 21 2. How do you understand the infallibility of the Bible? 3. Why should the Bible be considered infallible? Verse 20, 21 4. What are some of the challenges people have with the infallibility of the Bible? 5. What have you learnt from today’s study? Conclusion Some critics of the Bible say it is simply a collection of human writings. Others believe it is a great literary masterpiece but not the Word of God. Some also believe that God’s Word is in the Bible but the entire Bible is not God’s Word. Our study today gives us a strong proof that the Bible is not a mere compilation of the writings of men. Rather, it is the product of God’s breath, direction and guidance. The Bible is proven to be accurate in its record of historical events that have been documented elsewhere, and as believers, we uphold its infallibility. Even if none of the books of the Bible had any secular evidence, we still should believe it. The Bible is the most accurately preserved text. The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1948 goes a long way to prove the infallibility of the Bible. The word “final” means an end to something or the conclusion of a matter. Authority on the other hand is the power or right to give orders or make decisions. This implies that the Bible as “final in authority” is an “all-in-all weapon” for the human race. In other words, it has the final solution to all our issues. The book of Hebrews also accounts that, God’s Word (Bible) is alive and working and is sharper than a double-edged sword (Heb. 4:12). Its judgement is final and unquestionable. In today’s lesson, we shall look at how Jesus Christ overcame the devil by the authority of the word (Bible). Questions for discussion 1. How do you understand Hebrews 4:12? 2. When was Jesus tempted? Matthew 4:2 3. How did Jesus respond to the temptation? Matthew 4:4, 10 & 11 4. What happens when we read the Bible every day? 5. What have you learnt personally? Conclusion The Bible is full of accounts where many crowds were amazed with the power and authority which backed the messages of Jesus and His disciples. We are not talking about basic authority; we are talking about power! There is power in the words of the Bible. When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus overcame him with the Word of God. Even Jesus who was full of the Word was tempted at a time when He was in the spirit. This means that the devil is not a respecter of persons and can come to us at any time. We need to follow the example of Jesus by studying the Bible. As we do that, we will gain more understanding and power.	Others believe it is a great literary masterpiece but not the Word of God. Some also believe that God’s Word is in the Bible but the entire Bible is not God’s Word. Our study today gives us a strong proof that the Bible is not a mere compilation of the writings of men. Rather, it is the product of God’s breath, direction and guidance. The Bible is proven to be accurate in its record of historical events that have been documented elsewhere, and as believers, we uphold its infallibility. Even if none of the books of the Bible had any secular evidence, we still should believe it. The Bible is the most accurately preserved text. The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1948 goes a long way to prove the infallibility of the Bible. The word “final” means an end to something or the conclusion of a matter. Authority on the other hand is the power or right to give orders or make decisions. This implies that the Bible as “final in authority” is an “all-in-all weapon” for the human race. In other words, it has the final solution to all our issues. The book of Hebrews also accounts that, God’s Word (Bible) is alive and working and is sharper than a double-edged sword (Heb. 4:12). Its judgement is final and unquestionable. In today’s lesson, we shall look at how Jesus Christ overcame the devil by the authority of the word (Bible). Questions for discussion 1. How do you understand Hebrews 4:12? 2. When was Jesus tempted? Matthew 4:2 3. How did Jesus respond to the temptation? Matthew 4:4, 10 & 11 4. What happens when we read the Bible every day? 5.	yes
Religion	Is the Bible infallible?	yes_statement	the "bible" is "infallible".. the "infallibility" of the "bible" is unquestionable.	https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenChristian/comments/u6eoqb/any_churches_that_follow_the_bible_but_dont/	Any churches that follow the Bible but don't necessarily believe in its ...	This is a community for progressive Christians and friends to discuss our faith, support each other, and share inspiration for our spiritual journeys. We seek God's message of Peace, Love, and Grace through following the Spirit of Christ. Any churches that follow the Bible but don't necessarily believe in its infallibility? Like (I think) the majority of Christians, I grew up in churches that taught that scripture is the ultimate religious, scientific, and historical truth. It was written by men but God literally guided their hands and the pen. As I grew older and tried to read and understand scripture myself, I began to see more and more contradictions that made it more difficult to accept infallibility at face value. Why is Jesus's genealogy listed differently? Did Judas hang himself or jump into a field? Etc, etc. Every explanation usually involved a lot of hand waving and then the conclusion that "details don't matter too much, let's focus on the big picture here". But they would not let up on the complete infallibility of the texts. As I get older, I have learned to live with these contradictions because I believe that these are just stories written by men and one of several ways God chooses to reveal himself to humans. If I did not think this way I feel like I would go insane trying to rationalize everything. Is there a group of Christians who feels the same way? Some days I feel like I'm alone in this. Archived post. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast.	This is a community for progressive Christians and friends to discuss our faith, support each other, and share inspiration for our spiritual journeys. We seek God's message of Peace, Love, and Grace through following the Spirit of Christ. Any churches that follow the Bible but don't necessarily believe in its infallibility? Like (I think) the majority of Christians, I grew up in churches that taught that scripture is the ultimate religious, scientific, and historical truth. It was written by men but God literally guided their hands and the pen. As I grew older and tried to read and understand scripture myself, I began to see more and more contradictions that made it more difficult to accept infallibility at face value. Why is Jesus's genealogy listed differently? Did Judas hang himself or jump into a field? Etc, etc. Every explanation usually involved a lot of hand waving and then the conclusion that "details don't matter too much, let's focus on the big picture here". But they would not let up on the complete infallibility of the texts. As I get older, I have learned to live with these contradictions because I believe that these are just stories written by men and one of several ways God chooses to reveal himself to humans. If I did not think this way I feel like I would go insane trying to rationalize everything. Is there a group of Christians who feels the same way? Some days I feel like I'm alone in this. Archived post. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast.	no
Religion	Is the Bible infallible?	yes_statement	the "bible" is "infallible".. the "infallibility" of the "bible" is unquestionable.	https://rayliu1.wordpress.com/2017/09/07/infallibility/	Infallibility? \| Pastor Ray's blog: rayliu1	Meta Infallibility? Q. 1 Corinthians 2:15 But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. What does “judged of no man” mean? Is seems to be talking about the infallibility of clergy or the Catholic theory. It does not make any sense with Acts 17:11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. A. It is not talking about infallibility. The word “infallible” appears only once in the Bible: • Acts 1:3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. (NKJV) It means: • that from which something is surely and plainly known, • on unquestionable evidence, impossible to doubt. Only God and His word are infallible in the sense of “incapable of being wrong, unable to err”. Paul knew he was a sinner, and even claimed to be chief: • 1 Tim 1:15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. By definition sinners are wrong and cannot be infallible. For any human to claim infallibility is foolishness. As always, the meaning is determined by the context. The whole chapter 2 of 1 Co is talking about Paul’s reliance on the Spirit. In particular, the immediate context is 1 Co 2:14-16 (NASB): • 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. • 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. • 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. The natural man, the man who does not know God cannot understand spiritual things, because they must be spiritually evaluated or discerned with the mind of Christ. A spiritual person, one who is controlled by the Spirit, is able to judge all things, yet no one (the unbeliever) can understand him. Let me quote from a few paraphrases to make it clearer: • AMPLIFIED BIBLE But the spiritual man [the spiritually mature Christian] judges all things [questions, examines and applies what the Holy Spirit reveals], yet is himself judged by no one [the unbeliever cannot judge and understand the believer’s spiritual nature]. • THE MESSAGE The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. • PHILLIP’S NT But the unspiritual man simply cannot accept the matters which the Spirit deals with—they just don’t make sense to him, for, after all, you must be spiritual to see spiritual things. The spiritual man, on the other hand, has an insight into the meaning of everything, though his insight may baffle the man of the world.	Meta Infallibility? Q. 1 Corinthians 2:15 But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. What does “judged of no man” mean? Is seems to be talking about the infallibility of clergy or the Catholic theory. It does not make any sense with Acts 17:11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. A. It is not talking about infallibility. The word “infallible” appears only once in the Bible: • Acts 1:3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. (NKJV) It means: • that from which something is surely and plainly known, • on unquestionable evidence, impossible to doubt. Only God and His word are infallible in the sense of “incapable of being wrong, unable to err”. Paul knew he was a sinner, and even claimed to be chief: • 1 Tim 1:15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. By definition sinners are wrong and cannot be infallible. For any human to claim infallibility is foolishness. As always, the meaning is determined by the context. The whole chapter 2 of 1 Co is talking about Paul’s reliance on the Spirit. In particular, the immediate context is 1 Co 2:14-16 (NASB): • 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. • 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.	yes
Religion	Is the Bible infallible?	yes_statement	the "bible" is "infallible".. the "infallibility" of the "bible" is unquestionable.	https://bib.irr.org/understanding-sola-scriptura-evangelical-view-of-authority-of-bible	Understanding Sola Scriptura: The Evangelical View of the Authority ...	Understanding Sola Scriptura: The Evangelical View of the Authority of the Bible Settings Group Vertical Tabs Understanding Sola Scriptura: The Evangelical View of the Authority of the Bible Gutenberg Bible, New York Public Library (photo by Kevin Eng, via Wikipedia). The term sola scriptura, meaning “only Scripture” or “Scripture alone,” is a key concept in evangelical Protestant theology. The Formula of Concord (1584), a Lutheran confession, contains a classic statement of the doctrine: “We believe, confess, and teach that the only rule and norm, according to which all dogmas and all doctors ought to be esteemed and judged, is no other whatever than the prophetic and apostolic writings of both the Old and of the New Testament.” The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978) expresses the same idea as follows: “We affirm that the Scriptures are the supreme written norm by which God binds the conscience, and that the authority of the Church is subordinate to that of Scripture.” Here is a definition that we will explain and defend here: Sola scriptura means that Scripture is the only infallible rule of doctrine and practice for Christians today.1 Now, with conservative Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox believers, the controversial part of this concept can be reduced to the word “only” in that proposition, or more precisely the words “the only.” This is because the Catholic and Orthodox Churches historically have affirmed that Scripture is an infallible rule of doctrine and practice for Christians today. The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives the following affirmations: God is the author of Sacred Scripture…. God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. “To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more.” The inspired books teach the truth. “Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.”2 According to John Anthony McGuckin in his 2008 book The Orthodox Church states, “Orthodoxy ascribes infallibility to the Scriptures as the Word of God.”3 The issue here that divides evangelical Protestants from both Catholics and Orthodox is not the infallibility of Scripture. Rather, the issue is whether the Church (in either of those institutional forms) or any of its pronouncements outside the Bible is also an infallible rule of doctrine and practice for Christians today. The debate over sola scriptura is a debate among Christians who accept the infallibility of Scripture but who disagree about whether the church has any infallible source of authority distinct from Scripture. In this article, therefore, I will not be defending the infallibility of Scripture here, since that doctrine should be a given, common ground between evangelical Protestants and other traditional, conservative Christians. Of course, when we discuss the matter with liberal Protestants or Mormons, we cannot take the infallibility of Scripture as a given, since both of those religious movements deny the infallibility of Scripture. I have discussed the infallibility (or inerrancy) of Scripture elsewhere.4 Clearing Away Misunderstandings of Sola Scriptura The focus here, then, is on the sola, the word “only,” in the Reformation slogan sola scriptura. Like all words and especially all slogans, this one can be misunderstood, so let’s be clear about what it doesn’t mean. First, sola scriptura does not mean that the Bible is all Christians need to be saved or to live a faithful Christian life. “Me and my Bible” is not a complete picture of the Christian life. More than anything, what I need to be saved and to live a life pleasing to God is Jesus Christ. “Jesus and me” isn’t a complete picture of the Christian life, either, but at least it would express the right priority. In addition to Christ’s saving work on my behalf, I need the Holy Spirit, the Bible, prayer, and so on. I also need the church for many purposes. I need to hear the gospel, and that happens through the witness of people who are part of the church. I need to participate in corporate worship of God. I need the encouragement of fellowship with other believers. I need to be instructed, exhorted, challenged, rebuked, and comforted by other Christians, including Christian leaders to whom I am accountable. Sola scriptura does not deny or diminish the importance of any of these things. Second, sola scriptura does not mean a rejection of all tradition. The historic evangelical doctrine of sola scriptura is that taught by the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century such as Luther and Calvin, who held the traditions of Christianity, especially those of the early church fathers, generally in high esteem. So, for example, the Second Helvetic Confession (1566), the most detailed confession of Calvinist or Reformed theology, states: Wherefore we do not despise the interpretations of the holy Greek and Latin fathers, nor reject their disputations and treatises as far as they agree with the Scriptures; but we do modestly dissent from them when they are found to set down things differing from, or altogether contrary to, the Scriptures. Neither do we think that we do them any wrong in this matter; seeing that they all, with one consent, will not have their writings matched with the Canonical Scriptures, but bid us allow of them so far forth as they either agree with them or disagree. And in the same order we also place the decrees and canons of councils. This Reformation doctrine of sola scriptura should be clearly distinguished from what is sometimes called biblicism but which is better termed restorationism. Restorationism maintains that the church either ceased to exist altogether or that it was so thoroughly corrupt that the proper approach was to start over from scratch and reinvent Christianity. Restorationists often reject the classic Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, and even those who don’t reject these doctrines typically view the early creeds, such as the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, with suspicion. The Reformation doctrine of sola scriptura doesn’t fall into this erroneous way of thinking. It respects what the early church fathers called the regula fidei, the “rule of faith,” which was the essential, basic confession articulated in the Apostles Creed and elaborated in the Nicene Creed. From an evangelical perspective, these creeds carry weight insofar as they are based on creedal statements in the New Testament. Indeed, the creeds consist almost entirely of affirmations taken directly from the New Testament.5 The Sola in Sola Scriptura So what does sola scriptura mean and why should Christians accept it? Let me answer this question by explaining and defending three points: the basis, meaning, and significance of the sola. First, the basis of the sola: Scripture is the only verbal word of God available or accessible to the church. There are two parts to the argument here. (A) Scripture is the only written word of God available to us today. (B) We have no human beings living on the earth today whose oral teachings are the word of God. (A) That Scripture is the only written word of God is really true by definition: whatever is the written word of God is by definition Scripture, and whatever extant, available texts that are the word of God are and should be recognized as Scripture by the church. Other written materials accessible to us may be true, uplifting, faithful, and valuable, but they are not the word of God and therefore are not Scripture. What makes Scripture unique, what makes it stand apart, is that it is the only written word of God in the church’s possession. Christ and the authors of the New Testament affirmed this unique character of Scripture in many ways. In numerous places they attribute the very words of Scripture to God as his word. Jesus, for example, refers to Scripture as “the word of God” in Mark 7:13 and John 10:34-35. (B) Catholic and Orthodox Christians generally agree with evangelicals that we have no human beings living on the earth today whose oral or written teachings are the word of God. In other words, we don’t have living prophets and apostles. Again, in a discussion with Mormons this claim would be a focal point of disagreement, but it isn’t with most non-evangelical Christians.6 Neither the Orthodox Church nor the Catholic Church claims that its leaders are prophets and apostles whose speeches or writings carry the same authority as those of the New Testament apostles of Christ. Apostles were individuals who had personally seen and heard the risen Christ (Acts 1:21-25; 1 Cor. 9:1) and who had received their commission directly from Christ, as Paul emphasizes he had (Gal. 1:1, 11-12). Paul says that the church was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the church’s cornerstone (Eph. 2:20). That term “foundation” is a metaphor picturing the apostles in their unique, unrepeatable role as the first-generation, founding members and witnesses of the church. I mean no disrespect to any Christian leaders living today, but none of them can claim to be an apostle or prophet. None of them can claim that his teaching is the word of God. This is why I included the word “today” in my definition of sola scriptura: Scripture is the only infallible rule of doctrine and practice for Christians today. The biblical arguments that non-Protestants often use to establish an oral tradition distinct from the written word of God in Scripture fail because the biblical texts they cite are not referring to an oral communication available to us today. Take, for example, Paul’s statement in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” Only by ripping this text out of its context can it be imagined to support the idea of an authoritative oral tradition existing in the 21st century that is distinct from the written word of God in Scripture. Paul is saying that the Thessalonians should hold on to the apostles’ teaching whether they received it orally in person or in writing in the form of an epistle. If we had audio recordings of the apostles’ teachings those could function as authoritative alongside the epistles, but we don’t. If we want to know what the apostles taught, we can find out only (there’s that word again) through the writings they left behind in the New Testament. If we have no oral word of God available to us today, and Scripture is all of the written word of God available to us today, then only Scripture is the verbal word of God available to us today. And this is really the whole basis of sola scriptura. The doctrine of sola scriptura is really an appeal to Christians to look to God alone as the final, infallible authority for the church. If I may put it this way, sola scriptura is really based on solus deus, God alone. It means that God is the sole infallible authority. God is infallible, and what God says—his word—is infallible. No other verbal communication or material available to us has this character of being the absolutely trustworthy, infallible, word of God. Creeds, for example, may be admirable, noble, and even faithful statements, but they are not the word of God. The church may and should learn by them and be guided by the early creeds that simply expressed the rule of faith that epitomized the teachings of the apostles that is found in the New Testament, but the creeds are not the word of God. What, then, does sola scripturamean? It means that Scripture is the only publicly accessible, infallible verbal expression of God’s truth in the world. There are all sorts of fine expressions of God’s truth, but the only verbal expression of God’s truth in the world that is publicly accessible and infallible is God’s word in Scripture. The sacraments are wonderful expressions of the gospel but they are non-verbal (though there are verbal elements in the liturgy that are generally taken from Scripture). Private promptings of the Holy Spirit to individuals are expressions of God’s truth but they are not publicly accessible. Creeds are publicly accessible, verbal expressions of God’s truth, but they are not infallible—that is, they are not guaranteed to be unfailingly true because they are not God’s word. Infallible means more than “true”; it means that what is said cannot fail to be true, or that it cannot be false in any way. A creed can be “true” without being infallible; it can be reliable without being unimpeachable. The church is free to rewrite and expand its creeds, as the early church did when it expanded the Apostles Creed into the Nicene Creed in 325 and then expanded the Nicene Creed into the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed in 381. The church is not, however, free to rewrite and expand the Bible. This is because creeds, as wonderful as they are, are merely the words of men, whereas the Bible is the word of God. The basis of sola scriptura is that only Scripture is the written word of God available to us today. The meaning of sola scriptura is that only Scripture is a publicly accessible, infallible verbal expression of God’s truth available today. What, then, is the significance of sola scriptura? Its significance is that only Scripture is the infallible rule of doctrine and practice for Christians today. If Scripture is the only infallible verbal expression of God’s truth available to Christians today, then it follows that Scripture is the only infallible rule of doctrine and practice for Christians today. This means that only those truths about God and our saving relationship with him, which Scripture clearly teaches or that follow from the teaching of Scripture, may be required of Christians to believe. Non-Protestants constantly argue that this conclusion is not itself taught in Scripture and therefore is self-defeating. If Scripture does not teach sola scriptura, so the argument goes, then sola scriptura cannot be true. Not a few Protestants have been misled into accepting this reasoning and consequently have left Protestantism for some other form of Christianity, whether Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or even a heretical group such as the Mormon religion. This argument against sola scriptura is quite flawed because in fact the doctrine does follow from what Scripture clearly teaches. Scripture clearly claims infallible authority for itself and just as clearly denies infallible authority to any other verbal communication accessible to us today. I have already summarized the scriptural basis for saying that Scripture is the only written word of God. I have also summarized the scriptural basis for saying that apostles and prophets were temporary ministries of the foundational period of the church and that without such figures we do not have any other infallible verbal communication of truth from God that can function as a standard or rule for Christians today. This is really the whole basis of the doctrine of sola scriptura, and it comes straight from Scripture itself. Of course, while the apostles were still alive, they expected Christians to treat their oral teaching as equally authoritative to their written teaching. In this respect, the first-generation church’s infallible rule was not limited to Scripture, a fact that non-Protestants take out of historical context to exploit as an argument against sola scriptura. But we see the apostles themselves in the later NT writings pointing the way as the church was about to make the transition from the apostolic era to the post-apostolic era. We can see this in the final epistles written by three of the apostles: Paul, Peter, and Jude. Pau’s final epistle was 2 Timothy. In this epistle, Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2 to pass on his teaching to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. The church and its leaders are therefore part of the picture; again, we are not denying the importance of the church and its role in transmitting the gospel from one generation to the next. But Paul does not say anything to suggest that this transmission process would be infallible. There were false teachers within the church even in Paul’s day, as he points out later in the same chapter. Paul goes on to acknowledge that after his departure difficult times were coming when many people would profess Christian faith but lack its reality, and some would teach myths instead of the truth. It is in this context that Paul affirms that all Scripture is inspired by God and that what it teaches will prepare the man of God to do all God calls him to do (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Faithful—not infallible—men would be adequately and sufficiently prepared to continue maintaining the faith as they are taught to know and believe and teach the Scriptures. In 2 Peter, the apostle Peter recognizes that his life is coming to an end and that the church is going to be assaulted by false teachers. His instruction for standing firm against such teachers is to “remember the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the commandment of our Lord and Savior through your apostles” (3:2). The true faith will be maintained not by submitting without question to the bishops or creeds but by remembering what God said in the past through the prophets and the apostles of Christ. We have those words preserved for us in the Old and New Testaments, and nowhere else. Jude makes a similar point in his epistle. After urging his readers in verse 3 to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, he tells them how to do that in verses 17-21: remember the words of the apostles of Christ, build themselves up in the faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, and keep themselves in the love of God. There is not one word here about looking to an infallible Church to be the unquestioned rule of doctrine and practice. The doctrine of sola scriptura is itself scripturally based. It follows from the unique character of Scripture as the only available verbal word of God for the church today. We must test all teachings, creeds, confessions, and opinions by Scripture because it alone is the infallible word of God for the church today. Sola Scriptura in Church History Evangelicals do not view the church fathers or medieval theologians as authoritative in matters of Christian doctrine. However, since Catholic and Orthodox Christians often claim that the doctrine of sola scriptura is a modern evangelical innovation, we should take notice of what some famous Christian teachers have said on the subject in the past. What follows are just a very small sampling of such statements—enough to establish that sola scriptura has significant precedent in church history. Irenaeus (second century): If, however, we cannot discover explanations of all those things in Scripture which are made the subject of investigation, yet let us not on that account seek after any other God besides Him who really exists. For this is the very greatest impiety. We should leave things of that nature to God who created us, being most properly assured that the Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and His Spirit; but we, inasmuch as we are inferior to, and later in existence than, the Word of God and His Spirit, are on that very account destitute of the knowledge of His mysteries.—Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2.28.2. Augustine of Hippo (fifth century): …it is to the canonical Scriptures alone that I am bound to yield such implicit subjection as to follow their teaching, without admitting the slightest suspicion that in them any mistake or any statement intended to mislead could find a place (Letters 82.3). …there is a distinct boundary line separating all productions subsequent to apostolic times from the authoritative canonical books of the Old and New Testaments…. In the innumerable books that have been written latterly we may sometimes find the same truth as Scripture, but there is not the same authority. Scripture has a sacredness peculiar to itself (Reply to Faustus 11.5). Thomas Aquinas (thirteenth century): We believe the prophets and apostles because the Lord has been their witness by performing miracles…. And we believe the successors of the apostles and prophets only in so far as they tell us those things which the apostles and prophets have left in their writings (De veritate, 14.10, ad 11). …only the canonicalScriptures are normative for faith. Whereas others who write about the truth do so in such a way that they do not want to be believed unless what they affirm is true (Comm. on John 21, lect. 6). ….only to those books or writings which are called canonical have I learnt to pay such honour that I firmly believe that none of their authors have erred in composing them (Summa theologiae, 1a.1.8). Answering Objections to Sola Scriptura Critics of evangelical Christianity have voiced numerous objections to the doctrine of sola scriptura. It will be helpful to look at a few of the most common such objections. Objection: The doctrine of sola scriptura is self-defeating because it is not taught in Scripture. Answer: Actually, it is taught in Scripture, since (as explained above) Scripture teaches that Scripture is an infallible source and standard for Christian doctrine and denies infallibility to other sources (such as human traditions and religious leaders). Objection: Sola scriptura is false because Scripture is not the only or even the most important Word of God; Jesus Christ is the living Word of God and is therefore the Word of God in the ultimate and most important sense. Answer: Sola scriptura does not detract from the fact that Jesus Christ is the definitive personal, living Word of God. Rather, sola scriptura means that Scripture is the only infallible verbal revelation of who and what Jesus Christ is and of what it means to believe in him. This objection to sola scriptura rests on a category mistake, since Scripture and Christ are “the Word of God” in different and non-competing ways. Evangelicals affirm both sola scriptura and solus Christus: Scripture is the only written word of God, and Christ is the only living Word of God.7 Objection: Protestants don’t really use the Bible alone, because they appeal to church traditions where it seems to support their beliefs. Answer: Protestants don’t claim that Christians may only use the Bible alone but that it alone is an unquestionable, unimpeachable, infallible authority for Christian faith and practice. Objection: The sola scriptura principle cannot be of God because it has given rise to over 20,000 denominations disagreeing among themselves about what Scripture teaches. Answer: The raw number of denominations is misleading (many are simply regional organizations within the same denomination; many denominations are liberal or heretical sects that reject sola scriptura; etc.), but in any case the problem is not sola scriptura but human fallibility and sin. If church tradition was sufficient to preserve Christian unity, there would not be Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, both claiming to be the guardians of that unity. The claim that sola scriptura is at fault needs to be shown by more than a post hoc propter hoc fallacious argument. Objection: When the NT refers to Scripture, as in 2 Timothy 3:16, it is referring to the OT, so if such texts prove that only Scripture is an infallible authority for the church then they would exclude the NT. Answer: The fact that in many places in the NT the term Scripture refers in context to the OT does not disprove that what it says about the authority of the OT does not also apply to the NT. If one accepts the NT as being just as much Scripture as the OT, one cannot deny to the NT the authority that the NT accords to the OT. That the limits of Scripture were in the process of being expanded in the first century to include the NT writings does not warrant the claim that doctrinal sources outside the parameters of Scripture also carry the same authority as Scripture. Here’s an illustration of the principle here: A school policy statement published in 2011 requires students to follow the instructions of all school employees during a fire alarm. In 2012 the school hires ten new employees. The policy extends to include those new employees but not to include other adults not mentioned in the policy, such as parents of other children. Objection: 2 Timothy 3:16 cannot support sola scriptura because in the same chapter Paul uses a non-biblical oral tradition when he gives the names Jannes and Jambres for two of the Egyptian magicians in the Book of Exodus (2 Tim. 3:8). Answer: The doctrine of sola scriptura does not deny that extracanonical sources can be useful but rather than such sources are not guaranteed to be infallible, as Scripture is. The same answer applies to other NT citations of extracanonical sources. It also applies to the question of why Protestants publish study Bibles, systematic theologies, and other books of instruction. Objection: Scripture provides no list of the writings that belong in the canon; therefore, Scripture is not sufficient to establish the doctrine of the canon of Scripture. Answer: Tradition also provides no list of the traditions that are infallible; therefore, by this reasoning, tradition is not sufficient to establish the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture plus tradition (plus whatever else one wants to add). Tradition clearly did not have infallible information on this subject because the church discussed and debated the precise extent of the NT canon for a century. The objection is fallacious because it assumes a sufficient source of information on the canon must take the form of a list. Scripture can inform us as to what makes a book authoritatively from God without giving us a list of approved books. Objection: God may have inspired writings in the past to which we no longer have access. For example, we don’t have all of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. Answer: Sola scriptura does not claim that all inspired writings of the past must exist and be accessible to us today. Might any of Paul’s missing letters to the Corinthian congregation have been inspired? Sure, but since we don’t have them, the point is moot. Scripture is by definition whatever extant writings there are qualifying as the word of God.8 1. This definition is verbally almost identical to the one given by evangelical teacher Michael Patton: “Sola Scriptura: the belief that the Scripture alone is the final and only infallible source for matters of faith and practice.” See “The Danger of Sola Scriptura,” Bible.org, Oct. 3, 2005.	The biblical arguments that non-Protestants often use to establish an oral tradition distinct from the written word of God in Scripture fail because the biblical texts they cite are not referring to an oral communication available to us today. Take, for example, Paul’s statement in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” Only by ripping this text out of its context can it be imagined to support the idea of an authoritative oral tradition existing in the 21st century that is distinct from the written word of God in Scripture. Paul is saying that the Thessalonians should hold on to the apostles’ teaching whether they received it orally in person or in writing in the form of an epistle. If we had audio recordings of the apostles’ teachings those could function as authoritative alongside the epistles, but we don’t. If we want to know what the apostles taught, we can find out only (there’s that word again) through the writings they left behind in the New Testament. If we have no oral word of God available to us today, and Scripture is all of the written word of God available to us today, then only Scripture is the verbal word of God available to us today. And this is really the whole basis of sola scriptura. The doctrine of sola scriptura is really an appeal to Christians to look to God alone as the final, infallible authority for the church. If I may put it this way, sola scriptura is really based on solus deus, God alone. It means that God is the sole infallible authority. God is infallible, and what God says—his word—is infallible. No other verbal communication or material available to us has this character of being the absolutely trustworthy, infallible, word of God. Creeds, for example, may be admirable, noble, and even faithful statements, but they are not the word of God.	yes
Religion	Is the Bible infallible?	yes_statement	the "bible" is "infallible".. the "infallibility" of the "bible" is unquestionable.	https://www.andrews.edu/~damsteeg/EGWtheo.html	©Damsteegt: Ellen White on Theology...	Ellen White on Theology: Its Methods, and the Use of Scripture Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 4/2 (1993):115-136. Seventh-day Adventists consider Ellen White (1827-1915) one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its most influential writer. The following discussion focuses on how she views theology, theological method, and its use in advancing divine truth. First we will look at her attitude toward theology. Then we will investigate what she has to say about theological methods. Ellen White distinguishes two types of theology. The theology she approves of she calls "true" or "sound" theology. Theology she warns against is popular or objectionable theology. Ellen White's Attitude Toward Theology Characteristics of True Theology. Ellen White would like to see "in every school" a theology characterized by "the most simple theory."1 The Bible contains a "system of theology and philosophy" that is both "simple and complete,"2 yet "sublime."3 It is so profoundly simple that even a child can understand it. Yet at the same time, so profoundly sublime that it baffles the intellectual giant.4 Scripture's "grand central theme" consists of "God's original purpose for the world, of the rise of the great controversy, and of the work of redemption."5 The "central truth" of a vital theology is the "atonement of Christ;" thus, students will be exposed to "the wonderful theme of redemption."6 Its purpose is to make "us wise unto salvation." It reveals "the love of God as shown in the plan of redemption" and provides the essential knowledge of Christ as our Savior.7 A vital theology is to be "saturated with the love of Christ." Its effect produces in believers a practical wholistic lifestyle: The diffusion of this love throughout the body "touches every vital part,&emdash;the brain, the heart, the helping hands, the feet," enabling people to stand firmly for God.8 It brings true vitality to the church and leads "to the doing of works that will bear fruit after the similitude of the character of God."9 True theology, as stated by Wycliffe, centers around the "distinctive doctrines of Protestantism&emdash;salvation through faith in Christ, and the sole infallibility of the Scripture."10 It continues the process of reform that began with the Protestant Reformation to lead people away from a dependence on human and ecclesiastical traditions. Among proponents who gave leadership to a vital theology she lists individuals in the Reformation heritage such as Wycliffe,11 Luther,12 Zwingli 13 and Wesley.14 This she places in sharp contrast to Satan's strategy in directing people's attention to the "opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils, . . . the voice of the majority" for deciding what is truth for faith.15 Characteristics of Popular Theology. Popular theology is characterized by false interpretations of Scripture. The origin of many of these errors may be traced to the "ages of papal darkness, that is the Dark Ages."16 The nature of this theology is speculative. It exalts human theories based on philosophy and theology above the Word of God and stands in sharp contrast to the eternal truths taught by the Bible writers.17 Its presence is widespread. "To a large degree," Ellen White writes, "theology, as studied and taught, is but a record of human speculation."18 Objectionable theology mixes religion with harmful amusements. She specifically rejects a theology which advocates that it is necessary for the health of patients to play cards and dance as a "pleasurable excitement to keep their spirits up."19 Major errors. Throughout her writings she comments on many errors in popular theology. Among the most prominent are the doctrine of natural immortality,20 the ministering spirits of the dead,21 the everlasting punishing in hell,22 the consciousness of the dead,23 the transference of the biblical day of worship from Sabbath to Sunday,24 and the abolition of God's moral law, the Decalogue.25 Results of erroneous theology. The problem with erroneous theology is its detrimental effects on mind and judgment which exposes believers to temptations. The study of these speculations confuses the mind.26 Says Ellen White, it "perverts the judgment and opens the door to temptation, and through its influence Satan seeks to turn hearts from the truth." For a defense she recommends "an intelligent love for the truth" which "sanctifies the receiver, and keeps him from the enemy's deceptive snares."27 The theological errors which were introduced into the church during the ages of papal supremacy had a devastating effect. They created "an erroneous conception of God"28 which led many to doubt and skepticism about the Bible as the Word of God.29 "Thousands upon thousands" have become skeptics and unbelievers.30 Unsound theology confuses the intellect and disqualifies a person for teaching. Speaking of Dr. Kellogg, she says, his "theology is not sound; his mind is confused, and unless he sees his danger, his foundation will be swept away when the test comes. Unless he sees his danger and makes a decided change, he can not be endorsed as a safe, all-round teacher."31 Incorrect approaches. There are two dangers against which Ellen White especially warns. One is a "scientific theology" which had come into the Battle Creek church in 1906. Its impact led people away from a true faith in God and raised questions about her writings.32 The second danger is the work of higher criticism, also called historical criticism. It is the use of the historical-critical method for the study of the Bible. This approach she characterizes as "dissecting, conjecturing, reconstructing" the Scriptures. The result is the destruction of faith in Scripture as the Word of God.33 She considered it to be one of Satan's tools of deception. Through its "pleasing sentiments," she says, "the enemy of righteousness is seeking to lead souls into forbidden paths."34 The reason for her strong opposition to higher criticism is that it "is destroying faith in the Bible as a divine revelation; it is robbing God's word of power to control, uplift, and inspire human lives."35 She compares its influence to the destructive effect of tradition and rabbinical teaching in Christ's days.36 In a sermon she ironically contrasts the higher critics, whom she identifies as "poor, finite man on probation," with the true Higher Critic, "the Lord God of the universe who has spread the canopy of the heavens above us, and has made the stars and called them forth in their order."37 Motives for Studying Theology Too often the study of theology is pursued with an incorrect motive: "An ambition to become acquainted with philosophers and theologians, a desire to present Christianity to the people in learned terms and propositions."38 This is contrary to the true theology of Scripture with its emphasis on clarity and plainness. Correct motives are directed by a desire to nourish food for both mind and soul.39 When it comes to motives for studying theology in non-SDA institutions Ellen White calls attention to the motives of the Waldenses studying in Roman Catholic institutions. The purpose of their study was evangelistic: sowing "the seeds of truth in other minds" while getting an education. However, this mission was not for all young people and leadership is to hand pick those qualified. It was only for those who possessed the special spiritual qualifications: "Strong young men, rooted and grounded in the faith" with "a living connection with God."40 Today's objectives for such a study would be similar: Students "would have a wider field for study and observation," be associated "with different classes of minds," and obtain "an acquaintance with the workings and results of popular methods of education, and a knowledge of theology as taught in the leading institutions of learning." This education will prepare students for the specific mission of laboring for "the educated classes" as well as combating "the prevailing errors of our time."41 The Objectives of Theology Researching and interpreting the Bible is a delicate occupation. Ellen White points out that "all who handle the word of God are engaged in a most solemn and sacred work."42 The objectives of this important work that Ellen White sees follow. Use Correct Principles of Interpretation. One of the foremost objectives for those engaged in theology is finding the correct principles to interpret the Bible. These principles are found in "the Bible and the Bible only." There students will discover the vital principle that "the Bible is its own interpreter."43 This principle she fully endorses in her account of the conflict between the Protestant reformers and the papacy.44 The principle of the Bible interpreting itself, one part of Scripture interprets another 45 within its own biblical context 46 is basic for all interpretation. Acquire Sound Wisdom. A correct interpretation of Scripture requires the possession of sound wisdom. This wisdom comes only with much personal effort. "We cannot obtain wisdom without earnest attention and prayerful study."47 The study of Scripture generates the quality of wisdom necessary for successful discovery of truth. Search for Salvation. God desires that all should obtain salvation. This salvation "depends on a knowledge of the truth contained in the Scriptures." It is, therefore, obvious that one of the most important tasks of individuals engaged in theology is to "search the precious Bible with hungry hearts."48 The Bible, she remarks, "contains the science of all sciences, the science of salvation."49 The quest for truth, therefore, should never stop. "The more we study the Word with a simple, trustful heart, the more we understand the path we must travel in order to reach the Paradise of God."50 Study Qualifies for Soul-winning. Again and again we are impressed with Ellen White's stress on the practicality of Bible research. The gospel truths must be shared.51 It is through digging "deep in the Scriptures of truth," with weeping, fasting and praying that a person becomes qualified "to go forth and watch for souls as they that must give an account."52 Thus Bible study is crucial in the development of soul-winning strategies. Concentrate on the Biblical Text. Another objective of theology is to understand the biblical text. Ellen White encourages a search to discover the meaning of difficult passages. Some Scriptural passages "are easily understood," but "the true meaning of other parts is not so readily discerned."53 This underscores the need for serious Bible study so as to grasp the meaning of these difficult passages. There is the need to discover the deeper meaning of Bible passages. In the words of Scripture there lies a significance that must be discovered, going beyond the surface. In reflecting on Christ as "the truth," she says, "His words are truth, and they have a deeper significance than appears on the surface."54 Ellen White warns against a shallow understanding of the truth. "We must not be satisfied with superficial knowledge," but "seek to learn the full meaning of the words of truth, and to drink deep of the spirit of the holy oracles."55 This enterprise, demands "careful thought as to the meaning of the sacred text."56 Much searching of the Bible, therefore, is an indispensable requirement for its understanding. Understand the Historical-Cultural Setting. A realistic picture of the historical, cultural context of biblical episodes leads to an improved understanding of both the past and the present. To achieve this Ellen White suggests going back in our minds to the original scene. She illustrates this by an episode from the life of Christ, inviting the readers to "enter into the thoughts and feelings" of His disciples. "Understanding what the words of Jesus meant to those who heard them we may discern in them a new vividness and beauty, and may also gather for ourselves their deep lessons."57 In doing so, Ellen White does not endorse the view that the key to the knowledge of the Bible is its socio-cultural context of the surrounding religious, political, and social institutions. The proper and supreme context of the Bible for understanding is the revelation of God embodied in the Bible itself. Separate Truth from Errors. Ellen White challenges the researcher to rescue God's truth from the erroneous interpretations that have accumulated throughout the centuries: "There is a great work to be done by the earnest Bible student; for gems of truth are to be gathered up, and separated from the companionship of error."58 Errors have crept into theology over many centuries, but the Bible will be the guide to separate error from truth. "There are errors and inconsistencies which many denounce as the teaching of the Bible that are really false interpretations of Scripture, adopted during the ages of papal darkness."59 What looks like an inconsistency or error does not seem to be one in fact for those who "cling to the Bible as it reads, and stop. . . criticisms in regard to its validity."60 Bible Study: Medium of Communication. Ellen White says that "the Bible is the mine of the unsearchable riches of Christ."61 She encourages digging deep into this most precious mine to gather its magnificent gems. "The study of the Scriptures is the means divinely ordained to bring men into closer connection with their Creator, and to give them a clearer knowledge of His will." Such study "is the medium of communication between God and man."62 Avoid Criticism: Affirm God's Character. In colorful terms she addresses those trying "to correct the errors of the Bible:" "In seeking to make plain or unravel mysteries hid for ages from mortal man, they are like a man floundering about in the mud, unable to extricate himself and yet telling others how to get out of the muddy sea they themselves are in."63 Confidently she adds, "No man can improve the Bible by suggesting what the Lord meant to say or ought to have said."64 Instead of criticizing the Bible we must reveal to the world God's true character.65 Recognize Unfolding Nature of Scripture. Bible truth is progressive. It "is an advancing truth."66 It is true that "we have some understanding of the inspired books of the Old and New Testament," but "there is much that even in our day we do not see and comprehend."67 There is "need of deep research"68 to discover "new aspects of truth in both the Old and New Testament," and see "the exceeding breadth and compass of truths which we imagine we understand, but of which we have only a superficial knowledge."69 There is a "need for thorough and continuous searching of the Scriptures for greater light. We must watch with earnestness that we may discern any ray of light which God shall present to us."70 "We are to catch the first gleamings of truth," she says, that "through prayerful study clearer light may be obtained, which can be brought before others."71 It is God's will that His people "should be ever moving forward, to receive the increased and ever-increasing light which is shining for them."72 "We must walk in the increasing light."73 It is obvious that the new light and advanced truth brings new responsibilities that will profoundly effect the behavior and mission of the church. Examine the Foundations of Our Faith. Ellen White indicates that the new light God has given to Seventh-day Adventists should "lead us to a diligent study of the Scriptures, and a most critical examination of the positions which we hold. God would have all the bearings and positions of truth thoroughly and perseveringly searched, with prayer and fasting." Its purpose being that the believers' faith should "be firmly founded upon the word of God so that when the testing time shall come and they are brought before councils to answer for their faith they may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them, with meekness and fear."74 Ellen White encourages an open-minded attitude towards the traditional Seventh-day Adventist interpretations, saying that "there is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error."75 She warns against the idea that all teachings of the church are infallible. The fact that certain doctrines have been held "as truth for many years by our people is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation."76 She says that "in closely investigating every jot and title which we think is established truth, in comparing scripture with scripture, we may discover errors in our interpretations of Scripture." She confidently promises that if such a "search is properly conducted, jewels of inestimable value will be found. The word of God is the mine of the unsearchable riches of Christ."77 "Truth is eternal," she says, "and conflict with error will only make manifest its strength. . . . If the pillars of our faith will not stand the test of investigation, it is time that we knew it."78 This "investigation," however, should follow the proper principles of interpretation. Principles Underlying Methods of Theology Ellen White bases the methods of theology on three characteristics of the Bible: uniqueness, authority and unity. The Uniqueness of the Bible. Authorship. The Bible is different from all other books. Its uniqueness rests in its divine authorship. "The Bible," Ellen White says, "points to God as its author."79 All its revealed truths are "given by inspiration of God" (2 Tim. 3:16). Yet this awareness does not come without thoughtful study. "The evidence of the truth of God's word is in the word itself."80 This means that one must become personally acquainted with the Bible. "A settled faith in the divinity of the Holy Scriptures," she writes, comes "through personal experience," in "a knowledge of God and His word."81 Infallibility and Trustworthiness. When theologians deal with the Bible they must have confidence in its accuracy and reliability. Assurance in its accuracy is associated with the understanding of inspiration. Ellen White views inspiration as a process. First, God qualifies persons to communicate His truth.82 Then, He guides "the mind in the selection of what to speak and what to write."83 She observes that the Bible has been written in human language and "everything that is human is imperfect."84 But although God communicates His testimony "through the imperfect expression of human language, yet it is the testimony of God."85 It is important not to forget the function of the Bible: It "was given for practical purposes."86 Human language, therefore, imperfect though it may be, can still function as an accurate and trustworthy vehicle for communication of eternal truths. The sacred text has been remarkably preserved by God throughout history in spite of the work of some copyists, who, influenced by tradition, when copies were few, have tried to improve the text "when in reality they were mystifying that which was plain."87 The Bible is "to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will."88 "Man is fallible," she states, "but God's Word is infallible."89 The Bible is "the unerring standard" by which all ideas must be tested.90 Ellen White rejects the claim that the Bible contains contradictions. Such a conclusion derives from a "superficial knowledge" of the Bible.91 Rightly understood it reveals "perfect harmony."92 The Authority of the Bible. Source. Like its uniqueness, the authority of the Bible is rooted in God's authorship. It is "God's voice speaking to us, just as surely as though we could hear it with our ears."93 Consequently the Bible is the "only infallible authority in religion."94 Humans are to receive it as the "supreme authority."95 Extent. Its authority extends over faith, doctrine, experience,96 history,97 science,98 human wisdom,99 and extra biblical revelation.100 Ellen White always recognizes the Bible as the supreme norm by which everything, including her own works, ought to be tested.101 Although not in favor of creeds, she urges people to adopt a creed for their lives: "The Bible, and the Bible alone, is to be our creed."102 In speaking about the extent of its superiority, she states that "God's holy word needs not the torch light glimmer of earth to make its glories distinguishable," because "it is light in itself&emdash;the glory of God revealed, and beside it every other light is dim."103 Therefore she warns: "Never let mortal man sit in judgment upon the Word of God."104 This view has far reaching implications for the theological approach to Scripture. It means that a study of the Bible itself is far more valuable than the study of the great writers of theology.105 The Unity of the Bible. Fundamental to the unity of the Bible is its divine authorship.106 This view has profound implications on the nature and relationship of the books that make up the Scriptures. Harmony of Scripture. A unique characteristic of the Bible is the harmony that exists between the books that compose it. Although written by various persons, each writer, "under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, presents what is most forcibly impressed upon his own mind&emdash;a different aspect of truth in each, but a perfect harmony through all."107 Many do not see this unity. First, it requires divine illumination. Ellen White points out that only "the illuminated soul sees a spiritual unity, one grand golden thread running through the whole but it requires patience, thought, and prayer to trace out the precious golden thread."108 Second, biblical harmony is discovered through a thorough research of the Scripture. Said she, "He who earnestly searches the Scriptures will see that harmony exists between the various parts of the Bible; he will discover the bearing of one passage upon another, and the reward of his toil will be exceedingly precious."109 Progressive revelation. An understanding of the concept of progressive revelation as the unfolding of previous divine revelation is important in perceiving the unity of the Bible. This concept is a divine design that is carefully interwoven throughout the Scriptures. Ellen White writes that "the Scriptures were given to men, not in a continuous chain of unbroken utterances, but piece by piece through successive generations, as God in His providence saw a fitting opportunity to impress man at sundry times and divers places. Men wrote as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost."110 Progressive revelation can be illustrated with the ancient prophets. They received special illumination from the Spirit, but they did not fully comprehend "the import of the revelations committed to them. The meaning was to be unfolded from age to age, as the people of God should need the instruction therein contained."111 These new insights "unfolded from age to age" were always in full harmony with previous revelations. Ellen White saw a striking example of progressive revelation in the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. She states: "The Old Testament is the gospel in figures and symbols. The New Testament is the substance. One is as essential as the other."112 This intimate unity explains her statement that "the Savior is revealed in the Old Testament as clearly as in the New."113 "The New Testament does not present a new religion; the Old Testament does not present a religion to be superseded by the New. The New Testament is only the advancement and unfolding of the Old."114 Divine revelation in the lives of the Bible writers brought about unique literary productions characterized by a harmonious unity in diversity, not uniformity. She wrote: "The Lord gave His word. . . through different writers, each having his own individuality. Each has an experience of his own, and this diversity broadens and deepens the knowledge that is brought out to meet the necessities of varied minds."115 Consequently "the thoughts expressed have not a set uniformity, as if cast in an iron mold, making the very hearing monotonous. In such uniformity there would be a loss of grace and distinctive beauty."116 The distinctiveness of the different Bible books are needed for the biblical message to penetrate human hearts. Limitations of Theology Theology as practiced by human beings has serious limitations. "In the Word of God many queries are raised," Ellen White writes, "that the most profound scholars can never answer."117 The reason for this is that the"word of God, like the character of its divine Author, presents mysteries that can never be fully comprehended by finite beings."118 In the research of the Scriptures one may go as deep as possible, "and yet there is an infinity beyond."119 To keep human achievements in theology in their proper perspectives she brings out that it must "be emphasized, and often repeated, that the mysteries of the Bible are not because God has sought to conceal truth, but because our own weakness or ignorance makes us incapable of comprehending or appropriating truth. The limitation is not in His purpose but in our capacity."120 The differences between the finite creature and the infinite Creator should always be kept in mind by the researcher and interpreter. This difference, Ellen White says, makes it impossible "for created beings to attain to a full understanding of God and His works."121 "The depth of human intellect may be measured; the works of human authors may be mastered; but the highest, deepest, broadest flight of the imagination cannot find out God. There is infinity beyond all that we can comprehend."122 Illustrating the magnitude and grandeur of the Word of God, she writes, "It is impossible for any human mind to exhaust even one truth or promise of the Bible. One catches the glory from one point of view, another from another point; yet we can discern only gleamings. The full radiance is beyond our vision. As we contemplate the great things of God's Word, we look into a fountain that broadens and deepens beneath our gaze. Its breadth and depth pass our knowledge. As we gaze, the vision widens; stretched out before us we behold a boundless, shoreless sea."123 This view of human limitations should keep persons humble in their theological statements. Proper Methods of Theology Miller's Principles Endorsed. William Miller's principles of interpretation, which underlie the foundations of SDA theology, Ellen White fully endorses. Said she: "Those who are engaged in proclaiming the third angel's message are searching the Scriptures upon the same plan that Father Miller adopted." His method consisted of "simple but intelligent and important rules for Bible study and interpretation."124 The successful use of these methods is intimately connected with the exercise of genuine faith: "Nothing revealed in Scripture can or will be hid from those who ask in faith, not wavering."125 Several of the following concepts can be found among Miller's principles. Bible only. In light of the general departure from Bible truth Ellen White stresses the "need of a return to the great Protestant principle&emdash;the Bible, and the Bible only, as the rule of faith and duty."126 She states that "searching the Scriptures alone will bring the knowledge of the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent."127 In the quest for an understanding of Bible truth it is not imperative to study extra-biblical sources while they may illuminate certain backgrounds, the divine revelation in the Scriptures is fully adequate. "All that man needs to know and can know of God," she says, "has been revealed in His Word and in the life of His Son, the great Teacher."128 The whole canon of the Scriptures should be the context in which the student operates. The student "should learn to view the Word as a whole, and to see the relation of its parts."129 This view cautions against the practice of using a "canon within a canon" that draws conclusions from a constricted Bible in which a certain topic is elevated to function as most important theme at the expense of equally important other themes. The Role of the Spirit of Prophecy. The relation between the Bible and the operation of the Spirit of Prophecy at the end of time (Rev 12:17; 19:10) is carefully defined. The Bible, Ellen White writes, assures true believers continual guidance by the Holy Spirit. God also has promised in the Bible to give "visions in the `last days;' not for a new rule of faith, but for the comfort of His people, and to correct those who err from Bible truth."130 The reason for this role of the Holy Spirit in the end-time is because "little heed is given to the Bible." Through the Spirit of Prophecy "the Lord has given a lesser light to lead men and women to the greater light."131 Ellen White makes the following comparison: "In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouth of prophets and apostles. In these days He speaks to them by the testimonies of His Spirit."132 The Testimonies. What is the relation of Ellen White's messages or testimonies to the Bible? They are not an addition to the Bible, but an aid in its understanding. "God," she said, "has seen fit in this manner to bring the minds of His people to His word, to give them a clearer understanding of it."133 They are not to give "new light" but "to impress vividly upon the heart the truths of inspiration already revealed." She emphasizes that "additional truth is not brought out; but God has through the Testimonies simplified the great truths already given and in His own chosen way brought them before the people to awaken and impress the mind with them, that all may be left without excuse."134 Although these testimonies are not new light, they contain light that corrects errors and defines truth: "The Lord has given me much light that I want the people to have for there is instruction that the Lord has given me for His people." She adds that "this is now to come before the people, because it has been given to correct specious errors and to specify what is truth."135 The establishment of the foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Church shows the intimate relationship between the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. Often Ellen White's visions would confirm the results of the Bible studies of the Adventist Sabbathkeepers during the formative years. However, there were a few times when the Bible conferences were stalled and her visions broke the deadlock and guided the believers to the correct biblical solution. The truth&emdash;"especially concerning the ministration of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, and the message of Heaven for these last days, as given by the angels of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation," she says, "has been sought out by prayerful study, and testified to by the miracle-working power of the Lord." It is God Himself, she declares, who "through His Word and the testimony of His Spirit" has revealed the permanence of these "fundamental principles that are based upon unquestionable authority."136 Definition of the "Bible only." An analysis of Ellen White's use of the phrase "the Bible and the Bible only" reveals that she contrasts it with human "views and ideas,"137 erroneous traditions on the Sabbath and the Law of God,138 mistaken opinions of scholars, scientists, theologians,139 "sayings and doings of men,"140 "human wisdom,"141 false visions,142 views of the churches steeped in "popular theology" from which the early Adventists separated themselves,143 the "religions of fable and tradition," "imaginary religion," "a religion of words and forms," and "tradition and human theories and maxims."144 These phrases show that she uses the "Bible only" to contrast biblical truth with the unbiblical positions of religious traditions, experience, ecclesiastical position and human reason. The expression the "Bible only" was never contrasted with her own writings. In Ellen White's mind there was perfect harmony between the Bible and her writings because "the Holy Ghost is the author of the Scriptures and the author of the spirit of prophecy."145 Therefore, "it is impossible that the teachings of the Spirit should ever be contrary to that of the word."146 This unique relationship between the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy has given the latter a place above all extra-biblical sources. Consequently in the study of the Bible the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy (Ellen White) hold a superior position over other research tools. Ellen White maintains that her writings while in harmony with the Bible are not to be added to the Bible. As noted above she maintains that the Spirit of Prophecy writings are the "lesser light to lead men and women to the great light [the Bible]." The Use of Non-Inspired Christian Writings. As to the religious value of non-inspired Christian sources, she says, "the opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils, as numerous and discordant as are the churches which they represent, the voice of the majority,&emdash;not one nor all of these should be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith."147 On the value of commentaries she remarks that "many think that they must consult commentaries on the Scriptures in order to understand the meaning of the word of God." She does not object to their use, stating, "We would not take the position that commentaries should not be studied," but cautions that "it will take much discernment to discover the truth of God under the mass of the words of men."148 She says, "many think it essential to acquire an extensive knowledge of historical and theological writings" because "they suppose that this knowledge will be an aid to them in teaching the gospel" but "their laborious study of the opinions of men tends to the enfeebling of their ministry, rather than to its strengthening."149 Bible: Self-interpreting. Ellen White believes that Scripture is the key to understand Scripture and to unlock the treasure house of truth. She recommends Miller's rule: "Scripture must be its own expositor, since it is a rule of itself. If I depend on a teacher to expound it to me, and he should guess at its meaning, or desire to have it so on account of his sectarian creed, or to be thought wise, then his guessing, desire, creed, or wisdom, is my rule, not the Bible."150 In explaining her position she remarks, "we are not to accept the opinions of commentators as the voice of God" because "they were erring mortals like ourselves. God has given reasoning powers to us as well as to them. We should make the Bible its own expositor."151 The operation of this method she places within the broad perspective of Christ's role within the great controversy between good and evil.152 Theological methods, therefore, must be derived from the Bible. The two following methods are the result of this rule. The Analogy of Scripture. For the understanding and development of doctrine Ellen White endorses Miller's method of the analogy of Scripture: "To understand doctrine, bring all the Scriptures together on the subject you wish to know, then let every word have its proper influence; and if you can form your theory without a contradiction, you cannot be in error."153 This method teaches that to understand Bible doctrine correctly, it is first necessary to collect all Scripture passages on a certain subject, and then to try formulating the doctrine without the slightest contradiction. She explains it as follows: "Make the Bible its own expositor, bringing together all that is said concerning a given subject at different times and under varied circumstances."154 "Compare verse with verse, and you will find that Scripture is the key which unlocks Scripture."155 One passage of Scripture will prove "a key to unlock other passages, and in this way light is shed upon the hidden meaning of the word, By comparing different texts treating the same subject, viewing their bearing on every side, the true meaning of the Scriptures will be made evident."156 This method began to be extensively used during the Protestant Reformation 157 and is still to be employed. She not only recommends this method of Bible study in a general way but recommends the use of this method to understand difficult passages.158 It is the method on the basis of which the Bible student discovers the hidden or true meaning of the text,159 to gain new insights,160 to correct misinterpretations,161 and to solve theological disagreements and perplexities among believers.162 Typology. The second approach again derived from Scripture is the typological method. It is intended to reveal the true meaning of the type and the fulfillment of its antitype. Ellen White fully endorses the typological method as legitimate in the formulation of doctrine. Its importance she illustrates by the experience of Christ's disciples whose faith was founded on the testimony about Christ in "the types and prophecies of the Old Testament."163 Christ the "originator" of the Jewish ceremonial system of worship of types and symbols designed it to teach "spiritual and heavenly things"164 and important truths concerning the atonement."165 Its ritual, pointing to "future redemption,"166 represented the "gospel in symbol."167 "Great truths" are revealed by this system which has as its "central object" to point people to "the Lamb of God that was to take away the sin of the world."168 The scope of the typological method is immense for it pertains not only to Christ's sacrifice at the cross but also to His heavenly priesthood which lasts till the end of the world.169 Contextual Considerations. Ellen White approves of Miller's method that "every word must have its proper bearing on the subject presented in the Bible."170 This means that each word of a particular subject must be in harmony with the context of the whole Bible. She opposes the proof text method, which disregards the proper context, warning against the practice of some who "in order to sustain erroneous doctrines or unchristian practices" use certain "passages of Scripture separated from the context, perhaps quoting half of a single verse as proving their point, when the remaining portion would show the meaning to be quite the opposite."171 Her personal use of texts indicates that she has no objection against using a string of texts to proof a point provided they are in harmony with the whole Biblical context on the subject. Lifestyle and Theology Using proper methods in theology will not automatically guarantee sound theology, new truth, proper insights, concepts, or discoveries. The lifestyle of the theologians is crucial to the value and quality of their theology. The successful outcome of correct methods of theology Ellen White links intimately with the spiritual condition of the interpreter. Correct theological discoveries, therefore, come only as the results of diligent and prayerful study of the Bible. Persons engaged in the pursuit of theology, be they professionals or laity, must have a vital connection with Christ,172 daily growing in grace,173 and living a righteous life.174 Their lifestyle has to be characterized by walking obediently in the present light,175 including the light of health reform,176 and involves purging sin from their lives.177 Humility instead of pride should dominate their attitudes 178 and a willingness to accept and apply old truths.179 Chosen and illuminated by the Holy Spirit,180 they will constantly advance in proportion to the light 181 and recognize the Spirit of Prophecy as a continuing source of truth.182 When any of these lifestyle characteristics are absent there is no assurance that the result of their theological study is sound or can be trusted. Finally, it is important to realize that it is a lifestyle of cherishing Christ's principles which is the determining element in the judgment.183 "Those whom Christ commends in the Judgment, may have known little of theology, but they have cherished His principles. Through the influence of the divine Spirit they have been a blessing to those about them."184 Among the saved will be persons who have had "no opportunity to understand the philosophy of theology"185 as known in the popular theology of the world. Endnotes 1 MS 156, 1898 (Evangelism, p. 223). 2 Special Testimonies on Education, p. 53. 3 That I May Know Him, p. 8; see "The Bible a Means of Both Mental and Moral Culture," Review and Herald, Sep. 25, 1883. 4 Ibid. 5 Education, p. 190. 6 MS 156, 1898 (Evangelism, p. 223). 7 Special Testimonies on Education, 53. See also, Counsels to Parents, Students and Teachers, p. 422; Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 129. 8 "Principles of Service," Signs of the Times, May 10, 1910. 9 "What God Is," Southern Review, Jan. 1, 1901. 10 Great Controversy, p. 89; Cf. ibid., p. 102. 11 Ibid., pp. 79-96. 12 Ibid., pp. 120-170. Luther's hope for the success of true theology was the younger, not the older generation for they had not yet been educated in error (Ellen G. White, "Summoned to Augsburg," Signs of the Times, 06-28-83). 13 Great Controversy, pp. 171-184. 14 Ibid., pp. 253-264. 15 Ibid., p. 595. 16 Testimonies, 5:710,711. 17 Great Controversy, p. 126. See also Ellen G. White, "Luther at Wittenberg," Signs of the Times, June 7, 1883. 18 Counsels to Teachers, p. 380. 19 Manuscript Releases, 5:380. This view was the result of the theology of Dr. Jackson.	"87 The Bible is "to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. "88 "Man is fallible," she states, "but God's Word is infallible. "89 The Bible is "the unerring standard" by which all ideas must be tested.90 Ellen White rejects the claim that the Bible contains contradictions. Such a conclusion derives from a "superficial knowledge" of the Bible.91 Rightly understood it reveals "perfect harmony. "92 The Authority of the Bible. Source. Like its uniqueness, the authority of the Bible is rooted in God's authorship. It is "God's voice speaking to us, just as surely as though we could hear it with our ears. "93 Consequently the Bible is the "only infallible authority in religion. "94 Humans are to receive it as the "supreme authority. "95 Extent. Its authority extends over faith, doctrine, experience,96 history,97 science,98 human wisdom,99 and extra biblical revelation.100 Ellen White always recognizes the Bible as the supreme norm by which everything, including her own works, ought to be tested.101 Although not in favor of creeds, she urges people to adopt a creed for their lives: "The Bible, and the Bible alone, is to be our creed. "102 In speaking about the extent of its superiority, she states that "God's holy word needs not the torch light glimmer of earth to make its glories distinguishable," because "it is light in itself&emdash;the glory of God revealed, and beside it every other light is dim."103 Therefore she warns: "Never let mortal man sit in judgment upon the Word of God. "104	yes
Religion	Is the Bible infallible?	yes_statement	the "bible" is "infallible".. the "infallibility" of the "bible" is unquestionable.	https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/boettner/boettner_inspiration.html	The Inspiration Of Scripture	1. The Nature of Scripture Inspiration The answer that we are to give to the question, "What is Christianity?" depends quite largely on the view we take of Scripture. If we believe that the Bible is the very word of God and infallible, we will develop one conception of Christianity. If we believe that it is only a collection of human writings, perhaps considerably above the average in its spiritual and moral teachings but nevertheless containing many errors, we will develop a radically different conception of Christianity, if, indeed, what we then have can legitimately be called Christianity. Hence we can hardly over-estimate the importance of a correct doctrine concerning the inspiration of the Scriptures. In all matters of controversy between Christians the Scriptures are accepted as the highest court of appeal. Historically they have been the common authority of Christendom. We believe that they contain one harmonious and sufficiently complete system of doctrine; that all of their parts are consistent with each other; and that it is our duty to trace out this consistency by a careful investigation of the meaning of particular passages. We have committed ourselves to this Book without reserve, and have based our creeds upon it. We have not made our appeal to an infallible Church, nor to a scholastic hierarchy, but to a trustworthy Bible, and have maintained that it is the word of God, that by His providential care it has been kept pure in all ages, and that it is the only inspired, infallible rule of faith and practice. That the question of inspiration is of vital importance for the Christian Church is easily seen. If she has a definite and authoritative body of Scripture to which she can go, it is a comparatively easy task to formulate her doctrines. All she has to do is to search out the teachings of Scripture and embody them in her creed. But if the Scriptures are not authoritative, if they are to be corrected and edited and some parts are to be openly rejected, the Church has a much more difficult task, and there can be no end of conflicting opinions concerning either the purpose of the Church or the system of doctrine which she is to set forth. It is small wonder that determined controversy rages around this question today when Christianity is in a life and death struggle with unbelief. It should be noted that the Church has not held all of her other doctrines with such tenacity, nor taught them with such clearness, as she has this doctrine of inspiration. For instance, there has been considerable difference of opinion between denominations as to what the Bible teaches concerning baptism, the Lord's Supper, predestination, inability of the sinner to do good works, election, atonement. grace, perseverance, etc.; but in the Scriptures we find this doctrine taught with such consistency and clearness that all branches of the Church, Protestant and Roman Catholic alike, have agreed with instinctive judgment that the Bible is trustworthy and that its pronouncements are final. But while this has been the historic doctrine of Christendom, and while today it remains embedded in the official creeds of the churches, it is apparent on every side that unbelief has made serious inroads. Perhaps no event in recent Church History has been more amazing than the swing away from faith in the authority of the Scriptures. Even Protestants, who at the time of the Reformation took as their basic principle an authoritative Bible rather than an authoritative Church, have shown a great tendency to neglect the Bible. While numerous books and articles have been written on this subject in recent times, it must be admitted that most of these have been designed to explain away or to tone down the doctrines which the Church has held from the beginning. The indifference which the Church has manifested toward sound Scripture doctrine in recent days is probably the chief cause of the uncertainty and of the internal dissension with which she is faced. Ignorance concerning the nature of the doctrine of inspiration, or want of clear views concerning it, can only result in confusion. Millions of Christians today are like men whose feet are on quicksand and whose heads are in a fog. They do not know what they believe concerning the inspiration and authority of the Bible. Much of this uncertainty has arisen because of the searching critical investigation which has been carried on during the past century, and we often hear the claim made that the historic Church doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures must be given up. Hence the burning question today is, Can we still trust the Bible as a doctrinal guide, as an authoritative teacher of truth, or must we find a new basis for doctrine, and, consequently, develop a whole new system of theology? The marvelous unity of the Bible can be explained on no other ground than that of divine authorship. It is confessedly one book, yet it is made up of sixty-six different books, composed by not less than forty writers, spread over a period of not less than sixteen hundred years. The writers moved in widely separated spheres of life. Some were kings and scholars with the best education that their day afforded; others were herdsmen and fishermen with no formal education. It is impossible that there should have been collusion between the writers. Yet there is but one type of doctrine and morality unfolded. The Messianic spirit and outlook pervades the Old Testament, beginning early in Genesis where we are told that the seed of the woman is to bruise the head of the serpent, and continuing through the ritual of the sacrificial system, the Psalms, the major and minor prophets until Malachi closes the Old Testament canon with the promise that "the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple." And "Christ crucified" is the theme of the New Testament. The marvelous system of truth that is begun by Moses in the book of Genesis is brought to completion by John in the book of Revelation. In the development of no other book in the history of the world has there ever been anything that even remotely approaches this phenomenon that we find in the Bible. That there is a wide and impassable gulf between the Bible and all other books is apparent to even the casual observer. "Holy, holy, holy" seems to be written on its every page. As we read, it speaks to us with authority and we instinctively feel ourselves under obligation to heed its warnings. It is certainly furnished with an influence which is possessed by no other book, and we are forced to ask the question, Whence comes it? And since it is so unique in the power which it exerts, so lofty in the moral and spiritual principles which it sets forth, and since it so repeatedly claims to be of divine origin, are we not justified in believing that claim to be true, that it is in fact the very word of God? The terms "plenary inspiration" and "verbal inspiration" as used here are practically synonymous. By "plenary inspiration" we mean that a full and sufficient influence of the Holy Spirit extended to all parts of Scripture, rendering it an authoritative revelation from God, so that while the revelations come to us through the minds and wills of men they are nevertheless in the strictest sense the word of God. By "verbal inspiration" we mean that the Divine influence which surrounded the sacred writers extended not only to the general thoughts, but also to the very words they employed, so that the thoughts which God intended to reveal to us have been conveyed with infallible accuracy -- that the writers were the organs of God in such a sense that what they said God said. INSPIRATION NECESSARY TO SECURE ACCURACY That this inspiration should extend to the very words seems most natural since the purpose of inspiration is to secure an infallible record of truth. Thoughts and words are so inseparably connected that as a rule a change in words means a change in thought. In human affairs, for instance, the man of business dictates his letters to his secretary in his own words in order that they may contain his exact meaning. He does not assume that his secretary will correctly express important, delicate, and complicated matters which might be given him in general terms. Much less would the Holy Spirit say to His penman, "Write to this effect." The Bible assumes to speak concerning a number of things which are absolutely beyond the reach of man's wisdom -- the nature and attributes of God, the origin and purpose of man and of the world, man's fall into sin and his present helpless condition, the plan of redemption including our Lord's substitutionary life and death, the glories of heaven, and the torments of hell. More than a general supervision is necessary if the truth concerning these great and sublime subjects is to be given without error and without prejudice. Inerrancy requires that God shall choose His own words. All men who have tried to explain these deep things without supernatural revelation have done little more than show their own ignorance. They grope like the blind, they speculate and guess and generally leave us in greater uncertainty than before In the nature of the case these things are beyond man's wisdom. We have only to look at the pagan systems or at the arrogant and speculative theories of our own philosophers to find What the limits of our spiritual wisdom would be apart from the Bible. Whether we turn to the philosophers among the Greeks, to the Mystics of the East or to the intellectuals among the Germans, the story is the same. In fact many of the world's supposedly advanced thinkers have even doubted the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. God alone is capable of speaking authoritatively on these subjects; and of all the world's books we find that the Bible alone gives us on the one hand an adequate account of the majesty of God, and on the other hand an adequate account of the sinful state of the human heart and a satisfactory remedy for that sin. It shows us that neither laws nor education can change the human heart, that nothing short of the redemptive power of Christ can make man what he ought to be. A mere human report of divine things would naturally contain more or less error, both in regard to the words chosen to express the ideas and in the proportionate emphasis given the different parts of the revelation. Since particular thoughts are inseparably connected with particular words, the wording must be exact or the thoughts conveyed will be defective. If it be admitted, for instance, that the words, ransom, atonement, resurrection, immortality, etc., as used in Scripture have no definite authority or meaning behind them, then it follows that the doctrines based on them have no definite authority. In Scripture's own use of Scripture we are taught the stress which it lays upon the very words which it employs, the exact meaning depending upon the use of a particular word, as when our Lord says that "the Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35); or when He answered the Sadducees by referring them to the words spoken to Moses at the burning bush where the whole point of the argument depended on the tense of the verb, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Mark 12::26); or when Paul stresses the fact that in the promise made to Abraham the word used is singular and not plural -- "seed," "as of one," and not "seeds, as of many;" "And to thy seed, which is Christ" (Gal. 3:16). In each of these cases the argument turns on the use of one particular word, and in each case that word was decisive because it had divine authority behind it. Oftentimes the exact shade of meaning of the original words is of the utmost importance in deciding questions of doctrine and life. A DEFINITE SYSTEM OF THEOLOGY For any serious study of Christian doctrines we must erst of all have the assurance that the Bible is true. If it is a fully authoritative and trustworthy guide, then we will accept the doctrines which it sets forth. We may not be able to grasp the full meaning of all of these things, there may in fact be many difficulties in our minds concerning them; but that they are true we shall never doubt. We acknowledge our limitations, but we shall believe in so far as the truth has been revealed to us. The fortunes of distinctive Christianity are in a very real sense bound up with those of the Biblical doctrine of inspiration, for unless that stands we have nothing stable. If we have a trustworthy Scripture as our guide, we shall have an evangelical, as distinguished from a naturalistic, humanistic or Unitarian system of theology; for we find the evangelical system clearly taught in the Bible. But if the Bible is not a trustworthy guide, we shall then have to seek a different basis for our theology, and the probability is that we shall have but little more than a philosophical system left. To undermine confidence in the Bible as an inspired Book is to undermine confidence in the whole Christian system. This truth is rather painfully impressed upon us when we attempt to read some of the recent religious books, even systematic theologies, in which the writers appeal not to Scripture but to the teachings of various philosophers to prove their points. If the Bible is not trustworthy we might as well save ourselves the labor of "revising" our creeds. We might as well throw them away and make a fresh start, for we shall then have to develop a whole new theology. To date we have accepted the distinctive doctrines of the Christian system because we found them taught in the Bible. But apart from the Bible we have no authoritative standard. Unless the Bible can be quoted as an inspired book its authority and usefulness for public preaching, for comfort in sickness or death, and for instruction in every perplexity, have been seriously impoverished. Its "Thus saith the Lord" has then been reduced to a mere human supposition, and it can no longer be considered our perfect rule of faith and practice. If it cannot be quoted as an inspired book, its value as a weapon in controversy has been greatly weakened, perhaps entirely destroyed; for what good will it do to quote it to an opponent if he can reply that it is not authoritative? Today, as in every past age, the destructive critics, skeptics, and modernists of whatever kind center their attacks on the Bible. They must first be rid of its authority or their systems amount only to foolishness. The inspiration for which we contend is, of course, that of the original Hebrew and Greek words as written by the prophets and apostles. We believe that if these are understood in their intended sense -- plain statements of fact, figures of speech, idioms and poetry as such -- the Bible is without an error from Genesis to Revelation. While it leaves much unsaid, we believe that all that it does say is true in the sense in which it is intended. We do not claim infallibility for the various versions and translations, such as the American Standard or King James versions, and much less do we claim infallibility for the rather free one man translations which have attained some vogue in recent years. Translations will naturally vary with each individual translator, and are to be considered accurate only in so far as they reproduce the original autographs. Furthermore, some of the Hebrew and Greek words have no full equivalent in the English language, and sometimes even the best scholars differ as to the exact meaning of certain words. And further still, we must acknowledge that we have none of the original autographs, but that our oldest manuscripts are copies of copies. Yet the best of the present day Hebrew and Greek scholars assert that in probably nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand we have either positive knowledge or reasonable assurance as to what the original words were, so accurately have the copyists reproduced them and so faithfully have the translators done their work. Hence he who reads our English Bible as set forth in the American Standard or King James version has before him what is, for all practical purposes, the very word of God as it was originally given to the prophets and apostles. Certainly we have reason to thank God that the Bible has come down to us in such pure form. This has been the historic Protestant position concerning the authority of Scripture. It was held by Luther and Calvin, and was written into the creeds of the post-Reformation period. The Lutheran doctrine of inspiration was set forth in the Form of Concord, which reads: "We believe, confess, and teach that the only rule and norm, according to which all dogmas and all doctors ought to be esteemed and judged, is no other whatever than the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testament." The doctrine of the Reformed Church was stated in the Second Helvetic Confession as follows: "We believe and confess, that the canonical Scriptures of the holy prophets and apostles of each Testament are the true word of God, and that they possess sufficient authority from themselves alone and not from man. For God Himself spoke to the fathers, to the prophets, and to the apostles, and continues to speak to us through the Holy Scriptures." And in the Westminster Confession of Faith the Presbyterian Church declared that "It pleased the Lord, at sundry times and in divers manners, to reveal Himself and to declare His will unto His Church; and afterward... to commit the same wholly unto writing." "The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof; and therefore it is to be received because it is the word of God." And further that both the Old and New Testament have been "immediately inspired by God and by His singular care and providence kept pure in all ages." In more recent times it has been reasserted by Hodge, Warfield and Kuyper. That these men have been the lights and ornaments of the highest type of Christianity will be admitted by practically all Protestants. They have held that the Bible does not merely contain the word of God, as a pile of chaff contains some wheat, but that the Bible in all its parts is the word of God. 2. The Writers Claim Inspiration Our primary reasons for holding that the Bible is the inspired Word of God are that the writers themselves claim this inspiration, and that the contents of their messages bear out that claim. The uniformity with which the prophets insisted that the messages which they spoke were not theirs but the Lord's -- that their messages were the pure and unmixed Word of God, spoken out by them just as they had received them -- is a striking phenomenon of Scripture. "Thus saith the Lord" was the prophet's constant reminder to the people that the words which he spoke were not his own, but God's. Paul and the other apostles claimed to speak not in the words which man's wisdom taught, but in words which the Spirit taught (I Cor. 2:13). Not only the substance of their teaching, but also its form of expression, was asserted to be of Divine origin. Although the claim that they spoke with Divine authority is characteristic of the writers throughout the entire Bible, they never once base that authority on their own wisdom or dignity. They speak as the Lord's messengers or witnesses, and their words are to be obeyed only because His authority is behind them. Those who heard them heard God, and those who refused to hear them refused to hear God (Ezek. 2:5; Matt. 10:40; John 13:20). And since the writers so repeatedly claimed inspiration, it is evident that they were either inspired or that they acted with fanatical presumption. We are shut up to the conclusion that the Bible is the Word of God, or that it is a lie. But how could a lie have exerted the uniquely beneficial and morally uplifting influence that the Bible has exerted everywhere it has gone? To ask such a question is to answer it. Let us also notice that the contemporaries of the New Testament writers, as well as the early church fathers -- men who were in the best position to judge whether or not such claims were true -- accepted these claims without question. They acknowledged that a great gulf existed between those writings and their own. As to the dying Sir Walter Scott there was but one "Book," so to these early church fathers there was but one authoritative Divine word. They based doctrines and precepts on it. The Gospels and Epistles contain an abundance of internal evidence showing that they were expected to be received and that they were received with reverence and humility. And as we follow the course of history down through the centuries the evidence becomes all the more abundant. Even the heretics bear witness to this fact, anxious as they are to be rid of such authority. Furthermore, the writings themselves contain no contradictions or inconsistencies which would destroy their claims. With perfect harmony they present the same plan of salvation and the same exalted moral principles. If, then, in the first place, sober and honest writers claim that their words were inspired by God; and if, in the second place, these claims not only went unchallenged but were humbly accepted by their contemporaries; and if, in the third place, the writings contain no contradictory evidence, then certainly we have a phenomenon which must be accounted for. Objection is sometimes made to the New Testament books on the ground that they are not the writings of Jesus but only of His fol lowers, and that they were not written until some time after His death. But it is hardly to be expected that Jesus would have given a full account of the way of salvation during His earthly ministry, for that could not have been understood until after His death and resurrection. He could, indeed, have set it forth by way of prophecy even in the days of His flesh, and in fact He announced to His disciples the general nature of the plan. But even His most intimate disciples appear to have been unable to understand the nature of His work until their minds were enlightened by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. All things considered, the most natural method was that which He chose -- the fulfillment of the events, and then their explanation through inspired writers. That, also, was in accordance with the Lord's procedure throughout Old Testament times. SCRIPTURE TEACHING CONCERNING INSPIRATION The Biblical doctrine of the true purpose and function of the prophets and their manner of delivering the message is clearly set forth in the Lord's words to Moses: "I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him" (Deut. 18:18). Jehovah would speak not so much to the prophets as through them. They were to speak precisely the words given them, but no others. "I have put my words in thy mouth," the Lord said to Jeremiah in appointing him a prophet to the nations (Jer. 1:9). Identically the same words were spoken to Isaiah (51:16; 59:21), and the formula, "Thus saith Jehovah," is repeated some eighty times in the book of Isaiah alone. Even the false prophet Balaam could speak only that which Jehovah gave him to speak -- "And the angel of Jehovah said unto Balaam, Go with the men; but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak" (Nu. 22:35; 23:5, 12, 16). In many Old Testament passages it is nothing other than a process of "dictation" which is described, although we are not told what the method was by which this dictation was accomplished. In others we are simply given to understand that Jehovah spoke through chosen men as His organs, supervising them in such a manner that their spoken or written words were His words and were a distinctly superhuman product. The uniform teaching of the Old Testament is that the prophets spoke when, and only when, the word of Jehovah came unto them: Hosea 1:1; Amos 1:3; Micah 1:1; Malachi 1:1, etc. The characteristic Hebrew word for prophet is nabhi, "spokesman," not merely spokesman in general, but by way of eminence, that is, God's spokesman. In no case does the prophet presume to speak on his own authority. That he is a prophet in the first place is not of his own choosing, but in response to a call from God, oftentimes a call which was obeyed only with reluctance: and he speaks or forbears to speak as the Lord gives him utterance. And in strong contrast with this high calling of the true prophets we should notice the stern warnings and denunciations against those who presume to speak without having received a Divine call. "But the prophet that shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die" (Deut. 18:20); "Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing" (Ezek. 13:3). It is a serious thing for mere men, with unwashen hands, to presume to speak for the Most High. Yet how common it is for the destructive critics of our day to deny this or that statement in the Bible, or to tell us that we need a shorter Bible, or perhaps even a new Bible composed of modern writings! And the error committed by men in adding to God's word, as the Roman Catholics do with their "Apocrypha" and church traditions, the Christian Scientists with their "Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures," and the Mormons with their "Book of Mormon," is fully as bad as to take from it. TESTIMONY OF JESUS TO THE OLD TESTAMENT That Jesus considered the Old Testament fully inspired is abundantly clear. He quoted it as such, and based His teachings upon it. One of His clearest statements is found in John 10:35, where, in controversy with the Jews, His defense takes the form of an appeal to Scripture, and after quoting a statement He adds the significant words, "And the Scripture cannot be broken." The reason that it was worth while for Him, or that it is worth while for us, to appeal to Scripture, is that it "cannot be broken." And the word here translated "broken" is the common one for breaking the law, or the Sabbath, meaning to annul, or deny, or withstand its authority. In this statement Jesus declares that it is impossible to annul, or withstand, or deny the Scripture. For Him and for the Jews alike, an appeal to Scripture was an appeal to an authority whose determination was final even to its minute details. That Jesus considered all Scripture as the very word of God is shown in such a passage as Matt. 19:4. When some of the Pharisees questioned Him on the subject of divorce His reply was: "Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.... What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Here He explicitly declares that God is the author of the words of Gen. 2:24: "He who made them... said," "A man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife." And yet as we read these words in the Old Testament there is nothing to tell us that they are the words of God. They are presented only as the words of Scripture itself or of Moses, and can be assigned to God as their Author only on the basis that all Scripture is His word. Mark 10:5-9 and I Cor. 6:16 present the same teaching. Wherever Christ and the Apostles quote Scripture, they think of it as the living voice of God and therefore divinely authoritative. They have not the slightest hesitation in assigning to God the words of the human authors, or in assigning to the human authors the most express words of God (Matt. 15:7; Mark 7:6, 10; Rom. 10:5, 19, 20). In His stinging rebuke to the Sadducees, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures" (Matt. 22:29), the very thing which He points out is that their error comes, not because they have followed the Scriptures, but precisely because they have not followed them. He who founds his doctrine and practice on Scripture does not err. So common was its use, and so unquestionable was its authority, that in the fiercest conflict He needed no other weapon than the final "It is written"! (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10; Luke 4:4, 8; 24:26). His last words before His Ascension contained a rebuke to the disciples because they had not understood that all things which were written in the entire Scriptures "must needs be fulfilled" (Luke 24:44). If it was written that the Christ should suffer these things, then all doubt concerning Him was rendered absurd. The disciples were to rest securely on that word as on a sure foundation. Hence we receive the Old Testament on the authority of Christ. He hands it to us and tells us that it is the Word of God, that the prophets spoke by the Spirit, and that the Scriptures cannot be broken. By His numerous quotations He has welded it to the New Testament so that they now form one unified Bible. The two Testaments have but one voice. They must stand or fall together. NEW TESTAMENT MANNER OF QUOTING THE OLD TESTAMENT If Jesus held that the entire Old Testament was infallible, the idea is no less clearly set forth by the Apostles. The familiar way in which they quote any part of the Scriptures as the word of God, regardless of whether the original words are assigned to Him or not, shows that He was considered as speaking all through the Old Testament. In Heb. 3:7 the words of the psalmist are quoted as the direct words of the Holy Spirit, "Wherefore, even as the Holy Spirit saith, Today if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation" (Ps. 95:7). In Acts 13:35 the words of David (Ps. 16:10) are said to have been the words of God, "He (God) saith in another psalm, Thou wilt not give thy Holy One to see corruption." In Romans 15:11 the words of the psalmist are ascribed to God, "And again (He saith), Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; And let all the peoples praise Him" (Ps. 117:1). In Acts 4:24,25 the Apostles ascribe to God the words spoken by David in the second psalm, "God... who by the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David thy servant, didst say, Why do the Gentiles rage, And the peoples imagine vain things?" In Hebrews 1:7, 8 the same teaching is found concerning two other psalms. In Romans 15:10 the words of Moses are ascribed to God, "And again He saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people" (Deut. 32:43). These quotations show clearly that in the minds of Christ and the Apostles there was an absolute identification between the text of the Old Testament and the voice of the living God. And it is, of course, not to be inferred that the inspiration of the New Testament is in any way inferior to that of the Old. In fact the tendency has been to assign a lower position to the Old Testament. When the Old Testament is shown to be inspired there is usually no question about the New. CLAIMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WRITERS FOR THEIR OWN WRITINGS When we examine the claims which the New Testament writers make for their own works we find that they claim full inspiration for them and place them on the same level with the Scriptures of the Old Testament. All schools of present-day Biblical criticism acknowledge that these claims were repeatedly made, even though they deny that they are true. We find, for instance, that when the Apostles began their ministry they received from Christ Himself a promise of supernatural guidance: "But when they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you" (Matt. 10:19, 20; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11, 12). This same promise was repeated at the close of His ministry (Luke 21:12-15). Perhaps the most important promise is found in the Gospel of John: "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth" (16:13). The Apostles later claimed this guidance. They have not the least shadow of doubt as to the exact truth of their words, whether on historical or doctrinal matters,-- a rather striking phenomenon, since accurate and truth-loving historians commonly express less, and not greater, assurance when they descend to details. So authoritative does Paul claim his gospel to be that he pronounces wrong and accursed any one who teaches differently, even though it be an angel from heaven. "... But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema..." (Gal. 1:6-9). Their commands are from the Lord, and are given with binding authority, "...the things which I write unto you, that they are the commandment of the Lord" (I Cor. 14:37,; II Thess. 3:6, 12). In writing to the Corinthians Paul distinguishes between the commands which Christ gave, and the commands which he gives, but places his own alongside those of Christ's as of equal authority (I Cor. 7:10, 12, 40). He asserts that what they preached was in truth "the word of God" (I Thess. 2:13). Such things were to be immediately and unquestionably received. We should also notice his easy way of combining the book of Deuteronomy and the Gospel of Luke under the common head of "Scripture," as if that were a most natural thing to do (I Tim. 5:18): "For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. And, the laborer is worthy of his hire" (Deut. 25:4; Luke 10:7). This same practice was common among the early church fathers. In II Tim. 3:16 (translating the Greek in its most natural sense) Paul tells us that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." This marginal translation, which has behind it the. authority of Archbishop Trench, Bishop Wordsworth, and others of the Revised Version Committee, as well as the authority of that prince of exegetes and theologians, Dr. Benjamin B. Warfield, is much to be preferred to the rendering of the Revised Version, which reads, "Every scripture inspired of God is profitable," etc. This latter translation has been repudiated by numerous scholars as a calamitous and hopelessly condemned blunder, and even by some of the critics as false criticism. As Dr. Warfield has pointed out, the very term in the Greek, theopneustos, means not that a product of human origin is breathed into by God, but that a Divine product is breathed out by God. It means "God breathed," "produced by the creative breath of the Almighty," "God-given." There is no other term in the Greek language which would have asserted more emphatically the Divine origin of the product. In the writings of Peter we find the same high estimate of New Testament Scripture. He declares, for instance, that "No prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved (or literally, borne, carried along) by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:21). He declares that the Apostles "preached the Gospel... by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven" (I Peter 1:12). He places Paul's writings on the same high plane with "the other scriptures" -- "Our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you; m all his epistles... as also the other scriptures" (II Peter 3:15, 16). More dignity and reverence and authority than that could not be ascribed to any writing. Luke declares that on the day of Pentecost the disciples spoke "as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). And John, the beloved disciple, even pronounces a curse on any one who dares to take from or add to his writing (Rev. 22:18, 19). Such claims as these, if based only on human authority, would exhibit only the most astounding impudence. It is, of course, impossible to explain away the innumerable texts which teach plenary inspiration, and the idea that they might be explained away is based on the odd notion that this doctrine is taught only in isolated texts here and there. It is true that some texts teach it with exceptional clearness, and those are the ones which skeptics would most like to be rid of. But these passages are simply the climax of a progressive and pervasive testimony to the divine origin and infallibility of these writings, a testimony equally strong in the two Testaments. "The effort to explain away the Bible's witness to its plenary inspiration," says Dr. Warfield, "reminds one of a man standing safely in his laboratory and elaborately explaining -- possibly with the aid of diagrams and mathematical formulae -- how every stone in an avalanche has a defined pathway and may easily be dodged by one with some presence of mind. We may fancy such an elaborate trifler's triumph as he would analyze the avalanche into its constituent stones, and demonstrate of stone after stone that its pathway is definite, limited, and may easily be avoided. But avalanches, unfortunately, do not come upon us stone by stone, one at a time, courteously leaving us opportunity to withdraw from the pathway of each in turn: but all at once, in a roaring mass of destruction. Just so we may explain away a text or two which teach plenary inspiration, to our own closest satisfaction, dealing with them each without reference to its relation to the others: but these texts of ours, again, unfortunately do not come upon us in this artificial isolation; neither are they few in number. There are scores, hundreds, of them; and they come bursting upon us in one solid mass. Explain them away? We should have to explain away the whole New Testament. What a pity it is that we cannot see and feel the avalanche of texts beneath which we lie hopelessly buried, as clearly as we may see and feel the avalanche of stones! Let us, how ever, but open our eyes to the variety and pervasiveness of the New Testament witness to its high estimate of Scripture, and we shall no longer wonder that modern scholarship finds itself compelled to allow that the Christian Church has read her records correctly, and that the church-doctrine of inspiration is simply a transcript of the biblical doctrine; nor shall we any longer wonder that the church, receiving these Scriptures as her authoritative teacher of doctrine, adopted in the very beginning of her life the doctrine of plenary inspiration, and has held it with a tenacity that knows no wavering, until the present hour." 3. The Nature of the Influence by Which Inspiration is Accomplished The evangelical Christian churches have never held what has been stigmatized the "mechanical" theory of inspiration, despite the charges often made to the contrary. Instead of reducing the writers of Scripture to the level of machines or typewriters we have insisted that, while they wrote or spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, they nevertheless remained thinking, willing, self-conscious beings whose peculiar styles and mannerisms are clearly traceable in their writings. If their native tongue was Hebrew, they wrote Hebrew; if it was Greek, they wrote Greek; if they were educated, they wrote as men of culture; if uneducated, they wrote as such men would write. We do not separate the divine and human elements, but insist that the two are united in perfect harmony so that every word of Scripture is at one and the same time the word of God and also the word of man. The writers themselves make it plain that in this process the divine influence is primary and the human secondary, so that they are not so much the originators but rather the receivers and announcers of these messages. Hence what they wrote or spoke was not to be looked upon as merely their own product, but as the pure Word of God, and for that reason it was to be received and implicitly obeyed. The fact that we can so easily trace the peculiar style or manner of expression through the writings of Paul or John or Moses shows that the Scriptures were given in a way which made allowance for human personalities. If it were otherwise the Scriptures would then be reduced to a dead level of monotony, and we would indeed have a mechanical theory of inspiration in which the writers were little more than automatons. It lies in the very idea of inspiration that God would use the agents which He employs according to their individual natures. One type of man would be chosen to write history, another type to write poetry, and still another type to set forth doctrines, although these functions might overlap in some writers. And back of that we are to remember that throughout the entire life of the prophet God's providential control had been preparing him with the particular talents, education and experience which would be needed for the message which he was to give. This providential preparation of the prophets, which gave them the proper spiritual, intellectual and physical background, must, indeed have had its beginning in their remote ancestors. The result was that the right men were brought to the right places at the right times, and wrote the particular books or gave the particular messages which were designed for them. When God wanted to give His people a history of their early beginnings, He prepared a Moses to write it When He wanted to give them the lofty and worshipful poetry of the psalms, He prepared a David with poetic imagination. And since Christianity in its very nature would demand logical statement, He prepared a Paul, giving him a logical mind and the appropriate religious background which would enable him to set it forth in that manner. In this natural way God so prepared the various writers of Scripture that with the appropriate assistance of His directing and illuminating Spirit they freely and spontaneously wrote what He wished as He wished and when He wished. Thus the prophet was fitted to the message, and the message was suited to the prophet. Thus also the distinctive literary style of each writer was preserved, and each writer did a work which no one else was equipped to do. On some occasions inspiration amounted to little if anything more than a process of dictation End spoke and man recorded the words: Gen. 22:15-18; Ex. 20:1-17; Is. 43:1-28, etc. On other occasions the writers functioned as thinkers and composers with all of their native energy coming into play as they deliberated, recollected and poured out their hearts to God, the Holy Spirit exercising only a general super vision which led them to write what was needful and to keep their writings free from error, e.g., Luke 1:1-4; Rom. 1:1-32; Eph. 1:1-23, etc. In narrating simple historical facts and in copying lists of names or numbers from reliable sources this superintendence was at a mini mum. Perhaps in some instances they were not even conscious of the Spirit's directing influence as they wrote. In the main, however, we can say that the words of the prophets express not merely something which has been thought out, inferred, hoped or feared by them, but something conveyed to them,-- sometimes an unwelcome message forced upon them by the revealing Spirit. They naturally shrank from giving messages which foretold destruction for the people or for the nation. Yet they were not at liberty to say either more or less than what had been given to them, for he who is entrusted with a message from the King is not at liberty to omit or change any part of it but must give it out just as he has received it. Isaiah, for instance, immediately after his glorious vision and official appointment, was sent with an unwelcome message to his country men, and was even told beforehand that the people would not hear, that the effect of his preaching would be further rebellion and further hardening of their hearts. Yet he was not able to change the message, but could only inquire, "Lord, how long?" (Is. 6:9-13). Ezekiel like wise was sent to a rebellious people and was told that they would not hear (3:4-11) But whether they would hear or whether they would forbear, they were to know that a prophet of the Lord had been among them (Ezek. 2:5). Much as the prophet might like to speak otherwise, he could only give the message which had been given to him. If the people failed to heed the warning the responsibility rested on themselves (Ezek. 33:1-ll). The objectivity of the message is further shown in that sometimes the prophets themselves did not under stand the revelations which were given through them (Daniel 12:8, 9; Rev. 5:1-4). Nor is the work of the Holy Spirit in inspiration to be considered any more mysterious than His work in the spheres of grace and providence. The first exercise of saving faith in the regenerated soul, for instance, is at one and the same time a work induced by the Holy Spirit and a freely chosen act of the person. And throughout the Bible the laws of nature, the course of history, and the varying fortunes of individuals are ever attributed to God's providential control. "Jehovah hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet," Nahum 1:3. "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust," Matt. 5:45. "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the lowest of men," Dan. 4:17. "It is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure," Phil. 2:13. "The king's heart is in the hand of Jehovah as the watercourses: He turneth it whithersoever He will," Prov. 21:1. Inspiration must have been somewhat like the touch of the driver on the reins of the racing steeds. The preservation of the individual styles and mannerisms indicates as much. Under this providential control the prophets were so governed that while their humanity was not superseded their words to the people were God's words and have been accepted as such by the Church in all ages. That the writers of Scripture often used other documents or sources in the composition of their books is apparent to even the casual reader. For instance, the thirty-seventh chapter of Isaiah and the nineteenth chapter of II Kings are exactly alike. Hence Isaiah and the writer of II Kings must have had access to the same source materials. Many of the accounts in the different Gospels are told in almost identical language. If it be definitely proven, for instance, that the Pentateuch consists of different parts which in turn are based on older documents, our doctrine of inspiration can accept that view. In dealing with historical or legal data especially the writers of Scripture may have used sources as naturally as do present-day writers, with this difference: that the Holy Spirit supervised their work in such a way that they selected out only the material which God wanted given to the people, and set forth that material in such a way that it was free from error. We are not so much concerned with the method by which they wrote as we are about the value and authority of their final product. The more naturally and the less mechanically this writing took place, the better. It is not to be expected that we should give a full explanation as to how the divine and human agents co-operated in the production of Scripture. Suffice it to say that in most cases it was something much more intimate than what is commonly known as "dictation." The trouble with us is that oftentimes we seek full explanations for those things which in their deeper aspects should only be adored as mysteries, such as the Trinity, the atonement, the relationship between the sovereign of God and the freedom of man, and the inspiration of the Scriptures. The modernist with his naturalistic basis easily solves these problems by ignoring the Divine, but is unaware how superficial he is. Evangelicals have truly grappled with these problems. They have acknowledged both the Divine and human elements and have brought about a partial solution while confessing that the human mind cannot fully comprehend the deep things of God. It is, of course, not to be assumed that inspiration rendered the prophets omniscient. Their inspiration extended only to the contents of the particular messages which were given through them. In matters of science, philosophy or history which were outside their immediate purpose they stood on the same level with their contemporaries. They were preserved from error when speaking the Lord's message, but inspiration in itself no more made them astronomers or chemists than it made them agriculturists. Many of them may have believed with their contemporaries that the sun moved around the earth, but nowhere in their writings do they teach that it does. Paul could not err in his teachings, although he could not remember how many people he had baptized at Corinth (I Cor. 1:16). We have already observed that Daniel and John did not fully understand all the revelations given through them. Isaac unwittingly pronounced the prophetic blessing on Jacob instead of his favorite son Esau, and when he later discovered that he had been deceived he was utterly unable to change it. when Moses recorded the promise that Abraham was to be the father of many nations, he little realized that in the later era all of the Gentile Christians were to be included in that promise and that eventually it would embrace the whole world ( Gal. 3:29; Eph. 2:13, 14; Rom. 4:13; Acts 13:17). Nor does the doctrine of inspiration imply that the writers were free from error in their personal conduct. Moses wrote voluminously concerning the early history of Israel and is commonly considered the greatest of the Old Testament prophets; yet at the waters of Meribah he took to himself the glory which belonged only to Jehovah, and for that offense he was not permitted to enter the promised land (Nu. 20:7-13). Balaam spoke certain great truths, and Saul was among the prophets. Peter likewise was infallible as a spokesman of the Lord, and yet on at least one occasion he fell into serious error in his personal conduct and it was necessary for Paul to resist him to the face, for he stood condemned (Gal. 2:11-14). Furthermore, we find that inspiration was flexible enough to allow for some personal matters, as when Paul asked Timothy to come to him shortly and to bring his coat and certain books which he had left at Troas (II Tim. 4:13). It includes personal advice in regard to Timothy's health, I Tim. 5:23), and personal concern for the treatment accorded to the returned slave Onesimus (Philemon 1:10-16). Hence we see that the Christian doctrine of inspiration is not the mechanical lifeless process which unfriendly critics have often represented it to be. Rather it calls the whole personality of the prophet into action, giving full play to his own literary style and mannerisms, taking into consideration the preparation given the prophet in order that he might deliver a particular kind of message, and allowing for the use of other documents or sources of information as these were needed. If these facts were kept more clearly in mind the doctrine of inspiration would not be so summarily set aside nor so unreasonably attacked by otherwise cautious and reverent scholars. 4. The Alleged Errors in Scripture One of the most distressing things in present-day churches is that whereas in the religious debates of earlier days they used to argue about what the Bible said, never for a moment doubting that what it said was true, groups within the various churches are now arguing as to whether or not the Bible is trustworthy. A short time ago the writer heard a sermon by a professor from a well-known theological institution in which he declared that the Bible contained historical, moral and literary errors. This is a serious charge and if it could be proved it certainly would destroy the Christian doctrine of inspiration. That the Bible contains some statements which we in our present state of knowledge are not able to explain fully, is readily admitted. Our knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek languages is by no means perfect. There are a number of words or idioms, for instance, which occur only once or only a few times in Scripture, and it sometimes happens that even the best scholars are not in full agreement as to their exact meaning. It gives us no little satisfaction, however, to know that as scholarship and archaeological discovery have advanced the great majority of the supposed "Biblical errors" which were so confidently paraded by skeptics and atheists a few decades ago have been cleared up. Today scarcely a shred of the old list remains. It gives us even greater satisfaction to know that despite all of the merciless attacks which through the ages have been made on the Bible, and despite all of the fierce light of criticism which so long has been beating upon its open pages. not so much as one single error has been definitely proved to exist anywhere in the Bible. Without exception up to the present time where the conflict has been joined and the verdict rendered the skeptic has been proved wrong and the Bible right. Those supposed discrepancies remain today as only too readily forgotten warnings against those who in their eagerness to do violence to the Scripture doctrine of inerrancy throw historical and literary caution to the winds. It is to be noted further that the alleged errors have been for the most part trivial. In no cases have important doctrines or important historical events been in question. When fuller light is turned on them most of them, like ghosts, melt away from sight. Few if any of them are anything more than mistakes on the part of copyists or translators; and certainly no one has a right to say there are errors in the Bible unless he can show beyond reasonable doubt that they were in the original manuscripts. The few difficulties which still remain are so trivial that no one should be seriously troubled by them. There is every reason for believing that with additional knowledge they too will be cleared up. It is little exaggeration to say that on the whole they bear about the same relation to the Bible that a few grains of sandstone detected here and there in the marble of the Parthenon bear to that building. In view of past experience it is important to keep in mind that there is a strong presumption against any of them being real errors, a presumption which can be measured only by the whole weight of evidence which can be brought forward to prove that the Bible is a fully trustworthy guide in moral and spiritual matters. When we remember that the Bible was in process of being written over a period of about fifteen hundred years, that some forty authors living in different ages with different points of view in life and' with diverse literary talents had a part in its production, that the religious and political history of the country was hopelessly complicated, and that confessedly accurate Roman historians have sometimes fallen into error in narrating contemporary events, the marvel is, not that there are a few things recorded in the Bible which are difficult to understand, but that the number is so few. Even though it be admitted that the Bible contains some few statements which we in our present state of knowledge are not able to harmonize, that should afford no rational ground for denying the general doctrine of Scripture infallibility. We have the word of Christ Himself that "the Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35); and more than that we should not ask. In the material universe we see evidences of design so manifold, and diverse, and wonderful, that the mind is driven to the conclusion that it has an intelligent Author. And yet here and there we find monstrosities. The fact that in our present state of knowledge we are not able to explain fully why snakes and mosquitoes and malaria germs were created does not prevent us from believing that the world had an intelligent and benevolent Creator. Neither should the Christian give up his faith in a fully inspired Bible just because he is unable to harmonize every detail with all of the remainder. Perhaps no other science in recent times has done so much to confirm the Bible as has archaeology. The patient work of explorers and excavators in Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria and Palestine, with their picks and shovels, has opened volumes of ancient history for us, giving us graphic accounts of the languages, literature; institutions and religions of peoples who had long since been forgotten except as they were incidentally mentioned in the Bible. Here we have the records chiseled in stone, burnt into the clay brick tablets, recorded in one way or an other on the monuments, tombs, buildings, papyrus and pottery. With out exceptions these discoveries confirm the truthfulness of the Bible, - and time after time the theories and guesses of the destructive critics have been proved wrong. In fact the enemies of the Bible have met no more relentless foe than the science of archaeology. The evidence presented from this source is so impartial, unimpeachable and conclusive that it compels acceptance by friend and foe alike. EXAMPLES OF ALLEGED ERRORS Space forbids us giving a detailed list of the "errors" which have been pointed out in Scripture, yet our discussion would be incomplete if we did not give a few examples. At first sight there seems to be a contradiction between Acts 9:7 and Acts 22:9 concerning the conversion of Saul. In the former it is said that the men who traveled with Saul heard the voice which spoke to him, while in the latter it is said they did not hear the voice. The difficulty is solved, however, by the fact that the Greek word translated "voice" may also mean "sound" and is so translated in the marginal reference given with Acts 9:7. We conclude that the men who were traveling with Saul heard the sound, but did not understand the words. It has been only a few years since the destructive critics had nothing but scorn for anyone who accepted Luke's statements that the island of Cyprus was ruled by a "pro-consul" (Acts 13:7), and that Lysanias was a contemporary tetrarch with the Herodian rulers (Luke 3:1). Yet how quickly the scorn was forgotten when archaeological discovery vindicated the Biblical statements. Whether in the healing of the centurion's servant the centurion himself went to Jesus and asked that his servant be healed, as Matthew leads us to believe (8:5), or whether he sent unto Him elders of the Jews as Luke says (7:3), is all the same so far as the point of the story is concerned. In our everyday language we ascribe to the person the thing which his agents or servants do at his command. The accusation which Pilate wrote on the cross is given with slight variations by the different Gospel writers: It appears, however, that the explanation for this is to be found mainly in the fact that the accusation was written in three languages, in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, that there were variations in the originals, and that at least one of the writers may have given a free translation, there being no substantial difference for instance between Mark's statement, "The King of the Jews," and Luke's statement, "This is the King of the Jews." Whether on the resurrection morning the stone was rolled away from the tomb by human hands, as we might infer from the accounts given by Mark, Luke and John (although they are careful not to say that it was by human hands, but only that the stone was rolled away), or whether an earthquake was used to serve the purpose as Matthew more specifically tells us (28:2), makes no difference in regard to the essential point of the story that Christ arose and came forth from the tomb on that morning. Matthew has given the account in greater detail at this point, telling us that the Lord used the forces of nature to accomplish His purpose, while the other writers have simply recorded the important religious truth that the tomb was opened. It often happens that the sacred writers, like secular writers, describe events from different points of view or with different points of emphasis. In cases of this kind there is no more contradiction between the narratives than there is, for instance, between four photographs of the same house, .one of which is taken from the west, another from the north, another from the east, and another from the south, although they may present quite different views. Matt. 27:5 says that Judas brought his money back to the priests, then went out and hanged himself, while Acts 1:18 says that he obtained a field with his money. But weaving together the two fuller accounts it appears that what really happened was that when the priests rejected the money Judas threw it down in the temple and then went out and hanged himself. But after his treachery and suicide such disgrace attached to him that no friends or relatives came to care for the body and that it had to be buried at public expense. The priests remembered that his money had been brought back, that it could not be put into the treasury since it was blood money; and now that his body needed burial they very appropriately decided to use the money to buy a burial ground, perhaps the very field in which he had committed suicide. Hence he is said to have obtained a field with the reward of his iniquity,-- not that he personally bought it, but that it was purchased with his money and he was buried in it. Many critics claim that the reference to Jeremiah in Matt. 27:9 is an error, and that the reference should have been to Zechariah (11:12, 13). This, however, seems to be a case of "Subsequent Mention," such as Acts 20:35 and Jude 14. Matthew says that Jeremiah "spoke" these words, and certainly no one can prove otherwise. Apparently Jeremiah spoke them, Zechariah wrote them down, and Matthew, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, quoted them and assigned them to Jeremiah. Perhaps Matthew had other books which assigned them to Jeremiah but which have since been lost. The fact that Matthew's quotation is not quite the same as that found in Zechariah may also indicate that he possessed other books. It is sometimes said that in Gen. 36:31 the reference to the "king" (or kings) who ruled over the children of Israel proves that the book of Genesis was not written by Moses but by some later person. We are to remember however, that Moses was a prophet, that long before this the promise had been given to Abraham that kings would arise (Gen. 17:6; 35:11), that Moses himself predicted the rise of kings in Israel (Deut. 17:14-20), and that in Gen. 36:31 he simply says that kings were reigning in Edom before any had yet arisen in Israel. In regard to Ex. 9:19 it is sometimes asked how the Egyptians could have had any cattle left to be killed by the hail, which was the seventh plague, when Ex. 9:6 declares that all of them had been killed by the murrain, which was the fifth plague. This is explained, however, by the fact that the fifth plague did not kill the. cattle which be longed to the Israelites, and that during the time which had elapsed between the fifth and seventh plagues the Egyptians doubtless had taken possession of many of those. The fact that the Ten Commandments as given in Exodus 20:3-17 and Deut. 5:7-21 shows some variation in wording, or that in a number of instances where the New Testament writers have quoted from the Old Testament they have not given the exact words but only the general meaning, is no argument against verbal inspiration unless it can be proved that they intended to quote verbatim. A writer or speaker is entirely within his rights if he chooses to repeat his thoughts in a somewhat different form, and this is what the Holy Spirit has done. Human language at its best is too imperfect to express the fullness of the Divine Mind, and we should not limit the Holy Spirit to a stereotyped form of speech. The New Testament writers are often more concerned to give the basic truth, setting it forth with variety and rich ness, than they are to follow a stereotyped form. This consideration sets aside a large number of the contradictions which some critics profess to find in the Bible. Furthermore, if we find a passage which is capable of two interpretations, one of which harmonizes with the rest of Scripture while the other does not, we are duty bound to accept the former. Whether the statement in question be in Scripture, in historical records, or in legal documents, the accepted principle of interpretation is that the meaning which assumes the document to be self-consistent and reasonable is to be preferred to the one which makes it inconsistent and unreasonable. To act on any other basis is to act with prejudice and to assure error rather than to prove it. The critics of the Bible, however, have often been only too glad to neglect this rule. Many of the so-called "moral difficulties" of the Old Testament arise only because people fail to take into consideration the progressive nature of revelation. Much more, of course, is expected of us who live in the Christian era and who have the full light of the New Testament than was expected of those who lived in the former ages. Here too there is "first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." Sometimes misunderstanding arises because of failure to distinguish between what the Scriptures record and what they sanction. Probably the most serious problems arise in regard to matters such as the destruction of the Canaanites, the imprecatory Psalms, the substitutionary doctrine of the atonement, and the doctrine of eternal punishments. We may not be able to solve all the difficulties connected with these, but the objection that they are morally wrong proceeds on the assumption that there can be no such thing as retributive justice. We must remember, however, that while God is good and rewards righteousness, He is also just and most certainly punishes sin, and that the punishment of sin is as obligatory on Him and reflects His glory as truly as does the rewarding of righteousness. This is taught in the New Testament as clearly as in the Old, and it is at the basis of the doctrine that the punishment for our sins could not simply be canceled but had to be laid on Christ if we were to be saved. Furthermore, the Old Testament teaches that not only certain individuals but sometimes whole towns and tribes were so degraded that they were a curse to society and unfit to live. Even the religion of some tribes was desperately corrupt, that of Baal and Ashtaroth, for instance, being accompanied by lascivious rites, the sacrifice of new born children in the fire by their parents, and the kissing of the images of these heathen gods. The Old Testament attitude toward polygamy, divorce, slavery, intoxicants, and kindred themes, is often ridiculed by present-day critics, but if seen in its proper setting is itself an argument for the divine origin of the Bible. In regard to almost all such questions we find that the design of the Bible is to set forth basic principles which shall be applicable to all peoples and races and in all ages rather than to give specific laws which while suited to one type of people under certain social conditions might not be equally suited to others. The making of specific laws governing social and civil affairs and suited to local conditions is left largely to later legislative bodies. Consequently the laws of the Bible are not as specific as many people would like them to be. In regard to the use of intoxicants, for instance, we certainly are told that "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler; And whosoever erreth thereby is not wise," Prov. 20:1; that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God I Cor. 6:10; that we are not to spend our money for that which is not bread, Is. 55:2; and many other similar statements. On the basis of these we should be able to frame suitable legislation dealing with the liquor traffic. The wisdom which the Bible showed in dealing with those evils in a primitive age -- giving laws and principles which regulated them, and in regulating destroyed them -- is strong evidence in itself that the law is of superhuman origin. THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE The Bible, of course, was not written from the scientific point of view, and the person who attempts to deal with it as if it were a text book on science will be badly disappointed. Written long before the rise of modern science, it was intended primarily not for scientists and intellectuals but for the common people. Its language is that of the common people, and its subject matter is primarily religious and spiritual. Had it been written in the language of modern science or philosophy it would have been unintelligible to the people of earlier ages, and in fact would also be unintelligible to multitudes in our own day. Moreover, while we certainly have no desire to disparage the scientific accomplishments of our day but wish rather to accept them and use them to the full, we must point out that textbooks on science have to be rewritten at least once every generation and that so rapidly is scientific research progressing in our day that most books on scientific subjects are obsolete within ten years, But in the Bible we have a Book which has had no revision for multiplied centuries and which appeals to the heart and intelligence of people today as strongly as it has ever done in the past. Those who go to the Bible for spiritual and intellectual inspiration find it as fresh and inspiring as if it had been written but yesterday. One of the most marvelous things about the Bible is that although it was written in a day of ancient ignorance and superstition it does I not contain the popular errors and fallacies of that day. Moses as the Crown Prince of Egypt attended the best of their schools and "was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" -- most of which is considered pure nonsense today -- but he did not write that in his books. The weird and fantastic theories held by the Egyptians concerning the origin of the world and of man were passed over completely; and in the first chapter of Genesis in majestic language which has never been surpassed to this day he gives an account of God's creation of the world and of man, no statement of which is disproved by modern science. Other prophets who were in contact with the Chaldean and Babylonian science were equally guided so that while personally they may have believed many things which were erroneous they wrote only what was in harmony with the truth. Some of the prophets may have believed, for instance, that the world was flat. But nowhere in their writings do they teach us that it is flat. When they speak of the sun rising and setting, or of the four corners of the earth, or of the ends of the earth, we are not to take those expressions literally. We use the same expressions today, but we do not mean to alarm that the sun goes around the earth, or that the earth is fiat or rectangular. In our everyday speech we often describe things as they appear, rather than as they are known to be. And while skeptics as a class are ever ready to affirm that the Bible teaches that the world is Hat, hardly one can be found who is honest enough to quote the one particular verse in which the Bible does make a statement about the shape of the earth. In describing the greatness and majesty of God Isaiah says that "He sitteth above the circle of the earth," - the Hebrew word translated "circle" literally means "roundness" (40:22). Nor are the skeptics any more anxious to quote Job's statement when in contrast with the popular ideas of his day he wrote, "He stretcheth out the north over the empty space, And hangeth the earth upon nothing" (26:7). In the year 1861 the French Academy of Science published a list of fifty-one so-called scientific facts, each of which, it was alleged, disproved some statement in the Bible. Today the Bible remains as it was then, but not one of those fifty-one so-called facts is held by men of science. Distinction should always be made between the speculations in the realm of science and its clearly proven facts. The speculations of science are like the shifting currents of the sea, while the Scriptures have breasted them like the rock of Gibralter for two thousand years. The Bible has not been shown to contradict so much as one proven fact of science; on the contrary the account which it presents of the origin and order of the world, as contrasted with that found in other ancient books, corresponds with the findings of modern science to a degree that is perfectly marvelous. The conflict which some people suppose to exist between the Bible and science simply does not exist. Perhaps the primary reason there has been so much confusion regarding the relationship between religion and science is the failure on the part of so many people to discriminate between facts and opinions. True science deals only with established facts; opinions may be as varied as the people who express them. Organic evolution, for instance, as it is usually set forth rules out the supernatural and contradicts the Bible. But it must be remembered that organic evolution is not science, but only a theory, an hypothesis. Not one of the five arguments usually advanced to support it is sound, and many distinguished scientists do not believe in the theory of organic evolution but in fiat creation as taught in the Bible. A minister who has not studied science has no right to invade the domain of science and speak freely about it. Neither does a scientist who has had no experience in the motivating and regenerating power of the Holy Spirit have any right to invade the field of religion and speak freely about that. There have been numerous instances in recent years where outstanding scientists, with no special religious training, have presumed to write or speak their minds quite freely on religious subjects. But their opinions concerning religion are worth no more than are those of any other person - for the simple reason that they are assuming to speak concerning things outside of their legitimate field. The mere fact that a man is an authority within his own field does not entitle him to speak authoritatively on subjects outside of that field. True religion and true science never contradict each other but individual ministers and individual scientists will differ endlessly. Science has indeed done many marvelous things. But its domain is strictly limited to the material side of life. It has no authority to speak concerning spiritual things. Where it has been made a substitute for religion it has invariably turned out to be a false Messiah. The relationship between the Bible and science has been quite clearly set forth by Dr. Samuel G. Craig in the following paragraph: "It is one thing to say that the Scriptures contain statements out of harmony with the teachings of modern science and philosophy and a distinctly different thing to say that they contain proved errors. Strictly speaking there is no modern science and philosophy but only modern scientists and philosophers -- who differ endlessly among themselves. It is only on the assumption that the discordant voices of present-day scientists and philosophers are to be identified with the voice of Science and Philosophy that we are warranted in saying that the Bible contains errors because its teachings do not always agree with the teachings of these scientists and philosophers. Does any one really believe that Science and Philosophy have yet reached, even approximately, their final form? May it not rather be contended that they are so far removed from their ultimate form that if the teachings of the Bible were in complete harmony with present-day science and philosophy it is altogether certain that they would be out of harmony with the science and philosophy of the future? If, for example, the anti-supernaturalism of the dominant science and philosophy of today is to be characteristic of science and philosophy in their final forms, then, unquestionably the Bible contains many errors. Who, however, is competent to assert that this will be the case? But unless it is certain that the science and philosophy of the future will be essentially one with the dominant science and philosophy of today, we go beyond the evidence when we say that the Bible contains proved errors on the ground that its teachings contradict the teachings of present-day scientists and philosophers" (Christianity Rightly So Called, p. 217). 5. The Trustworthiness of the Bible After a survey of the alleged errors and discrepancies, including not only the typical ones just mentioned, but also many others, we assert, without fear of successful contradiction, that no one of these is real. As Christians we call this book the "Holy Bible." But if it were only a relatively good book, setting forth many valuable moral and spiritual truths, but also containing many things which are not true, we would then have no right to apply to it the adjective "holy." It would then be on a level with other books, and would differ from them not in kind but only in degree. But how different is our attitude toward it when we approach it as the very word of God, an inspired, infallible rule of faith and practice! How readily we accept its statements of fact and bow before its enunciations of duty! How instinctively we tremble before its threatenings, and rest upon its promises! As we proclaim the word of life from the pulpit, or in the classroom; as we attempt to give comfort at some bed of sickness, or in a bereaved home; or as we see our fellow men struggling against temptation or weighed down with care, and would give them encouragement and hope for this world and the next, how thankful we then are for a fully trustworthy Bible! In such cases we want to know that we have not merely something that is probable or plausible, but something that is sure. What might be called The Law of Ancient Documents, generally accepted by scholars in the study of either religious or secular books, is that "Documents apparently ancient, not bearing upon their face the marks of forgery, and found in proper custody, are presumed to be genuine until sufficient evidence is brought to the contrary." Now we submit that judged by this principle the books of both the Old and the New Testament are what they profess to be and that they should be accepted at face value. We are confident that when the critics are through, when the battle is over and the smoke has all been cleared away, the books of the Bible, if they could but speak, would say to us What Paul Said to the Philippian jailor: "Do thyself no harm: for me are all here." It seems rather difficult at first to understand why so many per sons have busied themselves to point out errors in the Bible. But when we look a little more closely we find that this is a book which judges men and points out the sin of the heart. Unconverted man does not like this, and would much prefer to read a newspaper or a sensational novel. An account of a trial in one of our criminal courts interests him a great deal more than does a chapter in the New Testament. And since he does not like to have the truth told about himself and the world in which he lives, he tries to pick flaws in the blessed Book. The reason that he cannot leave it alone is that it does not leave him alone. Infidels in every age and from every class have labored hard to find out some errors which would convict the Scriptures of falsehood. They find no pleasure in pointing out errors in Virgil, or Cicero, or Shakespeare; but the Bible they cannot endure. And, sad to say, the determined enemies of the Word are to be found not only in the ranks of the vulgar and coarse, but also among the refined and cultured. Time and again those who have nothing else in common will, nevertheless, agree in their determined opposition to the Bible. TESTIMONY OF OUTSTANDING SCHOLARS In modern times there are, of course, many scholars who for various reasons attempt to discredit the written word. They usually begin by attacking the Old Testament and then carry their attack over into the New Testament. We are glad to say, however, that there are many other scholars of at least equal learning and skill who declare that the Bible is fully reliable. The late Dr. Benjamin B. Warfield. who for thirty-three years was Professor of Systematic Theology in Princeton Theological Seminary, was, we believe, the greatest systematic theologian and Greek scholar that America has produced. After having examined the evidence on which the destructive critics base their conclusions he had no hesitation whatever in pronouncing that evidence utterly worthless, and in declaring that the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is what it claims to be, the very word of God. His recently published book, Revelation and Inspiration, is undoubtedly the best book on the subject.' The Sunday School Times had abundant reason for pronouncing it "the most learned, exhaustive and convincing defense of the verbal inspiration of the Bible which has appeared in modern times," and in adding that "Dr. Warfield's acquaintance with sources, and his pointing out errors of opponents in quoting sources, seems fairly uncanny. If this book were widely read it would serve as a decisive check upon the many vagaries of 'inspiration' with which the believer is now confronted." In regard to the Old Testament we feel reasonably safe in asserting that no greater authority has arisen in modern times than Dr. Robert D. Wilson. Possessed of a working knowledge of forty-five languages and dialects, and probably knowing more about the Old Testament than did any other man, his conclusion was set forth in the following words: "For forty-five years continuously I have devoted myself to the one great study of the Old Testament in all its languages, in all its archaeology, in all its translations, and, so far as possible, everything bearing upon its text and history... The evidence in our possession has convinced me that 'at sundry times and in divers manners God spake unto our fathers through the prophets,' and that the Old Testament in Hebrew, 'being immediately inspired by God,' has 'by His singular care and providence been kept pure in all ages'." Dr. Wilson's book, A Scientific Investigation of the Old Testament, in which his evidence and conclusions are set forth in simple and convincing language, and a more recent book, The Five Books of Moses, by Dr. Oswald T. Allis, who probably is the outstanding Old Testament scholar of the present day, should be read by every person who would be well in formed concerning these matters. The world still awaits a theory which will render an adequate account of the origin and authority of the Bible on any other hypothesis than that it came from God. One after another of the theories which have been advanced have fallen of their own weight or have been disproved by other destructive schemes. Up to date no hypothesis except that of divine origin has been able to maintain itself for as much as half a century. This in itself is a confession that the origin of the book cannot be accounted for by any other means than that given by the prophets themselves. Nor have we reason to believe that any more successful theory will arise in the future. Hence the only rational course for us to follow is to accept the Bible for what it professes to be until we can account for it by some other means. It is interesting to note that down through the ages the orthodox Christian faith has been developed and set forth through the reverent and patient and anxious care of the Origens and Augustines, the Luthers and Calvins, the Hodges and Warfields, who believed the Bible to be fully inspired, and not by the Pelagians and Socinians, the Wellhausens and Fosdicks, with their superficial doubts as to whether Moses or Paul or even Christ and the apostles meant very much by what they said. May there never be occasion for people to say of us what was said of those of old time, that we received the word of God as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not. GROUNDS FOR OUR BELIEF THAT THE BIBLE IS INFALLIBLE When we assert that the Bible is completely trustworthy whether as regards its factual, doctrinal or ethical representations, we do not mean that we have personally examined each and every statement of the Bible with such care that we feel justified in asserting that they are all true, nor do we imply that we are possessed of omniscience. We reach that conclusion by first noting the claims which the Bible makes for its own inspiration and trustworthiness, and then testing those claims by the facts which are given us through Biblical criticism and exegesis. In view of the many evidences which substantiate this claim, such as the lofty moral and spiritual level which is maintained through out the book, the promised guidance of the Holy Spirit, the many prophecies which were made in certain ages and fulfilled in detail in later ages, the inherent unity of the book, the simple and unprejudiced manner in which the accounts are given, etc., and in the absence of any proved errors, we conclude that the Bible is what it claims to be, a fully inspired book. This seems to be the only logical and proper way to approach the problem. If we reject this method, then, in order to arrive at a conclusion, we must make a comprehensive examination of every part of Scripture, taking it verse by verse, statement by statement, and prove its truth or falsity. But if we attempt this method it is not long until we come up against things hard to understand, statements concerning which we do not have adequate information, and prophecies which are as yet unfulfilled. We soon find ourselves, like certain persons of old, wresting the Scriptures to our own intellectual destruction. The position of Conservative scholarship concerning this question has been presented clearly and convincingly by Dr. Samuel G. Craig. After stating that "the Bible bears witness to its own complete trust worthiness," he adds: "If that were not the case, the most we could possibly say would be that the Bible is without proved errors. That is obvious when it is remembered that even the latest parts of the Bible were written nearly two thousand years ago, that the Bible as a whole deals with periods of history with which at best we are imperfectly informed, that it relates the beliefs and experiences of many individuals of whom we know but little, that it contains representations alleged to have been supernaturally revealed, including many predictions not yet fulfilled -- not to mention other matters. No one, not even the great est scholar, has even a fraction of that knowledge that would be required to warrant him in affirming, on the basis of his knowledge alone, that the Bible is free from error. The case, however, is quite different, it seems to us, if testimony of their own complete trustworthiness is itself a part of the phenomena of Scripture. Then the way is open to assert their complete trustworthiness without first proving a universal negative. We would not be understood as implying that the mere fact that the Bible claims infallibility relieves us of the responsibility of examining its passages to ascertain whether its contents accord with the claim. However, if the Bible makes this claim and if even the most careful examination of its contents discloses nothing that contradicts it, it is at least possible that the claim is a valid claim. If on examining the Bible we find that all its statements that we are able to verify are trustworthy we will be more and more disposed to believe that the statements that are incapable of verification are also trust worthy. Our warrant, in brief, for asserting the inerrancy of the Bible is (1) the absence of proved errors and (2) the witness which the Bible bears to its own complete trustworthiness. (Italics ours.) Our confidence in the trustworthiness of the writers of the Bible is such that we feel fully warranted in accepting their statements as true even when we have no means of verifying them." And again, "We are dependent on the Scriptures for our knowledge of all the distinctive facts and doctrines of Christianity. If we cannot trust them when they tell us about themselves, how can we trust them when they tell us about the deity of Christ, redemption in His blood, justification by faith, regeneration by the Holy Spirit, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting?" (Christianity Rightly So Called, p. 226). Furthermore, the importance of the testimony of the Scriptures to their own trustworthiness is not fully realized unless we keep in mind the fact that the trustworthiness of Christ is equally involved. In the words, "The Scripture cannot be broken," and "Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law until all things be accomplished," He ascribed absolute authority to the Scriptures of the Old Testament as an organic whole and made them the rule of life. At these points there is no question about the purity of the Greek text. Repeatedly He quoted the Scripture as final. Hence the authority of Scripture and the authority of Christ are inseparably connected. There are some, of course, who bow be fore Him and rejoice in Him as their Lord and Master while at the same time they ascribe not only historical but moral faults to the Scriptures. But such an inconsistent attitude cannot long be maintained. It seems absurd that we should be at the same time His worshipers and His critics. Only ignorance or lack of thought makes it possible for any person to suppose that he can remain orthodox in his conception of Jesus while accepting many of the views set forth by the destructive critics. When we reach the place where we say, "Jesus taught so and so, but the real truth of the matter is thus and thus," we simply cannot any longer worship Him as Lord and Master. Hence the question, "What think ye of Christ? whose son is He?" is closely parallel to the question, What think ye of the Bible? whose book is it? Investigation convinces us that the Bible, like the Christ which it sets forth, is truly human and truly divine. As He was true man, in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, because also divine, so the Bible is a truly human book, written by men like ourselves, yet without error, because also divine. When we say that inspiration extends to all parts of the Bible we do not mean to say that all parts are equally important. It is readily admitted that Genesis, or Matthew, or Revelation, for instance, is of much greater importance than Second Chronicles, or Haggai, or Jude. As Paul tells us, "One star differeth from another star in glory," -- yet God made them all. In the human body some organs are of vastly greater value than others, the eyes or heart, for instance, as compared with the fingers, or toes, or hair. In fact, we can even do without certain organs if necessary, although a whole body is much more normal, healthy and desirable. And so it is with the Bible; not all parts are equally valuable, but all parts are equally true. And further, we do not mean to say that had there been no inspiration there could have been no Christianity. We readily admit that had the writers of Scripture been shut up to their unaided faculties, as ordinary historians and teachers, they might, nevertheless, have given us fairly true and accurate accounts of the messages they received and of the events which took place, and that Christianity might have continued, although no doubt in a greatly impoverished form. Even if the Bible as a book had become completely lost the essential truths concerning the way of salvation might have been handed down to us with some degree of purity. But to what uncertainties, and doubts, and errors constantly begetting worse errors, we would then have been exposed! That we would then have had only a very weak and diluted form of Christianity will hardly be denied. To see what our fate would have been we need only look at such groups as the Roman Catholic or Greek Catholic Church, or at the Nestorian or Coptic churches yes, and at present day Modernism with its untrustworthy Bible and its endless confusion. In the first two of these churches the people have been denied access to the Scriptures; in the other two they have had the Scriptures but with a large mixture of error. Without the Bible, then, we might still have had a form of Christianity; but, 0, how much poorer we should have been! What a privilege it is to have in our hands a book every line of which was given by inspiration of God! -- to have a divinely given history of the past, the present, and the future! Who can estimate" aright such a privilege as this? As a matter of practical experience the strongest single factor making for the persistence of true Christianity and of righteousness in general down through the ages has been a fully trustworthy Bible in the hands of the common people. We believe that the Bible as we now have it is complete, and that no new books are ever to be added. We believe this because the Bible gives us a sufficiently clear account of the relationship which exists between God and men, and of God's plan of redemption as it has been worked out by Christ and as it is now being applied to His people by the Holy Spirit. This is the view set forth in the Westminster Confession: "The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men." It should be kept in mind that the Protestant doctrine concerning the inspiration and authority of Scripture differs considerably from that held by the Roman Catholic Church. The Council of Trent, which met in the Italian city by that name and which concluded its sessions in the year 1653, set standards that the Roman Catholic Church has held quite consistently ever since. It affirmed the divine inspiration and authority of Scripture, but with some reservations. It declared that the Vulgate, which was St. Jerome's Latin translation of the Bible, and which was completed in the year 405, was the "authentic" text of Scripture, and that "no one is to dare or to presume to reject it under any pretext whatever." Furthermore, and more important, it introduced a fundamentally different estimate of the place of authority in religion, and of religion itself, when it put alongside of the Scriptures as of equal authority certain traditions of the church, consisting mainly of decrees issued by the popes and by church councils, and declared that the church alone was to be acknowledged as "the judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures." This, of course, puts the final authority for the interpretation of Scripture in the hands of fallible and sinful men, and opens wide the floodgate to all kinds of error. 6. The Plenary Inspiration of the Bible INCONSISTENT POSITION OF THE MODERNISTS We have already said that so-called Modernists or Liberals have no consistent stopping place. They must either go clear over to rationalism and barren negation, or they must turn back again to an authoritative Scripture. The history of Protestant Liberalism shows us very dearly that it has had extreme difficulty in maintaining itself even on the platform of theism, to say nothing of that of Christianity. Its tendency has been constantly downgrade, a progressive repudiation of all the fundamentals of the Christian faith. The Modernist, if he proceeds logically in the direction which his premises carry him, denies, first, the inspiration of the Scriptures, then the miracles, then the deity of Christ, then the atonement, then the resurrection, and finally, if he goes to the end of his road, he ends up in absolute skepticism. New England Unitarianism affords an example of this very thing. Strange as the words may sound in our ears, it is not uncommon in some places in America today to hear the "atheistic shade" of modern theology spoken of. There is, unfortunately for some, a happy consistency in the processes of reason which drives the various philosophical and religious systems to their logical conclusions. Practically all evangelical churches require those who are ordained to the ministry to take a public vow that they accept the Bible as the Word of God. In the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., for instance, every minister and elder at his ordination solemnly vows before God and men that he "believes the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice." (Italics ours.) (Form of Government, XIII:IV; XV:XII.) Since this confession is thoroughly evangelical it means that none but evangelicals can honestly and intelligently accept this ordination. A Modernist has not the slightest right to be a minister or elder in an evangelical church, and any Modernist who does become such lacks good morality as well as good theology. To declare one thing while believing the contrary is hardly consistent with the character of an honest man. And yet while our ordination vows are so thoroughly evangelical, how many there are even among the ministers of our churches who either deny or pass lightly over this basic Christian truth, the infallibility of the Scriptures! Sometimes those who hold a low view of inspiration attempt to evade the issue by merely saying that the Bible contains the word of God. This loose formula, however, means practically nothing. A river in India, "rolling down its golden sands," certainly contains gold. But just what the relative proportion is between the sand and the gold may be very hard to determine. If the Bible only contains the Word of God, as even the Modernist is willing to admit, then certainly it may lack a great deal of being infallible, and we are then left to the mercies of "Higher Criticism," or to our own individual opinions, as to just which elements are the words of God and which are only the words of man. As Dr. Clarence E. Macartney has recently said, "Those who have departed from faith in an infallible Bible have made desperate, but utterly vain efforts, to secure a suitable substitute and other standing ground. But as time goes by, the pathetic hopelessness of this effort is more and more manifest. Such catchwords as 'progressive revelation,' 'personal experience,' 'devotion to the truth,' etc., are one by one being cast into the discard. Modernism and Liberalism, by the confession of their own adherents, are terribly bankrupt, nothing but 'cracked cisterns,' into which men lower in vain their vessels for the water of life. There is no plausible substitute for an inspired Bible. No one can preach with the power and influence of him who draws a sword bathed in heaven, and who goes into the pulpit with a 'Thus saith the Lord' back of him... When man faces the overwhelming facts of sin, passion, pain, sorrow, death, and the beyond-death, the glib and easy phrases of current Modernism and flippant Liberalism are found to be nothing but a broken reed. Therefore, he who preaches historic Christianity and takes his stand upon a divine revelation has, amid the storms and confusions and darkness of our present day, an incomparable position.... There are not wanting signs today that men will return to the Holy Scripture, to drink again of the Water of Life and strengthen their souls with the Bread of Life, and that a prodigal Church, sick of the husks of the far country, will return to its Father's house." Those who reject the Church doctrine of inspiration in favor of some lowered form have never been able to agree among themselves as to which parts of the Bible are inspired and which are not, or to what extent any part is inspired. If this high doctrine of verbal inspiration is rejected, there is no consistent stopping place short of saying that the Scripture writers were inspired only as was Shakespeare, or Milton, or Tennyson; and in fact some of the critics have consistently followed out their premises and have reached that conclusion. We submit, however, that if the other miracles recorded in Scripture be accepted there is no logical reason for rejecting the miracle of inspiration, for inspiration is simply a miracle in the realm of speaking or writing. Most of the objections which are brought against the doctrine today can be traced more or less clearly to the assumption that the supernatural is impossible. ASSURANCE THAT THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD The question naturally arises, How are we to know that the Bible is the Word of God? We reply: By the fitness of the Holy Spirit within our hearts as we read. As the Christian reads the Bible he instinctively feels that God is speaking to him. The Holy Spirit bears witness with his spirit that these things are so, the primary and decisive grounds for his conviction being not external but internal. To the spiritually illuminated the word is self-authenticating. He does, indeed, find much additional assurance to be had in noting the many incomparable excellencies of the writings, such as the lofty spiritual and moral truths set forth, the unity of all the parts, the majesty of the style, the uniformly uplifting influence of the Bible wherever it has gone, its appeal at one and the same time to the learned philosopher and to the poor black man of the jungle, its statement of truth in such simple language that even a child can grasp its meaning while even the mast learned man cannot exhaust its depths, the minute fulfillment of prophecies centuries after they were spoken, etc. These are, indeed, proofs which should compel acceptance, and they can be effectively used to stop the mouths of objectors; but in the final analysis they are of subordinate value only. Apart from the inner illumination of the Holy Spirit they will not convince the unbeliever, no matter how logically and skillfully they may be presented. The attempt to prove the divine origin of the Bible from these external criteria is similar to that of proving the existence of God from the external world. We may cite the ontological, the teleological, the cosmological, and the moral arguments, and the evidence seems convincing enough to the believer. Yet none of these arguments are demonstrative and coercive, and they usually leave the skeptics unconvinced. When we consent to stake the authority of Scripture on external arguments we are consenting to fight the battle on the field of our opponents' choosing, and we then simply have to make the best of a vulnerable position. These arguments in themselves are of such a nature as to invite doubt in the unregenerate mind, and they can never permanently settle the question. When we consent to fight the battle on these grounds we are making a concession to Rationalism, a system which assumes that the human reason is capable of sitting in judgment upon and evaluating all human experiences, and which denies the necessity of any divine revelation whatsoever. In our deepest selves we are either regenerate or unregenerate. Paul tells us that "the natural (unregenerate) man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged" (I Cor. 2:14); and again he says that the gospel of Christ crucified is "unto Jews a stumbling block, and unto Gentiles foolishness"; but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, it is "the power of God, and the wisdom of God" unto salvation (I Cor. 1:23, 24). Consequently the unregenerate man assumes an antagonistic attitude, and will not be convinced by any amount of external testimony. Ultimately every person has to make a choice between the vox Dei and the vox mundi, the voice of God and the voice of the world; and the question as to which of these he acknowledges to be the more authoritative is determined by whether the soul is regenerate or unregenerate. It is as impossible for the unaided human reason to understand the deep things of the Spirit as it is for the ordinary psychologist to give an adequate explanation of the process of conversion. Every attempt to convince the unregenerate soul of the divine origin of the Bible by means of scholarly and historical proof can only result in failure, and must be given up as completely as when Jesus forebore to convince the members of the Sanhedrin that he was not guilty of blasphemy when they had made up their minds to the contrary. This was the principle for which the Protestant Church stood at the time of the Reformation. While the Roman Catholics acknowledged the Church as the source of authority, and the Humanists acknowledged the human reason, the Protestant principle, as it was given typical expression for instance in the Westminster Confession, was the voice of God speaking in the soul. "The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God... Our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts" (I:IV, V). We would doubtless make better progress in our present day discussions if we kept that principle in mind. In the final analysis, then, the Christian's faith does not depend upon external proofs, but upon an inner experience. He lives by the Scripture and enjoys its light. He has an inner conscious assurance -- call it mysticism or whatever you will -- that he is a child of God, and that the Scriptures are the word of God. The external proofs help to clarify and strengthen his faith, but his absolute and inescapable proof that the Christian system in general is the true system is found in the witness of the Holy Spirit in his heart as he reads and in his experience as a Christian. Although he may not be possessed of scholarly and scientific evidence which would enable him to meet the destructive critics on their own ground, he repels all their doubts in the same manner as did the blind man who was healed by the Savior, and who replied to every argument of the Pharisees with the im- movable conviction of certainty: "Whether he is a sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." He no more asks permission of the critic to believe than he asks permission of the scientist to breathe, but finds both most natural and spontaneous. He does, indeed, find that truly scientific and scholarly study gives clearer direction to the word, and that it enables him to systematize and understand it better. But his authority for belief is from the heart rather than from the reasoning processes of the head. This does not mean that we deprecate scholarship. Nowhere has the principle of sound scholarship and scientific investigation existed in a healthier state than in the loyal sons of the Evangelical churches. In fact, we are persuaded that except for the service which scholarship has rendered, the Christian faith would have been well-nigh helpless against the attacks of unbelief. We desire a solid historical foundation for our faith, and our investigation shows that we have such. We acknowledge that the external proofs, when presented to unbelievers in a reasonable way, point the way to God and often prepare the heart for the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. But we simply wish to point out that these proofs which are relied upon so heavily by some are ineffective unless supplemented by the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Our opponents will probably complain that this method of procedure gives a strong dogmatic cast to the discussion. They forget, however, that they proceed in exactly the same way: they too proceed from premises which are as axiomatic, even though they profess to be particularly subject to reason. Their axiom is that the human reason is competent to judge all things, even the deep things of God. While we acknowledge that theirs is also a dogmatic procedure, we do not com plain about it, since they cannot do otherwise -- the mind which has not been enlightened by the Spirit is not able to discern the things of the Spirit. As Thornwall has fittingly said, "the reality of evidence is one thing, the power to perceive it, is quite another. It is no objection to the brilliancy of the sun if it fails to illuminate the blind." We each have our fixed method of procedure. All we can ask is that these principles be put to a practical test, and that we be given opportunity to see which best squares with the experiences of life and reality. CONCLUSION In conclusion, then, we would say that it is of the utmost importance that the Lord's people be thoroughly rooted and grounded in this great doctrine of the plenary inspiration of Holy Scripture, and that having examined the evidence they be convinced that the Bible is the very Word of God. Since all of the other Christian doctrines are derived from the Bible and rest upon it for their authority, this doctrine is, as it were, the mother and guardian of all the others. We believe that the foregoing statements are facts which will stand the test of scholarship and of historical investigation, and that they will not be denied by any informed and honest-minded person. While in our day the Bible has been sadly neglected even in many of the churches, we believe that the time is coming when the Bible shall have its rightful and honored place in the Church and in the affairs of men. At any rate we look forward confident that when the tumult is over, when the present storm of unbelief has subsided, the sacred heights of Sinai and Calvary will again stand forth, and that amid the wreck of thrones, extinct nations, and shattered moral principles, mankind, tried by so many sorrows, purified by so much suffering, and wise with so much unprecedented experience, will again bow before an omnipotent and merciful God as He is revealed in an infallible Bible.	INFALLIBLE When we assert that the Bible is completely trustworthy whether as regards its factual, doctrinal or ethical representations, we do not mean that we have personally examined each and every statement of the Bible with such care that we feel justified in asserting that they are all true, nor do we imply that we are possessed of omniscience. We reach that conclusion by first noting the claims which the Bible makes for its own inspiration and trustworthiness, and then testing those claims by the facts which are given us through Biblical criticism and exegesis. In view of the many evidences which substantiate this claim, such as the lofty moral and spiritual level which is maintained through out the book, the promised guidance of the Holy Spirit, the many prophecies which were made in certain ages and fulfilled in detail in later ages, the inherent unity of the book, the simple and unprejudiced manner in which the accounts are given, etc., and in the absence of any proved errors, we conclude that the Bible is what it claims to be, a fully inspired book. This seems to be the only logical and proper way to approach the problem. If we reject this method, then, in order to arrive at a conclusion, we must make a comprehensive examination of every part of Scripture, taking it verse by verse, statement by statement, and prove its truth or falsity. But if we attempt this method it is not long until we come up against things hard to understand, statements concerning which we do not have adequate information, and prophecies which are as yet unfulfilled. We soon find ourselves, like certain persons of old, wresting the Scriptures to our own intellectual destruction. The position of Conservative scholarship concerning this question has been presented clearly and convincingly by Dr. Samuel G. Craig. After stating that "the Bible bears witness to its own complete trust worthiness," he adds: "If that were not the case, the most we could possibly say would be that the Bible is without proved errors.	yes
Religion	Is the Bible infallible?	yes_statement	the "bible" is "infallible".. the "infallibility" of the "bible" is unquestionable.	https://www.catherinemwallace.com/index.php?option=com_sppagebuilder&view=page&id=42	Home	Chapter One. Certain hard-Right Protestants claim that the Bible is inerrant. In their eyes, it has "infallible divine authority." It is without error in everything it says about world events, about how the world was created, and so forth. Certain hard-Right Catholics make an equivalent claim about the pope. In their eyes, the pope is infallible. He can speak with direct, unquestionably divine authority about faith and morals, and he has exclusive rights to the interpretation of scripture. Others Christians dismiss these absolutist claims out of hand. The Bible has honest authority for us, and so does two thousand years of reflection and commentary on Jesus's teachings. But honest authority is not the unquestionable absolutism claimed by these Right-wing radicals. Neither the Bible nor the pope are infallible because all human knowledge is merely human. None of us can reasonably claim to know anything perfectly, beyond all question, beyond challenge by other interested observers. Even the best-established scientific findings are philosophically open to new research forcing some revision or refinement, and the history of science is replete with such upendings of "established fact." Healthy religion is similarly opened-minded despite similar confidence in truths revered for centuries. In both science and religion, wise humility is common sense. Consider this: Even if God were to appear in person in a burning bush in my own backyard, I could have only a fallible, limited, partial human knowledge of who God is or what God was trying to communicate. Even Jesus—granting for the moment the full divinity of Jesus—could only have conveyed to his followers what could have been made comprehensible to Galilean peasants in the early decades of the first century. Since Jesus wrote nothing himself, all that we have of him are memories transmitted orally for decades before being written down. That happened at best an entire generation later, and often two or even three generations later. As a result, we have only an imperfectly human understanding of whatever partial truths even a fully divine Jesus might have communicated. No one should be surprised at what a close study of historical theology reveals: despite important continuities, the history of Christianity is replete with significant changes in how Jesus and his teachings are understood. In short, infallibility-inerrancy claims are indefensible. They are nonsense. They are nonsense philosophically, nonsense cognitively, nonsense historically. None of us are capable of knowing anything inerrantly or infallibly. Furthermore, it's dangerous to pretend otherwise. Such claims are authoritarian, and thus a threat to democracy in a religiously diverse nation. Such claims are anti-intellectual, and thus a profound threat to scholarly inquiry and freedom of thought. Such claims threaten human well-being from multiple directions simultaneously. Sophisticated believers have been saying this ever since these radical claims first emerged hardly more than a century ago, in roughly the 1880s. Why, then, do such claims have such credibility as "the" Christian tradition? That's easy to explain: radically authoritarian religion is politically useful. As a result, these indefensible claims were rapidly seized upon by political actors for political purposes. Here's one measure of their success in co-opting Christian tradition: many secularists would now agree with Christian fundamentalists that to be "religious" in any sense is to accept as true an array of sweeping claims that are not open for discussion nor founded in any reasonable way upon solid arguments, persuasive facts, and the persistent testimony of good people over centuries. Religion isn't like that, supposedly. Religion, supposedly, in order to be religion, has to be absolutist, authoritarian, rigid, and dictatorial. Religion, in order to be religion, supposedly, must be based upon immediate, unquestionable "divine revelation" that is not open to logic, to evidence, or to honest argument or criticism from other perspectives. To count as a "believer," supposedly, critical thinkers must surrender our brains as we walk in the door. I have not surrendered my brains. Neither have plenty of other Christians. According to the Pew Forum U.S. Religious Landscape Survey (2008), "Most Americans also have a non-dogmatic approach when it comes to interpreting the tenets of their own religion. For instance, more than two-third of adults affiliated with a religious tradition agree that there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their faith, a pattern that occurs in nearly all traditions" (Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses were the two outliers). Such independent thinking is not compatible with taking seriously the inerrancy-infallibility claims made by the hard Right. When Catholic Ireland voted to recognize gay marriage, it was clear to everyone that the robust spiritual reasonableness of the ancient tradition had prevailed over its contemporary Right-wing opponents. Here's what concerns me—and what should also worry reasonable secular humanists and reasonable humanists in other faith traditions: Christian fundamentalists have laid false claim to the cultural and symbolic capital of Christianity itself. If that false claim continues, if that false claim is not coherently and consciously opposed by the rest of us, then a valuable cultural heritage will be lost. What does such coherent opposition look like? First and foremost, we have to stop shrugging our shoulders and saying, dismissively, "I'm not that kind of Christian" or "I don't know where those people are coming from." We can't effectively oppose what we don't clearly understand. And so I offer the cultural backstory to religious judgmentalism. First, I trace the cultural roots of these distorted claims. I think that if we know that history even in a brief, summary form, we will more easily recognize the ripple effects and offshoots of infallibility-inerrancy claims. Whenever and wherever these offshoots appear, we need to recognize them for what they are. That does not require a PhD in history or extensive training in theology, just as a degree in chemistry is not required to avoid partially hydrogenated palm oil. Second, I want to explain that Christianity is best understood as an art. Religion across the board is probably best understood by analogy to the arts. Religions mothered all of the individual arts, which in their earliest forms all had some relationship to expressing the human experience of "the sacred" or "the holy" broadly understood. The arts are never absolutist. The arts persuade; they do not demand. They convince; they do not coerce. They express; they do not compel assent nor damn those indifferent to their expression. The lyric voice knows how to say this is true without implying believe or burn. CHRISTIANITY AS AN ART Christianity, I contend, is the work of the moral imagination. Its truths are symbolic truths, and at the literal level every symbol is necessarily paradoxical. The problem with religious absolutism, then, is that it's painfully literal-minded. It is oblivious to symbolism, which like higher mathematics is one of the most sophisticated cognitive tools that we have. If what you learned about symbolism in school struck you as vague, ethereal, and unconvincing, that may have been because kids tend naturally to be literal-minded and concrete in their thinking. They see what they see, and that's all there is to see. It takes a mature mind (and a fully matured brain) to recognize and to grapple with inescapable paradox. I saw this over and over again trying to teach literature to undergraduates. "Traditional age" students struggled mightily to see what "returning students" in their thirties and forties saw at a glance. College kids can be very smart, heaven knows. But only adults are wise. There's a difference between smarts and wisdom. Neurologists say that's a function of the frontal lobes, which are not fully plugged in until the mid-twenties. Maybe so. Maybe the difference is life-experience: sooner or later, we see for ourselves that paradox is inescapable and life itself far more complicated than once we believed. That recognition colors everything we experience thereafter. Seeing Christianity as an art, or as something closely analogous to an art, has a single overwhelming implication: faith is a creative process. Faith is not an absolutist claim to know infallible facts. Faith is a creative process. Faith is the creative process of grappling seriously with our own experience of compassion as something deep and real within us, something so real it also feels undeniably "cosmic" or externally real as well. And yet there's nothing present at such moments that anyone else could weigh or measure or photograph. What's real in such experiences does not have the quality of "realness" we ascribe to shoes and ships and sealing wax, cabbages and king. Those things can be quantified. They can weighed or measured. God—what Christians mean by the word "God"—cannot. God is not a heavenly superhero whose special powers can be conclusively demonstrated. I'm not going to argue if you want to say that such moments are all nonsense because in fact life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. That's an interpretation many people share. But it too is an interpretation. It's also an interpretation to brush aside such moments as merely insignificant. No matter what, then, we are making a choice. And I'm okay with that fact. But if we are going to take seriously our encounters with the transcendent power of compassion, we must do so in a sophisticated way. And the most accurate, most rigorous way to do that, I contend, is to understand that faith in the ultimate or cosmic reality of compassion is itself a creative process, not a claim to infallible knowledge or inerrant sources of knowledge. Christianity, I contend, is neither more nor less than one historically-conditioned, culturally-situated tradition explaining what this creative process is and how to foster it within ourselves. Christianity is only one such tradition. There are other traditions. Of course there are other traditions. But the fact that there are other ways is not, in and of itself, a reason to ignore one of the major global traditions for recognizing and fostering the creative process that is living both compassionately and wisely. By analogy: many of us grew up playing whatever musical instrument our parents favored. Perhaps for fun we have noodled around with other instruments, curious about the different experience of other musicians. That can be immensely valuable. It's often required of serious music students at a certain level. Similarly, many of us have noodled around a little in religious traditions other than our own. I've found that immensely valuable at a deeply spiritual level. I think it's possible to value the heritage of others, and to oppose its misappropriation, without intending to enter into that tradition myself. The Chinese government, for instance, is working hard to assert control over Tibetan Buddhism. The Taliban have blown up statues of the Buddha. You don't have to convert to Buddhism in order to object to that. Similarly, one need not convert to Christianity in order to appreciate the heritage that is here at risk from people who would appropriate Christian tradition for narrow, authoritarian, often anti-social purposes. Let me explain how I propose to do all of this. OVERVIEW This book will divide into three tidy parts. After telling a story about a moment in my life when I came face-to-face with these issues, I will spend three chapters sketching at the evolution of "authority" as a concept in the West. Then I'll spend three chapters tracing the rise of fundamentalism in both its Catholic and its Protestant forms. And then, in the last three chapters, I will outline an alternative vision of Christianity. Christianity is not necessarily or inevitably absolutist-authoritarian or based upon untenable claims to have some truth that cannot be questioned. Christianity can be understood as an art form. Christianity can be understood as a rich creative process of grappling with the fullness of what it means to be human in relationship to the sacred. Here's how that will look in detail. In chapter 3, I'll explain what sociologists and historians now say about the ordinary function of ordinary religion in the ancient world: religion legitimated the power of those who held power and the authority of those who were in authority. Religion was explicitly absolutist and authoritarian because that's how political power was exercised in the ancient world. That theocratic merger of church and state began to be undermined in the 1300s by an intellectual movement that came to be called "Christian humanism." These thinkers provided the conceptual foundations of what we now call the Renaissance and the Reformation. They also provided the conceptual foundations of the West's slow and unsteady evolution toward democracy. The core of that conceptual foundation was their reformulation of the ancient belief that the God dwells within each of us. In chapter 4, I'll trace the theological and political tensions that emerged as this new Christian-humanist scholarship in effect undermined the absolute authority of Christian theocracy in its traditional Western form. In the 1500s and 1600s, "the" church exploded into what has become thousands of competing Christian sects and denominations. Which of them inherits—and how?—the absolutist authority that "the" church had always claimed during the long centuries of theocratic rule? Does "the" church properly have such authority in the first place? In chapter 5, I'll explain how, in the wake of those catastrophic wars, Western intellectuals sought an alternative source of stable social and political authority. This alternative source has come to be called "Enlightenment modernism" or, simply, "modernism." Newton was turned into its patron saint if not its presiding deity. In effect, "rationalism" was set in place as the new source of unquestionable authority presided over by a new unquestionable priesthood. I realize that sounds bizarre. On the other hand, it explains why the 1600s and 1700s are such a fascinating historical period. In chapters 6, 7, and 8, we move on to the 1800s. I'll describe the reactionary or retrograde efforts among certain Victorian Christians to reclaim unquestionable or absolutist authority for Christianity. For Protestants, this effort led to radical claims about the literal and inerrant truth of scripture; for Catholics, this effort led to a particularly reactionary pope claiming to be infallible. These are complicated claims. They are also bizarre distortions of the larger Christian intellectual heritage. At the time, these reactionaries were as sharply opposed to Christian biblical scholarship as they were to Darwin or to contemporary work in geology. They were the theological equivalent of people insisting that the world is flat and the moon landings were staged. It astounds me that these inerrancy-infallibility claims now appear in the eyes of many to be "legitimate" or "traditional" Christian beliefs. They're not. But why not is a story that needs to be told, because that story in effect lays out a common intellectual ground shared by today's Christian humanists and today's humanists in other traditions, whether secular or religious. In chapters 9, 10, and 11, I'll trace a contrary—and far saner—trend in Western intellectual inquiry. Beginning in the 1660s, scholars began to recognize and to describe a cognitive ability that came to be called "imagination." Imagination is the mind's ability to recognize patterns and to grapple with paradox. This cognitive ability gives rise to metaphor and to symbolism, which are the major tools we have to stabilize paradox sufficiently to grapple with it thoughtfully. Christianity, I argue, is best understood as one of the major cultural products of the human imagination. And in chapter 12 and 13, I'll conclude with a couple of stories. What might it mean in our own lives to recognize that religious faith is a creative act, an imaginative synthesis of patterns implicit in our own experience? I have struggled with that question all of my adult life. In my first career as an English professor, I specialized in the evolution of the concept of imagination in the 1600s and 1700s, and especially in the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was the very first to recognize the implications of imagination for how we understand Christianity. But that was never for me simply an academic pursuit. It was my own life I was trying to understand, my own experience, the way my own mind worked. For better for worse, high creatives are just a bit odd. And just a tad nonconformist too. There would seem to be no place whatsoever for people like me within the authoritarian confines "organized religion" in the usual Victorian definition of that phrase. And yet: look at the immense heritage of religious art and music and poetry. In Real Presences (1989), literary critic George Steiner argues that the abiding question of the modern novel is whether or not God exists: "the great exemplars continue to ask, aloud or beneath their breath (as in Proust), the one question ineradicable in man: Is there or is there not God? Is there or is there not meaning to being?	Chapter One. Certain hard-Right Protestants claim that the Bible is inerrant. In their eyes, it has "infallible divine authority." It is without error in everything it says about world events, about how the world was created, and so forth. Certain hard-Right Catholics make an equivalent claim about the pope. In their eyes, the pope is infallible. He can speak with direct, unquestionably divine authority about faith and morals, and he has exclusive rights to the interpretation of scripture. Others Christians dismiss these absolutist claims out of hand. The Bible has honest authority for us, and so does two thousand years of reflection and commentary on Jesus's teachings. But honest authority is not the unquestionable absolutism claimed by these Right-wing radicals. Neither the Bible nor the pope are infallible because all human knowledge is merely human. None of us can reasonably claim to know anything perfectly, beyond all question, beyond challenge by other interested observers. Even the best-established scientific findings are philosophically open to new research forcing some revision or refinement, and the history of science is replete with such upendings of "established fact." Healthy religion is similarly opened-minded despite similar confidence in truths revered for centuries. In both science and religion, wise humility is common sense. Consider this: Even if God were to appear in person in a burning bush in my own backyard, I could have only a fallible, limited, partial human knowledge of who God is or what God was trying to communicate. Even Jesus—granting for the moment the full divinity of Jesus—could only have conveyed to his followers what could have been made comprehensible to Galilean peasants in the early decades of the first century. Since Jesus wrote nothing himself, all that we have of him are memories transmitted orally for decades before being written down. That happened at best an entire generation later, and often two or even three generations later. As a result, we have only an imperfectly human understanding of whatever partial truths even a fully divine Jesus might have communicated.	no
Algorithms	Is the Bubble sort algorithm ever the best choice?	yes_statement	the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" can be the "best" "choice" in certain scenarios.. there are cases where the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" is the optimal "choice".	https://realpython.com/sorting-algorithms-python/	Sorting Algorithms in Python – Real Python	Sorting is a basic building block that many other algorithms are built upon. It’s related to several exciting ideas that you’ll see throughout your programming career. Understanding how sorting algorithms in Python work behind the scenes is a fundamental step toward implementing correct and efficient algorithms that solve real-world problems. In this tutorial, you’ll learn: How different sorting algorithms in Python work and how they compare under different circumstances How Python’s built-in sort functionality works behind the scenes How different computer science concepts like recursion and divide and conquer apply to sorting How to measure the efficiency of an algorithm using Big O notation and Python’s timeit module By the end of this tutorial, you’ll understand sorting algorithms from both a theoretical and a practical standpoint. More importantly, you’ll have a deeper understanding of different algorithm design techniques that you can apply to other areas of your work. Let’s get started! The Importance of Sorting Algorithms in Python Sorting is one of the most thoroughly studied algorithms in computer science. There are dozens of different sorting implementations and applications that you can use to make your code more efficient and effective. You can use sorting to solve a wide range of problems: Searching: Searching for an item on a list works much faster if the list is sorted. Selection: Selecting items from a list based on their relationship to the rest of the items is easier with sorted data. For example, finding the kth-largest or smallest value, or finding the median value of the list, is much easier when the values are in ascending or descending order. Duplicates: Finding duplicate values on a list can be done very quickly when the list is sorted. Distribution: Analyzing the frequency distribution of items on a list is very fast if the list is sorted. For example, finding the element that appears most or least often is relatively straightforward with a sorted list. From commercial applications to academic research and everywhere in between, there are countless ways you can use sorting to save yourself time and effort. The Significance of Time Complexity This tutorial covers two different ways to measure the runtime of sorting algorithms: For a practical point of view, you’ll measure the runtime of the implementations using the timeit module. For a more theoretical perspective, you’ll measure the runtime complexity of the algorithms using Big O notation. Timing Your Code When comparing two sorting algorithms in Python, it’s always informative to look at how long each one takes to run. The specific time each algorithm takes will be partly determined by your hardware, but you can still use the proportional time between executions to help you decide which implementation is more time efficient. In this section, you’ll focus on a practical way to measure the actual time it takes to run to your sorting algorithms using the timeit module. For more information on the different ways you can time the execution of code in Python, check out Python Timer Functions: Three Ways to Monitor Your Code. Here’s a function you can use to time your algorithms: 1fromrandomimportrandint 2fromtimeitimportrepeat 3 4defrun_sorting_algorithm(algorithm,array): 5# Set up the context and prepare the call to the specified 6# algorithm using the supplied array. Only import the 7# algorithm function if it's not the built-in `sorted()`. 8setup_code=f"from __main__ import {algorithm}" \ 9ifalgorithm!="sorted"else""1011stmt=f"{algorithm}({array})"1213# Execute the code ten different times and return the time14# in seconds that each execution took15times=repeat(setup=setup_code,stmt=stmt,repeat=3,number=10)1617# Finally, display the name of the algorithm and the18# minimum time it took to run19print(f"Algorithm: {algorithm}. Minimum execution time: {min(times)}") In this example, run_sorting_algorithm() receives the name of the algorithm and the input array that needs to be sorted. Here’s a line-by-line explanation of how it works: Line 8 imports the name of the algorithm using the magic of Python’s f-strings. This is so that timeit.repeat() knows where to call the algorithm from. Note that this is only necessary for the custom implementations used in this tutorial. If the algorithm specified is the built-in sorted(), then nothing will be imported. Line 11 prepares the call to the algorithm with the supplied array. This is the statement that will be executed and timed. Line 15 calls timeit.repeat() with the setup code and the statement. This will call the specified sorting algorithm ten times, returning the number of seconds each one of these executions took. Line 19 identifies the shortest time returned and prints it along with the name of the algorithm. Note: A common misconception is that you should find the average time of each run of the algorithm instead of selecting the single shortest time. Time measurements are noisy because the system runs other processes concurrently. The shortest time is always the least noisy, making it the best representation of the algorithm’s true runtime. Here’s an example of how to use run_sorting_algorithm() to determine the time it takes to sort an array of ten thousand integer values using sorted(): 21ARRAY_LENGTH=100002223if__name__=="__main__":24# Generate an array of `ARRAY_LENGTH` items consisting25# of random integer values between 0 and 99926array=[randint(0,1000)foriinrange(ARRAY_LENGTH)]2728# Call the function using the name of the sorting algorithm29# and the array you just created30run_sorting_algorithm(algorithm="sorted",array=array) If you save the above code in a sorting.py file, then you can run it from the terminal and see its output: Measuring Efficiency With Big O Notation The specific time an algorithm takes to run isn’t enough information to get the full picture of its time complexity. To solve this problem, you can use Big O (pronounced “big oh”) notation. Big O is often used to compare different implementations and decide which one is the most efficient, skipping unnecessary details and focusing on what’s most important in the runtime of an algorithm. The time in seconds required to run different algorithms can be influenced by several unrelated factors, including processor speed or available memory. Big O, on the other hand, provides a platform to express runtime complexity in hardware-agnostic terms. With Big O, you express complexity in terms of how quickly your algorithm’s runtime grows relative to the size of the input, especially as the input grows arbitrarily large. Assuming that n is the size of the input to an algorithm, the Big O notation represents the relationship between n and the number of steps the algorithm takes to find a solution. Big O uses a capital letter “O” followed by this relationship inside parentheses. For example, O(n) represents algorithms that execute a number of steps proportional to the size of their input. Although this tutorial isn’t going to dive very deep into the details of Big O notation, here are five examples of the runtime complexity of different algorithms: Big O Complexity Description O(1) constant The runtime is constant regardless of the size of the input. Finding an element in a hash table is an example of an operation that can be performed in constant time. O(n) linear The runtime grows linearly with the size of the input. A function that checks a condition on every item of a list is an example of an O(n) algorithm. O(n2) quadratic The runtime is a quadratic function of the size of the input. A naive implementation of finding duplicate values in a list, in which each item has to be checked twice, is an example of a quadratic algorithm. O(2n) exponential The runtime grows exponentially with the size of the input. These algorithms are considered extremely inefficient. An example of an exponential algorithm is the three-coloring problem. O(log n) logarithmic The runtime grows linearly while the size of the input grows exponentially. For example, if it takes one second to process one thousand elements, then it will take two seconds to process ten thousand, three seconds to process one hundred thousand, and so on. Binary search is an example of a logarithmic runtime algorithm. This tutorial covers the Big O runtime complexity of each of the sorting algorithms discussed. It also includes a brief explanation of how to determine the runtime on each particular case. This will give you a better understanding of how to start using Big O to classify other algorithms. The Bubble Sort Algorithm in Python Bubble Sort is one of the most straightforward sorting algorithms. Its name comes from the way the algorithm works: With every new pass, the largest element in the list “bubbles up” toward its correct position. Bubble sort consists of making multiple passes through a list, comparing elements one by one, and swapping adjacent items that are out of order. Implementing Bubble Sort in Python Here’s an implementation of a bubble sort algorithm in Python: 1defbubble_sort(array): 2n=len(array) 3 4foriinrange(n): 5# Create a flag that will allow the function to 6# terminate early if there's nothing left to sort 7already_sorted=True 8 9# Start looking at each item of the list one by one,10# comparing it with its adjacent value. With each11# iteration, the portion of the array that you look at12# shrinks because the remaining items have already been13# sorted.14forjinrange(n-i-1):15ifarray[j]>array[j+1]:16# If the item you're looking at is greater than its17# adjacent value, then swap them18array[j],array[j+1]=array[j+1],array[j]1920# Since you had to swap two elements,21# set the `already_sorted` flag to `False` so the22# algorithm doesn't finish prematurely23already_sorted=False2425# If there were no swaps during the last iteration,26# the array is already sorted, and you can terminate27ifalready_sorted:28break2930returnarray Since this implementation sorts the array in ascending order, each step “bubbles” the largest element to the end of the array. This means that each iteration takes fewer steps than the previous iteration because a continuously larger portion of the array is sorted. The loops in lines 4 and 10 determine the way the algorithm runs through the list. Notice how j initially goes from the first element in the list to the element immediately before the last. During the second iteration, j runs until two items from the last, then three items from the last, and so on. At the end of each iteration, the end portion of the list will be sorted. As the loops progress, line 15 compares each element with its adjacent value, and line 18 swaps them if they are in the incorrect order. This ensures a sorted list at the end of the function. Note: The already_sorted flag in lines 13, 23, and 27 of the code above is an optimization to the algorithm, and it’s not required in a fully functional bubble sort implementation. However, it allows the function to save unnecessary steps if the list ends up wholly sorted before the loops have finished. As an exercise, you can remove the use of this flag and compare the runtimes of both implementations. To properly analyze how the algorithm works, consider a list with values [8, 2, 6, 4, 5]. Assume you’re using bubble_sort() from above. Here’s a figure illustrating what the array looks like at each iteration of the algorithm: The Bubble Sort Process Now take a step-by-step look at what’s happening with the array as the algorithm progresses: The code starts by comparing the first element, 8, with its adjacent element, 2. Since 8 > 2, the values are swapped, resulting in the following order: [2, 8, 6, 4, 5]. The algorithm then compares the second element, 8, with its adjacent element, 6. Since 8 > 6, the values are swapped, resulting in the following order: [2, 6, 8, 4, 5]. Next, the algorithm compares the third element, 8, with its adjacent element, 4. Since 8 > 4, it swaps the values as well, resulting in the following order: [2, 6, 4, 8, 5]. Finally, the algorithm compares the fourth element, 8, with its adjacent element, 5, and swaps them as well, resulting in [2, 6, 4, 5, 8]. At this point, the algorithm completed the first pass through the list (i = 0). Notice how the value 8 bubbled up from its initial location to its correct position at the end of the list. The second pass (i = 1) takes into account that the last element of the list is already positioned and focuses on the remaining four elements, [2, 6, 4, 5]. At the end of this pass, the value 6 finds its correct position. The third pass through the list positions the value 5, and so on until the list is sorted. Measuring Bubble Sort’s Big O Runtime Complexity Your implementation of bubble sort consists of two nested for loops in which the algorithm performs n - 1 comparisons, then n - 2 comparisons, and so on until the final comparison is done. This comes at a total of (n - 1) + (n - 2) + (n - 3) + … + 2 + 1 = n(n-1)/2 comparisons, which can also be written as ½n2 - ½n. You learned earlier that Big O focuses on how the runtime grows in comparison to the size of the input. That means that, in order to turn the above equation into the Big O complexity of the algorithm, you need to remove the constants because they don’t change with the input size. Doing so simplifies the notation to n2 - n. Since n2 grows much faster than n, this last term can be dropped as well, leaving bubble sort with an average- and worst-case complexity of O(n2). In cases where the algorithm receives an array that’s already sorted—and assuming the implementation includes the already_sorted flag optimization explained before—the runtime complexity will come down to a much better O(n) because the algorithm will not need to visit any element more than once. O(n), then, is the best-case runtime complexity of bubble sort. But keep in mind that best cases are an exception, and you should focus on the average case when comparing different algorithms. Timing Your Bubble Sort Implementation Using your run_sorting_algorithm() from earlier in this tutorial, here’s the time it takes for bubble sort to process an array with ten thousand items. Line 8 replaces the name of the algorithm and everything else stays the same: 1if__name__=="__main__": 2# Generate an array of `ARRAY_LENGTH` items consisting 3# of random integer values between 0 and 999 4array=[randint(0,1000)foriinrange(ARRAY_LENGTH)] 5 6# Call the function using the name of the sorting algorithm 7# and the array you just created 8run_sorting_algorithm(algorithm="bubble_sort",array=array) It took 73 seconds to sort the array with ten thousand elements. This represents the fastest execution out of the ten repetitions that run_sorting_algorithm() runs. Executing this script multiple times will produce similar results. Note: A single execution of bubble sort took 73 seconds, but the algorithm ran ten times using timeit.repeat(). This means that you should expect your code to take around 73 * 10 = 730 seconds to run, assuming you have similar hardware characteristics. Slower machines may take much longer to finish. Analyzing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Bubble Sort The main advantage of the bubble sort algorithm is its simplicity. It is straightforward to both implement and understand. This is probably the main reason why most computer science courses introduce the topic of sorting using bubble sort. As you saw before, the disadvantage of bubble sort is that it is slow, with a runtime complexity of O(n2). Unfortunately, this rules it out as a practical candidate for sorting large arrays. The Insertion Sort Algorithm in Python Like bubble sort, the insertion sort algorithm is straightforward to implement and understand. But unlike bubble sort, it builds the sorted list one element at a time by comparing each item with the rest of the list and inserting it into its correct position. This “insertion” procedure gives the algorithm its name. An excellent analogy to explain insertion sort is the way you would sort a deck of cards. Imagine that you’re holding a group of cards in your hands, and you want to arrange them in order. You’d start by comparing a single card step by step with the rest of the cards until you find its correct position. At that point, you’d insert the card in the correct location and start over with a new card, repeating until all the cards in your hand were sorted. Implementing Insertion Sort in Python The insertion sort algorithm works exactly like the example with the deck of cards. Here’s the implementation in Python: 1definsertion_sort(array): 2# Loop from the second element of the array until 3# the last element 4foriinrange(1,len(array)): 5# This is the element we want to position in its 6# correct place 7key_item=array[i] 8 9# Initialize the variable that will be used to10# find the correct position of the element referenced11# by `key_item`12j=i-11314# Run through the list of items (the left15# portion of the array) and find the correct position16# of the element referenced by `key_item`. Do this only17# if `key_item` is smaller than its adjacent values.18whilej>=0andarray[j]>key_item:19# Shift the value one position to the left20# and reposition j to point to the next element21# (from right to left)22array[j+1]=array[j]23j-=12425# When you finish shifting the elements, you can position26# `key_item` in its correct location27array[j+1]=key_item2829returnarray Unlike bubble sort, this implementation of insertion sort constructs the sorted list by pushing smaller items to the left. Let’s break down insertion_sort() line by line: Line 4 sets up the loop that determines the key_item that the function will position during each iteration. Notice that the loop starts with the second item on the list and goes all the way to the last item. Line 7 initializes key_item with the item that the function is trying to place. Line 12 initializes a variable that will consecutively point to each element to the left of key item. These are the elements that will be consecutively compared with key_item. Line 18 compares key_item with each value to its left using a while loop, shifting the elements to make room to place key_item. Line 27 positions key_item in its correct place after the algorithm shifts all the larger values to the right. Here’s a figure illustrating the different iterations of the algorithm when sorting the array [8, 2, 6, 4, 5]: The Insertion Sort Process Now here’s a summary of the steps of the algorithm when sorting the array: The algorithm starts with key_item = 2 and goes through the subarray to its left to find the correct position for it. In this case, the subarray is [8]. Since 2 < 8, the algorithm shifts element 8 one position to its right. The resultant array at this point is [8, 8, 6, 4, 5]. Since there are no more elements in the subarray, the key_item is now placed in its new position, and the final array is [2, 8, 6, 4, 5]. The second pass starts with key_item = 6 and goes through the subarray located to its left, in this case [2, 8]. Since 6 < 8, the algorithm shifts 8 to its right. The resultant array at this point is [2, 8, 8, 4, 5]. Since 6 > 2, the algorithm doesn’t need to keep going through the subarray, so it positions key_item and finishes the second pass. At this time, the resultant array is [2, 6, 8, 4, 5]. The third pass through the list puts the element 4 in its correct position, and the fourth pass places element 5 in the correct spot, leaving the array sorted. Measuring Insertion Sort’s Big O Runtime Complexity Similar to your bubble sort implementation, the insertion sort algorithm has a couple of nested loops that go over the list. The inner loop is pretty efficient because it only goes through the list until it finds the correct position of an element. That said, the algorithm still has an O(n2) runtime complexity on the average case. The worst case happens when the supplied array is sorted in reverse order. In this case, the inner loop has to execute every comparison to put every element in its correct position. This still gives you an O(n2) runtime complexity. The best case happens when the supplied array is already sorted. Here, the inner loop is never executed, resulting in an O(n) runtime complexity, just like the best case of bubble sort. Although bubble sort and insertion sort have the same Big O runtime complexity, in practice, insertion sort is considerably more efficient than bubble sort. If you look at the implementation of both algorithms, then you can see how insertion sort has to make fewer comparisons to sort the list. Timing Your Insertion Sort Implementation To prove the assertion that insertion sort is more efficient than bubble sort, you can time the insertion sort algorithm and compare it with the results of bubble sort. To do this, you just need to replace the call to run_sorting_algorithm() with the name of your insertion sort implementation: 1if__name__=="__main__": 2# Generate an array of `ARRAY_LENGTH` items consisting 3# of random integer values between 0 and 999 4array=[randint(0,1000)foriinrange(ARRAY_LENGTH)] 5 6# Call the function using the name of the sorting algorithm 7# and the array we just created 8run_sorting_algorithm(algorithm="insertion_sort",array=array) Notice how the insertion sort implementation took around 17 fewer seconds than the bubble sort implementation to sort the same array. Even though they’re both O(n2) algorithms, insertion sort is more efficient. Analyzing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Insertion Sort Just like bubble sort, the insertion sort algorithm is very uncomplicated to implement. Even though insertion sort is an O(n2) algorithm, it’s also much more efficient in practice than other quadratic implementations such as bubble sort. There are more powerful algorithms, including merge sort and Quicksort, but these implementations are recursive and usually fail to beat insertion sort when working on small lists. Some Quicksort implementations even use insertion sort internally if the list is small enough to provide a faster overall implementation. Timsort also uses insertion sort internally to sort small portions of the input array. That said, insertion sort is not practical for large arrays, opening the door to algorithms that can scale in more efficient ways. The Merge Sort Algorithm in Python Merge sort is a very efficient sorting algorithm. It’s based on the divide-and-conquer approach, a powerful algorithmic technique used to solve complex problems. To properly understand divide and conquer, you should first understand the concept of recursion. Recursion involves breaking a problem down into smaller subproblems until they’re small enough to manage. In programming, recursion is usually expressed by a function calling itself. The original input is broken into several parts, each one representing a subproblem that’s similar to the original but simpler. Each subproblem is solved recursively. The solutions to all the subproblems are combined into a single overall solution. In the case of merge sort, the divide-and-conquer approach divides the set of input values into two equal-sized parts, sorts each half recursively, and finally merges these two sorted parts into a single sorted list. Implementing Merge Sort in Python The implementation of the merge sort algorithm needs two different pieces: A function that recursively splits the input in half A function that merges both halves, producing a sorted array Here’s the code to merge two different arrays: 1defmerge(left,right): 2# If the first array is empty, then nothing needs 3# to be merged, and you can return the second array as the result 4iflen(left)==0: 5returnright 6 7# If the second array is empty, then nothing needs 8# to be merged, and you can return the first array as the result 9iflen(right)==0:10returnleft1112result=[]13index_left=index_right=01415# Now go through both arrays until all the elements16# make it into the resultant array17whilelen(result)<len(left)+len(right):18# The elements need to be sorted to add them to the19# resultant array, so you need to decide whether to get20# the next element from the first or the second array21ifleft[index_left]<=right[index_right]:22result.append(left[index_left])23index_left+=124else:25result.append(right[index_right])26index_right+=12728# If you reach the end of either array, then you can29# add the remaining elements from the other array to30# the result and break the loop31ifindex_right==len(right):32result+=left[index_left:]33break3435ifindex_left==len(left):36result+=right[index_right:]37break3839returnresult merge() receives two different sorted arrays that need to be merged together. The process to accomplish this is straightforward: Lines 4 and 9 check whether either of the arrays is empty. If one of them is, then there’s nothing to merge, so the function returns the other array. Line 17 starts a while loop that ends whenever the result contains all the elements from both of the supplied arrays. The goal is to look into both arrays and combine their items to produce a sorted list. Line 21 compares the elements at the head of both arrays, selects the smaller value, and appends it to the end of the resultant array. Lines 31 and 35 append any remaining items to the result if all the elements from either of the arrays were already used. With the above function in place, the only missing piece is a function that recursively splits the input array in half and uses merge() to produce the final result: 41defmerge_sort(array):42# If the input array contains fewer than two elements,43# then return it as the result of the function44iflen(array)<2:45returnarray4647midpoint=len(array)//24849# Sort the array by recursively splitting the input50# into two equal halves, sorting each half and merging them51# together into the final result52returnmerge(53left=merge_sort(array[:midpoint]),54right=merge_sort(array[midpoint:])) Here’s a quick summary of the code: Line 44 acts as the stopping condition for the recursion. If the input array contains fewer than two elements, then the function returns the array. Notice that this condition could be triggered by receiving either a single item or an empty array. In both cases, there’s nothing left to sort, so the function should return. Line 47 computes the middle point of the array. Line 52 calls merge(), passing both sorted halves as the arrays. Notice how this function calls itself recursively, halving the array each time. Each iteration deals with an ever-shrinking array until fewer than two elements remain, meaning there’s nothing left to sort. At this point, merge() takes over, merging the two halves and producing a sorted list. Take a look at a representation of the steps that merge sort will take to sort the array [8, 2, 6, 4, 5]: The Merge Sort Process The figure uses yellow arrows to represent halving the array at each recursion level. The green arrows represent merging each subarray back together. The steps can be summarized as follows: The first call to merge_sort() with [8, 2, 6, 4, 5] defines midpoint as 2. The midpoint is used to halve the input array into array[:2] and array[2:], producing [8, 2] and [6, 4, 5], respectively. merge_sort() is then recursively called for each half to sort them separately. The call to merge_sort() with [8, 2] produces [8] and [2]. The process repeats for each of these halves. The call to merge_sort() with [8] returns [8] since that’s the only element. The same happens with the call to merge_sort() with [2]. At this point, the function starts merging the subarrays back together using merge(), starting with [8] and [2] as input arrays, producing [2, 8] as the result. On the other side, [6, 4, 5] is recursively broken down and merged using the same procedure, producing [4, 5, 6] as the result. In the final step, [2, 8] and [4, 5, 6] are merged back together with merge(), producing the final result: [2, 4, 5, 6, 8]. Measuring Merge Sort’s Big O Complexity To analyze the complexity of merge sort, you can look at its two steps separately: merge() has a linear runtime. It receives two arrays whose combined length is at most n (the length of the original input array), and it combines both arrays by looking at each element at most once. This leads to a runtime complexity of O(n). The second step splits the input array recursively and calls merge() for each half. Since the array is halved until a single element remains, the total number of halving operations performed by this function is log2n. Since merge() is called for each half, we get a total runtime of O(n log2n). Interestingly, O(n log2n) is the best possible worst-case runtime that can be achieved by a sorting algorithm. Timing Your Merge Sort Implementation To compare the speed of merge sort with the previous two implementations, you can use the same mechanism as before and replace the name of the algorithm in line 8: 1if__name__=="__main__": 2# Generate an array of `ARRAY_LENGTH` items consisting 3# of random integer values between 0 and 999 4array=[randint(0,1000)foriinrange(ARRAY_LENGTH)] 5 6# Call the function using the name of the sorting algorithm 7# and the array you just created 8run_sorting_algorithm(algorithm="merge_sort",array=array) Compared to bubble sort and insertion sort, the merge sort implementation is extremely fast, sorting the ten-thousand-element array in less than a second! Analyzing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Merge Sort Thanks to its runtime complexity of O(n log2n), merge sort is a very efficient algorithm that scales well as the size of the input array grows. It’s also straightforward to parallelize because it breaks the input array into chunks that can be distributed and processed in parallel if necessary. That said, for small lists, the time cost of the recursion allows algorithms such as bubble sort and insertion sort to be faster. For example, running an experiment with a list of ten elements results in the following times: Another drawback of merge sort is that it creates copies of the array when calling itself recursively. It also creates a new list inside merge() to sort and return both input halves. This makes merge sort use much more memory than bubble sort and insertion sort, which are both able to sort the list in place. Due to this limitation, you may not want to use merge sort to sort large lists in memory-constrained hardware. The Quicksort Algorithm in Python Just like merge sort, the Quicksort algorithm applies the divide-and-conquer principle to divide the input array into two lists, the first with small items and the second with large items. The algorithm then sorts both lists recursively until the resultant list is completely sorted. Dividing the input list is referred to as partitioning the list. Quicksort first selects a pivot element and partitions the list around the pivot, putting every smaller element into a low array and every larger element into a high array. Putting every element from the low list to the left of the pivot and every element from the high list to the right positions the pivot precisely where it needs to be in the final sorted list. This means that the function can now recursively apply the same procedure to low and then high until the entire list is sorted. Implementing Quicksort in Python Here’s a fairly compact implementation of Quicksort: 1fromrandomimportrandint 2 3defquicksort(array): 4# If the input array contains fewer than two elements, 5# then return it as the result of the function 6iflen(array)<2: 7returnarray 8 9low,same,high=[],[],[]1011# Select your `pivot` element randomly12pivot=array[randint(0,len(array)-1)]1314foriteminarray:15# Elements that are smaller than the `pivot` go to16# the `low` list. Elements that are larger than17# `pivot` go to the `high` list. Elements that are18# equal to `pivot` go to the `same` list.19ifitem<pivot:20low.append(item)21elifitem==pivot:22same.append(item)23elifitem>pivot:24high.append(item)2526# The final result combines the sorted `low` list27# with the `same` list and the sorted `high` list28returnquicksort(low)+same+quicksort(high) Here’s a summary of the code: Line 6 stops the recursive function if the array contains fewer than two elements. Line 12 selects the pivot element randomly from the list and proceeds to partition the list. Lines 19 and 20 put every element that’s smaller than pivot into the list called low. Lines 21 and 22 put every element that’s equal to pivot into the list called same. Lines 23 and 24 put every element that’s larger than pivot into the list called high. Line 28 recursively sorts the low and high lists and combines them along with the contents of the same list. Here’s an illustration of the steps that Quicksort takes to sort the array [8, 2, 6, 4, 5]: The Quicksort Process The yellow lines represent the partitioning of the array into three lists: low, same, and high. The green lines represent sorting and putting these lists back together. Here’s a brief explanation of the steps: The pivot element is selected randomly. In this case, pivot is 6. The first pass partitions the input array so that low contains [2, 4, 5], same contains [6], and high contains [8]. quicksort() is then called recursively with low as its input. This selects a random pivot and breaks the array into [2] as low, [4] as same, and [5] as high. The process continues, but at this point, both low and high have fewer than two items each. This ends the recursion, and the function puts the array back together. Adding the sorted low and high to either side of the same list produces [2, 4, 5]. On the other side, the high list containing [8] has fewer than two elements, so the algorithm returns the sorted low array, which is now [2, 4, 5]. Merging it with same ([6]) and high ([8]) produces the final sorted list. Selecting the pivot Element Why does the implementation above select the pivot element randomly? Wouldn’t it be the same to consistently select the first or last element of the input list? Because of how the Quicksort algorithm works, the number of recursion levels depends on where pivot ends up in each partition. In the best-case scenario, the algorithm consistently picks the median element as the pivot. That would make each generated subproblem exactly half the size of the previous problem, leading to at most log2n levels. On the other hand, if the algorithm consistently picks either the smallest or largest element of the array as the pivot, then the generated partitions will be as unequal as possible, leading to n-1 recursion levels. That would be the worst-case scenario for Quicksort. As you can see, Quicksort’s efficiency often depends on the pivot selection. If the input array is unsorted, then using the first or last element as the pivot will work the same as a random element. But if the input array is sorted or almost sorted, using the first or last element as the pivot could lead to a worst-case scenario. Selecting the pivot at random makes it more likely Quicksort will select a value closer to the median and finish faster. Another option for selecting the pivot is to find the median value of the array and force the algorithm to use it as the pivot. This can be done in O(n) time. Although the process is little bit more involved, using the median value as the pivot for Quicksort guarantees you will have the best-case Big O scenario. Measuring Quicksort’s Big O Complexity With Quicksort, the input list is partitioned in linear time, O(n), and this process repeats recursively an average of log2n times. This leads to a final complexity of O(n log2n). That said, remember the discussion about how the selection of the pivot affects the runtime of the algorithm. The O(n) best-case scenario happens when the selected pivot is close to the median of the array, and an O(n2) scenario happens when the pivot is the smallest or largest value of the array. Theoretically, if the algorithm focuses first on finding the median value and then uses it as the pivot element, then the worst-case complexity will come down to O(n log2n). The median of an array can be found in linear time, and using it as the pivot guarantees the Quicksort portion of the code will perform in O(n log2n). By using the median value as the pivot, you end up with a final runtime of O(n) + O(n log2n). You can simplify this down to O(n log2n) because the logarithmic portion grows much faster than the linear portion. Note: Although achieving O(n log2n) is possible in Quicksort’s worst-case scenario, this approach is seldom used in practice. Lists have to be quite large for the implementation to be faster than a simple randomized selection of the pivot. Randomly selecting the pivot makes the worst case very unlikely. That makes random pivot selection good enough for most implementations of the algorithm. Timing Your Quicksort Implementation By now, you’re familiar with the process for timing the runtime of the algorithm. Just change the name of the algorithm in line 8: 1if__name__=="__main__": 2# Generate an array of `ARRAY_LENGTH` items consisting 3# of random integer values between 0 and 999 4array=[randint(0,1000)foriinrange(ARRAY_LENGTH)] 5 6# Call the function using the name of the sorting algorithm 7# and the array you just created 8run_sorting_algorithm(algorithm="quicksort",array=array) Not only does Quicksort finish in less than one second, but it’s also much faster than merge sort (0.11 seconds versus 0.61 seconds). Increasing the number of elements specified by ARRAY_LENGTH from 10,000 to 1,000,000 and running the script again ends up with merge sort finishing in 97 seconds, whereas Quicksort sorts the list in a mere 10 seconds. Analyzing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Quicksort True to its name, Quicksort is very fast. Although its worst-case scenario is theoretically O(n2), in practice, a good implementation of Quicksort beats most other sorting implementations. Also, just like merge sort, Quicksort is straightforward to parallelize. One of Quicksort’s main disadvantages is the lack of a guarantee that it will achieve the average runtime complexity. Although worst-case scenarios are rare, certain applications can’t afford to risk poor performance, so they opt for algorithms that stay within O(n log2n) regardless of the input. Just like merge sort, Quicksort also trades off memory space for speed. This may become a limitation for sorting larger lists. A quick experiment sorting a list of ten elements leads to the following results: The Timsort Algorithm in Python The Timsort algorithm is considered a hybrid sorting algorithm because it employs a best-of-both-worlds combination of insertion sort and merge sort. Timsort is near and dear to the Python community because it was created by Tim Peters in 2002 to be used as the standard sorting algorithm of the Python language. The main characteristic of Timsort is that it takes advantage of already-sorted elements that exist in most real-world datasets. These are called natural runs. The algorithm then iterates over the list, collecting the elements into runs and merging them into a single sorted list. Implementing Timsort in Python In this section, you’ll create a barebones Python implementation that illustrates all the pieces of the Timsort algorithm. If you’re interested, you can also check out the original C implementation of Timsort. The first step in implementing Timsort is modifying the implementation of insertion_sort() from before: 1definsertion_sort(array,left=0,right=None): 2ifrightisNone: 3right=len(array)-1 4 5# Loop from the element indicated by 6# `left` until the element indicated by `right` 7foriinrange(left+1,right+1): 8# This is the element we want to position in its 9# correct place10key_item=array[i]1112# Initialize the variable that will be used to13# find the correct position of the element referenced14# by `key_item`15j=i-11617# Run through the list of items (the left18# portion of the array) and find the correct position19# of the element referenced by `key_item`. Do this only20# if the `key_item` is smaller than its adjacent values.21whilej>=leftandarray[j]>key_item:22# Shift the value one position to the left23# and reposition `j` to point to the next element24# (from right to left)25array[j+1]=array[j]26j-=12728# When you finish shifting the elements, position29# the `key_item` in its correct location30array[j+1]=key_item3132returnarray This modified implementation adds a couple of parameters, left and right, that indicate which portion of the array should be sorted. This allows the Timsort algorithm to sort a portion of the array in place. Modifying the function instead of creating a new one means that it can be reused for both insertion sort and Timsort. Now take a look at the implementation of Timsort: 1deftimsort(array): 2min_run=32 3n=len(array) 4 5# Start by slicing and sorting small portions of the 6# input array. The size of these slices is defined by 7# your `min_run` size. 8foriinrange(0,n,min_run): 9insertion_sort(array,i,min((i+min_run-1),n-1))1011# Now you can start merging the sorted slices.12# Start from `min_run`, doubling the size on13# each iteration until you surpass the length of14# the array.15size=min_run16whilesize<n:17# Determine the arrays that will18# be merged together19forstartinrange(0,n,size2):20# Compute the `midpoint` (where the first array ends21# and the second starts) and the `endpoint` (where22# the second array ends)23midpoint=start+size-124end=min((start+size2-1),(n-1))2526# Merge the two subarrays.27# The `left` array should go from `start` to28# `midpoint + 1`, while the `right` array should29# go from `midpoint + 1` to `end + 1`.30merged_array=merge(31left=array[start:midpoint+1],32right=array[midpoint+1:end+1])3334# Finally, put the merged array back into35# your array36array[start:start+len(merged_array)]=merged_array3738# Each iteration should double the size of your arrays39size*=24041returnarray Although the implementation is a bit more complex than the previous algorithms, we can summarize it quickly in the following way: Lines 8 and 9 create small slices, or runs, of the array and sort them using insertion sort. You learned previously that insertion sort is speedy on small lists, and Timsort takes advantage of this. Timsort uses the newly introduced left and right parameters in insertion_sort() to sort the list in place without having to create new arrays like merge sort and Quicksort do. Line 16 merges these smaller runs, with each run being of size 32 initially. With each iteration, the size of the runs is doubled, and the algorithm continues merging these larger runs until a single sorted run remains. Notice how, unlike merge sort, Timsort merges subarrays that were previously sorted. Doing so decreases the total number of comparisons required to produce a sorted list. This advantage over merge sort will become apparent when running experiments using different arrays. Finally, line 2 defines min_run = 32. There are two reasons for using 32 as the value here: Sorting small arrays using insertion sort is very fast, and min_run has a small value to take advantage of this characteristic. Initializing min_run with a value that’s too large will defeat the purpose of using insertion sort and will make the algorithm slower. Merging two balanced lists is much more efficient than merging lists of disproportionate size. Picking a min_run value that’s a power of two ensures better performance when merging all the different runs that the algorithm creates. Combining both conditions above offers several options for min_run. The implementation in this tutorial uses min_run = 32 as one of the possibilities. Note: In practice, Timsort does something a little more complicated to compute min_run. It picks a value between 32 and 64 inclusive, such that the length of the list divided by min_run is exactly a power of 2. If that’s not possible, it chooses a value that’s close to, but strictly less than, a power of 2. Measuring Timsort’s Big O Complexity On average, the complexity of Timsort is O(n log2n), just like merge sort and Quicksort. The logarithmic part comes from doubling the size of the run to perform each linear merge operation. However, Timsort performs exceptionally well on already-sorted or close-to-sorted lists, leading to a best-case scenario of O(n). In this case, Timsort clearly beats merge sort and matches the best-case scenario for Quicksort. But the worst case for Timsort is also O(n log2n), which surpasses Quicksort’s O(n2). Timing Your Timsort Implementation You can use run_sorting_algorithm() to see how Timsort performs sorting the ten-thousand-element array: 1if__name__=="__main__": 2# Generate an array of `ARRAY_LENGTH` items consisting 3# of random integer values between 0 and 999 4array=[randint(0,1000)foriinrange(ARRAY_LENGTH)] 5 6# Call the function using the name of the sorting algorithm 7# and the array you just created 8run_sorting_algorithm(algorithm="timsort",array=array) At 0.51 seconds, this Timsort implementation is a full 0.1 seconds, or 17 percent, faster than merge sort, though it doesn’t match the 0.11 of Quicksort. It’s also a ridiculous 11,000 percent faster than insertion sort! Now try to sort an already-sorted list using these four algorithms and see what happens. You can modify your __main__ section as follows: This time, Timsort comes in at a whopping thirty-seven percent faster than merge sort and five percent faster than Quicksort, flexing its ability to take advantage of the already-sorted runs. Notice how Timsort benefits from two algorithms that are much slower when used by themselves. The genius of Timsort is in combining these algorithms and playing to their strengths to achieve impressive results. Analyzing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Timsort The main disadvantage of Timsort is its complexity. Despite implementing a very simplified version of the original algorithm, it still requires much more code because it relies on both insertion_sort() and merge(). One of Timsort’s advantages is its ability to predictably perform in O(n log2n) regardless of the structure of the input array. Contrast that with Quicksort, which can degrade down to O(n2). Timsort is also very fast for small arrays because the algorithm turns into a single insertion sort. For real-world usage, in which it’s common to sort arrays that already have some preexisting order, Timsort is a great option. Its adaptability makes it an excellent choice for sorting arrays of any length. Conclusion Sorting is an essential tool in any Pythonista’s toolkit. With knowledge of the different sorting algorithms in Python and how to maximize their potential, you’re ready to implement faster, more efficient apps and programs! In this tutorial, you learned: How Python’s built-in sort() works behind the scenes What Big O notation is and how to use it to compare the efficiency of different algorithms How to measure the actual time spent running your code How to implement five different sorting algorithms in Python What the pros and cons are of using different algorithms You also learned about different techniques such as recursion, divide and conquer, and randomization. These are fundamental building blocks for solving a long list of different algorithms, and they’ll come up again and again as you keep researching. Take the code presented in this tutorial, create new experiments, and explore these algorithms further. Better yet, try implementing other sorting algorithms in Python. The list is vast, but selection sort, heapsort, and tree sort are three excellent options to start with.	But keep in mind that best cases are an exception, and you should focus on the average case when comparing different algorithms. Timing Your Bubble Sort Implementation Using your run_sorting_algorithm() from earlier in this tutorial, here’s the time it takes for bubble sort to process an array with ten thousand items. Line 8 replaces the name of the algorithm and everything else stays the same: 1if__name__=="__main__": 2# Generate an array of `ARRAY_LENGTH` items consisting 3# of random integer values between 0 and 999 4array=[randint(0,1000)foriinrange(ARRAY_LENGTH)] 5 6# Call the function using the name of the sorting algorithm 7# and the array you just created 8run_sorting_algorithm(algorithm="bubble_sort",array=array) It took 73 seconds to sort the array with ten thousand elements. This represents the fastest execution out of the ten repetitions that run_sorting_algorithm() runs. Executing this script multiple times will produce similar results. Note: A single execution of bubble sort took 73 seconds, but the algorithm ran ten times using timeit.repeat(). This means that you should expect your code to take around 73 * 10 = 730 seconds to run, assuming you have similar hardware characteristics. Slower machines may take much longer to finish. Analyzing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Bubble Sort The main advantage of the bubble sort algorithm is its simplicity. It is straightforward to both implement and understand. This is probably the main reason why most computer science courses introduce the topic of sorting using bubble sort. As you saw before, the disadvantage of bubble sort is that it is slow, with a runtime complexity of O(n2). Unfortunately, this rules it out as a practical candidate for sorting large arrays. The Insertion Sort Algorithm in Python Like bubble sort, the insertion sort algorithm is straightforward to implement and understand. But unlike bubble sort, it builds the sorted list one element at a time by comparing each item with the rest of the list and inserting it into its correct position.	no
Algorithms	Is the Bubble sort algorithm ever the best choice?	yes_statement	the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" can be the "best" "choice" in certain scenarios.. there are cases where the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" is the optimal "choice".	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_efficiency	Algorithmic efficiency - Wikipedia	In computer science, algorithmic efficiency is a property of an algorithm which relates to the amount of computational resources used by the algorithm. An algorithm must be analyzed to determine its resource usage, and the efficiency of an algorithm can be measured based on the usage of different resources. Algorithmic efficiency can be thought of as analogous to engineering productivity for a repeating or continuous process. For maximum efficiency it is desirable to minimize resource usage. However, different resources such as time and space complexity cannot be compared directly, so which of two algorithms is considered to be more efficient often depends on which measure of efficiency is considered most important. For example, bubble sort and timsort are both algorithms to sort a list of items from smallest to largest. Bubble sort sorts the list in time proportional to the number of elements squared (O(n2){\textstyle O(n^{2})}, see Big O notation), but only requires a small amount of extra memory which is constant with respect to the length of the list (O(1){\textstyle O(1)}). Timsort sorts the list in time linearithmic (proportional to a quantity times its logarithm) in the list's length (O(nlog⁡n){\textstyle O(n\log n)}), but has a space requirement linear in the length of the list (O(n){\textstyle O(n)}). If large lists must be sorted at high speed for a given application, timsort is a better choice; however, if minimizing the memory footprint of the sorting is more important, bubble sort is a better choice. The importance of efficiency with respect to time was emphasised by Ada Lovelace in 1843 as applied to Charles Babbage's mechanical analytical engine: "In almost every computation a great variety of arrangements for the succession of the processes is possible, and various considerations must influence the selections amongst them for the purposes of a calculating engine. One essential object is to choose that arrangement which shall tend to reduce to a minimum the time necessary for completing the calculation"[1] Modern computers are significantly faster than the early computers, and have a much larger amount of memory available (Gigabytes instead of Kilobytes). Nevertheless, Donald Knuth emphasised that efficiency is still an important consideration: "In established engineering disciplines a 12% improvement, easily obtained, is never considered marginal and I believe the same viewpoint should prevail in software engineering"[2] An algorithm is considered efficient if its resource consumption, also known as computational cost, is at or below some acceptable level. Roughly speaking, 'acceptable' means: it will run in a reasonable amount of time or space on an available computer, typically as a function of the size of the input. Since the 1950s computers have seen dramatic increases in both the available computational power and in the available amount of memory, so current acceptable levels would have been unacceptable even 10 years ago. In fact, thanks to the approximate doubling of computer power every 2 years, tasks that are acceptably efficient on modern smartphones and embedded systems may have been unacceptably inefficient for industrial servers 10 years ago. Computer manufacturers frequently bring out new models, often with higher performance. Software costs can be quite high, so in some cases the simplest and cheapest way of getting higher performance might be to just buy a faster computer, provided it is compatible with an existing computer. There are many ways in which the resources used by an algorithm can be measured: the two most common measures are speed and memory usage; other measures could include transmission speed, temporary disk usage, long-term disk usage, power consumption, total cost of ownership, response time to external stimuli, etc. Many of these measures depend on the size of the input to the algorithm, i.e. the amount of data to be processed. They might also depend on the way in which the data is arranged; for example, some sorting algorithms perform poorly on data which is already sorted, or which is sorted in reverse order. In practice, there are other factors which can affect the efficiency of an algorithm, such as requirements for accuracy and/or reliability. As detailed below, the way in which an algorithm is implemented can also have a significant effect on actual efficiency, though many aspects of this relate to optimization issues. In the theoretical analysis of algorithms, the normal practice is to estimate their complexity in the asymptotic sense. The most commonly used notation to describe resource consumption or "complexity" is Donald Knuth's Big O notation, representing the complexity of an algorithm as a function of the size of the input n{\textstyle n}. Big O notation is an asymptotic measure of function complexity, where f(n)=O(g(n)){\textstyle f(n)=O{\bigl (}g(n){\bigr )}} roughly means the time requirement for an algorithm is proportional to g(n){\displaystyle g(n)}, omitting lower-order terms that contribute less than g(n){\displaystyle g(n)} to the growth of the function as n{\textstyle n}grows arbitrarily large. This estimate may be misleading when n{\textstyle n} is small, but is generally sufficiently accurate when n{\textstyle n} is large as the notation is asymptotic. For example, bubble sort may be faster than merge sort when only a few items are to be sorted; however either implementation is likely to meet performance requirements for a small list. Typically, programmers are interested in algorithms that scale efficiently to large input sizes, and merge sort is preferred over bubble sort for lists of length encountered in most data-intensive programs. Some examples of Big O notation applied to algorithms' asymptotic time complexity include: For new versions of software or to provide comparisons with competitive systems, benchmarks are sometimes used, which assist with gauging an algorithms relative performance. If a new sort algorithm is produced, for example, it can be compared with its predecessors to ensure that at least it is efficient as before with known data, taking into consideration any functional improvements. Benchmarks can be used by customers when comparing various products from alternative suppliers to estimate which product will best suit their specific requirements in terms of functionality and performance. For example, in the mainframe world certain proprietary sort products from independent software companies such as Syncsort compete with products from the major suppliers such as IBM for speed. Some benchmarks provide opportunities for producing an analysis comparing the relative speed of various compiled and interpreted languages for example[3][4] and The Computer Language Benchmarks Game compares the performance of implementations of typical programming problems in several programming languages. Even creating "do it yourself" benchmarks can demonstrate the relative performance of different programming languages, using a variety of user specified criteria. This is quite simple, as a "Nine language performance roundup" by Christopher W. Cowell-Shah demonstrates by example.[5] Another problem which can arise in programming is that processors compatible with the same instruction set (such as x86-64 or ARM) may implement an instruction in different ways, so that instructions which are relatively fast on some models may be relatively slow on other models. This often presents challenges to optimizing compilers, which must have a great amount of knowledge of the specific CPU and other hardware available on the compilation target to best optimize a program for performance. In the extreme case, a compiler may be forced to emulate instructions not supported on a compilation target platform, forcing it to generate code or link an external library call to produce a result that is otherwise incomputable on that platform, even if it is natively supported and more efficient in hardware on other platforms. This is often the case in embedded systems with respect to floating-point arithmetic, where small and low-powermicrocontrollers often lack hardware support for floating-point arithmetic and thus require computationally expensive software routines to produce floating point calculations. Measures are normally expressed as a function of the size of the input n{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {n}}. The two most common measures are: Time: how long does the algorithm take to complete? Space: how much working memory (typically RAM) is needed by the algorithm? This has two aspects: the amount of memory needed by the code (auxiliary space usage), and the amount of memory needed for the data on which the code operates (intrinsic space usage). For computers whose power is supplied by a battery (e.g. laptops and smartphones), or for very long/large calculations (e.g. supercomputers), other measures of interest are: Direct power consumption: power needed directly to operate the computer. Less common measures of computational efficiency may also be relevant in some cases: Transmission size: bandwidth could be a limiting factor. Data compression can be used to reduce the amount of data to be transmitted. Displaying a picture or image (e.g. Google logo) can result in transmitting tens of thousands of bytes (48K in this case) compared with transmitting six bytes for the text "Google". This is important for I/O bound computing tasks. External space: space needed on a disk or other external memory device; this could be for temporary storage while the algorithm is being carried out, or it could be long-term storage needed to be carried forward for future reference. Analyze the algorithm, typically using time complexity analysis to get an estimate of the running time as a function of the size of the input data. The result is normally expressed using Big O notation. This is useful for comparing algorithms, especially when a large amount of data is to be processed. More detailed estimates are needed to compare algorithm performance when the amount of data is small, although this is likely to be of less importance. Algorithms which include parallel processing may be more difficult to analyze. Use a benchmark to time the use of an algorithm. Many programming languages have an available function which provides CPU time usage. For long-running algorithms the elapsed time could also be of interest. Results should generally be averaged over several tests. Run-based profiling can be very sensitive to hardware configuration and the possibility of other programs or tasks running at the same time in a multi-processing and multi-programming environment. This sort of test also depends heavily on the selection of a particular programming language, compiler, and compiler options, so algorithms being compared must all be implemented under the same conditions. Early electronic computers, and early home computers, had relatively small amounts of working memory. For example, the 1949 Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) had a maximum working memory of 1024 17-bit words, while the 1980 Sinclair ZX80 came initially with 1024 8-bit bytes of working memory. In the late 2010s, it is typical for personal computers to have between 4 and 32 GB of RAM, an increase of over 300 million times as much memory. Current computers can have relatively large amounts of memory (possibly Gigabytes), so having to squeeze an algorithm into a confined amount of memory is much less of a problem than it used to be. But the presence of four different categories of memory can be significant: Processor registers, the fastest of computer memory technologies with the least amount of storage space. Most direct computation on modern computers occurs with source and destination operands in registers before being updated to the cache, main memory and virtual memory if needed. On a processor core, there are typically on the order of hundreds of bytes or fewer of register availability, although a register file may contain more physical registers than architectural registers defined in the instruction set architecture. Virtual memory is most often implemented in terms of secondary storage such as a hard disk, and is an extension to the memory hierarchy that has much larger storage space but much larger latency, typically around 1000 times slower than a cache miss for a value in RAM.[8] While originally motivated to create the impression of higher amounts of memory being available than were truly available, virtual memory is more important in contemporary usage for its time-space tradeoff and enabling the usage of virtual machines.[8] Cache misses from main memory are called page faults, and incur huge performance penalties on programs. An algorithm whose memory needs will fit in cache memory will be much faster than an algorithm which fits in main memory, which in turn will be very much faster than an algorithm which has to resort to virtual memory. Because of this, cache replacement policies are extremely important to high-performance computing, as are cache-aware programming and data alignment. To further complicate the issue, some systems have up to three levels of cache memory, with varying effective speeds. Different systems will have different amounts of these various types of memory, so the effect of algorithm memory needs can vary greatly from one system to another. In the early days of electronic computing, if an algorithm and its data would not fit in main memory then the algorithm could not be used. Nowadays the use of virtual memory appears to provide much memory, but at the cost of performance. If an algorithm and its data will fit in cache memory, then very high speed can be obtained; in this case minimizing space will also help minimize time. This is called the principle of locality, and can be subdivided into locality of reference, spatial locality and temporal locality. An algorithm which will not fit completely in cache memory but which exhibits locality of reference may perform reasonably well. In ubiquitous systems, halving the instructions executed can double the battery life and big data sets bring big opportunities for better software and algorithms: Reducing the number of operations from N × N to N × log(N) has a dramatic effect when N is large ... for N = 30 billion, this change is as good as 50 years of technology improvements. Software author Adam N. Rosenburg in his blog "The failure of the Digital computer", has described the current state of programming as nearing the "Software event horizon", (alluding to the fictitious "shoe event horizon" described by Douglas Adams in his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book[10]). He estimates there has been a 70 dB factor loss of productivity or "99.99999 percent, of its ability to deliver the goods", since the 1980s—"When Arthur C. Clarke compared the reality of computing in 2001 to the computer HAL 9000 in his book 2001: A Space Odyssey, he pointed out how wonderfully small and powerful computers were but how disappointing computer programming had become".	This estimate may be misleading when n{\textstyle n} is small, but is generally sufficiently accurate when n{\textstyle n} is large as the notation is asymptotic. For example, bubble sort may be faster than merge sort when only a few items are to be sorted; however either implementation is likely to meet performance requirements for a small list. Typically, programmers are interested in algorithms that scale efficiently to large input sizes, and merge sort is preferred over bubble sort for lists of length encountered in most data-intensive programs. Some examples of Big O notation applied to algorithms' asymptotic time complexity include: For new versions of software or to provide comparisons with competitive systems, benchmarks are sometimes used, which assist with gauging an algorithms relative performance. If a new sort algorithm is produced, for example, it can be compared with its predecessors to ensure that at least it is efficient as before with known data, taking into consideration any functional improvements. Benchmarks can be used by customers when comparing various products from alternative suppliers to estimate which product will best suit their specific requirements in terms of functionality and performance. For example, in the mainframe world certain proprietary sort products from independent software companies such as Syncsort compete with products from the major suppliers such as IBM for speed. Some benchmarks provide opportunities for producing an analysis comparing the relative speed of various compiled and interpreted languages for example[3][4] and The Computer Language Benchmarks Game compares the performance of implementations of typical programming problems in several programming languages. Even creating "do it yourself" benchmarks can demonstrate the relative performance of different programming languages, using a variety of user specified criteria. This is quite simple, as a "Nine language performance roundup" by Christopher W. Cowell-Shah demonstrates by example.[5] Another problem which can arise in programming is that processors compatible with the same instruction set (such as x86-64 or ARM) may implement an instruction in different ways, so	yes
Algorithms	Is the Bubble sort algorithm ever the best choice?	yes_statement	the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" can be the "best" "choice" in certain scenarios.. there are cases where the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" is the optimal "choice".	https://stackoverflow.com/questions/220044/which-sort-algorithm-works-best-on-mostly-sorted-data	sorting - Which sort algorithm works best on mostly sorted data ...	jjnguy, that is just plain wrong. I think you need to re-take your algorithms class. On nearly sorted data (it's adaptive case) it is O(N). However, it takes 2 passes through the data and Insertion only takes 1 for nearly sorted data, which makes Insertion the winner. Bubble is still good though That is exactly the kind of answer I have been looking for, I read books but I don't seem to find any clear explanation for selection of alogorithms at particular cases, could you please elaborate this or pass a link so that i can dog into it a little more? Thanks @python_learner because merge sort is a stable sort, items that have the same key in the new sort will remain sorted by the old sort. If, for example, you had a list sorted by first name, and then you merge sort by last name, the people with the last name Smith will remain sorted by their first names. This is true for all implementations of merge sort. timsort Timsort is "an adaptive, stable, natural mergesort" with "supernatural performance on many kinds of partially ordered arrays (less than lg(N!) comparisons needed, and as few as N-1)". Python's built-in sort() has used this algorithm for some time, apparently with good results. It's specifically designed to detect and take advantage of partially sorted subsequences in the input, which often occur in real datasets. It is often the case in the real world that comparisons are much more expensive than swapping items in a list, since one typically just swaps pointers, which very often makes timsort an excellent choice. However, if you know that your comparisons are always very cheap (writing a toy program to sort 32-bit integers, for instance), other algorithms exist that are likely to perform better. The easiest way to take advantage of timsort is of course to use Python, but since Python is open source you might also be able to borrow the code. Alternately, the description above contains more than enough detail to write your own implementation. @J.F. Sebastian: timsort is much faster than lg(n!) comparisons on an almost-sorted array, all the way down to O(n)! \| @behrooz: No comparison sort can have an average case of better than O(n log n), and lg(n!) is O(n log n). So timsort's worst case is asymptotically no worse than that of any other comparison sort. Furthermore its best case is better than or equal to any other comparison sort. Timsort is still O(nlogn) in the worst case, but its good-cases are quite pleasing. Here's a comparison, with some graphs: stromberg.dnsalias.org/~strombrg/sort-comparison Note that timsort in Cython wasn't nearly as fast as Python's built in timsort in C. For each element k in slots 1..n, first check whether el[k] >= el[k-1]. If so, go to next element. (Obviously skip the first element.) If not, use binary-search in elements 1..k-1 to determine the insertion location, then scoot the elements over. (You might do this only if k>T where T is some threshold value; with small k this is overkill.) Because of step 1, for any elements that are already sorted there is exactly one compare and zero data-moves, which is obviously the best you can do. Step 2 is the one you could improve on, but bubble will move the same number of elements and might have more compares, depending on your impl. Actually, on further thought I think bubble sort is stronger than I was thinking. It's actually a fairly tricky question. For instance, if you take the case where the list is entirely sorted except the element which should be last is first, bubble sort will vastly outperform what you describe. It's quicksort based, but it avoids the worst case behaviour that quicksort has for nearly sorted lists. The trick is that this sort-algorithm detects the cases where quicksort goes into worst-case mode and switches to heap or merge sort. Nearly sorted partitions are detected by some non naiive partition method and small partitions are handled using insertion sort. You get the best of all major sorting algorithms for the cost of a more code and complexity. And you can be sure you'll never run into worst case behaviour no matter how your data looks like. If you're a C++ programmer check your std::sort algorithm. It may already use introspective sort internally. Splaysort is an obscure sorting method based on splay trees, a type of adaptive binary tree. Splaysort is good not only for partially sorted data, but also partially reverse-sorted data, or indeed any data that has any kind of pre-existing order. It is O(nlogn) in the general case, and O(n) in the case where the data is sorted in some way (forward, reverse, organ-pipe, etc.). Its great advantage over insertion sort is that it doesn't revert to O(n^2) behaviour when the data isn't sorted at all, so you don't need to be absolutely sure that the data is partially sorted before using it. Its disadvantage is the extra space overhead of the splay tree structure it needs, as well as the time required to build and destroy the splay tree. But depending on the size of data and amount of pre-sortedness that you expect, the overhead may be worth it for the increase in speed. Dijkstra's smoothsort is a great sort on already-sorted data. It's a heapsort variant that runs in O(n lg n) worst-case and O(n) best-case. I wrote an analysis of the algorithm, in case you're curious how it works. Natural mergesort is another really good one for this - it's a bottom-up mergesort variant that works by treating the input as the concatenation of multiple different sorted ranges, then using the merge algorithm to join them together. You repeat this process until all of the input range is sorted. This runs in O(n) time if the data is already sorted and O(n lg n) worst-case. It's very elegant, though in practice it isn't as good as some other adaptive sorts like Timsort or smoothsort. An inversion is a pair (i, j) such that i < j && a[i] > a[j]. That is, an out-of-order pair. One measure of being "almost sorted" is the number of inversions---one could take "almost sorted data" to mean data with few inversions. If one knows the number of inversions to be linear (for instance, you have just appended O(1) elements to a sorted list), insertion sort takes O(n) time. As everyone else said, be careful of naive Quicksort - that can have O(N^2) performance on sorted or nearly sorted data. Nevertheless, with an appropriate algorithm for choice of pivot (either random or median-of-three - see Choosing a Pivot for Quicksort), Quicksort will still work sanely. In general, the difficulty with choosing algorithms such as insert sort is in deciding when the data is sufficiently out of order that Quicksort really would be quicker. I'm not going to pretend to have all the answers here, because I think getting at the actual answers may require coding up the algorithms and profiling them against representative data samples. But I've been thinking about this question all evening, and here's what's occurred to me so far, and some guesses about what works best where. Let N be the number of items total, M be the number out-of-order. Bubble sort will have to make something like 2*M+1 passes through all N items. If M is very small (0, 1, 2?), I think this will be very hard to beat. If M is small (say less than log N), insertion sort will have great average performance. However, unless there's a trick I'm not seeing, it will have very bad worst case performance. (Right? If the last item in the order comes first, then you have to insert every single item, as far as I can see, which will kill the performance.) I'm guessing there's a more reliable sorting algorithm out there for this case, but I don't know what it is. If M is bigger (say equal or great than log N), introspective sort is almost certainly best. Exception to all of that: If you actually know ahead of time which elements are unsorted, then your best bet will be to pull those items out, sort them using introspective sort, and merge the two sorted lists together into one sorted list. If you could quickly figure out which items are out of order, this would be a good general solution as well -- but I haven't been able to figure out a simple way to do this. Further thoughts (overnight): If M+1 < N/M, then you can scan the list looking for a run of N/M in a row which are sorted, and then expand that run in either direction to find the out-of-order items. That will take at most 2N comparisons. You can then sort the unsorted items, and do a sorted merge on the two lists. Total comparisons should less than something like 4N+M log2(M), which is going to beat any non-specialized sorting routine, I think. (Even further thought: this is trickier than I was thinking, but I still think it's reasonably possible.) Another interpretation of the question is that there may be many of out-of-order items, but they are very close to where they should be in the list. (Imagine starting with a sorted list and swapping every other item with the one that comes after it.) In that case I think bubble sort performs very well -- I think the number of passes will be proportional to the furthest out of place an item is. Insertion sort will work poorly, because every out of order item will trigger an insertion. I suspect introspective sort or something like that will work well, too. If you are in need of specific implementation for sorting algorithms, data structures or anything that have a link to the above, could I recommend you the excellent "Data Structures and Algorithms" project on CodePlex? This "as far as I am concerned" test of algorithm efficiency brightened up my day :) Being serious, though, when writing "remove and insert" did you mean Insertion Sort (which was already mentioned in previous answers), or do you offer a new kind of algorithm? If so, please expand your answer.	Step 2 is the one you could improve on, but bubble will move the same number of elements and might have more compares, depending on your impl. Actually, on further thought I think bubble sort is stronger than I was thinking. It's actually a fairly tricky question. For instance, if you take the case where the list is entirely sorted except the element which should be last is first, bubble sort will vastly outperform what you describe. It's quicksort based, but it avoids the worst case behaviour that quicksort has for nearly sorted lists. The trick is that this sort-algorithm detects the cases where quicksort goes into worst-case mode and switches to heap or merge sort. Nearly sorted partitions are detected by some non naiive partition method and small partitions are handled using insertion sort. You get the best of all major sorting algorithms for the cost of a more code and complexity. And you can be sure you'll never run into worst case behaviour no matter how your data looks like. If you're a C++ programmer check your std::sort algorithm. It may already use introspective sort internally. Splaysort is an obscure sorting method based on splay trees, a type of adaptive binary tree. Splaysort is good not only for partially sorted data, but also partially reverse-sorted data, or indeed any data that has any kind of pre-existing order. It is O(nlogn) in the general case, and O(n) in the case where the data is sorted in some way (forward, reverse, organ-pipe, etc.). Its great advantage over insertion sort is that it doesn't revert to O(n^2) behaviour when the data isn't sorted at all, so you don't need to be absolutely sure that the data is partially sorted before using it. Its disadvantage is the extra space overhead of the splay tree structure it needs, as well as the time required to build and destroy the splay tree. But depending on the size of data and amount of pre-sortedness that you expect, the overhead may be worth it for the increase in speed. Dijkstra's smoothsort is a great sort on already-sorted data. It's a heapsort variant that runs in O(n lg n) worst-case and O(	yes
Algorithms	Is the Bubble sort algorithm ever the best choice?	yes_statement	the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" can be the "best" "choice" in certain scenarios.. there are cases where the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" is the optimal "choice".	https://www.crio.do/blog/top-10-sorting-algorithms/	10 Best Sorting Algorithms You Must Know About	Types of Sorting in Data Structures Comparison-based sorting: In comparison-based sorting techniques, a comparator is defined to compare elements or items of a data sample. This comparator defines the ordering of elements. Examples are: Bubble Sort, Merge Sort. Counting-based sorting: There's no comparison involved between elements in these types of sorting algorithms but rather work on calculated assumptions during execution. Examples are : Counting Sort, Radix Sort. In-Place vs Not-in-Place Sorting: In-place sorting techniques in data structures modify the ordering of array elements within the original array. On the other hand, Not-in-Place sorting techniques use an auxiliary data structure to sort the original array. Examples of In place sorting techniques are: Bubble Sort, Selection Sort. Some examples of Not in Place sorting algorithms are: Merge Sort, Quick Sort. Finally, we'll wrap up with a broad-spectrum analysis as to which algorithm stands out in terms of time and space complexities. Sorting Algorithms in Java vs C++ Java is the most popular language of choice when it comes to implementing algorithms and working with data structures in the software industry. Level up your foundational programming skills in Java and practice the most relevant Data Structure questions in Crio's Backend Developer Program. Check out the full syllabus here >> Although this blog focuses heavily on C++ based implementations, don't fret because as long as your logical understanding of these algorithms is strong, the only thing holding you back is basic syntactic differences between Java and C++. Need guidance with problem-solving and data structures? Go through Crio's Data Structures Track and unlock what it takes to tackle unseen problems with ease. Top 10 Sorting Algorithms You Need To Know 10 Best Sorting Algorithms 1. Bubble Sort The basic idea of bubble sorting is that it repeatedly swaps adjacent elements if they are not in the desired order. YES, it is as simple as that. If a given array of elements has to be sorted in ascending order, bubble sorting will start by comparing the first element of the array with the second element and immediately swap them if it turns out to be greater than the second element, and then move on to compare the second and third element, and so on. Understanding Bubble Sort algorithm with a simple example Let's try to understand the intuitive approach behind bubble sort with an example: Bubble sort algorithm explained Now that you've understood the intuitive idea behind bubble sort, it's time to take a look at its standard C++ implementation. Use Cases It is used to introduce the concept of a sorting algorithm to Computer Science students. In computer graphics, bubble sorting is quite popular when it comes to detecting a very small error (like swap of just two elements) in almost-sorted arrays. Try it yourself Q. Given an array of n input integers, return the sum of maximum and minimum elements of the array. [Constraint: Use Bubble Sorting] Input: n -> Size of array (n>1) 'n' array elements below Output: A single line representing the required sum P.S: Don't forget to drop a comment below if you face issues with this problem. 2. Selection Sort Selection sort is a sorting algorithm in which the given array is divided into two subarrays, the sorted left section, and the unsorted right section. Initially, the sorted portion is empty and the unsorted part is the entire list. In each iteration, we fetch the minimum element from the unsorted list and push it to the end of the sorted list thus building our sorted array. 3. Insertion Sort Insertion sort is a sorting algorithm in which the given array is divided into a sorted and an unsorted section. In each iteration, the element to be inserted has to find its optimal position in the sorted subsequence and is then inserted while shifting the remaining elements to the right. Use Cases This algorithm is stable and is quite fast when the list is nearly sorted. It is very efficient when it comes to sorting very small lists (example say 30 elements.) Try it yourself Q. Given a list of numbers with an odd number of elements, find the median? [Constraint: Use Insertion Sort] Input: n -> Size of array (n>0) 'n' array elements below Output: A single line representing the required median. P.S: Don't forget to share your approach with us in the comments below! 4. Quick Sort Quick Sort is a divide and conquer algorithm. The intuitive idea behind quick sort is it picks an element as the pivot from a given array of elements and then partitions the array around the pivot element. Subsequently, it calls itself recursively and partitions the two subarrays thereafter. Understanding Quick Sort algorithm with a visualization Quick sort algorithm explained The logical steps involved in Quick Sort algorithm are as follows: Pivot selection: Picks an element as the pivot (here, we choose the last element as the pivot) Partitioning: The array is partitioned in a fashion such that all elements less than the pivot are in the left subarray while all elements strictly greater than the pivot element are stored in the right subarray. Recursive call to Quicksort: Quicksort function is invoked again for the two subarrays created above and steps are repeated. Comments have been included in the implementation below to help you understand the Quick Sort algorithm better. Use Cases Quick Sort is probably more effective for datasets that fit in memory. Quick Sort is appropriate for arrays since is an in-place sorting algorithm (i.e. it doesn’t require any extra storage) Try it yourself Q. Given a list of numbers with an odd/even number of elements, find the median? [Constraint: Use Quick Sort] Input: n -> Size of array (n>0) 'n' array elements below Output: A single line representing the required median. P.S: Need a hint? Drop a comment below. 5. Merge Sort Merge Sort is a divide-and-conquer algorithm. In each iteration, merge sort divides the input array into two equal subarrays, calls itself recursively for the two subarrays, and finally merges the two sorted halves. 7. Radix Sort As you saw earlier, counting sort stands apart because it's not a comparison-based sorting algorithm like Merge Sort or Bubble Sort, thereby reducing its time complexity to linear time. BUT, counting sort fails if the input array ranges from 1 to n^2 in which case its time complexity increases to O(n^2). The basic idea behind radix sorting is to extend the functionality of counting sort to get a better time-complexity when input array elements range from 1 till n^2. Understanding Radix Sort with an example Algorithm: For each digit i where i varies from the least significant digit to the most significant digit of a number, sort input array using count sort algorithm according to the ith digit. Remember we use count sort because it is a stable sorting algorithm. Example: Radix sort algorithm explained Thus we observe that radix sort utilizes counting sort as its subroutine throughout its execution. Now take a look at its C++ implementation. Use Cases It is also used in the DC3 algorithm (Kärkkäinen-Sanders-Burkhardt) while making a suffix array. Try it yourself: Q. Given two sorted arrays(arr1[] and arr2[]) of size M and N of distinct elements. Given a value Sum. The problem is to count all pairs from both arrays whose sum is equal to Sum. Note: The pair has an element from each array. [Constraint: Use Radix Sort] Input: n -> Size of array (n>1) 'n' array elements below Output: A single line representing the required number of pairs P.S: Don't forget to share your approach with us in the comments below. 8. Bucket Sort Bucket Sort is a comparison-based sorting technique that operates on array elements by dividing them into multiple buckets recursively and then sorting these buckets individually using a separate sorting algorithm altogether. Finally, the sorted buckets are re-combined to produce the sorted array. Understanding Bucket Sort algorithm with pseudocode We can probe further into the working of bucket sort by assuming that we've already created an array of multiple 'buckets' (lists). Elements are now inserted from the unsorted array into these "buckets" based on their properties. These buckets are finally sorted separately using the insertion sort algorithm as explained earlier. Pseudocode: Begin for i = 0 to size-1 insert array[i] into the bucket indexed (size * array[i]) done for i = 0 to size-1 sort bucket[i] using insertion sort done for i = 0 to size-1 Combine items of bucket[i] and insert in array in sorted order done End Well if you're still unsure about the bucket sort algorithm, go back and review the pseudocode one more time. Use Cases Bucket sorting is used when input is uniformly distributed over a range. It is also used for floating point values. Try it yourself Q. You are given two arrays, A and B, of equal size N. The task is to find the minimum value of A[0] * B[0] + A[1] * B[1] +…+ A[N-1] * B[N-1], where shuffling of elements of arrays A and B is allowed. [Constraint: Use Bucket Sort] Input: n -> Size of array (n>1) 'n' array elements representing the first array 'n' array elements representing the second array Output: A single line representing the required sum P.S: Need help? Drop a comment below. 9. Comb Sort Comb sort is quite interesting. In fact, it is an improvement over the bubble sort algorithm. If you've observed earlier, bubble sort compares adjacent elements for every iteration. But for comb sort, the items are compared and swapped by a large gap value. The gap value shrinks by a factor of 1.3 for each iteration until the gap value reaches 1, at which point it stops execution. Use Cases Comb Sort eliminates small values at the end of the list by using larger gaps. Itis a significant improvement over Bubble Sort. Try it yourself Q. Given an array, find the most frequent element in it. If there are multiple elements that appear maximum number of times, print any one of them. [Constraint: Use Comb Sort] Input: n -> Size of array (n>0) 'n' array elements below Output: A single line representing the element with maximum frequency. P.S: Did you enjoy this sorting technique? Share your opinions below. 10. Shell Sort Shell sort algorithm is an improvement over the insertion sort algorithm wherein we resort to diminishing partitions to sort our data. In each pass, we reduce the gap size to half of its previous value for each pass throughout the array. Thus for each iteration, the array elements are compared by the calculated gap value and swapped (if necessary). Q1. Which is the best sorting algorithm? But since it has the upper hand in the average cases for most inputs, Quicksort is generally considered the “fastest” sorting algorithm. At the end of the day though, the best sorting algorithm comes down to the nature of your input data (and who you ask). Q2. What is the easiest sorting algorithm? Bubble sort is widely recognized as the simplest sorting algorithm out there. Its basic idea is to scan through an entire array and compare adjacent elements and swap them (if necessary) until the list is sorted. Pretty simple right? Q3. Which sorting algorithm would you prefer for nearly sorted lists? When it comes to sorting nearly sorted data, insertion sort is the clear winner particularly because it's time complexity reduces to O(n) from a whopping O(n^2) on such a sample. On the other hand, merge sort or quick sort algorithms do not adapt well to nearly sorted data. Well, that's about it. At the end of the day, it's up to you to decide which sorting technique suits you the best. And yes, don't forget to try out the practice problems served alongside with each sorting technique. How comfortable are you with sorting now? Before you go for your next interview, be sure to know the answers to these commonly asked Sorting Algorithms questions. If you read this blog thoroughly, you're all set to get a perfect score. Ready to take the quiz? Go beyond video-based certification courses and online bootcamps. Build the confidence you need to take on Data Structures and Algorithm questions in your next big interview and land your dream job as a Backend Developer or Full Stack Developer - Guaranteed! Find out how. Additional resources Don't miss these free learning resources that are an absolute essential for all developers:	Bubble Sort algorithm with a simple example Let's try to understand the intuitive approach behind bubble sort with an example: Bubble sort algorithm explained Now that you've understood the intuitive idea behind bubble sort, it's time to take a look at its standard C++ implementation. Use Cases It is used to introduce the concept of a sorting algorithm to Computer Science students. In computer graphics, bubble sorting is quite popular when it comes to detecting a very small error (like swap of just two elements) in almost-sorted arrays. Try it yourself Q. Given an array of n input integers, return the sum of maximum and minimum elements of the array. [Constraint: Use Bubble Sorting] Input: n -> Size of array (n>1) 'n' array elements below Output: A single line representing the required sum P.S: Don't forget to drop a comment below if you face issues with this problem. 2. Selection Sort Selection sort is a sorting algorithm in which the given array is divided into two subarrays, the sorted left section, and the unsorted right section. Initially, the sorted portion is empty and the unsorted part is the entire list. In each iteration, we fetch the minimum element from the unsorted list and push it to the end of the sorted list thus building our sorted array. 3. Insertion Sort Insertion sort is a sorting algorithm in which the given array is divided into a sorted and an unsorted section. In each iteration, the element to be inserted has to find its optimal position in the sorted subsequence and is then inserted while shifting the remaining elements to the right. Use Cases This algorithm is stable and is quite fast when the list is nearly sorted. It is very efficient when it comes to sorting very small lists (example say 30 elements.) Try it yourself Q. Given a list of numbers with an odd number of elements, find the median? [Constraint: Use Insertion Sort] Input: n -> Size of array (n>0) 'n' array elements below Output: A single line representing the required median. P.S: Don't forget to share your approach with us in the comments below! 4. Quick Sort Quick Sort is a divide and conquer algorithm.	yes
Algorithms	Is the Bubble sort algorithm ever the best choice?	yes_statement	the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" can be the "best" "choice" in certain scenarios.. there are cases where the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" is the optimal "choice".	https://medium.com/@EnnioMa/back-to-the-fundamentals-sorting-algorithms-in-swift-from-scratch-fccf8a3daea3	Back to the fundamentals: Sorting algorithms in Swift (from scratch ...	So I wanted to write this post for personal knowledge but also because I’ve read a lot of complains around the web about questions like “What’s the fastest sorting algorithm?” or “Write down the bubble sort” during the iOS interviews. So maybe this post could help you to prepare the next interview 🙂 The topics covered in this article are: Big O Notation Bubble Sort Insertion Sort Selection Sort Merge Sort Quick Sort Bonus :) Bucket Sort Big O Notation The first topic to cover before learning about sorting algorithms is the concept behind the Big O Notation, or before this, the concept of asymptotic growth of an algorithm: […] That is, we are concerned with how the running time of an algorithm increases with the size of the input in the limit, as the size of the input increases without bound. Usually, an algorithm that is asymptotically more efficient will be the best choice for all but very small inputs. In this definition taken from the Cormen Book, there are two underlying concepts: this asymptotic growth is something we use to compare algorithms, so we can answer properly to questions like “What’s the fastest sorting algorithm?” considering their asymptotic growth; it’s a measure of the performances of the algorithm based on the input; Using this definition we can completely skip any other formal definition, referring to the Big O notation considering these rules: This step is O(1) –> this means that, regardless the input size, the considered step is constant; This cycle is O(N), where N is the input size –> this means that, the performance of this cycle is directly related to the input size; if a cycle is O(N) and another on the same input is O(N²) then the first cycle is faster than the second on the same input; If an algorithm is O(2*N) or O(N+N) we just say that it’s O(N)! The constants don’t have any value here! Generally speaking we can refer to asymptotic growth in different scenarios but we usually refer to the worst case in time complexity: this is finally the Big O Notation we refer to! (Hint: The complexity could be expressed in terms of time or space) Let’s now move to talk about the most famous sorting algorithms 🤓 Bubble Sort This algorithm nowadays has just an educational meaning because it’s always slow (with always I mean it’s slow in the best or worst case), it’s O(n²) in time complexity. This means that it needs always n² steps to converge to the solution (i.e. input N = 50, number of steps to reach the solution = 1000). It’s called Bubble Sort because some items are moved quickly along the array and other slower and the effect is like a lot of bubbles in a cup of champagne 🤔 This is an in-place algorithm because it doesn’t need any external storage to perform the sorting. As you can see in this animation (for ascending sorting), the concept behind this algorithm is quite simple. If the order is ascending, the idea is to move the higher number to the end of the array for every iteration. This means that at the end of every iteration i the item at array[i] will be sorted and in the next iteration the algorithm will try to sort the array in [0, i-1]. In order to make it a little bit more interesting, I’ve created an Array extension. This implies that you don’t have to pass the array to sort to the method but you can do something like: But now let’s focus on the algorithm: So this code is quite simple: iterate over the array until the second to last element; iterate over the array until the N-i element: as I told you previously the point here is that at every iteration we are going to sort the array from the latest element back to the first one; the algorithm swap two elements only if them don’t respect the sort order; as you can notice we inject the desired order as Apple does! The point 2 is the reason why this algorithm is always O(n²). Basically regardless from the current status of the array it cycles two times over the entire array. Hint: As you can see I’ve also added a swap method but starting from swift 4 we can use the Array.swapAt(:) method and this is extra useful because if you try to apply my swap method calling swap(a[i], a[i]) it will crash! You have to check that the two indexes passed to the method are different before calling my method! Insertion Sort To quickly understand how insertion sort works, think that it’s the usual way in which the human being sorts cards. Starting from the first one, we look for a place in which put the current card in order. Then we move to the second, looking for sorting that card and so on until the last one. You can see this in the next animation: The main point here is that for every iteration the algorithm finds a key index and it looks back to the first one (in the opposite way if the sort is descending!) in order to find a sorted place for the current item. In this way at the end of every iteration we have a sorted array up to the current key index and an unsorted array from the current key index to the end. Initially the algorithm cycles over the second to last element; it blocks the current key element; the algorithm looks back until the first element in order to sort the array from 0 to key; swap elements; Also the insertion sort is O(n²) but typically for a small chunk of data it works better then Bubble sort. Selection Sort This it the third common algorithm that is easy to be implemented but it’s still quite slow. The selection sort is just a variation of the insertion sort but it works in a slightly different way. As I told you previously, this algorithm is really similar to the insertionSort because it blocks a key element (1) and compare it with the next elements until the last one (2) (in the insertionSort the check was done on the opposite side!). At the end of the cycle, if there is an element that is smaller than the key element, then the algorithm swaps them. (the assumption in this description is that we are talking about an ascending order). Merge Sort The Merge Sort is, in this implementation, a usual divide-and-conquer algorithm. The idea behind this algorithm is that it proceeds with a top-down splitting of the array. Once this operation is completed, the array is sorted bottom-up, sorting initially every couple of adjacent elements and then proceeding up to the entire array. A good quality of this algorithm is that its time complexity of is O(nlogn) (definitely better then the previous O(n²)) in any case. In my implementation, the mergeSort will modify the input array, so in order to include this into the extension, I’ve created a private _emMergeSort function which takes the array and the desired sort direction. This is a recursive algorithm, this means that somewhere it call itself until a base case which manage the end of the recursion. Our base case is if the current array (at the n-th level of recursion) contains only a single element. This is the end of the first phase, the so called divide part that you can see in my previous animation. Once the base case is reached, the merge function (3) is called on every previously splitted chunk of data. Quick Sort The quick sort is another divide-and-conquer algorithm that manages the way in which it splits the array differently from the merge sort. A weird quality of this algorithm is that in the worst case it performs like bubble, selection and insertion sort, O(n²), and in the average case it’s like the merge sort, O(nlogn). So the point is that it on average performs like the merge sort but it uses less space and it’s proven that it works better then it on small data. I like this implementation ☺️ as the previous implementation, this is a recursive algorithm, so I needed to pass inside the _quickSort method the array to be sorted. An important detail about this algorithm is that the pivot is used to create the current partition. In this algorithm I don’t use any clever pick of the pivot element (1), I just take the first one for every partition. The problem is that it has been demonstrated that on large data, picking consistently the bad pivot could move the performance of the algorithm to O(n²). As the merge sort, at each step the array is divided (2 and 3) splitting data for elements smaller than the pivot on the left and the other on the right (it’s the opposite for a descending sort!). Once the algorithm reaches the base case (0), it proceeds bottom-up merging the partitions that are already sorted, it has just to append each partition from the left to the right! Special case: Bucket Sort As we have seen every algorithm has its own qualities but sometimes there are algorithms that work really well for specific context. I always focused on the following algorithm because a professor during an exam asked me if O(nlogn) is the best performance possible for sorting. And the answer is no! ☺️ (well, this could happen also during the interviews!) Or at least, the answer is no if and only if we specify on which kind of data we apply this algorithm. If we have a list of well distributed numbers from M to N, this algorithm can sort this list in a linear time O(n). The code is the following one: The main idea is quite easy: create N buckets (the way in which we create the buckets could definitely improve the performances!); run over the input array and increase the number of occurrences of buckets[current_index]; create the output array, iterating over the buckets in the desired order;	Bubble Sort This algorithm nowadays has just an educational meaning because it’s always slow (with always I mean it’s slow in the best or worst case), it’s O(n²) in time complexity. This means that it needs always n² steps to converge to the solution (i.e. input N = 50, number of steps to reach the solution = 1000). It’s called Bubble Sort because some items are moved quickly along the array and other slower and the effect is like a lot of bubbles in a cup of champagne 🤔 This is an in-place algorithm because it doesn’t need any external storage to perform the sorting. As you can see in this animation (for ascending sorting), the concept behind this algorithm is quite simple. If the order is ascending, the idea is to move the higher number to the end of the array for every iteration. This means that at the end of every iteration i the item at array[i] will be sorted and in the next iteration the algorithm will try to sort the array in [0, i-1]. In order to make it a little bit more interesting, I’ve created an Array extension. This implies that you don’t have to pass the array to sort to the method but you can do something like: But now let’s focus on the algorithm: So this code is quite simple: iterate over the array until the second to last element; iterate over the array until the N-i element: as I told you previously the point here is that at every iteration we are going to sort the array from the latest element back to the first one; the algorithm swap two elements only if them don’t respect the sort order; as you can notice we inject the desired order as Apple does! The point 2 is the reason why this algorithm is always O(n²). Basically regardless from the current status of the array it cycles two times over the entire array. Hint: As you can see I’ve also added a swap method but starting from swift 4 we can use the Array.swapAt(:) method and this is extra useful because if you try to apply my swap method calling swap(a[i], a[i]) it will crash! You have to check that the two indexes passed to the method are different before calling my method!	no
Algorithms	Is the Bubble sort algorithm ever the best choice?	no_statement	the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" is never the "best" "choice".. there is never a situation where the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" is the optimal "choice".	https://www.classiq.io/insights/sort-algorithms	Why are there so many sorting algorithms?	Because different sorting algorithms are useful in different circumstances. Some (Bubble sort) are simple to implement, and thus useful for teaching. Some (Merge sort, Heap sort) have a relatively low limit on the worst-case number of operations they have to perform. If they need to sort N elements, they will never need more than O(N log N). Note: see here for a definition of O() Some (Insertion sort, Cube sort) have a low number of "best case" operations, meaning that they finish quickly if the list of already sorted. For N elements, their best case will be O(N) Some (Heap sort) need very little memory Some (Bead sort) only work with positive integers Some... well, you get the point. An engineer that wants to use a sorting algorithm would do well to think about the characteristics of the data that needs to be sorted, the constraints of processor, the availability of parallel processors, and many other constraints. While some algorithms are more popular than others, there is no single algorithm that is best in all circumstances. The same is true for quantum algorithms. There is no single implementation of state preparation that's always best. Some use fewer qubits. Some are more accurate. Some have smaller depth. So the choice of the best state preparation depends on the system you are using but also on what else is going on: what else are you doing beyond state preparation. The best implementation is not just decided at the functional block level, but actually at the system level. Even simple quantum adders could have multiple implementations. You could build a simple ripple adder, or you can perform quantum arithmetic with the Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT). This is why the best frameworks for generating quantum circuits will provide multiple options - and perhaps make an optimal choice on their own - instead of forcing you to use a single hard-coded implementation every time. Because different sorting algorithms are useful in different circumstances. Some (Bubble sort) are simple to implement, and thus useful for teaching. Some (Merge sort, Heap sort) have a relatively low limit on the worst-case number of operations they have to perform. If they need to sort N elements, they will never need more than O(N log N). Note: see here for a definition of O() Some (Insertion sort, Cube sort) have a low number of "best case" operations, meaning that they finish quickly if the list of already sorted. For N elements, their best case will be O(N) Some (Heap sort) need very little memory Some (Bead sort) only work with positive integers Some... well, you get the point. An engineer that wants to use a sorting algorithm would do well to think about the characteristics of the data that needs to be sorted, the constraints of processor, the availability of parallel processors, and many other constraints. While some algorithms are more popular than others, there is no single algorithm that is best in all circumstances. The same is true for quantum algorithms. There is no single implementation of state preparation that's always best. Some use fewer qubits. Some are more accurate. Some have smaller depth. So the choice of the best state preparation depends on the system you are using but also on what else is going on: what else are you doing beyond state preparation. The best implementation is not just decided at the functional block level, but actually at the system level. Even simple quantum adders could have multiple implementations. You could build a simple ripple adder, or you can perform quantum arithmetic with the Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT). This is why the best frameworks for generating quantum circuits will provide multiple options - and perhaps make an optimal choice on their own - instead of forcing you to use a single hard-coded implementation every time.	Because different sorting algorithms are useful in different circumstances. Some (Bubble sort) are simple to implement, and thus useful for teaching. Some (Merge sort, Heap sort) have a relatively low limit on the worst-case number of operations they have to perform. If they need to sort N elements, they will never need more than O(N log N). Note: see here for a definition of O() Some (Insertion sort, Cube sort) have a low number of "best case" operations, meaning that they finish quickly if the list of already sorted. For N elements, their best case will be O(N) Some (Heap sort) need very little memory Some (Bead sort) only work with positive integers Some... well, you get the point. An engineer that wants to use a sorting algorithm would do well to think about the characteristics of the data that needs to be sorted, the constraints of processor, the availability of parallel processors, and many other constraints. While some algorithms are more popular than others, there is no single algorithm that is best in all circumstances. The same is true for quantum algorithms. There is no single implementation of state preparation that's always best. Some use fewer qubits. Some are more accurate. Some have smaller depth. So the choice of the best state preparation depends on the system you are using but also on what else is going on: what else are you doing beyond state preparation. The best implementation is not just decided at the functional block level, but actually at the system level. Even simple quantum adders could have multiple implementations. You could build a simple ripple adder, or you can perform quantum arithmetic with the Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT). This is why the best frameworks for generating quantum circuits will provide multiple options - and perhaps make an optimal choice on their own - instead of forcing you to use a single hard-coded implementation every time. Because different sorting algorithms are useful in different circumstances. Some (Bubble sort) are simple to implement, and thus useful for teaching. Some (Merge sort, Heap sort) have a relatively low limit on the worst-case number of operations they have to perform. If they need to sort N elements, they will never need more than O(N log N).	yes
Algorithms	Is the Bubble sort algorithm ever the best choice?	no_statement	the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" is never the "best" "choice".. there is never a situation where the "bubble" "sort" "algorithm" is the optimal "choice".	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorting_algorithm	Sorting algorithm - Wikipedia	From the beginning of computing, the sorting problem has attracted a great deal of research, perhaps due to the complexity of solving it efficiently despite its simple, familiar statement. Among the authors of early sorting algorithms around 1951 was Betty Holberton, who worked on ENIAC and UNIVAC.[1][2]Bubble sort was analyzed as early as 1956.[3] Asymptotically optimal algorithms have been known since the mid-20th century – new algorithms are still being invented, with the widely used Timsort dating to 2002, and the library sort being first published in 2006. Comparison sorting algorithms have a fundamental requirement of Ω(n log n) comparisons (some input sequences will require a multiple of n log n comparisons, where n is the number of elements in the array to be sorted). Algorithms not based on comparisons, such as counting sort, can have better performance. Sorting small arrays optimally (in fewest comparisons and swaps) or fast (i.e. taking into account machine specific details) is still an open research problem, with solutions only known for very small arrays (<20 elements). Similarly optimal (by various definitions) sorting on a parallel machine is an open research topic. Best, worst and average case behavior in terms of the size of the list. For typical serial sorting algorithms, good behavior is O(n log n), with parallel sort in O(log2n), and bad behavior is O(n2). Ideal behavior for a serial sort is O(n), but this is not possible in the average case. Optimal parallel sorting is O(log n). Swaps for "in-place" algorithms. Memory usage (and use of other computer resources). In particular, some sorting algorithms are "in-place". Strictly, an in-place sort needs only O(1) memory beyond the items being sorted; sometimes O(log n) additional memory is considered "in-place". Recursion: Some algorithms are either recursive or non-recursive, while others may be both (e.g., merge sort). An example of stable sort on playing cards. When the cards are sorted by rank with a stable sort, the two 5s must remain in the same order in the sorted output that they were originally in. When they are sorted with a non-stable sort, the 5s may end up in the opposite order in the sorted output. Stable sort algorithms sort equal elements in the same order that they appear in the input. For example, in the card sorting example to the right, the cards are being sorted by their rank, and their suit is being ignored. This allows the possibility of multiple different correctly sorted versions of the original list. Stable sorting algorithms choose one of these, according to the following rule: if two items compare as equal (like the two 5 cards), then their relative order will be preserved, i.e. if one comes before the other in the input, it will come before the other in the output. Stability is important to preserve order over multiple sorts on the same data set. For example, say that student records consisting of name and class section are sorted dynamically, first by name, then by class section. If a stable sorting algorithm is used in both cases, the sort-by-class-section operation will not change the name order; with an unstable sort, it could be that sorting by section shuffles the name order, resulting in a nonalphabetical list of students. More formally, the data being sorted can be represented as a record or tuple of values, and the part of the data that is used for sorting is called the key. In the card example, cards are represented as a record (rank, suit), and the key is the rank. A sorting algorithm is stable if whenever there are two records R and S with the same key, and R appears before S in the original list, then R will always appear before S in the sorted list. When equal elements are indistinguishable, such as with integers, or more generally, any data where the entire element is the key, stability is not an issue. Stability is also not an issue if all keys are different. Unstable sorting algorithms can be specially implemented to be stable. One way of doing this is to artificially extend the key comparison, so that comparisons between two objects with otherwise equal keys are decided using the order of the entries in the original input list as a tie-breaker. Remembering this order, however, may require additional time and space. One application for stable sorting algorithms is sorting a list using a primary and secondary key. For example, suppose we wish to sort a hand of cards such that the suits are in the order clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥), spades (♠), and within each suit, the cards are sorted by rank. This can be done by first sorting the cards by rank (using any sort), and then doing a stable sort by suit: Within each suit, the stable sort preserves the ordering by rank that was already done. This idea can be extended to any number of keys and is utilised by radix sort. The same effect can be achieved with an unstable sort by using a lexicographic key comparison, which, e.g., compares first by suit, and then compares by rank if the suits are the same. In these tables, n is the number of records to be sorted. The columns "Best", "Average" and "Worst" give the time complexity in each case, under the assumption that the length of each key is constant, and therefore that all comparisons, swaps and other operations can proceed in constant time. "Memory" denotes the amount of extra storage needed additionally to that used by the list itself, under the same assumption. The run times and the memory requirements listed are inside big O notation, hence the base of the logarithms does not matter. The notation log2n means (log n)2. The following table describes integer sorting algorithms and other sorting algorithms that are not comparison sorts. As such, they are not limited to Ω(n log n).[12] Complexities below assume n items to be sorted, with keys of size k, digit size d, and r the range of numbers to be sorted. Many of them are based on the assumption that the key size is large enough that all entries have unique key values, and hence that n ≪ 2k, where ≪ means "much less than". In the unit-cost random-access machine model, algorithms with running time of n⋅kd{\displaystyle \scriptstyle n\cdot {\frac {k}{d}}}, such as radix sort, still take time proportional to Θ(n log n), because n is limited to be not more than 2kd{\displaystyle 2^{\frac {k}{d}}}, and a larger number of elements to sort would require a bigger k in order to store them in the memory.[13] Requires uniform distribution of elements from the domain in the array to run in linear time. If distribution is extremely skewed then it can go quadratic if underlying sort is quadratic (it is usually an insertion sort). In-place version is not stable. A variation of bucket sort, which works very similarly to MSD Radix Sort. Specific to post service needs. Samplesort can be used to parallelize any of the non-comparison sorts, by efficiently distributing data into several buckets and then passing down sorting to several processors, with no need to merge as buckets are already sorted between each other. Some algorithms are slow compared to those discussed above, such as the bogosort with unbounded run time and the stooge sort which has O(n2.7) run time. These sorts are usually described for educational purposes to demonstrate how the run time of algorithms is estimated. The following table describes some sorting algorithms that are impractical for real-life use in traditional software contexts due to extremely poor performance or specialized hardware requirements. Works only with positive integers. Requires specialized hardware for it to run in guaranteed O(n){\displaystyle O(n)} time. There is a possibility for software implementation, but running time will be O(S){\displaystyle O(S)}, where S is the sum of all integers to be sorted; in the case of small integers, it can be considered to be linear. One of the authors of the previously mentioned algorithm also claims to have discovered an algorithm taking O(nlog⁡n){\displaystyle O\left(n{\sqrt {\log n}}\right)} time and O(n) space, sorting real numbers.[21] Further claiming that, without any added assumptions on the input, it can be modified to achieve O(nlog⁡n/log⁡log⁡n){\displaystyle O\left(n\log n/{\sqrt {\log \log n}}\right)} time and O(n) space. While there are a large number of sorting algorithms, in practical implementations a few algorithms predominate. Insertion sort is widely used for small data sets, while for large data sets an asymptotically efficient sort is used, primarily heapsort, merge sort, or quicksort. Efficient implementations generally use a hybrid algorithm, combining an asymptotically efficient algorithm for the overall sort with insertion sort for small lists at the bottom of a recursion. Highly tuned implementations use more sophisticated variants, such as Timsort (merge sort, insertion sort, and additional logic), used in Android, Java, and Python, and introsort (quicksort and heapsort), used (in variant forms) in some C++ sort implementations and in .NET. For more restricted data, such as numbers in a fixed interval, distribution sorts such as counting sort or radix sort are widely used. Bubble sort and variants are rarely used in practice, but are commonly found in teaching and theoretical discussions. When physically sorting objects (such as alphabetizing papers, tests or books) people intuitively generally use insertion sorts for small sets. For larger sets, people often first bucket, such as by initial letter, and multiple bucketing allows practical sorting of very large sets. Often space is relatively cheap, such as by spreading objects out on the floor or over a large area, but operations are expensive, particularly moving an object a large distance – locality of reference is important. Merge sorts are also practical for physical objects, particularly as two hands can be used, one for each list to merge, while other algorithms, such as heapsort or quicksort, are poorly suited for human use. Other algorithms, such as library sort, a variant of insertion sort that leaves spaces, are also practical for physical use. Two of the simplest sorts are insertion sort and selection sort, both of which are efficient on small data, due to low overhead, but not efficient on large data. Insertion sort is generally faster than selection sort in practice, due to fewer comparisons and good performance on almost-sorted data, and thus is preferred in practice, but selection sort uses fewer writes, and thus is used when write performance is a limiting factor. Insertion sort is a simple sorting algorithm that is relatively efficient for small lists and mostly sorted lists, and is often used as part of more sophisticated algorithms. It works by taking elements from the list one by one and inserting them in their correct position into a new sorted list similar to how we put money in our wallet.[22] In arrays, the new list and the remaining elements can share the array's space, but insertion is expensive, requiring shifting all following elements over by one. Shellsort is a variant of insertion sort that is more efficient for larger lists. Selection sort is an in-placecomparison sort. It has O(n2) complexity, making it inefficient on large lists, and generally performs worse than the similar insertion sort. Selection sort is noted for its simplicity, and also has performance advantages over more complicated algorithms in certain situations. The algorithm finds the minimum value, swaps it with the value in the first position, and repeats these steps for the remainder of the list.[23] It does no more than n swaps, and thus is useful where swapping is very expensive. Practical general sorting algorithms are almost always based on an algorithm with average time complexity (and generally worst-case complexity) O(n log n), of which the most common are heapsort, merge sort, and quicksort. Each has advantages and drawbacks, with the most significant being that simple implementation of merge sort uses O(n) additional space, and simple implementation of quicksort has O(n2) worst-case complexity. These problems can be solved or ameliorated at the cost of a more complex algorithm. While these algorithms are asymptotically efficient on random data, for practical efficiency on real-world data various modifications are used. First, the overhead of these algorithms becomes significant on smaller data, so often a hybrid algorithm is used, commonly switching to insertion sort once the data is small enough. Second, the algorithms often perform poorly on already sorted data or almost sorted data – these are common in real-world data, and can be sorted in O(n) time by appropriate algorithms. Finally, they may also be unstable, and stability is often a desirable property in a sort. Thus more sophisticated algorithms are often employed, such as Timsort (based on merge sort) or introsort (based on quicksort, falling back to heapsort). Merge sort takes advantage of the ease of merging already sorted lists into a new sorted list. It starts by comparing every two elements (i.e., 1 with 2, then 3 with 4...) and swapping them if the first should come after the second. It then merges each of the resulting lists of two into lists of four, then merges those lists of four, and so on; until at last two lists are merged into the final sorted list.[24] Of the algorithms described here, this is the first that scales well to very large lists, because its worst-case running time is O(n log n). It is also easily applied to lists, not only arrays, as it only requires sequential access, not random access. However, it has additional O(n) space complexity, and involves a large number of copies in simple implementations. Merge sort has seen a relatively recent surge in popularity for practical implementations, due to its use in the sophisticated algorithm Timsort, which is used for the standard sort routine in the programming languages Python[25] and Java (as of JDK7[26]). Merge sort itself is the standard routine in Perl,[27] among others, and has been used in Java at least since 2000 in JDK1.3.[28] Heapsort is a much more efficient version of selection sort. It also works by determining the largest (or smallest) element of the list, placing that at the end (or beginning) of the list, then continuing with the rest of the list, but accomplishes this task efficiently by using a data structure called a heap, a special type of binary tree.[29] Once the data list has been made into a heap, the root node is guaranteed to be the largest (or smallest) element. When it is removed and placed at the end of the list, the heap is rearranged so the largest element remaining moves to the root. Using the heap, finding the next largest element takes O(log n) time, instead of O(n) for a linear scan as in simple selection sort. This allows Heapsort to run in O(n log n) time, and this is also the worst case complexity. Quicksort is a divide-and-conquer algorithm which relies on a partition operation: to partition an array, an element called a pivot is selected.[30][31] All elements smaller than the pivot are moved before it and all greater elements are moved after it. This can be done efficiently in linear time and in-place. The lesser and greater sublists are then recursively sorted. This yields average time complexity of O(n log n), with low overhead, and thus this is a popular algorithm. Efficient implementations of quicksort (with in-place partitioning) are typically unstable sorts and somewhat complex, but are among the fastest sorting algorithms in practice. Together with its modest O(log n) space usage, quicksort is one of the most popular sorting algorithms and is available in many standard programming libraries. The important caveat about quicksort is that its worst-case performance is O(n2); while this is rare, in naive implementations (choosing the first or last element as pivot) this occurs for sorted data, which is a common case. The most complex issue in quicksort is thus choosing a good pivot element, as consistently poor choices of pivots can result in drastically slower O(n2) performance, but good choice of pivots yields O(n log n) performance, which is asymptotically optimal. For example, if at each step the median is chosen as the pivot then the algorithm works in O(n log n). Finding the median, such as by the median of mediansselection algorithm is however an O(n) operation on unsorted lists and therefore exacts significant overhead with sorting. In practice choosing a random pivot almost certainly yields O(n log n) performance. If a guarantee of O(n log n) performance is important, there is a simple modification to achieve that. The idea, due to Musser, is to set a limit on the maximum depth of recursion.[32] If that limit is exceeded, then sorting is continued using the heapsort algorithm. Musser proposed that the limit should be 1+2⌊log2⁡(n)⌋{\displaystyle 1+2\lfloor \log _{2}(n)\rfloor }, which is approximately twice the maximum recursion depth one would expect on average with a randomly ordered array. Shellsort was invented by Donald Shell in 1959.[33] It improves upon insertion sort by moving out of order elements more than one position at a time. The concept behind Shellsort is that insertion sort performs in O(kn){\displaystyle O(kn)} time, where k is the greatest distance between two out-of-place elements. This means that generally, they perform in O(n2), but for data that is mostly sorted, with only a few elements out of place, they perform faster. So, by first sorting elements far away, and progressively shrinking the gap between the elements to sort, the final sort computes much faster. One implementation can be described as arranging the data sequence in a two-dimensional array and then sorting the columns of the array using insertion sort. The worst-case time complexity of Shellsort is an open problem and depends on the gap sequence used, with known complexities ranging from O(n2) to O(n4/3) and Θ(n log2n). This, combined with the fact that Shellsort is in-place, only needs a relatively small amount of code, and does not require use of the call stack, makes it is useful in situations where memory is at a premium, such as in embedded systems and operating system kernels. Bubble sort, and variants such as the Comb sort and cocktail sort, are simple, highly inefficient sorting algorithms. They are frequently seen in introductory texts due to ease of analysis, but they are rarely used in practice. Bubble sort is a simple sorting algorithm. The algorithm starts at the beginning of the data set. It compares the first two elements, and if the first is greater than the second, it swaps them. It continues doing this for each pair of adjacent elements to the end of the data set. It then starts again with the first two elements, repeating until no swaps have occurred on the last pass.[34] This algorithm's average time and worst-case performance is O(n2), so it is rarely used to sort large, unordered data sets. Bubble sort can be used to sort a small number of items (where its asymptotic inefficiency is not a high penalty). Bubble sort can also be used efficiently on a list of any length that is nearly sorted (that is, the elements are not significantly out of place). For example, if any number of elements are out of place by only one position (e.g. 0123546789 and 1032547698), bubble sort's exchange will get them in order on the first pass, the second pass will find all elements in order, so the sort will take only 2n time. Comb sort is a relatively simple sorting algorithm based on bubble sort and originally designed by Włodzimierz Dobosiewicz in 1980.[36] It was later rediscovered and popularized by Stephen Lacey and Richard Box with a Byte Magazine article published in April 1991. The basic idea is to eliminate turtles, or small values near the end of the list, since in a bubble sort these slow the sorting down tremendously. (Rabbits, large values around the beginning of the list, do not pose a problem in bubble sort) It accomplishes this by initially swapping elements that are a certain distance from one another in the array, rather than only swapping elements if they are adjacent to one another, and then shrinking the chosen distance until it is operating as a normal bubble sort. Thus, if Shellsort can be thought of as a generalized version of insertion sort that swaps elements spaced a certain distance away from one another, comb sort can be thought of as the same generalization applied to bubble sort. Exchange sort is sometimes confused with bubble sort, although the algorithms are in fact distinct.[37][38] Exchange sort works by comparing the first element with all elements above it, swapping where needed, thereby guaranteeing that the first element is correct for the final sort order; it then proceeds to do the same for the second element, and so on. It lacks the advantage which bubble sort has of detecting in one pass if the list is already sorted, but it can be faster than bubble sort by a constant factor (one less pass over the data to be sorted; half as many total comparisons) in worst case situations. Like any simple O(n2) sort it can be reasonably fast over very small data sets, though in general insertion sort will be faster. Distribution sort refers to any sorting algorithm where data is distributed from their input to multiple intermediate structures which are then gathered and placed on the output. For example, both bucket sort and flashsort are distribution based sorting algorithms. Distribution sorting algorithms can be used on a single processor, or they can be a distributed algorithm, where individual subsets are separately sorted on different processors, then combined. This allows external sorting of data too large to fit into a single computer's memory. Counting sort is applicable when each input is known to belong to a particular set, S, of possibilities. The algorithm runs in O(\|S\| + n) time and O(\|S\|) memory where n is the length of the input. It works by creating an integer array of size \|S\| and using the ith bin to count the occurrences of the ith member of S in the input. Each input is then counted by incrementing the value of its corresponding bin. Afterward, the counting array is looped through to arrange all of the inputs in order. This sorting algorithm often cannot be used because S needs to be reasonably small for the algorithm to be efficient, but it is extremely fast and demonstrates great asymptotic behavior as n increases. It also can be modified to provide stable behavior. Bucket sort is a divide-and-conquer sorting algorithm that generalizes counting sort by partitioning an array into a finite number of buckets. Each bucket is then sorted individually, either using a different sorting algorithm, or by recursively applying the bucket sorting algorithm. A bucket sort works best when the elements of the data set are evenly distributed across all buckets. Radix sort is an algorithm that sorts numbers by processing individual digits. n numbers consisting of k digits each are sorted in O(n · k) time. Radix sort can process digits of each number either starting from the least significant digit (LSD) or starting from the most significant digit (MSD). The LSD algorithm first sorts the list by the least significant digit while preserving their relative order using a stable sort. Then it sorts them by the next digit, and so on from the least significant to the most significant, ending up with a sorted list. While the LSD radix sort requires the use of a stable sort, the MSD radix sort algorithm does not (unless stable sorting is desired). In-place MSD radix sort is not stable. It is common for the counting sort algorithm to be used internally by the radix sort. A hybrid sorting approach, such as using insertion sort for small bins, improves performance of radix sort significantly. When the size of the array to be sorted approaches or exceeds the available primary memory, so that (much slower) disk or swap space must be employed, the memory usage pattern of a sorting algorithm becomes important, and an algorithm that might have been fairly efficient when the array fit easily in RAM may become impractical. In this scenario, the total number of comparisons becomes (relatively) less important, and the number of times sections of memory must be copied or swapped to and from the disk can dominate the performance characteristics of an algorithm. Thus, the number of passes and the localization of comparisons can be more important than the raw number of comparisons, since comparisons of nearby elements to one another happen at system bus speed (or, with caching, even at CPU speed), which, compared to disk speed, is virtually instantaneous. For example, the popular recursive quicksort algorithm provides quite reasonable performance with adequate RAM, but due to the recursive way that it copies portions of the array it becomes much less practical when the array does not fit in RAM, because it may cause a number of slow copy or move operations to and from disk. In that scenario, another algorithm may be preferable even if it requires more total comparisons. One way to work around this problem, which works well when complex records (such as in a relational database) are being sorted by a relatively small key field, is to create an index into the array and then sort the index, rather than the entire array. (A sorted version of the entire array can then be produced with one pass, reading from the index, but often even that is unnecessary, as having the sorted index is adequate.) Because the index is much smaller than the entire array, it may fit easily in memory where the entire array would not, effectively eliminating the disk-swapping problem. This procedure is sometimes called "tag sort".[39] Another technique for overcoming the memory-size problem is using external sorting, for example one of the ways is to combine two algorithms in a way that takes advantage of the strength of each to improve overall performance. For instance, the array might be subdivided into chunks of a size that will fit in RAM, the contents of each chunk sorted using an efficient algorithm (such as quicksort), and the results merged using a k-way merge similar to that used in merge sort. This is faster than performing either merge sort or quicksort over the entire list.[40][41] Techniques can also be combined. For sorting very large sets of data that vastly exceed system memory, even the index may need to be sorted using an algorithm or combination of algorithms designed to perform reasonably with virtual memory, i.e., to reduce the amount of swapping required. Related problems include approximate sorting (sorting a sequence to within a certain amount of the correct order), partial sorting (sorting only the k smallest elements of a list, or finding the k smallest elements, but unordered) and selection (computing the kth smallest element). These can be solved inefficiently by a total sort, but more efficient algorithms exist, often derived by generalizing a sorting algorithm. The most notable example is quickselect, which is related to quicksort. Conversely, some sorting algorithms can be derived by repeated application of a selection algorithm; quicksort and quickselect can be seen as the same pivoting move, differing only in whether one recurses on both sides (quicksort, divide-and-conquer) or one side (quickselect, decrease-and-conquer). A kind of opposite of a sorting algorithm is a shuffling algorithm. These are fundamentally different because they require a source of random numbers. Shuffling can also be implemented by a sorting algorithm, namely by a random sort: assigning a random number to each element of the list and then sorting based on the random numbers. This is generally not done in practice, however, and there is a well-known simple and efficient algorithm for shuffling: the Fisher–Yates shuffle. Sorting algorithms are ineffective for finding an order in many situations. Usually when elements have no reliable comparison function (crowdsourced preferences like voting systems), comparisons are very costly (sports), or when it would be impossible to pairwise compare all elements for all criteria (search engines). In these cases, the problem is usually referred to as ranking and the goal is to find the "best" result for some criteria according to probabilities inferred from comparisons or rankings. A common example is in chess, where players are ranked with the Elo rating system, and rankings are determined by a tournament system instead of a sorting algorithm.	Θ(n log2n). This, combined with the fact that Shellsort is in-place, only needs a relatively small amount of code, and does not require use of the call stack, makes it is useful in situations where memory is at a premium, such as in embedded systems and operating system kernels. Bubble sort, and variants such as the Comb sort and cocktail sort, are simple, highly inefficient sorting algorithms. They are frequently seen in introductory texts due to ease of analysis, but they are rarely used in practice. Bubble sort is a simple sorting algorithm. The algorithm starts at the beginning of the data set. It compares the first two elements, and if the first is greater than the second, it swaps them. It continues doing this for each pair of adjacent elements to the end of the data set. It then starts again with the first two elements, repeating until no swaps have occurred on the last pass.[34] This algorithm's average time and worst-case performance is O(n2), so it is rarely used to sort large, unordered data sets. Bubble sort can be used to sort a small number of items (where its asymptotic inefficiency is not a high penalty). Bubble sort can also be used efficiently on a list of any length that is nearly sorted (that is, the elements are not significantly out of place). For example, if any number of elements are out of place by only one position (e.g. 0123546789 and 1032547698), bubble sort's exchange will get them in order on the first pass, the second pass will find all elements in order, so the sort will take only 2n time. Comb sort is a relatively simple sorting algorithm based on bubble sort and originally designed by Włodzimierz Dobosiewicz in 1980.[36] It was later rediscovered and popularized by Stephen Lacey and Richard Box with a Byte Magazine article published in April 1991. The basic idea is to eliminate turtles, or small values near the end of the list, since in a bubble sort these slow the sorting down tremendously. (Rabbits, large values around the beginning of the list, do not pose a problem in bubble sort)	yes
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	yes_statement	the "catholic" "church" is the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" is the one "true" "church".. the "true" "church" can be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_true_church	One true church - Wikipedia	The concept of schism somewhat moderates the competing claims between some churches—one can potentially repair schism, since they are striving for the same goal. For example, the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches each regard the other as schismatic and at very least heterodox, if not heretical,[5] yet both have held dialogues and even partaken in Councils in attempts to resolve the division that exists between them. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Christ founded only "one true Church", and that this one true Church is the Catholic Church with the bishop of Rome (the pope) as its supreme, infallible head and locus of communion.[8] From this follows that it regards itself as "the universal sacrament of salvation for the human race"[9] and the "only true religion". According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholic ecclesiology professes the Catholic Church to be the "sole Church of Christ"—i.e., the one true church defined as "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic" in the Four Marks of the Church in the Nicene Creed.[10] The Council of Nicea (AD 325) originally formulated this teaching and ratified the Nicene Creed. The church teaches that only the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ, who appointed the Twelve Apostles to continue his work as the Church's earliest bishops.[11] Catholic belief holds that the Church "is the continuing presence of Jesus on earth",[12] and that all duly-consecrated bishops have a lineal succession from the apostles.[13] In particular, the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), is considered the successor to the apostle Simon Peter, from whom the Pope derives his supremacy over the Church.[14] The 1943 papal encyclical Mystici corporis Christi further describes the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.[15] Thus the Catholic Church holds that "the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic ... This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him."[16] In Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII declared that "the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same thing." The Second Vatican Council repeated this teaching, stating in the Decree on the Eastern Churches: "The Holy Catholic Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, is made up of the faithful who are organically united in the Holy Spirit by the same faith, the same sacraments and the same government." In responding to some questions regarding the doctrine of the Church concerning itself, the Vatican's Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated[when?], "Clarius dicendum esset veram Ecclesiam esse solam Ecclesiam catholicam romanam..." ("It should be said more clearly that the Roman Catholic Church alone is the true Church..")[17] And it also clarified that the term subsistit in used in reference to the Church in the Second Vatican Council's 1964 decree Lumen gentium "indicates the full identity of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church". In the encyclical Mortalium animos of 6 January 1928, Pope Pius XI wrote that "in this one Church of Christ no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors" and quoted the statement of Lactantius: "The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true worship. This is the fount of truth, this the house of Faith, this the temple of God: if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation."[19] Accordingly, the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965 declared: "Whosoever, [...] knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.[9] In the same document, the Council continued: "The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter."[20] And in a decree on ecumenism, Unitatis redintegratio, it stated: "Catholics must gladly acknowledge and esteem the truly Christian endowments from our common heritage which are to be found among our separated brethren. It is right and salutary to recognise the riches of Christ and virtuous works in the lives of others who are bearing witness to Christ, sometimes even to the shedding of their blood. For God is always wonderful in His works and worthy of all praise."[21] The Catholic Church teaches that the fullness of the "means of salvation" exists only in the Catholic Church, but the church acknowledges that the Holy Spirit can make use of ecclesial communities separated from itself to "impel towards Catholic unity" and thus bring people to salvation in the Catholic Church ultimately. It teaches that anyone who is saved is saved through the Catholic Church but that people can be saved ex voto and by pre-baptismal martyrdom as well as when conditions of invincible ignorance are present,[22] although invincible ignorance in itself is not a means of salvation. Roman Catholic theology regards formal schismatics as outside the church, understanding by "formal schismatics" "persons who, knowing the true nature of the Church, have personally and deliberately committed the sin of schism".[23] The situation, for instance, of those who have been brought up from childhood within a group not in communion with Rome, and who are acting in good faith and have maintained almost the entirety of the orthodox faith, differs.[23] This nuanced view applies especially to the churches of Eastern Christianity, more particularly still to the Eastern Orthodox Church,[23] though doctrinal impediments still remain, such as disagreement over the primacy of the Roman See, papal infallibility, the nature of Purgatory, indulgences, the Immaculate Conception, and a few other important doctrines. ...one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered. — Augsburg Confession[25] The Lutheran Church views itself as the "main trunk of the historical Christian Tree" founded by Christ and the Apostles, holding that during the Reformation, the Church of Rome fell away.[1] The Augsburg Confession found within the Book of Concord, a compendium of belief of the Lutheran Churches, teaches that "the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true Catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church".[26] When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1530, they believe to have "showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils".[26] There can only be one true visible Church. Of this our Catechism speaks in Question 192: "Whom do we call the true visible Church?" Answer: "The whole number of those who have, teach and confess the entire doctrine of the Word of God in all its purity, and among whom the Sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's institution." That there can be but one true visible Church, and that, therefore, one is not just as good as another stands to reason because there is only one truth, one Bible, one Word of God. Evidently that Church which teaches this truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is the true visible Church. Christ says John 8, 31. 32: "If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Again Christ says Matt. 28, 20: "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Whatsoever He has commanded us, His Word, and nothing else, we should teach. And again, all things which He has commanded us we should teach. That, therefore is the true visible Church which does this. But that all visible Churches do not this is plain from the fact that they do not agree among themselves. If every Church would teach the whole truth and nothing but the truth as God has revealed it, there could be no difference. So, then, by calling other denominations Churches, we do not mean to say that one Church is just as good as another. Only that one is the true visible Church which teaches and confesses the entire doctrine of the Word of God in all its purity, and in whose midst the Sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's institution. Of all Churches, this can only be said of our Lutheran Church.[27] Many Baptists, who uphold the doctrine of Baptist successionism (also known as Landmarkism), "argue that their history can be traced across the centuries to New Testament times" and "claim that Baptists have represented the true church" that "has been, present in every period of history".[2][29] These Baptists maintain that those who held their views throughout history, including the "Montanists, Novatians, Patarenes, Bogomils, Paulicians, Arnoldists, Henricians, Albigenses, and Waldenses", were persecuted for their faith, a belief that these Baptists maintain to be "grand distinguishing mark of the true church".[30] In the introduction of The Trail of Blood, a Baptist text that explicates the doctrine of Baptist succession, Clarence Walker states that "The history of Baptists, he discovered, was written in blood. They were the hated people of the Dark Ages. Their preachers and people were put into prison and untold numbers were put to death."[31]J. M. Carroll, the author of the said text The Trail of Blood, also appeals to historian Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, who stated "Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay secreted in almost all the countries of Europe persons who adhered tenaciously to the principles of modern Dutch Baptists."[31] Walter B. Shurden, the founding executive director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University, writes that the theology of Landmarkism, which he states is integral of the history of the Southern Baptist Convention, upholds the ideas that "Only Baptist churches can trace their lineage in uninterrupted fashion back to the New Testament, and only Baptist churches therefore are true churches."[32] In addition Shurden writes that Baptists who uphold successionism believe that "only a true church-that is, a Baptist church-can legitimately celebrate the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Any celebration of these ordinances by non-Baptists is invalid."[29][32] Baptists who uphold this ecclesiology also do not characterize themselves as being a Protestant church due to their belief that "they did not descend from those churches that broke away in protest from the church of Rome. Rather, they had enjoyed a continuous historical existence from the time of the very first church in the New Testament days."[33] These views are generally no longer widely held in the Southern Baptist Convention although they are still taught by some Southern Baptist Churches and many independent Baptist churches, Primitive Baptists (Reformed Baptists), and some "congregations affiliated with the American Baptist Association."[34] The Amish, as with other Anabaptist Christians, believe that "the established church became corrupt, ineffectual, and displeasing to God."[35] The Amish believe that the true church is pure and separate from the world:[35] Amish fraternity is based upon the understanding of the church as a redemptive community. To express this corporateness they use the German term Gemeinde or the shorter dialect version pronounced Gemee. This concept expresses all the connotations of church, congregation, and community. The true church, they believe, had its origin in God's plan, and after the end of time the church will coexist with God through eternity. The true church is to be distinguished from the "fallen church". ... The church of God is composed of those who "have truly repented and rightly believed; who are rightly baptized ... and incorporated into the communion of saints on earth." The true church is "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation," and "a congregation of the righteous." The church of God is separate and completely different from the "bind perverted world." Furthermore, the church is "known by her evangelical faith, doctrine, love, and godly conversation; also by her pure walk and practice, and her observances of the true ordinances of Christ." The church must be "pure, unspotted and without blemish" (Eph. 5:27), capable of enforcing disciplinary measures to insure purity of life and separation from the world.[35] Although similar in some ways to other conservative Mennonite groups, the Holdeman church teaches that they are the one true church of Christ. Their doctrine of the one true church, based on Matthew 16:18 and other Scriptures, emphasizes the succession of true doctrine, practice, and teachers through the centuries, and the authority of the church under Christ.[36] As described in the tract The Glory of the True Church by Francis Howgill, the Religious Society of Friends traditionally believed that after the Apostolic Era, the "true Church fled into the wilderness" and "the false Church came into visibility".[38]George Fox and his followers "believed that they were called to carry out the true reformation, to restore apostolic Christianity, and to make a fresh beginning".[39] As such, "The Quaker community was the one true Church, and consequently those converted by Quaker preaching were expected to join it."[38][40] Among some Quakers, there became a "shift from being the one and only True Church to being a part of the True Church" and so "marriage with non-Quakers became accepted by many in the Quaker community", though "they still had to marry within the Meeting House, as well as gain approbation."[41] Methodists affirm belief in "the one true Church, Apostolic and Universal", viewing their Churches as constituting a "privileged branch of this true church".[43][44] With regard to the position of Methodism within Christendom, the founder of the movement "John Wesley once noted that what God had achieved in the development of Methodism was no mere human endeavor but the work of God. As such it would be preserved by God so long as history remained."[45] Calling it "the grand depositum" of the Methodist faith, Wesley specifically taught that the propagation of the doctrine of entire sanctification was the reason that God raised up the Methodists in the world.[46][42] The Seventh-Day Adventist Church (SDA Church) holds itself to be the one true church.[49] It specifically teaches that "it is the 'final remnant' of His true church [spanning] the centuries".[50]Seventh-day Adventist eschatology promulgates the idea that in the end times, there will be a "growing opposition between the 'true' church and the 'apostate' church."[51] According to Seventh-day Adventist theology, these apostates are referred to as "Babylon", which they state is an amalgam of religions (including other Christian denominations) that worship on Sunday rather than the Lord's Sabbath, Saturday (Exodus 20:8–11).[52] The SDA Church, in their view, "has drawn substantially on the biblical text, especially the books of Daniel and Revelation, to argue for its own status as the true remnant church which has a divine commission both to exist and to preach its apocalyptic message to the world at large."[53] In 1830, Joseph Smith established the Church of Christ in the belief that it was a restoration of original Christianity. In 1831 he declared it to be "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth".[55] Smith later reported in some versions of his First Vision in his teenage years, Jesus had told him that all churches that then existed "were all wrong; [and] that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight".[56] The Latter Day Saints combined their religion with "the spirit of nineteenth-century Romanticism" and, as a result, "never sought to recover the forms and structures of the ancient church as ends in themselves" but "sought to restore the golden age, recorded in both Old Testament and New Testament, when God broke into human history and communed directly with humankind."[48] The predominant organization within the movement is the LDS Church, which continues to teach that it is "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth".[57] The church teaches that all people who achieve the highest level of salvation must be baptized by one who holds the proper authority to perform such an ordinance; however, those who missed that opportunity in their lifetime may be included through a proxy baptism for the dead, in which a church member is baptized on their behalf inside a temple.[58][59] Most other Latter Day Saint churches claim to be the rightful continuation or successor of the church Smith established and therefore claim to be the one true church. However, the Community of Christ, the second-largest Latter Day Saint church, has recently de-emphasized this belief in favor of a position that the Community of Christ "is part of the whole body of Christ".[60] The church's canonized Doctrine and Covenants continues to contain the declaration that the church is the "only true and living church". The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) a Philippine-based Christian religion, like other restorationist groups, professes that it is the one church founded by Jesus. Adherents hold that the Iglesia ni Cristo ("Church of Christ" in Tagalog) is the only true church of Jesus Christ as restored through a human instrument (sugo) Felix Manalo. The church recognizes Jesus Christ as the founder of the Christian Church. Meanwhile, its reestablishment is seen as the signal for the end of days.[61][62] They believe that the church was apostatized by the 1st or 4th century due to false teachings.[63][64] The INC says that this apostate church is the Roman Catholic Church. Fear not for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west; I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not keep them back!' Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth. Members believe that the Iglesia ni Cristo is the fulfillment of the passage above. Based from their doctrines, "ends of the earth" pertains to the time the true church would be restored from apostasy and "east" refers to the Philippines where the "Church of Christ" would be founded. The INC teaches that its members constitute the "elect of God" and there is no salvation outside the INC. Faith alone is insufficient for salvation. The Iglesia ni Cristo says that the official name of the true church is "Church of Christ". The two passages often cited by INC to support this are Romans 16:16 "Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you"[65] and the George Lamsa translation of Acts 20:28: "Take heed therefore ... to feed the church of Christ which he has purchased with his blood."[66] ^ abMcGoldrick, James Edward (1 January 1994). Baptist Successionism: A Crucial Question in Baptist History. Scarecrow Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN9780810836815. Although the two most popular textbooks used in America to teach Baptist history cite Holland and England early in the seventeenth century as the birthplace of the Baptist churches, many Baptists object vehemently and argue that their history can be traced across the centuries to New Testament times. Some Baptists deny categorically that they are Protestants and that the history of their churches is related to the success of the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. Those who reject the Protestant character and Reformation origins of the Baptists usually maintain a view of church history sometimes called "Baptist successionism" and claim that Baptists have represented the true church, which must be, and has been, present in every period of history. The popularity of the successionist view has been enhanced enormously by a booklet entitled The Trail of Blood, of which thousands of copies have been distributed since it was published in 1931. ^Kinsman, Frederick Joseph (1924). Americanism and Catholicism. Longman. p. 203. The one most talked about is the "Branch Theory," which assumes that the basis of unity is a valid priesthood. Given the priesthood, it is held that valid Sacraments unite in spite of schisms. Those who hold it assume that the Church is composed of Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, eastern heretics possessing undisputed Orders, and Old Catholics, Anglicans, Swedish Lutherans, Moravians, and any others who might be able to demonstrate that they had perpetuated a valid hierarchy. This is chiefly identified with High Church Anglicans and represents the survival of a seventeenth century contention against Puritans, that Anglicans were not to be classed with Continental Protestants. ^Kreeft, p. 98, quote "The fundamental reason for being a Catholic is the historical fact that the Catholic Church was founded by Christ, was God's invention, not man's ... As the Father gave authority to Christ (Jn 5:22; Mt 28:18–20), Christ passed it on to his apostles (Lk 10:16), and they passed it on to the successors they appointed as bishops." ^ abLudwig, Alan (12 September 2016). "Luther's Catholic Reformation". The Lutheran Witness. When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession before Emperor Charles V in 1530, they carefully showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils and even the canon law of the Church of Rome. They boldly claim, "This is about the Sum of our Doctrine, in which, as can be seen, there is nothing that varies from the Scriptures, or from the Church Catholic, or from the Church of Rome as known from its writers" (AC XXI Conclusion 1). The underlying thesis of the Augsburg Confession is that the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true Catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church. In fact, it is actually the Church of Rome that has departed from the ancient faith and practice of the Catholic church (see AC XXIII 13, XXVIII 72 and other places). ^ abJohnson, Robert E. (13 September 2010). A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches. Cambridge University Press. p. 148. ISBN9781139788984. One was its belief that the Baptist Church was the only true church. Because only the Baptist Church was an authentically biblical church, all other so-called churches were merely human societies. This mean that only ordinances performed by this true church were valid. All other rites were simply rituals performed by leaders of religious societies. The Lord's Supper could correctly be administered only to members of the local congregation (closed communion). Pastors of other denominations could not be true pastors because their churches were not true churches. ^McGoldrick, James Edward (1 January 1994). Baptist Successionism: A Crucial Question in Baptist History. Scarecrow Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN9780810836815. The thesis of The Trail of Blood appears in its subtitle "Following the Christians Down through the Centuries ... or The History of Baptist Churches from the Time of Christ, Their Founder, to the Present Day." J.M. Carroll, author of this treatise, explained that the "blood" in the title signifies suffering, because the true church has been persecuted throughout history. In fact, it appears that Carroll and some other successionist authors have made the experience of suffering persecutions the grand distinguishing mark of the true church. Successionists admit, of course, that the name "Baptist" cannot be found in every period of the Christian era, but if a group dissented from the Roman Catholic Church and suffered for its nonconformity, successionists have been quick to cite such groups as baptistic proponents of biblical Christianity. In this way, ancient and medieval religious movements such as the Montanists, Novatians, Patarenes, Bogomils, Paulicians, Arnoldists, Henricians, Albigenses, and Waldenses have been inducted into the line of "Baptist" succession. ^ abShurden, Walter B. (1993). The Struggle for the Soul of the SBC: Moderate Responses to the Fundamentalist Movement. Mercer University Press. p. 103. ISBN9780865544246. Also, and perhaps more important for this study, The Trail of Blood should be remembered because it was one of the principal documents to support Landmarkism. No historical or doctrinal aberration, I believe, affected Southern Baptist thinking more during the nineteenth century-and still shapes Southern Baptist ecclesiology, especially in the Southwest-than that of Landmarkism. What were the teachings of J.R. Graves, J.M. Pendleton, A.C. Dayton-a dentist converted from Presbyterianism to Baptist Landmarkism-and J.M. Carroll? Briefly, proponents of Landmarkism insisted (1) There is no such entity as the "invisible church" or the "Church Universal." There are only local churches. (2) Only Baptist churches bear the marks of the true New Testament church. (3) Only Baptist churches can trace their lineage in uninterrupted fashion back to the New Testament, and only Baptist churches therefore are true churches. (4) If you want to see the Kingdom of God at work, look at Baptist churches for they are the only visible signs of the Kingdom of God. In fact Landmarkism insisted, Baptist churches and the Kingdom of God are really two sides of the same coin. (5) All other so-called churches are counterfeit, imitations, or "human societies" as the Landmarkers called them, and Baptists should have no dealings whatsoever with them. (6) Finally, only a true church-that is, a Baptist church-can legitimately celebrate the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Any celebration of these ordinances by non-Baptists is invalid. ^Slatton, James H. (2009). W.H. Whitsitt: The Man and the Controversy. Mercer University Press. pp. 14–15. ISBN9780881461336. Landmark Baptists insisted that Baptist churches should not be referred to as Protestant churches at all because they did not descend from those churches that broke away in protest from the church of Rome. Rather, they had enjoyed a continuous historical existence from the time of the very first church in the New Testament days. ^Leonard, Bill J. (13 August 2013). Baptists in America. Columbia University Press. p. 1819. ISBN9780231501712. Landmarkism continue to affect Baptist polity (government) and practice throughout the twentieth century, particularly with regard to questions of open and closed communion, "alien immersion," and support of missionaries through mission societies. Some Independent Baptist churches, congregations affiliated with the American Baptist Association (ABA), and the Primitive Baptists continue to affirm and promote Landmark views. ^Angell, Stephen Ward; Angell, Stephen W.; Dandelion, Pink (26 September 2013). The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies. Oxford University Press. p. 1. ISBN9780199608676. Fox preached that this was an age of a new covenant with God, the beginning of the end of the world. Quakers represented the true church and the only right way to a salvation available in this life, but all could become Quakers. All could realize salvation and consequent perfection. ^Höschele, Stefan (1 January 2007). Christian Remnant-African Folk Church: Seventh-Day Adventism in Tanzania, 1903–1980. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 27. ISBN9789004162334. In Europe and America, Aventists would ... present themselves as the true church and preach that other denominations had become "Babylon" and were therefore not churches of God any more.	This is the fount of truth, this the house of Faith, this the temple of God: if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. "[19] Accordingly, the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965 declared: "Whosoever, [...] knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.[9] In the same document, the Council continued: "The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter."[20] And in a decree on ecumenism, Unitatis redintegratio, it stated: "Catholics must gladly acknowledge and esteem the truly Christian endowments from our common heritage which are to be found among our separated brethren. It is right and salutary to recognise the riches of Christ and virtuous works in the lives of others who are bearing witness to Christ, sometimes even to the shedding of their blood. For God is always wonderful in His works and worthy of all praise. "[21] The Catholic Church teaches that the fullness of the "means of salvation" exists only in the Catholic Church, but the church acknowledges that the Holy Spirit can make use of ecclesial communities separated from itself to "impel towards Catholic unity" and thus bring people to salvation in the Catholic Church ultimately. It teaches that anyone who is saved is saved through the Catholic Church but that people can be saved ex voto and by pre-baptismal martyrdom as well as when conditions of invincible ignorance are present,[22] although invincible ignorance in itself is not a means of salvation.	yes
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	yes_statement	the "catholic" "church" is the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" is the one "true" "church".. the "true" "church" can be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/how-do-we-know-its-the-true-church	How Do We Know It's the True Church? \| Catholic Answers	How Do We Know It’s the True Church? My conversion to the Catholic faith began in the world of Protestant fundamentalism. After being brought up in an independent Bible church, I attended the fundamentalist Bob Jones University. While there I became an Anglican; later, I went to England to become an Anglican priest. My pilgrimage of faith came to a crisis in the early 1990s as the Anglican Church struggled over the question of the ordination of women. By instinct I was against the innovation, but I wanted to be positive and affirm new ideas rather than reject them just because they were new. I decided to put my prejudices to one side and listen as openly as possible to both sides of the debate. As I listened I realized that from a human point of view, both the people in favor of women’s ordination and those against it had some good arguments. Both sides argued from Scripture, tradition, and reason. Both sides argued from practicality, compassion and justice. Both sides honestly considered their arguments to be persuasive. Furthermore, both sides were composed of prayerful, church-going, sincere Christians who genuinely believed the Holy Spirit was directing them. How could both be right? From a human point of view, both arguments could be sustained. This led me to a real consideration of the question of authority in the Church. I realized that the divisions over women’s ordination in the Anglican Church were no different, in essence, than every other debate that has divided the thousands of Protestant denominations. Some groups split over women’s ordination; others split over whether women should wear hats to church. Some split over doctrinal issues; others split over moral issues. Whatever the issue and whatever the split, the basic problem is one of authority. If Christians have a sincere disagreement, who decides? Wobbly Three-Legged Stool Evangelical Protestants say the Bible decides, but this begs the question when the two warring parties agree that the Bible is the final authority. They eventually split because they can’t agree about what the Bible actually teaches. I had moved away from the Protestant understanding that Scripture is the only authority, and as an Anglican, believed that authority rested in Scripture, tradition, and reason. Anglicans call this the “three-legged stool.” By turning to Scripture, tradition, and human reason they hope to have a secure teaching authority. I came to realize, however, that this solution also begs the question. Just as we have to ask the Protestant who believes in sola scriptura, “Whose interpretation of Scripture?,” we have to ask the Anglican, “Whose reason and whose tradition?” In the debate over women’s ordination (and now in the debate over homosexuality), both sides appeal to human reason, Scripture and tradition, and they come up with wildly different conclusions. In the end, the Anglican appeal to a three-legged stool relies on individual interpretation, just as the Protestant appeals to sola scriptura. The three-legged stool turns out to be a theological pogo stick. A Son of Benedict Speaks About this time I had a conversation with the Abbot of Quarr Abbey (a Catholic Benedictine monastery on the Isle of Wight). He listened to my situation with compassion and interest. I explained that I did not want to deny women’s ordination. I wanted to affirm all things that were good, and I could see some good arguments in favor of women’s ordination. He admired this desire to affirm all things but he said something that set me thinking further: Sometimes we have to deny some lesser good in order to affirm the greater good. I think you have to deny women’s ordination in order to affirm the apostolic ministry. If the apostolic authority says no to women’s ordination, then to affirm the greater good of apostolic authority you will have to deny the lesser good of women’s ordination. Because if we deny the greater good, then eventually we will lose the lesser good as well. He hit the nail on the head. His words led me to explore the basis for authority in the Catholic Church. I already had read and pretty much accepted the Scriptural support for the Petrine ministry in the Church. I also had come to understand and value the four-fold marks of the True Church—that it is “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.” As I studied and pondered the matter further, however, I saw twelve other traits of the church’s authority. These twelve traits—in six paired sets—helped me to understand how comprehensive and complete the Catholic claims of authority are. I came to realize that other churches and ecclesial bodies might claim some of the traits, but only the Catholic Church demonstrated all twelve fully. It Is Rooted in History . . . What are the twelve traits of authority, and how do they work? We have to ask what a group of Christians who were deliberating a difficult matter would need to make their decision. First of all, it seems clear that their decision would have to be made from a historical perspective. It was not good enough to decide complex moral, social, or doctrinal issues based on popularity polls or yesterday’s newspaper. To decide difficult questions, a valid authority has to be historical. By this I mean not only does it has to have an understanding of history, but itself must be rooted in history. In addition, the authority has to show a real continuity with the historical experience of Christianity. The churches that have existed for four or five hundred years can demonstrate this to a degree, but only the Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) Church has a living link with history that goes back to Roman times—and then, through Judaism, back to the beginning of human history. . . . and Adaptable The historical link is essential, but on its own is not sufficient. Historical authority has to be balanced with the ability to be up to date. An authority that is only historical becomes ossified. It never changes. An authority that cannot be up to date is not only rooted in history, it is bound by history. A valid authority structure needs to be flexible and adaptable. Christians face complex modern moral and doctrinal dilemmas. A valid authority system draws on the wisdom of the past to rule properly on the questions of the present. It Is Objective . . . A third quality of a valid authority system is that it needs to be objective. By this I mean it needs to be independent of any one person’s or group’s agenda, ideology, philosophy or self-interest. A valid authority transcends all political, economic, and cultural pressures. The objective quality of this authority system also allows it to make decisions that are unpopular or that go against the spirit of the times and majority opinion. An objective authority is based on certain universal basic assumptions, immutable principles, and observable and undeniable premises. From these objective criteria the valid authority system builds its teaching. . . . and Flexible For the authority to be valid, however, it cannot rely on abstract principles and objective criteria alone. The valid authority is suitably subjective in applying objective principles. In other words, it understands that the complexities of real life and the pastoral exigencies of helping real people demand a flexible, practical, and down-to-earth application. The Catholic authority system does just that. Throughout the Code of Canon Law, for example, we are reminded that the law is there to serve the people of God in their quest for salvation. Individual Christians, or particular Christian groups, often fall into one side of this pair or the other. The rigorists or legalists want everything to be objective and “black and white” all the time, while the liberals or sentimentalists want every decision to be relative, open-ended, and flexible according to the pastoral needs. Only the Catholic system can hold the two in tension, because only the Catholic system has an infallible authority which can keep the two sides balanced. It Is Universal . . . An authority that can speak to all situations can only do so if it comes from a universal source. This source of authority needs to be universal not only geographically, but also chronologically. In other words, it transcends national agendas and limitations, but it also transcends the cultural trends and intellectual fashions of any particular time. Every church or ecclesial structure other than the Catholic Church is limited, either by its historical foundations or by its cultural and national identity. For example, the Eastern Orthodox find it very hard to transcend their national identity, while the churches of the Reformed tradition struggle to transcend the particular cultural issues that surround their foundation. The national, cultural, and chronological identities of other ecclesial bodies limit their ability to speak with a universal voice. When they do move away from their foundations they usually find themselves at sea amidst the fashions and trends of the present day. They also find that they lose their distinctive identities when they drift from their foundations. A universal authority system, on the other hand, transcends both chronological and geographical limitations. . . . and Local However, this universal authority needs to be applied in a particular and local way. An authority that is only universal remains vague, abstract, and disincarnate. For a universal authority system to be valid, it also must be expressed locally. Catholicism speaks with a universal voice, but it is also as local as St. Patrick’s Church and Fr. Magee on the corner of Chestnut Street. Not only does the universal Church have a local outlet, but that outlet has a certain autonomy which allows it to be flexible in its application of the universal authority. Catholicism travels well, and because of the universal authority structure, it can allow far more varieties of enculturation at the local level than churches which are more bound by the time and place of their foundations. It Is Intellectually Challenging . . . The fourth pair of characteristics that demonstrate the validity of the Catholic authority system include its intellectual satisfaction and its accessibility. If an authority system is to speak to the complexities of the human situation, then it must be able to hold its own with the philosophical and intellectual experts in every field of human endeavor. What other ecclesial system can marshal experts from every area of human expertise to speak authoritatively in matters of faith and morals? Time and again, the Catholic Church has been able to speak with authority about the spiritual dimension of economics, ethics, politics, diplomacy, the arts, and philosophy. This authority must not only be able to hold its own with the intellectual experts in all fields, but it must be intellectually satisfying and coherent within itself. A unified and complete intellectual system must be able to explain the world as it is. Furthermore, this intellectual system must continually develop and be re-expressed—always interpreting ageless truth in a way that is accessible for the age in which it lives. This intellectual system must be an integral and vital part of the religion, while also being large enough to self-criticize. Only the Catholic faith has such an all-encompassing, impressive system of teaching. . . . and Accessible to the Uneducated Nonetheless, while the authority system must be intellectually top notch, the religious system must also be accessible to peasants and the illiterate. A religious system that is only intellectual or appeals merely to the literate can speak only for the intellectuals and literate. Some denominations appeal to the simple and unlearned, but have trouble keeping the top minds. Others appeal to the educated elite, but lose the masses. Catholicism, on the other hand, is a religion of the greatest minds of history and the religion of ignorant peasants. It is a religion that is complex enough for St. Thomas Aquinas and simple enough for St. Joseph Cupertino. It has room at the manger for both the magi and the shepherds. It Is Visible . . . As a Protestant I was taught that the Church was invisible. That is, it consisted of all people everywhere who believed in Jesus, and that the true members of the Church were known to God alone. This is true, but there is more to it than that. Invisibility and visibility make up the fifth paired set of characteristics that mark the truly authoritative church. The Church is made up of all people everywhere who trust in Christ. However, this characteristic alone is not satisfactory because human beings locked in the visible plane of reality also demand that the Church be visible. Even those who believe only in the invisible church belong to a particular church which they attend every Sunday. Those who believe only in the invisible church must conclude that the church they go to doesn’t really matter. . . . and Invisible The Catholic system of authority recognizes both the invisible dimension of the Church and the visible. The Church is greater than what we can observe, but the church we observe is also greater than we think. The invisible Church subsists in the Catholic Church, and while you may not be able to identify the extent of the invisible Church, you can with certainty point to the Catholic Church and say, “There is the Body of Christ.” A few small Protestant denominations claim that their visible church is the true church, but their claims are ludicrous because they have none of the other twelve traits of true authority. Because it has all these traits, only the Catholic Church can claim to be the living, historical embodiment of the Body of Christ on earth. It is Both Human and Divine Finally, for the church to speak with authority it must be both human and divine. An authority that speaks only with a divine voice lacks the authenticity that comes with human experience. So Islam and Mormonism, which are both based on a book supposedly dictated by angels, are unsatisfactory because their authority is supernaturally imposed on the human condition. On the other hand, a religion that is purely a construct of the human condition is merely a system of good works, religious techniques, or good ideas. Christian Science or Unitarianism, for example, is developed from human understandings and natural goodness. As such, both lack a supernatural voice of authority. The Judeo-Christian story, however, is both human and divine. The voice of authority is always expressed through human experience and human history. Divine inspiration in the Judeo-Christian tradition is God’s word spoken through human words. This incarnated form of authority finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who hands on his totally incarnated authority to Peter and his successors. Built upon the Rock Some Churches may exercise some of the twelve traits, but only the Catholic Church is able to field all twelve as a foundation for decision-making. When the Catholic Church pronounces on any difficult question, the response is historical, but up to date. It is based on objective principles but applies to specific needs. The Church’s authority transcends space and time, but it is relevant to a particular place and time. The response will be intellectually profound, but expressed in a way that is simple enough for anyone to apply. Finally, it will express truths that are embedded in the human experience, but spring from divine inspiration. This authority works infallibly through the active ministry of the whole Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that it is Christ who is infallible, and he grants a measure of his infallibility to his body, the Church. That infallibility is worked out through these twelve traits, but it is expressed most majestically and fully through Christ’s minister of infallibility: one person—the Rock on which the Church is built, Peter and his successors.	Even those who believe only in the invisible church belong to a particular church which they attend every Sunday. Those who believe only in the invisible church must conclude that the church they go to doesn’t really matter. . . . and Invisible The Catholic system of authority recognizes both the invisible dimension of the Church and the visible. The Church is greater than what we can observe, but the church we observe is also greater than we think. The invisible Church subsists in the Catholic Church, and while you may not be able to identify the extent of the invisible Church, you can with certainty point to the Catholic Church and say, “There is the Body of Christ.” A few small Protestant denominations claim that their visible church is the true church, but their claims are ludicrous because they have none of the other twelve traits of true authority. Because it has all these traits, only the Catholic Church can claim to be the living, historical embodiment of the Body of Christ on earth. It is Both Human and Divine Finally, for the church to speak with authority it must be both human and divine. An authority that speaks only with a divine voice lacks the authenticity that comes with human experience. So Islam and Mormonism, which are both based on a book supposedly dictated by angels, are unsatisfactory because their authority is supernaturally imposed on the human condition. On the other hand, a religion that is purely a construct of the human condition is merely a system of good works, religious techniques, or good ideas. Christian Science or Unitarianism, for example, is developed from human understandings and natural goodness. As such, both lack a supernatural voice of authority. The Judeo-Christian story, however, is both human and divine. The voice of authority is always expressed through human experience and human history. Divine inspiration in the Judeo-Christian tradition is God’s word spoken through human words. This incarnated form of authority finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who hands on his totally incarnated authority to Peter and his successors. Built upon the Rock Some Churches may exercise some of the twelve traits, but only the Catholic Church is able to field all twelve as a foundation for decision-making.	yes
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	yes_statement	the "catholic" "church" is the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" is the one "true" "church".. the "true" "church" can be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://www.joshuatcharles.com/blog/2022/4/30/becoming-catholic-22-what-did-the-ancient-church-believe-the-catholic-church-is-the-one-true-church	Becoming Catholic #22: What Did the Ancient Church Believe? The ...	Becoming Catholic #22: What Did the Ancient Church Believe? The Catholic Church is the One True Church Making Wisdom Popular The “Becoming Catholic” blog series is a multi-part, multi-year, bite-size, fact-focused attempt at describing the journey of a lifelong protestant to the Catholic Church. You can read all the individual articles here. Growing up protestant, I took for granted the idea that there could be many Christian churches who, despite disagreeing on many fundamental issues, could nonetheless be considered part of one “church.” In other words, we could have different doctrines (Faith), independent congregations and denominations (government), and different forms of worship (sacraments), but we nonetheless could be “one church.” In other words, long before I had read a single Catholic, and while still considering the Catholic Church probably apostate, if not quasi-pagan, I saw that the idea of “church” everywhere around me was simply not biblical. This was despite the fact that many protestants call their congregations “Bible churches,” and claim they are following Scripture. But when I began reading the Church Fathers, I saw something very different. Beginning in the earliest days of Christianity, they referred to the Church in a particular way: they called it the “Catholic Church.” The Greek origins of the word “Catholic” are derived from kata (“according to”) holos (“the whole”), or simply “universal.” This term was everywhere, beginning with St. Ignatius of Antioch around AD 107, who was discipled by the Apostle John, and fed to beasts as a martyr in the Roman Coliseum. (See Becoming Catholic #3, #5, #6, #8, and #10 on Church Authority, and Saint Ignatius the Red Pill) St. Ignatius uses the term in several letters to different local churches without any detailed exposition of it, which implies it was already in use up to that point, and they knew what he was referring to. In every century afterward, in East and West, in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, you everywhere see the same term applied to the one true Church. The earliest Councils spoke of the “Catholic Church,” and of its membership. It is everywhere assumed and defended that to be a Christian meant one needed to be part of this one and only Catholic Church, which shared a common Faith, government, and sacraments. I was stunned by what I was reading. It could not have been more different than the various protestant ideas to which I had been exposed throughout my life—which was all the more disconcerting, given our own historical mythos of having recovered “the gospel” of the ancient Church, which had, we claimed, been distorted, perverted, and corrupted by the Catholic Church. But when I actually read the Fathers, they were claiming the exact opposite: the true Faith is only found in the Catholic Church, to which all Christians must belong! This ultimately made biblical and logical sense. If there is one true Faith, then that Faith must be the same everywhere, for everyone. Truth is necessarily exclusive. And if that Faith is imparted to those who are part of the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is the Church, this necessarily implies that the true Faith exists in only one Church, not among all who merely claim to be “churches” but digress from this Faith. I recognized this even as a non-Catholic reader of the Fathers. Apparently, it was obvious to many other scholars as well, including the protestant (Anglican) scholar J.N.D. Kelly, who in his classic work, Early Christian Doctrines, addressed the use of the term “Catholic” by the Fathers[1]: As regards ‘Catholic,’ its original meaning was ‘universal’ or ‘general’…As applied to the Church, its primary significance was to underline its universality as opposed to the local character of the individual congregations. Very quickly, however, in the latter half of the second century at latest, we find it conveying the suggestion that the Catholic is the true Church as distinct from the heretical congregations. In all this there is implied a distinctive, if far from consciously formulated, ecclesiology. If the Church is one, it is so in virtue of the divine life pulsing through it. Called into existence by God, it is no more a mere man-made agglomerate than was God’s ancient people Israel. It is in fact the body of Christ, forming a spiritual unity with Him as close as His unity with the Father, so that Christians can be called His ’members.’ As the incarnation is the union of seen with unseen, flesh with spirit, so Ignatius teaches that the Church is at once flesh and Spirit, its unity being the union of both. And it is a holy community within which the divine Spirit lives and operates. Among the multiplicity of local bodies making up this community, he seems to suggest that the Roman church occupies a special position; he speaks of the church ‘which has the primacy (προκάάθηται) in the place of the region of the Romans.’… What these early fathers were envisaging was almost always the empirical, visible society; they had little or no inkling of the distinction which was later to become important between a visible and an invisible Church. So while protestants, despite their myriad of disagreements, often agree on defining their identity as non-Catholic, I found everywhere in the ancient Church that one of the marks of believing the true Faith was actually being a member of the Catholic Church, and assenting to Her teachings. Even more interesting is the fact that the phenomena of people separating from the Church but nonetheless claiming to be true Christians was nothing new. The Fathers address it everywhere, and condemn it. And among all those who did so—heretics—even they did not resemble modern protestant sects. In short, while I had assumed my whole life that Christians could differ in Faith, in government, and in sacraments (though I could not harmonize this with Scripture), I found the ancient Church universally believed the opposite, and everywhere asserted that the Catholic Church was the one true Church established by Christ. Here is a small but illustrative collection of quotes from the Church Fathers on this topic. (Quote Archive: The Catholic Church is the One True Church forthcoming) Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. This, then, is the account of the blessed Polycarp, who, being the twelfth that was martyred in Smyrna (reckoning those also of Philadelphia), yet occupies a place of his own in the memory of all men, insomuch that he is everywhere spoken of by the heathen themselves. He was not merely an illustrious teacher, but also a pre-eminent martyr, whose martyrdom all desire to imitate, as having been altogether consistent with the Gospel of Christ. For, having through patience overcome the unjust governor, and thus acquired the crown of immortality, he now, with the apostles and all the righteous [in heaven], rejoicingly glorifies God, even the Father, and blesses our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of our souls, the Governor of our bodies, and the Shepherd of the Catholic Church throughout the world. Muratorian Fragment (c. AD 178) [Paul also wrote] out of affection and love one to Philemon, one to Titus, and two to Timothy; and these are held sacred in the esteem of the Catholic Church for the regulation of ecclesiastical discipline. There is current also [a letter] to the Laodiceans, [and] another to the Alexandrians, [both] forged in Paul’s name to [further] the heresy of Marcion, and several others that cannot be received into the Catholic Church—for it is not fitting that gall be mixed with honey. Moreover, the letter of Jude and two of the above-mentioned (or, bearing the name of) John are counted (or, used) in the Catholic [Church]; and [the book of] Wisdom, written by the friends of Solomon in his honor. Where was Marcion [the heretic] then, that shipmaster of Pontus, the zealous student of Stoicism? Where was Valentinus then, the disciple of Platonism? For it is evident that those men lived not so long ago—in the reign of Antoninus for the most part—and that they at first were believers in the doctrine of the Catholic Church, in the church of Rome under the episcopate of the blessed Eleutherus, until on account of their ever-restless curiosity, with which they even infected the brethren, they were more than once expelled. (§8) …[T]hey alone have remained without, who even, if they had been within, would have had to be cast out. Nor does the Lord, the protector of His people, and their guardian, suffer the wheat to be snatched from His floor; but the chaff alone can be separated from the Church, since also the apostle says, “For what if some of them have departed from the faith? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect? God forbid; for God is true, but every man a liar.” [Rom. 3:3-4] And the Lord also in the Gospel, when disciples forsook Him as He spoke, turning to the twelve, said, “‘Will you also go away?’ then Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the word of eternal life; and we believe, and are sure, that You are the Son of the living God.’” [John 6:67-69] Peter speaks there, on whom the Church was to be built, teaching and showing in the name of the Church, that although a rebellious and arrogant multitude of those who will not hear and obey may depart, yet the Church does not depart from Christ; and they are the Church who are a people united to the priest, and the flock which adheres to its pastor. Whence you ought to know that the bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the bishop; and if anyone be not with the bishop, that he is not in the Church, and that those flatter themselves in vain who creep in, not having peace with God's priests, and think that they communicate secretly with some; while the Church, which is Catholic and one, is not cut nor divided, but is indeed connected and bound together by the cement of priests who cohere with one another. Council of Nicaea I, Original Appendix to the Nicene Creed; Canon 8; Canon 19 (AD 325) But those who say: “There was [a time] when he [the Son] was not,” and “before he was born, he was not,” and “because he was made from non-existing matter, he is neither of another substance or essence,” and those who call “God the Son of God changeable and mutable,” these the Catholic Church anathematizes… Concerning those who call themselves Cathari [Novatians], that is, “the Clean,” if at any time they come to the Catholic Church, it has been decided by the holy and great council that, provided they receive the imposition of hands, they remain among the clergy. However, because they are accepting and following the doctrines of the Catholic and apostolic Church, it is fitting that they acknowledge this in writing before all; that is, that they communicate with the twice married and with those who have lapsed during a persecution… Concerning the Paulianists who take refuge with the Catholic Church, a decree has been published that they should be fully baptized. If, however, any of these in times past have been in the clerical order, if they have appeared spotless and above reproach, after being baptized let them be ordained by the bishop of the Catholic Church. (§23) [The Church] is called catholic then because it extends over all the world, from one end of the earth to the other; and because it teaches universally and completely the doctrines that ought to come to men’s knowledge, concerning things both visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly; and because it brings into subjection to godliness the whole race of mankind, governors and governed, learned and unlearned; and because it universally treats and heals the whole class of sins that are committed by soul or body, and possess in itself every form of virtue that is named, both in deeds and words, and in every spiritual gift… (§26) But since the word Ecclesia is applied to different things (as also it is written of the multitude in the theatre of the Ephesians, And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the Assembly [Acts 19:14]), and since one might properly and truly say that there is a Church of evil doers, I mean the meetings of the heretics, the Marcionists and Manichees, and the rest, for this cause the Faith has securely delivered to you now the Article [of the Creed], “And in one Holy Catholic Church,” that you may avoid their wretched meetings, and ever abide with the Holy Church Catholic in which you were regenerated. And if ever you are sojourning in cities, inquire not simply where the Lord’s House is (for the other sects of the profane also attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord), nor merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God (for it is written, As Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it [Eph. 5:25], and all the rest,) and is a figure and copy of Jerusalem which is above, which is free, and the mother of us all [Gal. 4:26]; which before was barren, but now has many children. And [we believe] in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And [we believe] in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, [and] we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen… Those who embrace orthodoxy and join the number of those who are being saved from the heretics, we receive in the following regular and customary manner: Arians, Macedonians, Sabbatians, Novatians, those who call themselves Cathars and Aristeri, Quartodecimians or Tetradites, Apollinarians—these we receive when they had in statements and anathematize every heresy that is not of the same mind as the holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church of God. We must hold fast the Christian religion and the communion of the Church which is Catholic, and is called Catholic not only by its own members but also by all its enemies. Whether they will or no, heretics and schismatics use no other name for it than the name of Catholic, when they speak of it not among themselves but with outsiders. They cannot make themselves understood unless they designate it by this name which is in universal use. [W]e believe also in The Holy Church, [intending thereby] assuredly the Catholic . For both heretics and schismatics style their congregations churches. But heretics, in holding false opinions regarding God, do injury to the faith itself; while schismatics, on the other hand, in wicked separations break off from brotherly charity, although they may believe just what we believe. Wherefore neither do the heretics belong to the Church catholic, which loves God; nor do the schismatics form a part of the same, inasmuch as it loves the neighbor, and consequently readily forgives the neighbor’s sins, because it prays that forgiveness may be extended to itself by Him who has reconciled us to Himself, doing away with all past things, and calling us to a new life. (Ch. 4, §5) For in the Catholic Church, not to speak of the purest wisdom, the knowledge of which a few spiritual men attain in this life, so as to know it, in the scantiest measure, indeed, because they are but men, still without any uncertainty (since the rest of the multitude derived their entire security not from acuteness of intellect, but from simplicity of faith)—not to speak of this wisdom, which you do not believe to be in the Catholic Church, there are many other things that most justly keep me in her bosom. The consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, in augurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after his Resurrection, gave it in charge to feed his sheep, down to the present episcopate. And so, lastly, does the name itself of Catholic, which, not without reason, amid so many heresies, the Church has thus retained; so that, though all heretics wish to be called Catholics, yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets, no heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or house. Such then in number and importance are the previous ties belonging to the Christian name that keep a believer in the Catholic Church, as it is right they should, though from the slowness of our understanding, or the small attainment of our life, the truth may not yet fully disclose itself. But with you, where there are none of these things to attract or keep me, the promise of truth is the only thing that comes into play. Now if the trust is so clearly proved as to leave no possibility of doubt, it must be set before all the things that keep me in the Catholic Church; but if there is only a promise without any fulfilment, no one shall move me from the faith that binds my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion… (Ch. 5, §6) …If you should find some who does not yet believe in the gospel, what would you [Mani] answer him when he says, “I do not believe”? Indeed, I would not believe in the gospel myself if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so. (§4) I have often then inquired earnestly and attentively of very m any men eminent for sanctity and learning, how and by what sure and universal rule I may be able to distinguish the truth of Catholic faith from the falsehood of heretical pravity; and I have always, and in almost every instance, received an answer to this effect: That whether I or anyone else should wish to detect the frauds and avoid the snares of heretics as they rise, and to continue sound and complete in the Catholic faith, we must, the Lord helping, fortify our own belief in two ways: first, by the authority of the divine law, and them, by the Tradition of the Catholic Church. (§5) But here someone perhaps will ask, Since the canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for everything, and more than sufficient, what need is there to join with it the authority of the Church’s interpretation? For this reason—because, owing to the depth of Holy Scripture, all do not accept it in one and the same sense, but one understands its words in one way, another in another; so that it seems to be capable of as many interpretations as there are interpreters. For Novatian expounds it one way, Sabellius another, Donatus another, Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, another, Photinus, Apollinarius, Priscillian, another, Iovinian, Pelagius, Celestius, another, and lastly, Nestorius another. Therefore, it is very necessary, on account of so great intricacies of such various error, that the rule for the right understanding of the prophets and apostles should be framed in accordance with the standards of ecclesiastical and Catholic interpretation. (§6) Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense Catholic, which, as the name itself and the reason of the things declare, comprehends all universally. Since in certain provinces readers and cantors have been allowed to marry, this sacred synod decrees that none of them is permitted to marry a wife of heterodox views. If those thus married have already had children, and if they have already had the children baptized among heretics, they are to bring them into the communion of the Catholic Church.	It is everywhere assumed and defended that to be a Christian meant one needed to be part of this one and only Catholic Church, which shared a common Faith, government, and sacraments. I was stunned by what I was reading. It could not have been more different than the various protestant ideas to which I had been exposed throughout my life—which was all the more disconcerting, given our own historical mythos of having recovered “the gospel” of the ancient Church, which had, we claimed, been distorted, perverted, and corrupted by the Catholic Church. But when I actually read the Fathers, they were claiming the exact opposite: the true Faith is only found in the Catholic Church, to which all Christians must belong! This ultimately made biblical and logical sense. If there is one true Faith, then that Faith must be the same everywhere, for everyone. Truth is necessarily exclusive. And if that Faith is imparted to those who are part of the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is the Church, this necessarily implies that the true Faith exists in only one Church, not among all who merely claim to be “churches” but digress from this Faith. I recognized this even as a non-Catholic reader of the Fathers. Apparently, it was obvious to many other scholars as well, including the protestant (Anglican) scholar J.N.D. Kelly, who in his classic work, Early Christian Doctrines, addressed the use of the term “Catholic” by the Fathers[1]: As regards ‘Catholic,’ its original meaning was ‘universal’ or ‘general’…As applied to the Church, its primary significance was to underline its universality as opposed to the local character of the individual congregations. Very quickly, however, in the latter half of the second century at latest, we find it conveying the suggestion that the Catholic is the true Church as distinct from the heretical congregations. In all this there is implied a distinctive, if far from consciously formulated, ecclesiology. If the Church is one, it is so in virtue of the divine life pulsing through it.	yes
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	yes_statement	the "catholic" "church" is the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" is the one "true" "church".. the "true" "church" can be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://gbntv.org/tracts/is-the-roman-catholic-church-the-one-true-church/	IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH THE ONE TRUE CHURCH ...	IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH THE ONE TRUE CHURCH? IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH THE ONE TRUE CHURCH? With one billion members, the Roman Catholic Church is the largest denomination in the world. Since the Bible teaches that Jesus built only one church, we must learn if the Roman Catholic Church is the one mentioned in the Bible (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 5:22-33; Colossians 1:18). Organization The organization of the Lord’s church is described in the Bible (Philippians 1:1). It is made up of saints {Christians}. Christian men who meet God’s qualifications serve as bishops (also called elders and pastors). Deacons are servants who work under the elders (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9). Elders are to be appointed in each church (Acts 14:23). The Bible always speaks of a local assembly having two or more bishops (Acts 14:23). These bishops (elders) have the rule over the church (Hebrews 13:17). Their rule is limited to the church where they are members (1 Peter 5:1-3). The Roman Catholic Church is a body with two heads! It claims Jesus is its head in Heaven and the Pope is its head on earth. The “college of cardinals” elects the Pope to office. Under the cardinals are the archbishops, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, and finally “the laity” (ordinary members). Clearly, the organization of the Roman Catholic Church proves it is not the church of the Bible. Salvation The Bible teaches all are born sinless and pure (Matthew 18:1-5; 19:13-15). When we sin, we separate ourselves from God (Isaiah 59:1,2). The result of sin is spiritual death (Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23). Salvation from sin is by the grace of God (Titus 2:11-14). This does not mean all will be saved. Christ “became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9). Jesus is the Sacrifice for our sins (Hebrews 9:24-28; 1 Peter 1:17-19). We receive His free gift of salvation by hearing His Word (Romans 10:17), believing in Him (John 8:24), repenting of our sins (Acts 17:30,31), confessing His name (Matthew 10:32,33), and being baptized in water for the remission of sins (Romans 6:1-4; Acts 2:38). When we show our faith in this way, God adds us to His church (Acts 2:47; 1 Corinthians 12:13). In order to go to Heaven, we must serve God faithfully until death (Revelation 2:10; 2 Timothy 4;4-8). When one sins after becoming a Christian, he can be forgiven. He must confess his sins, repent, and pray for forgiveness (James 5:16; Acts 8:13-24). When a child is twelve years old, he must be confirmed, according to Roman Catholic teaching. The priest makes the sign of the cross on the child’s forehead. This is supposed to give him the Holy Spirit. When a Catholic sins, he must confess to a priest. The priest decides what act of penance the sinner must do. When this is done, the priest grants forgiveness. God’s law of pardon for erring Christians is ignored. Priests who are weak, sinful men, like we are, are given the power to forgive sins by the Roman Catholic Church. The Bible teaches that only God has the power to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-12). It is blasphemy for a man to claim to do this. It is clear the Roman Catholic Church is not the church of the Bible because it does not practice what the Bible teaches concerning salvation! What Happens When We Die? Luke 16:19-31 tells us that one’s soul goes to Hades when he dies. Hades has a place of comfort for the righteous and a place of torment for the wicked. There is a great gulf between the two. One cannot cross from one to the other. Souls remain in Paradise until the Last Day. Then our bodies will be raised from the grave and changed into spiritual bodies (John 5:28,29; 1 Corinthians 15:35-44). Each person will then stand before the Lord to be judged (2 Corinthians 5:10). However, the Roman Catholic Church does not teach this. They believe souls go to a place called Purgatory. They are punished in order to be purified. How long one has to spend in Purgatory will depend upon how bad he was on earth, how much money he gave to the Roman Catholic Church to buy indulgences, and how much money his family and friends give to the Church on his behalf. The doctrine of Purgatory does not come from God. It was made an official doctrine of the Roman Church by the Council of Florence in 1439. The Roman Catholic Church is not the church of the Bible! Moral Issues The Bible teaches it is wrong to lie (Colossians 3:9; Revelation 21:8). It also teaches it is wrong to steal (Romans 2:21; 13:9,10; Ephesians 4:28). The Roman Catholic Church, however, teaches the doctrine of “mental reservation.” This doctrine says that one can lie on certain occasions and not be guilty of sin. The Roman Church also teaches that in some cases one can steal and not be guilty of sin. This type of behaviour is not taught in the Word of God. It clearly shows that the Roman Catholic Church is not the one, true church we read about in the Bible. Much more could be said. These examples are enough to show us that the Roman Catholic Church, even though very large, is not the Lord’s church! Please study the Scriptures for yourself. Do not become a member of any church which is not found in the Word of God! The Bible clearly sets forth the one, true church which was built by Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18,19). It was built long before the Roman Catholic Church began. Why not become a member of it today (Acts 2:36-47)? ________________________________________________________________ How to Identify the One True Church: 1. Know what the One True Church is – A. The word “church” comes from the Greek word which means those who are “called out.” B. The church is the Body of Christ (Colossians 1:18) C. The church is the Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-27) D. The church is the Family of God (I Timothy 3:15) E. The church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth (I Timothy 3:15) 2. Know the Founder of the One True Church – A. Jesus promised to build HIS church Matthew 16:18) B. Jesus purchased the church with HIS blood ( Acts 20:28) C. Jesus is the head of the church (Colossians 1:18) D. The church is His spiritual body (Colossians 1:18) 3. Know when the One True Church began – A. It was promised in the last days of Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:2-4) B. The church was near in John’s day (Matthew 3:1,2) C. Jesus told His disciples that they should not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God come with power (Mark 9:1) D. They were told that they would receive that power when the Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 1:8) E. All these things came to pass on Pentecost (Acts 2) 4. Know how the One True Church is described – A. The church of the Lord (Acts 20:28) B. The church of God (I Corinthians 1:1,2) C. The body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12) D. The church of Christ (Romans 16:16) 5. Know what God offers in the One True Church – A. Forgiveness of sins is in the church (Ephesians 1:17) B. Salvation is in the church (2 Timothy 2:10) C. Redemption is in the church (Colossians 1:14) D. All spiritual blessings are in the church (Ephesians 1:3) E. The saved are in the church (Acts 2:47)	IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH THE ONE TRUE CHURCH? IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH THE ONE TRUE CHURCH? With one billion members, the Roman Catholic Church is the largest denomination in the world. Since the Bible teaches that Jesus built only one church, we must learn if the Roman Catholic Church is the one mentioned in the Bible (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 5:22-33; Colossians 1:18). Organization The organization of the Lord’s church is described in the Bible (Philippians 1:1). It is made up of saints {Christians}. Christian men who meet God’s qualifications serve as bishops (also called elders and pastors). Deacons are servants who work under the elders (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9). Elders are to be appointed in each church (Acts 14:23). The Bible always speaks of a local assembly having two or more bishops (Acts 14:23). These bishops (elders) have the rule over the church (Hebrews 13:17). Their rule is limited to the church where they are members (1 Peter 5:1-3). The Roman Catholic Church is a body with two heads! It claims Jesus is its head in Heaven and the Pope is its head on earth. The “college of cardinals” elects the Pope to office. Under the cardinals are the archbishops, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, and finally “the laity” (ordinary members). Clearly, the organization of the Roman Catholic Church proves it is not the church of the Bible. Salvation The Bible teaches all are born sinless and pure (Matthew 18:1-5; 19:13-15). When we sin, we separate ourselves from God (Isaiah 59:1,2). The result of sin is spiritual death (Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23).	no
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	yes_statement	the "catholic" "church" is the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" is the one "true" "church".. the "true" "church" can be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/catholic-church-1270	The Catholic Church \| EWTN	The Catholic Church The Church is the congregation of all baptized persons united in the same true faith, the same sacrifice, and the same sacraments, under the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff and the bishops in communion with him. (a) Since Baptism, according to the ruling of Christ, is the gateway to the Church, a person becomes a member of the Church on receiving this sacrament. To remain a real member of the Church after Baptism a person must profess the one true faith and must not withdraw from the unity of the body of the Church in schism or heresy or be be ex- communicated by legitimate authority because of serious sins. Even schismatics, heretics, and those excommunicated are subjects of the Church and are obliged by its laws unless exempted by the Church. (b) Sacred Scripture refers to the Church as the Body of Christ, as a sheepfold, as the kingdom of God, and as the kingdom of heaven. 137. Who founded the Church? Jesus Christ founded the Church. (a) Christ completed the founding of His Church just before His Ascension, when He commissioned the apostles to make disciples of all nations. Earlier in His public ministry He had instituted the sacraments, chosen the twelve apostles, instructed them by word and example, and conferred on them the power of teaching, ruling, and sanctifying. (b) The Gospels show that Christ founded the Church in the form of a visible, hierarchical society, that is, one made up of subjects and superiors who rightfully rule subjects. The Roman Pontiff and the bishops under him are the ruling hierarchy of the Church. The Church is also a monarchical society in which the Pope rules with full power, that is, with jurisdiction over the entire Church. Peter was the first head of the Church founded by Christ. (c) After Pentecost Sunday the apostles began to carry out their mission, which through them and their successors continues and will continue until the end of time. 138. Why did Jesus Christ found the Church? Jesus Christ founded the Church to bring all men to eternal salvation. (a) The Church instituted by Christ is the only way to eternal salvation. Christ gave the Church the means whereby man can be sanctified and saved. 139. How is the Church enabled to lead men to salvation? The Church is enabled to lead men to salvation by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, who gives it life. (a) Although the work of salvation is the result of the operation of all three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, it is especially the result of the Redemption by Christ, and because this work is one of divine love it is attributed to the Holy Ghost, who is the soul of the Church, of which Christ is the Head. 140. When was the dwelling of the Holy Ghost in the Church first visibly manifested? The dwelling of the Holy Ghost in the Church was first visibly manifested on Pentecost Sunday, when He came down upon the apostles in the form of tongues of fire. (a) The word "Pentecost" means fiftieth and is applied to the fiftieth day after Our Lord's Resurrection. (b) The apostles were sent by Christ to preach His doctrines to all men. 141. How long will the Holy Ghost dwell in the Church? The Holy Ghost will dwell in the Church until the end of time. (a) Christ foretold that the Holy Ghost would dwell in the Church until the end of time. 142. Who sent the Holy Ghost to dwell in the Church? God the Father and God the Son sent the Holy Ghost to dwell in the Church. (a) It is a matter of faith that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son and is sent by Both to dwell in the Church. 143. What does the indwelling of the Holy Ghost ennoble the Church to do? The indwelling of the Holy Ghost enables the Church to teach to sanctify, and to rule the faithful in the name of Christ. (a) The Church must teach because otherwise men would not know the truths of divine revelation taught by Christ. (b) The Church must sanctify, that is, bring grace to the world through the sacraments, because otherwise men could not be saved. (c) The Church must rule because it was established by Our Savior as a society, which is inconceivable without authority. 144. What is meant by teaching, sanctifying, and ruling in the name of Christ? By teaching, sanctifying, and ruling in the name of Christ is meant that the Church always does the will of its Divine Founder, who remains forever its invisible Head. (a) The will of the Founder of the Church is expressed in the commission He gave to His apostles to teach all nations, to baptize them, and to have them observe all the things He had commanded. This commission, as well as the guarantee that Christ would be with His Church until the end of time, is related in the Gospel. 145. To whom did Christ give the power to teach, to sanctify, and to rule the members of His Church? Christ gave the power to teach, to sanctify, and to rule the members of His Church to the apostles, the first bishops of the Church. (a) That Christ gave His apostles the power to teach, to rule, and to sanctify is evident from the Gospels, the inspired account of Our Lord's life written by Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Christ gave the apostles the power to bind and loose, to baptize, to forgive sin, and to offer the sacrifice of the Mass. (b) The power to teach and to rule is the power of jurisdiction; the power to sanctify is the power of orders. The power to sanctify sometimes requires jurisdiction, as in the sacrament of Penance. 146. Did Christ intend that this power should be exercised by the apostles alone? No, Christ intended that this power should be exercised also by their successors, the bishops of the Church. (a) Christ founded the Church to last until the end of time. The apostles lived for a short time only. Christ must, then, have intended that the apostles provide duly authorized successors to carry on the work of teaching, sanctifying, and ruling. (b) The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of Saint Paul contain references to the work done by the successors of the apostles. 147. Did Christ give special power in His Church to any one of the apostles? Christ gave special power in His Church to Saint Peter by making him the head of the apostles and the chief teacher and ruler of the entire Church. (a) The power of the keys was promised to Saint Peter and was actually conferred on him. (b) Saint Peter was recognized by the early Christians from the beginning as the head of the Church. 148. Did Christ intend that the special power of chief teacher and ruler of the entire Church should be exercised by Saint Peter alone? Christ did not intend that the special power of chief teacher and ruler of the entire Church should be exercised by Saint Peter alone, but intended that this power should be passed down to his successor, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, who is the Vicar of Christ on earth and the visible head of the Church. (a) A successor to Saint Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, was required as chief teacher and ruler for the same reason that successors were required for the other apostles. From the very beginning it was acknowledged by the Church that the successor of Saint Peter as Bishop of Rome was at the same time the head of the entire Church. This successor of Saint Peter is called the Pope. (b) The bishops of the Church are the successors of the apostles because they have received their power of orders by valid consecration through an unbroken line of successors of the apostles, and have received their power of jurisdiction through their union with the Pope, the successor of Saint Peter. (c) The Pope is now elected by the College of Cardinals. 149. Who assist the bishops in the care of souls? The priests, especially parish priests, assist the bishops in the care of souls. (a) Although all priests assist the bishop of a diocese in the care of souls, parish priests especially are given the definite care of a section of a diocese, which is called a parish and is of ecclesiastical institution. 150. Who are the laity of the Church? The laity of the Church are all its members who do not belong to the clerical or to the religious state. (a) The clerical state includes all priests and all aspirants to the priesthood who have received tonsure, which is the initiation into the ecclesiastical state. Students of minor and major seminaries are aspirants to the priesthood. (b) The religious state includes men and women who embrace a community life and make the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Those who are preparing to embrace the religious state are called aspirants, postulants, or novices. (c) Religious and clerics enjoy special canonical privileges and have many more obligations than lay people have. (d) Among the laity are secular persons who have embraced the state of celibacy or virginity, or the matrimonial state. 151. How con the laity help the Church in her care of souls? The laity can help the Church in her care of souls by leading lives that will reflect credit on the Church, and by co-operating with their bishops and priests, especially through Catholic Action. (a) The lay people can assist in a special way by prayer. (b) Catholic Action is the participation of the laity in the apostolate of the hierarchy of the Church. There can be no Catholic Action without an episcopal commission. The Marks and Attributes of the Church 152. Which is the one true Church established by Christ? The one true Church established by Christ is the Catholic Church. (a) Many churches which claim to be Christian have broken away from the one true Church established by Jesus Christ. These churches were founded by men who had no authority from God to found a church. (b) Christ intended that there should be only one true Christian Church, for He always spoke of His Church as one. 153. How do we know that the Catholic Church is the one true Church established by Christ? We know that the Catholic Church is the one true Church established by Christ because it alone has the marks of the true Church. 154. What do we mean by the marks of the Church? By the marks of the Church we mean certain clear signs by which all men can recognize it as the true Church founded by Jesus Christ. (a) Jesus Christ willed that the true Church should have these marks, which would distinguish it from all false religions. 155. What are the chief marks of the Church? The chief marks of the Church are four: It is one, holy, catholic or universal, and apostolic. (a) Sacred Scripture teaches that the one true Church of Christ must have these marks. (b) The marks of the Church are themselves an indication that God guides the Church. 156. Why is the Catholic Church one? The Catholic Church is one because all its members, according to the will of Christ, profess the same faith, have the same sacrifice and sacraments, and are united under one and the same visible head, the Pope. (a) Our Divine Savior prayed explicitly that His Church might be one, and He made it one; thus men can recognize it as the true Church. (b) Only the Catholic Church possesses this mark of unity. Various sects, having only fragments of Christianity, are divided in doctrine and practice and recognize no authority but their own judgment, which can easily lead them into error. (c) There are many religious sects which claim to be Christian, but are separated from the unity of Christ by their rejection of the authority invested by Him in the Roman Pontiff, the successor to Saint Peter. (d) Catholics accept all the doctrines of faith and morals which were taught by Our Lord and the apostles and are proposed by the Church for belief and practice. A person who deliberately denies even one of the doctrines of the Church cannot be a Catholic. The Church is one in faith. (e) Catholics take part in the same sacrifice of the Mass and accept the same sacraments, although the same language and the same ceremonies are not used by all in the offering of Mass and in the administration of the sacraments. Everywhere the essential parts of the ceremonies are the same and substantially the same words are used in offering Mass. Hence the Church is one in worship. What Christ determined, the Church cannot change. Since Christ, however, did not determine many points of worship in non-essential matters, the Church has the authority to do so. (f) Catholics are subject to their respective bishops who rule them. They must recognize the supreme authority of the Pope in matters of religion. A person who deliberately refuses to accept the legitimate and supreme authority of the Pope and the bishops in matters of religion cannot be a Catholic. 157. Why is the Catholic Church holy? The Catholic Church is holy because it was founded by Jesus Christ, who is all-holy, and because it teaches, according to the will of Christ, holy doctrines, and provides the means of leading a holy life, thereby giving holy members to every age. (a) Holiness is a mark of the Church according to the will of Christ, as is evident from the prayer of Christ for His apostles. (b) Even some of the enemies of the Church recognize the holiness of the doctrines which the Church teaches. The efforts of others to prove that the Church is not holy show that they acknowledge holiness as a mark of truth. (c) The lives of the saints, of the martyrs, and of good Catholics prove how effective are the means of grace with which the Church is endowed. Moreover, God has always favored the Catholic Church with miracles. (d) Bad Catholics do not disprove the holiness of the Church since they do not use the means of grace at their disposal. Christ foretold that there would be good and bad members of His Church as we read in the parables of the fishes in the net and the cockle among the wheat. 158. Why is the Catholic Church catholic or universal? The Catholic Church is catholic or universal because, destined to last for all time, it never fails to fulfill the divine commandment to teach all nations all the truths revealed by God. (a) Catholicity is a mark of the Church because Christ commissioned His apostles to go forth and make disciples of all nations, and to teach all that He had commanded. Christ further promised to be with them all days, even to the end of time. (b) The Church today teaches the same doctrine it received from Christ. It has existed uninterruptedly since the day it was established down to the present time. The Church exists in a more flourishing condition in some nations than in others. It is always trying to preach the gospel to all races and in all places and sends its missioners to the most remote places on earth. (c) Christian sects began later and for the most part exist in only some sections of the world. In trying to accommodate themselves to the changing conditions of the time, they have made changes in the doctrines of Christ without any divine authorization. 159. Why is the Catholic Church apostolic? The Catholic Church is apostolic because it was founded by Christ on the apostles and, according to His divine will, has always been governed by their lawful successors. (a) The true Church is apostolic because it is the Church Christ founded upon the apostles, and especially upon Peter whom He called the Rock on which the Church would be built. The supreme power of Saint Peter in the Church has been passed down through the unbroken line of his successors in the see of Rome. 160. How do we know that no other church but the Catholic Church is the true Church of Christ? We know that no other church but the Catholic Church is the true Church of Christ because no other church has these four marks. (a) All other churches lack essential unity. They recognize no authority in religious matters vested in an individual who is the vicar of Christ. In the worship of God many Christian sects are guided more by sentiment and personal conviction than by the objective truths given to the world by Our Lord. (b) The founders of Christian sects were not saints and generally were not holy or edifying men. The sects have not given saints to the world. Their truths are but fragments of the doctrines of the Catholic Church. The holiness of their members is due to the means that the sects have salvaged from Catholic worship. Moreover, these sects cannot point to miracles wrought in their favor. (c) Not one of the Christian sects is universal or catholic; that is, not one has universality such as that of the Catholic Church. (d) Not one of the Christian sects can trace its origin to the apostles. (e) The Greek Orthodox or Schismatic Church began in the ninth century with its rejection of the authority of the Pope. From it have come various national churches, subject in some degree to civil authority. The Protestant churches began in the sixteenth century when their founders, rejecting certain doctrines of faith, broke away from Catholic unity. Many Protestant denominations are offshoots of the earliest sects. The Lutherans were founded by Martin Luther, the Presbyterians by John Knox, and the Methodists by John Wesley. 161. What are the chief attributes of the Catholic Church? The chief attributes of the Catholic Church are authority, infallibility, and indefectibility. They are called attributes because they are qualities perfecting the nature of the Church. 162. What is meant by the authority of the Catholic Church? By the authority of the Catholic Church is meant that the Pope and the bishops, as the lawful successors of the apostles, have power from Christ Himself to teach, to sanctify, and to govern the faithful in spiritual matters. (a) Christ Himself gave this authority to Saint Peter and the other apostles when He bestowed the power of binding and loosing, of teaching and baptizing. He implicitly guaranteed the same power to the successors of the apostles when He promised to be with them all days, even to the consummation of the world. (b) Outside the Church there generally is no real recognition of authority in spiritual matters and this disregard for spiritual authority has lessened the respect for civil and domestic authority. (c) The Church has authority over temporal matters which are closely connected with spiritual matters, as the administration of Church property. (d) The Pope, as the supreme head of the Church, cannot rightly be made a subject of any temporal power on earth. The present position of the Pope, as head of the Vatican City, shows to the world that he and his household are not the subjects of other temporal powers. When we speak of the temporal power of the Pope, we do not mean thereby merely to classify him with earthly rulers. The Pope's temporal power is a means to an end, guaranteeing that freedom of word and action which he must rightfully enjoy as the supreme spiritual ruler of the Church. 163. What is meant by the infallibility of the Catholic Church? By the infallibility of the Catholic Church is meant that the Church, by the special assistance of the Holy Ghost, cannot err when it teaches or believes a doctrine of faith or morals. (a) Infallibility, especially papal infallibility, is a doctrine often misunderstood and derided by those outside the Church. The term "infallibility" is often distorted to mean impeccability, that is, freedom from all sin. The Church has never held that the Pope cannot sin. (b) It is unthinkable that an institution established by God for the salvation of souls could lead men into error and turn them away from God. If the Church could and did err in matters of faith or morals it would not be a true teacher; it would fail in its ministry of sanctification and would not lead men to salvation but would be responsible for their condemnation. (c) A doctrine of faith or morals is a truth revealed by God dealing with what we must believe or what we must do in order to be saved. (d) The Church cannot change its defined teachings on faith and morals though it may restate them more clearly and more completely. (e) We know that the Church is infallible in matters of faith or morals because Christ promised that He would be with the apostles and their successors in their work of teaching until the end of time. It would be impossible for Christ to be with the official teachers of the Church and permit them to teach error. 164. When does the Church teach infallibly? The Church teaches infallibly when it defines, through the Pope alone, as the teacher of all Christians, or through the Pope and the bishops, a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by all the faithful. (a) The Holy Father must intend to use his supreme, apostolic authority when he teaches infallibly. (b) The Pope can teach without speaking infallibly; -for example, he does this in his encyclical letters. Catholics must accept such teachings, not on faith, but in obedience to the authority of the Pope and in respect for his wisdom. 165. What is meant by the indefectibility of the Catholic Church? By the indefectibility of the Catholic Church is meant that the Church, as Christ founded it, will last until the end of time. (a) This indefectibility of the Church is in conformity with the will of Christ, who promised to be with His Church until the end of time. 166. Are all obliged to belong to the Catholic Church in order to be saved? All are obliged to belong to the Catholic Church in order to be saved. (a) The principle, "It makes no difference what religion a person practices so long as he leads a good life," is deceptive because it attaches the same importance to the teaching and practice of a false religion as it does to the teaching and practice of the one, true religion revealed by Christ and taught by His Church. No one can be saved without sanctifying grace, and the Catholic Church alone is the divinely established means by which grace is brought to the world and the full fruits of Our Lord's Redemption are applied to men. 167. What do we mean when we say, "Outside the Church there is no salvation"? When we say, "Outside the Church there is no salvation," we mean that those who through their own grave fault do not know that the Catholic Church is the true Church or, knowing it, refuse to join it, cannot be saved. (a) "Outside the Church there is no salvation" does not mean that everyone who is not a Catholic will be condemned. It does mean that no one can be saved unless he belongs in some manner to the Catholic Church, either actually or in desire, for the means of grace are not given without some relation to the divine institution established by Christ. 168. Can they be saved who remain outside the Catholic Church because they do not know it is the true Church? They who remain outside the Catholic Church through no grave fault of their own and do not know it is the true Church, can be saved by making use of the graces which God gives them. (a) Those who are outside the Church through no fault of their own are not culpable in the sight of God because of their invincible ignorance. (b) Persons who make use of the graces God gives them, even though they are not members of the true Church, actually have the desire to become members inasmuch as they wish to use all the means ordained by God for their salvation. (c) We should pray and try to persuade others to investigate the teachings of the Catholic Church because charity obliges us to do all we can to lead others to salvation. We should also pray for Catholic missioners and help them in their work of bringing the faith to those outside the Catholic Church. 169. Why is the Catholic Church called the Mystical Body of Christ? The Catholic Church is called the Mystical Body of Christ because its members are united by supernatural bonds with one another and with Christ, their Head, thus resembling the members and head of the living human body.	(b) The marks of the Church are themselves an indication that God guides the Church. 156. Why is the Catholic Church one? The Catholic Church is one because all its members, according to the will of Christ, profess the same faith, have the same sacrifice and sacraments, and are united under one and the same visible head, the Pope. (a) Our Divine Savior prayed explicitly that His Church might be one, and He made it one; thus men can recognize it as the true Church. (b) Only the Catholic Church possesses this mark of unity. Various sects, having only fragments of Christianity, are divided in doctrine and practice and recognize no authority but their own judgment, which can easily lead them into error. (c) There are many religious sects which claim to be Christian, but are separated from the unity of Christ by their rejection of the authority invested by Him in the Roman Pontiff, the successor to Saint Peter. (d) Catholics accept all the doctrines of faith and morals which were taught by Our Lord and the apostles and are proposed by the Church for belief and practice. A person who deliberately denies even one of the doctrines of the Church cannot be a Catholic. The Church is one in faith. (e) Catholics take part in the same sacrifice of the Mass and accept the same sacraments, although the same language and the same ceremonies are not used by all in the offering of Mass and in the administration of the sacraments. Everywhere the essential parts of the ceremonies are the same and substantially the same words are used in offering Mass. Hence the Church is one in worship. What Christ determined, the Church cannot change. Since Christ, however, did not determine many points of worship in non-essential matters, the Church has the authority to do so. (f) Catholics are subject to their respective bishops who rule them. They must recognize the supreme authority of the Pope in matters of religion. A person who deliberately refuses to accept the legitimate and supreme authority of the Pope and the bishops in matters of religion cannot be a Catholic. 157.	yes
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	yes_statement	the "catholic" "church" is the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" is the one "true" "church".. the "true" "church" can be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://www.childrenofmary.net/meditations/blog-post-title-two-tjjgf-nswzf-74983-enjy6-dnn2g-lgmxm-zalys-bn7js-bw6dt	Is the Catholic Church STILL the One True Church??? — Children of ...	Is the Catholic Church STILL the One True Church??? In the past, the teaching that the Catholic Church is the one true church was boldly proclaimed in Catholic schools and from the pulpit. Since Vatican II seldom does anyone makes this bold statement. Why? Perhaps because some in the ecumenical movement see such an assertion as an obstacle to unity. There are literally thousands of Christian denominations today. Isn’t it being haughty to assert that we have the one true church? One definition of humility can be that humility is truth. So were we truly humble, we would humbly assert the truth. God became man and taught His disciples truth. He established His Church on earth. He established only one church, and anyone who takes the time to study history and the beliefs of the church will find that what the Christians of the early centuries believed, we in the Catholic Church still believe – i.e. Jesus’ Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, love and honor for the Mother of God, the God-given authority in the Church of Pope and bishops. The answer to the question in the title is YES, unequivocally yes! Jesus is God, the image of the Father, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is the founder and head of the church. Brothers and sisters, we Christians were once united in this one Catholic Church. For fifteen hundred years this unity existed. Perhaps because of the many sins of Her members, God allowed the Church to be divided. When Martin Luther, a Catholic priest, left the Church in the sixteenth century and started his own religion, it started an explosion, eventually fragmenting Christians into thousands of different denominations with a great range of beliefs and practices. It was as if a hand grenade had been thrown into the midst of Christendom. But God allowed it in order to bring a greater good out of it. What good could possibly come from sin and division? Look at the sin of Adam and Eve, what an unimaginable good came from that! In order to reconcile man with God again, God became man and elevated our human nature to a height that would never have been possible without the Incarnation. He made a marriage of divinity with humanity. He took the division sin had caused between God and man and made it a reason, an `excuse’ to bring about an even greater unity than had existed before man sinned! God longs to be one with His People: one heart, one mind, one will, united in Truth and Love. Just as God brought a greater good out of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, so will He bring a greater good out of the disunity He allowed to happen during the Reformation. Throughout salvation history God has led His People as a people, not as individuals independent of one another. We are a body, His Body, and He is our Head. If the Israelites had believed that God led each individual and each was free to discern truth for himself, how many small groups would have gone off wandering in the desert in all directions and never have reached the Promised Land! And they certainly would not have reached it, for they would have starved. The manna from Heaven came down only where Moses was. He was God’s chosen mediator between God and man. God continues to lead His People as a people. He established one Church, the Catholic Church, to be the instrument through which He would lead His People in spirit and truth. He entrusts to His Church the new Manna from Heaven: the Holy Eucharist, His Body and Blood. In the letter to the Hebrews we read: “Obey your leaders and defer to them, for they keep watch over you and will have to give an account, that they may fulfill their task with joy and not with sorrow.” (Hebrews 13:17) The early Church had a visible structure and leaders. Without these, unity is impossible. The Church is both a human and a divine institution. God uses weak, even sinful human beings to lead His People, but through the guidance of His Holy Spirit He protects the Church from teaching error in doctrine and morals. In the two thousand year history of the Catholic Church, despite sinful leadership at times – even a few sinful popes -the Church has never taught doctrines that were in error: the teachings of Jesus and His Apostles have been preserved throughout the centuries. Surely this doctrinal consistency is proof of the divine dimension of the Catholic Church, a consistency that can even be proven historically by reading the documents throughout Church history. The manna, the bread from heaven, was a great incentive for the Israelites to stay united in the desert. Today the Eucharist, the true Bread from Heaven, is the Sacrament of Unity. We beg God’s grace for all to come to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the greatest gift God has given His People. “Unless you eat My Body and drink My Blood, you have no life in you.” He wants all of His children to share in this Sacred Food and to receive the many graces He has for those who adore Him in the Holy Eucharist. Once Christians are aware of Jesus’ Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, unity will blossom in spite of any scandals and other tactics of satan to destroy the Church. Just as the Israelites did not wander off into separate groups in the desert because they knew they needed to stay with Moses in order to gather the manna, so too will Christians some day unite in the one Church God established in order to be fed the Bread from Heaven. This unity will become reality when Catholics bring harmony between the words they profess and their actions. It is the official teaching of the Catholic Church that the Eucharist is Jesus. The Enthronement of Jesus Sacramentalized (Perpetual Exposition and Adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist) will be a visible witness to this belief. Yet, it will not be our witness that defeats satan, but the grace poured out upon the world because of our ceaseless love and praise of God in the Most Blessed Sacrament. It is Jesus Who will save us. It is God’s will that Christians be united. The only unity that benefits humanity is a unity based on truth. When Christians become aware of Jesus’ Presence with us in the Eucharist and that His substantial Presence is made available to us only through validly ordained Priests who can change bread and wine into Our Lord: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, then unity will be a natural consequence. It is very important to pray for the grace for all mankind to love and adore Our Eucharistic Lord. The Church would be greatly enriched if all believers in Jesus united in the Church He founded. Christians separated from the Catholic Church have much to offer the Church in their zeal for souls and their love for Sacred Scripture. And God through His Catholic Church has infinitely precious gifts to offer them ~ Himself in the Blessed Sacrament and the means of forgiveness of sin: the Sacrament of Reconciliation.	Is the Catholic Church STILL the One True Church??? In the past, the teaching that the Catholic Church is the one true church was boldly proclaimed in Catholic schools and from the pulpit. Since Vatican II seldom does anyone makes this bold statement. Why? Perhaps because some in the ecumenical movement see such an assertion as an obstacle to unity. There are literally thousands of Christian denominations today. Isn’t it being haughty to assert that we have the one true church? One definition of humility can be that humility is truth. So were we truly humble, we would humbly assert the truth. God became man and taught His disciples truth. He established His Church on earth. He established only one church, and anyone who takes the time to study history and the beliefs of the church will find that what the Christians of the early centuries believed, we in the Catholic Church still believe – i.e. Jesus’ Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, love and honor for the Mother of God, the God-given authority in the Church of Pope and bishops. The answer to the question in the title is YES, unequivocally yes! Jesus is God, the image of the Father, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is the founder and head of the church. Brothers and sisters, we Christians were once united in this one Catholic Church. For fifteen hundred years this unity existed. Perhaps because of the many sins of Her members, God allowed the Church to be divided. When Martin Luther, a Catholic priest, left the Church in the sixteenth century and started his own religion, it started an explosion, eventually fragmenting Christians into thousands of different denominations with a great range of beliefs and practices. It was as if a hand grenade had been thrown into the midst of Christendom. But God allowed it in order to bring a greater good out of it. What good could possibly come from sin and division? Look at the sin of Adam and Eve, what an unimaginable good came from that! In order to reconcile man with God again, God became man and elevated our human nature to a height that would never have been possible without the Incarnation. He made a marriage of divinity with humanity.	yes
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	yes_statement	the "catholic" "church" is the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" is the one "true" "church".. the "true" "church" can be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://www.catholicscomehome.org/two-minute-answers/	Two-Minute Answers \| Catholics Come Home	The Church and the Papacy The Catholic Church is the only church today that can claim to be the one church founded by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. Other denominations can trace their origins back to various human founders at a later date in history. Again, Matthew 16:18 is key to understanding Christ’s intent to pass on the authority to lead the Church to Peter and the apostles. Christ tells Peter that he is the rock on which He will build His church.When Catholics use the term apostolic succession, they are referring to the line of bishops that stretches all the way back to the apostles—to Peter—the first Pope. Apostolic tradition (the authentic teaching of the apostles) was handed from Christ to the apostles, and from them to their successors. This unbroken line of popes (the bishops of Rome) and all other bishops have guided the Church for the past 2,000 years, just as Christ intended (Matthew 28:19-20).Christ sent His apostles out into the world with authority to teach and heal (Luke 9:1-2) and to forgive sins (John 20:23). This God-given authority is exercised by the bishops within the Catholic Church to this day. Mary and the Saints Catholics believe that worship is due to God alone. Catholics do, however, venerate Mary. In other words, we honor our Blessed Mother with great reverence and devotion because she is the Mother of God. Mary is the model of perfect love and obedience to Christ. God preserved Mary from sin, and she conceived our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing Christ into our world. Catholics can’t help but honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is full of grace, the Mother of God and our Mother, for her “yes” to God that made the Incarnation possible. And without the Incarnation, we would not have salvation. Mary is the most beautiful model of total submission to the will of God. Catholics do not view Mary as equal to Christ, but rather venerate Mary because of her relationship to Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it” (CCC 964). As Catholics, we pray that we can respond to God’s call to holiness for our lives in the way that Mary did. Mother Theresa prayed to emulate Mary’s devotion to Christ: “Mary, Mother of Jesus, give me your heart so beautiful, so pure, so immaculate, so full of love and humility that I may be able to receive Jesus in the Bread of Life, love Him as You loved Him, and serve Him as You served Him….” http://198.57.137.66/~cchvps/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/15-mediator.mp3 1 Tim 2:5 reads as follows: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…” “You see,” we Catholics are told, “there is only one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. Therefore, praying to the saints goes against the Bible because you are making them mediators between God and man, you are diminishing Jesus‘ role as the sole mediator!” Is that an appropriate interpretation of that passage? No, it‘s not and let‘s see why not. In the O.T. we see that Moses, Abraham, and Job interceded on behalf of others… that’s mediating between God and man. We know that it is okay to ask others here on earth to pray and intercede for us…. that’s mediating between God and man. So, I think, once again, we have a situation where a passage of the Bible is being misinterpreted and misunderstood. There is only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, but as members of the Body of Christ, He allows us to share in His mediation. Also, Scripture tells us that we have only one foundation, Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:11); but, Scripture tells us that there is more than one foundation (Eph 2:19-20). Scripture tells us that we have only Lord, Jesus Christ (Eph 4:4-5); but, Scripture tells us there is more than one lord (Rev 19:16). Scripture tells us that we have only one Judge, Jesus Christ (James 4:12); but, Scripture tells us there is more than one judge (1 Cor 6:2). Contradictions in Scripture? No! Not when these passages are all properly understood in context. Jesus is the only foundation; Jesus is the only Lord; and Jesus is the only Judge. But, we are members of Jesus‘ Body. Therefore, we are able, according to the graces given by Christ, to share in Jesus‘ role as foundation, as lord, and as judge, and in other aspects of Christ, as well. Another example, as a father I share in God‘s role as Father, by His grace. And, so also, we, and the saints in Heaven, and the angels in Heaven, can share in Christ‘s role as Mediator. Romans 3, verse 10 says, “…as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one.’” Yet, James 5:16 says that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. If absolutely no one is righteous, then who is James talking about? Luke chapter 1 says that Elizabeth and Zechariah were righteous before God. If absolutely no one is righteous, then how can that be? Is Scripture contradicting itself? No, the folks who interpret Romans as saying absolutely, without exception, no one is righteous, are misinterpreting that passage. They are failing to realize that the key to understanding Romans 3:10 is the phrase, “it is written.” Here in Romans, Paul is quoting from the O.T., Psalm 14 to be exact. In Psalm 14 it says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God. They are corrupt…there is none that does good.’” But then that same psalm goes on to talk about the “righteous.” Well, if none has done good, who are these righteous the psalm is talking about? Obviously, when the psalmist says that none has done good, he is talking about the fools who say there is no God. He is not talking about absolutely everyone. Just so Paul when he quotes from this psalm. Paul is not saying absolutely no one is righteous, if he was, then how do you explain all the Old and New Testament passages that refer to the righteous? In Romans 3:11 it says that no one seeks for God. Does that mean that absolutely no one is seeking God? No, to interpret it that way would be ludicrous! Just so verse 23 which says that “all have sinned”. Babies haven’t sinned, have they? Little children haven’t sinned, have they? No! This is not an absolute. There are exceptions. What about John the Baptist? Did he sin? Scripture says that he was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. Can someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit his entire life ever sin? It’s something to think about. So, it is perfectly legitimate to say that these passages from Romans, when interpreted in context, in no way conflict with the Church’s teaching on Mary being without sin. http://198.57.137.66/~cchvps/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/17-mary.mp3 In Jeremiah 7:18, God is indeed upset with the Israelites for worshipping a false goddess called the “queen of heaven”. However, just because God rebuked them for worshipping the false queen of heaven, doesn’t mean that we cannot pay honor to the true Queen of Heaven…the Blessed Mother. That type of thinking would lead you to believe that just because people worship a false god that they call “god,” we, therefore, should not call the true God, by that same name…God…because that’s the same title the idolaters use for their god! That is faulty logic and it makes no sense whatsoever. Again, the fact that there is a false “queen of heaven”, does not lead to the conclusion that we worship a false goddess when we call Mary the “Queen of Heaven.” Just as the fact that there is a false “god”, does not lead to the conclusion that we worship a false god when we call our Father in Heaven, God. And there is a true Queen of Heaven, we see this quite clearly in Revelation 12:1, “And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars…” Let’s see. There’s a woman…she’s in Heaven…and she has a crown on her head. I could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s the maid! No! It is the true Queen of Heaven, Mary, the mother of the male child who is to rule the nations. We do not worship Mary, we honor her, just as Jesus honors her. So, there is absolutely nothing wrong, from a scriptural point of view, in calling Mary the Queen of Heaven, and in honoring her just as Jesus honors her. Mk 6:3 says, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses, and Judas and Simon, and are not His sisters here with us?” We need to realize a few things here about these “brothers and sisters”: #1, there was no word for cousin, or for nephew or niece, or for aunt or uncle in ancient Hebrew or Aramaic – the words that the Jews used in all those instances were “brother” or “sister”. An example of this can be seen in Gen 14:14, where Lot, who was Abraham’s nephew, is called his brother. Another point to consider. If Jesus had had any brothers, if Mary had had any other sons, would the last thing that Jesus did on earth be to grievously offend his surviving brothers? In Jn 19:26-27, right before Jesus dies, it says that Jesus entrusted the care of His mother to the beloved disciple, John. If Mary had had any other sons, it would have been an incredible slap in the face to them that the Apostle John was entrusted with the care of their mother! Also, we see from Mt. 27:55-56, that the James and Joses mentioned in Mark 6 as the “brothers” of Jesus, are actually the sons of another Mary. And, one other passage to consider is Acts 1:14-15, “[The Apostles] with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with His brothers…the company of persons was in all about a hundred and twenty.” A company of 120 persons composed of the Apostles, Mary, the women, and the “brothers” of Jesus. Let’s see there were 11 Apostles at the time. Jesus’ mother makes 12. The women, probably the same three women mentioned in Matthew 27, but let’s say it was maybe a dozen or two, just for argument’s sake. So that puts us up to 30 or 40 or so. So that leaves the number of Jesus’ brothers at about 80 or 90! Do you think Mary had 80 or 90 children? She would have been in perpetual labor! No, Scripture does not contradict the teaching of the Catholic Church about the “brothers” of Jesus, when Scripture is properly interpreted in context. First of all, I ask them to show me where in the Catechism, the official teaching of the Catholic Church, does it teach that we can “work” our way into Heaven? They can’t, because it doesn’t. The Catholic Church does not now, nor has it ever, taught a doctrine of salvation by works…that we can “work” our way into Heaven. Second, I ask them to show me where in the Bible does it teach that we are saved by “faith alone.” They can’t, because it doesn’t. The only place in all of Scripture where the phrase “Faith Alone” appears, is in James…James 2:24, where it says that we are not…not…justified (or saved) by faith alone. So, one of the two main pillars of Protestantism…the doctrine of salvation by faith alone…not only doesn’t appear in the Bible, but the Bible actually says the exact opposite – that we are not saved by faith alone. Third, I ask them that if works have nothing to do with our salvation…then how come every passage in the N.T. that I know of that talks about judgment says we will be judged by our works, not by whether or not we have faith alone? We see this in Rom 2, Matthew 15 and 16, 1 Ptr 1, Rev 20 and 22, 2 Cor 5, and many, many more verses. Fourth, I ask them that if we are saved by faith alone, why does 1 Cor 13:13 say that love is greater than faith? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? As Catholics we believe that we are saved by God’s grace alone. We can do nothing, apart from God’s grace, to receive the free gift of salvation. We also believe, however, that we have to respond to God’s grace. Protestants believe that, too. However, many Protestants believe that the only response necessary is an act of faith; whereas, Catholics believe a response of faith and works is necessary…or, as the Bible puts it in Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumsion is of any avail, but faith working through love…faith working through love…just as the Church teaches. Scripture and Tradition http://198.57.137.66/~cchvps/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/14-traditions.mp3 No, it is not true. Protestants have as their sole rule of faith the written Word of God, which we find in Sacred Scripture. The Catholic Church has as its sole rule of faith, the entire Word of God, as it is found in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.All of the Word of God was at one time passed on orally…Sacred Tradition. Eventually, some of Sacred Tradition was written down…this became Sacred Scripture, which is written tradition. However, Scripture itself tells us that not all of the things that Jesus said and did were written down. And listen to what Paul says about “tradition”:2 Thes 2:15, “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.” Traditions! Traditions taught by word of mouth, in other words, oral tradition, and traditions taught by letter. Traditions which they are being told to “stand firm and hold to”. Sacred Scripture and 1 Cor 11:2, “I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you.” The Corinthians are being commended by Paul because they maintain the traditions that he passed on to them. Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. 2 Tim 2:2: “and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” What we have here in 2 Timothy is an instance, in Scripture, of Paul commanding the passing on of oral tradition. 1 Thes 2:13, “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God, which is at work in you believers.” So, they received as the Word of God that which they heard, not simply that which they read in Scripture. In other words, the Bible clearly supports the Catholic Church’s teaching that the Word of God is contained in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Catholic Bibles contain—and have always contained—all of the books of the Bible that have been traditionally accepted by Christians dating back to the time of Jesus. These accepted books total 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Protestant Bibles, however, have seven fewer books in their Old Testament. These seven books excluded in the Protestant Bible are Baruch, Sirach, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Tobit, Judith and the Wisdom of Solomon, plus portions of Esther and Daniel. These books were rejected by Protestant Reformers in the 1500s because elements in these books did not support certain Protestant theology and doctrines. Prior to the sixteenth century, however, all Christians used Bibles containing all 46 books of the Old Testament. During the first century, there was much debate among the early Christians as to what made up the canon of Scripture. The Church, having been given authority by Jesus Christ and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (see The Church and the Papacy), compiled the Bible in the form that it exists today. Actually, there is no truth to that, whatsoever. Catholics interpret the Bible in a “literal” sense, while many fundamentalists, Evangelicals, and others interpret the Bible in a literalist sense. The “literal” meaning of a passage of Scripture is the meaning that the author of that passage of Scripture intended to convey. The “literalist” interpretation of a passage of Scripture is: “that’s what it says, that’s what it means.” Let me give you an example to illustrate the difference. If you were to read a passage in a book that said it was “raining cats and dogs outside”, how would you interpret that? As Americans, in the 21st Century, you would know that the author was intending to convey the idea that it was raining pretty doggone hard outside. That would be the “literal” interpretation…the interpretation the author intended to convey. On the other hand, what if you made a “literalist” interpretation of the phrase, “it’s raining cats and dogs”? The “literalist” interpretation would be that, were you to walk outside, you would actually see cats and dogs falling from the sky like rain. No taking into account the popularly accepted meaning of this phrase. No taking into account the author’s intentions. The words say it was raining cats and dogs, so, by golly, it was raining cats and dogs! That is the literalist, or fundamentalist, way of interpretation. If someone 2000 years in the future picked up that same book and read, “It was raining cats and dogs outside,” in order to properly understand that passage in the book, they would need a “literal” interpretation, not a “literalist” interpretation. Now, think about that in the context of interpreting the Bible 2000-3000 years after it was written. End Times No, there’s not. The “Rapture” refers to a passage in First Thessalonians, chapter 4, which talks about Christians being “caught up” in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Many Christians believe, and the “Left Behind” books promote, that this being “caught up” to meet the Lord will occur before the Great Tribulation which is headed our way in the near future. Christians will simply vanish, meet Jesus somewhere in the air, and then return with Him to Heaven to await the end of time. But notice, in verse 17, Paul says that “…we who are alive, who are left,” shall be caught up. Remember that…those who are “left” get caught up to meet the Lord. The “Left Behind” books get their name from a passage in Luke 17 and a similar passage in Matthew 24 which talk about the coming of the Lord being like the days of Noah and the days of Lot. Matthew 24 puts it this way: “As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man…they ate, they drank, they married and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man. Then two men will be in the field, one is taken and one is left. Two women grinding at the mill, one is taken one is left.” “See,” Rapture enthusiasts say, “One is taken, one is left…the Rapture! Jesus takes the Christians and leaves behind non-Christians!” Two problems with that interpretation: First, Jesus’ coming is being compared to the days of Noah and the days of Lot. After the flood, who was left? Noah and his family…the good guys…the bad guys were taken! After Sodom and Gomorrah went up in smoke, who was left? Lot and his daughters…the good guys…the bad guys were taken! Second, remember 1 Thessalonians? It says that those who are “left” get to meet Jesus in the air. The good guys are left behind to meet Jesus. In other words, you want to be left behind so that you can get caught up in the clouds to meet Jesus in the air and accompany Him back to earth at His 2nd and final coming. There will be no Rapture like the one the Left Behind books talk about…that view is not scriptural. The Catholic Church’s belief in the existence of purgatory is indeed scriptural! First of all, it is important to understand what the Church believes purgatory is. The Catechism describes purgatory like this: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (CCC 1030). Note that the Church believes that purgatory is not an eternal state, but rather a state of purification before entering eternal life with God in heaven. Scripture teaches us that nothing unclean can enter heaven (Revelation 21:27). Scripture also describes a place where a man goes and suffers loss, yet is still saved, but only through fire (1 Corinthians 3:13-15). Purgatory is this place that cleanses us of whatever impurity we have when we die, allowing us to enter into God’s presence without the stain of sin. Sacraments (Eucharist, Confession, and Baptism) The Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence is the belief that Jesus Christ is literally, not symbolically, present in the Holy Eucharist—body, blood, soul and divinity. Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist because Jesus tells us this is true in the Bible: “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:48-56). Furthermore, the early Church Fathers either imply or directly state that the bread and wine offered in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is really the body and blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, the doctrine of the Real Presence that Catholics believe today was believed by the earliest Christians 2,000 years ago! This miracle of God’s physical presence to us at every Mass is the truest testament to Christ’s love for us and His desire for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him. More Scripture about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood” • (John 6:53-56 RSV) So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; {54} he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. {55} For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. {56} He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. • In the Aramaic language that Our Lord spoke, to symbolically “eat the flesh” or “drink the blood” of someone meant to persecute or assault them. See the following… (Psa 27:2 KJV) When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. • (Isa 9:18-20 RSV) For wickedness burns like a fire, it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. {19} Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is burned, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no man spares his brother. {20} They snatch on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours his neighbor’s flesh, • (Isa 49:26 RSV) I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” • (Micah 3:3 RSV) who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron. • (2 Sam 23:17 RSV) “Far be it from me, O LORD, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men. • (Rev 17:6 RSV) And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her I marveled greatly. • (Rev 17:16 NIV) The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Thus, if Jesus were only speaking symbolically about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, as the Protestants say, then what He really meant was “whoever persecutes and assaults me will have eternal life” — which, of course, makes nonsense of the passage! Bread and wine are not normal or natural symbols of flesh and blood. To call a man a “fox” is an understandable symbol for cleverness. To call a man “bread” is not an understandable symbol, without some explanation. Either the symbols would have been clearly explained (which is not the case) or Jesus spoke literally (which is the case!). This is a common question asked by both Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Many non-Catholics, when attending a Mass at a Catholic wedding, find themselves being gently told that they should not come forward to receive Holy Communion. Of course, they wonder, “Why? Catholics are allowed to receive communion in our church, so why can’t we receive Communion with the other Catholics here?” Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, meaning that what appears to be bread and wine is really Jesus’ body and blood—not just a symbol of his body and blood. When Catholics receive Holy Communion, it is an expression of the unity among all those in communion with the Catholic Church throughout the world, who maintain the belief in the Real Eucharistic Presence of Christ. Therefore, only those who believe in the True Presence may participate in this sacrament of oneness with Christ and his Church. “… [T]he celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice is wholly directed toward the intimate union of the faithful with Christ through communion” (CCC 1382). Ultimately, Catholics believe that we cannot celebrate this unifying sacrament with other Christians while there are disagreements about the Eucharist itself. However, Catholics pray for the day when we can reconcile with other Christians and share in the unity of God’s people through the Holy Eucharist. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops expresses this desire for unity: “We pray that our common baptism and the action of the Holy Spirit in this Eucharist will draw us closer to one another and begin to dispel the sad divisions which separate us. We pray that these will lessen and finally disappear, in keeping with Christ’s prayer for us ‘that they may all be one’” (John 17:21). I don‘t know! In Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22, Jesus says of the bread, “This is my body.” He says of the wine, “This is my blood.” Not “this is symbolic of,” or “this represents,” He says “this IS.” In John 6, He repeats Himself, like He does nowhere else in Scripture, to emphasize the fact that He expects us to eat His flesh and drink His blood and that His flesh is real food and that His blood is real drink. Anyone who says He is speaking symbolically, and not literally, simply is refusing to look at all of the facts. Fact #1: The Jews took him literally, verse 52. Fact #2: His disciples took him literally, verse 60. Fact #3, the Apostles took him literally, verses 67-69. If everyone who heard him speak at the time took Him literally, then my question is: Why does anyone today, 2000 years after the fact, take him symbolically? Also, in verse 51, Jesus says that the bread which He will give for the life of the world is His flesh. When did He give His flesh for the life of the world? On the cross. Was that symbolic? If you think Jesus is speaking symbolically here when He says that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood, then you must also conclude that Jesus’ death on the cross was symbolic…it wasn’t really Jesus hanging up there…it was symbolic flesh and symbolic blood. Jesus is clearly talking about the flesh that He gave for the life of the world…He did that on the cross. Those who believe He is talking symbolically here in John 6, have a real problem when it comes to John 6:51. Did Jesus give His real flesh and blood for the life of the world, or was it only His symbolic flesh and blood? Well, the quick answer is because that’s the way God wants us to do it. In James 5:16, God, through Sacred Scripture, commands us to “confess our sins to one another.” Notice, Scripture does not say confess your sins straight to God and only to God…it says confess your sins to one another. In Matthew, chapter 9, verse 6, Jesus tells us that He was given authority on earth to forgive sins. And then Scripture proceeds to tell us, in verse 8, that this authority was given to “men”…plural. In John 20, verses 21-23, what is the 1st thing Jesus says to the gathered disciples on the night of His resurrection? “Jesus said to them, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.'” How did the Father send Jesus? Well, we just saw in Mt 9 that the Father sent Jesus with the authority on earth to forgive sins. Now, Jesus sends out His disciples as the Father has sent Him…so, what authority must Jesus be sending His disciples out with? The authority on earth to forgive sins. And, just in case they didn’t get it, verses 22-23 say this, “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.'” Why would Jesus give the Apostles the power to forgive or to retain sins if He wasn’t expecting folks to confess their sins to them? And how could they forgive or retain sins if no one was confessing their sins to them? The Bible tells us to confess our sins to one another. It also tells us that God gave men the authority on Earth to forgive sins. Jesus sends out His disciples with the authority on earth to forgive sins. When Catholics confess our sins to a priest, we are simply following the plan laid down by Jesus Christ. He forgives sins through the priest…it is God’s power, but He exercises that power through the ministry of the priest. The Church’s practice of infant baptism stems from her teachings regarding original sin (what we have) and baptism (what we do about it). After the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden, all people are now born with original sin due to our fallen human nature. Through the gift of grace in Baptism, God washes away this stain of original sin and makes us a part of His family and offer us eternal life. Children, who are born with the stain of original sin, are also in need of Baptism, in order to free them from the bondage of original sin and make them children of God. Our loving Father does not wish to withhold His love and grace from anyone, including children. Baptism simply requires openness. “The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth” (CCC 1250). Simple. By showing them what the Bible says. First, nowhere does the Bible say that Baptism is merely a “symbolic” act…that passage simply does not exist. Second, let’s see what the Bible does say about Baptism: Ezek 36:25-27, it says, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses…a new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you…and I will put My spirit within you…” Here, in the Old Testament, we have a foreshadowing of New Testament baptism.Now, let’s see if the New Testament corresponds to what we just read in Ezekiel. Acts 2:38, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Note that there is no symbolic language here…this is real! The Book of Acts says, “Be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.” Ezekiel says, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from your uncleanness.” The Book of Acts says, “…and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Ezekiel says: “…and I will put My Spirit within you.” Do you begin to see how God, in the Old Covenant, was preparing us for what He gives us in the New Covenant? Acts 22:16 – “And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins…”. 1 Cor 12:13 – “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…” What body was that? The Body of Christ. 1 Ptr 3:21: “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you…” Scripture simply does not support the non-Catholic notion that Baptism is symbolic. Scripture does very directly and very clearly support the Catholic teaching that Baptism saves us; that Baptism makes us members of the Body of Christ; that Baptism washes away sin; and that through Baptism we receive the Holy Spirit…just as the Catholic Church teaches! Further Exploration: Educational Training Videos Are you looking for help guiding others back home or simply seeking more information on Church teaching? Catholics Come Home has created some resourceful training and educational videos on a range of topics including Evangelization, Confession, The Eucharist, Mass, the Priesthood, and much more. Guiding Someone Back to Church Mass Find a parish to call home. Contact Us. Our apostolate is dedicated to helping people home to the Catholic Church. If you have a general question, please start by visiting our Q&A section. If your question isn't answered there, we also recommend visiting Catholic Answers.	The Church and the Papacy The Catholic Church is the only church today that can claim to be the one church founded by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. Other denominations can trace their origins back to various human founders at a later date in history. Again, Matthew 16:18 is key to understanding Christ’s intent to pass on the authority to lead the Church to Peter and the apostles. Christ tells Peter that he is the rock on which He will build His church. When Catholics use the term apostolic succession, they are referring to the line of bishops that stretches all the way back to the apostles—to Peter—the first Pope. Apostolic tradition (the authentic teaching of the apostles) was handed from Christ to the apostles, and from them to their successors. This unbroken line of popes (the bishops of Rome) and all other bishops have guided the Church for the past 2,000 years, just as Christ intended (Matthew 28:19-20).Christ sent His apostles out into the world with authority to teach and heal (Luke 9:1-2) and to forgive sins (John 20:23). This God-given authority is exercised by the bishops within the Catholic Church to this day. Mary and the Saints Catholics believe that worship is due to God alone. Catholics do, however, venerate Mary. In other words, we honor our Blessed Mother with great reverence and devotion because she is the Mother of God. Mary is the model of perfect love and obedience to Christ. God preserved Mary from sin, and she conceived our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing Christ into our world. Catholics can’t help but honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is full of grace, the Mother of God and our Mother, for her “yes” to God that made the Incarnation possible. And without the Incarnation, we would not have salvation. Mary is the most beautiful model of total submission to the will of God. Catholics do not view Mary as equal to Christ, but rather venerate Mary because of her relationship to Christ.	yes
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	yes_statement	the "catholic" "church" is the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" is the one "true" "church".. the "true" "church" can be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/catholic-church-only-true-church-vatican-says-1.669714	Catholic Church only true church, Vatican says \| CBC News	The Vaticanissued a document Tuesday restatingits belief that the Catholic Church is the only true church of Jesus Christ. The 16-page document was prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a doctrinal watchdog that Pope Benedict used to head. Formulated as five questions and answers, the document is titled "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church." It says although Orthodox churches are true churches, they are defective because they do not recognize the primacy of the Pope. "It follows that these separated churches and communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation," it said. The document adds that Protestant denominations — called Christian Communities born out of the Reformation —are not true churches, but ecclesial communities. "These ecclesial communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood … cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called 'churches' in the proper sense," it said. The document is similar to one written in 2000 by the Pope— who was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the time—that sparked an angry reaction from Protestant groups. "I suspect there will be some reactions that are rather passionate," said Raphaela Schmid, director of the Becket Institute, a group that advocates religious freedom. "I hope they will not be angry because we all try to understand about each other." The document is issued by Benedict's successor in doctrinal matters, Cardinal William Levada, and endorsed by the Pope, said Reuters. The decree comes days after liberal Catholic and Jewish groups spoke out against the Pope's move to authorize the wider use of a traditional Latin mass. The Tridentine mass includes a prayer for the conversion of Jews. Its use was restricted following the Second Vatican Councilfrom 1962 to 1965. Pope Benedict issued a decree last week authorizing its broader use in an effort to reconcile with followers of an ultratraditional excommunicated bishop. The Jewish Anti-Defamation League in New York called it a "body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations."	The Vaticanissued a document Tuesday restatingits belief that the Catholic Church is the only true church of Jesus Christ. The 16-page document was prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a doctrinal watchdog that Pope Benedict used to head. Formulated as five questions and answers, the document is titled "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church. " It says although Orthodox churches are true churches, they are defective because they do not recognize the primacy of the Pope. "It follows that these separated churches and communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation," it said. The document adds that Protestant denominations — called Christian Communities born out of the Reformation —are not true churches, but ecclesial communities. "These ecclesial communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood … cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called 'churches' in the proper sense," it said. The document is similar to one written in 2000 by the Pope— who was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the time—that sparked an angry reaction from Protestant groups. "I suspect there will be some reactions that are rather passionate," said Raphaela Schmid, director of the Becket Institute, a group that advocates religious freedom. "I hope they will not be angry because we all try to understand about each other. " The document is issued by Benedict's successor in doctrinal matters, Cardinal William Levada, and endorsed by the Pope, said Reuters. The decree comes days after liberal Catholic and Jewish groups spoke out against the Pope's move to authorize the wider use of a traditional Latin mass. The Tridentine mass includes a prayer for the conversion of Jews. Its use was restricted following the Second Vatican Councilfrom 1962 to 1965. Pope Benedict issued a decree last week authorizing its broader use in an effort to reconcile with followers of an ultratraditional excommunicated bishop.	yes
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	no_statement	the "catholic" "church" is not the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is not the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" does not hold the truth.. the "true" "church" cannot be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2005/roman-catholicism-not-the-true-gospel/	Roman Catholicism - Not The True Gospel – Banner of Truth USA	Roman Catholicism – Not The True Gospel Sermon preached by Ben Ramsbottom at Bethel Chapel, Luton, on Lord’s day morning, April 10th, 2005. Text:“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). This last week has witnessed some of the most amazing things that have ever been known in the lifetime of any of us: the excitement, the enthusiasm surrounding the death and burial of the pope. Rome has never seen anything like it before, and our country has never witnessed anything like it before, and our newspapers have never witnessed anything like it before – the reverence, the exaltation, the adulation from all the heads of state throughout the world, the heir to our own throne going in deference to Rome, the Prime Minister of our Protestant country and the Archbishop of our supposedly Protestant church preferring to go to the Roman Catholic funeral than the wedding of the heir to our Protestant throne. Now there never have been such scenes like it in our lifetime. I do not think there has been such adulation of anyone. Winston Churchill was a great man, but there were never things said about him as have been said about the pope this week. It is very powerfully laid on my spirit that I have to speak to you this morning about the apostate church of Rome. The text I have read to you is one of the most solemn in the New Testament. It is repeated again in the following verse: “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Now the gospel of the Roman Catholic church is another gospel, and because it is another gospel, that church is under the solemn curse, the solemn anathema of Almighty God. I want to speak especially to our children and young people this morning, because there seems to be a spirit about as if the Roman Catholics are good Christians; they may be a little bit different, but it does not really matter. The church of Rome is an apostate church and the gospel that it preaches is under the anathema, the curse of Almighty God. Now people say to me, “But you believe that there are real Christians in the Roman Catholic church, don’t you?” Now beloved friends, God is the Judge. God is the Judge of who is a real Christian, either in the Roman Catholic church or in Bethel chapel. But one thing I am clear on, if a person lives and dies believing in the awful errors of the Roman Catholic church and resting his immortal soul on those errors, then in no way can he be saved or enter heaven. Let me make one or two things very clear as simply as I can right at the beginning. First of all, we are speaking of a system, an evil system, a wrong system. We are not speaking about people. Individual Roman Catholics can be nice and kind. They may be among your friends. Some are very sincere (though sincerely wrong). We are not speaking about people. We are speaking about a system and the dreadful things that system teaches and the errors that that system teaches, so that living and dying believing those errors, there is no hope, no salvation, no heaven. Now let us be clear on these points. We live in a day when there is so much compromise, so much suggesting it does not really matter, so much suggesting it is just a little difference. It is a vital difference; it is all the difference between heaven and hell. And this morning, with that on my heart, I want to warn you against the dreadful errors of Romanism. I repeat, we are not speaking about people; we are speaking about an evil and corrupt system. Also, let me say this, that I am not going to talk this morning about so many of those things that we do not really like. I mean bells and candles and incense and crosses and crucifixes and idols and images and nunneries, and things like that. I am going to leave all that. I am just going to speak to you about the true gospel and the false gospel. Also, I am not even going to speak this morning about the Roman Catholic church as a persecuting church, though the cruelties that the Roman Catholic church has performed down the ages are as great cruelties as any that have been known. It was only suggested this week that the greatest terrorist attack that has ever been known in the history of England was when the Roman Catholics in the Gunpowder Plot tried to blow up parliament and massacre the king and queen and the whole of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The cruelties of the Roman Catholic church in England have been appalling, and even today in those countries, those parts of the world where the Roman Catholic church has power and authority, it is still a cruel church, still a persecuting church. But I am not even going to talk about that this morning. I just want to talk to you on a few vital points about the true gospel. There are all these other things that we do not agree with, we do not like; many, many of them I might have mentioned this morning. Now we are going to leave all those and just come to vital points which concern the everlasting salvation of the soul. “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” He repeats it: “As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” 1.Now the first thing is this: the true gospel teaches only one way of salvation by grace and not by works. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” Now the Roman system from top to bottom, from first to last, is a system of works, something that the sinner can do, something that he must do, something that he has to do; partly grace, partly works; partly what God has done, partly what man has to do; not just repentance, but performing penances. The vital point experimentally in real religion is to be blessed with real repentance, “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,” repentance from sin. Now the Vulgate, the Roman version of Scripture, has even translated repentance wrongly. Where John the Baptist and the Saviour preached repentance, the Roman version renders it, do penance. Beloved friends, there is all the difference in the world between a sinner blessed with true, godly, Holy Ghost repentance and a sinner doing a few man-prescribed penances. Now this is vital, and to depart from it is error, and to depart from it is to be under the curse of God, and that is how multitudes are blinded, that somehow, some way, something must be done towards their salvation. “No news can suit a ruined race,But sovereign, free, eternal grace;No other gospel can impartJoy, peace and comfort to the heart.” The glorious gospel of the grace of God does not come to a guilty sinner and tell him to do anything at all for his salvation. It points to it as all done, all accomplished in Christ. It is not, do this and live. Mind you, the grace that saves will always sanctify. A sinner saved by grace will be very tender, very careful, very concerned as to how he lives, what he does, what he does not do, how he behaves. But the whole teaching of Scripture is that salvation from first to last is of grace, God’s free, unmerited favour to wretched, ruined, hell-deserving sinners. It began in eternity past in the covenant when in grace God chose a people. It continues when in grace God sent His dear Son. It is revealed: “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” Grace revealed in His finished work, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His glorification in heaven. Grace only when a sinner is called, savingly converted. Grace only in his salvation from first to last; grace and grace alone in preparing heaven for him. “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you … let him be accursed.” That is God’s word, not mine. The Roman gospel is another gospel and it has blinded millions and held them in darkness and bondage and sent them to the grave without hope. Of course, beloved friends, this was the point of the glorious Reformation. God raised up Martin Luther. The whole of Europe seemed to be in this darkness and bondage, this system of salvation only through the various things that man could do, God doing part, the sinner doing part. You remember Luther, under the depths of his conviction and groaning under his sins, tried to do everything that was prescribed by the Roman church. If ever any man attempted it, if ever any man tried it, it was Luther, but he was left in black despair, until like a ray of light the gospel was revealed: “The just shall live by faith” – not what man has done, not what Luther needs to do, not what Luther can do – what God in Christ has done. And his heart was filled “with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” And the Lord used him to write, to preach, to protest so that really in a hundred years almost the whole of Europe was turned upside down. And now sadly, solemnly there is a turning back, and those who belong to churches which were founded on those sacred truths for which Luther contended and for which he suffered and for which our martyrs were burned, they now fraternise with this apostate church. So first of all, the gospel – one way and only one way of salvation – by grace, not in any way through man’s merit. “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you … let him be accursed.” 2. Now the second point: the gospel teaches that there is only one Mediator – Christ, not Mary. Now every religion, true or false, realises there must be a mediator, even those heathen religions, even the religion professed by cannibals. They all seem to realise there must be a mediator, that God is great and holy and man is weak and helpless and sinful, and man cannot go immediately to God, cannot go directly to God. There must be someone standing between who can represent man to God and God to man. There must be a mediator. Every religion, true or false, believes there must be a mediator. And the gospel declares, “There is one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” Now there is no other. God in the riches of His grace has appointed a Mediator in His dear Son, and there is no other. There is no other way to God. There is no other way of access. There is no other way of approach. There is no other way of acceptance. There is no other way of worship. One God, holy, righteous, and one Mediator most graciously appointed “between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” The church of Rome has set up Mary as a mediator. (I understand the correct word, being a woman, is a mediatrix.) If a sinner’s hope is in Mary, then it is a vain hope. If a sinner prays to Mary, then that prayer can never be answered. It seems today more than ever before that Mary is being honoured, not only equal with Christ, almost above Christ; that sinners are taught to pray to Mary so that Mary might incline the heart of her Son towards them. So in the rosary – you know the rosary that the Roman Catholic carries and the beads are counted in prayer – there are many more prayers to Mary as the mediator than there are to the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Of course, in the last hundred and fifty or so years the church of Rome has declared two things: that Mary was born immaculate, without sin, free from original sin; secondly that Mary, when she died, bodily rose from the dead and is now risen, exalted, glorified at God’s right hand in heaven. These two things to bolster up Mary as the mediator between man and God. Let us be clear, she was a godly woman. There never was a more godly woman than Mary. Never speak disrespectfully of Mary. Didn’t the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ love her, honour her! But she is not a saviour; she is not a mediator; sinners cannot pray to her; sinners cannot approach a holy God through her. There is one Mediator, and this is the glorious truth the gospel makes known to which the Roman church has blinded its adherents, that there is a glorious Mediator, the God-Man standing between a holy God and a guilty sinner. O the hundreds who have been blessed by that wonderful word of John Newton: “But since my Saviour stands between, In garments dyed in blood, ‘Tis He, instead of me, is seen, When I approach to God.” Beloved friends, we have a glorious gospel centring in the Person and work of the one Mediator, the Lord Jesus. So the gospel teaches that there is one Mediator and only one Mediator – Christ, not Mary. “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you let him be accursed.” 3.Now the third thing: the gospel teaches that there is one foundation on which the church is built – Christ, not Peter. And it is a blessed foundation, isn’t it? “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation.” That is Christ, not Peter. What could be clearer than this: “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”? Now on one occasion the Lord Jesus said to Peter, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Of course, that word has been dreadfully perverted. Now “Peter” and the original Greek name for “the rock” are almost one and the same. But you remember what was happening at Caesarea Philippi. Peter had made that noble confession of faith in the glorious Person of Jesus the Son of God. “Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am? … But whom say ye that I am?” And the glorious confession of Peter, that Christ is the Son of God. “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter,” which in a way means a stone or a rock. But “upon this rock” – Peter’s noble confession – “upon this rock” – the Rock Christ Jesus – “upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Now the church of Rome teaches that the church is built on Peter as the foundation, and there is all this talk about Peter being the first pope. Peter was never any pope. If anything, it seems that perhaps James took the pre-eminence over Peter in those early days in the Acts of the Apostles. But some dispute whether Peter was ever the Bishop of Rome, or whether Peter even visited Rome, or whether Peter was ever buried in this wonderful tomb of Peter in Rome. But leaving all that. If Peter did visit Rome, if he is buried in Rome, if he was the first Bishop of Rome, the church of the living God is not built on Peter. Peter was a godly man, a sinner saved by grace, but he made a lot of mistakes, didn’t he? He was a fallible man. Three times he denied his Lord with oaths and curses. The gospel teaches a better foundation on which the church of God is built than Simon Peter. Wouldn’t Peter have been distressed if he had known that in later days people were saying that he was the foundation of the church! Doesn’t he write so beautifully in his own first Epistle, the second chapter: “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious” – the true foundation! “Unto you therefore which believe He is precious,” as the foundation. But Christ is not only the foundation of the whole church of God, but the foundation of every guilty sinner’s hope. And beloved friends, it is a good foundation when you feel your emptiness, your weakness, your need, your sin, as a poor, venturing sinner to rest your everlasting all on Jesus. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Now that is the religion that takes a guilty sinner to heaven. O but the awful blasphemy of a mere man, though a godly man, being the church’s one foundation! No, the gospel teaches one foundation, only one foundation – Christ, not Peter. “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you … let him be accursed.” 4. Now then the fourth thing: the gospel teaches there is only One who can forgive sin – and that is the Lord, not a human priest. “Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” There are some glorious truths taught in the gospel of the grace of God concerning forgiveness, that a poor, guilty sinner is permitted to go to the great God of heaven and humbly say, “I am sorry,” and to beg for forgiveness for Jesus’ sake through His precious blood, and God not angry, not displeased. “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity?” O what an error, that any human priest can have power to forgive sin! This exalts the Roman priesthood, if a priest can forgive your sin, if you go to that priest in confession and he can forgive your sin. “Who can forgive sins but God only?” Or as Jesus said to the poor man, “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.” A minister is not a priest. I am not a priest. A Church of England minister is not a priest. The Archbishop of Canterbury is not a priest. A Roman Catholic minister is not a priest. The pope is not a priest. Scripture is very clear. In one sense it teaches that every single believer is a priest, the universal priesthood of all believers. But the sacrifice they bring is the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. So if I am a true believer, in that sense I am a priest, but there are many of you in chapel this morning and you are just as much a priest as I am. But then there is only one great and glorious High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, having offered the one sacrifice, and now risen, exalted, glorified in heaven. A wonderful truth, the everlasting priesthood of the Son of God! He has power to forgive sin, and blessed be His name, He has promised to forgive the sin of every poor, venturing, humble, confessing sinner and to wipe out that sin in His precious blood. There was an old Irish woman some years ago who was in hospital dying, and she was completely disillusioned with the claims of the Roman Catholic Irish priesthood. This priest kept saying continually to her, “Confess your sins to me. You have to confess your sins to me. Only I can forgive your sins.” She said, “Sir, do you mind showing me your hands?” The priest said, “What are you talking about, woman?” She said, “Sir, show me your hands.” Well, he did. She said, “The only One who can forgive my sins has nail prints in His hands.” Now that is it! There is only One who can forgive sin and that is the Lord Himself, not any human so-called priest. “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you … let him be accursed.” 5. Now let me mention a fifth and last thing, though there are many, many things I might have spoken of this morning. The fifth and last point: the gospel teaches only one sacrifice for sin – Calvary, not the mass. Now let me emphasise, beloved friends, these are the vital points. There is salvation, there is heaven in them, and for those who deny them and teach another gospel, there is no salvation and no heaven; there is the curse of God upon it. These are vital things. At Calvary the dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in His sin-atoning sufferings and precious blood and death offered the one sacrifice for sin and by that “one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” It was a complete work, a perfect work. Nothing can ever be added to it; nothing can ever be taken from it. He cried, “It is finished,” and all the sins of all His people in all ages were for ever put away. Now you know what the Roman Catholic mass is. Some people in Protestant churches speak of the Lord’s Supper; we do. Some speak of the communion service; sometimes we do. Some call it the eucharist – a strange word, but there is really nothing wrong in it. It means just a thanksgiving. Some call it the breaking of bread. The Roman Catholics call it the mass. And their belief is the most appalling error, that in the consecration service the bread is literally changed into the body of the Lord Jesus and the wine is literally changed into the blood of the Lord Jesus. It is appalling blasphemy. So the priest week by week sacrifices the Son of God afresh, as he believes, and puts Him to an open shame. It is no wonder that Almighty God has pronounced the curse: “Let him be accursed.” But the dreadful thing is that our leaders, not only political but also religious, can flock after such appalling errors and blasphemies as these. O there is only one sacrifice, blessed sacrifice, the sacrifice of the cross where the dear Lord Jesus sacrificed Himself that poor sinners washed in His blood might be saved with an everlasting salvation. I am trying to speak to you positively this morning, not only to denounce the dreadful errors in the church of Rome which have been so eulogised this week, but more than that, to emphasise the glorious gospel of the grace of God. “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel … let him be accursed.” There is something lies behind and under all this. We have only one standard concerning what is the gospel and what is not, what is right and what is wrong, what is permitted and what is not permitted, and that is God’s holy, infallible Word. Now the Roman Catholics have introduced two things. One is tradition. The tradition of the church of Rome is given equal weight with holy Scripture. So even if a thing is wrong, if it has been held for many years, because it is a tradition it is accounted to have the same authority as Scripture. But then secondly, the Roman Catholic church believes that the pope is infallible when he is speaking ex cathedra, that is, when he is speaking as the pope. So a hundred and fifty years ago the pope could declare that Mary was born without sin. There is not a shred of evidence for this in Scripture. Then more recently the pope declared that Mary is risen from the dead, and bodily exalted in heaven. There is not a shred of evidence for this in Scripture. Let us be clear, the only standard we have is the holy Word of God, what it teaches, what it does not teach, not tradition and certainly not the pronouncements of a supposed infallible pope. Well, beloved friends, I could say many, many things. The outward face of the Roman Catholic church in recent years has changed. It seems to be more friendly. It seems to be more benevolent. But the motto, the watchword of the Roman Catholic church: semper idem, always the same. There has been no change, not the slightest change, not the smallest change in any doctrine that the church of Rome holds. You know what the old godly divines used to say: “No peace with Rome till Rome makes peace with God.” “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel let him be accursed.” Now in closing, in all these things may we have a right spirit, may we have a sympathetic spirit to those who are held in darkness. May we not think we are better. May we not think we are superior. May we always fall under that word: “Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” To bring it right home, we have a glorious gospel, but if you and I do not know it in power and in love in salvation in our own souls, we are no better than a poor, blind, benighted Romanist. Now beloved friends, lay these things to your heart. “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” [This sermon was printed in the Gospel Standard, May, 2005 and it printed here by kind permission of the writer and editor of the magazine. It is available free of charge as a small booklet from Mrs. Alison A. Kingham, 11 Sutherland Place, Luton, LU1 3SY.] Latest Articles HEAVEN IS BEING WITH CHRIST Heaven means Jesus Christ, that is, being with Jesus. That is the only heaven there is. It is Christ’s home and he is never away from his home for a moment. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was often asked why we are not told more in the New Testament about life beyond […] The following appeared as Ian Hamilton’s editorial in the December 2022 edition of The Banner of Truth Magazine. In this, my penultimate editorial as Editor of the Magazine, I want to direct your—and my—thoughts upwards. In his fine exposition of The Excellencies of God, Terry Johnson focuses in one chapter on the Blessedness of God […]	Now there never have been such scenes like it in our lifetime. I do not think there has been such adulation of anyone. Winston Churchill was a great man, but there were never things said about him as have been said about the pope this week. It is very powerfully laid on my spirit that I have to speak to you this morning about the apostate church of Rome. The text I have read to you is one of the most solemn in the New Testament. It is repeated again in the following verse: “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Now the gospel of the Roman Catholic church is another gospel, and because it is another gospel, that church is under the solemn curse, the solemn anathema of Almighty God. I want to speak especially to our children and young people this morning, because there seems to be a spirit about as if the Roman Catholics are good Christians; they may be a little bit different, but it does not really matter. The church of Rome is an apostate church and the gospel that it preaches is under the anathema, the curse of Almighty God. Now people say to me, “But you believe that there are real Christians in the Roman Catholic church, don’t you?” Now beloved friends, God is the Judge. God is the Judge of who is a real Christian, either in the Roman Catholic church or in Bethel chapel. But one thing I am clear on, if a person lives and dies believing in the awful errors of the Roman Catholic church and resting his immortal soul on those errors, then in no way can he be saved or enter heaven. Let me make one or two things very clear as simply as I can right at the beginning. First of all, we are speaking of a system, an evil system, a wrong system. We are not speaking about people. Individual Roman Catholics can be nice and kind. They may be among your friends. Some are very sincere (though sincerely wrong). We are not speaking about people.	no
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	no_statement	the "catholic" "church" is not the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is not the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" does not hold the truth.. the "true" "church" cannot be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://www.wholesomewords.org/etexts/reynolds/rctruth.html	Truth About Roman Catholicism Marion H. Reynolds, Jr ...	The Truth About Roman Catholicism The Roman Catholic Church is by far the largest and wealthiest of all the so-called Christian denominations. It has always falsely claimed to be the only true Church—the Church which was founded by Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. In recent generations, the Roman Catholic Church has embellished its image and attracted and held members by claiming to be the one Church that has never changed. However, all such claims are false. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church has done an about-face, actually boasting of the many changes it has instituted to meet the changing needs of Catholics and non-Catholics alike in this modern age Is the Roman Catholic Church the one true Church? Are its past and present teachings and practices Scriptural? Of course not! How has the Roman Catholic Church changed through the centuries? How much has it changed in our lifetime? Have these changes been foundational or superficial? Where is the Roman Catholic Church headed today and in the future. The purpose of this article is to turn the spotlight of truth upon Roman Catholicism, examining both its past history and present teachings. Our sincere desire is to be of help to Catholics, many of whom are well aware that, in recent years, their church has instituted many changes that have left them confused, uncertain, and deeply troubled. For the first time in their lives, many Catholics are raising serious questions about their Church, its leaders, its teachings and its practices. They now realize that their church is not united but divided over issues such as birth control, abortion, divorce, celibacy for priests, women clergy, gay clergy, Papal infallibility, prayer, worship, music, purgatory, confession, Marioltry and even the meaning of the Mass. The moral degeneracy and financial scandals that have rocked the Charismatic movement have also been exposed in the Roman Catholic Church, from the Vatican to the local parish. Confusion reigns supreme and Catholics who take their religion seriously don't know which way to turn. A source of further confusion for many is the fact that for centuries Roman Catholics were taught that all those outside their membership were heretics to be shunned, persecuted or even killed. It was not until the middle of this century that the Roman Catholic Church modified and softened its stand by calling non-Catholics, "separated brethren." More recently, even that negative connotation has been eliminated. Today, Catholics are taught to consider "all Christians" to be "brothers and sisters in Christ." However, these changing outward attitudes on the part of Roman Catholics toward non-Catholics and their increasing usage of evangelical terminology has unfortunately resulted in many evangelicals mistakenly believing that the basic false doctrines and heresies of Romanism have changed, something that simply is not true. Thus, both Catholics and non-Catholics alike should take a fresh look—a Biblical, historical and current look—at this world's largest, supposedly Christian denomination. If it is the one true Church, as it claims to be, then every believer in Christ should become a part of it. But if it is a false church, as it actually is, then all who truly believe the Bible and trust Jesus Christ as Saviour should separate from it, warn about it, and urge others to do likewise. Through our extensive radio and literature ministries, it has been a great blessing to hear from many former Roman Catholics who have been delivered from the bondage of the false doctrines of Romanism. They experienced the new birth by faith in Jesus Christ alone and are now attempting to reach their Catholic loved ones and friends with the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At the same time, it has been a real heartache to realize that so many non-Catholics who profess to know Christ as Saviour have been deceived by the new attitudes and evangelical vocabulary of Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Church is now being accepted by many evangelicals as a sister church with only minor differences rather than a false church which preaches "another gospel"—a false gospel. The Truth About the Roman Catholic Church is that it always has been and continues to be a false church. Those Biblical doctrines it professes to believe and teach are vitiated by Roman Catholic dogma based upon tradition that contradicts the Bible, God's infallible Word. Error is never more deceptive than when it is presented with a veneer of truth. The leaders of the Catholic Church have always fit the description of the false teachers who God warned in advance would come on the scene in the last days, deceiving many by their "feigned" (pretended or hypocritical) words—their "great swelling words of vanity," as described in 2 Peter 2:1-3,18,19. Before examining and refuting some of the well known false teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, it is essential to understand that two basic false teachings of Roman Catholicism (even apart from its many other errors), clearly classify it as a false cult rather than a true church. These two basic errors are: First, Roman Catholicism, although teaching that the Bible is the Word of God, adds the spurious apocryphal books to the Scriptures, and also elevates church tradition and the edicts of popes and councils (the words of men), to the same or an even greater level of authority than the Word of God. This amounts to adding to the Word of God, thereby placing Roman Catholicism under God's curse. Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18,19. Second, Roman Catholicism, although teaching that faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation, actually denies the truth of the Gospel by adding sacraments, good works, and purgatory as additional requirements for forgiveness of sin and for eternal life. This amounts to the preaching of a false Gospel which places the Roman Catholic Church under God's curse. Gal. 1:6-10. Thus, by Scriptural standards, the Roman Catholic Church is a false church that can only expect God's judgment, not a true church that can claim God's blessing. No amount of outward change should be permitted to obscure this fact. As for the claims of the Roman Catholic Church that its history can be traced back to Jesus Christ, Peter, or any of the other apostles, such claims lack both historical and Scriptural support. The true Church of Jesus Christ was not founded upon Peter, but upon Peter's confession of Christ's deity as recorded in Matthew 16:16: "...Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter was not the first pope, nor is there any Scriptural justification whatever for such an office. Peter's own inspired testimony as to his position and ministry is given in 1 Peter 5:1-4. He then identifies himself in 2 Peter 1:1 as "a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ..." History confirms the fact that there were no popes in the early church nor even in the Roman Catholic Church during the first centuries of its existence. Furthermore, the long-held claim that the Roman Catholic Church was the only unchangeable church is not supported by church history—not even Roman Catholic history. How sad to realize that this false claim influenced so many to join or to stay in this false church, which actually is the product of centuries of changes. Most of these changes resulted from the Roman Catholic Church's yielding to heathen customs and practices that were subsequently incorporated into Roman Catholic teachings and worship. The following is a partial list of heathen, unscriptural practices that became a part of Roman Catholic dogma over a period of seventeen centuries. Some of the dates given are approximate. In many cases, these heresies were even debated for years before being given the status of required beliefs: Although some of the preceding Roman Catholic heresies are now being questioned by many individuals inside and outside the church, none have been officially repudiated and all continue to be practiced by millions of Catholics around the world. The urgent need today is for Roman Catholics, as well as all who claim to be Christians, to examine their own beliefs and the teachings of their churches by the only sure standard—the Bible. Whatever contradicts, adds to or subtracts from the sixty-six books of the Old and the New Testaments, is error no matter how many may cling to it. Roman Catholics who read the Bible will soon discover that many Catholic teachings and practices are specifically forbidden by Jesus Christ Himself. Note carefully the following warnings given by the Lord Jesus Christ to the religious leaders of His day concerning vain worship, vain tradition and vain repetitions. All of these are particularly applicable to Roman Catholicism today. Vain Worship – In Matthew 15:8-9, Jesus said, "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." All worship is indeed vain when it is based upon the commandments of men rather than the Word of God. Vain Tradition – In Matthew 15:6b, Jesus said, "Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." Valid tradition is based upon Scripture and confirms it. Vain tradition is based upon man's teachings and violates it. In Roman Catholicism, tradition is consistently elevated above the Scripture. This results in vain worship (no matter how sincere) and makes the commandment of God of no effect—a very serious matter. Vain Repetitions – In Matthew 6:7, Jesus said, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." A basic part of Roman Catholic worship is the frequent repetition of The Rosary. Its origin is clearly tied to heathen religions such as Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. Roman Catholics should listen to the words of Christ rather than use the vain repetitions of the Catholic Church. During the past fifty years, at least three important trends in the Roman Catholic Church are clearly observable. These are: (1) A greater emphasis upon the place of Mary, (2) A major emphasis upon ecumenical activities with a view to seeking the full visible unity of all religions, (3) The acceptance of the so-called Charismatic renewal within the Church with new emphasis upon the claimed "ministry of the Holy Spirit." There is every reason to believe that all of these major trends will continue and will even increase. They are all very deceptive, very dangerous, and unscriptural. The place bestowed to Mary in the Roman Catholic Church is not Scriptural nor is it new. It cannot be denied that during the last one hundred years, veneration of Mary has dramatically increased. Note in the historical chart given earlier in this article that the exaltation of Mary and the term "Mother of God," became official Catholic dogma in 431 A.D. with prayers to her proclaimed in 600 A.D. Note also that the "Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary" was not proclaimed until 1854 A.D.; her "Assumption" not until 1950 A.D.; and her title "Mother of the Church" not until 1965 A.D. Some Roman Catholic observers believe it may not be much longer until Mary is officially proclaimed "Co-redemptrix with Christ." In fact, the premier issue of the Roman Catholic publication Catholic Heritage displayed a front page with the title: "Mary, Mother of the Church." In a Question and Answer column the question is asked, "At the foot of the cross, Mary shared in the mystery of the passion. True or False. Answer: True. Mary united her sorrows to those of her Son. The sorrowful and immaculate heart of Mary bled with her Son for all of mankind. For this reason, we invoke her under the title of Co-redemptrix." During the past forty years, each pope has done his part to increase Mary's influence in the Roman Catholic Church based completely on tradition rather than upon the Bible. In the August 28, 1975, issue of the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Paul VI, speaking of the ceremony celebrated the day before in honor of the Madonna at the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, said, "Her venerate image, known as 'Salus Populi Romani', was carried in procession from St. Mary Major's as part of the Holy Year ceremonies, so that the overflow crowd of pilgrims, coming from all parts of the world, could see it and thus increase their devotion to her. In this way we should all be reminded of the meaning and practice of the cult of Mary, inseparable from the unique and central cult of Christ ... Let us pray to her with humble, trusting and childlike faith." The present pope, John Paul II [died April 2, 2005], has dedicated himself completely to Mary. During his visit to Vancouver, B.C. in 1985, the special souvenir edition of B.C. Catholic carried a full page color photo of the pope under the caption of, Totus Tuas which, in Latin, means "all yours." The following explanation was then given, "When Karol Wojtyla [John Paul II] was consecrated bishop of Cracow by Pius XII in 1958 he took, 'Totus Tuus' (all yours) as his motto, thus presenting himself to Mary. In his first Urbi et Orbi message immediately after being elected pope he said, 'At this difficult hour, full of fear, we must turn our thoughts with filial devotion to the Virgin Mary who always lives in the midst of Christ and exists as his mother. We must repeat the words, Totus Tuus which 20 years ago were inscribed into our heart and soul.'" Pope John Paul II has visited many of the major Shrines to Mary. He attributed his escape from death at the hands of a would-be assassin and the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe to the intervention of Mary. Millions of Catholics are making pilgrimages to the various Marian shrines, seeking and often claiming miracles of healing and answers to their prayers to Mary. New apparitions of Mary and special messages from her are being claimed in various parts of the world. Yet, there is absolutely no Scriptural foundation for any of these beliefs or practices. Mary was indeed a virgin in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy that Christ would be born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14). She was a godly woman, but not sinless. As with all true believers in Christ, when Mary died, her soul and spirit went to heaven, but her body awaits the resurrection. She did not bodily ascend to heaven as did Jesus Christ. Nothing in Scripture indicates that prayers were ever offered to Mary nor that she was worshipped by anyone. Most of Roman Catholic teaching concerning Mary is based entirely on human tradition and contradicts God's Word. The present ecumenical emphasis and activities of the Roman Catholic Church are also of recent origin. When Vatican Council I was held in 1869-1870, the Orthodox Churches refused to participate even though they were invited by the pope. His public appeal to "Protestants and all non-Catholics" to "return to the only true fold" also received resentful refusals. However, in the intervening years, it became increasingly obvious to the Roman Catholic hierarchy that their church needed some serious updating, particularly with regard to relationships with other churches. In 1960, Pope John XXIII established the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity; and in 1962 he convoked Vatican Council II which he called "An ecumenical council for the universal church." Less than a year later, Pope John XXIII died. His successor, Pope Paul VI, attended four sessions of Vatican II before becoming pope and did everything possible to continue and expand the ecumenical emphasis. He said the Roman Catholic Church could best demonstrate the validity of its teaching, not by condemnation or severity, but with the "medicine of mercy." He emphasized "working for the full visible unity in truth among all Christians" and that this unity should extend also to non-Christians. This new approach of Vatican II was successful in gaining the cooperation of the major Orthodox Church bodies as well as 38 delegated observers from almost all the major Protestant denominations. Of course, Pope John Paul II has apparently expanded the ecumenical emphasis in the Roman Catholic Church to unprecedented heights. While this has received high praise from religious leaders and denominations, the kind of unity sought by the Roman Catholic Church is contrary to the Bible. All unity purchased at the expense of doctrinal purity is satanic and deceptive. 2 Cor. 6:14-18, Eph. 5:11, 2 Tim. 3:1-17; 4:1-8. All who join hands in ecumenical fellowship with those who preach a false Gospel are under God's curse. Gal. 1:6-10. The Roman Catholic Church was infiltrated by the false teachings and unscriptural practices of the Charismatic Movement in the early 1960's. Its influence within Roman Catholicism is growing rapidly. As always, the devil has a very clever way of compounding error while giving the results a more respectable appearance. Space limitations prevent a more comprehensive consideration of its past and present approaches but we have prepared other articles providing important details to all who might be interested in knowing why the Charismatic Movement and its teachings are so deceptive and dangerous. Once this movement became entrenched in the Roman Catholic Church, the Catholic leaders were quick to see that it would be to their advantage to encourage these teachings rather than to oppose them. They discovered that they could use the Charismatic doctrines and practices to help build the Roman Catholic Church by considering such practices a logical and needed "renewal movement within the church." This "renewal" would come because those who had supposedly experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit felt a greater love and respect than ever for the Roman Catholic Church, including the Mass, the other sacraments, the veneration of Mary and all the other false teachings of Roman Catholicism. Many people are attracted to the displays of healings, miracles, and other supposed demonstrations of Holy Spirit presence and power, not realizing that if this were a true ministry of the Holy Spirit it would lead them to a recognition and repudiation of the false teachings of Roman Catholicism. The Charismatic Movement, both within and outside of the Roman Catholic Church is not a movement of the Holy Spirit, but of a false spirit. John 16:7-14; 2 Cor. 11:13-15. Adding to the religious confusion of our day is the inconsistent, compromising position taken by the world's two outstanding evangelical leaders, Dr. Billy Graham and Dr. Bill Bright. Both of these men now praise and work with ecumenical apostates, charismatic deceivers and Roman Catholics. This represents a complete reversal of their original, biblical positions. Both are widely respected and have charming personalities, but their present willingness to work with anybody who "calls Jesus, Lord" completely ignores the warning Christ gave in Matthew 7:21-23. "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." The pope and most Roman Catholics call Jesus, "Lord," but since they reject the one true gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, their profession is false. Today they are deceiving many evangelicals, but not God. Unless Roman Catholics trust Christ alone as Saviour before they die, they will one day be identified by Christ as those who were workers of iniquity even though they called Him "Lord." When Billy Graham began his ministry 40 years ago, he recognized Roman Catholicism as a false religion and warned against it. Then, as Graham's crowds and popularity grew, warnings about Roman Catholicism ceased and those who made professions of faith in his crusades were sent back into the Roman Catholic Church. Later, Graham accepted Roman Catholics as counselors if they took his prescribed training course. Still later, Roman Catholic priests, bishops and cardinals were included in the Graham Crusade committees, and finally, Graham called Pope John Paul II one of the world's great evangelists—a false identification of a biblically defined evangelist if there ever was one! True believers need to realize that the Mass is at the very heart of Roman Catholic theology and worship, but its observance is based upon Roman Catholic tradition, not upon the pure Word of God. We urge you to take the time to study the Roman Catholic teachings concerning the meaning and importance of the Mass, then, compare those teachings with the Scriptures and see the contradictions involved. After such a study, those who are truly born again and filled with the Holy Spirit—as Charismatic Catholics claim to be—will reject the Mass as a contradiction of Bible salvation and separate from the Roman Catholic Church in obedience to the Word of God, the Bible. What does the Roman Catholic Church teach concerning the importance and meaning of the Mass? Notice the following official statements. The following quotations are taken from THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1994 edition, which contains the written approval of Pope John Paul II and makes an appeal to Mary concerning the future in these words: "At the conclusion of this document presenting the CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, I beseech the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word and Mother of the Church, to support with her powerful intercession the catechetical work of the entire Church on every level, at this time when she is called to a new effort of evangelization." From page 334, Article 3: "The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch ... In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: 'Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.'" From page 342, Article 4: "In the communion, preceded by the Lord's prayer and the breaking of the bread, the faithful receive 'the bread of heaven' and the 'cup of salvation,' the body and blood of Christ who offered himself 'for the life of the world.' "Because this bread and wine have been made Eucharist ('eucharisted,' according to an ancient expression), we call this food Eucharist, and no one may take part in it unless he believes that what we teach is true, has received baptism for the forgiveness of sins and new birth, and lives in keeping with what Christ taught." From page 344, Article 5: "The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice. 'The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different.' 'In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner."' From page 345, Article 5: "The Eucharistic sacrifice is also offered for the faithful departed who 'have died in Christ but are not yet wholly purified,' so that they may be able to enter into the light and peace of Christ." But what does the Bible say concerning the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross? Hebrews 10:10-14, "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man [Jesus Christ], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." What a difference there is between what the Bible teaches and what Roman Catholicism believes and teaches regarding the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross! The supposed continual offering up of Christ by the priests negates His finished work on the Cross. The Bible says, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." 1 Peter 3:18. What about the future of the Catholic Church? It is a false church, not a true one. It is a divided church, not a united one. Its present head, Pope John Paul II, is not one of the world's great evangelists, he is one of the world's greatest deceivers. He has done more to promote the false teachings of Roman Catholicism than any other pope in history. His mild, humble, reverent demeanor makes him especially valuable to Satan since he appears as "an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:13-15). His travels have taken him into almost every region of the world. His ability to speak fluently in several languages makes him an effective communicator. He is a master at the art of "double-talk," for he knows just the kind of language to use with certain groups—evangelical, ecumenical, charismatic, traditional Romanists or liberal, avante-garde Catholics. He has the unique ability to speak to large audiences that represent widely varying points of view religiously and politically. He knows how to give each of these groups some tidbits of encouragement even though they may disagree strenuously with his overall presentation. His recent statement concerning the continuing controversy between "science" and "religion" on the question of evolution vs. creation is but a further example of his ability to leave ample room for both views to exist within the Roman Catholic Church. The Bible clearly teaches creation, not evolution. Thus, those who teach evolution should be avoided according to 1 Timothy 6:20, 21. As Pope John Paul II has visited countries where raw heathenism prevails or where professed Roman Catholics are devotees of Voodoo or other forms of devil worship, he has somehow managed to speak words of mild rebuke while leading his hearers to believe that they need not give up their "cultural heritages" in order to retain their "Catholic privileges." He has successfully managed to forge relationships, not only with professed Christian bodies and individuals but also with leaders of heathen religions. Tremendous power and prestige reside in the pope as the virtual dictator of millions of Roman Catholics worldwide. This power, coupled with the untold wealth of Vatican holdings and resources which he controls, causes international leaders and heads of state to bow at his feet as they seek religious, political or commercial favors and, of course, the pope's "blessing." Fidel Castro of Cuba, a communist dictator, tyrant and oppressor of several million of his own people, is the latest to come to Rome to work a deal that will profit him economically and enable the pope to visit Cuba, something John Paul II earnestly desires. What does John Paul II plan for the immediate future? His plans are clearly and concisely set forth in his latest book, "Celebrate 2000!: Reflections on Jesus, The Holy Spirit and the Father" by Pope John Paul II. On pages 8-10 of the introduction by Paul Thigpen, we read, "Pope John Paul II has announced that the Church will observe the year 2000 as a 'Great Jubilee': a particular year of God's favor, a sign of His unfailing love, a season to remember and rejoice that two millennia ago, Christ came to set us free from the bonds of sin. Like all Jubilee years, it will be, he says, 'a year of the remission of sins and of the punishments due them, a year of reconciliation between disputing parties, a year of manifold conversions and of sacramental and extra-sacramental penance' ... It's time to give our souls a bath, to dress in our spiritual best, and to take in our hands the gift of our will, wrapped in a fervent desire to see Christ's Kingdom come. "To help us get ready for this grand party, Pope John Paul II has outlined his strategy in his apostolic letter of November 10, 1994, 'As the Third Millennium Draws Near.' He calls for preparations to take two phases. The first phase, extending through 1996, is to make Christians aware of the value and meaning of the Jubilee Year. The second phase- consisting of the years 1997, 1998, and 1999 is intended to turn the Church's attention to God Himself, to help us grow deeper in our knowledge of Him, our love for Him, our joy in Him. Each of these years is to be devoted to reflection on a particular Person within the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Remember that all the teachings of Pope Paul II and the Roman Catholic Church (like all religious leaders, churches and organizations) must be carefully examined in light of God's Word, the Bible. Of course, some of the statements of the pope and a few portions of the Roman Catholic Catechism contain scriptural truths. This is why so many people are being deceived today. They do not realize that counterfeit religions, like counterfeit money, must resemble the genuine in order to deceive those who lack spiritual discernment or those who have not had the opportunity or taken the time to carefully compare all the major tenets of Roman Catholicism with the truth of God's Word. Only when one compares men's words with Scripture will it become obvious that Roman Catholicism is a carefully crafted counterfeit, not the pure, genuine, biblical faith. Roman Catholicism makes salvation a long, complicated process with no assurance of eternal life and forgiveness of all sin. Baptism, the Mass, Confession, prayers to Mary and the Saints, good works, and purgatory are all added to faith in Christ. By contrast, the Bible teaches salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Eph. 2:8, 9; Titus 2:13. Bible salvation is God's free gift to any sinner who believes with the heart that Christ died for his sins and rose again for his justification. 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Rom. 10:9-13. Bible salvation gives immediate assurance of eternal life. 1 John 5:10-13. Carefully read and believe John 1:12; 3:16-18; 3:36; 5:24; 14:1-6; 20:30,31. No church ever saved anyone, but Christ can and will save everyone who will come and trust Him as their Saviour. Acts 4:12; John 6:37; 10:27-30. Membership or faith in a church does not secure salvation for anyone, but trust Christ and Him alone and you will be saved for all eternity!	The Truth About Roman Catholicism The Roman Catholic Church is by far the largest and wealthiest of all the so-called Christian denominations. It has always falsely claimed to be the only true Church—the Church which was founded by Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. In recent generations, the Roman Catholic Church has embellished its image and attracted and held members by claiming to be the one Church that has never changed. However, all such claims are false. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church has done an about-face, actually boasting of the many changes it has instituted to meet the changing needs of Catholics and non-Catholics alike in this modern age Is the Roman Catholic Church the one true Church? Are its past and present teachings and practices Scriptural? Of course not! How has the Roman Catholic Church changed through the centuries? How much has it changed in our lifetime? Have these changes been foundational or superficial? Where is the Roman Catholic Church headed today and in the future. The purpose of this article is to turn the spotlight of truth upon Roman Catholicism, examining both its past history and present teachings. Our sincere desire is to be of help to Catholics, many of whom are well aware that, in recent years, their church has instituted many changes that have left them confused, uncertain, and deeply troubled. For the first time in their lives, many Catholics are raising serious questions about their Church, its leaders, its teachings and its practices. They now realize that their church is not united but divided over issues such as birth control, abortion, divorce, celibacy for priests, women clergy, gay clergy, Papal infallibility, prayer, worship, music, purgatory, confession, Marioltry and even the meaning of the Mass. The moral degeneracy and financial scandals that have rocked the Charismatic movement have also been exposed in the Roman Catholic Church, from the Vatican to the local parish. Confusion reigns supreme and Catholics who take their religion seriously don't know which way to turn.	no
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	no_statement	the "catholic" "church" is not the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is not the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" does not hold the truth.. the "true" "church" cannot be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://versebyverseministry.org/bible-answers/are-roman-catholics-truly-christian	Are Roman Catholics truly Christian? \| Verse By Verse Ministry ...	Bible Answer Are Roman Catholics truly Christian? Share Can a Roman Catholic be truly Christian given all the false teaching that Catholicism holds? First, we must separate the institution from those who congregate within it. While we cannot judge a person's heart, we can investigate the teachings and beliefs of a religious system like Catholicism to evaluate whether it accurately reflects the truth of scripture. In evaluating Catholicism, we find the doctrines, beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church to be unbiblical. By far the most important distinction between Catholicism and Christianity is their teaching on salvation. How one gets to Heaven is the most important question a person can ask, but the answers offered by scripture and by the Catholic Church are radically different, and any religion that does not agree with Scripture regarding salvation is, by definition, a false religion. Scripture is very clear how one receives salvation. The Bible says that salvation is found by faith alone in Christ alone: Rom. 10:8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, Rom. 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; Rom. 10:10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Faith alone in Jesus Christ alone is the means to salvation according to the Bible. Diving deeper, the Bible says that all men are sinners, deserving of God’s wrath. Our sin has separated us from God, and our sin must be punished because God is a holy and just God. To avoid that penalty and enter into Heaven, we must be perfectly righteous and without sin and thus reconciled to God. The Gospel according to the Bible teaches that reconciliation with God is found only through faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on our behalf as a matter of God’s grace and mercy, not as a result of our own merit or good works. Those of faith in Jesus place their trust in Jesus' death on the cross for our sins, a death we rightly deserved. In this way, the Father can be just in not overlooking our sin, since He placed our sin on His Son. In addition, Scripture says that when we have faith in Christ, His perfect righteousness is imputed (or credited) to the believer so we may enter into Heaven. So by faith in Jesus our sins have been justly punished (on Christ) and we have been made perfect (by receiving Christ's righteousness), and these outcomes are the result of Christ's work on our behalf, not because of anything we did for ourselves. In fact, the only thing we bring to our salvation is our sin, which Christ takes from us. Any supposed "good" works we might do count for nothing to God since Jesus has accomplished everything necessary for our salvation. That is why we call this truth the “gospel," which means “good news.” The Catholic church does not hold to this gospel. Although the Catholic Church teaches that a person's salvation begins with faith in Jesus as Messiah, they depart from the Gospel in claiming that faith alone will not secure salvation. Catholics believe they must become perfect before they may enter into Heaven, and they teach the way to perfection is by doing penance for sin and accomplishing righteous works. It's important to note that Catholicism doesn't hold that a believer is assigned the perfection earned by Christ (as the Bible teaches); instead Catholics believe that each believer must become perfect in himself by his own works. This teaching is contrary to the Bible and is a false gospel. In summary, Catholics teach that salvation is dependent on personal works of righteousness, which stands in stark contrast to Paul's words in Ephesians 2:8-9: Eph. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; Eph. 2:9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. So while we could list many differences between the Catholic Church and biblical Christianity, the most important difference centers on the Gospel itself, and this disagreement over the true Gospel was largely responsible for the rise of the Reformation and the existence of Protestant churches today. In the sixteenth century, the Lord led Martin Luther to shine forth the light of the true gospel again in opposition to the heresy of the Catholic Church by teaching that a person is saved by faith alone in Christ alone. Naturally, Luther's teaching put him at odds with the Catholic Church and the Reformation followed. At the time of the Reformation, the Catholic church convened a church council to refute the teachings of the Reformers (i.e., Martin Luther, John Calvin, and many others). This council, called the Council of Trent, became the official teaching of the Catholic church and remains their official teaching to this day. It’s important to note that the Catholic church teaches that when the pope and the magisterium (the bishops of the church) teach something with respect to faith and morals, such as was taught at the Council of Trent, that teaching is infallible. Since it is “infallible”, every Catholic must accept this teaching without question. To do otherwise makes one a bad Catholic, meaning that person would be in open rebellion to the church’s official, infallible teaching. As far as the Catholic church is concerned, it is just as bad as rejecting the Bible. Examples of this teaching from the Council of Trent are shown below. Remember, each one of these statements is considered infallible and, therefore, equal with Scripture for Catholics, as the Catholic church believes the Holy Spirit leads the pope to proclaim such infallible statements: CANON XI.-If any one saith, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favour of God; let him be anathema. CANON XII.-If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ's sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be anathema. CANON XX.-If any one saith, that the man who is justified and how perfect soever, is not bound to observe the commandments of God and of the Church, but only to believe; as if indeed the Gospel were a bare and absolute promise of eternal life, without the condition of observing the commandments ; let him be anathema. CANON XXIV.-If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof; let him be anathema. CANON XXVI.-If any one saith, that the just ought not, for their good works done in God, to expect and hope for an eternal recompense from God, through His mercy and the merit of Jesus Christ, if so be that they persevere to the end in well doing and in keeping the divine commandments; let him be anathema. CANON XXX.-If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema. CANON XXXII.-If any one saith, that the good works of one that is justified are in such manner the gifts of God, as that they are not also the good merits of him that is justified; or, that the said justified, by the good works which he performs through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life,-if so be, however, that he depart in grace,-and also an increase of glory; let him be anathema. These statements all state that anyone who says salvation is by faith alone is categorically wrong and must be excluded from the Church. For the Catholic, salvation is about works, not faith alone. Clearly, these beliefs contradict Scripture in many places, including: Romans 5:19, “19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5 provides a contrast between Adam and Jesus. In Adam, we are all made sinners because of his sin. In Christ, believers are made righteous by Christ’s obedience. Notice that it is not by our works that we are considered righteous, as the Catholic church falsely teaches. Rather, it is solely by Christ’s obedience that we are made righteous. Preaching a different gospel is the most serious error of the Catholic religion (and there are many others), but this difference alone makes the Catholic Church a false religion, as scripture says in Galatians 1: “8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” Though Catholics acknowledge Jesus (then again, even the Muslims acknowledge Jesus), nevertheless the Catholic church preaches a gospel contrary to the one Jesus delivered to us. Therefore according to Paul, the Catholic Church is not a Christian church; it is a false church. So can we expect believers to be found in the Catholic Church? Since the Catholic Church presents a false gospel that cannot bring men and women into Heaven and rescue them from Hell, why would a true believer choose to remain in a church that teaches a false gospel? This would be no different than a believer attending a Mormon church, a Jehovah Witness church, or any other false church. Why would a believer stay in a church that teaches and believes that which is contrary to the very word of God? Nevertheless, some believers (very few in our experience) do choose to remain in the Catholic Church. Some remain because they do not realize the differences between the true Gospel and the teaching of the Catholic Church. Others remain because family ties and tradition overrule sound judgment. Still, others remain as a mission to reach other Catholics with the truth. Therefore, we cannot say that there are no believers in the Catholic Church, but where believers can be found in that religion, it is only because God's grace has overcome the false teaching in that system. Still, choosing to remain in the Catholic system of religion after coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ may have a negative effect on a person's spiritual development. False teaching impacts a believer’s spiritual maturity and relationships with family and friends. Jesus understood this, too, when He warned in Luke 12: “51 Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; 52 for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Christ must come first, even above our family and friends. In Luke 14, Jesus says, “26 If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” This does not mean we should hate our family; rather, it means we must love Him more than even our family. Therefore, Christians must share the true gospel with Catholics, as this is a truly loving action.	Bible Answer Are Roman Catholics truly Christian? Share Can a Roman Catholic be truly Christian given all the false teaching that Catholicism holds? First, we must separate the institution from those who congregate within it. While we cannot judge a person's heart, we can investigate the teachings and beliefs of a religious system like Catholicism to evaluate whether it accurately reflects the truth of scripture. In evaluating Catholicism, we find the doctrines, beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church to be unbiblical. By far the most important distinction between Catholicism and Christianity is their teaching on salvation. How one gets to Heaven is the most important question a person can ask, but the answers offered by scripture and by the Catholic Church are radically different, and any religion that does not agree with Scripture regarding salvation is, by definition, a false religion. Scripture is very clear how one receives salvation. The Bible says that salvation is found by faith alone in Christ alone: Rom. 10:8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, Rom. 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; Rom. 10:10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Faith alone in Jesus Christ alone is the means to salvation according to the Bible. Diving deeper, the Bible says that all men are sinners, deserving of God’s wrath. Our sin has separated us from God, and our sin must be punished because God is a holy and just God. To avoid that penalty and enter into Heaven, we must be perfectly righteous and without sin and thus reconciled to God. The Gospel according to the Bible teaches that reconciliation with God is found only through faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on our behalf as a matter of God’s grace and mercy, not as a result of our own merit or good works.	no
Religion	Is the Catholic Church the true church?	no_statement	the "catholic" "church" is not the "true" "church".. the "true" "church" is not the "catholic" "church".. the "catholic" "church" does not hold the truth.. the "true" "church" cannot be found in the "catholic" "church".	https://truthstory.org/blog/catholic-church-protestant-perspective/	The Catholic Church: A Protestant Perspective \| Truth Story	Social Links The Catholic Church: A Protestant Perspective An historical overview of the Catholic Church, a doctrinal comparison between Catholicism and the Bible, and answering whether all Catholics are Christian. Short Answer The Catholic Church shares some common theological history and beliefs with Reformed Protestantism, but also upholds major doctrinal differences with the Bible. Though the Catholic Church is a false church, it is impossible to condemn all Catholics are non-Christians because of the diverse nature of its billion-plus members. Long Answer The Catholic Church is one of the largest religious groups in the world. According to the BBC, in 2017 the Church boasted around 1.2 billion members worldwide. Around 40% of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America and one of the largest areas of growth is in Africa. Though many refer to the Catholic Church as the Roman Catholic Church, it’s not always correct. In Catholicism there are different rites and the Roman rite is the largest rite which is why you will often see “Roman Catholic Church”. For now, I will use the more generic term “Catholic Church”. In this post, my aim is to provide an historical overview of the Catholic Church from a Protestant perspective, show a doctrinal comparison between Catholicism and the Bible, and finally answer whether all Catholics are actually Christian. Personally, I am a Reformed Baptist so I will review this history from a Protestant perspective. I grew up attending Catholic mass and though I was never a Catholic, my father’s family is mostly Roman Catholic. A Very Brief History of the Catholic Church – By A Protestant The Christian church (not the Catholic Church) began around AD 30 when Jesus the Messiah was crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended to heaven (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The Apostles preached the gospel and it spread from present-day Spain where Paul preached to present-day India where Thomas preached in the 1st century. Churches were loosely unified in doctrine (teachings) and cooperation in the early years, however more serious schisms developed in the 2nd century. At the same time, a hierarchical church government developed with popes and patriarchs at the top and laity at the bottom. Through a series of creeds and church councils, the church identified the Scriptures and codified official theology on some controversial points. The groups who disagreed with prevailing doctrine left the main church and formed other sects. The biggest departure happened after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 when a portion of the Eastern churches departed for a non-Chalcedonian understanding of Christ’s nature. The Western Church would later emerge from the larger group of remaining Christians as the Catholic Church. Depending on the source, the Catholic Church started around 590 when Pope Gregory I consolidated the lands near Rome under the church’s rule. Catholic doctrine began to develop at that time which had little to no Scriptural support. Nearly 500 years later, the Eastern half of the church split from the Western half in the Great Schism (1054) because of several issues. One of the reasons related to the Eastern church’s rejection of the Pope’s authority. The Eastern Church became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church while the Western Church became known as the Catholic Church. The church later split in the 16th century during the Protestant Reformation. Various reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others rose from within the Catholic Church decrying moral lapses and ecclesial abuses. More seriously, false doctrine had become official dogma in Catholicism. The Catholic Church responded with The Council of Trent (1545, 1563) and further solidified its pre-Reformation doctrines while condemning all Protestants as heretics. What the Protestants rejected as false doctrine, the Catholics upheld as sacred tradition. The split was to be permanent. Four centuries later at Vatican II (1962-1965), the Catholic Church sought to modernize its liturgy and doctrine and took a more accommodative stance toward theological liberalism and non-Catholic denominations. In general, Catholic doctrine has been fairly conservative related to morals, but this trend has subsided in recent decades. The Catholic church has drifted further left on many social and theological issues and suffered through many scandals and cover-ups. In short, the Catholic Church has had a rough few decades. “For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out. For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?” (Job 8:8-10) Doctrine Comparison: Catholicism vs. The Bible Conservative Protestants have much in common with Catholics. Both Protestants and Catholics affirm God’s creation of the universe, the Fall of Mankind, divine revelation, Jesus as the savior of the world, and many other historic Christian doctrines. After all, Protestant churches emerged from the Catholic Church so we share many common theological roots. However, there are several significant theological disagreements. These divisions were so important they split the Western church five hundred years ago. In fact, these contentions are so serious many do not consider the Catholic Church a true church any longer. Here is a doctrinal comparison between some critical theological claims. CCC is short for “Catechism of the Catholic Church” which is a summary of the official teachings of Catholic beliefs. Doctrine Catholicism Bible Location of Authority The Church does not derive doctrine from the holy Scriptures alone (but by) both Scripture and Tradition (CCC, 82) Scripture alone is authoritative for all doctrine. "All Scripture is breathed out by God...that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17) The Head of the Church The Pope is the head of the church. "...the leadership of the Pope, the common Head" (CCC, 899) Jesus is the head of the church: "Christ is the head of the church."(Ephesians 5:23) Infallibility of the Pope (cannot err in doctrine) "The Roman Pontiff...enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office" (CCC, 891) This is NOT found in the Bible. The New Testament instead presents a plurality of fallible elders who lead local churches. (Titus 1:5) No work (including baptism) justifies a sinner before God.. "For by grace you have been saved through faith...not a result of works." (Ephesians 2:8) Eucharist Sacrifice (Mass) Christ is offered again on the altar through the Mass. "The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross." (CCC, 1366) The continual re-sacrifice of Christ is NOT in the Bible. "He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily...since he did this once for all when he offered up himself." (Hebrews 7:26-27) Purgatory Purgatory is a place of punishment for Christians who need their sins purged. "Every sin...must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory." (CCC, 1472) The Bible does NOT affirm the idea of Purgatory. Instead when Christians die, they immediately go to heaven. Jesus told the thief on the cross, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43) Penance "The sacrament of penance is another way to remove sin. "Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offense committed against him." (CCC, 1422) The Catholic concept of penance was originally based on a mistranslated phrase in the Latin Bible "do penance" instead of "repent" - or turn from your sins. (Matthew 4:17). The non-Biblical doctrine of penance does not remove sins. Indulgences Indulgences either removes or reduces time in Purgatory for Christians - indulgences were reinstated in Catholicism in the 20th century.. "An indulgence ...removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin." (CCC, 1471) The Catholic concept of "temporal sins" is NOT found in the Bible and thus an imaginary "indulgence" would not remove temporal sins. Instead, "Christ also suffered once for sins...that he might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3:18) Worship Mary Devotion to Mary is both taught and practiced widely. "The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary...express this devotion to the Virgin Mary." (CCC, 963) Christians are to worship and serve God alone. "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." (Luke 4:8) There are other Catholic practices that are troublesome from a biblical perspective. For instance, praying to saints, calling priests “father” (Matthew 23:9), praying repetitive prayers like the Rosary (Matthew 6:7), which have no grounding in Scripture. But what is widely practiced in Catholicism is not necessarily official doctrine. At the least, some of these practices are troubling. At the most it’s the Catholic Magisterium’s willful allowance of non-Christian practices within the Catholic Church. “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:16) Are Catholics Christian? So can a Catholic be a Christian? On the one hand, it’s difficult to label every Catholic an unbeliever. Over one billion people practice the Catholic religion. And there are many types of Catholics like abortionists, to celibates, to theological radicals, to fundamentalists – the Catholic church seems to be a big tent that welcomes anyone who wants to be a Catholic. No doubt some in the Catholic Church have a high view of Scripture and are uncomfortable with the official teaching. On the other hand, official Catholic doctrine is so far removed from biblical moorings the Catholic Church cannot be a true church. The Council of Trent condemned every then-Protestant in several pronouncements, one of which was Canon XII: “If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be anathema.” In other words, official Catholic doctrine has officially rejected a core Biblical principle, “justification by faith alone.” Whereas Romans 3:28 says, “for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law,” the Catholic Church says anyone who holds that doctrine is to be anathema (damned). This is major issue. Because the Catholic Church has rejected fundamental Biblical doctrines such as justification, by faith alone, worshiping and praying to God alone, Christ as the head of the Church, and Christ’s sacrifice for all sins of his people, I believe the Catholic Church is a false church. Ultimately, God is the judge of all people including Catholics who consciously or unconsciously hold to false doctrines. “Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you.” (2 Corinthians 6:17) Summary And Charge: Search The Scriptures The Catholic Church has a storied and controversial past. Though most Western Christians trace their theological roots to the Catholic Church, many have left the Church for secularism, another religion, or biblical Christianity. It is my prayer that any Catholic reading this would strongly consider the above doctrinal comparison. If you are a Catholic or are considering becoming a Catholic, I urge you to compare their teachings against the Bible. Catholics have a tendency to tell you things you like to hear. I’ve sat through many masses and left thinking there was nothing wrong with the message. But that doesn’t mean official teaching was correct – some official Catholic doctrine is pulled from the Bible. But anyone who puts their faith in the Church above Christ will not be saved. This goes for Catholics as well as Protestants. “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” (Acts 17:11) Resources Matt Slick put together an excellent overview on (Roman) Catholicism with answers to many common questions: Roman Catholicism Brandon Clay is a Christian (Reformed Baptist). He earned a BA in history from the University of Texas and an MA in theological studies from Southern Seminary. Brandon is married and has 4 children, one of whom (Knox) is now with the Lord. This isn’t actually what the catechism says. The CCC is not saying that Mary is the mother of the church and that Mary is the redeemer. It IS saying that Mary is the mother of the church and the mother of the redeemer. (Take another look in that light please.) In the very section you cite, further down we find the following” ————————————————- “Mary’s function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin’s salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it.” No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source. ——————————————————- Having decades of experience with Catholics, I can tell you that they pounce on such misunderstandings with glee, triumphantly proclaiming them as the explanation (or one of the big ones anyway) for why protestants are so deceived. Now, regardless of what they say, their devotion to Mary in practice can only be described as “worship” from a bibical standpoint. However, the semantics of authoritative church teaching does provide them wiggle room which the knowledgeable ones are quick to exploit. My point is not to be unduly critical of you, but only to urge caution, as RCC theology is enormously complex and shot through with cognitive dissonance whereby contradictory, history, doctrine and practice can be freely embraced through a mistaken notion of faith in the imaginary apostolic authority of the papacy and the college of bishops. Nowhere is this more evident than in the embarrassing postmodern ramblings of the present “pontiff.” Much appreciation, Tiribulus! I want to be fair to those who believe in Catholic theology. To avoid confusion, I removed that row from the table but I approved and will keep your comment. Excellent points. Thank you for that overview. I also think that the Catholic Church is a false religion. It seems that nowadays people tend to try to be more politically correct in order not to offend anyone. I believe the Catholic religion has merged with pagetism. Worshiping the Virgin Mary or other false idols also goes against God. You mentioned about the praying with rosaries and the repeated hail Marys in the Catholic confessionals? They falsely claim to be God on Earth. It seems pretty clear that by worshiping false idols, blasphemy, pedophilia along with the sacrificing communion Is proof of it being a false church. I just heard the other day that Pope Francis is wanting to change the Lord’s prayer. He openly accepts abortions, pedophilia, BLM and other morally questionable things that are very disturbing to me. Hey Jason – the traditional Protestant and Reformed position is that the Roman Catholic Church is not a true church. Many Evangelicals no longer hold that position, but I think the traditional understanding is correct. Here’s an article that should help to guide you on which churches are true and which are false: https://truthstory.org/blog/what-is-a-false-church/ Hi Brandon, Good article. I believe the CC is on a full press to provide information which is often mis-information via various avenues; Catholic Answers Live is an entertaining radio show but they promote the most unbiblical positions. They promote several writers who once were protestant but are now Catholic. It is difficult to find articles like yours in a goggle or youtube search because all of the pro-Catholic articles and websites come up. I can only assume they are paying to get their positions into the primary position when one does a search. I was raised Catholic and there are many things to admire at the laity level in regards to devotion – but the Marian doctrines, the papacy, grace via sacraments, and their low regard for scripture in comparison to tradition is a no starter for me. I like the respect and honor and the contemplative style of worship but the dishonor of Christ via the Marian doctrines cannot be tolerated. Its claim of ‘The Early Church was the Catholic Church’ is dishonest. I would like to find other good websites/resources that addresses these issues so that I can better address with my family.	Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:16) Are Catholics Christian? So can a Catholic be a Christian? On the one hand, it’s difficult to label every Catholic an unbeliever. Over one billion people practice the Catholic religion. And there are many types of Catholics like abortionists, to celibates, to theological radicals, to fundamentalists – the Catholic church seems to be a big tent that welcomes anyone who wants to be a Catholic. No doubt some in the Catholic Church have a high view of Scripture and are uncomfortable with the official teaching. On the other hand, official Catholic doctrine is so far removed from biblical moorings the Catholic Church cannot be a true church. The Council of Trent condemned every then-Protestant in several pronouncements, one of which was Canon XII: “If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be anathema.” In other words, official Catholic doctrine has officially rejected a core Biblical principle, “justification by faith alone.” Whereas Romans 3:28 says, “for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law,” the Catholic Church says anyone who holds that doctrine is to be anathema (damned). This is major issue. Because the Catholic Church has rejected fundamental Biblical doctrines such as justification, by faith alone, worshiping and praying to God alone, Christ as the head of the Church, and Christ’s sacrifice for all sins of his people, I believe the Catholic Church is a false church. Ultimately, God is the judge of all people including Catholics who consciously or unconsciously hold to false doctrines. “Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you.” (2 Corinthians 6:17) Summary And Charge: Search The Scriptures The Catholic Church has a storied and controversial past.	no
Festivals	Is the Chinese Lantern Festival celebrating the deceased ancestors?	yes_statement	the "chinese" lantern festival "celebrates" the "deceased" "ancestors".. the "chinese" lantern festival is a "celebration" of the "deceased" "ancestors".	http://www.amyscookingadventures.com/2023/02/pork-tang-yuan-pork-rice-balls.html	Pork Tang Yuan (Pork Rice Balls)	Search This Blog Pork Tang Yuan (Pork Rice Balls) Today's recipe is celebrating the Chinese Lantern Festival. The Lantern festival notes the end of Chinese New Year. According to Brittanica, this festival celebrates deceased ancestors and promotes reconciliation, peace and forgiveness. Homes are typically decorated with colorful paper lanterns. Glutinous filled rice balls (Tang Yuan) are the customary food for this celebration as the roundness of the balls symbolize wholeness and unity in families. Tang Yuan are typically filled with nuts, fruit, or sweet flavors, but can be filled with savory flavors as well, which I used in today’s recipe. Since savory Tang Yuan can be served in broth, mine ended up more like a soup. I ended up putting some stir fry veggies in my bowl as well which made for a balanced (and delicious) meal! -The filling makes double (or more) than is needed for the rice wrappers. I baked the rest of the filling as mini meatballs in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, then tossed them in with the veggies I served with the Tang Yuan (napa cabbage, mushrooms, & broccoli, tossed with soy sauce, sriracha, ginger, & garlic). You can make more of the rice dough for a larger batch of Tang Yuan. -Yes, the dough calls for both boiling and cold water - see the rationale in the inspiration post (linked below the recipe title) In a medium sized bowl, mix together the filling ingredients, set aside to marinate. To make the rice dough, pour the rice flour in a bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the boiling water. Gently stir some flour into the water until it absorbs. Allow the mixture to rest for 2-3 minutes. Next, stir in the cold water until completely absorbed. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead until smooth. Divide the dough into 16 equal portions. Flatten each portion. Add about 1 teaspoon of filling into the center, then bring the edges around to seal the rice ball. Set aside under a damp towel while the remaining rice balls are created. See note for ideas for any extra filling. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the rice balls and boil until they begin to float. Cook for another 3-5 minutes to ensure the rice balls are cooked through. Meanwhile, heat the chicken broth. Season with sesame oil and soy sauce. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the rice balls into bowls. Top with a scoop of broth and a sprinkling of green onions. If desired, serve with stir fry veggies, either on the side or in the broth. Post a Comment Popular Posts It’s Secret Recipe Club Day ! In SRC, members are secretly assigned another blog, search through the recipes, make something, and then reveal! Interested in joining? Click that link for all the details! This month, I was assigned Micha’s blog, Cookin’ Mimi and I was so excited! I absolutely drool over Micha’s recipes every reveal day! Micha grew up cooking with her granddaddy and mother and it turned into her own love of cooking. She focuses on traditional southern cooking, American comfort foods, and a mix of ethnic recipes – it’s my kind of cooking! I had such fun delving into Micha’s recipes. Should I make Peanut Butter Brownie Muddy Muddies or Cloverleaf Rolls ? Or how about Mint Chocolate Pudding Brownie Parfaits or Sausage and Potato Breakfast Casserole ? All were very tempting, but what ultimately drew my eye was Chewy Italian Bread. My whole family LOVES bread. I’ve made lots of different sorts of breads, but this one especially drew my eye bec I recently finished reading the Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy. The novel follows Elsie and her family during WWII in Germany. Elsie’s family (at least somewhat) sympathized with the Nazi party (more so, they did what they were told to keep their livelihood). It was fascinating to read a story from the perspective of a regular German citizen. The story also has a second, modern day point of view character, Reba. And honestly, I would have much rather read an entire story about Elsie instead of being interrupted by Reba. Reba was boring and whiny and I really just wanted to enjoy a good historical fiction. Thankfully, more of the story centered on Elsie and her journey through WWII, so I was able to deal with Reba. Since Elsie came from a family of Bakers (thus the title), there were many amazing breads described throughout the story. However, the one that stood out the most and had a prominent role in the story were the Brotchen Rolls. Brotchen Rolls It's meatless Monday again! This time, I decided to break out the pasta roller again and make homemade tortellini! Homemade tortellini are a lot of work (it takes a ton of time to individually shape the tortellini) but it is well worth the effort.	Search This Blog Pork Tang Yuan (Pork Rice Balls) Today's recipe is celebrating the Chinese Lantern Festival. The Lantern festival notes the end of Chinese New Year. According to Brittanica, this festival celebrates deceased ancestors and promotes reconciliation, peace and forgiveness. Homes are typically decorated with colorful paper lanterns. Glutinous filled rice balls (Tang Yuan) are the customary food for this celebration as the roundness of the balls symbolize wholeness and unity in families. Tang Yuan are typically filled with nuts, fruit, or sweet flavors, but can be filled with savory flavors as well, which I used in today’s recipe. Since savory Tang Yuan can be served in broth, mine ended up more like a soup. I ended up putting some stir fry veggies in my bowl as well which made for a balanced (and delicious) meal! -The filling makes double (or more) than is needed for the rice wrappers. I baked the rest of the filling as mini meatballs in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, then tossed them in with the veggies I served with the Tang Yuan (napa cabbage, mushrooms, & broccoli, tossed with soy sauce, sriracha, ginger, & garlic). You can make more of the rice dough for a larger batch of Tang Yuan. -Yes, the dough calls for both boiling and cold water - see the rationale in the inspiration post (linked below the recipe title) In a medium sized bowl, mix together the filling ingredients, set aside to marinate. To make the rice dough, pour the rice flour in a bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the boiling water. Gently stir some flour into the water until it absorbs. Allow the mixture to rest for 2-3 minutes. Next, stir in the cold water until completely absorbed. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead until smooth. Divide the dough into 16 equal portions. Flatten each portion.	yes
Festivals	Is the Chinese Lantern Festival celebrating the deceased ancestors?	yes_statement	the "chinese" lantern festival "celebrates" the "deceased" "ancestors".. the "chinese" lantern festival is a "celebration" of the "deceased" "ancestors".	https://inews.co.uk/news/lantern-festival-2022-what-meaning-chinese-new-year-celebration-google-doodle-today-1461321	What is the Lantern Festival? Meaning behind the Chinese New ...	When is the Lantern Festival? What is it about? The Lantern Festival is also called Yuan Xiao Festival, and it is celebrated in China and other Asian countries that honour deceased ancestors. Encyclopaedia Brittanica says: “The Lantern Festival aims to promote reconciliation, peace, and forgiveness. The holiday marks the first full moon of the new lunar year and the end of the Chinese New Year. How did the Lantern Festival start? Encyclopaedia Britannica says: “The Lantern Festival may originate as far back as the Han dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE), when Buddhist monks would light lanterns on the 15th day of the lunar year in honour of the Buddha. “The rite was later adopted by the general population and spread throughout China and other parts of Asia. “A legend concerning the festival’s origin tells the tale of the Jade Emperor (You Di), who became angered at a town for killing his goose. He planned to destroy the town with fire, but he was thwarted by a fairy who advised the people to light lanterns across the town on the appointed day of destruction. “The emperor, fooled by all the light, assumed the town was already engulfed in flames. The town was spared, and in gratitude the people continued to commemorate the event annually by carrying colourful lanterns throughout the town.” In Taiwan, legend says that mountain farmers in ancient Taiwan used to release float lanterns into the sky as a way to reassure their family members that they were safe. The custom is believed to have started in the small hillside town of Pingxi, which has turned it into an unlikely tourist hotspot. To honour its folklore, the Taiwanese Government made the festival official in 1990. How is it celebrated? There are many amazing events to mark the festival across China and Taiwan. Encyclopaedia Brittanica says: “During the festival, houses are festooned with colourful lanterns, often with riddles written on them; if the riddle is answered correctly, the solver earns a small gift. “Festival celebrations also include lion and dragon dances, parades, and fireworks. Small glutinous rice balls filled with fruits and nuts, called yuanxiao or tangyuan, are eaten during the festival. The round shape of the balls symbolises wholeness and unity within the family.” People write messages of hope for the new year on their lanterns, or paint pictures of animals like pandas and cats. These each have their own meaning, such as prosperity or good luck in love. The lanterns symbolically carry these wishes to the heavens. The day has come to be about more than just lanterns, with other traditions enveloped in. There is the Yanshui Fireworks Festival, regarded as one of the most dangerous firework events in the world. It sees people in thick protective clothing set off large structures decked with firecrackers. The event is in thanks to a god named Guan Gong, who the townspeople believe rescued them from a plague during the 19th century. There is also the Bombing of Master Han Dan, which takes place in the southern city of Taitung. This equally dangerous tradition sees volunteers dress up as the god of wealth, Master Han Dan, wearing nothing but red shorts and a scarf. People then throw firecrackers at him, which they believe helps Master Han Dan grow in power. What is the Google Doodle? Google says: “Today’s Doodle celebrates the Lantern Festival on the first full moon of the Lunar calendar. Traditions call for celebrants to light lanterns and send them floating into the sky as a symbolic act that honours one’s ancestors and symbolises the release of the past while shining a light on the year to come. “Modern-day celebrations of the Lantern Festival have ancient roots. Stretching back over 2,000 years to the start of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the customs that characterize the holiday are a testament to the power of China’s oral storytelling traditions. The most common type of lantern seen across the skies today are small orbs, but many artisans create unique designs that take on all sizes and shapes—from giant dragons to lanterns small enough for children to carry. “To add an extra element of fun, many people slip small pieces of paper inscribed with riddles inside their lanterns. Some riddles are even made so difficult, they’ve earned the nickname “lantern tigers,” as it’s said it’s easier to fight a tiger than solve them!	When is the Lantern Festival? What is it about? The Lantern Festival is also called Yuan Xiao Festival, and it is celebrated in China and other Asian countries that honour deceased ancestors. Encyclopaedia Brittanica says: “The Lantern Festival aims to promote reconciliation, peace, and forgiveness. The holiday marks the first full moon of the new lunar year and the end of the Chinese New Year. How did the Lantern Festival start? Encyclopaedia Britannica says: “The Lantern Festival may originate as far back as the Han dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE), when Buddhist monks would light lanterns on the 15th day of the lunar year in honour of the Buddha. “The rite was later adopted by the general population and spread throughout China and other parts of Asia. “A legend concerning the festival’s origin tells the tale of the Jade Emperor (You Di), who became angered at a town for killing his goose. He planned to destroy the town with fire, but he was thwarted by a fairy who advised the people to light lanterns across the town on the appointed day of destruction. “The emperor, fooled by all the light, assumed the town was already engulfed in flames. The town was spared, and in gratitude the people continued to commemorate the event annually by carrying colourful lanterns throughout the town.” In Taiwan, legend says that mountain farmers in ancient Taiwan used to release float lanterns into the sky as a way to reassure their family members that they were safe. The custom is believed to have started in the small hillside town of Pingxi, which has turned it into an unlikely tourist hotspot. To honour its folklore, the Taiwanese Government made the festival official in 1990. How is it celebrated? There are many amazing events to mark the festival across China and Taiwan. Encyclopaedia Brittanica says: “During the festival, houses are festooned with colourful lanterns, often with riddles written on them; if the riddle is answered correctly, the solver earns a small gift.	yes
Festivals	Is the Chinese Lantern Festival celebrating the deceased ancestors?	yes_statement	the "chinese" lantern festival "celebrates" the "deceased" "ancestors".. the "chinese" lantern festival is a "celebration" of the "deceased" "ancestors".	https://marquettewire.org/4071129/news/chinese-lantern-festival/	Belated New Years, lantern festival celebration on campus ...	The Chinese Students & Scholars Association began their New Year with their Chinese Lantern Festival Feb. 18. “The celebration of the Chinese New Year begins on Chinese New Year’s Eve. Since China has historically followed a lunar calendar, the specific dates change every year. Families from across China and around the world will return to their homes for a feast, traditionally consisting of dumplings, fish, and noodle dishes,” Matthew Trecek, the Chinese Culture & Charity Club president and a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, said. The Lunar New Year was celebrated on Feb. 1. The celebration on Feb. 18 was meant to conclude all New Years’ activities for the Chinese Students and Scholars Association. The Chinese Lantern Festival, which the Chinese Students & Scholars Association celebrates, is also part of the festivities shared between students. The Chinese Lantern Festival originated over 2,000 years ago, under the Han dynasty. Buddhist monks would light lanterns in temples every 15th day of the first lunar month for worshippers. It soon became customary in China and some of its surrounding countries to light lanterns at homes and other venues. “Since I joined the club, there’s been a New Year’s celebration almost every year,” Wangji He, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association president and a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, said. COVID-19 halted the celebrations for a couple of years. There have been no official Chinese New Year celebrations from the Chinese Scholars and Students Association since 2019. “In Chinese New Year, we stay with our families and have dinner together, and then we light firecrackers, and the elders give children money in red envelopes. Since we’re a big group, I want everyone to feel at home. Since we’re a big group, I want to help everyone feel like they have a slice of home,” He said. The Chinese Lantern Festival is typically held on the 15th day of the first month of the Lunar calendar. The celebration is meant to honor deceased ancestors and promote reconciliation, peace, and forgiveness. “After the New Year, celebrations usually don’t stop there. A few smaller days of significance that families celebrate at the beginning of the year. It all culminates with the Lantern Festival two weeks after New Year. Under the full moon, people will release lanterns into the sky to honor their ancestors and to shine a light on the year ahead,” Trecek said. Lunar New Year celebrations usually have an emphasis on family and togetherness. “For Chinese living abroad (like in America, for example), this time is usually used to get together with friends and call their families back home,” Trecek said. More than 30 students were present at the festivity, enjoying food, games, and other activities. “Since Covid started two years ago, I’ve been almost completely isolated. I needed social activity with people I know and trust. This is the first or second public gathering I’ve attended since then. This is great for us to reconnect, relax, and recharge,” Xiaolong Wang, a graduate student and member of the Chinese Students & Scholars Association, said. After eating, the students played several games and activities, including building with clay dough and charades.	“Since I joined the club, there’s been a New Year’s celebration almost every year,” Wangji He, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association president and a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, said. COVID-19 halted the celebrations for a couple of years. There have been no official Chinese New Year celebrations from the Chinese Scholars and Students Association since 2019. “In Chinese New Year, we stay with our families and have dinner together, and then we light firecrackers, and the elders give children money in red envelopes. Since we’re a big group, I want everyone to feel at home. Since we’re a big group, I want to help everyone feel like they have a slice of home,” He said. The Chinese Lantern Festival is typically held on the 15th day of the first month of the Lunar calendar. The celebration is meant to honor deceased ancestors and promote reconciliation, peace, and forgiveness. “After the New Year, celebrations usually don’t stop there. A few smaller days of significance that families celebrate at the beginning of the year. It all culminates with the Lantern Festival two weeks after New Year. Under the full moon, people will release lanterns into the sky to honor their ancestors and to shine a light on the year ahead,” Trecek said. Lunar New Year celebrations usually have an emphasis on family and togetherness. “For Chinese living abroad (like in America, for example), this time is usually used to get together with friends and call their families back home,” Trecek said. More than 30 students were present at the festivity, enjoying food, games, and other activities. “Since Covid started two years ago, I’ve been almost completely isolated. I needed social activity with people I know and trust. This is the first or second public gathering I’ve attended since then. This is great for us to reconnect, relax, and recharge,” Xiaolong Wang, a graduate student and member of the Chinese Students & Scholars Association, said.	yes
Festivals	Is the Chinese Lantern Festival celebrating the deceased ancestors?	yes_statement	the "chinese" lantern festival "celebrates" the "deceased" "ancestors".. the "chinese" lantern festival is a "celebration" of the "deceased" "ancestors".	https://sonasia-holiday.com/sonabee/asian-lantern-festival	Top 10 Asian Lantern Festivals \| water & light \| floating & flying the sky	10 Epic Lantern Festivals in Asia Lantern Festival is celebrated in China and other Asian countries that honors deceased ancestors on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar (usually falls around mid-February of Gregorian calendar). The Lantern Festival aims to promote reconciliation, peace, and forgiveness. Originally, the holiday marks the first full moon of the new lunar year and the end of the Chinese New Year. In some other Asian countries such as Thailand or Laos, the festival is celebrated around late October or early November to mark the end of the Buddhist Lent & the beginning of the festive season. During the festival, houses are festooned with colorful lanterns, often with riddles written on them; if the riddle is answered correctly, the solver earns a small gift. Festival celebrations also include lion and dragon dances, parades, and fireworks. Origin legends There are several beliefs about the origin of the Lantern Festival. However, its roots trace back more than 2000 years ago and is popularly linked to the reign of Emperor Ming of Han at the time when Buddhism was growing in China. Emperor Ming was an advocate of Buddhism and noticed Buddhist monks would light lanterns in temples on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. As a result, Emperor Ming ordered all households, temples and the imperial palace to light lanterns on that evening. From there it developed into a folk custom. Another likely origin is the celebration of "the declining darkness of winter" and community's ability to "move about at night with human-made light," namely, lanterns. During the Han Dynasty, the festival was connected to Ti Yin, the deity of the North Star. Another legend concerning the festival’s origin tells the tale of the Jade Emperor (You Di), who became angered at a town for killing his beautiful crane. He planned to destroy the town with fire, but he was thwarted by a fairy who advised the people to light lanterns across the town on the appointed day of destruction. The emperor, fooled by all the light, assumed the town was already engulfed in flames. The town was spared, and in gratitude the people continued to commemorate the event annually by carrying colorful lanterns throughout the town. Whatever the legends you may read about, its roots always link to the ancient China. Top 10 epic Asian Lantern Festivals From China, the festival was spread to many other countries in Asia. Below is the top 10 epic Lantern Festivals in Asia that you should not miss. China Lantern Festival Originated in China, the biggest lantern festival is held here. Falling on the 15th day of the first lunar month, Lantern Festival is the first significant feast after Chinese New Year, so called because the most important activity during the night of the event is watching various wonderful Chinese lanterns. And because every household eats yuanxiao (a rice ball stuffed with different fillings) on that day, it is called Yuan Xiao Festival. For its rich and colorful activities, it is regarded as the most recreational among all the Chinese festivals and a day for appreciating the bright full moon, and family reunion. Hoi An Lantern Festival, Vietnam The Hoi An Lantern Festival is a monthly event that celebrates the full moon. The full moon is one of the most sacred times in the Buddhist calendar. It is said that Buddha was not only born on a full moon but attained enlightenment on a full moon. And so for centuries Buddhists have viewed the full moon as an auspicious time of transformation. Even today people all over Asia view the full moon as a time to meditate, observe rituals, reflect on life and worship their ancestors. This is done in many ways from offerings made at family shrines to the burning of incense and the lighting of candles. In recent years these traditions have morphed into the popular Hoi An Lantern Festival. Diwali – The Festival of Light, India When it comes to festivals, India gives the rest of the world a run for its money. The Hindu Festival of Lights — also known as Diwali — is proof. Observed primarily by Hindu people in India, this autumn event is all about celebrating the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil, which is why millions gather each year to light up the whole country. This epic, light-dappled, five-day fest may use everything from clay lamps and candles to hanging lanterns and fireworks, but the celebrations also include the release of sky lanterns to light up the night sky. Yi Peng Festival & Loy Krathong Festival, Thailand Two lantern festivals turn Thailand into a twinkling wonderland, typically around November. Sukhothai and Bangkok celebrate Loy Krathong by sending off floating lotus baskets, full of candles, into the waters. Yi Peng is more prevalent in the north, especially in Chiang Mai, and it takes place the same day as the latter. However, sky lanterns define this event, and they are constructed of bamboo and rice paper. Travelers from all over the world flock in the thousands to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to participate in, witness and document the revelries of the Yi Peng Festival. The two festivals are performed for several reasons: to show reverence to Buddha, to acquire Buddhist merit and to symbolize one’s troubles floating or flying away. During the event, participants not only release floating or flying lanterns from the Lanna Kingdom period (1292-1775 AD); denizens also adorn their temples and houses with them, too. Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, Taiwan Each year, Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival rings in the start of spring in Taiwan’s pastoral district of Pingxi. The event, executed in conjunction with Yanshui’s fireworks display — an annual tradition for good health in the new year — was originally established to signal the townsfolk’s safe passage into a blessed new year. This beautiful belief is still very much a part of the light-filled practice, which has since blossomed into a proper annual festival hosted by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau. Though the release of 1,200 lanterns is the center of the festivities, other vibrant goings-on are also on the itinerary, including folk performances and carnivals. Vesak Day, Indonesia Buddha’s birth is one of the most important events of the Buddhist calendar, and in Indonesia, Buddhist communities commemorate the birthday with Vesak Day in May. To celebrate, hundreds upon hundreds make the pilgrimage to Borobudur — a Mahayana Buddhist temple (the world’s largest) located in Java — bringing with them celebratory offerings. Others come to witness the release of approximately 1,000 sky lanterns by the monks at the height of the event. Kaga Yuzen Toro Nagashi, Japan Japan has its share of floating lantern festivals. But if travelers want to mix things up, they can choose to celebrate Kaga Yuzen Toro Nagashi, which incorporates “flowing lanterns.” The festival is a little different from most sky-lantern festivals. Instead of lanterns suspended in air, these lit, square paper lanterns float on the Asano River in the city of Kanazawa, located on Japan’s north-central coast. They’re meant to light up the spirits’ path as they make the journey to the afterlife. Thadingyut Festival of Lights, Myanmar This festival is held on the full moon of Thadingyut in October marking the end of Buddhist Lent. The three-day Festival of Lights during Thadingyut symbolizes the return of the Buddha from heaven while angels are lighting the path of his descent to earth. During these days pagodas are crowded with people. The country is covered in colored lights and candles to welcome Buddha’s descent from heaven. The streets are full of people strolling through the markets and food stalls. They celebrate this time with traditional open-air performances and concerts. It is the end of Buddhist Lent, and it means there is an abundance of music and dancing everywhere. It is not only a time of joy but also of thanksgiving and paying homage to teachers, parents, and elders, and asking pardon for any committed misdeeds. The celebration can be experienced at its most splendid in Yangon or at Inle Lake Boun Lai Heua Fai – Festival of Light, Luang Prabang, Laos Lai Huea Fai, also referred to as The Candlelight Festival or The Festival of Lights, is the festival that takes place at Boun Awk Phansa. Like other Laotian festivals, it blends together Animist and Buddhist traditions. It is believed that the ceremony originated as a way to pay homage to the river deities and their spirits. However, now small 'boats of light' are floated down the river to signify the letting go of any immoral thoughts and actions, such as greed and anger, over the past year. These small boats known, as 'Krathongs', are made from a banana tree trunk, acting as a base, and decorated with various flowers and candles. At the water's edge, wishes are murmured before they are let go to float down the river. Bon Om Touk or Water Festival, Cambodia The Cambodian Water Festival (Bon Om Touk) takes place once a year, on the full moon of the Buddhist month of Kadeuk (usually in November). It celebrates a major natural occurrence: The reversing flow between the Tonle Sap and the Mekong River. This natural occurrence is celebrated in Cambodia with three days of festivals, fluvial parades, boat races, fireworks, and general merriment. People come from far and wide to join the celebrations. Upwards of a million Cambodians attend the celebrations at Phnom Penh to take in the wholesome carnival atmosphere. Food and drink overflow in the streets, Khmer pop bands entertain the crowds, and the riversides are packed to capacity with punters cheering their favorite boats on. Bon Om Touk is celebrated on the full moon of the 12th month of the Khmer lunar calendar. My name is Jolie, I am a Vietnamese girl growing up in the countryside of Hai Duong, northern Vietnam. Since a little girl, I was always dreaming of exploring the far-away lands, the unseen beauty spots of the world. My dream has been growing bigger and bigger day after day, and I do not miss a chance to make it real. After graduating from the univesity of language in Hanoi, I started the exploration with a travel agency and learning more about travel, especially responsible travel. I love experiencing the different cultures of the different lands and sharing my dream with the whole world. Hope that you love it too! The Rocket Festival (Boun Bang Fai) is a merit-making ceremony traditionally practiced by ethnic Lao people near the beginning of the wet season in numerous villages and municipalities, in the regions of Northeastern Thailand and Laos. Celebrations typically include preliminary music and dance performances, competitive processions of floats, dancers and musicians on the second day, and culminating on the third day in competitive firings of home-made rockets. Local participants and sponsors use the occasion to enhance their social prestige, as is customary in traditional Buddhist folk festivals throughout Southeast Asia. The festival in Thailand also includes special programs and specific local patterns like Bung Fai (Parade dance) and a Beautiful Bung Fai float such as Yasothon the third weekend of May, and continues Suwannaphum District, Roi Et on the first weekend of June, Phanom Phrai District Roi Et during the full moon of the seventh month in Lunar year's calendar each year. The Bung Fai festival is not only found in Isan or Northeasthern Thailand and North Thailand and Laos, but also in Amphoe Sukhirin, Narathiwat. Hue Festival is a biennial celebration that takes place in Hue City. Here you can enjoy an array of cultural events, games, and performances held over the course of a week. Founded in 2000, the festival is held to preserve the traditional customs that have been practiced since the Nguyen Dynasty. For many thousands of years, the art of stone carving has flourished in Cambodia. From the small statues made by local artisans to the famous, breathtaking carvings found at Angkor Wat, stone carving has become one of the country's most cherished art forms. Stone carving has been both a passion and a livelihood for many a Cambodian sculptor and has, in recent decades, survived war, genocide (in which many of the country's artists were murdered by the Khmer Rouge), and tyranny to be passed on to a whole new generation of artists. The art of stone carving in Cambodia is one that has a very long, fascinating history which goes back to the foundation of the Khmer nation. Within the scope of this article, we will learn more about the history of Cambodia stone carvings and the legends & myth of the stone carvings inside Angkor Wat Also known as the Nine Emperor Gods Festival or the Kin Jay Festival, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is an annual event celebrated primarily by the Chinese community in Thailand and throughout Southeast Asia. Running for nine days, the vegetarian festival in Phuket is considered by many to be the most extreme and bizarre of festivals in Thailand. The Phuket Vegetarian Festival could be Thailand's answer to the Tamil festival of Thaipusam celebrated in neighboring Malaysia. Devotees not only adopt a special diet for the holiday, a select few participants prove their devotion by practicing self-mutilation. Some of the feats performed include piercing cheeks with swords, walking on nails or hot coals, and climbing ladders made of knife blades! Most participants miraculously heal up without needing stitches or medical care. WARNING!The content and the images are not recommended for the faint of heart! Consider before continuing. Thanaka or thanakha is a yellowish-white cosmetic paste made from ground bark. It is a distinctive feature of the culture of Myanmar, seen commonly applied to the face and sometimes the arms of women and girls, and is used to a lesser extent also by men and boys. The use of thanaka has also spread to neighboring countries including Thailand. Within this article, we will learn everything about Thanaka and the benefits of its powder in making a secret beauty ingredient of Burmese women. Either are you wondering about best time to visit, visa policy, or how to get the cheapest flight, we have your back! WHAT MORE? Choose the country you plan to visit, then search for your nationality below to see our special travel tips & advice for your country. CONTACT US if you cannot find yours.	10 Epic Lantern Festivals in Asia Lantern Festival is celebrated in China and other Asian countries that honors deceased ancestors on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar (usually falls around mid-February of Gregorian calendar). The Lantern Festival aims to promote reconciliation, peace, and forgiveness. Originally, the holiday marks the first full moon of the new lunar year and the end of the Chinese New Year. In some other Asian countries such as Thailand or Laos, the festival is celebrated around late October or early November to mark the end of the Buddhist Lent & the beginning of the festive season. During the festival, houses are festooned with colorful lanterns, often with riddles written on them; if the riddle is answered correctly, the solver earns a small gift. Festival celebrations also include lion and dragon dances, parades, and fireworks. Origin legends There are several beliefs about the origin of the Lantern Festival. However, its roots trace back more than 2000 years ago and is popularly linked to the reign of Emperor Ming of Han at the time when Buddhism was growing in China. Emperor Ming was an advocate of Buddhism and noticed Buddhist monks would light lanterns in temples on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. As a result, Emperor Ming ordered all households, temples and the imperial palace to light lanterns on that evening. From there it developed into a folk custom. Another likely origin is the celebration of "the declining darkness of winter" and community's ability to "move about at night with human-made light," namely, lanterns. During the Han Dynasty, the festival was connected to Ti Yin, the deity of the North Star. Another legend concerning the festival’s origin tells the tale of the Jade Emperor (You Di), who became angered at a town for killing his beautiful crane. He planned to destroy the town with fire, but he was thwarted by a fairy who advised the people to light lanterns across the town on the appointed day of destruction.	yes
Festivals	Is the Chinese Lantern Festival celebrating the deceased ancestors?	yes_statement	the "chinese" lantern festival "celebrates" the "deceased" "ancestors".. the "chinese" lantern festival is a "celebration" of the "deceased" "ancestors".	https://daoismreligion.weebly.com/special-days-of-celebration.html	Special Days of Celebration - Taoism	The Lantern Festival The Lantern Festival takes place every 15th day of the lunar month. On this day, the first full moon of the year is celebrated. According to Taoism, this festival celebrates the birthday of the Taoist god, Tianguan. Tianguan enjoys many types of celebration so people participate in different events with the goal of obtaining good fortune. Lanterns are hung to worship the gods who are responsible in bringing positivity and fortune. In the past, lanterns were very simple, but today, they come in all shapes and sizes. People celebrate by hanging lanterns, solving puzzles and eating yuanxiaohah, a popular chinese dish that is a riceball filled with ground black sesame. Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming Festival) On the 104th day after the winter solstice, the Chinese, especially taoists, celebrate the “Tomb Sweeping Day”, formally known as the “Qingming Festival”. The Qingming Festival is the day when Chinese people visit graves or burial sites of their ancestors. The people present offerings such as food, tea, wine, chopsticks and sweep the tombs of the deceased, and do not cook any sort of food that day. During the holiday, only cold food is served. Although this holiday may seem tragic, it also exists as a time to consider hopes for the upcoming season of spring. Dragon Boat Festival The Duanwu Festival, otherwise known as the Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional holiday originated in China that occurs on the fifth month of the lunisolar chinese calendar. The Dragon Boat Festival started as a celebration of the life of Qu Yuan, a prominent member of the Zhou Dynasty. He worked to get rid of corruption in the Zhou Dynasty. His opinions were not popular and he was forced out of his position. When the Zhou Dynasty fell, he committed suicide by jumping into a river on the fifth day of the fifth month. Qu Yuan’s last poem was; Many a heavy sigh I have in my despair, Grieving that I was born in such an unlucky time. I yoked a team of jade dragons to a phoenix chariot, And waited for the wind to come, To soar up on my journey The Dragon Boat Festival exists because of this poem. During the festival, people race dragon boats and eat a food called zong zi, which is a type of riceball. Chinese New Year The Chinese New Year is one of the most popular holidays in the world. It begins on Chinese New Years Eve and ends with the Lantern Festival. The holiday is accompanied by a belief in good fortune, and there are many decorations around to herald the new year. During this holiday, citizens celebrate by visiting temples to pray and burn thin, wooden chinese sticks called the incense. As for parades, festivals are full of excitement, with various types of entertainments including firecrackers, activities, and dragon dancers. Hungry Ghost Festival Originated in ancient Chinese folk religion, the Hungry Ghost festival begins every 15th night of July. Traditionally in China, the seventh month is regarded as the “ghost month" where ghosts and spirits of the deceased ancestors come out from the lower realm. Buddhist and Taoists would perform rituals to avert the sufferings of the deceased with food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper. Most meals served in this holiday consist of vegetarian dishes in empty seats for each of the deceased, treated as if they are still living.	The Lantern Festival The Lantern Festival takes place every 15th day of the lunar month. On this day, the first full moon of the year is celebrated. According to Taoism, this festival celebrates the birthday of the Taoist god, Tianguan. Tianguan enjoys many types of celebration so people participate in different events with the goal of obtaining good fortune. Lanterns are hung to worship the gods who are responsible in bringing positivity and fortune. In the past, lanterns were very simple, but today, they come in all shapes and sizes. People celebrate by hanging lanterns, solving puzzles and eating yuanxiaohah, a popular chinese dish that is a riceball filled with ground black sesame. Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming Festival) On the 104th day after the winter solstice, the Chinese, especially taoists, celebrate the “Tomb Sweeping Day”, formally known as the “Qingming Festival”. The Qingming Festival is the day when Chinese people visit graves or burial sites of their ancestors. The people present offerings such as food, tea, wine, chopsticks and sweep the tombs of the deceased, and do not cook any sort of food that day. During the holiday, only cold food is served. Although this holiday may seem tragic, it also exists as a time to consider hopes for the upcoming season of spring. Dragon Boat Festival The Duanwu Festival, otherwise known as the Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional holiday originated in China that occurs on the fifth month of the lunisolar chinese calendar. The Dragon Boat Festival started as a celebration of the life of Qu Yuan, a prominent member of the Zhou Dynasty. He worked to get rid of corruption in the Zhou Dynasty. His opinions were not popular and he was forced out of his position. When the Zhou Dynasty fell, he committed suicide by jumping into a river on the fifth day of the fifth month. Qu Yuan’s last poem was; Many a heavy sigh I have in my despair, Grieving that I was born in such an unlucky time.	no
Festivals	Is the Chinese Lantern Festival celebrating the deceased ancestors?	yes_statement	the "chinese" lantern festival "celebrates" the "deceased" "ancestors".. the "chinese" lantern festival is a "celebration" of the "deceased" "ancestors".	https://www.afar.com/magazine/lantern-festivals-thatll-brighten-your-life	7 Lantern Festivals Around the World - AFAR	7 Lantern Festivals That’ll Brighten Your Life These luminous events, from Chiang Mai to O‘ahu, are rooted in ancient cultural traditions. Traditional lanterns are commonly used to commemorate cultural and spiritual celebrations around the world. Photo by adisornfoto/Shutterstock Throughout Asia, lanterns have been used to commemorate cultural and spiritual celebrations for centuries. Sky lanterns can be traced back thousands of years to the Eastern Han Dynasty in China (25–220 C.E.), when the objects were used not only as decorative light sources but also as military signals that could communicate messages across long distances. The history of lantern festivals is also believed to have begun during the Han Dynasty, though no one is certain when or how they came about. One theory goes that on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, monks would light lanterns in honor of Buddha, and eventually other people caught onto the custom and began lighting lanterns in honor of loved ones who had passed. Another more fanciful explanation goes that the Jade Emperor (a principal figure in Chinese mythology) threatened to burn down a village after its citizens accidentally killed his favorite pet crane. His daughter took pity on the townsfolk and instructed them to trick the Emperor into thinking their homes were already on fire by lighting lanterns and setting off fireworks—the plan worked. Afterward, villagers continued the tradition to commemorate the event. Across the centuries, the tradition of lantern festivals has spread across Asia through trade, immigration, and colonialism, meshing with local cultures and customs—they now occur throughout the continent and wherever there are large populations of people of Asian descent. From a floating lantern festival in Hawai‘i to Vietnam’s monthly full moon festival, here are seven radiant lantern celebrations around the world: In Hoi An, the Full Moon Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 14th day of each lunar month when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. Photo by Kobby Dagan/Shutterstock 1. Full Moon Lantern Festival Where: Hoi An, Vietnam When: Hoi An’s 2023 Full Moon Lantern Festival falls on January 5, February 4, March 5, April 4, May 3, June 1, July 1, July 31, August 29, September 28, October 28, November 26, December 26 In Hoi An, the Full Moon Lantern Festival is held on the 14th day of the lunar calendar every month to celebrate the full moon. In Buddhist tradition, the full moon is considered an ideal time to meditate, reflect, observe rituals, and honor deceased ancestors. At sundown, homes and businesses across the city turn off their electricity and allow lantern lights to illuminate the area. Locals and visitors can release lanterns onto the river, an act that is thought to bring happiness and health. Chinese lanterns are traditionally red, as the color is believed to symbolize warmth, happiness, and good fortune. Photo by Toa55/Shutterstock 2. Spring Lantern Festival Where: Hong Kong When: February 5, 2023 The annual Spring Lantern Festival marks the end of the Chinese New Year and celebrates family, society, and the coming of spring. Although specific customs vary regionally across the Chinese-speaking world, the most prevalent activities involve lighting lanterns, guessing riddles, eating tangyuan (glutinous rice balls usually packed with fillings like sweet red beans or black sesame paste), and watching traditional lion dance performances. China’s largest Spring Lantern Festival celebration takes place in Nanjing, the capital of the eastern Jiangsu province, but events are held in other cosmopolitan cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, as well as in rural regions. Because travel to China is still closed, consider checking out Hong Kong’s Spring Lantern Festival. Taiwan’s Pingxi Lantern Festival is held annually in the rural Pingxi District in New Taipei. Photo by Shutterstock 3. Pingxi Lantern Festival Where: Pingxi District, Taiwan When: February 5, 2023 The Spring Lantern Festival is also celebrated annually in Taiwan’s Pingxi District, a mountainous region located approximately one hour east of Taipei. Marking the first full moon of every Lunar New Year—normally during February or March—lantern releases are held in rural villages of the Pingxi District, including Jingtong, Pingxi, and Shifen. (The festival’s largest event takes place in Shifen.) During the festival, thousands of people gather to scribble their wishes on colorful paper lanterns before releasing them into the sky in the hopes that their prayers will be answered. The release of the lanterns, which also commemorates the official end of Chinese New Year, is considered a symbol of embracing an optimistic future. The Lantern Floating Hawai‘i ceremony brings thousands of O‘ahu residents and visitors together each year on Memorial Day. Photo by ChristopherMYa/Shutterstock 4. Lantern Floating Hawai‘i Where: O‘ahu, Hawai‘i When: TBD Each Memorial Day on Oahu’s south shore, Lantern Floating Hawai‘i brings thousands of residents and visitors together on the beach to honor and remember their deceased loved ones. The island’s first festival, hosted by Shinnyo-en, an international Buddhist community, took place in 1999 at Keehi Lagoon. But since 2002, the festival has been held at Ala Moana Beach, a sandy stretch between Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. The ceremony begins with a series of traditional performances by local musical groups; a prayer led by the head of the Shinnyo-en community, Her Holiness Shinso Ito, follows. Then, participants send floating lanterns—meant to inspire remembrance, hope, and good fortune—into the Pacific Ocean as the sun sets. (The Buddhist community retrieves the lanterns from the Pacific afterward, cleans and repairs them, and stores them for use in future festivals.) Dates for the 2023 celebration have yet to be determined, but the festival usually takes place in late May. In Buddhist culture, releasing a floating lantern into the sky represents optimism and new beginnings. Photo by Eugene Ga/Shutterstock 5. Yi Peng Festival Where: Chiang Mai, Thailand When: November 27, 2023 The Yi Peng Festival is celebrated across northern Thailand, but the biggest ceremony takes place in Chiang Mai each year. It’s believed that by sending the Buddha an offering into the sky, a person’s spirit can be cleansed and their misfortunes eased. During the event, which occurs on the “full moon day” during the second month of the Lanna lunar calendar (the 12th month of the Thai lunar calendar), thousands of rice paper lanterns called khom loi are released into the sky. The religiously significant lantern ceremony used to be for monks’ participation only, but today tourists can attend by purchasing highly coveted entry tickets, most of which are sold through authorized tourism agencies and typically cost up to $300. Loi Krathong celebrations, which coincide with the Yi Peng Festival in northern Thailand, take place more broadly across Thailand. Photo by Shutterstock 6. Loi Krathong Where: Thailand When: November 28, 2023 The Yi Peng Festival coincides with Loi Krathong, a traditional festival celebrated widely across Thailand. Both annual events are considered “festivals of light,” but Loi Krathong celebrations involve releasing a krathong (a basket traditionally made out of a banana stalk and stocked with candles and incense) down a body of water as opposed to sending lanterns floating into the sky. Loi Krathong lasts for one night on the full moon of the 12th month of the traditional Thai calendar. The most popular celebrations take place in Bangkok and Sukhothai, but travelers in Chiang Mai for the Yi Peng Festival will also be able to observe Loi Krathong events in northern Thailand’s largest city. The Nagasaki Lantern Festival is held to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Photo by TOMO/Shutterstock 7. Nagasaki Lantern Festival Where: Nagasaki, Japan When: January 22 to February 5, 2023 Held over the first 15 days of Lunar New Year to mark the beginning of spring, the Nagasaki Lantern Festival is believed to have been started by Chinese immigrants and became an official city holiday in 1994. The festival is held in Nagasaki’s Chinatown, the oldest in Japan because Nagasaki was the only port open to foreign traders during the Heian and Edo periods. In addition to a fantastical display of over 15,000 lanterns, attendees can also expect Chinese lion and dragon dances, an Emperor’s parade, a beauty contest, and even acrobats. After you’re done taking in the sights, consider perusing the many snack stalls that line the streets of Chinatown during the parade for classic Japanese street foods like yakitori (charcoal grilled Japanese barbecue) and takoyaki (bite-size pieces of octopus cooked in a savory batter). This article originally appeared online in March 2019; it was updated on December 27, 2021, and most recently on November 14, 2022, by Mae Hamilton, to include current information.	Jade Emperor (a principal figure in Chinese mythology) threatened to burn down a village after its citizens accidentally killed his favorite pet crane. His daughter took pity on the townsfolk and instructed them to trick the Emperor into thinking their homes were already on fire by lighting lanterns and setting off fireworks—the plan worked. Afterward, villagers continued the tradition to commemorate the event. Across the centuries, the tradition of lantern festivals has spread across Asia through trade, immigration, and colonialism, meshing with local cultures and customs—they now occur throughout the continent and wherever there are large populations of people of Asian descent. From a floating lantern festival in Hawai‘i to Vietnam’s monthly full moon festival, here are seven radiant lantern celebrations around the world: In Hoi An, the Full Moon Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 14th day of each lunar month when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. Photo by Kobby Dagan/Shutterstock 1. Full Moon Lantern Festival Where: Hoi An, Vietnam When: Hoi An’s 2023 Full Moon Lantern Festival falls on January 5, February 4, March 5, April 4, May 3, June 1, July 1, July 31, August 29, September 28, October 28, November 26, December 26 In Hoi An, the Full Moon Lantern Festival is held on the 14th day of the lunar calendar every month to celebrate the full moon. In Buddhist tradition, the full moon is considered an ideal time to meditate, reflect, observe rituals, and honor deceased ancestors. At sundown, homes and businesses across the city turn off their electricity and allow lantern lights to illuminate the area. Locals and visitors can release lanterns onto the river, an act that is thought to bring happiness and health. Chinese lanterns are traditionally red, as the color is believed to symbolize warmth, happiness, and good fortune. Photo by Toa55/Shutterstock 2. Spring Lantern Festival Where: Hong Kong	yes
Festivals	Is the Chinese Lantern Festival celebrating the deceased ancestors?	yes_statement	the "chinese" lantern festival "celebrates" the "deceased" "ancestors".. the "chinese" lantern festival is a "celebration" of the "deceased" "ancestors".	https://study.com/academy/lesson/lantern-festival-china-origin-traditions-significance.html	Lantern Festival in China \| Origin, Traditions & Significance \| Study ...	Lantern Festival in China \| Origin, Traditions & Significance Anne has experience in science research and creative writing. She has a graduate degree in nutritional microbiology and undergraduate degrees in microbiology and English (myth & folklore). She has also worked as an ocean and Earth science educator. Learn about the Chinese Lantern Festival, including its origin, traditions, and beliefs. Explore where and when the Lantern Festival is celebrated in China. Updated: 01/12/2023 The Shangyuan Festival (Shangyuan Jie), also known as the Chinese Lantern Festival, is a Chinese New Year celebration of the Lunar New Year. The Chinese Lantern Festival is significant because it marks the final day of the Lunar New Year and the beginning of spring. During the Lantern Festival, community celebrations are held for people to gather together to light paper lanterns, eat traditional foods, and observe festivities such as lion dances and dragon dances. Chinese New Year is an ancient celebratory event, existing as far back as 4,000 years ago. The Chinese Lantern Festival became a part of the New Year celebration sometime between 206 BCE and 220 CE, during the Han dynasty. The festival has since become widely celebrated throughout China and other parts of the world. The Chinese New Year does not follow the Gregorian calendar, where New Year's Day falls on January 1. It instead follows the Xia calendar, also known as the lunar calendar, where the New Year falls on the first new moon, which typically occurs between January 21 and February 20. The New Year ends with China's traditional Lantern Festival on the first full moon of the first month of the lunar calendar, which is the 15th day after the new moon. The date of the Chinese Lantern Festival changes each year but typically occurs sometime in February. For example, the date of the Chinese Lantern Festival was February 26 in 2021, February 15 in 2022, and February 5 in 2023. The first full moon of the year typically occurs in February and marks the date of the Chinese Lunar Festival. The Lantern Festival in China is widely celebrated throughout the country and has spread in various iterations around the world. India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Okinawa, Vietnam, and numerous other countries celebrate the New Year or other significant events with lantern festivals. Several states in the United States also hold yearly festivals. For instance, Las Vegas, Nevada celebrates the fall with the RiSE Lantern Festival, which occurs in October. Lantern Festivals hold cultural and spiritual significance to many cultures around the world. Lighted paper lanterns are also used to celebrate events other than the New Year. For instance, in July, Japan and Okinawa use floating lanterns to celebrate the Bon Festival, also known as Obon (Japanese) or Kyu-Bon (Okinawan). The Bon Festival is held in memory of deceased ancestors, and the lanterns serve as guides to help spirits return home. India also has a Lantern Festival called Diwali, an important religious celebration held in October and November, lasting for five days. Lighted paper lanterns hold cultural and spiritual significance to many cultures around the world. In China, the Shangyuan Festival or Chinese Lantern Festival is an important event of the Lunar New Year and typically occurs in February. The exact date of the Chinese Lantern Festival varies each year, but it always takes place 15 days after the first new moon of the New Year, the final day of the Lunar New Year. Lanterns come in different colors, like red, yellow, or green, and may be painted with Chinese characters, landscapes, or animals. Lanterns may be round or shaped like animals. Lanterns may also be designed to hang, float, or fly. Some materials used to make paper lanterns include silk, paper, bamboo, wood, metal, and wheat straw. Where is the Lantern Festival held in China? The Lantern Festival is a widespread lunar celebration that is held throughout China. There is no one particular city or location in China to which its celebrations are confined. What do Chinese floating lanterns symbolize? Lanterns may symbolize good luck, health, prosperity, or fortune. Floating lanterns may symbolize mourning and serve as a guide for ancestral spirits. What is the origin of the Chinese Lantern Festival? The Chinese Lantern Festival originated during the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). Several legends describe the origin of the festival. In one legend, the lighted lanterns and fireworks were used to trick the Jade Emperor into thinking the town he wanted to destroy was on fire. In another legend, the lanterns were used to appease the deity TaiYi so the people would receive good fortune. What is the Lantern Festival in China? The Lantern Festival is a celebratory festival that involves lighted paper lanterns and traditional festivities and food to celebrate the end of the Lunar New Year. It occurs 15 days after the first new moon of the year, which typically occurs sometime in February.	The Chinese Lantern Festival became a part of the New Year celebration sometime between 206 BCE and 220 CE, during the Han dynasty. The festival has since become widely celebrated throughout China and other parts of the world. The Chinese New Year does not follow the Gregorian calendar, where New Year's Day falls on January 1. It instead follows the Xia calendar, also known as the lunar calendar, where the New Year falls on the first new moon, which typically occurs between January 21 and February 20. The New Year ends with China's traditional Lantern Festival on the first full moon of the first month of the lunar calendar, which is the 15th day after the new moon. The date of the Chinese Lantern Festival changes each year but typically occurs sometime in February. For example, the date of the Chinese Lantern Festival was February 26 in 2021, February 15 in 2022, and February 5 in 2023. The first full moon of the year typically occurs in February and marks the date of the Chinese Lunar Festival. The Lantern Festival in China is widely celebrated throughout the country and has spread in various iterations around the world. India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Okinawa, Vietnam, and numerous other countries celebrate the New Year or other significant events with lantern festivals. Several states in the United States also hold yearly festivals. For instance, Las Vegas, Nevada celebrates the fall with the RiSE Lantern Festival, which occurs in October. Lantern Festivals hold cultural and spiritual significance to many cultures around the world. Lighted paper lanterns are also used to celebrate events other than the New Year. For instance, in July, Japan and Okinawa use floating lanterns to celebrate the Bon Festival, also known as Obon (Japanese) or Kyu-Bon (Okinawan). The Bon Festival is held in memory of deceased ancestors, and the lanterns serve as guides to help spirits return home. India also has a Lantern Festival called Diwali, an important religious celebration held in October and November, lasting for five days. Lighted paper lanterns hold cultural and spiritual significance to many cultures around the world.	no
Festivals	Is the Chinese Lantern Festival celebrating the deceased ancestors?	yes_statement	the "chinese" lantern festival "celebrates" the "deceased" "ancestors".. the "chinese" lantern festival is a "celebration" of the "deceased" "ancestors".	https://blog.eftours.com/article/halloween-around-the-world/	Halloween around the world \| EF Tours Blog	Halloween around the world Halloween is one of the biggest holidays in the United States (and at EF). Each year on October 31, people dress up in some of the scariest, most outlandish, or most creative costumes to celebrate the day. While Halloween is associated with costume parties and trick-or-treating in the U.S., it’s also a holiday rooted in ancestral tributes and harvest traditions. Learn more about how others celebrate Halloween around the world (then start making plans to help your students experience these cultures with EF Educational Tours). Tonamel/Via Flickr Ireland Not only is Ireland the birthplace of Halloween, it’s also home to Samhain, one of the world’s biggest Halloween festivals. The festival, which has been held for more than 2,000 years, is an ancient Celtic festival celebrated throughout rural Ireland. People celebrate with party games, bonfires, and traditional Irish food. One food steeped in superstition is barmbrack, an Irish fruitcake containing coins, rings, and other objects. It’s said that if a woman finds a ring in her barmbrack, she’ll be married by the next Halloween. Germany In Germany, Halloween is observed from October 30 through November 8, which is also Allerheiligen (All Saints’ Day). In southern Germany, the holiday is spent attending church to honor Catholic saints and family members who have passed away. China The Teng Chieh lantern festival in China is similar to Halloween in that it’s intended as a time to remember the dead. The Chinese honor deceased family members by placing food and water in front of loved ones’ photos. Festivals are held during this celebration, which typically concludes the Chinese New Year festivities. Lanterns shaped like dragons and other animals are hung outside to protect people from evil spirits. United Kingdom Halloween traditions in the United Kingdom hardly exist at all. Since Protestantism, a religion without saints, came to Britain, the nation moved its Halloween celebration to November 5. But the holiday has little to do with Halloween traditions. Now known as Guy Fawkes Day or Bonfire Night, this holiday is widely observed throughout the U.K. with bonfires, the burning of effigies, and fireworks. Japan In Japan, the Obon Festival celebrates the memory of deceased ancestors, but is quite different from the typical Halloween celebrations seen in the states. Lanterns are lit with candles and set afloat on the water. During the Obon Festival, the spirits of deceased loved ones are said to return until “send-off fires” summon them back to their graves. Unlike Halloween, this holiday takes place in the summer with outdoor festivals held in its honor. Looking to learn more about haunted history or how other cultures celebrate Halloween around the world? Check out the following articles: The casino real money has a large range of gambling games. Access to them players can get after registration. And by confirming their personal information. The casino has an official license, which is safe for the stored data of its regular customers. Also, players can not be afraid to withdraw their funds. Everything passes a thorough check.	It’s said that if a woman finds a ring in her barmbrack, she’ll be married by the next Halloween. Germany In Germany, Halloween is observed from October 30 through November 8, which is also Allerheiligen (All Saints’ Day). In southern Germany, the holiday is spent attending church to honor Catholic saints and family members who have passed away. China The Teng Chieh lantern festival in China is similar to Halloween in that it’s intended as a time to remember the dead. The Chinese honor deceased family members by placing food and water in front of loved ones’ photos. Festivals are held during this celebration, which typically concludes the Chinese New Year festivities. Lanterns shaped like dragons and other animals are hung outside to protect people from evil spirits. United Kingdom Halloween traditions in the United Kingdom hardly exist at all. Since Protestantism, a religion without saints, came to Britain, the nation moved its Halloween celebration to November 5. But the holiday has little to do with Halloween traditions. Now known as Guy Fawkes Day or Bonfire Night, this holiday is widely observed throughout the U.K. with bonfires, the burning of effigies, and fireworks. Japan In Japan, the Obon Festival celebrates the memory of deceased ancestors, but is quite different from the typical Halloween celebrations seen in the states. Lanterns are lit with candles and set afloat on the water. During the Obon Festival, the spirits of deceased loved ones are said to return until “send-off fires” summon them back to their graves. Unlike Halloween, this holiday takes place in the summer with outdoor festivals held in its honor. Looking to learn more about haunted history or how other cultures celebrate Halloween around the world? Check out the following articles: The casino real money has a large range of gambling games. Access to them players can get after registration. And by confirming their personal information. The casino has an official license, which is safe for the stored data of its regular customers.	yes
Festivals	Is the Chinese Lantern Festival celebrating the deceased ancestors?	yes_statement	the "chinese" lantern festival "celebrates" the "deceased" "ancestors".. the "chinese" lantern festival is a "celebration" of the "deceased" "ancestors".	https://tripways.com/b/chinese-holidays/	Chinese Holidays & Festivals in 2020, 2021 & 2022 \| Trip Ways	Chinese holidays and festivals – like many other ancient countries – are mostly focused on harvests and prayer offerings. China’s most important holiday is the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, which calculates the days of the year based on the movements of both the moon and the sun; therefore, both aspects of lunar and solar calendars are taken into account to calculate the holidays. That is why most Chinese festivals may change every year and they don’t have fixed days in the Gregorian calendar. Chinese Holidays Calendar China has many celebrations and below is a list of the most important ones. Chinese Holidays Date in 2020 Date in 2021 Date in 2022 Chinese New Year’s Eve (Chu Xi) Jan. 24 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Spring Festival or Chinese New Year (Chun Jie) Jan. 25 Feb. 12 Feb. 1 Tomb Sweeping Day (Qing Ming Jie) Apr. 4 Apr. 4 Apr. 4 Labor Day May. 1 May 1 May 1 Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu Jie) Jun. 25 June 14 June 3 Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie) Oct. 1 Sep. 21 Sep. 10 National Day (Guo Qing Ri) Oct. 1 to Oct.7 Oct. 1 Oct. 1 Ghosts Festival (Zhong Yuan Jie) Sep. 2 Aug. 22 Aug. 12 Winter Solstice (Dong Jie) Dec. 21 Dec. 21 Dec. 22 Chinese New Year’s Eve Chinese families the night before the Chinese New Year gather around to enjoy some time together. They celebrate it by eating a special New Year’s Eve dinner, talking, and playing some games till midnight. The dinner served on New Year’s Eve is a reunion dinner and it’s considered the most important meal of the year for Chinese families. After dinner, some Chinese families go to temples to pray for a better year and light the first incense of the year. In modern practice, many people would hold parties and even a countdown to the New Year. Traditionally, people would lit firecrackers to scare away evil spirits. Also, they keep the household doors sealed until the new morning, also known as “opening the door of fortune”. Recently, China’s CCTV has launched a 4-hour long program with singing and dancing performances which has become very popular. New Year Festival in China; the most important Chinese Holiday Spring Festival or Chinese New Year This is the most important holiday for China and countries influenced by this holiday such as Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. This holiday is held between the 21st of January and the 20th of February depending on the calendar of the year. It is the largest holiday for Chinese people and many of them take this chance to go back to their hometowns as they usually work in other large cities. Common Celebrations Celebrations for Spring Festival are all about Lion Dances, Dragon Dances, fireworks, giving red envelopes of money, enjoying time with family and friends as well as eating candies, sweets, and all kinds of delicious foods. Red, the most common color of the festival The most common color during the Spring Festival is red. Chinese traditions believe that red can scare away both evil spirits and bad fortune. Chinese also try to wear new clothes during this time so as the year is renewed, so should their clothes. Family Portrait for the New Year In some parts of China, it is very important to take a family portrait for the New Year. This portrait or photos are usually taken in front of the house or inside the main hall of the house. As Chinese tradition is based on patriarchy, the male head of the family would sit in the center of the portrait. Lantern Festival The Spring Festival lasts for 15 days and the 15th day is the day for Lantern Festival (Yuan Xiao Jie). During this day, children would go out at night, carry paper lanterns, and solve riddles on the lanterns. Spring Festival, A Famous China Holiday Tomb Sweeping Day Tomb Sweeping Day (Qing Ming), also known as the Pure Brightness Festival, is the second most important festival in China after the Spring Festival. This festival is held on April 4th, 5th, or 6th depending on the year (It is on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar). The importance of Tomb Sweeping Day lies in the fact that it is not just another festival of people gathering together and eating good food, but it’s a time to remember and pay tribute to deceased family members and ancestors. On this day, Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors and family members to clean the gravesites, pray to the diseased, and make ritual offerings. These Offerings typically include items such as traditional food and the burning of joss sticks and papers. The Qing Ming Festival has been practiced in China for over 2500 years. This holiday is associated with eating Qingtuan, which is a green colored dumpling made of glutinous rice and Chinese mugwort or barley grass. Labor Day China is governed by a communist party, so this day is considered important by the government. The People’s Republic of China celebrates this international day on May 1st. Dragon Boat Festival The Dragon Boat Festival occurs near the summer solstice on the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional Chinese calendar; therefore, it also has an alternative name as “the Double Fifth Festival”. As stated before, the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so the date of the festival changes from year to year on the Gregorian calendar. The fifth month of the year is considered to be unlucky, so people use different herbs in front of their houses to scare away evil spirits. The Dragon Boat Festival has been held for more than 2,000 years. It also is to celebrate and commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC). This day has three main activities, Dragon Boat racing, eating Zongzi (a kind of rice dumplings), and drinking (Xionghuang Jiu). Dragon Boat, One of The Famous Chinese Holiday Mid-Autumn Festival Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival, is the harvest festival of China that occurs on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It happens in the middle of autumn when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. This day corresponds to late September to early October of the Gregorian calendar. The Mid-Autumn festival is about the celebration of three closely connected fundamental concepts, which are gathering, thanksgiving, and praying. On this day family and friends gather together (traditionally harvesting crops) giving thanks for a good harvest or harmonious unions and praying to get babies, a spouse, beauty, longevity, good fortune, and generally anything conceptual or material that would satisfy them. Mid-Autumn Festival is known for eating mooncakes; therefore, sometimes it also referred to as Mooncake Festival. Mooncakes are a rich pastry usually filled with sweet-bean or lotus-seed paste. Mooncake, Mid-Autumn Chinese Holidays National Day of the People’s Republic of China This is another Chinese holiday which is rather new. The PRC or People’s Republic of China was founded on October 1st in 1949 and the National Day is to commemorate this event annually. The National Day is celebrated in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau with different plans from the government with fireworks and concerts. On this Chinese holiday, public places such the Tiananmen Square in the capital are festively decorated and portraits of revered leaders such as Mao Zedong, the founding father of PRC are publicly displayed. Ghost Festival Ghost Festival or Spirit Festival (also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival) takes place on the 15th day of the 7th lunisolar month, as a traditional Buddhist and Taoist festival. In the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the seventh month is generally regarded as the Ghost Month and the time when restless spirits are free to roam the earth. Chinese believe that in this month Ghosts and spirits come out from the lower realm. Activities for this festival include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and offering items for the visiting spirits of the deceased ancestors. Winter Solstice Winter Solstice is among traditional Chinese festivals with high importance within the Chinese people. This event occurs between December 22nd and December 23rd. The people figured out the Winter solstice by using ancient tools more than 2500 years ago during the Spring-Autumn period (770-476 BC). Winter solstice indicates the longest night and shortest day of the year. It is traditional for people to eat Tang Yuan for this celebration. Tang Yuan is a sweet Chinese dessert made from glutinous rice flour, which is served in the shape of a small or large ball, either filled or unfilled. Tang Yuan., Chinese Traditional Food for Chinese Holidays Interestingly, some of the Chinese holidays are celebrated in other countries, especially in East Asian countries. For example, the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is also celebrated in some other countries such as Vietnam and Korea. Are you familiar with any other holidays in China? Feel free to share your information with us. Also, Our professional experts will reply to your questions in the comment section as soon as possible.	Common Celebrations Celebrations for Spring Festival are all about Lion Dances, Dragon Dances, fireworks, giving red envelopes of money, enjoying time with family and friends as well as eating candies, sweets, and all kinds of delicious foods. Red, the most common color of the festival The most common color during the Spring Festival is red. Chinese traditions believe that red can scare away both evil spirits and bad fortune. Chinese also try to wear new clothes during this time so as the year is renewed, so should their clothes. Family Portrait for the New Year In some parts of China, it is very important to take a family portrait for the New Year. This portrait or photos are usually taken in front of the house or inside the main hall of the house. As Chinese tradition is based on patriarchy, the male head of the family would sit in the center of the portrait. Lantern Festival The Spring Festival lasts for 15 days and the 15th day is the day for Lantern Festival (Yuan Xiao Jie). During this day, children would go out at night, carry paper lanterns, and solve riddles on the lanterns. Spring Festival, A Famous China Holiday Tomb Sweeping Day Tomb Sweeping Day (Qing Ming), also known as the Pure Brightness Festival, is the second most important festival in China after the Spring Festival. This festival is held on April 4th, 5th, or 6th depending on the year (It is on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar). The importance of Tomb Sweeping Day lies in the fact that it is not just another festival of people gathering together and eating good food, but it’s a time to remember and pay tribute to deceased family members and ancestors. On this day, Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors and family members to clean the gravesites, pray to the diseased, and make ritual offerings. These Offerings typically include items such as traditional food and the burning of joss sticks and papers. The Qing Ming Festival has been practiced in China for over 2500 years.	no
World Religions	Is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster a legitimate religion?	yes_statement	the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is recognized as a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster has the status of a "legitimate" "religion".	https://www.spaghettimonster.org/about/	About – Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster	The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, after having existed in secrecy for hundreds of years, came into the mainstream just a few years ago. With millions, if not thousands, of devout worshipers, the Church of the FSM is widely considered a legitimate religion, even by its opponents – mostly fundamentalist Christians, who have accepted that our God has larger balls than theirs. Some claim that the church is purely a thought experiment or satire, illustrating that Intelligent Design is not science, just a pseudoscience manufactured by Christians to push Creationism into public schools. These people are mistaken — The Church of FSM is legit, and backed by hard science. Anything that comes across as humor or satire is purely coincidental. Sounds great but where do I start? For a taste of what we’re about, watch this video made by our friend Matt Tillman, an Introduction to Pastafarianism: Spaghetti, Wenches & Metaphysics. More, please We believe religion – say Christianity, Islam, Pastafarianiasm – does not require literal belief in order to provide spiritual enlightenment. Much of the transcendent experience of religion can be attributed to the community. And while some members of religion are indoctrinated True Believers, many are not. There are many levels of Belief and each is no more or less legitimate than the other. That is to say, you do not have to Believe to be part of our Church, but we hope in time you will see the Truth. But skeptics, as well as members of other religions, are always welcome. What is this business about pirates, and the Beer Volcano, and Stripper Factory? Religious texts tell us that humans evolved from Pirates. Consider that so-called “science experts” would have us believe humans evolved from primates, pointing towards the shared 99% shared DNA between humans and primates. But humans and Pirates share upwards of 99.9% of DNA. We believe that Pirates were the original Pastafarians and that they were peaceful explorers. It was only due to Christian misinformation that they have an image of outcast criminals today. No one knows what the afterlife really holds, but we are told FSM Heaven has a Beer Volcano and Stripper Factory. How Do I Join? There is no formal membership process and we do not collect money from our members. The site is supported purely by our Certificates of Ordination. If you’re ready for the immense responsibility of the priesthood, please become a minister. If you just want to join the church, there is no formal sign up process or dues collected. Please consider yourself a member. How Can I Help? Evangelism is a time-honored tradition of religion, and it’s no different with Pastafarianism. Nothing helps the Cause more than Spreading the Word. Here are a few of my favorite acts of evangelism over the years. Please let these inspire you. The FSM looks great in parades How about a Float in honor of the FSM, complete with a crew of Pirates? This is a yearly occurrence at the Fremont Solstice Parade. Check it out here. You can decorate your Holiday tree with a tree-topper Every year, Pastafarians from around the world make their Holiday just a little more festive. Tree-toppers have become a tradition. Here are some of my favorites. (Sadly I do not know who is the cute girl in the photo.) You could ride around in style Look at all these people enchanted by this display of evangelism. How many joined the Church because of this? What a great display. You can see some more photos Here. Or how about joining in with some on-campus ministers? It’s a common sight at colleges across the world: Christian evangelists telling us why we’re going to their Hell for drinking and having sex. So why not join in the evangelizing? Give the students a choice: the Christian threat of eternal damnation and hellfire, or the chance of FSM afterlife complete with a Beer Volcano and Stripper Factory. You can read more about these Pastafarian gentleman’s fine ministry work Here. Community Outreach Here’s Bruder Spaghettus in Full Pirate Regalia standing next to the sign announcing the time and location of the weekly faith service, Noodlemass. (Other Churches in Germany are allowed this right, so why not Pastafarians). Show your faith at the workplace We’re living in enlightened times — feel free to wear your religious headwear (yes, it’s a colander) at the workplace. In the photo, Mr. Schaeffer is getting sworn in at his new position as council member. You can read more about it Here. Or on your license photos Why not wear a colander in your ID photos? Most places are cool with it, and those who are not can surely be poked by the ACLU. In the photo here, Mr. Alm has won the right to wear his Colander in his Austrian ID photo. You can read more about it Here. Pumpkin evangelism is festive Why not show your faith next time you carve a pumpkin? Questions and Answers Q: Is this a joke? A: It’s not a joke. Elements of our religion are sometimes described as satire and there are many members who do not literally believe our scripture, but this isn’t unusual in religion. A lot of Christians don’t believe the Bible is literally true – but that doesn’t mean they aren’t True Christians. If you say Pastafarians must believe in a literal Flying Spaghetti Monster to be True Believers, then you can make a similar argument for Christians. There is a lot of outlandish stuff in the Bible that rational Christians choose to ignore. Q: A lot of Pastafarians seem to be anti-religion and/or atheists (why is this?) A: We’re not anti-religion. This is NOT an atheists club. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join our church including current members of other religions. In addition to the Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers who have joined us, we have a number of Christian (and Muslim, and Hindu and Buddhist …) members and I would love to have more. Note to the religious: You are welcome here. Let me make this clear: we are not anti-religion, we are anti- crazy nonsense done in the name of religion. There is a difference. Q: I don’t believe you or any of your so-called followers actually believe any of this. A: Some Pastafarians honestly believe in the FSM, and some see it as satire. I would just make the point that satire is an honest, legitimate basis for religion. Satire relies on truth to be effective. If it’s a joke, it’s a joke where to understand the punchline you must be conscious of underlying truth. Compare our religion to those that are built on lies. I am not talking necessarily about mainstream religions (which themselves are often full of mysticism and ad-hoc reasoning), but think of cults, or churches where the leaders are scamming their followers out of money. These are groups where the followers fully believe. Are these churches legitimate since they have many True Believers? Or can we agree that religion is as much about community as any shared faith. By any rational metric, Pastafarians are as legitimate a religious group as any. Arguably more so, since we’re honest and rational. Q: What is the Church of FSM’s view on abortion and right to life issues? A: The Church of FSM’s position is that life starts before conception (somewhere around the point of seeing the boobs), and that sperms – as potential humans if allowed to develop – deserve the same protections as fetuses and fully grown people. Anyone who harms sperms is guilty of murder, including pushers of hot water Jacuzzi’s and tight-fitting underwears. We are all equal in the eyes of the LORD our Almighty Flying Spaghetti Monster. Q: We want to use FSM designs for t-shirt, jerseys, posters… A: It’s ok to use FSM materials for your own use and to spread the word – I’m happy to see it. There have been a number of sports team and club shirts — I can provide high quality images/vector designs for screen printing, just let me know. That said, please do not SELL* FSM products. Q: What Does the Flying Spaghetti Monster think of Same Sex Marriage? A: The CotFSM has no judgement on same sex marriage, for/against; that is to say, all are welcome into the loving embrace of His Noodly Appendage. (And there are many gay/bi members). Q: In 1000 years will FSM be a mainstream religion? A: This is something I think about a lot. I sometimes wonder what the Church of Scientology — or lets say the Mormon Church looked like 5 years after Joseph Smith transcribed the scriptures out of the hat with the seer stones. What worries me is that right now I can be pretty sure there aren’t a lot of dogmatic nutty FSM people around, but what about in 20 years? What about in 50 years? What about when someone figures out a way to make money out of this and turns it into some new age spiritual enlightenment thing. There are billions of Christians who are crazy serious about their religion who don’t necessarily believe the things in the Bible actually happened. So .. yes, I do worry where FSM will go. I think the best we can do is work to instill in the Church positive values that will keep us on a straight path. Q: How do Pastafarians believe our world was created? A: We believe the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world much as it exists today, but for reasons unknown made it appear that the universe is billions of years old (instead of thousands) and that life evolved into its current state (rather than created in its current form). Every time a researcher carries out an experiment that appears to confirm one of these “scientific theories” supporting an old earth and evolution we can be sure that the FSM is there, modifying the data with his Noodly Appendage. We don’t know why He does this but we believe He does, that is our Faith. Q: To what extent do Pastafarians need evidence to support their beliefs? What is considered valid evidence, and why are some religious ideas lacking evidence believed more widely than others? Why is Christianity more widely accepted than Pastafarianism? A: For many religions, acceptance is due to the time it has been around and due to the number of people who already follow it. For potential followers it’s often less a consideration of evidence, and more a judgment that the collective group of followers is better informed. That millions or billions of people already follow this religion is strong social proof that there is something to it. The larger the group and the longer it has been around, the more pronounced the effect. But nonbelievers are overreaching when they dismiss the phenomenon of religion as wrong and useless because it so often lacks a basis in evidence. The fact that millions of people get something positive out of a religion – even if it is based in superstition – does mean something. But that’s not to say it’s True, only that it has Value. For many people, religion is about being part of a community and being part of something bigger and more important than themselves. These transcendent experiences are something we want to emulate. Nonbelievers would be better off criticizing only on the negative, damaging parts of religion, and being less judgmental about the idea of religion in general. Nonbelievers get hung up asking for evidence when really we should be looking at why does religion thrive despite evidence? We should be pushing the idea that faith is not equivalent to evidence-based-reasoning without insisting that it’s inferior, only that they are different ways of seeing the world. And that the problems happen when these world views clash. Pastafarianism is different than most religions in that we explicitly make the point that our scripture need not be believed literally. In other religions this is known but not often said out loud (many Christians don’t take the Bible literally but won’t volunteer this). Pastafarian scripture has some outlandish and sometimes contradictory components – and unlike the scripture of mainstream religion, these pieces were intentional and obvious, and our congregation is aware of this. About Bobby, a mini-bio. dreaming of pirate boats Age: [current year minus 1980]. I was 25-ish when the Church became known. Education: I have a Physics degree from Oregon State University. Location: I grew up in Oregon in the USA. For the last several years I’ve spent time in the Philippines and the western US. Some day I plan to float around on a boat. Occupation aside from prophet of FSM: I work in software and general nerdery. But I am a hobo at heart and a hammock enthusiast.	The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, after having existed in secrecy for hundreds of years, came into the mainstream just a few years ago*. With millions, if not thousands, of devout worshipers, the Church of the FSM is widely considered a legitimate religion, even by its opponents – mostly fundamentalist Christians, who have accepted that our God has larger balls than theirs. Some claim that the church is purely a thought experiment or satire, illustrating that Intelligent Design is not science, just a pseudoscience manufactured by Christians to push Creationism into public schools. These people are mistaken — The Church of FSM is legit, and backed by hard science. Anything that comes across as humor or satire is purely coincidental. Sounds great but where do I start? For a taste of what we’re about, watch this video made by our friend Matt Tillman, an Introduction to Pastafarianism: Spaghetti, Wenches & Metaphysics. More, please We believe religion – say Christianity, Islam, Pastafarianiasm – does not require literal belief in order to provide spiritual enlightenment. Much of the transcendent experience of religion can be attributed to the community. And while some members of religion are indoctrinated True Believers, many are not. There are many levels of Belief and each is no more or less legitimate than the other. That is to say, you do not have to Believe to be part of our Church, but we hope in time you will see the Truth. But skeptics, as well as members of other religions, are always welcome. What is this business about pirates, and the Beer Volcano, and Stripper Factory? Religious texts tell us that humans evolved from Pirates. Consider that so-called “science experts” would have us believe humans evolved from primates, pointing towards the shared 99% shared DNA between humans and primates. But humans and Pirates share upwards of 99.9% of DNA. We believe that Pirates were the original Pastafarians and that they were peaceful explorers. It was only due to Christian misinformation that they have an image of outcast criminals today.	yes
World Religions	Is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster a legitimate religion?	yes_statement	the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is recognized as a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster has the status of a "legitimate" "religion".	https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/28639	Flying Spaghetti Monster \| Encyclopedia MDPI	The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is the deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Pastafarianism. Pastafarianism (a portmanteau of pasta and Rastafarianism) is a social movement that promotes a light-hearted view of religion and opposes the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in public schools. According to adherents, Pastafarianism is a "real, legitimate religion, as much as any other". In New Zealand, Pastafarian representatives are authorized to officiate weddings. However, in the United States, a federal judge has ruled that the "Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" is not a real religion. In August 2018 the Dutch Council of State also ruled that Pastafarianism is not a religion. The "Flying Spaghetti Monster" was first described in a satirical open letter written by Bobby Henderson in 2005 to protest the Kansas State Board of Education decision to permit teaching intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in public school science classes. In the letter, Henderson demanded equal time in science classrooms for "Flying Spaghetti Monsterism", alongside intelligent design and evolution. After Henderson published the letter on his website, the Flying Spaghetti Monster rapidly became an Internet phenomenon and a symbol of opposition to the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. Pastafarian tenets (generally satires of creationism) are presented both on Henderson's Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster website, where he is described as "prophet", and in The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, written by Henderson in 2006. The central belief is that an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. Pirates are revered as the original Pastafarians. Henderson asserts that a decline in the number of pirates over the years is the cause of global warming. The FSM community congregates at Henderson's website to share ideas about the Flying Spaghetti Monster and crafts representing images of it. Because of its popularity and exposure, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is often used as a contemporary version of Russell's teapot—an argument that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon those who make unfalsifiable claims, not on those who reject them. Pastafarianism has received praise from the scientific community and criticism from proponents of intelligent design. Pastafarians have engaged in disputes with creationists, including in Polk County, Florida, where they played a role in dissuading the local school board from adopting new rules on teaching evolution. 1. History In January 2005,[1] Bobby Henderson, then a 24-year-old[2] Oregon State University physics graduate, sent an open letter regarding the Flying Spaghetti Monster to the Kansas State Board of Education.[3][4][5] In that letter, Henderson satirized creationism by professing his belief that whenever a scientist carbon-dates an object, a supernatural creator that closely resembles spaghetti with meatballs is there "changing the results with His Noodly Appendage". Henderson argued that his beliefs were just as valid as intelligent design, and called for equal time in science classrooms alongside intelligent design and evolution.[6] The letter was sent prior to the Kansas evolution hearings as an argument against the teaching of intelligent design in biology classes.[3] Henderson, describing himself as a "concerned citizen" representing more than ten million others, argued that intelligent design and his belief that "the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster" were equally valid.[3] In his letter, he noted, I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; one third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence. According to Henderson, since the intelligent design movement uses ambiguous references to a designer, any conceivable entity may fulfill that role, including a Flying Spaghetti Monster.[7] Henderson explained, "I don't have a problem with religion. What I have a problem with is religion posing as science. If there is a god and he's intelligent, then I would guess he has a sense of humor."[8][9] In May 2005, having received no reply from the Kansas State Board of Education, Henderson posted the letter on his website, gaining significant public interest.[1][10] Shortly thereafter, Pastafarianism became an Internet phenomenon.[7][8] Henderson published the responses he then received from board members.[11] Three board members, all of whom opposed the curriculum amendments, responded positively; a fourth board member responded with the comment "It is a serious offense to mock God".[12] Henderson has also published the significant amount of hate mail, including death threats, that he has received.[13][14] Within one year of sending the open letter, Henderson received thousands of emails on the Flying Spaghetti Monster, eventually totaling over 60,000,[15] of which he has said that "about 95 percent have been supportive, while the other five percent have said I am going to hell".[8] During that time, his site garnered tens of millions of hits.[15] 1.1. Internet Phenomenon The FSM "fish" emblem, the symbol of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, was created by readers of the Boing Boing web site in 2005.[16][17] It is a parody of the Christian Ichthys symbol. As word of Henderson's challenge to the board spread, his website and cause received more attention and support. The satirical nature of Henderson's argument made the Flying Spaghetti Monster popular with bloggers as well as humor and Internet culture websites.[18] The Flying Spaghetti Monster was featured on websites such as Boing Boing, Something Awful, Uncyclopedia, and Fark.com. Moreover, an International Society for Flying Spaghetti Monster Awareness and other fan sites emerged.[19] As public awareness grew, the mainstream media picked up on the phenomenon. The Flying Spaghetti Monster became a symbol for the case against intelligent design in public education.[3][20][21] The open letter was printed in several major newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Chicago Sun-Times,[15] and received worldwide press attention.[22] Henderson himself was surprised by its success, stating that he "wrote the letter for [his] own amusement as much as anything".[7] In August 2005, in response to a challenge from a reader, Boing Boing announced a $250,000 prize—later raised to $1,000,000—of "Intelligently Designed currency" payable to any individual who could produce empirical evidence proving that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[23] It was modeled as a parody of a similar challenge issued by young-earth creationist Kent Hovind.[7][24] According to Henderson, newspaper articles on the Flying Spaghetti Monster attracted the attention of book publishers; he said that at one point, there were six publishers interested in the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[15] In November 2005, Henderson received an advance from Villard to write The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[25] In November 2005, the Kansas State Board of Education voted to allow criticisms of evolution, including language about intelligent design, as part of testing standards.[26] On February 13, 2007, the board voted 6–4 to reject the amended science standards enacted in 2005. This was the fifth time in eight years that the board had rewritten the standards on evolution.[27] 2. Tenets With millions, if not thousands, of devout worshipers, the Church of the FSM is widely considered a legitimate religion, even by its opponents—mostly fundamentalist Christians, who have accepted that our God has larger balls than theirs. Although Henderson has stated that "the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma", some general beliefs are held by Pastafarians.[10] Henderson proposed many Pastafarian tenets in reaction to common arguments by proponents of intelligent design.[28] These "canonical beliefs" are presented by Henderson in his letter to the Kansas State Board of Education,[6]The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and on Henderson's web site, where he is described as a "prophet".[29] They tend to satirize creationism.[7] 2.1. Creation The central creation myth is that an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe "after drinking heavily". According to these beliefs, the Monster's intoxication was the cause for a flawed Earth. Furthermore, according to Pastafarianism, all evidence for evolution was planted by the Flying Spaghetti Monster in an effort to test the faith of Pastafarians—parodying certain biblical literalists.[30] When scientific measurements such as radiocarbon dating are taken, the Flying Spaghetti Monster "is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage".[6] 2.2. Afterlife The Pastafarian conception of Heaven includes a beer volcano and a stripper (or sometimes prostitute) factory.[29] The Pastafarian Hell is similar, except that the beer is stale and the strippers have sexually transmitted diseases.[31] 2.3. Pirates and Global Warming A misleading graph that is claimed to correlate the number of pirates with global temperature According to Pastafarian beliefs, pirates are "absolute divine beings" and the original Pastafarians.[6] Furthermore, Pastafarians believe that the concept of pirates as "thieves and outcasts" is misinformation spread by Christian theologians in the Middle Ages and by Hare Krishnas. Instead, Pastafarians believe that they were "peace-loving explorers and spreaders of good will" who distributed candy to small children, adding that modern pirates are in no way similar to "the fun-loving buccaneers from history". In addition, Pastafarians believe that ghost pirates are responsible for all of the mysteriously lost ships and planes of the Bermuda Triangle. Pastafarians are among those who celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19.[32] The inclusion of pirates in Pastafarianism was part of Henderson's original letter to the Kansas State Board of Education, in an effort to illustrate that correlation does not imply causation.[33] Henderson presented the argument that "global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800s".[6] A deliberately misleading graph accompanying the letter (with numbers humorously disordered on the x-axis) shows that as the number of pirates decreased, global temperatures increased. This parodies the suggestion from some religious groups that the high numbers of disasters, famines, and wars in the world is due to the lack of respect and worship toward their deity. In 2008, Henderson interpreted the growing pirate activities at the Gulf of Aden as additional support, pointing out that Somalia has "the highest number of pirates and the lowest carbon emissions of any country".[34] 2.4. Holidays Pastafarian beliefs extend into lighthearted religious ceremony. Pastafarians celebrate every Friday as a holy day.[7] Prayers are concluded with a final declaration of affirmation, "R'amen" (or "rAmen"); the term is a parodic portmanteau of the terms "Amen" and "Ramen", referring to instant noodles and to the "noodly appendages" of their deity.[8] Around the time of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, Pastafarians celebrate a vaguely defined holiday named "Holiday". Holiday does not take place on "a specific date so much as it is the Holiday season, itself". According to Henderson, as Pastafarians "reject dogma and formalism", there are no specific requirements for Holiday. Pastafarians celebrate Holiday in any manner they please.[35] Pastafarians also celebrate "Pastover" as a parody of Passover,[36][37][38] and "Ramendan" as a parody of Ramadan.[39][40][41] Pastafarians interpret the increasing usage of "Happy Holidays", rather than more traditional greetings (such as "Merry Christmas"), as support for Pastafarianism.[35] In December 2005, George W. Bush's White House Christmas greeting cards wished people a happy "holiday season",[42] leading Henderson to write the President a note of thanks, including a "fish" emblem depicting the Flying Spaghetti Monster for his limousine or plane.[43] Henderson also thanked Walmart for its use of the phrase.[44] 3. Books 3.1. The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster In December 2005 Bobby Henderson received a reported US$80,000 advance from Villard to write The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Henderson said he planned to use proceeds from the book to build a pirate ship, with which he would spread the Pastafarian religion.[25][45] The book was released on March 28, 2006,[46] and elaborates on Pastafarian beliefs established in the open letter.[47] Henderson employs satire to present perceived flaws with evolutionary biology and discusses history and lifestyle from a Pastafarian perspective. The gospel urges readers to try Pastafarianism for thirty days, saying, "If you don't like us, your old religion will most likely take you back".[22][48] Henderson states on his website that more than 100,000 copies of the book have been sold.[49] Scientific American described the gospel as "an elaborate spoof on Intelligent Design" and "very funny". In 2006, it was nominated for the Quill Award in Humor, but was not selected as the winner.[49] Wayne Allen Brenner of The Austin Chronicle characterized the book as "a necessary bit of comic relief in the overly serious battle between science and superstition".[47] Simon Singh of The Daily Telegraph wrote that the gospel "might be slightly repetitive...but overall it is a brilliant, provocative, witty and important gem of a book".[22] Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute, which advocates intelligent design, labeled the gospel "a mockery of the Christian New Testament".[50] 3.2. The Loose Canon In September 2005, before Henderson had received an advance to write the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a Pastafarian member of the Venganza forums known as Solipsy, announced the beginning of a project to collect texts from fellow Pastafarians to compile into the Loose Canon, the Holy Book of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, essentially analogous to the Bible.[51] The book was completed in 2010 and was made available for download.[52] Some excerpts from The Loose Canon include: I am the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Thou shalt have no other monsters before Me (Afterwards is OK; just use protection). The only Monster who deserves capitalization is Me! Other monsters are false monsters, undeserving of capitalization. —Suggestions 1:1 "Since you have done a half-ass job, you will receive half an ass!" The Great Pirate Solomon grabbed his ceremonial scimitar and struck his remaining donkey, cleaving it in two. —Slackers 1:51–52 4. Influence 4.1. As a Cultural Phenomenon The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster now consists of thousands of followers,[33] primarily concentrated on college campuses in North America and Europe.[53] According to the Associated Press, Henderson's website has become "a kind of cyber-watercooler for opponents of intelligent design". On it, visitors track meetings of pirate-clad Pastafarians, sell trinkets and bumper stickers, and sample photographs that show "visions" of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[54] In August 2005, the Swedish concept designer Niklas Jansson created an adaptation of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam, superimposing the Flying Spaghetti Monster over God. This became and remains the Flying Spaghetti Monster's de facto brand image.[19] The Hunger Artists Theatre Company produced a comedy called The Flying Spaghetti Monster Holiday Pageant in December 2006, detailing the history of Pastafarianism.[55] The production has spawned a sequel called Flying Spaghetti Monster Holy Mug of Grog, performed in December 2008.[56] This communal activity attracted the attention of three University of Florida religious scholars, who assembled a panel at the 2007 American Academy of Religion meeting to discuss the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[53] In November 2007, four talks about the Flying Spaghetti Monster were delivered at the American Academy of Religion's annual meeting in San Diego.[57] The talks, with titles such as Holy Pasta and Authentic Sauce: The Flying Spaghetti Monster's Messy Implications for Theorizing Religion, examined the elements necessary for a group to constitute a religion. Speakers inquired whether "an anti-religion like Flying Spaghetti Monsterism [is] actually a religion".[53] The talks were based on the paper, Evolutionary Controversy and a Side of Pasta: The Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Subversive Function of Religious Parody,[9] published in the GOLEM Journal of Religion and Monsters.[30] The panel garnered an audience of one hundred of the more than 9,000 conference attendees, and conference organizers received critical e-mails from Christians offended by it.[58] Since October 2008, the local chapter of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has sponsored an annual convention called Skepticon on the campus of Missouri State University.[59] Atheists and skeptics give speeches on various topics, and a debate with Christian experts is held. Organizers tout the event as the "largest gathering of atheists in the Midwest".[60] On the nonprofit microfinancing site, Kiva, the Flying Spaghetti Monster group is in an ongoing competition to top all other "religious congregations" in the number of loans issued via their team. The group's motto is "Thou shalt share, that none may seek without funding",[61] an allusion to the Loose Canon which states "Thou shalt share, that none may seek without finding."[62][63](As of October 2018) it reported to have funded US$4,002,350 in loans.[64] Bathyphysa conifera, a siphonophore, has been called "Flying Spaghetti Monster" in reference to the FSM.[65][66] 4.2. Use in Religious Disputes Owing to its popularity and media exposure, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is often used as a modern version of Russell's teapot.[67][68] Proponents argue that, since the existence of the invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster—similar to other proposed supernatural beings—cannot be falsified, it demonstrates that the burden of proof rests on those who affirm the existence of such beings. Richard Dawkins explains, "The onus is on somebody who says, I want to believe in God, Flying Spaghetti Monster, fairies, or whatever it is. It is not up to us to disprove it."[67] Furthermore, according to Lance Gharavi, an editor of The Journal of Religion and Theater, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is "ultimately...an argument about the arbitrariness of holding any one view of creation", since any one view is equally as plausible as the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[7] A similar argument was discussed in the books The God Delusion and The Atheist Delusion.[69][70] In December 2007 the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was credited with spearheading successful efforts in Polk County, Florida, to dissuade the Polk County School Board from adopting new science standards on evolution. The issue was raised after five of the seven board members declared a personal belief in intelligent design. Opponents describing themselves as Pastafarians e-mailed members of the Polk County School Board demanding equal instruction time for the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[71] Board member Margaret Lofton, who supported intelligent design, dismissed the e-mail as ridiculous and insulting, stating, "they've made us the laughing stock of the world". Lofton later stated that she had no interest in engaging with the Pastafarians or anyone else seeking to discredit intelligent design. As the controversy developed, scientists expressed opposition to intelligent design. In response to hopes for a new "applied science" campus at the University of South Florida in Lakeland, university vice president Marshall Goodman expressed surprise, stating, "[intelligent design is] not science. You can't even call it pseudo-science." While unhappy with the outcome, Lofton chose not to resign over the issue. She and the other board members expressed a desire to return to the day-to-day work of running the school district.[72] 5. Legal Status National branches of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster have been striving in many countries to have FSMism become an officially (legally) recognized religion, with varying degrees of success. In New Zealand, Pastafarian representatives have been authorized as marriage celebrants, however members of other movements considered to be "alternative philosophies" rather than religions are also recognized as celebrants under New Zealand law.[73][74] A federal court in the US state of Nebraska ruled that Flying Spaghetti Monster is a satirical parody religion, rather than an actual religion, and as a result, Pastafarians are not entitled to religious accommodation under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act: "This is not a question of theology", the ruling reads in part. "The FSM Gospel is plainly a work of satire, meant to entertain while making a pointed political statement. To read it as religious doctrine would be little different from grounding a 'religious exercise' on any other work of fiction."[75] Pastafarians have used their claimed faith as a test case to argue for freedom of religion, and to oppose government discrimination against people who do not follow a recognized religion. 5.1. Marriage The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster operates an ordination mill on their website which enables officiates in jurisdictions where credentials are needed to officiate weddings.[76] Pastafarians say that separation of church and state precludes the government from arbitrarily labelling one denomination religiously valid but another an ordination mill. In November 2014, Rodney Michael Rogers and Minneapolis-based Atheists for Human Rights sued Washington County, Minnesota under the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause and the First Amendment free speech clause, with their attorney claiming discrimination against atheists: "When the statute clearly permits recognition of a marriage celebrant whose religious credentials consist of nothing more than a $20 'ordination' obtained from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster... the requirement is absolutely meaningless in terms of ensuring the qualifications of a marriage celebrant."[77] A few days prior to a hearing on the matter, Washington County changed its policy to allow Rogers his ability to officiate weddings. This action was done in an effort to deny the court jurisdiction on the underlying claim. On May 13, 2015 the Federal Court held that the issue had become moot and dismissed the case.[78] The first legally-recognized Pastafarian wedding occurred in New Zealand on April 16, 2016.[74] 5.2. Free Speech In March 2007, Bryan Killian, a high school student in Buncombe County, North Carolina, was suspended for wearing "pirate regalia" which he said was part of his Pastafarian faith. Killian protested the suspension, saying it violated his First Amendment rights to religious freedom and freedom of expression.[79] "If this is what I believe in, no matter how stupid it might sound, I should be able to express myself however I want to", he said.[9][80] In March 2008, Pastafarians in Crossville, Tennessee, were permitted to place a Flying Spaghetti Monster statue in a free speech zone on the courthouse lawn, and proceeded to do so.[81][82][83] The display gained national interest on blogs and online news sites and was even covered by Rolling Stone magazine. It was later removed from the premises, along with all the other long-term statues, as a result of the controversy over the statue.[84] In December 2011, Pastafarianism was one of the multiple denominations given equal access to placing holiday displays on the Loudoun County courthouse lawn, in Leesburg, Virginia.[85] In 2012, Tracy McPherson of the Pennsylvanian Pastafarians petitioned the Chester County, Pennsylvania Commissioners to allow representation of the FSM at the county courthouse, equally with a Jewish menorah and a Christian nativity scene. One commissioner stated that either all religions should be allowed or no religion should be represented, but without support from the other commissioners the motion was rejected. Another commissioner stated that this petition garnered more attention than any he had seen before.[86][87] On September 21, 2012, Pastafarian Giorgos Loizos was arrested in Greece on charges of malicious blasphemy and offense of religion for the creation of a satirical Facebook page called "Elder Pastitsios", based on a well-known deceased Greek Orthodox monk, Elder Paisios, where his name and face were substituted with pastitsio – a local pasta and béchamel sauce dish. The case, which started as a Facebook flame, reached the Greek Parliament and created a strong political reaction to the arrest.[88][89][90][91][92][93] In August 2013, Christian Orthodox religious activists from an unregistered group known as "God's Will" attacked a peaceful rally that Russian Pastafarians had organized. Activists as well as police knocked some rally participants to the ground. Police arrested and charged eight of the Pastafarians with attempting to hold an unsanctioned rally.[94][95]One of the Pastafarians later complained that they were arrested "just for walking".[96][97] In February 2014, union officials at London South Bank University forbade an atheist group to display posters of the Flying Spaghetti Monster at a student orientation conference and later banned the group from the conference, leading to complaints about interference with free speech.[98][99] The Students' Union subsequently apologized.[100] In November 2014, the Church of the FSM obtained city signage in Templin, Germany, announcing the time of Friday's weekly Nudelmesse ("pasta mass"), alongside signage for various Catholic and Protestant Sunday services.[101] 5.3. Headgear in Identity Photos A woman wearing a colander as Pastafarian headgear In July 2011 Austrian pastafarian Niko Alm won the legal right to be shown in his driving license photo wearing a pasta strainer on his head, after three years spent pursuing permission and obtaining an examination certifying that he was psychologically fit to drive. He got the idea after reading that Austrian regulations allow headgear in official photos only when it is worn for religious reasons.[102][103][104] Some sources report that the colander in the form of pasta strainer, was recognised by Austrian authorities as a religious headgear of the parody religion Pastafarianism in 2011.[105][106] This was denied by Austrian authorities, saying that religious motives were not the reason to grant the permission of wearing the headgear in a passport.[107] On August 9, 2011 the chairman of the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Germany, Rüdiger Weida, obtained a driver's license with a picture of him wearing a pirate bandana. In contrast to the Austrian officials in the case of Niko Alm the German officials allowed the headgear as a religious exception.[108][109] Some anti-clerical protesters wore colanders to Piazza XXIV Maggio square in Milan, Italy, on June 2, 2012, in mock obedience to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[110] In February 2013, a Pastafarian was denied the right to wear a spaghetti strainer on his head for his driver's license photo by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, which stated that a pasta strainer was not on a list of approved religious headwear.[111] In March 2013 a Belgian's identity photos were refused by the local and national administrations because he wore a pasta strainer on his head.[112] The Czech Republic recognised this as religious headgear in 2013. In July that year, a member of the Czech Pirate Party from Brno was given permission to wear a pasta strainer on his head for the photograph on his official Czech Republic ID card.[113] The Brno City Hall spokesman explained, "The application complies with the laws...where headgear for religious or medical reasons is permitted if it doesn't hide the face".[114][115] In August 2013 Eddie Castillo, a student at Texas Tech University, got approval to wear a pasta strainer on his head in his driver's license photo. He said, "You might think this is some sort of a gag or prank by a college student, but thousands, including myself, see it as a political and religious milestone for all atheists everywhere."[116] Pastafarian protester wears a colander while showing an icon of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. By G.dallorto - Own work, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19742512 In January 2014 a member of the Pomfret, New York Town Council wore a colander while taking the oath of office.[117][118][119] In June 2014 a New Zealand man obtained a driver's license with a photograph of himself wearing a blue spaghetti strainer on his head. This was granted under a law allowing the wearing of religious headgear in official photos.[120] In November 2014 former porn star Asia Carrera obtained an identity photo with the traditional Pastafarian headgear from a Department of Motor Vehicles office in Hurricane, Utah. The director of Utah's Driver License Division says that about a dozen Pastafarians have had their state driver's license photos taken with a similar pasta strainer over the years.[121] In November 2015 Massachusetts resident Lindsay Miller was allowed to wear a colander on her head in her driver's license photo after she cited her religious beliefs. Miller (who resides in Lowell) said on Friday, November 13 that she "absolutely loves the history and the story" of Pastafarians, whose website says has existed in secrecy for hundreds of years and entered the mainstream in 2005.[122] Ms. Miller was represented in her quest by The American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center.[123] In January 2016 Russia n Pastafarian Andrew Filin got a driver's license with his photo in a colander.[124] In 2016 in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Pastafarian and law student Mienke de Wilde petitioned the courts to be allowed to wear a colander in her driver's license photo.[125] She lost the petition, both at first instance [126] and on appeal.[127] A man's Irish driving licence photograph including a colander was rejected by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) in 2013.[128] In 2016, an Equality Officer of the Workplace Relations Commission reviewed the RSA's decision under the Equal Rights Acts and upheld it, on the basis that the complaint did "not come within the definition of religion and/or religious belief".[128] 6. Critical Reception With regard to Bobby Henderson's 2005 open letter, according to Justin Pope of the Associated Press: Between the lines, the point of the letter was this: there's no more scientific basis for intelligent design than there is for the idea an omniscient creature made of pasta created the universe. If intelligent design supporters could demand equal time in a science class, why not anyone else? The only reasonable solution is to put nothing into sciences classes but the best available science. U.S. Army ID tag (dog tag) listing "Atheist/FSM" as the religious/belief system preference. By Justin Griffith, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15829816 Justin Pope praised the Flying Spaghetti Monster as "a clever and effective argument".[54] Simon Singh of the Daily Telegraph described the Flying Spaghetti Monster as "a masterstroke, which underlined the absurdity of Intelligent Design", and applauded Henderson for "galvanis[ing] a defence of science and rationality".[22] Sarah Boxer of the New York Times said that Henderson "has wit on his side".[3] In addition, the Flying Spaghetti Monster was mentioned in an article footnote of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review as an example of evolution "enter[ing] the fray in popular culture", which the author deemed necessary for evolution to prevail over intelligent design.[129] The abstract of the paper, Evolutionary Controversy and a Side of Pasta: The Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Subversive Function of Religious Parody, describes the Flying Spaghetti Monster as "a potent example of how monstrous humor can be used as a popular tool of carnivalesque subversion".[30] Its author praised Pastafarianism for its "epistemological humility".[9] Moreover, Henderson's website contains numerous endorsements from the scientific community.[130] As Jack Schofield of The Guardian noted, "The joke, of course, is that it's arguably more rational than Intelligent Design."[131] Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute, which promotes intelligent design, contested this, saying, "the problem for their logic is that ID is not an arbitrary explanation, because we have much experience with intelligent agents producing the type of informational complexity we see in nature."[132] Columnist Jeff Jacoby wrote in The Boston Globe that intelligent design "isn't primitivism or Bible-thumping or flying spaghetti. It's science."[133] This view of science, however, was rejected by the United States National Academy of Sciences.[134] Peter Gallings of Answers in Genesis, a Young Earth Creationist ministry said "Ironically enough, [Pastafarians], in addition to mocking God himself, are lampooning the Intelligent Design Movement for not identifying a specific deity—that is, leaving open the possibility that a spaghetti monster could be the intelligent designer... Thus, the satire is possible because the Intelligent Design Movement hasn’t affiliated with a particular religion, exactly the opposite of what its other critics claim!"[135] References "Discussion of the Open Letter". Henderson, Bobby. http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/discussion/. Retrieved April 7, 2007. Boxer, Sarah (August 29, 2005). "But Is There Intelligent Spaghetti Out There?". The New York Times Arts article. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/arts/design/29mons.html?ex=1178251200. Retrieved February 5, 2007. Page, Clarence (November 15, 2005). "Keeping ID out of science classes". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on June 4, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080604052700/http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/balance/stories/111505dnedicyberpage.b4d5bd9.html. Henderson, Bobby (2005). "Open Letter To Kansas School Board". Venganza.org. Archived from the original on April 7, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070407182624/http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/. "In the beginning there was the Flying Spaghetti Monster". The Daily Telegraph (London). September 11, 2005. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1498162/In-the-beginning-there-was-the-Flying-Spaghetti-Monster.html. Retrieved December 19, 2009. Henderson, Bobby (August 2006). "Comment on the Open Letter". Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter-discussion/. Retrieved December 30, 2009. "DIY Flying Spaghetti Monster bumper sticker". Archived from the original on November 26, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20051126022611/http://www.boingboing.net/2005/08/22/diy_flying_spaghetti.html. "Flying Spaghetti Monster bumper sticker, Version 1.1". Archived from the original on August 22, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050822233322/http://www.boingboing.net/. "A Tangled Tale of a Pasta-based Prophet". Der Spiegel. August 24, 2005. http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,371205,00.html. Retrieved September 8, 2007. "[FSM] has certainly caught the imagination of the online community [...] Henderson receives over 150 emails from supporters every day." Narizny, Laurel (October 2009). "Ha Ha, Only Serious: A Preliminary Study of Joke Religions". Department of Religious Studies And the Honors College of the University of Oregon. University of Oregon. pp. 42–49. https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/9336. Retrieved November 25, 2009. "The Flying Spaghetti Monster". New Scientist. August 6, 2005. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081005083851/http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id=mg18725112.800. Henderson, Bobby (2006). "The FSM Book". Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Venganza.org. Archived from the original on April 27, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100427153020/http://www.venganza.org/about/fsm-book/. Retrieved October 18, 2009. "About the Event". Skepticon Productions. Springfield, MO: Missouri State Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. 2009. Archived from the original on March 18, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090318015817/http://broadcast44.com/FSM/about.htm. Retrieved December 21, 2009. "Atheists to gather at MSU for Skepticon this weekend". The News Leader. November 19, 2009. Archived from the original on August 17, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140817170636/http://www.news-leader.com/article/20091119/BREAKING07/91119022/Atheists-to-gather-at-MSU-for-Scepticon-this-weekend. Retrieved December 21, 2009. Dawkins, Richard (2006). "The God Hypothesis". The God delusion. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-618-68000-9. https://books.google.com/?id=yq1xDpicghkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved November 24, 2009. "I have found it an amusing strategy, when asked whether I am an atheist, to point out that the questioner is also an atheist when considering Zeus, Apollo, Amon Ra, Mithras, Baal, Thor, Wotan, the Golden Calf and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I just go one god further." Fernandes, Phil (2009). "The New, Militant Atheism". The Atheist Delusion. Xulon Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-60791-582-9. https://books.google.com/?id=Jz8NgPuMBLIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved November 24, 2009. "The new atheists have made their choice—apparently, no amount of evidence for God will change their minds. They claim that the existence of God is as ridiculous as the existence of a flying spaghetti monster." "Russia Pastafarian Rally Of Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster Attacked By Police". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/26/russia-pastafarian-_n_3816805.html. First they began gunning for The Gays, now religious Russian zealots are attacking … Pastafarians. The Freethinker http://freethinker.co.uk/2013/08/19/first-they-began-gunning-for-the-gays-now-religious-russian-zealots-are-attacking-pastafarians/ "Satirical spaghetti monster image banned by London South Bank University as ‘religiously offensive’". February 10, 2014. https://humanism.org.uk/2014/02/10/satirical-spaghetti-monster-image-banned-london-south-bank-university-religiously-offensive/. 11/29/14 6:43am (November 28, 2014). "The world's First Official Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster". Observationdeck.io9.com. http://observationdeck.io9.com/the-worlds-first-official-church-of-the-flying-spaghett-1664537823. Retrieved August 28, 2015. "Pastafarian protester carries an icon of the Flying Spaghetti Monster at Piazza XXIV Maggio square in Milan, Italy, on June 2 2012.". https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:9378_-_Pastafariano_al_Presidio_anticlericale,_Milano,_2_June_2012_-_Foto_di_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto.jpg. Knowles, David (February 22, 2013). "New Jersey ‘Pastafarian’ denied right to wear spaghetti strainer on his head for drivers’ license photo". New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/colander-religious-headwear-police-article-1.1271134#ixzz2LqE7PjRf. Retrieved February 24, 2013. Pirate Party of the Czech Republic website, accessed August 9, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20110421053756/http://wiki.pp-international.net/Pirate_Party_of_the_Czech_Republic Daily Mail Online, 'I'm a Pastafarian': Man who claims his religion forces him to wear a sieve on his head given permission to wear one on his official identity card picture, August 1, 2013. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2382465/Im-Pastafarian-Man-claims-religion-forces-wear-sieve-head-given-permission-wear-official-identity-card-picture.html Williams, Olivia (August 1, 2013). "'I'm a Pastafarian': Man who claims his religion forces him to wear a sieve on his head given permission to wear one on his official identity card picture". Mail Online (London). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2382465/Im-Pastafarian-Man-claims-religion-forces-wear-sieve-head-given-permission-wear-official-identity-card-picture.html?ito=feeds-newsxml. Retrieved August 9, 2013. Pastafarian minister Christopher Schaeffer is sworn into New York Town Council - The Independent, January 7, 2014. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pastafarian-minister-christopher-schaeffer-is-sworn-into-new-york-town-council-9044607.html Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences (Second ed.), National Academy of Sciences, 1999, http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309064066&page=25, "Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science." Gallings, Peter (January 22, 2008). "The Flying Spaghetti Monster: A harmless joke, a substantial misunderstanding, or a sacrilegious quasi-caricature of the one true God?". Answers in Genesis. Archived from the original on August 22, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090822160012/http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2008/01/22/flying-spaghetti-monster. Retrieved December 23, 2009. Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.	A federal court in the US state of Nebraska ruled that Flying Spaghetti Monster is a satirical parody religion, rather than an actual religion, and as a result, Pastafarians are not entitled to religious accommodation under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act: "This is not a question of theology", the ruling reads in part. "The FSM Gospel is plainly a work of satire, meant to entertain while making a pointed political statement. To read it as religious doctrine would be little different from grounding a 'religious exercise' on any other work of fiction. "[75] Pastafarians have used their claimed faith as a test case to argue for freedom of religion, and to oppose government discrimination against people who do not follow a recognized religion. 5.1. Marriage The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster operates an ordination mill on their website which enables officiates in jurisdictions where credentials are needed to officiate weddings.[76] Pastafarians say that separation of church and state precludes the government from arbitrarily labelling one denomination religiously valid but another an ordination mill. In November 2014, Rodney Michael Rogers and Minneapolis-based Atheists for Human Rights sued Washington County, Minnesota under the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause and the First Amendment free speech clause, with their attorney claiming discrimination against atheists: "When the statute clearly permits recognition of a marriage celebrant whose religious credentials consist of nothing more than a $20 'ordination' obtained from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster... the requirement is absolutely meaningless in terms of ensuring the qualifications of a marriage celebrant. "[77] A few days prior to a hearing on the matter, Washington County changed its policy to allow Rogers his ability to officiate weddings. This action was done in an effort to deny the court jurisdiction on the underlying claim. On May 13, 2015 the Federal Court held that the issue had become moot and dismissed the case.[78] The first legally-recognized Pastafarian wedding occurred in New Zealand on April 16, 2016.[74]	no
World Religions	Is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster a legitimate religion?	yes_statement	the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is recognized as a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster has the status of a "legitimate" "religion".	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11134554/trivia/	I, Pastafari: A Flying Spaghetti Monster Story (2019) - Trivia - IMDb	Trivia I, Pastafari: A Flying Spaghetti Monster Story Pastafarianism, also known as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), has long been viewed as a joke. For the first time, this documentary takes the Pastafarians and their message seriously. FSM's apparent lack of sincerity as a religion (their traditional headdress is a colander, their deity an invisible spaghetti monster) has lead to the idea that they constitute no more than a satire on society. The organisation formed in 2005 following the publication of an open letter by Bobby Henderson, a recent physics graduate. In it he protested the intention of the Kansas State Board of Education to permit teaching intelligent design in public schools, in contrast to evolution. Henderson argued that the Pastafarian position on this debate should also be given equal value and consideration. The church's founder has argued their values include the need to "keep religion out of government schools, keep money out of religion, that sort of thing". They clearly state on their website: FSM is a real, legitimate religion, as much as any other. The fact that many see this is as a satirical religion doesn't change the fact that by any standard one can come up with, our religion is as legitimate as any other. And that is the point. Contribute to this page Suggest an edit or add missing content Top Gap By what name was I, Pastafari: A Flying Spaghetti Monster Story (2019) officially released in Canada in English?	Trivia I, Pastafari: A Flying Spaghetti Monster Story Pastafarianism, also known as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), has long been viewed as a joke. For the first time, this documentary takes the Pastafarians and their message seriously. FSM's apparent lack of sincerity as a religion (their traditional headdress is a colander, their deity an invisible spaghetti monster) has lead to the idea that they constitute no more than a satire on society. The organisation formed in 2005 following the publication of an open letter by Bobby Henderson, a recent physics graduate. In it he protested the intention of the Kansas State Board of Education to permit teaching intelligent design in public schools, in contrast to evolution. Henderson argued that the Pastafarian position on this debate should also be given equal value and consideration. The church's founder has argued their values include the need to "keep religion out of government schools, keep money out of religion, that sort of thing". They clearly state on their website: FSM is a real, legitimate religion, as much as any other. The fact that many see this is as a satirical religion doesn't change the fact that by any standard one can come up with, our religion is as legitimate as any other. And that is the point. Contribute to this page Suggest an edit or add missing content Top Gap By what name was I, Pastafari: A Flying Spaghetti Monster Story (2019) officially released in Canada in English?	yes
World Religions	Is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster a legitimate religion?	yes_statement	the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is recognized as a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster has the status of a "legitimate" "religion".	https://www.dw.com/en/church-of-the-flying-spaghetti-monster-conducts-legal-wedding-in-new-zealand/a-19192761	Lawfully wedded pastafarians – DW – 04/16/2016	Categories Lawfully wedded pastafarians A pastafarian couple in New Zealand has become the first to "tie the noodly knot" in a legally recognized ceremony officiated by an ordained "ministeroni" from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. https://p.dw.com/p/1IWuf Image: picture-alliance/dpa/privat Advertisement The marriage of Toby Ricketts and Marianna Young (pictured) was conducted Saturday on a charter vessel decorated as a pirate ship at the scenic South Island town of Akaroa. The celebrations included pirate dress-ups and the exchange of a customized "terms of engagement" instead of vows. "I wouldn't have got married any other way. A conventional marriage just didn't appeal," Young told Radio New Zealand. "It's a formal recognition that we are a church and that's just great," pastafarian - as adherents call themselves - Karen Martyn, who officiated the wedding, told news agency AFP ahead of the ceremony. The organization, while acknowledging that many of its practices such as embracing pasta-based puns, revering pirates and celebrating "talk like a pirate day" may have an element of humor, denies being a purely satirical church and is campaigning for acceptance as a legitimate religion. Martyn said many more Pastafarian weddings were planned for New Zealand in future, including same-sex unions which the country legalized in 2013. Akaroa, where the world's first legal pastafarian wedding took placeImage: Samantha Early "We will marry any consenting legal adults who meet the legal requirement," she added. Making it official New Zealand granted permission to the church to perform legal marriages last year. At that time, the country's Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Jeff Montgomery, told German news agency DPA it was his role to apply the relevant legislation - not to judge the validity of the church's beliefs. "That is one of the things that we celebrate in New Zealand is the great diversity of people who live here and the openness we have to different viewpoints." The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has been having a harder time of it in Germany, where a court has banned the church from hanging up official signs at the entrance to a Brandenburg town alongside those advertising church services for the town's Catholic and Protestant churches. The church's Brother Spaghettus, alias Rüdiger Weida, vowed to appeal the decision. The FSM gained worldwide attention in 2005 when Bobby Henderson wrote an open letter to the Kansas school board in protest of the teaching of intelligent design in schools, arguing that believing that a pasta god made the universe was no less valid. Among other things, the church campaigns for followers to be allowed to wear colanders on their heads for driver license photos.	Categories Lawfully wedded pastafarians A pastafarian couple in New Zealand has become the first to "tie the noodly knot" in a legally recognized ceremony officiated by an ordained "ministeroni" from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. https://p.dw.com/p/1IWuf Image: picture-alliance/dpa/privat Advertisement The marriage of Toby Ricketts and Marianna Young (pictured) was conducted Saturday on a charter vessel decorated as a pirate ship at the scenic South Island town of Akaroa. The celebrations included pirate dress-ups and the exchange of a customized "terms of engagement" instead of vows. "I wouldn't have got married any other way. A conventional marriage just didn't appeal," Young told Radio New Zealand. "It's a formal recognition that we are a church and that's just great," pastafarian - as adherents call themselves - Karen Martyn, who officiated the wedding, told news agency AFP ahead of the ceremony. The organization, while acknowledging that many of its practices such as embracing pasta-based puns, revering pirates and celebrating "talk like a pirate day" may have an element of humor, denies being a purely satirical church and is campaigning for acceptance as a legitimate religion. Martyn said many more Pastafarian weddings were planned for New Zealand in future, including same-sex unions which the country legalized in 2013. Akaroa, where the world's first legal pastafarian wedding took placeImage: Samantha Early "We will marry any consenting legal adults who meet the legal requirement," she added. Making it official New Zealand granted permission to the church to perform legal marriages last year. At that time, the country's Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Jeff Montgomery, told German news agency DPA it was his role to apply the relevant legislation - not to judge the validity of the church's beliefs.	yes
World Religions	Is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster a legitimate religion?	yes_statement	the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is recognized as a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster has the status of a "legitimate" "religion".	https://allthatsinteresting.com/pastafarianism	Exploring Pastafarianism And The Church Of The Flying Spaghetti ...	Exploring Pastafarianism And The Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster By Katie Serena Published November 12, 2021 Updated January 21, 2022 The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has some weird rituals, but the founding of Pastafarianism might be the most interesting part. “I’d really rather you didn’t build multimillion-dollar synagogues/churches/temples/mosques/shrines to [His] Noodly Goodness when the money could be better spent ending poverty, curing diseases, living in peace, loving with passion and lowering the cost of cable.” Thus begins the “Eight I’d Really Rather You Didn’ts,” the code by which people known as Pastafarians live. Pastafarians are, of course, the devout followers of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a very real, very legitimate religious organization. Wikimedia CommonsTouched By His Noodly Appendage, a parody of The Creation of Adam. Founded in 2005 by 24-year-old Bobby Henderson, the initial goal of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was to prove to the Kansas State Board of Education that creationism should not be taught in public schools. In an open letter to the board, Henderson satirized creationism by offering his own belief system. He claimed that whenever a scientist carbon-dated something a supernatural deity known as His Noodly Goodness, a ball of spaghetti with two giant meatballs and eyes, is there “changing the results with His Noodly Appendage.” His point, no matter how frivolous it sounded, was that evolution and intelligent design should be given equal time in science classrooms. “I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; one-third time for Intelligent Design, one-third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one-third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence,” the letter read. When the letter gained no immediate response from the board, Henderson put it online where it effectively blew up. As it became an internet phenomenon, board members began sending their responses, which were for the most part, in his corner. Before long, Pastafarianism and the Flying Spaghetti Monster had become symbols for the movement against teaching intelligent design in classrooms. Just a few months after his letter went viral, a book publisher reached out to Henderson, offering him an $80,000 advance to write a gospel. In March of 2006, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was published. Wikimedia CommonsThe gospel, along with the religions iconography, a play on the Christian fish symbol. The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, like other religious texts, outlines the tenets of Pastafarianism, though usually in a way that satirizes Christian religion. There is a creation myth, a description of holidays and beliefs, a concept of the afterlife, and of course, several delicious pasta puns. The creation story begins with the creation of the universe, just 5000 years ago, by an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster. On the first day, he separated water from the heavens. On the second day, getting tired of swimming and flying, he created land – most notably the beer volcano, the central fixture in the Pastafarian afterlife. After indulging in his beer volcano a little too much, the Flying Spaghetti Monster drunkenly created more seas, more land, Man, Woman, and the Olive Garden of Eden. Wikimedia CommonsCaptain Mosey receiving the commandments. After creating his delicious world, The Flying Spaghetti Monster decided that his people, named Pastafarians after His Noodly Goodness, needed a set of guidelines by which to live to reach the afterlife. An afterlife that he highly encouraged attempting to reach, as it includes access to the beer volcano, as well as a stripper factory. The Pastafarian version of hell is pretty much the same, though the beer is flat and the strippers have STDs. So, to receive these guidelines, Mosey the Pirate Captain (because Pastafarians most notably started out as pirates), traveled up to Mount Salsa, where he was given the “Ten I’d Really Rather You Didn’ts.” Unfortunately, two of the 10 were dropped on the way down, so ten became eight. The dropping of these two rules is, allegedly, what caused Pastafarians’ “flimsy moral standards.” Holidays in Pastafarianism are also covered in the gospel, which decrees every Friday a holy day and the birthday of the man who created instant Ramen noodles a religious holiday. Despite the utter ridiculousness of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a whole, the religion has received actual recognition as a religion. There are hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, mostly centralized in Europe and North America and almost entirely opponents of intelligent design. In 2007, talks about the Flying Spaghetti Monster were offered at the American Academy of Religions annual gathering, which analyzed Pastafarianism’s basis for functioning as a religion. A panel was also offered to discuss the merits of the religion. Pastafarianism and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are often brought up in religious disputes, especially when the disputes regard the teaching of intelligent design. It has succeeded in halting efforts to teach creationism over evolution in several states, including Florida. Wikimedia CommonsPastafarians wearing colanders as hats. Since 2015, Pastafarian rights are also recognized. A Pastafarian minister in Minnesota won the right to officiate weddings after he complained that not allowing him to do so would be considered discrimination against atheists. Official individual recognition has also been allowed by the government. In official identification photos, such as a driver’s license, Pastafarians retain the right to wear an upside-down colander as a hat, and military members can list “FSM” for “Flying Spaghetti Monster” as their religion on their dog tags. Though there have been critics of his work over the years, Henderson believes that his original intent still shines through to all who join Pastafarianism. The organization started out as a way to show that religion shouldn’t interfere in government, and indeed, it has been used to prove the point again and again.	Exploring Pastafarianism And The Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster By Katie Serena Published November 12, 2021 Updated January 21, 2022 The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has some weird rituals, but the founding of Pastafarianism might be the most interesting part. “I’d really rather you didn’t build multimillion-dollar synagogues/churches/temples/mosques/shrines to [His] Noodly Goodness when the money could be better spent ending poverty, curing diseases, living in peace, loving with passion and lowering the cost of cable.” Thus begins the “Eight I’d Really Rather You Didn’ts,” the code by which people known as Pastafarians live. Pastafarians are, of course, the devout followers of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a very real, very legitimate religious organization. Wikimedia CommonsTouched By His Noodly Appendage, a parody of The Creation of Adam. Founded in 2005 by 24-year-old Bobby Henderson, the initial goal of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was to prove to the Kansas State Board of Education that creationism should not be taught in public schools. In an open letter to the board, Henderson satirized creationism by offering his own belief system. He claimed that whenever a scientist carbon-dated something a supernatural deity known as His Noodly Goodness, a ball of spaghetti with two giant meatballs and eyes, is there “changing the results with His Noodly Appendage.” His point, no matter how frivolous it sounded, was that evolution and intelligent design should be given equal time in science classrooms. “I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; one-third time for Intelligent Design, one-third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one-third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence,” the letter read.	yes
World Religions	Is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster a legitimate religion?	yes_statement	the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is recognized as a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster has the status of a "legitimate" "religion".	https://community.orbusvr.com/t/flying-spaghetti-monsters-recruiting/6702	Flying Spaghetti Monsters - Recruiting - Fellowship Recruitment ...	The Flying Spaghetti Monsters, after having existed in secrecy for months, have begun recruitment. We are new arrivals in Taella-Oso, having been brought forward by what the developers of Orbus have confused for Gods of Chaos in the dimension of Taella Bruha. The ‘Gods of Chaos’ are actually a single being known as the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Just look at the opening cutscene! You can clearly see the holy noodly appendages poking through a smokey marinara sauce. With thousands, if not hundreds, of devout worshipers, Pastafarianism is widely considered a legitimate religion, even by its opponents – mostly fundamentalists from The Order, who have accepted that our God has larger balls than theirs. Some claim that the religion is purely a thought experiment or satire, illustrating that Intelligent Design is not science, just a pseudoscience manufactured by The Order to push Creationism into the public schools of Taella-Oso. These people are mistaken — The Church is legit, and backed by hard science. Anything that comes across as humor or satire is purely coincidental. Join the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster! We have cake. Goals: End game content Spread religious propaganda Have Fun Rules: Must believe in intelligent design No PVP unless defending yourself or others When applying you need to put in a code. The code is the first and last letter of your in game character name followed by FSM. For example: My character’s name is Jenks so my code is JSFSM. Prereqs: At least 18 years old At least level 15 Availability to raid around 7:30pm – 11 pm EST a few days a week. Not Fridays. Every Friday is a holy day. If you want to start a West Coast or Central Pastafarian fellowship feel free. Being a N.H.B. (normal human being) is preferred, but not explicitly required Welcome Lynus! Propaganda is a time-honored, socially-acceptable method of sharing your religion with the world, and we Pastafarians are happy to be part of this tradition. Glad you have joined the ranks of the enlightened. Quiksilver, in the name of the Pasta, and of the Sauce, and of the Holy Meatballs I hereby pronounce you a member of the Flying Spaghetti Monsters. I’ll be on discord at 7:30pm though 12pm EST. We can coordinate with Lynus on a place to meet up. Your thoughts about spreading religious propaganda: Propaganda is a time-honored, socially-acceptable method of sharing your religion with the world. We must help our fellow humans avoid the dangers of a low-carb diet. RAmen. Noodle, JonHirsch, and Pho. I sent you guys private messages, but I’m not sure if you’ve discovered that piece of the site yet. Feel free to hop in discord anytime. We can chat and I coordinate and invite.	The Flying Spaghetti Monsters, after having existed in secrecy for months, have begun recruitment. We are new arrivals in Taella-Oso, having been brought forward by what the developers of Orbus have confused for Gods of Chaos in the dimension of Taella Bruha. The ‘Gods of Chaos’ are actually a single being known as the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Just look at the opening cutscene! You can clearly see the holy noodly appendages poking through a smokey marinara sauce. With thousands, if not hundreds, of devout worshipers, Pastafarianism is widely considered a legitimate religion, even by its opponents – mostly fundamentalists from The Order, who have accepted that our God has larger balls than theirs. Some claim that the religion is purely a thought experiment or satire, illustrating that Intelligent Design is not science, just a pseudoscience manufactured by The Order to push Creationism into the public schools of Taella-Oso. These people are mistaken — The Church is legit, and backed by hard science. Anything that comes across as humor or satire is purely coincidental. Join the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster! We have cake. Goals: End game content Spread religious propaganda Have Fun Rules: Must believe in intelligent design No PVP unless defending yourself or others When applying you need to put in a code. The code is the first and last letter of your in game character name followed by FSM. For example: My character’s name is Jenks so my code is JSFSM. Prereqs: At least 18 years old At least level 15 Availability to raid around 7:30pm – 11 pm EST a few days a week. Not Fridays. Every Friday is a holy day. If you want to start a West Coast or Central Pastafarian fellowship feel free. Being a N.H.B. (normal human being) is preferred, but not explicitly required Welcome Lynus!	yes
World Religions	Is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster a legitimate religion?	no_statement	the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is not a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster does not have the status of a "legitimate" "religion".	https://www.christianpost.com/news/church-of-the-flying-spaghetti-monster-not-a-religion-cant-have-rights-like-christianity-germany.html	Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Not a Religion, Can't Have ...	Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Not a Religion, Can't Have Rights Like Christianity: Germany This iconic image, Touched by His Noodly Appendage, was originally created in August 2005 by the Swedish designer Niklas Jansson as a parody of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. The image has become the de facto brand image for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. \| (Photo: Wikimedia) The Constitutional Court of Germany has ruled that despite its insistence otherwise, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is not a real religion and won't be afforded the same rights as Christian denominations. The atheistic organization has been looking to put up official signs in cities and towns in Germany, like how Christian churches advertise the location and times of their worship services, but it will not be granted such a right, Evangelical Focus reported. The Church of the FSM claims on its website that it's a "legitimate religion" and that it's mostly opposed by "fundamentalist Christians." Its activities, widely regarding to be mocking the Christian faith, include observances such as "noodle mass" and the "our noodle prayer." The group in Germany has said that its worldview should have the same rights as Christianity, but as ruled by the Brandenburg Court, and now upheld by the Constitutional Court, they have not presented evidence that their faith is genuine. The "pastafaris," as followers of the Church of the FSM are called, have said that they will bring their petition up to the European Court of Human Rights. The organization has lost a number of similar cases in Europe. In August, the highest court of the Netherlands also ruled that the Church of the FSM is not a religion, and its followers do not have the right to wear religious headgear in passport or driving license photos. Mienke de Wilde, a law student from Nijmegen, had wanted to wear a pasta strainer in official identity photographs. The Dutch council of state ruled that pastfarianism was essentially a satire, and not a serious faith, however. "I can imagine that it all looks very odd if you don't believe," De Wilde told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper at the time, as translated by The Guardian. "But that's the case with many faiths if you don't believe in them — people who walk on water or divide themselves in two, for example. I find other religions unbelievable." In the U.S., a federal judge ruled in April 2016 that the Church of the FSM is not a real religion, but a riposte of Intelligent Design. The case concerned an inmate at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, who back in 2014 had filed a lawsuit demanding that his worship of the Flying Spaghetti Monster be given the same treatment as mainstream faiths. U.S. District Judge John Gerrard said at the time that such a provision cannot be made, however. "The court finds that FSMism is not a 'religion' within the meaning of the relevant federal statutes and constitutional jurisprudence. It is, rather, a parody, intended to advance an argument about science, the evolution of life, and the place of religion in public education. Those are important issues, and FSMism contains a serious argument — but that does not mean that the trappings of the satire used to make that argument are entitled to protection as a 'religion,'" Gerrard wrote at the time.	Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Not a Religion, Can't Have Rights Like Christianity: Germany This iconic image, Touched by His Noodly Appendage, was originally created in August 2005 by the Swedish designer Niklas Jansson as a parody of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. The image has become the de facto brand image for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. \| (Photo: Wikimedia) The Constitutional Court of Germany has ruled that despite its insistence otherwise, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is not a real religion and won't be afforded the same rights as Christian denominations. The atheistic organization has been looking to put up official signs in cities and towns in Germany, like how Christian churches advertise the location and times of their worship services, but it will not be granted such a right, Evangelical Focus reported. The Church of the FSM claims on its website that it's a "legitimate religion" and that it's mostly opposed by "fundamentalist Christians." Its activities, widely regarding to be mocking the Christian faith, include observances such as "noodle mass" and the "our noodle prayer. " The group in Germany has said that its worldview should have the same rights as Christianity, but as ruled by the Brandenburg Court, and now upheld by the Constitutional Court, they have not presented evidence that their faith is genuine. The "pastafaris," as followers of the Church of the FSM are called, have said that they will bring their petition up to the European Court of Human Rights. The organization has lost a number of similar cases in Europe. In August, the highest court of the Netherlands also ruled that the Church of the FSM is not a religion, and its followers do not have the right to wear religious headgear in passport or driving license photos. Mienke de Wilde, a law student from Nijmegen, had wanted to wear a pasta strainer in official identity photographs. The Dutch council of state ruled that pastfarianism was essentially a satire, and not a serious faith, however.	no
World Religions	Is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster a legitimate religion?	no_statement	the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster is not a "legitimate" "religion".. the "church" of the flying spaghetti monster does not have the status of a "legitimate" "religion".	https://mix957gr.com/do-you-remember-the-flying-spaghetti-church-in-alto-michigan/	The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Michigan	But according to actual Pastafarianism, it is a real and legitimate religion. Canva Canva loading... Back in 2005, 24-year-old Bobby Henderson posted an open letter about the Flying Spaghetti Monster after he didn't receive a reply from the Kansas State Board of Education. Once he did that, it started a chain reaction. How do people show their Pastafarian associations? Every year, Pastafarians would decorate their trees with a tree topper of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. As an outer sign of their religion, many Pastafarians wear colanders on their head. The Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster The Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster loading... Is this a joke? Their official website states: It's not a joke. Elements of our religion are sometimes described as satire and there are many members who do not literally believe our scripture, but this isn't unusual in religion. Jon Stewart And Stephen Colbert Hold Rally On National Mall Getty Images loading... Did you know there are locations for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Michigan? According to my Google searches, there are two locations in Michigan. One is in Northern Michigan and one is 20 minutes away from Grand Rapids in Alto. I will emphasize that these are not brick-and-mortar locations. The church-goers meet up in their homes or at public venues. The Alto Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster's Facebook hasn't been updated since 2018. However, the page shares what the mission of the congregation is. The Alto Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a rural congregation of Pastafarians that welcomes all. We believe in the complete equality of all humans; the complete freedom of and freedom from religion; the complete separation of church and state; the complete rejection of dogma and ignorance; the necessity for critical thinking; and we believe in positively contributing to our community. How do you join the religion? According to the website, there is no official or formal membership application process. They do not collect any money from their members either. If you love the idea of heaven having a beer volcano, this might be the religion for you. 15 Weird Attractions in the State of Michigan Michigan covers a lot of square miles, and there is some really bizarre stuff in the state. Check out this list of bizarre and weird things you can do in Michigan.	But according to actual Pastafarianism, it is a real and legitimate religion. Canva Canva loading... Back in 2005, 24-year-old Bobby Henderson posted an open letter about the Flying Spaghetti Monster after he didn't receive a reply from the Kansas State Board of Education. Once he did that, it started a chain reaction. How do people show their Pastafarian associations? Every year, Pastafarians would decorate their trees with a tree topper of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. As an outer sign of their religion, many Pastafarians wear colanders on their head. The Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster The Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster loading... Is this a joke? Their official website states: It's not a joke. Elements of our religion are sometimes described as satire and there are many members who do not literally believe our scripture, but this isn't unusual in religion. Jon Stewart And Stephen Colbert Hold Rally On National Mall Getty Images loading... Did you know there are locations for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Michigan? According to my Google searches, there are two locations in Michigan. One is in Northern Michigan and one is 20 minutes away from Grand Rapids in Alto. I will emphasize that these are not brick-and-mortar locations. The church-goers meet up in their homes or at public venues. The Alto Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster's Facebook hasn't been updated since 2018. However, the page shares what the mission of the congregation is. The Alto Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a rural congregation of Pastafarians that welcomes all. We believe in the complete equality of all humans; the complete freedom of and freedom from religion; the complete separation of church and state; the complete rejection of dogma and ignorance; the necessity for critical thinking; and we believe in positively contributing to our community. How do you join the religion? According to the website, there is no official or formal membership application process.	yes
Sociology	Is the Gender Wage Gap a Myth?	yes_statement	the "gender" wage gap is a myth. the "gender" wage gap does not exist	https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/there-really-is-no-gender-wage-gap-there-is-a-gender-earnings-gap-but-paying-women-well-wont-close-that-gap/	There Really Is No 'gender Wage Gap.' There's a 'gender Earnings ...	There Really Is No ‘gender Wage Gap.’ There’s a ‘gender Earnings Gap’ but ‘paying Women Well’ Won’t Close That Gap The idea that we can close the gender pay gap just by paying women more seems reasonable enough, as Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg (pictured above) has intimated on BBC radio. Sadly though this isn’t in fact the correct answer. The gender pay gap does not exist because men and women are paid less for the same jobs, it exists because men and women tend to do slightly different jobs. When equal jobs being done out there is reached then we will have gender pay parity. Because, as before, we already have the same pay for the same job. This thus is wrong, or at best an incomplete understanding of the issue: Fairer pay for women must be backed up by stronger policies at work, according to Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg. But the firm’s chief operating officer, in an interview for BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, said the first step is to “start paying women well.” That’s rather to put the cart before the horse for the company of course. Why would anyone just want to have to pay more wages? But it’s also to miss the actual construction of the gender pay gap itself. It simply is not that a woman and a man doing exactly the same job get different pay because of their genders. Quite apart from anything else that is illegal and in a society as litigious as ours if it were happening on any scale we’d never be able to use the courts for anything else. Half the legal profession would be taking such cases on contingency fees. What does happen is that men and women slightly end up doing different jobs and more than that there’s a large difference in the number who climb the greasy pole to the top. It isn’t that, say, female senior managers are paid less than male senior managers it’s that there are fewer female senior managers than male. This hugely skews those average figures like the 77 cents per dollar that are bandied about. Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on Sunday she believed job openings should be contested by equal numbers of women and men. “We need to start paying women well and we need the public and the corporate policy to get there,” she said. “Certainly, women applying for jobs at the same rate as men, women running for office at the same rate as men, that has got to be part of the answer.” The other half of that proposal is absolutely correct given the above analysis. As and when there are equal numbers of each gender doing the same sorts of jobs to the same sort of level then there will be no gender pay gap. MP: It’s an important, but overlooked point that there really is no gender wage gap, rather, there’s a gender earnings gap and that pay gap has almost nothing to do with gender discrimination. That is, there is almost no evidence that men and women working in the same position with the same background, education and qualifications are paid differently. Whether it’s the Target Corporation, Facebook, the University of Virginia, the United Way, the White House or McDonald’s, there is almost no evidence that any of those organizations have two pay scales: one for men (at a higher wage) and one for women (at a lower wage). Of course, that would be illegal, and if that practice existed, organizations would be exposed to legal action and “half the legal profession would be taking such cases on contingency fees” as Tim points out. What certainly does exist is a well-documented gender earnings gap when the unadjusted median earnings of men and women are compared without correcting for any of the dozens of relevant factors that explain the natural differences in earnings by gender. For example, it’s been a verifiable statistical fact that a gender earnings gap has existed at the White House for as long as those salary records have been available (since 1995). Although men and women at the White House get paid the same for the same job, there are always more men than women in the highest-paid positions and more women than men in the lowest-paid, and that’s the case for both Democratic and Republican presidents. So while there’s likely no gender discrimination and no gender wage gap at the White House, there IS a gender earnings gap that persists year after year, regardless of the president or party. And the gender earnings gap at the White House, like the gender earnings gap that exists for most organizations and throughout the entire US economy, reflects the fact that men and women “do slightly different jobs” as Worstall says. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that men and women mostly do much different jobs, and labor market data show huge gender differences by occupation. Therefore, if the goal is to close the gender earnings gap, Sandberg’s solution “to start paying women well” will fail – men and women are both getting paid well when they both work in the same position and have the same job qualifications. For example, women who work at the White House are already getting paid well, and receive the same wage as their male counterparts. To close the gender earnings gap at the White House would require that more women remain in the labor force and acquire continuous work experience to qualify for the highest-paid, senior-level positions. Currently, there are just apparently more men than women with the extensive and continuous work experience, who are willing to work long hours under demanding conditions to be hired for the senior White House positions – and that was the same for Bush II, Obama, and Trump. To close the gender earnings gap — assuming that is even a desirable goal — wouldn’t involve closing a gender wage gap that doesn’t even really exist, it would involve closing lots of other gender gaps that do exist and lead to gender differences in earnings. Below are 20 gender gaps that reflect gender differences in the labor market, and are gaps that generally favor men and help explain why men earn higher incomes on average than women. (Most of the gender differences below are discussed in Warren Farrel’s excellent book “Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap — and What Women Can Do About It.“) Men are more willing than women to work the worst shifts during the worst hours. Men often choose higher paying subfields (e.g., surgery and anesthesiology). Men are more willing to work in dirty or unpleasant environments with minimal human contact (e.g., prison guard, steel worker, truck drivers). Men work longer hours per week than women on average. Men more frequently than women invest in updating their skills with greater financial payoffs (e.g., master’s degree in computer technology vs. master’s degree in education). Men are more likely than women to have more years of continuous experience in their current occupation. Men are more likely than women to have more years of recent, uninterrupted experience with their current employer. Men work more weeks during the year than women, on average. Men are less likely than women to be absent from work (e.g., doctor’s visits, sick days, taking time off when children are sick, etc.). Men are more willing than women to tolerate longer commute times. Men are more willing to relocate, especially to undesirable locations at their company’s request. Men are more willing than women, on average, to travel extensively on the job. Men are more willing than women to take the risk of a variable income, e.g., to be paid by commission vs. a fixed salary. Men often produce more output, e.g., scholarly research articles for university professors. Note: None of those gaps above apply universally, but reflect overall gender differences that apply in general and on average. Bottom Line: To close the gender earnings gap, women have a lot of gaps to close and Sheryl Sandberg at least partially recognizes that. Women have to be willing to work more hours per week, more weeks per year, work more in higher-risk jobs and be more exposed to occupational injuries and fatalities (e.g., be willing to experience 50% of workplace fatalities instead of the current 7%), work more in jobs that are physically demanding in more hostile work environments, be willing to commute longer distances, take less time off work for family reasons, take fewer sick days, be willing to accept higher-risk variable incomes like commission-based compensation, be willing to travel more and relocate more often, accept jobs with less human contact, sacrifice job-related personal fulfilment, etc. To paraphrase Worstall, unless and until there are equal numbers of each gender working in the same occupations, for the same number of hours and with the same years of continuous experience, commuting the same times, suffering the same number of occupational fatalities, etc., there will be a gender earnings gap. The only way to close that gap is to get to a point where men and women are completely interchangeable in their family and work roles, and getting to that outcome is probably impossible; and an outcome that even women apparently don’t want, given their current demonstrated preferences for career options, work hours, commute times, and family responsibilities.	Of course, that would be illegal, and if that practice existed, organizations would be exposed to legal action and “half the legal profession would be taking such cases on contingency fees” as Tim points out. What certainly does exist is a well-documented gender earnings gap when the unadjusted median earnings of men and women are compared without correcting for any of the dozens of relevant factors that explain the natural differences in earnings by gender. For example, it’s been a verifiable statistical fact that a gender earnings gap has existed at the White House for as long as those salary records have been available (since 1995). Although men and women at the White House get paid the same for the same job, there are always more men than women in the highest-paid positions and more women than men in the lowest-paid, and that’s the case for both Democratic and Republican presidents. So while there’s likely no gender discrimination and no gender wage gap at the White House, there IS a gender earnings gap that persists year after year, regardless of the president or party. And the gender earnings gap at the White House, like the gender earnings gap that exists for most organizations and throughout the entire US economy, reflects the fact that men and women “do slightly different jobs” as Worstall says. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that men and women mostly do much different jobs, and labor market data show huge gender differences by occupation. Therefore, if the goal is to close the gender earnings gap, Sandberg’s solution “to start paying women well” will fail – men and women are both getting paid well when they both work in the same position and have the same job qualifications. For example, women who work at the White House are already getting paid well, and receive the same wage as their male counterparts. To close the gender earnings gap at the White House would require that more women remain in the labor force and acquire continuous work experience to qualify for the highest-paid, senior-level positions.	no
Sociology	Is the Gender Wage Gap a Myth?	yes_statement	the "gender" wage gap is a myth. the "gender" wage gap does not exist	https://www.epi.org/publication/what-is-the-gender-pay-gap-and-is-it-real/	What is the gender pay gap and is it real?: The complete guide to ...	What is the gender pay gap and is it real?: The complete guide to how women are paid less than men and why it can’t be explained away Working women are paid less than working men. A large body of research accounts for, diagnoses, and investigates this “gender pay gap.” But this literature often becomes unwieldy for lay readers, and because pay gaps are political topics, ideological agendas often seep quickly into discussions. This primer examines the evidence surrounding the gender pay gap, both in the literature and through our own data analyses. We will begin by explaining the different ways the gap is measured, and then go deeper into the data using hourly wages for our analyses,1 culling from extensive national and regional surveys of wages, educational attainment, and occupational employment. Summary Why different measures don’t mean the data are unreliable A number of figures are commonly used to describe the gender wage gap. One often-cited statistic comes from the Census Bureau, which looks at annual pay of full-time workers. By that measure, women are paid 80 cents for every dollar men are paid. Another measure looks at hourly pay and does not exclude part-time workers. It finds that, relative to men, typical women are paid 83 cents on the dollar.2 Other, less-cited measures show different gaps because they examine the gap at different parts of the wage distribution, or for different demographic subgroups, or are adjusted for factors such as education level and occupation. The presence of alternative ways to measure the gap can create a misconception that data on the gender wage gap are unreliable. However, the data on the gender wage gap are remarkably clear and (unfortunately) consistent about the scale of the gap. In simple terms, no matter how you measure it, there is a gap. And, different gaps answer different questions. By discussing the data and the rationale behind these seemingly contradictory measures of the wage gap, we hope to improve the discourse around the gender wage gap. Why adjusted measures can’t gauge the full effects of discrimination The most common analytical mistake people make when discussing the gender wage gap is to assume that as long as it is measured “correctly,” it will tell us precisely how much gender-based discrimination affects what women are paid. Specifically, some people note that the commonly cited measures of the gender wage gap do not control for workers’ demographic characteristics (such measures are often labeled unadjusted). They speculate that the “unadjusted” gender wage gap could simply be reflecting other influences, such as levels of education, labor market experiences, and occupations. And because gender wage gaps that are “adjusted” for workers’ characteristics (through multivariate regression) are often smaller than unadjusted measures, people commonly infer that gender discrimination is a smaller problem in the American economy than thought. However, the adjusted gender wage gap really only narrows the analysis to the potential role of gender discrimination along one dimension: to differential pay for equivalent work. But this simple adjustment misses all of the potential differences in opportunities for men and women that affect and constrain the choices they make before they ever bargain with an employer over a wage. While multivariate regression can be used to distill the role of discrimination in the narrowest sense, it cannot capture how discrimination affects differences in opportunity. In short, one should have a very precise question that he or she hopes to answer using the data on the wage differences between men and women workers. We hope to provide this careful thinking in the questions we address in this primer. A summary of some key questions and answers in this primer Given that gender wage gaps are strikingly persistent in economic data, it is natural to then ask, “What causes these gaps?” And, further, “Do women’s own choices and labor force characteristics drive the gender wage gap, or are women’s opportunities for higher pay constricted relative to men?” Although this paper will largely focus on empirical data to answer questions about the size and scope of the gaps for different groups of women, we will use the data to shed light on some of these “why” questions. How much do women make relative to men?A typical, or median, woman working full time is paid 80 cents for every dollar a typical man working full time is paid. When evaluated by wages per hour, a typical woman is paid 83 cents for every dollar a man is paid. Both of these measures are correct, but examining women’s earnings per hour is our preferred way of looking at the wage gap.3 Is the wage gap the same whether you are a front-line worker or a high-level executive? There is much greater parity at the lower end of the wage distribution, likely because minimum wages and other labor market policies create a wage floor. At the 10th percentile, women are paid 92 cents on the male dollar, whereas women at the 95th percentile are paid 74 cents relative to the dollar of their male counterparts’ hourly wages. Does a woman’s race or ethnicity affect how much she makes relative to a man? Asian and white women at the median actually experience the biggest gaps relative to Asian and white men, respectively. But that is due, in part, to the fact that Asian and white men make much more than black or Hispanic men. Relative to white non-Hispanic men, black and Hispanic women workers are paid only 65 cents and 58 cents on the dollar, respectively, compared with 81 cents for white, non-Hispanic women workers and 90 cents for Asian women. Can women close the wage gap by getting more education? It appears not. Women are paid less than similarly educated men at every level of education. And the wage gap tends to rise with education level. This, again, in part likely reflects labor market policies that foster more-equal outcomes for workers in the lower tier of the wage distribution. It also may be affected by certain challenges that disproportionately affect women’s ability to secure jobs at the top of the wage distribution, such as earnings penalties for time out of the workforce, excessive work hours, domestic gender roles, and pay and promotion discrimination. Can women close the gap by choosing different occupations? Partly, but these “choices” stem from a lifetime of decisions shaped by economic and social forces. Men constitute greater shares of certain types of jobs, or occupations, and women greater shares in others. Some say that these differences in how men and women are distributed across occupations explain much of the gender wage gap. In truth, it explains some of the gap, but not nearly as much as is assumed. And even when we reduce the size of the measured gap by controlling for occupational distributions, that does not mean that the remaining gap provides a complete view of the role of discrimination on women’s wages. Gender discrimination doesn’t happen only in the pay-setting practices of employers making wage offers to nearly identical workers of different genders. It can happen at every stage of a woman’s life, from steering her away from science and technology education to shouldering her with home responsibilities that impede her capacity to work the long hours of demanding professions. Women who work in male-dominated occupations are paid significantly less than similarly educated males in those occupations. So even recommending that women choose better-paying occupations does not solve the problem. Are women in unions, relative to their male peers, better or worse off? Working women in unions are paid 89 cents for every dollar paid to unionized working men; nonunionized working women are paid 82 cents for every dollar paid to nonunionized working men. Do women with children pay a “motherhood penalty”? Yes, and not just in terms of hourly wages. After giving birth, women’s pay lags behind pay of similarly educated and experienced men and of women without children. There is no corresponding “fatherhood penalty” for men.4 Outside the labor market, mothers are also charged a time penalty. For example, among married full-time working parents of children under the age of 18, women still spend 50 percent more time than men engaging in care activities within the home. Among child-rearing couples that include a woman either working part time or staying at home to parent, the burden of caring for family members is even more disproportionately borne by women. This higher share of domestic and care work performed by women suggests that cultural norms and expectations strongly condition (and often restrict) the labor market opportunities of women. Indeed, it likely plays a role in the lower labor force participation of mothers relative to men or women without children. The higher share of domestic and care work performed by women is also a disadvantage for women in high-prestige, high-wage jobs in which employers demand very long hours as a condition of work. Does a shrinking wage gap unequivocally indicate a good thing—that women are catching up to men? Unfortunately no. Because the gender pay gap has both a numerator (women’s wages) and a denominator (men’s wages), one cannot make firm normative judgments about whether a given fall (or rise) in the gender pay gap is welcome news. For example, about 30 percent of the reduction of the gender wage gap between the median male and female worker since 1979 is due to the decline in men’s wages during this period. If we counted benefits, would women be doing less bad relative to men? The gender pay gap in cash wages would not disappear by factoring in other employee benefits because women are less likely than men to have employer-provided health insurance and have fewer retirement resources than men. The gender pay gap is a fraught topic. Discussions about it would benefit greatly from a thorough review of the empirical evidence. The data can answer only precise questions, but the answers can help us work toward the broader questions. This paper aims to provide this precision in search of broader answers. Readers can access the data we analyze and report in this paper in the EPI State of Working America Data Library. By making the data publicly available and usable, we hope to advance constructive discussions of the gender pay gap. The gender wage gap 101: The basics The gender wage gap is a measure of pay disparity between men and women. While it can be measured different ways, the data are clear: women are still paid much less relative to men (about 83 cents per dollar, by our measure), and progress on closing the gap has stalled. What is the gender wage gap? The wage gap means women are paid: 82.7 percent of men’s wages. This translates to 83 cents per dollar. The “typical” (median) woman is paid 83 cents per every dollar the typical man is paid. In dollar terms this means women bring home: $3.27 less per hour than men. The median hourly wage is $15.67 for women and $18.94 for men. The gender wage gap is a measure of what women are paid relative to men. It is commonly calculated by dividing women’s wages by men’s wages, and this ratio is often expressed as a percent, or in dollar terms. This tells us how much a woman is paid for each dollar paid to a man. This gender pay ratio is often measured for year-round, full-time workers and compares the annual wages (of hourly wage and salaried workers) of the median (“typical”) man with that of the median (“typical”) woman; measured this way, the current gender pay ratio is 0.796, or, expressed as a percent, it is 79.6 percent (U.S. Census Bureau 2016). In other words, for every dollar a man makes, a woman makes about 80 cents. The difference in earnings between men and women is also sometimes described in terms of how much less women make than men. To calculate this gap from the ratio as defined above, simply subtract the ratio from 1. So, if the gender pay ratio is about 80 percent (or 80 cents on the dollar), this means that women are paid 20 percent less (or 20 cents less per dollar) than men. A larger difference between men’s and women’s earnings translates into a lower ratio but a larger gap in their earnings. We keep with this convention of using median wages of wage and salary workers rather than average wages of wage and salary workers because averages can be skewed by a handful of people making much more or much less than the rest of workers in a sample. However, we examine median wages on an hourly basis and include all workers reporting a positive number of work hours. This hourly measure constitutes a limited “adjustment” in research methodology in that it accounts for the fact that men work more hours on average during the year, and that more women work part time. 5 This limited adjustment allows us to compare women’s and men’s wages without assuming that women, who still shoulder a disproportionate amount of responsibilities at home, would be able or willing to work as many hours as their male counterparts. Computed this way using data from the federal government’s Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group, or CPS ORG in shorthand, the typical woman is paid 82.7 percent of what the typical man is paid (CPS ORG 2015). Or in common terms, women are paid 83 cents on the male dollar. Notwithstanding our limited adjustment, this is basically the “raw” or “unadjusted” gap that we explore throughout this report when we consider the ways a large basket of factors interact and create the wage gap women experience when they cash their paychecks. Would adjusting the raw gender wage gap to include factors such as education help explain the gap? Maybe it is not as big of a problem as it seems? Adjustments can help round out our understanding but unfortunately, as we explain here, they don’t explain away the gap. It is important to understand why. The gender wage gap described above and referred to in this primer has the virtue of being clear and simple. It provides a good overview of what is going on with typical women’s earnings relative to men’s. But it does not tell us what the wage gap is between men and women doing similar work, and whether the size of the gap derives in part from differences in education levels, experience levels, and other characteristics of working men and women. To round out our understanding of the disparity between men’s and women’s pay, we also consider “adjusted” measures of the gender wage gap—with the caveat that the adjusted measures may understate the wage disparities. Adjusted wage gap estimates control for characteristics such as race and ethnicity, level of education, potential work experience, and geographic division. These estimate are made using average wages rather than median because it requires standard regression techniques. Again, using the Current Population Survey data from the CPS Outgoing Rotation Group, but making these adjustments, we find that the wage gap grows, with women on average paid 21.7 percent less than men.6 The unadjusted penalty for the average woman is 17.9 percent.7 The measured penalty actually increases when accounting for these influences because women workers, on average, have higher levels of education than men.8 Models that control for a much larger set of variables—such as occupation, industry, or work hours—are sometimes used to isolate the role of discrimination in setting wages for specific jobs and workers. The notion is that if we can control for these factors, the wage gap will shrink, and what is left can be attributed to discrimination. Think of a man and woman with identical education and years of experience working side-by-side in cubicles but who are paid different wages because of discriminatory pay-setting practices. We also run a model with more of these controls, and find that the wage gap shrinks slightly from the unadjusted measure, from 17.9 percent to 13.5 percent.9 Researchers have used more extensive datasets to examine these differences. For instance, Blau and Kahn (2016) find an unadjusted penalty of 20.7 percent, a partially adjusted penalty of 17.9 percent, and a fully adjusted penalty of 8.4 percent.10 But switching to a fully adjusted model of the gender wage gap actually can radically understate the effect of gender discrimination on women’s earnings. This is because gender discrimination doesn’t happen only in the pay-setting practices of employers making wage offers to nearly identical workers of different genders. Instead, it can potentially happen at every stage of a woman’s life, from girlhood to moving through the labor market. By the time she completes her education and embarks on her career, a woman’s occupational choice is the culmination of years of education, guidance by mentors, expectations of parents and other influential adults, hiring practices of firms, and widespread norms and expectations about work/family balance held by employers, co-workers, and society (Gould and Schieder 2016). So it would not be accurate to assume that discrimination explains only the gender wage gap that remains after adjusting for education, occupational choice, and all these other factors. Put another way, we cannot look at our adjusted model and say that discrimination explains at most 13.5 percent of the gender wage gap. Why? Because, for example, by controlling for occupation, this adjusted wage gap no longer includes the discrimination that can influence a woman’s occupational choice. How much does the gender pay gap cost women over a lifetime? The average woman worker loses more than $530,000 over the course of her lifetime because of the gender wage gap, and the average college-educated woman loses even more—nearly $800,000 (IWPR 2016). It’s worth noting that each woman’s losses will vary significantly based on a variety of factors—including the health of the economy at various points in her life, her education, and duration of periods out of the labor force—but this estimate demonstrates the significance of the cumulative impact. And, as explained later, the gap may play a role in the retirement insecurity of older American women. Yes, but isn’t the gender pay gap smaller than it used to be? Over the past three and a half decades, substantial progress has been made to narrow the pay gap. Women’s wages are now significantly closer to men’s, but in recent years, that progress has stalled. From 1979 to the early 1990s, the ratio of women’s median hourly earnings to men’s hourly median earnings grew partly because women made disproportionate gains in education and labor force participation. After that, convergence slowed, and over the past two decades, it has stalled. According to the most recent data, as of 2015, women’s hourly wages are 82.7 percent of men’s hourly wages at the median (Figure A), with the median woman paid an hourly wage of $15.67, compared with $18.94 for men (Figure B). Figure A Progress in closing the gender pay gap has largely stalled: Women's hourly wages as a share of men's at the median, 1979–2015 Year Women’s hourly earnings at the median as a share of men’s hourly earnings at the median It’s not entirely clear why women have stopped gaining on men. But as discussed later in the section on the “motherhood penalty,” the tendency for women with children to receive systematically lower pay has stubbornly persisted, suggesting that the gender pay gap is not going away anytime soon. Economist Claudia Goldin’s research supports this conclusion. According to Goldin, current trends indicate that women’s wages will still be pulled down over the course of their working lifetimes, even after controlling for education and work time (Goldin 2014). How much of the narrowing of the gender pay gap is due to women’s earnings rising, and how much is due to men’s earnings falling? Since 1979, median men’s wages have stagnated, falling 6.7 percent in real terms from $20.30 per hour to $18.94 (Figure C). At the same time, women’s real median hourly wages have increased. In 1979, they were equal to roughly 62.4 percent of men’s real median hourly wages. By 2015, they were equal to 82.7 percent of men’s real wages at the median—a substantial reduction in the wage gap. Unfortunately, this means that about 30 percent of the reduction was due to the decline in men’s wages. The stagnation and decline of median men’s wages has played a significant role in the decline in the unadjusted gender wage gap. Women’s wages increased as more women had increased their participation in the labor force, increased their educational attainment, and entered higher-paying occupations. (Davis and Gould 2015). At the same time, for most workers, wages no longer increased with increases in economy-wide productivity. Had workers’ wages continued to keep pace with productivity, both men and women would be earning much more today. Figure C The gender wage gap persists, but has narrowed since 1979: Median hourly wages, by gender, 1979–2015 Does a woman’s race, age, or pay level affect the gender gap she experiences? Belonging to a certain race or age group does not immunize women from experiencing the gender wage gap. It affects women across the board, though higher-earning women and middle-age women are at a greater disadvantage relative to their male counterparts. And relative to white male wages, black and Hispanic women are the most disadvantaged. Is the gender wage gap a problem for low- or high-earning women? The gender wage gap is a problem for women at every wage level. At each and every point in the wage distribution, men significantly out-earn women, although by different amounts, to be sure (Figures B and C). In 2015, the gap between men’s and women’s hourly wages was smallest among the lowest-earning workers, with 10th percentile women earning 92.0 percent of men’s wages. The minimum wage is partially responsible for this greater equality among the lowest earners. It sets a wage floor that applies to everyone, which means that people near the bottom of the distribution are likely to make more equal wages, even though those wages are very low (Figure D). Figure D The gender wage gap is still widest among top earners: Women's hourly wages as a share of men's at various wage percentiles, 1979 and 2015 At the median, women’s hourly wages are equal to 82.7 percent of men’s wages. The gender wage gap is largest at the top of the wage distribution, with women at the 95th percentile getting paid 73.8 percent of wages at the male 95th percentile. Economist Claudia Goldin argues that women in high-wage professions experience a wider gender gap because they are penalized for not working long, inflexible hours (Goldin 2014). Such rigorous work schedules tend to weigh disproportionately heavily on women, who are still responsible for more housework and child/elder care than men. It is interesting to note that the wage gap between median men and women workers has narrowed noticeably over the past four decades (Hegewisch and DuMonthier 2016). At the low end, the gap has not closed as much, but the existence of the minimum wage likely kept wages of low-paid men and women closer together even in the 1970s. And the relatively fast growth of men’s wages at the 95th percentile has kept this gap from closing as much as the median gap (Economic Policy Institute 2016). How do women of different races and ethnicities experience the gender wage gap? Relative wage gaps are larger for high-wage white and Asian women but black and Hispanic women are paid least relative to white men. Figure E looks at low-, middle-, and high-wage women and compares their wages with those of men within their same racial and ethnic group. Here higher-wage white and Asian women are paid the least relative to their male peers, i.e., the gender wage gap is largest among high-earning whites and Asians. Figure E Women of every race and ethnicity make less than their male counterparts: Women's hourly wages as a percentage of men's hourly wages of the same race, by wages percentile, 2015 When we compare the wages of white women and women of color with wages of white men, white and Asian women fare better than their black and Hispanic counterparts (Figure F). White non-Hispanic women are paid 81.0 percent and Asian women 89.8 percent, of what non-Hispanic white men make. But the shares are much lower for black and Hispanic women, at 65.3 percent and 57.6 percent, respectively (CPS ORG 2011–2015). Figure F Black and Hispanic women experience the biggest pay gaps: Women's median hourly wages as a share of white men's and their per hour wage penalties, by race and ethnicity, 2015 In terms of the impact on women’s paychecks, this means that relative to the typical white man, the typical white woman takes home $4.00 less per hour, black women take home $7.31 less per hour, Hispanic women take home $8.91 less per hour, and Asian women take home $2.15 less per hour. What is the gender wage gap for immigrant women? Native-born workers of either gender are paid more per hour than (non-naturalized) foreign-born workers (Figure G). However, non-naturalized foreign-born women—like their native-born counterparts—experience a wage gap that further reduces their earnings. The typical non-naturalized foreign-born woman is paid 80 cents per dollar of what a foreign-born man is paid ($11.26 as a share of $14.02). Among undocumented Mexican immigrants, the gender wage gap is wider: for every dollar a man is paid, a woman is paid 71 cents (Garcia and Oakford 2013). Notes: Includes individuals older than 16. The category native born includes individuals born in the United States, Puerto Rico, and U.S. outlying areas, as well as individuals born abroad of American parents. The category foreign born includes foreign-born individuals who are not citizens of the United States. So while foreign-born workers overall are disadvantaged in terms of wages, non-naturalized foreign-born women are additionally disadvantaged by the gender wage gap. Compared with native-born men, the average foreign-born woman is paid 58.4 cents on the dollar. Foreign-born naturalized workers not only earn higher wages than their non-naturalized and native-born counterparts, but have a slightly smaller gender wage gap. Does the gender wage gap get bigger or smaller as women age? The gender wage gap is quite small for workers in their teens and early 20s, but the gap grows with age (Figure H). For typical working men, hourly wages rise until around the age of 45 and then plateau, but for typical working women, hourly wages top off earlier (in the 35 to 44 age range). After around 40, women’s wage growth plateaus and then drops off earlier than men’s. This holds true when measuring the gap using median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers (Hill 2016). The growth in the gender wage gap during this time of life reflects the disproportionate impact of family responsibilities on women’s careers. Other research shows that from the beginning of their working lives, women experience a gender wage gap that is still expected to swell significantly over the course of their careers, regardless of education or work experience (Goldin 2014). Figure H Women's hourly wages plateau and then begin to decline earlier than men's: Median hourly wage gap by age and gender, 2015 How do work experience, schedules, and motherhood affect the gender wage gap? Women’s experience levels and work schedules do factor into the gender wage gap. Rather than disproving the role of discrimination, work experience, hours, and schedules in part reflect the social expectations that still disadvantage women. These influences all play a role in the “motherhood wage penalty” evident in the data. Are women paid less because they have less experience? On average, women have less work experience than men, and this contributes to the gender wage gap. But it would not be correct to conclude that this helps disprove the role of discrimination, because the lack of experience itself is a function of social expectations and norms that disadvantage women in the workplace. Women are more likely to temporarily exit the labor force—most often to raise children, although increasingly to care for an older relative—which leaves them with less work experience. One study of workers with MBAs showed that a year after receiving the degree, only 4 percent of men had experienced a career interruption of six months or more, compared with 9 percent of women (Goldin 2014). Further out from their schooling the gap grows: after 10 years, 10 percent of men had experienced a career interruption, compared with 32 percent of women experiencing a career interruption nine years out. And in the 10 to 16 years following graduation with an MBA, 40 percent of women had experienced a career interruption. (Bertrand, Goldin, and Katz 2009) Do women’s work schedules affect the gender wage gap? Women tend to work different hours than men, which affects their earnings. However, the story is different depending on wage level. Women are more likely than men to work low-wage jobs, and low-wage workers are more likely to experience irregular work schedules, such as irregular shift times or on-call shifts, than are other workers (Golden 2015; Davis and Gould 2015). For low-wage parents especially, irregular schedules—often associated with pay that changes from paycheck to paycheck—can be paralyzing as they try to coordinate childcare and meet basic household needs. Among higher-wage workers, firms tend to disproportionately reward those who work long and particular hours, and those individuals are more likely to be men, which creates a wider wage gap for higher-wage women (Hersch and Stratton 2002; Goldin 2014). But when workers have more temporal flexibility—that is, more choice as to the schedules and number of hours they work—the gender gap narrows. In fact, Goldin (2014) finds that temporal inflexibility is an important contributor to the gender gap. Long, inflexible work schedules tend to weigh disproportionately heavily on women, who are still responsible for more housework and child/elder care than men. Women are also roughly twice as likely to work part time as men; 24.5 percent of women work part time versus 12.4 percent of men (Golden 2016). The biggest disadvantage part-time workers face is their relatively lower rates of pay and benefits coverage relative to full-time workers. When adjusting for differences in personal, educational, locational, industrial, and occupational characteristics of the workers, women who work part time earn 9 percent less than full-time working women. Disadvantages are compounded when women work part time involuntarily—they are willing and able to work full time but can only obtain part-time work. Women of color are disproportionately involuntarily part time. What we do know is that, in recent decades, women have been working substantially more hours. Between 1979 and 2012, the median annual hours worked by women increased by 739 hours (Appelbaum, Boushey, and Schmitt 2014). Median annual hours of work by mothers increased even more dramatically, rising 960 hours from 1979 to 2012 (Appelbaum, Boushey, and Schmitt 2014). For mothers and for women overall, all of the increase in work hours took place by 2000 (Appelbaum, Boushey, and Schmitt 2014). Despite these advances, women still work fewer paid hours than men (OECD 2016). How does the gender wage gap change after a woman has children? Research has consistently shown that women with children are paid less than women without children and men with or without children.11 In short, there does seem to be a motherhood penalty for earnings. Even after researchers control for variables such as education and experience, they find that mothers are paid approximately 4.6 percent less on an hourly basis than women who are not mothers (Budig 2014). Compared with their counterparts 40 years ago, first-time mothers today are older and have more education and work experience; after giving birth, they are less likely to leave the labor force and more likely to return to work quickly (Laughlin 2011). Despite women’s greater experience, education, and attachment to the labor force, the motherhood pay penalty persists (Budig 2014). Our research on the work hours of parents finds that women with children under the age of 6 work 5.5 hours less per week (13.4 percent fewer weekly hours) than the average working man, while women without children work 4.1 hours less per week (10.1 percent fewer hours) than the average man (Figure I). Figure I After the birth of a child, fathers spend more time at the office, whereas mothers spend less: Average weekly hours worked, by gender and household type, 2014 Our research also looks at labor force participation, which is generally defined as the share of a given population that is in the labor force (i.e., that is working or looking for work). Because of social norms and home responsibility, women, in general, are less likely to work than men. As shown in Figure J, 71.0 percent of all mothers are in the labor force, as are 73.8 percent of all prime-age women and 88.3 percent of all prime-age men.12 It’s particularly striking that labor force attachment of parents differs for men and women: fathers are more likely to be in the labor force than are men without children, but mothers are less likely to be in the labor force than are women without children. Note: Sample limited to people ages 25–54. Children are defined as being less than 18 years old. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of people who either have a job or are actively looking for a job, and are not on active duty in the Armed Forces or living in institutions (such as correctional facilities or nursing homes). How do education and job and occupational characteristics affect the gender wage gap? Some have suggested that women could narrow the wage gap if they made different educational or occupational choices. The data suggest it’s not that simple. Does education level affect the gender wage gap? One thing the data clearly show is that women have not been able to educate themselves out of the gender wage gap, at least in terms of broad formal credentials. While women are more likely to graduate from college than men, and are more likely to receive a graduate degree than men (Gould and Schieder 2016), at every education level, women are paid less than men (Figure K). Figure K Women earn less than men at every education level: Average hourly wages, by gender and education, 2015 Among workers who have not completed high school, women are paid 78.2 percent of what men are paid. Among workers who have a college degree, the share is 75.2 percent; and among workers who have an advanced degree, it is 73.4 percent. Women with advanced degrees still make less per hour than men with college degrees. Even straight out of college, women with a college degree make $4 less per hour than their male peers—a gap that has grown since 2000 (Kroeger, Cooke, and Gould 2016). Does the choice of college major affect the gender wage gap? Part of the gender wage gap can be attributed to college major. Women are more likely to major in subjects such as education and the humanities, and these majors are associated with lower-paying jobs after graduation. At the same time, fewer women major in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects, which are associated with the most lucrative jobs (Corbett and Hill 2015). Although college major doesn’t always determine occupation after graduation, there is a link between major and salary in the workforce. Figure L shows that people with college degrees in majors favored by women are making less 10 years after graduation. For example, engineering majors are paid on average nearly twice as much as education majors 10 years after graduation. Figure L Undergraduate majors favored by women pay less 10 years after graduation: Undergraduate major by gender and salary 10 years after graduation Notes: Salaries are based on the current or most recent salary of college graduates of the class of 1993 10 years after graduation in 2003. The salaries are then inflated to 2015 dollars using the CPI-U for easier comparison with today's wages. The percentage of graduates who are female by major is based on a survey of college students graduating in 1993 for consistency. Contrary to what some may believe, educational choices remain gendered today. For example, male seniors graduating in 2008 were more than five times as likely as their female counterparts to have majored in engineering and engineering technology, while women in that same year were three times as likely as their male counterparts to have studied education (NCES 2011–2015). These choices of college majors, however, should not be seen as completely unconstrained. Women’s experiences before college strongly influence their college trajectories. For example, women arrive in college less interested in STEM fields than their male counterparts. Only 14 percent of first-time college women chose science-related fields in 2012, compared with 39 percent of first-time college men (OECD 2015). Among STEM majors, women are disproportionately in the biological and life sciences, while men dominate engineering and computer science (Corbett and Hill 2015). How much of the wage gap is due to lower pay in women-dominated occupations versus wage disparities among men and women in the same occupation? A gender pay gap exists both within and between industries and occupations (Goldin 2014). This means that occupations that have more women in them tend to pay less (the “between occupation” wage gap), and that within each occupation, whether male- or female-dominated, men tend to be paid more than women (the “within-occupation” gap). This within-occupation gap means that even when men and women work in the same occupation—whether as hairdressers, cosmetologists, nurses, teachers, computer engineers, mechanical engineers, or construction workers—men make more, on average, than women (CPS ORG 2011-2015). Some have argued that the gender wage gap mostly reflects choices women make about career paths—and choices about occupation in particular. But as it turns out the within-occupation gender wage gap plays a larger role in the occupational gender wage gap than the between-occupation wage gap (the fact that both men and women in occupations with higher shares of women are paid less). As a thought experiment, imagine all women are picked out of their jobs and dropped into jobs to mirror how men are distributed throughout the occupational labor market. For example, if 1.22 percent of men are currently software developers, suppose 1.22 percent of women (instead of today’s 0.33 percent of women) became software developers.13 What would this occupational reassignment of women do to the wage gap? Claudia Goldin imagines this scenario in a 2014 paper (Goldin 2014). After controlling for differences in education and preferences for full-time work, she finds that only 32 percent of the gender pay gap for college graduates would be closed by redistributing women and men across occupations. On the other hand, as much as 68 percent of the gender pay gap by occupation for college graduates is due to the within-occupation gap (Goldin 2014).14 This means if you left women in their current occupations and just closed the gaps between women and their male counterparts within occupations (e.g., if male and female civil engineers, and male and female teachers, made the same per hour), that would close a whopping 68 percent of the gap. Furthermore, evidence shows that as women’s participation in a particular occupation rises, pay within that occupation falls (Miller 2016; Oldenziel 1999). Some researchers attribute this phenomenon to “devaluation,” in which employers ascribe a lower value to work done in female-dominated occupations and thus pay them less (Levanon, England, and Allison 2009). Therefore, changing which occupations women are in will only partially close the gender wage gap. If we want to equalize earnings between men and women, we need to pay as much attention to the fact that women in the same job make less than men as we do to the fact that female-dominated professions pay less. Has the gender wage gap shrunk as more men and women blaze paths into “nontraditional” occupations? This is a trick question. From the early 1960s to the 1990s, more men and women moved into “nontraditional” occupations. (An occupation is considered “nontraditional” for a particular gender if that gender constitutes less than 25 percent of employees in the occupation [Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006]).15 So for example more women found jobs in recreation and more men became nurses (Landivar 2013; Miller 2016). But the movement toward gender integration in occupations slowed down after the 1990s and came to a complete halt during the 2000s (Hegewisch and Hartmann 2014). Gen Xers, who reached their mid-40s mainly in the 2010s, saw an increase in occupational segregation between ages 25 and 45. In fact virtually all cohorts of workers all saw a small increase in occupational segregation in the 2000s and 2010s (Hegewisch and Hartmann 2014). For all our progress, as of recent years, only about 6 percent of women are employed in nontraditional (i.e., traditionally male) occupations. These same sets of occupations employ 45 percent of all men. At the same time, only about 5 percent of men are in traditionally female occupations, while these occupations employ 40 percent of all female workers. Figure M shows more simply how gender segregated our occupations still are in the United States. More than 40 percent of workers are in occupations in which more than three-fourths of workers are of one gender. Figure M 43 percent of workers are in highly gendered occupations: Percentage of workers in occupations in which more than 75 percent of workers are of a single gender, 2011–2015 Notes: We define gendered-occupations as occupations in which more than 75 percent of workers are of one gender. This definition is based on the definition of "traditional" occupations included in the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 S.250-6. Employment counts are averaged over the time period, 2011-2015. Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation group data And this segregated distribution of men and women across jobs matters to the gender wage gap. Occupation and industry (taken together) account for about half of the overall gender wage gap (Blau and Kahn 2016). Finally, it is important to note that the distribution of men and women across occupations is not a simple matter of unconstrained choice. Much research suggests that many women are driven out of nontraditional occupations by hostile work environments. For example, 63 percent of women working in science, engineering, and technology experience sexual harassment (Hewlett et al. 2008). Over time, 52 percent of women in science, engineering, and technology quit their jobs, half of whom end up leaving these fields altogether (Hewlett et al. 2008). Does union membership close the gender pay gap? Unions not only raise wages for male and female workers alike, but also reduce the size of the gender wage gap. Women in unions are paid 31 percent more than their nonunionized sisters. Among racial and ethnic subgroups, black, Hispanic, and white women in unions make 34, 42, and 31 percent more than their nonunion counterparts (Anderson, Hegewisch, and Hayes 2015).16 Unionization raises women’s wages by 11.2 percent, compared with nonunion women who have similar characteristics (Schmitt 2008). Women in unions also experience a smaller gender pay gap than their nonunionized counterparts (Figure N). Women workers in unions are paid 88.7 percent of what their male counterparts are paid, while for nonunionized women the share is 81.8 percent (Anderson, Hegewisch, and Hayes 2015). Figure N Women generally experience a smaller pay gap when their workplace is unionized: Women's median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary employees as a percent of men's, by race and ethnicity, 2014 Does the gender wage gap depend on where you live? Yes. The gender wage gap varies widely by state. The gender wage gap, as measured by women’s share of men’s hourly wages at the median, ranges from 74.8 percent (in Wyoming) to 92.9 percent (in Washington, D.C.; Figure O). Typical female workers in Washington, D.C., and Vermont make more than 90 percent of the wages of their male counterparts. In nine states, women are paid less than 80 percent of their male counterparts’ wages. Similarly, the gender gap in annual earnings ranges from 65.3 percent in Louisiana to 89.5 percent in Washington, D.C. (NWLC 2015). Figure O The difference between men's and women's pay varies greatly by state: Median hourly women's wages as a share of men's by state, 2013–2015 A number of factors may be contributing to these differences, such as the mix of predominant industries or cultural differences. For example, after holding other factors constant, states with a higher score of “religiosity”—including higher frequency of prayer, worship service attendance, and expressed belief in prayer among other measures—experience a wider gender wage gap (Wiseman and Dutta 2016). According to the researchers, the reason for this is that religiosity is often associated with more traditional views about gender roles. The raw gender wage gap is larger in rural areas than in urban areas. In metropolitan areas, the gender gap in median hourly wages is 83.2 percent, while in nonmetropolitan areas, it is 81.7 percent. The gender pay gap in the United States is bigger than the gap in many other developed countries. The gender pay gap in the United States is larger than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average when considering the difference between the wages of full-time annual median male and female wages. Within the OECD, the United States has the 12th largest gender gap overall, and the U.S. gap is bigger than the gap in most European countries. That said, making direct international comparisons is often difficult. For example, part-time work by one parent is more common in Europe, as is substantial use of parental leave and paid vacations, while single parenthood is more common in the United States (Ruhm 2011). A common thread in these data is that the burden of parenthood is distributed differently in various countries. This means that policies meant to address the motherhood penalty likely need to be tailored differently across these countries as well. For example, the availability of parental leave might make a woman in Europe less likely to leave her employer following her pregnancy, whereas in the United States, taking any significant amount of time off at all following childbirth might lead to her losing her job. On the other hand, in many of the OECD countries, women are less likely to work full time and less likely to attain high-level positions than are women in the United States, suggesting that flexibility comes at a cost (Blau and Kahn 2013a). There is another way in which geography might affect the gender wage gap. Women are more willing to move for a husband’s employment than vice versa (Abraham, Auspurg, and Hinz 2010). This suggests that women are less able to widen the geographic net over which to search for good job opportunities. How might the gender wage gap affect the retirement security of America’s working women? It is hard to isolate the effect of the gender wage gap on American women’s retirement security. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women’s lower lifetime earnings means that they receive lower Social Security payments and experience fewer opportunities to save for retirement. Average annual Social Security benefits for women are only $13,392, and the annual median income in retirement for women is only $14,000, well below the $19,000 to $29,000 that a single person needs to live in retirement, depending on geographic area (DOL 2015). That may be a key reason why elderly women are more likely than elderly men to be economically vulnerable (defined as earning less than twice what they would need to earn to be above the supplemental poverty measure). As shown in Figure P, over half (52.5 percent) of American women age 65 or older are economically vulnerable, compared with 41.9 percent of same-aged men. Figure P Elderly women are more likely than elderly men to be economically vulnerable: Share of the elderly at various income levels, expressed as multiples of the supplemental poverty measure (SPM) threshold, by gender But the gender wage gap is not the only factor that contributes to women’s lower lifetime earnings. Women’s caregiving responsibilities often push them into working fewer hours, and working part time often limits opportunities for advancement. Women’s time out of the workforce translates into lower earnings and can often erode women’s early and mid-life savings. Further, caregiving costs women $274,044 ($142,693 in lost wages and $131,351 in lost Social Security) over their lifetime, plus an additional $50,000 in lost pension income (DOL 2015). In addition to their lower Social Security and retirement earnings, older women also have limited opportunities to earn money in the labor force. Not only is the gender pay gap highest among workers age 55 to 64, but recent studies suggest that women face “robust” age discrimination in the labor market, and that age discrimination against women is worse than it is for men (Neumark, Burn, and Button 2015; Farber, Silverman, and von Wachter 2015). Since working longer later in life yields less than it would for a man (DOL 2015), this leaves less room for women to catch up on retirement savings. It also means that when older women are given a choice between staying home to care for family or staying in the workplace, the latter option is relatively less advantageous. In a recent survey, one-fifth of all women ages 45 to 74 reported that they had taken time off work within the past five years to act as caregivers (DOL 2015). Older women’s caregiving responsibilities extend not just to their children but also to their parents. About 9.7 million Americans over age 50 care for their parents, and women are the majority of the caregivers. The labor force participation rate of older women has grown in the past two decades, but it is still lower than older men’s (DOL 2015). In 2012, 35.1 percent of women ages 55 and older were in the labor force, compared with 46.8 percent of their male counterparts (DOL 2015). In 1992, those figures for older women and older men were 22.8 percent and 38.4 percent, respectively (DOL 2015). What role do “unobservables” like discrimination and productivity play in the wage gap? The unexplained, or residual, portion of the pay gap is the difference in pay between men and women who are observationally identical. It is what is left when researchers control for all observable characteristics. It is due to factors that are otherwise difficult to measure—which could include not only discrimination but also differences in productivity that are unrelated to influences such as educational level and experience. What can the size and trajectory of this residual gap tell us about the scope of discrimination in the workplace? Is discrimination an expanding or shrinking factor in gender wage gaps? Even when researchers control for all observable characteristics, a portion of the gender wage gap is left unexplained. Economists often argue that this unexplained portion, while not synonymous with discrimination, may tell us how much gender discrimination could be affecting wages. By this measure, discrimination is either stable or increasing. In a 2016 study, economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn found that the unexplained portion of the gender wage gap narrowed dramatically in the 1980s, shrinking from between 21 and 29 percent of the gap in 1980 to between 8 and 18 percent of the gap in 1989. However, after 1989, the unexplained portion of the gap did not narrow any further, and it has remained stable ever since. In a 2014 study, economist Claudia Goldin found that the unexplained, or “residual,” gap makes up more of the gap today than it did in the 1980s. Women today have more education and work experience, which has whittled away the influence of those factors on the gap. Human capital factors such as education and experience made up about 25 percent of the wage gap in 1979, but only 8 percent in 1998. This residual gap is not uniform across occupations. Goldin argues that some professions disproportionately reward those who work very long hours, and this might explain why she finds a larger residual gap in business occupations than in science and technology fields. Also some high-wage firms have adopted pay-setting practices that disproportionately reward individuals who work very long and very particular hours, including weekends or late nights. This means that—even if men and women are equally productive per hour—individuals in these firms who are more likely to work a very high number of weekly hours and be available at particular off hours are paid more. This reward of long and nonstandard hours for highly credentialed employees works to men’s advantage (Hersch and Stratton 2002; Goldin 2014). But expansion or contraction of the residual gap does not mean that discrimination is expanding or contracting to the same degree because the residual wage gap only captures discrimination in pay-setting between similar workers. It does not capture the range of factors that influence the different labor market experience of men and women before employers make hourly pay offers, and discrimination—in the form of society-wide constraints on choices—can certainly enter into these factors. For example, women’s choice of college major or occupation is conditioned on how well educated in science and math they were in college and even before. If gender differences in teachers’ attention or perception of academic excellence influence these choices about college major and occupation, then it will affect pay outcomes. Therefore, controlling for current occupation disguises how discrimination can filter men and women differently into high- or low-paying occupations. While we can’t precisely measure how big the role of discrimination is, or set a ceiling on its impact, we do know that it exists. Empirical evidence of outright discrimination in hiring, promotions, and even wage-setting is strong and includes the following: One famous study found that switching to blind auditions led to a significantly higher proportion of female musicians in orchestras (Goldin and Rouse 1997). An experimental study of résumés submitted for job openings found bias against women and mothers and a preference for male applicants (Steinpreis, Anders, and Ritzke 1999). Another résumé study showed discrimination against women in the sciences (Moss-Racusin et al. 2012). Researchers have also found that women are viewed as less competent than men, and that mothers are judged as even less competent than childless women (Ridgeway and Correll 2004). In her book, Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart (2004), Liza Featherstone reported that “women make up 72 percent of Wal-Mart’s hourly workforce (nonsalaried workers), but only 34 percent of its managers are women. Women also earn less than their male counterparts in nearly every position at the company.” Is the gender gap a result of men being “better” or more productive workers than women? As noted, the unexplained, or residual, portion of the pay gap is the difference in pay between men and women who are observationally identical. Some argue that one of the difficult-to-measure factors is differences in productivity that are unrelated to influences such as educational level and experience. Some argue that women’s disproportionate childcare responsibilities may make them less productive. Studies that have directly explored worker productivity show little evidence of a motherhood penalty on productivity. Recent research by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis that examined productivity among academic economists found that, over the course of a career, women with children were more productive than women without children (Krapf, Ursprung, and Zimmerman 2014). Additionally, women with two children were more productive than women with one child. Another study of blue-collar workers, a group chosen because of the belief that there would likely be productivity differences by gender, found that women were generally as productive as men (Petersen, Snartland, and Milgrom 2006). In fact, research on impressions of women in the workplace suggests women’s productivity might in fact be systematically underestimated (Burgess 2013). Researchers have noted that women are caught in a paradox between appearing too feminine (not qualified) and not feminine enough (lacking in social skills), which often causes their performance to be evaluated much more strictly than men’s (Burgess 2013). The same study found that mothers were seen as less competent than childless women (Burgess 2013). For men, parenthood status had no effect on their perceived competency. Another study found both men and women were conflicted by the notion that they should put work before family and other personal affairs (Reid 2015). Women, however, were much less likely to be perceived as putting work first. Framing the question of pay fairness (as this question does) implies that men’s pay is very closely aligned with their productivity. But in fact, for decades, the wages of the vast majority of both men and women have not kept pace with economy-wide productivity as productivity continued to increase but wages largely stagnated. This contrasts with the decades before about 1980, when wage growth and productivity growth were closely linked. If wages had continued to grow with productivity, the vast majority of both women and men would be better off today (Figure Q). For example, Davis and Gould (2015) have shown that had the gender wage gap closed and had wages grown with productivity since 1979, the median woman’s wages would be nearly 70 percent higher today. Figure Q Eliminating the gender and inequality wage gap could raise women’s wages by 69%: Median hourly wages for men and women, compared with wages for all workers had they increased in tandem with productivity, 1979–2015 How might discrimination—in the form of norms and expectations—be affecting the wage gap by constraining women’s choices? Women do indeed make choices, but those choices do not occur in a vacuum. Our society’s institutions and norms exert a powerful influence on what choices are available and what form they take. How well do grade school test scores measure aptitude? One study found that parents are more likely to expect their sons, rather than their daughters, to work in STEM fields, even when their daughters performed at the same level in mathematics (OECD 2015). This suggests that cultural norms influence girls’ confidence which in turn influences their success (Herbert and Stipek 2005). Though girls are underrepresented among students with the highest math test scores, research shows that this gap differs geographically. In areas where people were more likely to say “women [are] better suited for home” and “math is for boys,” girls were more likely to have lower math scores and higher scores on reading tests (Pope and Syndor 2010). In the same states where girls had stereotypically gender-normative test scores, boys scored higher in math than girls but also lower in reading. More evidence that children’s disparate test scores may be the result of cultural factors, not innate differences, is found in the fact that in some states girls scored better at subjects in which cultural cues might have suggested they should be more gifted, and the same was true for boys. Other research shows that gender bias among teachers negatively affects girls, with the worst effects for girls in less well-off families and girls whose fathers have more years of schooling than their mothers (Lavy and Sands 2015). Cultural attitudes also affect girls’ confidence, which in turn affects their math performance (OECD 2015). One study found that girls are more likely to express feelings of anxiety over mathematics, and on average their math scores were lower. But among girls who reported similar levels of confidence as boys, the gender gap in performance disappeared (OECD 2015). Cultural stereotypes appear to have a direct impact on academic performance (OECD 2015). Asians, for example, are stereotyped as being good at math. When Asian girls were told they were taking a quantitative skills test to assess ethnic differences in performance, they scored higher than a control group, which was given no explanation for why they were taking the test. By contrast, Asian girls scored worse when they were told they were taking a quantitative assessment to determine gender differences. How does the cultural steering of girls away from math and science affect occupational choice? In college, girls are less likely to major in STEM subjects than men and are less likely to major in STEM than in other subjects. Yet STEM majors are associated with the highest earnings. But even though they are not studying the subjects that lead to the most lucrative jobs, women’s level of education continues to increase. Today, women earn more than half of all associate degrees, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and Ph.D.s (although in this last category, they make up only 51 percent of recipients). One obstacle to increasing women’s share of employment in lucrative fields is the attrition rate of highly qualified women working in science, engineering, and technology (SET) fields. One study found that as many as half of highly qualified female SET professionals left their jobs because of hostile work environments and job pressures at odds with traditionally gendered domestic roles (Hewlett et al. 2008). Yet the gender wage gap persists even among recent graduates (Gould and Kroeger 2016). Do work scheduling practices disadvantage women? In some fields—particularly among highly credentialed workers in very well-paid occupations—employees are disproportionately rewarded for working very long hours and/or at inconvenient times, with short notice. There seems to be little compelling evidence that this reflects smart economic thinking by employers. For example, productivity suffers for employees in medical fields who work long hours (Lockley et al. 2007). Yet these practices persist and affect women. As noted earlier, women in high-wage professions experience a wider gender gap because they are penalized for not working long, inflexible hours. Such rigorous work schedules tend to weigh disproportionately heavily on women, who are still responsible for more housework and child/elder care than men. But in the United States and around the world, when unpaid work is accounted for, women do more work than men, reflecting again the social expectation that women disproportionately undertake nonmarket work. This trend holds even for children: Although girls spend more time doing chores than boys, they are less likely than boys to be paid an allowance (University of Michigan 2007). Sex segregation in occupations is a reality; women dominate some occupations, just as men dominated others. However, when women enter male-dominated occupations, they have similar or lower expected wages than their female counterparts who go into female-dominated occupations (Pitts 2002). This suggests that when women enter female-dominated occupations, they are rationally situating themselves to be paid higher wages once discrimination is taken into account. Another study (Hwang and Polachek 2004) found that women “choose female jobs to earn a relatively greater amenity package than they would have received elsewhere. Similarly, men choose male jobs to earn relatively more.” How do family and child-rearing roles affect women’s choices? It is often suggested that women who are planning to have children seek out “mother-friendly” occupations, sacrificing higher pay for work environments that are more conducive to balancing professional and family responsibilities whether because they are lower stress or offer greater flexibility. But Budig and England (2001) find little support in the data for this. They find motherhood does not impact mothers’ pay through the types of jobs women with children choose (except when it comes to choosing part-time jobs, which does partially account for the motherhood penalty). Instead, they find that it is mothers’ breaks in employment, as opposed to the jobs they take, that lead to a discrepancy in pay between mothers and women without children. Goldin (2014) argues that women’s labor market choices are strongly conditioned by social norms and expectations regarding who bears the burden of domestic work as well as employer indifference toward this burden. “The observed patterns of decreased labor supply and earnings substantially reflect women’s choices given family constraints and the inflexibility of work schedules in many corporate and finance sector jobs,” the report explains. Finally, the perception that women with children choose to work less is often false. Instead, mothers in the workplace are simply judged more harshly in regard to their employer commitment than women without children. Correll, Benard, and Paik (2011) find that mothers are seen as less committed to the workplace than women without children in comparable jobs. For men, it’s the opposite: fathers are seen as more committed than childless men. Gender differences in salary negotiation explain a portion of the gender gap. Men are more likely to negotiate their salary, which increases their earnings (Babcock and Laschever 2007). However, men and women face different social incentives for negotiation, and there is evidence that women are more likely to be penalized when they negotiate (Bowles, Babcock, and Lei 2006). The constraints on negotiation clearly have an impact: women who consistently negotiate their salary are paid over $1 million more across their lifetime than women who do not negotiate (Babcock and Laschever 2007). Evidence also shows that men benefit disproportionately from incentive pay (Albanesi, Olivetti, and Prados 2015). Female executives receive a lower share of incentive pay relative to their male counterparts, and this difference accounts for 93 percent of the gender gap in total pay (Albanesi, Olivetti, and Prados 2015). Performance pay also disproportionately rewards male executives. Researchers found that every $1 million increase in firm value generates a $17,150 increase in firm-specific wealth for male executives, but only a $1,670 increase for their female counterparts (Albanesi, Olivetti, and Prados 2015). This research suggests that women are hurt by incentive pay at the top of the earnings spectrum in two ways: (1) women are less likely to be rewarded using incentive pay when they are in high-ranking managerial positions, and (2) they are less likely to reach those commanding heights of the economy where they would receive more of their pay through an incentive-based structure. Is there a gender gap in other forms of worker compensation, such as health insurance, paid sick leave, and retirement benefits? Only 60 percent of men and 62 percent of women have access to paid sick days (Williams and Gault 2014). Although there doesn’t appear to be an overall gender gap in paid sick time, Hispanic women are less likely than men to have access to paid sick time; 49 percent of Latinas lack such a benefit. Two disproportionately female groups, low-wage workers and part-time workers, are also less likely to have paid sick leave than their higher wage and full-time counterparts (BLS 2015; Figure R). Figure R Low-wage workers are less likely to have access to paid sick days: Percent of private industry workers with access to paid sick days, by wage group, 2016 Women are less likely than men to receive health insurance through their own job. In 2015, 34 percent of women had employer-provided health insurance, compared with 43 percent of men (KFF 2016). However, men’s and women’s overall participation rates in employer retirement plans are about the same, despite the fact that, as of 2012, women were slightly more likely than men to work for employers that offered retirement plans. The equal participation rate is due to a gap in eligibility that limits women’s participation (Brown et al.). But equal participation does not mean equal retirement security. Because of their care responsibilities, women are more likely to move in and out of the workforce. This weakens their earnings power, and as a result, women have less retirement wealth than men, both in traditional pensions and employer savings accounts such as 401(k)s. In 2010, women’s income from defined-benefit employer pensions was about 33 percent less than men’s (Brown et al.). And an analysis of 3 million participants in money manager Vanguard’s fund showed that the median amount accumulated in defined-contribution retirement accounts (i.e., 401(k)s and the like) was 34 percent less for women than for men (Brown et al.). Women age 65 and older are 80 percent more likely than their male counterparts to be living in poverty (Brown et al.). And widowed women are twice as likely as widowed men to be living below the poverty line (Brown et al.). Acknowledgments This publication was made possible by a grant from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors. The authors would also like to acknowledge the tireless work of Jin Dai, data programmer, and overall guidance of Josh Bivens, research director. About the authors Elise Gould, senior economist, joined EPI in 2003. Her research areas include wages, poverty, economic mobility, and health care. She is a co-author of The State of Working America, 12th Edition. In the past, she has authored a chapter on health in The State of Working America 2008/09; co-authored a book on health insurance coverage in retirement; published in venues such as The Chronicle of Higher Education, Challenge Magazine, and Tax Notes; and written for academic journals including Health Economics, Health Affairs, Journal of Aging and Social Policy, Risk Management & Insurance Review, Environmental Health Perspectives, and International Journal of Health Services. She holds a master’s in public affairs from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Jessica Schieder joined EPI in 2015. As a research assistant, she supports the research of EPI’s economists on topics such as the labor market, wage trends, executive compensation, and inequality. Prior to joining EPI, Jessica worked at the Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch) as a revenue and spending policies analyst, where she examined how budget and tax policy decisions impact working families. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international political economy from Georgetown University. Kathleen Geier is a Chicago-based writer and researcher. She has written for The Nation, The New Republic, The Baffler, Washington Monthly, and other publications. Endnotes 1. Wages here refers to the hourly wages of all wage and salary workers between 18 and 64 years old. Throughout we use wage gap and pay gap interchangeably to refer to the wage gap. 2. The typical woman (or man) referred to here and throughout is the median female (or male) worker. 3. Unless otherwise specified, the EPI analyses throughout this piece use data on hourly wages of all workers, not just full-time workers. Technically, this is an adjusted gender wage gap measure because the weekly or annual gender wage gap would allow hours of work to differ. An hourly wage gap will not capture the direct effect of differences in hours or weeks worked, but it will capture the indirect effect of wage differences due to the effect of hours on hourly wages. This limited adjustment allows us to compare women’s and men’s wages without assuming that women, who still shoulder a disproportionate amount of responsibilities at home, would be able or willing to work as many hours as their male counterparts. Examining this “raw” gap, we hope to have a more thorough conversation about the ways a large basket of factors interact and create the wage gap women experience when they cash their paychecks. Of course, our answers to questions about the wage gap also draw on the work of other researchers, who may use different measures. Claudia Goldin for example uses earnings of full-time full-year workers. 4. While there is no fatherhood penalty in the data, there is evidence that fathers who take leave are punished as well (Bertrand, Goldin, and Katz 2009). 5. The median is the value you get if you take a set of numbers, arrange them from highest to lowest, and choose the number that is exactly in the middle. Technically, the median hourly wage is an adjusted gender wage gap measure because the weekly or annual gender wage gap would allow hours of work to differ. For details on the methodology used, see the “Documentation” section of the Economic Policy Institute’s State of Working America Data Library (epi.org/data/). 6. The regression-based gap is based on average wages and controls for gender, race and ethnicity, education, experience, and geographic division. The log of the hourly wage is the dependent variable. 7. Economic Policy Institute (EPI) analysis of CPS ORG hourly wage data for workers age 18 to 64 using a simple weighted regression model with only a gender control variable. 8. Here education is measured on a mutually exclusive five-point scale: workers who have less than a high school diploma, those who have completed high school but no further schooling, those who have some college experience but have not earned a college degree, those who have earned a college degree, and those with advanced degrees. 10. Blau and Kahn’s modified model includes controls for education, experience, race/ethnicity, region, and metropolitan area residence. Their more fully specified model adds in a series of industry, occupation, and union coverage dummy variables. 14. Using female weights gives a lower share of 58 percent. Using female weights would mean you would move men out of their occupations. 15. Nontraditional occupations are defined by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 (as well as preceding legislation) as “occupations or fields of work, including careers in computer science, technology, and other current and emerging high skill occupations, for which individuals from one gender comprise less than 25 percent of the individuals employed in each such occupation or field of work.” Bertrand, Marianne, Claudia Goldin, and Lawrence Katz. 2009. Dynamics of the Gender Gap for Young Professionals in the Corporate and Financial Sectors. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 14681. Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata (CPS ORG). 2011–2015. Survey conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics [machine-readable microdata file]. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau. EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.	What is the gender pay gap and is it real?: The complete guide to how women are paid less than men and why it can’t be explained away Working women are paid less than working men. A large body of research accounts for, diagnoses, and investigates this “gender pay gap.” But this literature often becomes unwieldy for lay readers, and because pay gaps are political topics, ideological agendas often seep quickly into discussions. This primer examines the evidence surrounding the gender pay gap, both in the literature and through our own data analyses. We will begin by explaining the different ways the gap is measured, and then go deeper into the data using hourly wages for our analyses,1 culling from extensive national and regional surveys of wages, educational attainment, and occupational employment. Summary Why different measures don’t mean the data are unreliable A number of figures are commonly used to describe the gender wage gap. One often-cited statistic comes from the Census Bureau, which looks at annual pay of full-time workers. By that measure, women are paid 80 cents for every dollar men are paid. Another measure looks at hourly pay and does not exclude part-time workers. It finds that, relative to men, typical women are paid 83 cents on the dollar.2 Other, less-cited measures show different gaps because they examine the gap at different parts of the wage distribution, or for different demographic subgroups, or are adjusted for factors such as education level and occupation. The presence of alternative ways to measure the gap can create a misconception that data on the gender wage gap are unreliable. However, the data on the gender wage gap are remarkably clear and (unfortunately) consistent about the scale of the gap. In simple terms, no matter how you measure it, there is a gap. And, different gaps answer different questions. By discussing the data and the rationale behind these seemingly contradictory measures of the wage gap, we hope to improve the discourse around the gender wage gap.	no
Sociology	Is the Gender Wage Gap a Myth?	yes_statement	the "gender" wage gap is a myth. the "gender" wage gap does not exist	https://canadianwomen.org/blog/the-gender-pay-gap-is-a-myth/	The Gender Pay Gap Is a Myth - Canadian Women's Foundation	It doesn’t always happen on purpose: Unconscious biases mean that we may not even be aware of prejudices that shape our decisions. Because unequal distribution of unpaid work means women do more caregiving and have more household responsibilities that add to the gender pay gap. Men are less likely to take caregiving breaks for children or elderly relatives, so they often stay in the workforce continually. Caregiver absences for women mean they don’t get as many promotions and salary increases. Plus, their pay drops when they come back to work: those aged 25 to 38 saw their earnings drop four per cent in the five years after having a child. Because “women’s work” pays less than “men’s work.” What women do outside the home can look like what they do at home and, somehow, they’re expected to do it for little or no money. When women make up a large percentage of a specific industry, wages actually go down. Because women face barriers in many higher-paying fields. For example, the leaky pipeline happens when women join male-dominated industries and then feel pushed out because of the culture. Argument: Women choose not to go into higher-paying industries and positions, so this gap is actually their fault. Reality: The gap persists in higher paying industries. In Ontario, there’s a significant gap between what men and women earn in every industry and occupation. Men in “trades, transportation and equipment operator” fields earn much more than women in the same field. 18 Comments i just want to thank you for taking the time to make this article. I am a woman and I have faced these issues in real life so I really appreciate it when others educate people on the realities of this world. thanks! According to this article, 10% to 15% of the gender pay gap is attributable to gender discrimination. Which means that between 85% and 90% of the pay gap is due to reasons other than the worker being a woman. That is the real point. The research does not support the claim that the substantive reason women get paid less is because they are women. Why not explore the 85% to 90%? If you want wage parity, it would seem the biggest gains could be made in understanding the other reasons. There are many reasons aside from gender that contribute to higher wages. Work that men typically engage in often falls into the 3 Ds category, dirty, dangerous and demeaning, and for those reasons, wages are higher. (Yes women sell sex and are employed as erotic dancers but these are not typical occupations). Men are much more likely to be injured or killed at work. Men travel away from their families working out of town or in camps. Men are more subject to physical violence on the job either from colleagues or ‘customers’. It would be really interesting to have an objective study on the topic. Hi there, thanks for reading out blog. While 10 – 15% of the gender pay gap is directly attributable to gender discrimination, other factors that are outside of women’s control also contribute to this gap. The two largest factors explaining the remaining gender pay gap in 2018 were the distribution of women and men across industries, and women’s overrepresentation in part-time work, according to Statistics Canada. Almost two-thirds of the gender pay gap in 2018 was unexplained. Possible factors in this segment of the gap include gender differences in characteristics such as work experience and work interruptions, as well as gender-related biases or wage discrimination, or differences in pay negotiation. What is your position on individual men, factually, and not merely statistically, by means of a group average, being paid less then other men, for the very same job; sometimes even within the same company? What is your position on men being paid less the women, for the very same job? Both DOES happen and is as real as you claim your argument to be. Do you not see, that the pay gap, based on gender, is nothing more than a meme serving only one purpose: to divide those parts of the population how receive wages; this group consists of women, men and all the various other genders. It is in the interest of the group of individuals, which controls who receives wages and how much. This group, most likely, also consists of individuals of various genders. This is in line with the ancient principles of “divide et impera” and “qui bono”. Ancient but, quite demonstrably and obviously, quite effective and efficient still. Efficient, because for the investment of introducing a meme, the latter group has the “opponents” at each other’s throats, masking the true issues at play: equal pay for equal work for everybody – and more of it to start with. As long as we allow ourselves to be divided, nothing will change for any of us. As long as we do not object to political activists and demagogues, using and inventing myths and memes, to direct diffuse frustration, stir up dissent, to serve their own self-centered agenda, things will just continue as they have, for millennia. These activists and actors act for a reason and one reason only: to receive attention in a world in which the would otherwise drown in insignificance. Because, for the most part they are too incompetent in any field, which would actually benefit the groups they claim to support. Just talk – no substance. With a unified, compassionate workforce, women, men, and others alike, cooperating with and standing in for each other, instead of competing against each other, no wage paying organization nor any activist would be able to resist the change that is really required: higher wages, reflecting the true value of the effort delivered and adjusted annually, for true inflation of currency. As long as we seem to be unwilling or an able to overcome our own differences, within our group of wage-receiving individuals of all sexes, genders, races, beliefs, heritages and confessions, we will remain at the mercy of those who dictate wage structure and volume. It remains open to philosophical discussion, whether any member or the group as a whole would really be deserving of a unified and fair wage structure, as long as they are unable to overcome their own differences. Hi D. – Thanks for your comment and for reading our blog. You may also be interested in checking out this post on the racialized pay gap, which is based off Census data and touches on the point where you asked for more info about pay gaps amongst various men, for example: https://canadianwomen.org/deficit-worth-worrying-gendered-racialized-wage-gap/ The hope is not to divide folks, but to expose (and ultimately repair) gaps so that we can all experience true equality. The data across the planet is overwhelmingly showing the data being presented by cherry picking biased groups are unfounded. The only way to make it look the way these groups want is to destroy a merit based system and mandate quotas. From first hand knowledge, this will never work and further divide societies. Interesting part of the argument that men don’t take time off for family also rest with the biased hold these groups have on the family courts. Further that makes this movement look bad is the idea that any male that speaks against them must be prosecuted and persecuted. One last point…by far a majority of men believe that woman deserve equal pay for equal work but you risk losing the support when you advocate attacking a man who advocated for higher pay versus a woman that didn’t and send the message that she doesn’t have to put in the effort. Something I never want my daughter to learn. Harvard did a study and the most accurate possible study there was. Time cards, tenure, seniority. And they found the was no wage gap, or rather the wage gap was of women’s own doing. They find that male train and bus drivers worked about 83 percent more overtime than their female colleagues and were twice as likely to accept an overtime shift—which pays time-and-a-half—on short notice and that around twice as many women as men never took overtime. The male workers took 48 percent fewer unpaid hours off under the Family Medical Leave Act each year. Female workers were more likely to take less desirable routes if it meant working fewer nights, weekends, and holidays. Parenthood turns out to be an important factor. Fathers were more likely than childless men to want the extra cash from overtime, and mothers were more likely to want time off than childless women. In the same sense it would be too convoluted to make the statement that “women are paid less than men” to this situation. The solution can’t be as simple as that yet showcase various ”realities” and not showcase the realities of all humans regardless of gender, sex or race. Don’t use men as the scapegoat in 2020. Humans are more complicated than men vs women. I’ve seen far more direct racism, sexism and bigotry in recent years in hypocritical contrasts despite arguments made. Practice what you preach. Perhaps there is a pay gap but it’s definitely not the 75 cents to the dollar. It’s a flawed statistic that does not take into account the types of jobs and amount of hours worked. Men do most of the dangerous and harder labour jobs — truck driving, virtually all trades. If women want to narrow the pay gap they’re going to have to accept labour intensive and cut-up, greased stained sausage fingers. What I don’t like about this debate is that the “myth” side of the issue is supported by statistics and surveys. You can see the differences that choice, career, education, children, age, work hours, locale, and yes, even gender traits, all make. Not to mention the fundamental flaws in how the “averages” are calculated. Any job over X hours is used and the median number is used, most times. That is statistically about as unsound as it gets. It completely throws out all of the factors that actually do describe these sorts of variances. The “not a myth” argument consists of theories and opinions. There is no actual evidence. I don’t think it’s fair to act on what people “feel” to be the problem when that is so subjective and, typically, not universally accepted. Even among most women. I’ve seen many surveys that show that single women in urban areas aged 22-29 make more than men. There is a lot to consider there but it shows that there are definite factors that affect this. It is NOT an average at all. Even this very site describes a 25 cent gap between genders and then, later, notes that “even for women with no kids, the gap is 10 cents”. Even this organization can see, by it’s own admission, that there ARE factors that come into play. It’s not just one number for everybody. Now, do men make more overall, yes. Of course they do. There are lots of reasons why that is. I’m totally willing to have a discussion about that. But to blame chromosomes and use opinions and conspiracy theory to paint an oppressive picture is flatout wrong. The gender pay gap exists to some extent in every country in the world. And you are absolutely correct that there is definitely nuance needed in discussions around the gap. Your point about the average stats not always reflecting everyone’s actual reality is important. Along that same line, we’d also add that the average stats don’t reflect the experiences of women who face multiple forms of discrimination: Essentially, the gender pay gap widens depending on who you are combined with your gender. Your point about young urban women in the 22-29 age range making more than men is valid – at the same time, it’s important to note that that is just a small slice of the population. Also, it is likely that girls experienced pay disparity well before they reached that 22-29 age range, and thus may not be going into that part of their life having already made less than their male counterparts: A recent study showed girls in Canada received an average of $3 less per hour than boys for full-time summer jobs. Another issue comes during and/or after that 22-29 age range: The gender pay gap means that student debt most affects female post-grads. Part of it has to do with the gap itself, and another part has to do with not being able to repay schooling debt during maternity leave: Despite progress, women are still taking on the bulk of the housework and childcare in their partnerships – women are much more likely to take significantly more time than new fathers in order to care for a newborn with fewer than half of fathers taking all the paternity leave on offer after childbirth. So in the long run, women are disadvantaged further financially in that way. Women generally have a longer life expectancy, so the effect of even a small gender pay gap when compounded over a lifespan can be detrimental. Again, there is so much nuance in this discussion, especially as we look at the gender pay gap over a lifetime. Thank you for taking the time to have a productive discussion on this. It’s absolutely critical that we talk to each other about topics like this. I hope you will continue to read our pieces and engage with us. Cheers Todd, -Canadian Women’s Foundation Women who work the same amount of hours in the same job make the same amount of money. Over their lifetime they make less on average because many women choose careers that pay less than careers chosen by many men and they choose to work less hours so that they could spent more time with their children. Read The Myth of Male Power by D.r Warren farrell or books by Jordan Peterson and you will find the evidence about how women getting 75% of the pay of men is a myth. But, this exists at all because men have established the discrimination years ago, when men left business administration and women were hired to take their place. They realized they could relegate women as less capable, responsible, and patronize them. For that they could pay considerably less, 1/3 – 1/2 of what they paid men (and for less work than they had women do because women were much better at it), and take the remainder as profit. In other words, they manipulated women into subsidizing business and as long as no other men who were in official positions did nothing to stop that it has carried on through a couple of centuries with little improvement as the same users, opportunists, are both in business and making laws in the 21st C. And they are equally culpable.	But to blame chromosomes and use opinions and conspiracy theory to paint an oppressive picture is flatout wrong. The gender pay gap exists to some extent in every country in the world. And you are absolutely correct that there is definitely nuance needed in discussions around the gap. Your point about the average stats not always reflecting everyone’s actual reality is important. Along that same line, we’d also add that the average stats don’t reflect the experiences of women who face multiple forms of discrimination: Essentially, the gender pay gap widens depending on who you are combined with your gender. Your point about young urban women in the 22-29 age range making more than men is valid – at the same time, it’s important to note that that is just a small slice of the population. Also, it is likely that girls experienced pay disparity well before they reached that 22-29 age range, and thus may not be going into that part of their life having already made less than their male counterparts: A recent study showed girls in Canada received an average of $3 less per hour than boys for full-time summer jobs. Another issue comes during and/or after that 22-29 age range: The gender pay gap means that student debt most affects female post-grads. Part of it has to do with the gap itself, and another part has to do with not being able to repay schooling debt during maternity leave: Despite progress, women are still taking on the bulk of the housework and childcare in their partnerships – women are much more likely to take significantly more time than new fathers in order to care for a newborn with fewer than half of fathers taking all the paternity leave on offer after childbirth. So in the long run, women are disadvantaged further financially in that way. Women generally have a longer life expectancy, so the effect of even a small gender pay gap when compounded over a lifespan can be detrimental. Again, there is so much nuance in this discussion, especially as we look at the gender pay gap over a lifetime. Thank you for taking the time to have a productive discussion on this.	no
Sociology	Is the Gender Wage Gap a Myth?	yes_statement	the "gender" wage gap is a myth. the "gender" wage gap does not exist	https://concernusa.org/news/gender-pay-gap-myths-facts-progress/	The Gender Pay Gap: Myths, Facts, and Progress \| Concern ...	The Gender Pay Gap: Myths, Facts, and Progress Share In 2022, the gender pay gap remains an issue for every single country in the world — especially nations with higher rates of poverty. The Equal Pay Act, signed into law by John F. Kennedy in 1963, was created in response to a long campaign of protest and agitation against unequal pay in the United States. In a way though, it was just the beginning of an even more complex debate. Arguments over appropriate data and the root causes of continuing pay inequity continue to this day, but one fact is indisputable: In 2021, the gender pay gap remains an issue for every single country in the world. It especially affects nations with higher rates of poverty, and is one of the barriers to ending extreme poverty. In this guide, we go over some of the most common gender pay gap myths, while offering up some concrete facts, and adding some suggestions on what needs to happen to ensure real progress towards gender equality — in salaries and beyond. Stand With Us for Gender Equality First nameFirst name. Last nameLast name. Your emailYour email. Contact me by fax only Fact: Many Popular Statistics About the Gender Pay Gap Are Misleading You may have heard the popular claim that women in the American workplace make $0.78 for every dollar that their male counterparts earn. A survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) confirmed that number as recently as 2015, and comprised data from 3.5 million American families collected between 2009 and 2013. Yet this gap can increase or decrease based on specific details. While the $0.78 figure doesn’t tell the whole story, it still doesn’t mean that the entire concept is flawed. For instance, a CNN investigation of the BLS study revealed that, among elementary and middle school teachers surveyed, women held more than 70% of the jobs but only earned around $0.87 to the dollar compared to their male counterparts. Some of the statistics may be misleading, outdated, or just plain wrong — but using these errors to discredit the existence of the gender pay gap is also misleading. Myth: The Gender Pay Gap Is A Myth As mentioned above, some of the statistics quoted around the gender pay gap are misleading (and in some cases, outdated or just plain inaccurate). However, using these errors as an excuse to discredit the idea of gender disparity in pay is also misleading. The World Economic Forum (WEF), which publishes an annual report on gender equality across sectors, not only considers the actual dollar figures earned by men versus women, but the gap between these salaries based on similar roles. The WEF’s latest report shows a median income gap of 13.5% to 15%. Some UN estimates go as high as 30%. Fact: There Are Disparities Within This Disparity The $0.78 gap applies, broadly, to white American women. However Black and Latina women in the United States make even less ($0.64 and $0.56, respectively, for every dollar). Outside the US,, the gap is wider still. The World Economic Forum’s global average suggests that women only earn $0.54 on the dollar. Other data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggest that a woman’s salary drops by 7% for every child she has, as well as evidence that the inverse is true for men: A father’s salary increases for every child he has. Through Concern’s work with inequality and marginalization, we know that race and ethnic heritage are not the only ways that women lose out. These inequalities are often intersectional, especially when it comes to earning potential. Factors like the number of children they have can keep many women further from the best-case wage gap. Women in sub-Saharan Africa without children, for instance, only make 4% less than their male counterparts. Women with children? 31% less. Workinesh Alto with her sons, Assamimow and Abinet, outside the new family home, built with profits from her agricultural trading business, which she set up in the wake of taking part in REGRADE, a graduation-based program run by Concern in SNNPR, Ethiopia. Myth: The Wage Gap Exists Because Women Choose Lower-Paying Careers True, women are more likely than men to have lower-paying jobs, but this is also a nuanced statistic. Women are more limited than men in terms of livelihood options due to gender discrimination (especially in STEM fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — subjects that women perform well in at school but tend not to follow as careers). Sexual harassment and gendered violence also keep women out of certain workplaces and even whole industries. In countries that rely on agriculture and pastoralism for employment, women are hindered by traditions around land rights. In the words of our activist friend Bono, “They can work the land, but they can’t [expletive] OWN the land.” Also, female farmers often lack access to the same tools, seeds, and other resources as their male colleagues, meaning that their land is less productive. Esime Jenaia, a Lead Farmer for conservation Agriculture, at her plot in Chituke village, Mangochi, Malawi, with neighbor Esnart Kasimu. Concern has been carrying out Conservation Agriculture programming in Malawi since 2012, with the assistance of Accenture Ireland. Photo: Kieran McConville / Concern Worldwide Myth: If Women Are Only Working Part-Time, Then They Should Be Paid Less Many women have no choice but to take a lower-paying job for fewer hours because of the “invisible” labor expected at home: cooking, cleaning, raising children, and being a caretaker to other family members are generally unpaid and undervalued roles that women are more likely to play in a family due to longstanding gender norms. However, WEF data show that women work just as many hours — if not more — than men. The problem is that much of their invisible labor goes unpaid, and unrecognized as essential work. Going by WEF data, men work an average of 7 hours per day, with 6 of those working hours being paid. Conversely, women work approximately 7.5 hours per day, with just 3 of those working hours compensated. Key to changing this situation is recognizing maternal and paternal care as paid, necessary absence from the formal workplace, and for men and women to more evenly split the unpaid hours that go into parenting and running a household. Fact: The Gender Pay Gap Doesn’t Exist In A Vacuum As we mentioned above, the pay gap is one aspect of gender inequality, but there are also pay gaps based on other inequalities and ways in which communities are marginalized. The cycle of poverty is fueled by these inequalities. Closing the wage gap is only one action that must happen in order to finally establish parity and end poverty. Fact: At This Rate, It Will Be Another Century Before We Close the Wage Gap In some countries, progress towards gender pay parity is actually stalling, according to the WEF’s latest report. There is currently no country in the world that has achieved full gender wage parity, even those with the highest marks otherwise in the quest for equity. Year over year, almost 68% of the countries surveyed by WEF have done much to improve their progress, but this work is multifaceted and there’s still a lot to be done. Some of the main steps that can help to achieve equal pay for an equal quality of work include: Ensuring that women can own land and access other assets to run their businesses, including loans and credit Balancing the number of unpaid labor hours between women and men, especially for those raising children Promoting women to leadership roles, including company boards, owners, and top managers, as well as at the policy-making level Working towards greater gender parity in STEM careers Building policies that work towards equal results versus equal opportunities Concern’s Work To Close the Gender Pay Gap All of Concern’s programming, from health and nutrition to emergency response, happens through a gender transformative lens. That means we don’t simply work around existing gender differences or inequalities. Instead, we critically examine and challenge gender norms and dynamics in order to build equity and make greater, more sustainable progress towards ending extreme poverty. Where it makes sense, we also build and strengthen systems to support that level of equality. Harmful gender stereotypes and norms are learned behaviors that, with the right approach, can be unlearned. When we brought the Graduation program to Malawi in 2017, we focused on working with women as the main program participants, but also designed a 12-month curriculum of monthly sessions for women and their husbands or partners called Umodzi (which means “united” in Chichewa). The sessions focused on getting couples to discuss topics such as gender norms, power, decision-making, budgeting, violence, positive parenting, and healthy relationships. By the end of Year 1, couples participating in Umodzi saw an average 10% increase in women participating in major decision-making. Conservation farmer Stawa James and her husband, Robert, in Kwitunji, Malawi. Stawa has used the proceeds from a larger harvest to buy goats, educate and feed her children and build her home. She has also completed Concern’s Graduation Programme and has started a small doughnut business. Photo: Eamon Timmins / Concern Worldwide	Gender Pay Gap Is A Myth As mentioned above, some of the statistics quoted around the gender pay gap are misleading (and in some cases, outdated or just plain inaccurate). However, using these errors as an excuse to discredit the idea of gender disparity in pay is also misleading. The World Economic Forum (WEF), which publishes an annual report on gender equality across sectors, not only considers the actual dollar figures earned by men versus women, but the gap between these salaries based on similar roles. The WEF’s latest report shows a median income gap of 13.5% to 15%. Some UN estimates go as high as 30%. Fact: There Are Disparities Within This Disparity The $0.78 gap applies, broadly, to white American women. However Black and Latina women in the United States make even less ($0.64 and $0.56, respectively, for every dollar). Outside the US,, the gap is wider still. The World Economic Forum’s global average suggests that women only earn $0.54 on the dollar. Other data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggest that a woman’s salary drops by 7% for every child she has, as well as evidence that the inverse is true for men: A father’s salary increases for every child he has. Through Concern’s work with inequality and marginalization, we know that race and ethnic heritage are not the only ways that women lose out. These inequalities are often intersectional, especially when it comes to earning potential. Factors like the number of children they have can keep many women further from the best-case wage gap. Women in sub-Saharan Africa without children, for instance, only make 4% less than their male counterparts. Women with children? 31% less. Workinesh Alto with her sons, Assamimow and Abinet, outside the new family home, built with profits from her agricultural trading business, which she set up in the wake of taking part in REGRADE, a graduation-based program run by Concern in SNNPR, Ethiopia.	no
Sociology	Is the Gender Wage Gap a Myth?	yes_statement	the "gender" wage gap is a myth. the "gender" wage gap does not exist	https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/01/gender-pay-gap-facts/	Gender pay gap remained stable over past 20 years in US \| Pew ...	Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades The gender gap in pay has remained relatively stable in the United States over the past 20 years or so. In 2022, women earned an average of 82% of what men earned, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. These results are similar to where the pay gap stood in 2002, when women earned 80% as much as men. As has long been the case, the wage gap is smaller for workers ages 25 to 34 than for all workers 16 and older. In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned an average of 92 cents for every dollar earned by a man in the same age group – an 8-cent gap. By comparison, the gender pay gap among workers of all ages that year was 18 cents. While the gender pay gap has not changed much in the last two decades, it has narrowed considerably when looking at the longer term, both among all workers ages 16 and older and among those ages 25 to 34. The estimated 18-cent gender pay gap among all workers in 2022 was down from 35 cents in 1982. And the 8-cent gap among workers ages 25 to 34 in 2022 was down from a 26-cent gap four decades earlier. How we did this The gender pay gap measures the difference in median hourly earnings between men and women who work full or part time in the United States. Pew Research Center’s estimate of the pay gap is based on an analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS) monthly outgoing rotation group files (IPUMS) from January 1982 to December 2022, combined to create annual files. To understand how we calculate the gender pay gap, read our 2013 post, “How Pew Research Center measured the gender pay gap.” The COVID-19 outbreak affected data collection efforts by the U.S. government in its surveys, especially in 2020 and 2021, limiting in-person data collection and affecting response rates. It is possible that some measures of economic outcomes and how they vary across demographic groups are affected by these changes in data collection. In addition to findings about the gender wage gap, this analysis includes information from a Pew Research Center survey about the perceived reasons for the pay gap, as well as the pressures and career goals of U.S. men and women. The survey was conducted among 5,098 adults and includes a subset of questions asked only for 2,048 adults who are employed part time or full time, from Oct. 10-16, 2022. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology. The U.S. Census Bureau has also analyzed the gender pay gap, though its analysis looks only at full-time workers (as opposed to full- and part-time workers). In 2021, full-time, year-round working women earned 84% of what their male counterparts earned, on average, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent analysis. Much of the gender pay gap has been explained by measurable factors such as educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience. The narrowing of the gap over the long term is attributable in large part to gains women have made in each of these dimensions. Even though women have increased their presence in higher-paying jobs traditionally dominated by men, such as professional and managerial positions, women as a whole continue to be overrepresented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce. This may contribute to gender differences in pay. Other factors that are difficult to measure, including gender discrimination, may also contribute to the ongoing wage discrepancy. Perceived reasons for the gender wage gap When asked about the factors that may play a role in the gender wage gap, half of U.S. adults point to women being treated differently by employers as a major reason, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2022. Smaller shares point to women making different choices about how to balance work and family (42%) and working in jobs that pay less (34%). There are some notable differences between men and women in views of what’s behind the gender wage gap. Women are much more likely than men (61% vs. 37%) to say a major reason for the gap is that employers treat women differently. And while 45% of women say a major factor is that women make different choices about how to balance work and family, men are slightly less likely to hold that view (40% say this). Parents with children younger than 18 in the household are more likely than those who don’t have young kids at home (48% vs. 40%) to say a major reason for the pay gap is the choices that women make about how to balance family and work. On this question, differences by parental status are evident among both men and women. Views about reasons for the gender wage gap also differ by party. About two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (68%) say a major factor behind wage differences is that employers treat women differently, but far fewer Republicans and Republican leaners (30%) say the same. Conversely, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say women’s choices about how to balance family and work (50% vs. 36%) and their tendency to work in jobs that pay less (39% vs. 30%) are major reasons why women earn less than men. Democratic and Republican women are more likely than their male counterparts in the same party to say a major reason for the gender wage gap is that employers treat women differently. About three-quarters of Democratic women (76%) say this, compared with 59% of Democratic men. And while 43% of Republican women say unequal treatment by employers is a major reason for the gender wage gap, just 18% of GOP men share that view. Employed women and men are about equally likely to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially and to be successful in their jobs and careers, according to the Center’s October survey. But women, and particularly working mothers, are more likely than men to say they feel a great deal of pressure to focus on responsibilities at home. About half of employed women (48%) report feeling a great deal of pressure to focus on their responsibilities at home, compared with 35% of employed men. Among working mothers with children younger than 18 in the household, two-thirds (67%) say the same, compared with 45% of working dads. When it comes to supporting their family financially, similar shares of working moms and dads (57% vs. 62%) report they feel a great deal of pressure, but this is driven mainly by the large share of unmarried working mothers who say they feel a great deal of pressure in this regard (77%). Among those who are married, working dads are far more likely than working moms (60% vs. 43%) to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially. (There were not enough unmarried working fathers in the sample to analyze separately.) About four-in-ten working parents say they feel a great deal of pressure to be successful at their job or career. These findings don’t differ by gender. Gender differences in job roles, aspirations Overall, a quarter of employed U.S. adults say they are currently the boss or one of the top managers where they work, according to the Center’s survey. Another 33% say they are not currently the boss but would like to be in the future, while 41% are not and do not aspire to be the boss or one of the top managers. Men are more likely than women to be a boss or a top manager where they work (28% vs. 21%). This is especially the case among employed fathers, 35% of whom say they are the boss or one of the top managers where they work. (The varying attitudes between fathers and men without children at least partly reflect differences in marital status and educational attainment between the two groups.) In addition to being less likely than men to say they are currently the boss or a top manager at work, women are also more likely to say they wouldn’t want to be in this type of position in the future. More than four-in-ten employed women (46%) say this, compared with 37% of men. Similar shares of men (35%) and women (31%) say they are not currently the boss but would like to be one day. These patterns are similar among parents. Note: This is an update of a post originally published on March 22, 2019. Anna Brown and former Pew Research Center writer/editor Amanda Barroso contributed to an earlier version of this analysis. Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology. What is the gender wage gap in your metropolitan area? Find out with our pay gap calculator About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.	In 2021, full-time, year-round working women earned 84% of what their male counterparts earned, on average, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent analysis. Much of the gender pay gap has been explained by measurable factors such as educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience. The narrowing of the gap over the long term is attributable in large part to gains women have made in each of these dimensions. Even though women have increased their presence in higher-paying jobs traditionally dominated by men, such as professional and managerial positions, women as a whole continue to be overrepresented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce. This may contribute to gender differences in pay. Other factors that are difficult to measure, including gender discrimination, may also contribute to the ongoing wage discrepancy. Perceived reasons for the gender wage gap When asked about the factors that may play a role in the gender wage gap, half of U.S. adults point to women being treated differently by employers as a major reason, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2022. Smaller shares point to women making different choices about how to balance work and family (42%) and working in jobs that pay less (34%). There are some notable differences between men and women in views of what’s behind the gender wage gap. Women are much more likely than men (61% vs. 37%) to say a major reason for the gap is that employers treat women differently. And while 45% of women say a major factor is that women make different choices about how to balance work and family, men are slightly less likely to hold that view (40% say this). Parents with children younger than 18 in the household are more likely than those who don’t have young kids at home (48% vs. 40%) to say a major reason for the pay gap is the choices that women make about how to balance family and work. On this question, differences by parental status are evident among both men and women.	no
Sociology	Is the Gender Wage Gap a Myth?	yes_statement	the "gender" wage gap is a myth. the "gender" wage gap does not exist	https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/04/46percent-of-american-men-think-the-gender-pay-gap-is-made-up.html	46% of American men think the gender pay gap is made up	46% of American men think the gender pay gap is 'made up to serve a political purpose' Data from the U.S. Census Bureau demonstrates that women earn, on average, 81 cents for every dollar a man makes. But almost four in 10 Americans think the gender wage gap isn't real. Instead, 46 percent of men and 30 percent of women believe the problem of equal pay and gender parity has been "made up to serve a political purpose" and is not a "legitimate issue," according to a survey of 8,566 American adults conducted in March by SurveyMonkey. Media coverage of the topic doesn't seem to help convince them of the issue's legitimacy either. More than a quarter of Americans felt reports of the pay gap were "overblown," while another 16 percent chose to describe it as "fake news." Men were not only more likely to doubt the issue's existence, but were also more skeptical of media reports, with 21 percent saying such coverage was "fake" vs. 12 percent of women. Maybe more men felt that way because, in their eyes, many of the problems behind the gender wage gap have already been addressed. For instance, 43 percent of men said there is no difference by gender in compensation for performing similar work. Women, on the other hand, appear to feel differently — only a quarter agreed both genders were evenly paid. Men were also more likely to believe that obstacles that once made it difficult for women to advance are now largely gone. Almost 60 percent said this, compared to 36 percent of women. And when each gender was asked what causes may behind the Census Bureau's wage gap finding, more men pointed to reasons such as "women are generally in careers that don't pay as much" and "women work fewer hours than men." More women believed unconscious bias, sexism, and a lack of women in leadership positions was to blame. Understanding the gap Part of this disbelief in the pay gap, and in media reports of it, may stem from confusion over how the gender wage gap is presented and discussed. Depending on how economists or analysts control for factors like job title, location, industry, educational attainment, company-size, work experience, and age, different size wage gaps emerge. An example of this can be seen in a new report from jobs site Glassdoor. When the company looked at more than 425,000 salaries shared by full-time U.S. employees on its site, it found that women earn 21.4 percent less than men, on average. But when Glassdoor compared workers of similar age, education and experience, the adjusted gap shrank slightly, to 19.1 percent. And when it refined that comparison further to include only workers who also had the same job title and similar employers and locations, the gap fell to 4.9 percent. This indicates that men and women's industry segregation, or tendency to pursue or be accepted into occupations that pay differently, is the largest driver of the gender pay gap, accounting for about 56.5 percent of the overall unadjusted pay gap. But it also means not all of the 21.4 percent unadjusted wage gap Glassdoor found can be explained by reasons like job type, industry, education or other factors. In fact, only 13.8 percent of the gap can be explained by differences between male and female workers, the remaining 7.6 percent is likely due to "gender bias," Glassdoor concludes. Closing the gap Given the disbelief in the existence of the wage gap by such a large percentage of the population, it's no wonder legislative and industry efforts to address the issue have met with slow progress and it will be, at least, another 50 years before men and women achieve economic equality in the U.S., according to one estimate by Glassdoor. The issue is also considered by some to be a partisan one "made up for political reasons" because Democrats have traditionally been more aggressive in pushing governments bills aimed at fixing the gender wage gap. Their latest effort, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which passed the House of Representatives on March 27, aims to strengthen equal pay protections by banning employers from asking job applicants how much they previously made, prohibiting companies from retaliating against workers who share wage information, and increasing penalties for equal pay violations. It would also require companies to share with the Department of Labor how much they're paying employees and demonstrate that any salary differences are based on factors other than sex, such as education or experience. More than half of Americans support government involvement in the issue, saying they feel it should be doing more. Almost 70 percent of women felt this way, vs. 41 percent of men. But Americans were generally divided on exactly what steps they wanted new legislation passed by the government to take. Just over half of Americans think requiring companies to share gender and pay information to the government or the general public would be helpful. A similar number, 52 percent, said banning employers from asking applicants about previous salaries would also help. (On all three counts, women were more likely than men to find merit in the proposals.) Research backs such beliefs up, showing that transparency can be a powerful leveler because it allows workers in similar roles to see if they're underpaid and provides a clearer idea of the true value of their skills to their employer. A recent study from the Harvard Business Review found that when legislation requires companies to disclose gender pay disparities, the pay gap shrinks and more women are hired and promoted to senior roles. The study also notes, however, that pay didn't become more equitable because women's wages rose, rather male wage growth slowed. Seven states, Puerto Rico, and several cities have all already passed legislation forbidding employers from inquiring about a person's previous salary in an effort to close the wage gap, believing that will force companies to base a job offer not off a person's current wages, but instead on the going market rate of that individual's skills and talents. Clear research supporting this logic is harder to come by. One survey found that nearly two-thirds of chief human resource officers and other corporate executives don't believe such a restriction improves pay equity. And a 2017 PayScale study found that when women were asked about their salary history and refused to disclose it, they were offered 1.8 percent less than woman who had opted to share it. Men, on the other hand, received 1.2 percent more for refusing. PayScale reasoned this was because employers tend to assume women who don't want to give a number earn less. But a ban would prevent employers from even asking, meaning women wouldn't be penalized for declining to disclose. Though, employers may continue to underestimate their prior compensation, regardless.	46% of American men think the gender pay gap is 'made up to serve a political purpose' Data from the U.S. Census Bureau demonstrates that women earn, on average, 81 cents for every dollar a man makes. But almost four in 10 Americans think the gender wage gap isn't real. Instead, 46 percent of men and 30 percent of women believe the problem of equal pay and gender parity has been "made up to serve a political purpose" and is not a "legitimate issue," according to a survey of 8,566 American adults conducted in March by SurveyMonkey. Media coverage of the topic doesn't seem to help convince them of the issue's legitimacy either. More than a quarter of Americans felt reports of the pay gap were "overblown," while another 16 percent chose to describe it as "fake news. " Men were not only more likely to doubt the issue's existence, but were also more skeptical of media reports, with 21 percent saying such coverage was "fake" vs. 12 percent of women. Maybe more men felt that way because, in their eyes, many of the problems behind the gender wage gap have already been addressed. For instance, 43 percent of men said there is no difference by gender in compensation for performing similar work. Women, on the other hand, appear to feel differently — only a quarter agreed both genders were evenly paid. Men were also more likely to believe that obstacles that once made it difficult for women to advance are now largely gone. Almost 60 percent said this, compared to 36 percent of women. And when each gender was asked what causes may behind the Census Bureau's wage gap finding, more men pointed to reasons such as "women are generally in careers that don't pay as much" and "women work fewer hours than men. " More women believed unconscious bias, sexism, and a lack of women in leadership positions was to blame. Understanding the gap Part of this disbelief in the pay gap, and in media reports of it, may stem from confusion over how the gender wage gap is presented and discussed.	no
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	yes_statement	the "giant" panda is still "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the status of the "giant" panda as an "endangered" "species" remains unchanged.	https://www.iucn.org/content/seventy-five-percent-bear-species-threatened-extinction	Seventy-five percent of bear species threatened with extinction \| IUCN	Language Seventy-five percent of bear species threatened with extinction Six out of the world’s eight species of bears are threatened with extinction, according to recent assessments by the IUCN Bear and Polar Bear Specialist Groups. Asia and South America are revealed as the areas most in need of urgent conservation action Photo: David Garshelis The world’s smallest species of bear, the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus), has been classed as Vulnerable, while the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) remains in the Endangered category on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The sun bear’s new status has been accepted for inclusion in the 2007 IUCN Red List. The sun bear lives in mainland Southeast Asia, Sumatra and Borneo and was previously listed as Data Deficient, meaning that not enough was known about the species to give it a status on the IUCN Red List. Rob Steinmetz, co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group’s sun bear expert team, said: “Although we still have lot to learn about the biology and ecology of this species, we are quite certain that it is in trouble. We estimate that sun bears have declined by at least 30% over the past 30 years (three bear generations), and continue to decline at this rate. “Deforestation has reduced both the area and quality of their habitat. Where habitat is now protected, commercial poaching remains a significant threat. We are working with governments, protected area managers, conservation groups and local people to prevent extinctions of the many small, isolated sun bear populations that remain in many parts of Southeast Asia.” The only bear presently considered Endangered is the giant panda. That status remains unchanged despite enormous efforts in China directed towards its conservation, including the establishment of nearly 60 panda reserves, a ban on logging, and widespread reforestation programmes. Dave Garshelis, co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group, said: “Quite a bit is now known about the ecology of giant pandasand substantial work and expense has been aimed at trying to estimate total numbers of these animals. However, these estimates are imprecise and prone to significant error. “Even though some people have claimed that panda populations are on the rise, we still consider them Endangered because too much uncertainty exists to justify changing their status to Vulnerable. It would be unwise to assume that in less than 10 years under the new habitat improvement policies in China that panda populations could have dramatically increased.” Although hunting bears is illegal throughout Southern Asia, bears suffer heavy losses from poachers, who risk the small chance of being caught against lucrative gains from selling parts. Bile from the bear’s gall bladder is used in traditional Chinese medicine and their paws are consumed as a delicacy. Additionally, bears are often killed when they prey on livestock or raid agricultural crops. Bears simply roaming near a village may be killed because they are perceived as a threat to human safety. Dave Garshelis said: “Although we do not have any reliable population estimates for the sun bear, or any of the other Asian bears for that matter, we fear that bears in Southeast Asia are declining at a particularly rapid rate due to extensive loss of forest habitat combined with rampant poaching.” The Bear Specialist Group concluded a meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, on November 10 and has updated the status of the seven species of terrestrial bears. Vulnerable species include Asiatic black bears and sloth bears, both inhabitants of Asia, and Andean bears (formerly called spectacled bears) from the Andes Mountains of South America. Sloth bears live on the Indian subcontinent, where habitat loss has been severe. They have found sanctuary mainly in reserves set up to protect tigers. The IUCN Bear Specialist Group indicated that this species might have disappeared entirely from Bangladesh during the past decade. Brown bears, the most widespread ursid, are not listed as threatened globally because large numbers still inhabit Russia, Canada, Alaska and some parts of Europe. Nevertheless, very small, isolated, and highly vulnerable populations exist in southern Europe and central and southern Asia. Several brown bear populations are protected under national or provincial laws. Grizzly bears – brown bears living in interior North America – are considered Threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act outside of Alaska. In 2006, the polar bear was listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Technically a marine mammal, the polar bear is distinct from the other seven terrestrial bears and has a different specialist group. Among the eight species of bears, only the American black bear is secure throughout its range, which encompasses Canada, the United States and Mexico. At 900,000 strong, there are more than twice as many American black bears than all the other species of bears combined. They are legally hunted in most parts of their range. Bruce McLellan, co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group, said: “An enormous amount of effort and funding for conservation and management continue to be directed at bears in North America where their status is relatively favorable. It is unfortunate that so little is directed at bears in Asia and South America where the need is extreme. We are trying to change this situation but success is slow.” IUCN Red List of Threatened Species – Conservation status of the world’s bears The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies species according to their extinction risk. It is a searchable online database containing the global status and supporting information on more than 41,000 species. Its primary goal is to identify and document the species most in need of conservation attention and provide an index of the state of biodiversity. The IUCN Red List threat categories are the following, in descending order of threat: Extinct or Extinct in the Wild; Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable: species threatened with global extinction; Near Threatened: species close to the threatened thresholds or that would be threatened without ongoing specific conservation measures; Least Concern: species evaluated with a low risk of extinction; Data Deficient: no evaluation because of insufficient data. Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct): This is not a new Red List category, but is a flag developed to identify those Critically Endangered species that are in all probability already Extinct but for which confirmation is required (for example, through more extensive surveys being carried out and failing to find any individuals). The total number of species on the planet is unknown; estimates vary between 10 - 100 million, with 15 million species being the most widely accepted figure. 1.7 - 1.8 million species are known today. About The World Conservation (IUCN) Created in 1948, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) brings together 84 States, 108 government agencies, 800 plus NGOs, and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 147 countries in a unique worldwide partnership. The Union’s mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable. The Union is the world's largest environmental knowledge network and has helped over 75 countries to prepare and implement national conservation and biodiversity strategies. The Union is a multicultural, multilingual organization with 1,000 staff located in 62 countries. Its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. About the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) and Species Programme The Species Survival Commission (SSC) is the largest of IUCN’s six volunteer commissions with a global membership of 7,000 experts. SSC advises IUCN and its members on the wide range of technical and scientific aspects of species conservation and is dedicated to securing a future for biodiversity. SSC has significant input into the international agreements dealing with biodiversity conservation. Web The IUCN Species Programme supports the activities of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and individual Specialist Groups, as well as implementing global species conservation initiatives. It is an integral part of the IUCN Secretariat and is managed from IUCN’s international headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. The Species Programme includes a number of technical units covering Species Trade and Use, the Red List Unit, Freshwater Biodiversity Assessments Unit, (all located in Cambridge, UK), and the Global Biodiversity Assessment Unit (located in Washington DC, USA).	Language Seventy-five percent of bear species threatened with extinction Six out of the world’s eight species of bears are threatened with extinction, according to recent assessments by the IUCN Bear and Polar Bear Specialist Groups. Asia and South America are revealed as the areas most in need of urgent conservation action Photo: David Garshelis The world’s smallest species of bear, the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus), has been classed as Vulnerable, while the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) remains in the Endangered category on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The sun bear’s new status has been accepted for inclusion in the 2007 IUCN Red List. The sun bear lives in mainland Southeast Asia, Sumatra and Borneo and was previously listed as Data Deficient, meaning that not enough was known about the species to give it a status on the IUCN Red List. Rob Steinmetz, co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group’s sun bear expert team, said: “Although we still have lot to learn about the biology and ecology of this species, we are quite certain that it is in trouble. We estimate that sun bears have declined by at least 30% over the past 30 years (three bear generations), and continue to decline at this rate. “Deforestation has reduced both the area and quality of their habitat. Where habitat is now protected, commercial poaching remains a significant threat. We are working with governments, protected area managers, conservation groups and local people to prevent extinctions of the many small, isolated sun bear populations that remain in many parts of Southeast Asia.” The only bear presently considered Endangered is the giant panda. That status remains unchanged despite enormous efforts in China directed towards its conservation, including the establishment of nearly 60 panda reserves, a ban on logging, and widespread reforestation programmes. Dave Garshelis, co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group, said: “Quite a bit is now known about the ecology of giant pandasand substantial work and expense has been aimed at trying to estimate total numbers of these animals.	yes
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	yes_statement	the "giant" panda is still "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the status of the "giant" panda as an "endangered" "species" remains unchanged.	https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/giant-pandas-no-longer-endangered-china-says/	Giant pandas no longer endangered, China says \| Article \| Kids News	Giant pandas no longer endangered, China says Bear species classified as vulnerable You asked for more good news on CBCKidsNews.ca and we delivered. We hope this makes you smile today! Is there a #goodnews story you think we should be covering? Email [email protected]. What animal do you think of when you hear the term endangered species? If you answered the panda, you’re not alone. The iconic black and white bear native to China is a symbol of conservation for many people, even serving as the logo for the World Wildlife Fund since 1961. In July, Chinese officials announced that giant pandas are no longer considered endangered — just vulnerable. This is good news for pandas, but the bear species is still at risk. China’s classification now matches IUCN This announcement comes five years after the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) changed the giant panda’s status from endangered to vulnerable. The IUCN manages the Red List of Threatened Species, which is considered to be the world’s most comprehensive list of species facing extinction. Liang Liang the panda (right) lives in a zoo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She has had three cubs. Conservation experts say it’s rare for a panda in captivity to have so many cubs. Nuan Nuan (left) is her first born, pictured back in 2016. (Image credit: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images) (Image credit: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images) The IUCN officially classified giant pandas as endangered in 1990, when the panda population was just 1,114 individuals. In 2016, the population was thought to be around 1,184 individuals. That’s when the IUCN bumped the status of the species up to vulnerable. China disagreed with the reclassification. At the time, Chinese officials said they feared that the vulnerable status would make people think the panda wasn’t still in danger, possibly hurting conservation efforts. Why did China change the panda’s status to vulnerable now? As of Jan. 3, there were 633 pandas in captive breeding programs around the world, according to Chinese officials. That’s double the number from 2016. Captive breeding is when pandas are kept in zoos and sanctuaries while humans try to help them have more panda cubs to increase population numbers. According to the IUCN, the most recent population survey estimates that panda numbers are resting at around 2,060 individuals. This new reclassification is “another sign of hope” for pandas, said Colby Loucks, the vice-president for wildlife conservation at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The World Wildlife Fund’s logo, left, was inspired by a panda named Chi-Chi, right, which founders of the organization saw on a visit to the London Zoo. According to a WWF spokesperson, the founders chose the panda because it was a strong symbol for conservation. (Image credit: Gregor Fischer/DPA/AFP/via Getty Images, William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Getty Images) Why were giant pandas endangered in the first place? Panda populations started to go down in the early 20th century because of hunting and habitat loss. Different groups of pandas were split apart and became isolated from each other because humans cleared the bamboo forests where pandas lived to build roads, buildings and farms. According to the WWF, a panda’s daily diet is almost entirely made up of bamboo. Most bear species are omnivores, meaning they eat meat and plants. The pandas' mostly vegan diet was long thought to be an evolutionary mistake, but a study published in 2019 by a Chinese conservation biologist found that their bamboo diet was as rich in protein as that of meat-eating animals like wolves. (Image credit: Teh Eng Koon/AFP/Getty Images) Being separated made it harder for the bears to find mates, causing a drop in the number of cubs being born. Plus, the loss of bamboo forests made it more difficult for pandas to find food. Thirty years of effort It’s taken 30 years of dedicated, long-term conservation efforts to get the species back on track. Those efforts include captive breeding programs, restoring panda habitat and the creation of 50 giant panda reserves in China. Many experts agree that the hard work has paid off. Vulnerable doesn’t mean the panda is totally safe Unfortunately, even though being “vulnerable” is better than being “endangered,” pandas are still at risk of going extinct. According to the IUCN, at least 35 per cent of the panda’s bamboo habitat could be lost in the next 80 years because of climate change. Plus, many pandas still live on land that is at risk of being destroyed by deforestation. Some experts say that the Chinese government should focus more on restoring and protecting wild habitats and less on captive breeding. Three-year-old panda Hua Yan was released into the wild at the Liziping National Nature Reserve in China in 2016. Hua Yan was sent out alongside another panda named Zhang Meng as part of a program to improve the wild panda population. It was the first time two pandas were released at the same time. (Image credit: Zhang Jian/Chengdu Economic Daily/VCG via Getty Images) The panda is a successful case Although panda populations remain vulnerable, there is reason for optimism. “China’s successful conservation of giant pandas shows what can be achieved when political will and science join forces,” the WWF said in a statement on July 9. If that kind of co-operation continues, there could be more good news on the horizon for the species. About the Contributor Quinn Murphy lives in Vancouver, B.C., with her parents, sisters and dog, Massi. She loves to spend her days photographing and writing about animals. One day she hopes to make a difference in wildlife conservation.	Giant pandas no longer endangered, China says Bear species classified as vulnerable You asked for more good news on CBCKidsNews.ca and we delivered. We hope this makes you smile today! Is there a #goodnews story you think we should be covering? Email [email protected]. What animal do you think of when you hear the term endangered species? If you answered the panda, you’re not alone. The iconic black and white bear native to China is a symbol of conservation for many people, even serving as the logo for the World Wildlife Fund since 1961. In July, Chinese officials announced that giant pandas are no longer considered endangered — just vulnerable. This is good news for pandas, but the bear species is still at risk. China’s classification now matches IUCN This announcement comes five years after the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) changed the giant panda’s status from endangered to vulnerable. The IUCN manages the Red List of Threatened Species, which is considered to be the world’s most comprehensive list of species facing extinction. Liang Liang the panda (right) lives in a zoo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She has had three cubs. Conservation experts say it’s rare for a panda in captivity to have so many cubs. Nuan Nuan (left) is her first born, pictured back in 2016. (Image credit: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images) (Image credit: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images) The IUCN officially classified giant pandas as endangered in 1990, when the panda population was just 1,114 individuals. In 2016, the population was thought to be around 1,184 individuals. That’s when the IUCN bumped the status of the species up to vulnerable. China disagreed with the reclassification. At the time, Chinese officials said they feared that the vulnerable status would make people think the panda wasn’t still in danger, possibly hurting conservation efforts.	no
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	yes_statement	the "giant" panda is still "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the status of the "giant" panda as an "endangered" "species" remains unchanged.	https://therevelator.org/giant-pandas-still-endangered/	Don't Believe the Hype: Giant Pandas Are Still Endangered • The ...	In September 2016 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature made a huge announcement: the giant panda, previously listed as an endangered species, had been downgraded from endangered to vulnerable. This news, covered by media around the world, was based in part on 2015 data presented by the Chinese State Forestry Administration that panda populations had risen to an estimated 1,864 wild individuals. While this action was lauded as an example of bringing a conservation icon back from the brink of extinction, we argue that the downlisting was premature and ill-advised. Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) now occupy only small fragments of their historic range, fragments left in the wake of human population expansion, attendant land-use change and road construction. Other threats include natural disasters such as earthquakes and landslides and ongoing climatic change, which is shifting the range of pandas’ preferred bamboo species, accelerating the flowering and aging of bamboo and simultaneously enhancing outbreaks of herbivorous insects. Indeed, wild pandas now are isolated only on six mountains in Gansu, Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces. Habitat fragmentation stresses giant panda populations by limiting their movement. Major highways and railways crisscross southwest China and limit movement of pandas from one forest fragment to another. Fragmentation presents lethal challenges after bamboo plants flower — this monocarpic perennial plant dies after the one time in its life that it flowers and sets seed — because pandas cannot move easily from one isolated area to another. For example, 250 giant pandas starved to death following a widespread flowering episode that occurred between 1975 and 1983 in Pingwu and Nanping counties of Sichuan Province. Subsequently, the total numbers of giant pandas in China declined by more than 50 percent, from approximately 2,000 individuals in 1976 to about 1,000 less than a decade later. Thirty years later, the total number of wild pandas remaining still hasn’t fully recovered. At the same time that wild panda populations are increasingly isolated from one another, their popularity with “ecotourists” is increasing unabated, facilitated by road construction into previously remote areas where wildlife is concentrated and easier to observe. Visitor numbers to the Foping Natural Reserve area in Shaanxi Province increased 40-fold after 2005 when a road was opened into this reserve set aside for the panda. Similarly, visitors to the Tangjiahe Natural Reserve in Sichuan Province increased from about 75,000 in 2011 to 110,000 in 2015. Noise produced by tourists and cars directly impacts the health of the giant panda. Research has shown that concentrations of cortisol in panda fecal samples, which are correlated with stress levels, increase in parallel with the numbers of tourists. Other effects of ecological tourism include transmission of infectious diseases. In 2015 there was an outbreak of canine distemper virus — spread by domestic dogs — at the Shaanxi Wild Animal Research Center. Although the virus was eventually contained, several adult female giant pandas were killed. Complicating matters is a little-known fact: There are actually two recognized subspecies of giant pandas, the more common Sichuan subspecies and the much rarer Qinling subspecies. Fewer than 350 Qinling pandas, which diverged from the Sichuan subspecies more than 50,000 years ago, remain alive today in small, remote habitat fragments. Ongoing efforts to restore both Qinling and Sichuan panda populations are reliant on captive-breeding programs, and all but one of the breeding centers focus on breeding Sichuan pandas (or hybrid Sichuan-Qinling pandas). Only the Shaanxi center focuses exclusively on Qinling panda breeding. A recent evaluation of the captive-breeding program revealed that genetic diversity of captive-bred pandas is quite low, because fewer than 10 individuals account for 50 percent of the current captive-panda gene pool. And breeding centers may not be the safe refuges we think they are, either. Our research has revealed that captive pandas are exposed to high concentrations of toxic chemicals, including PCDDs (polychlorinated didenzo-p-dioxins), PCDFs (polychlorinated dibenzofurans), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), PBDE (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) and heavy metals. These toxicants, ultimately derived from atmospheric emissions associated with rapid industrialization and urbanization, concentrate in the soil and bioaccumulate in bamboo and feedstuff manufactured for captive pandas. Exposure of Qinling pandas to these toxicants, both through their food and in the air they breathe, is associated with liver, kidney and reproductive impairment in captive pandas. These threats to panda health were not considered in the decision to downgrade the panda’s status from endangered to threatened. It’s a long-term, arduous task to conserve the giant panda, and the 2016 decision by the IUCN to downgrade its conservation status from endangered to vulnerable appears to us to be ill-considered and premature. Successful protection of this conservation icon needs to evaluate the success of captive breeding programs not only relative to persistent failures to reintroduce it into the wild but also relative to ongoing and increasing external threats, including habitat fragmentation, mismanagement of ecotourism, interactions with domestic animals and the diseases they carry, atmospheric deposition and bioaccumulation of toxicants and heavy metals, and climatic change. In short, the giant panda is still an endangered species, and protection effort and enthusiasm from the global conservation community should be strengthened continuously. Otherwise we’ll once again witness the truth of the Chinese proverb: The lack of one basketful of earth will spoil the entire effort to build a nine-ren mountain. is the Senior Research Fellow in Ecology at Harvard University, and a semi-professional photographer and writer. He studies the disintegration and reassembly of ecosystems following natural and anthropogenic disturbances; thinks about the relationship between the Dao and the intermediate disturbance hypothesis; reflects on the critical and reactionary stance of Ecology relative to Modernism, and blogs as The Unbalanced Ecologist. On weekends, he works wood. is a Research Professor of Environmental Biology at the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, China. Professor Chen earned his PhD in Ecology from Chinese Northwest University in 2004, and he has been a Senior Research Fellow at Manchester University (UK) and at Harvard University. His research focuses on responses and adaptation of organisms to environmental change; and bioremediation technology. He is an editor of the international journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research, and editor-in-chief of the Chinese Journal of Earth Environment. He has published widely in many international journals, including Nature Geoscience and Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.	In September 2016 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature made a huge announcement: the giant panda, previously listed as an endangered species, had been downgraded from endangered to vulnerable. This news, covered by media around the world, was based in part on 2015 data presented by the Chinese State Forestry Administration that panda populations had risen to an estimated 1,864 wild individuals. While this action was lauded as an example of bringing a conservation icon back from the brink of extinction, we argue that the downlisting was premature and ill-advised. Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) now occupy only small fragments of their historic range, fragments left in the wake of human population expansion, attendant land-use change and road construction. Other threats include natural disasters such as earthquakes and landslides and ongoing climatic change, which is shifting the range of pandas’ preferred bamboo species, accelerating the flowering and aging of bamboo and simultaneously enhancing outbreaks of herbivorous insects. Indeed, wild pandas now are isolated only on six mountains in Gansu, Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces. Habitat fragmentation stresses giant panda populations by limiting their movement. Major highways and railways crisscross southwest China and limit movement of pandas from one forest fragment to another. Fragmentation presents lethal challenges after bamboo plants flower — this monocarpic perennial plant dies after the one time in its life that it flowers and sets seed — because pandas cannot move easily from one isolated area to another. For example, 250 giant pandas starved to death following a widespread flowering episode that occurred between 1975 and 1983 in Pingwu and Nanping counties of Sichuan Province. Subsequently, the total numbers of giant pandas in China declined by more than 50 percent, from approximately 2,000 individuals in 1976 to about 1,000 less than a decade later. Thirty years later, the total number of wild pandas remaining still hasn’t fully recovered.	no
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	yes_statement	the "giant" panda is still "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the status of the "giant" panda as an "endangered" "species" remains unchanged.	https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/04/eastern-gorilla-critically-endangered-illegal-hunting-iucn-red-list	Eastern gorilla now critically endangered while giant panda situation ...	Humanity has moved a step closer to wiping out our closest evolutionary relatives, with four of the six great ape species now listed internationally as critically endangered. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the eastern gorilla, the largest living primate, as critically endangered in its latest “red list” of threatened species. The eastern gorilla has suffered a 70% population collapse over the past 20 years, primarily due to illegal hunting. The parlous state of eastern gorillas is matched by three of the other great ape species already listed as critically endangered, a classification that is just one rung above extinction. The western gorilla, the Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan are classed as critically endangered. Chimpanzees and bonobos are deemed endangered. “We are driving our closest living relatives to extinction, which is sickening,” said Dr M Sanjanyan, vice-president at Conservation International. A baby gorilla with its mother. Mountain gorilla numbers have rallied in recent years, but just 800 remain in the wild. Photograph: Paul Souders/Getty Images “If we can protect our large primary forests and make local and indigenous people the beneficiaries of that, we’ll continue to share the world with great apes. If we don’t, we’re done. We’ll have a few relics left but, ecologically speaking, the great apes will be gone.” The eastern gorilla, or Gorilla beringei, is composed of two subspecies – mountain gorillas and Grauer’s gorilla – found in pockets of rainforest in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). While mountain gorilla numbers have rallied in recent years, just 800 of them remain. There are approximately 3,800 Grauer’s gorillas, down from about 20,000 in the 1980s. The Rwandan civil war of the early 1990s “hammered” Grauer’s gorilla numbers, according to John Robinson, a primatologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Refugees moved into the ape’s heartland in the Kahuzi-Biéga national park, in the eastern DRC, set up small-time mining operations and turned to the gorillas as a source of meat. Civil unrest has also led to the illegal poaching of mountain gorillas. While hunting and habitat disturbance have diminished apes in Africa, their counterparts in Indonesia and Malaysia have suffered from the cultivation of palm oil, which is used in many common food and cosmetic products. Indonesia has the most rapid deforestation rate in the world, leaving many orangutans dead, orphaned or captured by farmers. “We are fighting on many fronts to save the apes,” said Robinson. “We are by far the most successful of the great apes and have pushed our cousins right up against the wall. We came out of the forest and converted those forests into other areas. Apes’ habitat preferences make it difficult for them to live in a human-dominated world. A Sumatran orangutan with its baby. The cultivation of palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia has left many orangutans dead, orphaned or captured by farmers. Photograph: Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images “The idea of losing great apes is so difficult to comprehend that when push comes to shove I think we will invest resources into conserving them. But they really are down to the wire.” Jane Goodall, the renowned primatologist, said that apes are facing huge problems around the world and blamed corrupt governments and the interests of big business for their plight. “Unfortunately, the progress we are making is on greater awareness – overall the numbers [of apes] are still falling,” she said. “It’s worst in Indonesia with palm oil and the orangutans, but we are now seeing palm oil move into Africa. We’re also seeing a resurgence of chimpanzees in the pet trade we thought that had more or less stopped. Some of the protected places are working well, some aren’t. We will lose more apes, but we are not going to lose.” The latest IUCN red list has better news for the giant panda, which has improved from endangered to vulnerable. Previously the subject of laboriously unsuccessful breeding programmes, pandas have benefited from efforts by the Chinese government to protect forests. However, climate change is a looming threat, with more than a third of the panda’s bamboo habitat set to disappear by the end of the century. “This reclassification recognises decades of successful conservation efforts led by the Chinese government and demonstrates that investment in the conservation of iconic species like giant pandas does pay off – and benefits our society as well as species,” said Lo Sze Ping, chief executive of the China office of WWF, which has had a panda as its global logo since 1961. The giant panda has improved from endangered to vulnerable on the IUCN red list. Photograph: IUCN/PA “Everyone should celebrate this achievement, but pandas remain scattered and vulnerable, and much of their habitat is threatened by poorly planned infrastructure projects. And remember: there are still only 1,864 left in the wild.” Australia, a hotspot for species extinctions, has made progress with the bridled nailtail wallaby, which has improved from endangered to vulnerable. But the koala is now listed as vulnerable when previously it wasn’t considered in danger at all, due to habitat loss, forest fires, drought and disease. Elsewhere, the previously abundant plains zebra has moved from least concerned to near threatened due to a spike in hunting for meat and skins. A trio of antelope species found in Africa are also now near threatened for the same reason. “Illegal hunting and habitat loss are still major threats driving many mammal species towards extinction,” said Carlo Rondinini, coordinator of the mammal assessment at Sapienza University of Rome. Two plant species have been rediscovered in Hawaii, which is also the location of the IUCN congress that began on Thursday. Mark’s cyanea and hairy wikstroemia, both endemic to the US state, were both thought to be extinct but small numbers of each species were recently found. In total, the IUCN assessed 82,954 plant and animal species, with 23,928 classed as threatened in some way. Of the 5,107 species considered critically endangered, around half are plants, with amphibians, molluscs and fish also having large numbers of species on the brink of extinction. The IUCN congress has the theme Planet at the Crossroads, with many scientists at the gathering expressing alarm that a pernicious mix of climate change, habitat loss and hunting is driving what’s been termed the “sixth great extinction” of the Earth’s flora and fauna.	Previously the subject of laboriously unsuccessful breeding programmes, pandas have benefited from efforts by the Chinese government to protect forests. However, climate change is a looming threat, with more than a third of the panda’s bamboo habitat set to disappear by the end of the century. “This reclassification recognises decades of successful conservation efforts led by the Chinese government and demonstrates that investment in the conservation of iconic species like giant pandas does pay off – and benefits our society as well as species,” said Lo Sze Ping, chief executive of the China office of WWF, which has had a panda as its global logo since 1961. The giant panda has improved from endangered to vulnerable on the IUCN red list. Photograph: IUCN/PA “Everyone should celebrate this achievement, but pandas remain scattered and vulnerable, and much of their habitat is threatened by poorly planned infrastructure projects. And remember: there are still only 1,864 left in the wild.” Australia, a hotspot for species extinctions, has made progress with the bridled nailtail wallaby, which has improved from endangered to vulnerable. But the koala is now listed as vulnerable when previously it wasn’t considered in danger at all, due to habitat loss, forest fires, drought and disease. Elsewhere, the previously abundant plains zebra has moved from least concerned to near threatened due to a spike in hunting for meat and skins. A trio of antelope species found in Africa are also now near threatened for the same reason. “Illegal hunting and habitat loss are still major threats driving many mammal species towards extinction,” said Carlo Rondinini, coordinator of the mammal assessment at Sapienza University of Rome. Two plant species have been rediscovered in Hawaii, which is also the location of the IUCN congress that began on Thursday. Mark’s cyanea and hairy wikstroemia, both endemic to the US state, were both thought to be extinct but small numbers of each species were recently found.	no
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	yes_statement	the "giant" panda is still "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the status of the "giant" panda as an "endangered" "species" remains unchanged.	https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/32/1/4/2925562	Giant Pandas Are Not an Evolutionary cul-de-sac: Evidence from ...	The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is one of the world’s most endangered mammals and remains threatened by environmental and anthropogenic pressure. It is commonly argued that giant pandas are an evolutionary cul-de-sac because of their specialized bamboo diet, phylogenetic changes in body size, small population, low genetic diversity, and low reproductive rate. This notion is incorrect, arose from a poor understanding or appreciation of giant panda biology, and is in need of correction. In this review, we summarize research across morphology, ecology, and genetics to dispel the idea, once and for all, that giant pandas are evolutionary dead-end. The latest and most advanced research shows that giant pandas are successful animals highly adapted to a specialized bamboo diet via morphological, ecological, and genetic adaptations and coadaptation of gut microbiota. We also debunk misconceptions around population size, population growth rate, and genetic variation. During their evolutionary history spanning 8 My, giant pandas have survived diet specialization, massive bamboo flowering and die off, and rapid climate oscillations. Now, they are suffering from enormous human interference. Fortunately, continued conservation effort is greatly reducing impacts from anthropogenic interference and allowing giant panda populations and habitat to recover. Previous ideas of a giant panda evolutionary cul-de-sac resulted from an unsystematic and unsophisticated understanding of their biology and it is time to shed this baggage and focus on the survival and maintenance of this high-profile species. Introduction The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is one of the most endangered mammals on earth, a flagship species for wildlife conservation and an adored icon on every inhabited continent. Its evolutionary history can be traced back 7–8 Ma to the late Miocene and the earliest recorded ancestor Ailurarctos lufengensis in Yunnan province, China (Qiu and Qi 1989). Later, A. microta appeared in the early Pleistocene and had the smallest body size of all known pandas, but sometime in the mid-Pleistocene it evolved into the largest known panda, A. melanoleuca baconi (Pei 1974; Wang 1974; Jin et al. 2007). The current giant panda, A. melanoleuca, arose in the Holocene, and because of human-induced habitat loss and fragmentation remains restricted to six isolated mountain ranges across China: The Qinling, Minshan, Qionglai, Liangshan, Daxiangling, and Xiaoxiangling Mountains (Schaller et al. 1985; Hu 2001; Wei et al. 2012). According to the Third National Survey of Giant Pandas completed in 2002, it was estimated there are 1,596 animals in the wild across 23,049 km2 of habitat (State Forestry Administration of China 2006). It has been repeatedly and regularly argued that the giant panda forms a so-called evolutionary cul-de-sac and is doomed to extinction at some point in the near future (Pei 1965, 1974; Wang 1974; Wei et al. 1990; Feng et al. 1991; Huang 1993; Schaller 1993; Gittleman 1994). This argument follows the general lines that the evolutionary history, population status, and unique biology of the giant panda are all evidence of its doomed fate. Specifically, the arguments are that 1) a specialized bamboo diet is evolutionarily adverse because bamboo provides low nutrition and energy, and is further detrimental because of large-scale bamboo flowering and die off events (Hu 1997, 2001); 2) a small population size and shrinking habitat negatively impact giant pandas (Schaller 1993; Hu 2001); 3) captive giant pandas are characterized by low estrous, low conception, and low cub survival rates (Feng et al. 1991; Zhang and Wei 2006), qualities that have been theoretically applied to wild populations; 4) genetic diversity is low (Su et al. 1994; Fang et al. 1997; Zhang et al. 2002) and represents poor evolutionary potential; 5) an extremely low newborn body weight and slow rate of maturation are evolutionary disadvantages (Gittleman 1994); and 6) a species whose body size evolves from the smallest of its kind to the largest of its kind, and then declines somewhat, has reached an evolutionary dead-end (Pei 1965, 1974). The above concepts permeate scientific, and popular, literature and media. For example, Chris Packham, a wildlife reporter with the BBC, said, “here’s a species that, of its own accord, has gone down an evolutionary cul-de-sac. It’s not a strong species … I reckon we should pull the plug. Let them go, with a degree of dignity.” (http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2009-09-22/chris-packham-let-pandas-die, last accessed October 3, 2014). The view that giant pandas are somehow an evolutionary dead-end has puzzled many conservation biologists, animal managers, and members of the public, but countering these claims has been difficult because the data needed has been spread across different branches of science and limited by methodological barriers. However, a range of recent and incremental findings spanning the biology, population history, and population status of giant pandas paints a clearer picture of the complexity underpinning this animal and clearly debunks the myth that giant pandas are an evolutionary dead-end, or “cul-de-sac,” or any other analogy implying this species is, and always has been, doomed to fail. Here, we focus most attention on the first four arguments stated above, and do not discuss the last two arguments because these two views were personal and based on supposition. Adaptation to a Specialized Bamboo Diet Fossil records suggest that giant pandas probably started to consume bamboo in the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene (Pei 1974; Wang 1974; Jin et al. 2007). Although the modern giant pandas still retains the ability to feed on meat as observed often in captivity and very occasionally in the wild, 99% of their diet now consists of bamboo (Schaller et al. 1985). However, bamboo is a low nutrition/energy food, comprising 70–80% cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin and 20–30% protein, soluble carbohydrate, and fat (Schaller et al. 1985). Giant pandas digest a small proportion of this: 75–90% of the protein, only 27% of the hemicellulose, and 8% of the cellulose (Dierenfeld et al. 1982). Despite this, they have survived on a bamboo diet probably for more than 2 My, and findings from morphological, ecological, and genetic studies confirm that they are well-adapted to their specialized bamboo diet (table 1). Table 1. Summary of Morphological, Ecological, and Genetic Adaptations to a Specialized Bamboo Diet in Giant Pandas. Ecological Adaptation The giant panda has evolved a suite of optimal foraging, habitat use, and activity rhythm strategies as adaptations to the low energy diet. Field research shows that it prefers the most nutritious bamboo shoots, tender leaves and first-year bamboo, and chooses different bamboo species and bamboo parts at different times of the year in different mountain ranges (Schaller et al. 1985; Yong et al. 1994; Wei et al. 1999; Pan et al. 2001; Zhang et al. 2014). Nutritional analysis suggests that their foraging habits are tied to changes in the nutritional composition of bamboo (Schaller et al. 1985; Wei et al. 1999) and their dietary shifts are related to balances of nitrogen, phosphorus, and calcium (Nie et al. 2014). Giant pandas have also evolved a strategy of consuming a great deal of food per day (10–18 kg of leaves or stems or about 38 kg of shoots; Schaller et al. 1985) to maximize nutritional and energetic intake. Moreover, the bamboo resource is widely available in their habitat and is sufficient to accommodate the actual population size (Schaller et al. 1985; Wei et al. 1997; Linderman et al. 2005). Giant pandas have a clever way of utilizing their habitat. They often live in old-growth forest characterized by gentle slopes and a low density of fallen logs, shrubs, and bamboo stands, because feeding and moving in an open microhabitat facilitates easier access to preferred bamboo and reduces energy expenditure (Schaller et al. 1985; Reid and Hu 1991; Wei et al. 2000; Zhang et al. 2006, 2011, 2014). To further minimize energy expenditure, pandas have an optimal activity rhythm whereby they often feed during two activity peaks, one near dawn and one at dusk, and 55% of the daily time is spent in foraging and 41% resting (Schaller et al. 1985). They often move only a short distance daily, between 300 and 500 m (Schaller et al. 1985; Pan et al. 2001; Zhang et al 2014). Genetic Adaptation Adaptation to a specialized bamboo diet has also occurred at the molecular level. The giant panda genome reveals that the umami receptor TAS1R1 gene has become pseudogenized due to a 2-bp insertion in exon 3 and a 6-bp deletion in exon 6 (Li et al. 2010). The umami receptor senses components of meat and other protein-rich foods. Therefore, the loss of function of the TAS1R1 gene may have contributed to the panda’s dietary switch (Li et al. 2010). To test this hypothesis, Zhao et al. (2010) sequenced all six TAS1R1 exons of another individual and found another 4-bp deletion in exon 6, confirming pseudogenization of this gene. It is estimated that this pseudogenization occurred 4.2 Ma, a timeline that matches the approximate date of the dietary switch in pandas (Zhao et al. 2010). For the bitter receptor gene, Zhao et al. (2013) detected significant positive selection in bitter receptor genes TAS2R49 and TAS2R3 in the Qinling Mountain population compared with non-Qinling populations based on whole-genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis, and the difference in selection may be associated with a higher bitter content (e.g., alkaloids) in bamboo leaves (the main food of the Qinling Mountain population). Besides taste receptor genes, Jin et al. (2011) analyzed 166 major genes involved in the “appetite-reward system” of giant pandas and found a 12-bp deletion in the catechol-o-methyltransferase gene, which likely results in loss of function in catecholamine metabolic pathways. This finding suggests that unusual metabolic processes may affect this species’ food choices. The subcellular distribution of the intermediary metabolic enzyme alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase (AGT) is related with dietary choice, and AGT distribution tends to be peroxisomal in herbivores, mitochondrial in carnivores, and both peroxisomal and mitochondrial in omnivores (Danpure et al. 1994). Birdsey et al. (2004) examined the subcellular distribution of AGT enzyme and the molecular evolution of AGT mitochondrial targeting sequence in the giant panda, and found that more AGT targeted to the peroxisomes and positive selection occurred on the AGT mitochondrial targeting sequence. This finding shows that molecular adaptation has occurred related with the bamboo metabolism. However, the molecular evolution study on the pancreatic ribonuclease gene (RNASE1) in carnivores, a digestive enzyme that plays an important role in foregut-fermenting herbivores, found only one RNASE1 gene copy and no gene duplication in the giant panda (Yu and Zhang 2006), suggesting that the RNASE1 gene may be not important in bamboo metabolism for giant pandas. Coadaptation of Gut Microbiota Research shows that 8% of the cellulose and 27% of the hemicellulose in bamboo is digested by giant pandas (Dierenfeld et al. 1982), but how this species digests cellulose has remained a puzzle for some time. Whole-genome sequencing of giant pandas found no specific genes responsible for the digestion of cellulose and hemicellulose (Li et al. 2010), suggesting that gut microbes may play a role in digesting bamboo fibers. Zhu, Wu, et al. (2011) combined 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metagenome analysis, and for the first time identified the microbe group and specific genes associated with the digestion of cellulose and hemicellulose in giant pandas. They found 13 operational taxonomic units closely related to Clostridium groups I and XIVa which contain taxa known to digest cellulose, and recovered putative genes coding two cellulose-digesting enzymes (cellulase and beta-glucosidase) and one hemicellulose-digesting enzyme (xylan 1,4-beta-xylosidase) in Clostridum group I. Their findings highlight that giant pandas have adapted to a fiber-rich bamboo diet and maximize nutritional intake through symbiosis with specialist gut microbes. Response to Bamboo Flowering Bamboo flowering is a natural phenomenon thought to occur every 40–100 years (Campbell and Qin 1984). After bamboo flowers, it dies off, thus reducing food availability for giant pandas. In the 1970s and1980s, two large-scale bamboo flowering events across the main habitat of giant pandas in the Minshan and Qionglai Mountains affected large areas of habitat and resulted in 138 and 141 panda deaths, respectively (Hu 1997, 2001). These bamboo flowering events elicited worldwide concern regarding the fate of giant pandas and are regarded as key evidence for their “bad evolution” despite the fact that the precise genetic effect of bamboo flowering on giant pandas was unknown. Zhu et al. (2013) estimated that over 1,000 pandas were removed from the wild from the 1950s to 1980s, and evaluated the genetic effects of population decline resulting from massive bamboo flowering, hunting, zoo collection, and habitat loss during that period. Comparing genetic diversity and effective population sizes between historical and modern samples, they found no significant genetic signatures for rapid population decline. These findings highlight that the population decline, including that arising from massive bamboo flowering, has not affected current genetic evolutionary potential (Zhu et al. 2013). Giant pandas cope with massive bamboo flowering by switching to alternative nonflowering bamboo species (Reid et al. 1989; Hu et al. 1990; State Forestry Administration of China 2006) or dispersing long distances for foraging (Johnson et al. 1988). Accordingly, giant pandas may have encountered thousands of massive bamboo flowering events, as these are natural ecological phenomena, during more than 2 My of their existence on earth, and under good habitat connectivity they can survive massive bamboo flowering events. Unfortunately, increasing anthropogenic habitat fragmentation is weakening this capacity to respond. Population History Based on its rare and endangered status, it has long been inferred that the giant panda is undergoing long-term decline. Quaternary glaciations are thought to have seriously affected the panda population, resulting in continuous population decline (Ma and Hu 1994). Microsatellite data simulation detected recent population declines for giant panda populations dating 300–10,000 years ago (Zhang et al. 2007; Hu, Qi, et al. 2010; Zhu et al. 2010), implying that human activities have in fact played a role in the endangerment process. However, an ancient-to-today detailed demographic trajectory remains unclear until more advanced genomic techniques are developed. Using giant panda whole-genome data (Li et al. 2010) and the pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent model (Li and Durbin 2011), Zhao et al. (2013) reconstructed giant panda demographic history from about 8 Ma to the present day and found two population bottlenecks, two expansions, and two divergences. The first bottleneck occurred about 0.2 Ma, which was related with the two largest Pleistocene glaciations (Naynayxungla and Penultimate Glaciations) in China, and the second bottleneck occurred during the last glacial maximum about 20,000 years ago. Three genetically distinct populations were identified. The Qinling population diverged from non-Qinling populations (Minshan and Qionglai-Xiangling-Liangshan) about 0.3 Ma, corresponding with the onset of the Penultimate Glaciation, whereas the divergence between Minshan and Qionglai-Xiangling-Liangshan occurred about 2,800 years ago, likely resulting from anthropogenic barriers such as regional deforestation. These patterns reveal that historical climate changes were the primary drivers of population fluctuations for millions of years, and then human activities likely drove recent population divergence and decline. This recent study is fundamental to understanding historical demography and reconstructing the endangerment process in giant pandas. Does the population decline trend of this species reflect the possibility of being doomed to extinction? The demographic histories of other sympatric endangered mammals may provide indirect answers to this question. The red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is sympatric with giant pandas in Sichuan, shares the same diet specialization as giant pandas, and is an endangered species according to the IUCN Red List. Based on the simulation of microsatellite data, Hu et al. (2011) found that red panda populations have also experienced recent, rapid population declines, most likely due to increased human activity. Similarly, the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) is an endangered primate and also distributed at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Studies show that Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys may have suffered from Quaternary glaciations and experienced ancient population contraction and subsequent expansion (Liu et al. 2007) and that human activity may have resulted in recent population divergence (Liu et al. 2009). The population demographic trajectories of these endangered mammals distributed at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau highlight that similarly, these species have been affected by historical climate fluctuations and then recently suffered increased human activity, and also suggest that the endangerment status of the giant panda is likely attributable more to regional environmental pressures and less to its unique life history. Population Biology Based on its endangered status and captive breeding behavior, it has been suggested and widely believed that giant pandas have low reproductive rates and negative population growth. Until the 1990s, giant panda captive-breeding programs faced three main obstacles: Low oestrus rates, low conception rates, and high neonatal mortality (Zhang and Wei 2006). Poor captive-breeding success was attributed to poor reproductive abilities in giant pandas (Feng et al. 1991) which was arbitrarily thought to be the same for the wild population. However, these inferences and conclusions are arbitrary because of a lack of biological knowledge of wild giant pandas and populations. In the wild, female adult pandas reproduce once every 2 years. After the cub is 1.5 years old and separated from its mother, the female can enter estrous again and start a new cycle of reproduction (Schaller et al. 1985; Pan et al. 2001). Wei and Hu (1994) found that the female adult gives birth to her first cub at 7.5 years old, and the annual reproductive rate is 62.5% in Wolong Reserve, Sichuan. Pan et al. (2001) conducted a field study on a wild giant panda population in Changqing Reserve, Shaanxi, for more than 10 years and found that this species has both high annual reproductive rate (65.4%) and high cub survival rate. For instance, during the study period a collared female “JiaoJiao” gave birth to five offspring which all survived. These findings demonstrate that wild pandas have excellent reproductive ability. In the case of captive breeding, with more understanding of panda reproductive biology and the use of scientific-breeding techniques, giant panda breeders have conquered these main breeding obstacles and cub survival rate has increased to over 90% (Zhang et al. 2006). In 2013, there were 375 individuals living in captive centers and zoos (Xie 2013), and the focus of the captive-breeding program has shifted from the quantity to quality of newborn cubs, such as the avoidance of inbreeding and maintenance of genetic variation. The latest study indicated that the captive panda populations harbor high genetic diversity and low inbreeding level under the effective captive-breeding management (Shan et al. 2014), highlighting the success of captive breeding. These breeding achievements, along with the insights into the reproductive biology of wild populations, have thoroughly corrected the view that this species has poor reproductive capacity. Field studies have also shown a positive population growth rate (Wei et al. 1989; Pan et al. 2001). Combining the life table of giant pandas with other life history parameters, Wei et al. (1989) estimated a net reproductive rate of >1 (R0 = 1.0672) and an intrinsic growth rate of >0 (r = 0.0056) for this species, indicating a trend of potential population growth for the wild population. A positive annual population growth rate (4.1%) of giant pandas was also reported in Changqing Reserve, Shaanxi (Pan et al. 2001). It is well-known that wild giant pandas comprise small populations; however, accurate population estimates have remained obscure due to a lack of thorough population census methods. With the development of noninvasive genetic sampling, methods based on feces or hair samples and microsatellite DNA genotyping have opened a new door for wild giant panda population censuses. For example, Zhan et al. (2006) performed exhaustive noninvasive sampling of a giant panda population in Wanglang Reserve, and identified 66 individuals based on genotyping nine microsatellite loci for 302 noninvasive samples. The population size was twice the previous population estimate based on traditional methods (27 individuals) using fecal bamboo bite length and home range size (State Forestry Administration of China 2006). This shows that traditional population census methods have probably underestimated the population size of wild giant pandas, and consequently the total population size is more likely to be approximately 2,500 animals (Zhan et al. 2006). This population size is still small compared with other endangered large mammals. Moderate-to-high genetic variation is also confirmed at the genome-wide scale. Zhao et al. (2013) sequenced the whole genomes of 34 wild pandas, identified over 13 million genome-wide SNPs, and estimated genome-wide genetic diversity. They found that the giant panda genetic diversity indices, Watterson’s estimator (θw) (1.04–1.3 × 10−3) and average pairwise diversity within populations (θπ) (1.13–1.37 × 10−3) are similar to those in human, indicating relatively high genetic variation and thus high genetic evolutionary potential in giant pandas. Hope for the Giant Panda The giant panda has an evolutionary history of 8 My and during this process it has survived diet specialization, massive bamboo flowering, and rapid climate oscillations. This species’ evolutionary history itself highlights that it is a viable animal. Previous determinations that giant pandas are an evolutionary cul-de-sac resulted from an unsystematic and poor understanding of the species. Everything people used to think about giant pandas needs updating. The panda is well-adapted to its bamboo diet, potential population growth is present, ample genetic variation exists, and we have underestimated its population size. However, this species is suffering from enormous human interference and we hope it could survive modern anthropogenic impacts. So, to decrease the effects of human interference, we have to work hard to conserve this evolutionary “hopeful” species. Fortunately, humans have realized these anthropogenic threats and have made a series of conservation actions to protect this species. In 1988, the Chinese Government enacted the Wildlife Protection Law to protect endangered animals from human interference and persecution. Since then, poaching has been banned and poachers have been severely punished. To protect giant pandas and their habitat, 63 nature reserves for this species have been established, covering 85% of its entire habitat (Hu et al. 2011). The implementation of natural forest protection and grain-to-green programs has also significantly facilitated the conservation of giant pandas through protecting and restoring habitat (State Forestry of Administration of China 2006). For fragmented or isolated habitat patches, habitat corridors have been planned or constructed to facilitate dispersal and gene flow. For small and isolated populations, translocation or reintroduction programs have been implemented to improve reproduction success and genetic diversity. For instance, in the smallest and most isolated Xiaoxiangling Mountain population, studies have estimated that this population has a very high risk of extinction (Zhu et al. 2010) and so the Chinese Government initiated a translocation program in 2009 that released a rescued wild female panda called Luxin into this population (Schenkman 2010). Then in 2012 and 2013, two captive-born subadults “Taotao” and “Zhangxiang” were also released to this population (http://www.pandasinternational.org/wptemp/program-areas-2/reintroduction-program/, last accessed October 3, 2014). We know these three animals survived through GPS and molecular monitoring. Achievements in protecting giant pandas abound, but we should not reduce conservation effort because major threats such as habitat loss and fragmentation to the survival and maintenance of this species remain. Although large-scale deforestation has been prohibited, road construction and human settlements along roads are fragmenting and eroding giant panda habitat (Fan et al. 2011). Additionally, new threats are emerging, such as tourism, power stations, large-scale mining, and environmental pollution (Dai et al. 2006). These new threats present serious challenges to the continued conservation and management of giant pandas. Although we have learned much about the biology and history of giant pandas, much remains a puzzle. Giant pandas have a specialized bamboo diet, but we do not know when and why these animals altered their dietary preferences. The pseudothumb is a typical morphological adaptation to a specialized diet; however, its genetic architecture and evolutionary origins remain obscure. Moreover, what factors drive the persistence of giant panda populations only in isolated mountain range refuges? Only once we understand these issues will we be able to further protect this viable species from historical and emerging threats. Acknowledgments This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 31230011 and 31270418). The authors are grateful to the Editor-in-chief for inviting this review and commenting on the paper. References Birdsey GM Lewin J Cunningham AA Bruford MW Danpure CJ Differential enzyme targeting as an evolutionary adaptation to herbivory in Carnivora Evolution of alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase 1 peroxisomal and mitochondrial targeting: a survey of its subcellular distribution in the livers of various representatives of the classes Mammalia, Aves and Amphibia	The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is one of the world’s most endangered mammals and remains threatened by environmental and anthropogenic pressure. It is commonly argued that giant pandas are an evolutionary cul-de-sac because of their specialized bamboo diet, phylogenetic changes in body size, small population, low genetic diversity, and low reproductive rate. This notion is incorrect, arose from a poor understanding or appreciation of giant panda biology, and is in need of correction. In this review, we summarize research across morphology, ecology, and genetics to dispel the idea, once and for all, that giant pandas are evolutionary dead-end. The latest and most advanced research shows that giant pandas are successful animals highly adapted to a specialized bamboo diet via morphological, ecological, and genetic adaptations and coadaptation of gut microbiota. We also debunk misconceptions around population size, population growth rate, and genetic variation. During their evolutionary history spanning 8 My, giant pandas have survived diet specialization, massive bamboo flowering and die off, and rapid climate oscillations. Now, they are suffering from enormous human interference. Fortunately, continued conservation effort is greatly reducing impacts from anthropogenic interference and allowing giant panda populations and habitat to recover. Previous ideas of a giant panda evolutionary cul-de-sac resulted from an unsystematic and unsophisticated understanding of their biology and it is time to shed this baggage and focus on the survival and maintenance of this high-profile species. Introduction The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is one of the most endangered mammals on earth, a flagship species for wildlife conservation and an adored icon on every inhabited continent. Its evolutionary history can be traced back 7–8 Ma to the late Miocene and the earliest recorded ancestor Ailurarctos lufengensis in Yunnan province, China (Qiu and Qi 1989).	yes
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	yes_statement	the "giant" panda is still "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the status of the "giant" panda as an "endangered" "species" remains unchanged.	http://wongsiewte.blogspot.com/2008/03/seventy-five-percent-of-bear-species.html	Seventy-five percent of bear species threatened with extinction	Sun bear is a forgotten bear species. They are the least known bear and one of the least known large mammals in Southeast Asia until recently. I hope this blog can enlighten readers and open up discussions on how we could help this unfortunate but yet magnificent animal that we call “sun bear". Seventy-five percent of bear species threatened with extinction Six out of the world’s eight species of bears are threatened with extinction, according to recent assessments by the IUCN Bear and Polar Bear Specialist Groups. Asia and South America are revealed as the areas most in need of urgent conservation action The world’s smallest species of bear, the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus), has been classed as Vulnerable, while the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) remains in the Endangered category on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The sun bear’s new status has been accepted for inclusion in the 2007 IUCN Red List. The sun bear lives in mainland Southeast Asia, Sumatra and Borneo and was previously listed as Data Deficient, meaning that not enough was known about the species to give it a status on the IUCN Red List. Rob Steinmetz, co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group’s sun bear expert team, said: “Although we still have lot to learn about the biology and ecology of this species, we are quite certain that it is in trouble. We estimate that sun bears have declined by at least 30% over the past 30 years (three bear generations), and continue to decline at this rate. “Deforestation has reduced both the area and quality of their habitat. Where habitat is now protected, commercial poaching remains a significant threat. We are working with governments, protected area managers, conservation groups and local people to prevent extinctions of the many small, isolated sun bear populations that remain in many parts of Southeast Asia.” The only bear presently considered Endangered is the giant panda. That status remains unchanged despite enormous efforts in China directed towards its conservation, including the establishment of nearly 60 panda reserves, a ban on logging, and widespread reforestation programmes. Dave Garshelis, co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group, said: “Quite a bit is now known about the ecology of giant pandas and substantial work and expense has been aimed at trying to estimate total numbers of these animals. However, these estimates are imprecise and prone to significant error. “Even though some people have claimed that panda populations are on the rise, we still consider them Endangered because too much uncertainty exists to justify changing their status to Vulnerable. It would be unwise to assume that in less than 10 years under the new habitat improvement policies in China that panda populations could have dramatically increased.” Although hunting bears is illegal throughout Southern Asia, bears suffer heavy losses from poachers, who risk the small chance of being caught against lucrative gains from selling parts. Bile from the bear’s gall bladder is used in traditional Chinese medicine and their paws are consumed as a delicacy. Additionally, bears are often killed when they prey on livestock or raid agricultural crops. Bears simply roaming near a village may be killed because they are perceived as a threat to human safety. Dave Garshelis said: “Although we do not have any reliable population estimates for the sun bear, or any of the other Asian bears for that matter, we fear that bears in Southeast Asia are declining at a particularly rapid rate due to extensive loss of forest habitat combined with rampant poaching.” The Bear Specialist Group concluded a meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, on November 10 and has updated the status of the seven species of terrestrial bears. Vulnerable species include Asiatic black bears and sloth bears, both inhabitants of Asia, and Andean bears (formerly called spectacled bears) from the Andes Mountains of South America. Sloth bears live on the Indian subcontinent, where habitat loss has been severe. They have found sanctuary mainly in reserves set up to protect tigers. The IUCN Bear Specialist Group indicated that this species might have disappeared entirely from Bangladesh during the past decade. Brown bears, the most widespread ursid, are not listed as threatened globally because large numbers still inhabit Russia, Canada, Alaska and some parts of Europe. Nevertheless, very small, isolated, and highly vulnerable populations exist in southern Europe and central and southern Asia. Several brown bear populations are protected under national or provincial laws. Grizzly bears – brown bears living in interior North America – are considered Threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act outside of Alaska. In 2006, the polar bear was listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Technically a marine mammal, the polar bear is distinct from the other seven terrestrial bears and has a different specialist group. Among the eight species of bears, only the American black bear is secure throughout its range, which encompasses Canada, the United States and Mexico. At 900,000 strong, there are more than twice as many American black bears than all the other species of bears combined. They are legally hunted in most parts of their range. Bruce McLellan, co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group, said: “An enormous amount of effort and funding for conservation and management continue to be directed at bears in North America where their status is relatively favorable. It is unfortunate that so little is directed at bears in Asia and South America where the need is extreme. We are trying to change this situation but success is slow.” IUCN Red List of Threatened Species – Conservation status of the world’s bears Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) – Endangered (EN)[Factsheet - PDF] Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) – Vulnerable (VU)[Factsheet - PDF] Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus) – Vulnerable (VU)[Factsheet - PDF] Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus) – Vulnerable (VU)[Factsheet - PDF] Andean Bear (Tremarctos ornatus) – Vulnerable (VU)[Factsheet - PDF] Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) – Vulnerable (VU)[Factsheet - PDF] Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) – Least Concern (LC)[Factsheet - PDF] American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) – Least Concern (LC)[Factsheet - PDF] No comments: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Search This Blog AddThis About Me Animal lover all my life. Decided to choose working with wildlife and help them as much as I could as my mission in life. Our own kind kills and eats them, destroy their home, and lock them in cages. I am here to help. Help the voiceless as much as I could. I try to influence other people as much as I could. Make others aware of the conservation issues. On the other hand, I am just like other people. I like food, I like to cook, I like to prepare good and tasty food. Asian food, especially is my favorite: Chinese, Malay, Indian, Thais, are some of my favorite food. I have some secrete recipes, maybe one day I will have my own restaurant when I retire as a conservationist and a wildlife biologist.	Rob Steinmetz, co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group’s sun bear expert team, said: “Although we still have lot to learn about the biology and ecology of this species, we are quite certain that it is in trouble. We estimate that sun bears have declined by at least 30% over the past 30 years (three bear generations), and continue to decline at this rate. “Deforestation has reduced both the area and quality of their habitat. Where habitat is now protected, commercial poaching remains a significant threat. We are working with governments, protected area managers, conservation groups and local people to prevent extinctions of the many small, isolated sun bear populations that remain in many parts of Southeast Asia.” The only bear presently considered Endangered is the giant panda. That status remains unchanged despite enormous efforts in China directed towards its conservation, including the establishment of nearly 60 panda reserves, a ban on logging, and widespread reforestation programmes. Dave Garshelis, co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group, said: “Quite a bit is now known about the ecology of giant pandas and substantial work and expense has been aimed at trying to estimate total numbers of these animals. However, these estimates are imprecise and prone to significant error. “Even though some people have claimed that panda populations are on the rise, we still consider them Endangered because too much uncertainty exists to justify changing their status to Vulnerable. It would be unwise to assume that in less than 10 years under the new habitat improvement policies in China that panda populations could have dramatically increased.” Although hunting bears is illegal throughout Southern Asia, bears suffer heavy losses from poachers, who risk the small chance of being caught against lucrative gains from selling parts. Bile from the bear’s gall bladder is used in traditional Chinese medicine and their paws are consumed as a delicacy. Additionally, bears are often killed when they prey on livestock or raid agricultural crops. Bears simply roaming near a village may be killed because they are perceived as a threat to human safety.	yes
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	yes_statement	the "giant" panda is still "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the status of the "giant" panda as an "endangered" "species" remains unchanged.	https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/giant-panda-diet-study-china-b1994814.html	Giant panda's gut bacteria help it remain chubby when food is ...	The researchers, led by Fuwen Wei, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Biology, discovered a causal relationship between the giant panda’s gut microbiota (gut flora) and it’s ability to gain and store fat. They found that the shifts in the bear’s gut microbiota in the season when nutritious bamboo shoots become available helps the herbivorous bear gain more weight and store more fat, which may compensate for the lack of nutrients in seasons when there are only bamboo leaves to chew on. “This is the first time we established a causal relationship between a panda’s gut microbiota and its phenotype,” said Guangping Huang, the first author of the study. “We’ve known these pandas have a different set of gut microbiota during the shoot-eating season for a long time, and it’s very obvious that they are chubbier during this time of the year.” According to Prof Wei, this is because these wild pandas have a significantly higher level of a bacterium called Clostridium butyricum in their gut during the shoot-eating season compared with during the leaf-eating season. To investigate the effects on the metabolisms of giant pandas, the researchers conducted a faecal microbiota transplantation (FTM) of panda faeces collected in the wild to germ-free mice. This is because it can be difficult to run direct tests on endangered and vulnerable species. The mice were fed with a bamboo-based diet that simulated what pandas eat for three weeks. The study found that mice transplanted with panda faeces collected during shoot-eating season gained significantly more weight and had more fat than mice transplanted with faeces from leaf-eating season despite consuming the same amount of food. Further analysis revealed that the metabolic product of C. butyricum - butyrate - could upregulate the expression of a circadian rhythm gene called Per2, a Protein Coding gene that increases lipid (including fat) synthesis and storage. Next, the team plans to map out more microorganisms in the panda’s gut and find out about their roles in affecting the animal’s health. “Causal research of host phenotype and gut microbiota in wild animals is just beginning,” said Huang. “Identifying what bacteria are beneficial for animals is very important, because one day we may be able to treat some diseases with probiotics.”	The researchers, led by Fuwen Wei, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Biology, discovered a causal relationship between the giant panda’s gut microbiota (gut flora) and it’s ability to gain and store fat. They found that the shifts in the bear’s gut microbiota in the season when nutritious bamboo shoots become available helps the herbivorous bear gain more weight and store more fat, which may compensate for the lack of nutrients in seasons when there are only bamboo leaves to chew on. “This is the first time we established a causal relationship between a panda’s gut microbiota and its phenotype,” said Guangping Huang, the first author of the study. “We’ve known these pandas have a different set of gut microbiota during the shoot-eating season for a long time, and it’s very obvious that they are chubbier during this time of the year.” According to Prof Wei, this is because these wild pandas have a significantly higher level of a bacterium called Clostridium butyricum in their gut during the shoot-eating season compared with during the leaf-eating season. To investigate the effects on the metabolisms of giant pandas, the researchers conducted a faecal microbiota transplantation (FTM) of panda faeces collected in the wild to germ-free mice. This is because it can be difficult to run direct tests on endangered and vulnerable species. The mice were fed with a bamboo-based diet that simulated what pandas eat for three weeks. The study found that mice transplanted with panda faeces collected during shoot-eating season gained significantly more weight and had more fat than mice transplanted with faeces from leaf-eating season despite consuming the same amount of food. Further analysis revealed that the metabolic product of C. butyricum - butyrate - could upregulate the expression of a circadian rhythm gene called Per2, a Protein Coding gene that increases lipid (including fat) synthesis and storage.	yes
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	yes_statement	the "giant" panda is still "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the status of the "giant" panda as an "endangered" "species" remains unchanged.	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5699065/	From the Cover: PNAS Plus: Reverse chemical ecology: Olfactory ...	Share RESOURCES As a library, NLM provides access to scientific literature. Inclusion in an NLM database does not imply endorsement of, or agreement with, the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health. Learn more: PMC Disclaimer \| PMC Copyright Notice Significance The giant panda, an endangered species and a popular emblem, still conceals puzzling unexplored aspects. It shares with bears, to which it is evolutionary related, a carnivorous digestive system but follows a strictly herbivorous diet. The low energy obtained from such poor food accounts for its slow movements and probably, a reduced reproductive activity. Feeding and mating are regulated by olfaction, still poorly investigated in this species at the molecular level. Here, we describe two odorant-binding proteins with complementary affinities to different chemical classes and present the 3D structure of one of them. In a reverse chemical ecology approach, which could be adopted for other vertebrates, we use ligand-binding data to suggest putative structures of still unknown sex pheromones. Abstract The giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca belongs to the family of Ursidae; however, it is not carnivorous, feeding almost exclusively on bamboo. Being equipped with a typical carnivorous digestive apparatus, the giant panda cannot get enough energy for an active life and spends most of its time digesting food or sleeping. Feeding and mating are both regulated by odors and pheromones; therefore, a better knowledge of olfaction at the molecular level can help in designing strategies for the conservation of this species. In this context, we have identified the odorant-binding protein (OBP) repertoire of the giant panda and mapped the protein expression in nasal mucus and saliva through proteomics. Four OBPs have been identified in nasal mucus, while the other two were not detected in the samples examined. In particular, AimelOBP3 is similar to a subset of OBPs reported as pheromone carriers in the urine of rodents, saliva of the boar, and seminal fluid of the rabbit. We expressed this protein, mapped its binding specificity, and determined its crystal structure. Structural data guided the design and preparation of three protein mutants bearing single-amino acid replacements in the ligand-binding pocket, for which the corresponding binding affinity spectra were measured. We also expressed AimelOBP5, which is markedly different from AimelOBP3 and complementary in its binding spectrum. By comparing our binding data with the structures of bamboo volatiles and those of typical mammalian pheromones, we formulate hypotheses on which may be the most relevant semiochemicals for the giant panda. The giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca is endemic of China and was formerly classified as an endangered species, now as a vulnerable species, but its population has remained rather stable, although very low, during the last centuries (1). Its phylogenetic classification has been a matter of debate for some time, but molecular genetic studies have recently shown that this species belongs to Ursidae, of which it represents an ancestral branch together with the spectacled bears, Tremarctos, and the sloth bear (1–3). The diets of these species are different from those of carnivorous bears: the giant panda is fully herbivorous, the spectacled bears are mainly herbivorous, and sloth bears feed on termites, fruits, and vegetables. The giant panda also shares with spectacled bears and sloth bears the absence of hibernation, an important characteristic that differentiates these species from other Ursidae (4). The obligate bamboo diet of the giant panda, which is not compatible with its carnivorous digestive system, is barely sufficient to provide the energy required for an active life, likely accounting for the slow movements and long periods of rest typical of this species (5). It has been also suggested that the reduced size of the brain, liver, and kidneys of the giant panda relative to other mammals could be a measure to further reduce the use of its limited energies (6). The vulnerability of the giant panda as a species is increased by their limited reproduction rate, usually with only a single offspring every other year. Both feeding habits and reproductive activity strongly rely on chemical signals. Therefore, a study of olfaction and chemical communication in the giant panda can shed light on the molecular mechanisms that are responsible for the unique and anomalous diet of this species compared with other Ursidae. At the same time, understanding the molecular mechanisms of chemical communication mediating courtship and mating could explain the low reproduction rate and may suggest strategies to increase the survival rate of the species. In this context, we have focused our study on odorant-binding proteins (OBPs), a class of soluble proteins involved in olfaction as carriers of hydrophobic odorants and pheromones. Vertebrate OBPs (7–11) belong to a superfamily of carrier proteins named lipocalins (12), which includes serum retinol-binding protein, responsible for delivering retinol in the whole body (13); milk β-lactoglobulin, having a still uncertain function; fatty acid-binding protein; and other proteins involved in organism development and differentiation (14). Vertebrate OBPs share with lipocalins a compact structure made of eight antiparallel β-sheets and a short segment of α-helix close to the protein C terminus (15, 16). Several pieces of evidence strongly suggest that, in mammals, OBPs are specific carriers for pheromones (17). The most compelling facts are their sites of production outside the olfactory mucosa in the vomeronasal organ and the nasal respiratory epithelium and the occurrence of the same or very similar OBPs in the nose and in biological glands and fluids releasing specific pheromones. The best examples of this fact are the major urinary proteins (MUPs) of rodents (18, 19) and the salivary lipocalins (SALs) of the pig (20–22). In both cases, the same proteins are produced in the nose as well as in the liver (in rodents) or in the salivary glands (in the pig). Indeed, it has been shown that, when secreted outside the nose, OBPs are loaded with specific pheromones (20, 23), clearly suggesting a common function in releasing these chemical messengers in the environment. The genome of the giant panda has recently been sequenced (24, 25), but its annotation is not complete. Thus, preliminary information is available on OBPs and other lipocalins, but no experimental work on such proteins has been reported. Animal behavior studies and chemical analysis of specific secretions have indicated urine and the perianal gland secretions as the biological fluids responsible for carrying semiochemicals. Courtship and mating as well as competition between males are likely mediated by specific pheromones. Scent marks carried by urine and perianal secretions are utilized by both sexes to advertise their presence and status (26). In female urine, short-chain fatty acids seem to be predominant (27, 28), while male perianal glands contain medium and long linear aldehydes as well as a number of long-chain fatty acids together with a variety of other chemicals (29, 30). At present, it is not clear which volatiles might be the best putative semiochemicals. This work provides a contribution to the study of chemical communication in the giant panda through a structural and functional characterization of its OBPs. In our study, we followed a reverse chemical ecology approach to suggest likely structures for the still unknown sex pheromone through the study of structural and functional characteristics of their binding proteins. In particular, of the six OBPs present in the databases, we identified four in the nose of the animal; the two most abundant ones were produced in recombinant form. We then obtained the crystallographic structure of one of them and the structural model of the other one, and we investigated the ligand specificity and mode of binding of both OBPs, also using selected mutant recombinant products. Finally, we formulate hypotheses on likely pheromone candidates based on the structures of the best ligands. Results Sequence Analysis. Starting from genome sequencing results on the giant panda, we analyzed genes present in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database when searching for animal lipocalin homologs. After discarding sequence data for redundant, very short, or very long entries, we obtained information for a total of 36 nonredundant lipocalins, which have sequences that are compared in the tree shown in Fig. S1. They belong to different subgroups, including retinoid-binding proteins, fatty acid-binding proteins, β-lactoglobulins, and other lipocalins. Six of these sequences were classified as OBPs based on comparison with their orthologs in other mammalian species. Additional sequence analysis and comparison with genomic data highlighted few mistakes regarding the identification of introns and ORFs, which were corrected. A sequence alignment of resulting OBPs is presented in Fig. 1. As expected, these proteins are divergent between each other (13–26% of identical residues, except for AimelOBP4 and AimelOBP5 sharing 40% of their amino acids) as well as with their orthologs from other species. Lipocalins of the giant panda. After discarding double entries, extremely long sequences, and short fragments, we have found 36 lipocalins of the giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca in the NCBI Protein database. Apart from the six OBPs described in this work, assignment to different subclasses is based on annotations in the NCBI database. A sequence comparison of the giant panda OBPs with counterparts from other mammals showed some similarities, thus suggesting specific functions in chemical communication (Fig. 1). In particular, AimelOBP3 is about 54% identical with pig SALs, which are responsible for carrying the sex pheromones androstenone and androstenol in the saliva of the boar as well as for detecting them in the nose (20–22). They belong to a subgroup including the rodent MUPs (18, 31), the hamster aphrodisin (32), and rabbit seminal protein OBP3 (33), which are all involved in the release of specific pheromones (11). Instead, AimelOBP4 is more similar to Von Ebner’s gland proteins, which are reported in tear and saliva of mammals (34, 35) and endowed with bacteriostastic function, other than putative but not experimentally shown roles in semiochemical transport (36, 37). AimelOBP5 is most similar to the human nose OBP1, with 43% identical amino acids (38, 39). Regarding AimelOBP1, -2, and -6, we could not identify orthologs in other mammalian species, as identities at the amino acid level barely exceed 20%, with the exception of AimelOBP1 and pigOBP1 (34% identity). In general, we observe that bear OBPs present the best sequence matches, in agreement with the currently accepted assignment of the giant panda to the family of Ursidae. Proteomic Analysis of Body Fluids. To ascertain the occurrence of OBPs in giant panda biological fluids associated with chemical communication, we analyzed samples of nasal mucus and saliva. Total proteins were resolved by SDS/PAGE, excised from the gel, subjected to trypsinolysis, and analyzed for their digests by nanoLC-ESI-Q-Orbitrap-MS/MS. Several OBPs were detected in both secretions. The complete results of proteomic analysis of A. melanoleuca crude nasal mucus and saliva are reported in Datasets S1 and S2, while Fig. 2 summarizes the OBPs detected in these biological fluids and their migration areas within SDS/PAGE. We managed to map large sequence regions in AimelOBP3, AimelOBP4, AimelOBP5, and AimelOBP6, while we did not find traces of AimelOBP1 or of AimelOBP2 (Figs. 1 and and2).2). All proteins detected in nasal mucus were also found in the saliva, probably as the result of a biological fluid exchange between nasal cavity and mouth. This was confirmed by Western blot analysis for AimelOBP3, which is present at high concentration in the nasal mucus, but only in traces in two samples of saliva (Fig. S2A). Proteomic analysis of nasal mucus and saliva samples from A. melanoleuca. (A) SDS/PAGE of proteins from crude nasal mucus and saliva samples. Gel lanes were cut into discrete slices (as shown), which were further subjected to proteomic analysis for protein identification and PTMs assignment (Datasets S1 and S2). (B) Identified OBPs within each slice and corresponding PTMs. (C) MS analysis of some glycopeptides detected in the AimelOBP3 digest having a retention time of 46.75 min. (C) MS spectrum of N-linked glycated forms of the oxidized AilmeOBP3 peptide (41–61). Assignment to specific glycation structures was based on fragmentation data. (D) MS/MS spectrum of the ion at m/z 1,104.01 reported in C. Assigned peptide fragments are highlighted in the peptide sequence reported within the panel. The assigned N-linked glycan structure is also shown. The fragmentation spectrum also shows fragments caused by the characteristic loss of methanesulfenic acid from the side chain of oxidized Met derivative (−64 and −32 for singly and doubly protonated ions, respectively) (66). The latter derivative is reported as m; the peptide moiety is indicated with Pep. N.d., not determined; PTMD, posttranslational modification details. (A) SDS/PAGE analysis and Western blot of crude samples of nasal mucus and saliva. AimelOBP3 appears to be highly represented in the nasal mucus but is barely detectable in two different samples of saliva. M, molecular weight markers; N, nasal mucus; S, saliva. (B) Purification of AimelOBP3 from nasal mucus on Mono-Q. The protein was identified by Western blot analysis and found to be mostly concentrated and relatively pure in fraction 8. (C) SDS/PAGE and Western blot of an aliquot from fraction 8 before and after digestion with N-glycosidase. After enzymatic treatment, the protein migrates with a lower apparent molecular weight, thus confirming the N-glycosylation detected by MS (Fig. 2). (D) Binding assays performed on AimelOBP3 purified from nasal mucus (fraction 8 from B). The native protein binds the fluorescent probe 1-NPN and few selected ligands with affinities not significantly different from those measured with the recombinant protein, thus indicating that the glycosylation does not affect the binding properties of this protein. Proteomics also revealed posttranslational modifications (PTMs) present in each protein species. In particular, sequence analysis using NetNGlyc 1.0 software predicted the presence of two N-linked glycosylation sites in AimelOBP3 (at Asn36 and Ans51 of the mature protein), the second of which was actually found to be modified with a complex-type N-linked glycan moiety. Fig. 2 shows the MS and MS/MS spectra of some coeluting glycopeptides detected in the AimelOBP3 digest. The complete list of the N-linked glycopeptides detected in AimelOBP3 is reported in Table S1. N-linked glycosylation of AimelOBP3 was also evidenced by digestion of this protein with N-glycosidase and analysis of the resulting products by SDS/PAGE and Western blot (Fig. S2C). No glycosylation was predicted for AimelOBP4, AimelOBP5, and AimelOBP6. Nevertheless, a modified peptide with an N-linked glycan chain was detected in AimelOBP6, which resulted in modification at Asn27. Glycosylation has been observed for other mammalian OBPs (20, 40). Their most likely function could be to increase the solubility of these proteins, present at high concentrations in body fluids. Assignment was obtained after searching MS and MS/MS raw data with Bionics 2.6.46 software. Reported structures are associated with peptide species assigned on the basis of their fragmentation spectra. Calc., calculated; Obs., observed. Finally, NetPhos 3.1 software predicted several sites of potential phosphorylation in AimelOBPs. Proteomic analysis showed actual phosphorylation of AimelOBP3 and AimelOBP4 at Thr154 and Ser91, respectively. Fragmentation spectra of corresponding phosphopeptides are reported in Fig. S3. Nonphosphorylated peptide counterparts were also detected. Modified sites in AimelOBPs are indicated in Figs. 1 and and2.2. Phosphorylation of mammalian OBPs has been reported in the past (41) and suggested to be a way of modifying the binding specificity of the protein. However, the function of this modification on OBPs still remains to be experimentally shown. Fragmentation spectra of phosphopeptides identified in AimelOBP3 and AimelOBP4. (A) MS/MS spectrum of the ion at m/z 655.98 present in the tryptic digest of AimelOBP3. Based on fragmentation data, phosphorylation was assigned to Thr154. (B) MS/MS spectrum of the ion at m/z 419.90 present in the tryptic digest of AimelOBP4. Based on fragmentation data, phosphorylation was assigned to Ser91. Assigned peptide fragments are highlighted in the peptide sequences reported within each panel. Ligand Binding Studies on AimelOBP3 and AimelOBP5. Based on their abundance in the nasal mucus and on similarities with proteins of chemical communication in other mammals, we decided to functionally characterize AimelOBP3 and AimelOBP5 by using ligand-binding assays (33). We expressed AimelOBP3 and AimelOBP5 in a bacterial system using synthetic genes because of the difficulties in obtaining samples of fresh tissues from the giant panda. The recombinant proteins were purified by anion-exchange chromatography on DE-52 and Mono-Q columns and used for production of polyclonal antisera, X-ray crystallography, and ligand-binding experiments. We measured the protein affinity toward 40 natural compounds in competitive binding experiments by using N-phenyl-1-naphthylamine (1-NPN) as a fluorescent reporter. Results are summarized in Dataset S3 and Fig. 3, while all experimental data are reported in Figs. S4 and andS5.S5. Both proteins bind the fluorescent probe with high yields and good affinities (Fig. 3A). The selected potential ligands (Fig. 3B) belong to two classes of structurally unrelated compounds. The first is a collection of plant volatiles, several of which have been identified in bamboo leaves, the exclusive diet of the giant panda. The second group is a series of long-chain aldehydes, acids, and other derivatives, which might include putative semiochemicals. Being that the pheromones of the giant panda are still unknown, we have tested chemicals reported as semiochemicals for other mammals or for insects. AimelOBP3 showed good affinity to both natural terpenoids and long-chain unsaturated aldehydes, these latter being pheromone components for several Lepidoptera. A structurally related alcohol and an acetate as well as a number of linear fatty acids did not bind this protein. On the contrary, AimelOBP5 showed strong affinity to fatty acids in a size- and structure-dependent fashion (Fig. 3 D and E), while it exhibited weak or no binding to the aldehydes and to most plant volatiles (Fig. 3B). We can incidentally observe that the binding curves of some fatty acids (Fig. 3D) exhibit a peculiar behavior, decreasing at low concentrations of the ligands and increasing at concentrations higher than 4 μM. This phenomenon has been previously reported and attributed to formation of micelles when the concentration of the ligand is higher than its critical micelle concentration. Such micelles can encapsulate molecules of 1-NPN, thus enhancing the emitted fluorescence (42, 43). Binding properties of AimelOBP3 and AimelOBP5. (A) Both proteins bind the fluorescent probe 1-NPN with good affinities. (B) Toward the 40 ligands tested, AimelOBP3 and AimelOBP5 exhibited markedly different and complementary spectra of binding. The first one is tuned to unsaturated long-chain aldehydes as well as to some bamboo leaves volatiles; the second one is rather specific for fatty acids. (C and D) Examples of competitive binding curves obtained with the two proteins using 1-NPN as fluorescence reporter. All binding curves are reported in Figs. S4 and andS5.S5. (E) The affinity of AimelOBP5 to fatty acids is length-dependent, with a peak at 16 carbon atoms. Unsaturated acids are better ligands than their saturated analogs. The idea that insects and mammals might share structurally related or even identical chemicals as their pheromones is documented by several examples reported in the literature (44, 45). The simple reason behind this phenomenon is that Lepidopteran pheromones, most of them being unsaturated long-chain alcohols, aldehydes, or acetates, are synthesized from fatty acids, which are important components of the diet of insects as well as of mammals. Other than the well-known example of the elephant pheromone dodecenyl acetate (46), which is a pheromone component for several Lepidoptera, fatty acids have been reported to act as pheromones in sheep, cow, and buffalo (45) as well as in tiger, lion, and other felids (47). Among the plant volatile compounds, citral, safranal, farnesol, β-ionone, and cedrol, all abundantly present in bamboo fresh leaves, exhibit optimal ligand properties. Particularly interesting is the high affinity measured with cedrol. In fact, this compound and its isomer epicedrol are highly represented in spring bamboo, while their levels in winter bamboo are strongly reduced (48, 49). Being that the native AimelOBP3 N-glycosylated and phosphorylated unlike the recombinant protein used in binding experiments, we decided to purify this protein directly from the animal nasal mucus and to measure its affinity toward a selection of the best ligands with the aim to verify whether PTMs might affect its binding specificity. The protein was obtained at a degree of purity satisfactory for our purpose (a single band visible on SDS/PAGE) by anion-exchange chromatography on Mono-Q and was further identified by Western blot analysis. Fig. S2 reports the results of the purification (Fig. S2B) and binding assays performed on fraction 8 of the chromatographic separation with a number of ligands (Fig. S2D). We observe that the native protein is not different in its binding properties from the recombinant OBP; thus, we can reasonably conclude that the glycan moiety of the native protein does not interfere substantially with binding. As for the role of AimelOBP3 phosphorylation, this issue remains an open question, since we were not able to evaluate the extent of this modification, having detected both phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated peptides that are known to present different ionization efficiencies. 3D Structure of AimelOBP3. The crystal structure of AimelOBP3 was solved by molecular replacement using the MUP4 [Protein Data Bank (PDB) ID code 3KFF) as a model and subsequently refined at 2.8-Å resolution (Table S2). The entire experiment was performed using a single crystal frozen at 100 K. The stereochemistry was analyzed with molprobity, which indicated that 94.4% of the residues are in the most favorable region and that 5.6% are in the additionally allowed region. The polypeptide chain is visible from residue 4 to residue 164. AimelOBP3 has a classical lipocalin fold (Fig. 4 A and C), with a β-barrel domain composed of nine β-strands (residues 17–124, 150–154) and an α-helix (130–143) flanking the β-barrel. The C-terminal segment (144–164) comprising the ninth β-strand of the barrel (residues 150–154) and an unstructured region (residues 155–164) follow the α-helix. A disulfide bridge (Cys66-Cys159) links β-strand 4 to the C-terminal segment. Crystal structure of AimelOBP3. (A) Ribbon view is rainbow colored (blue to red), with numbering of the secondary structures. The sequence of the protein is provided with the same coloring mode. (B) AimelOBP3 internal cavity. Ribbon view of AimelOBP3 is rainbow colored. The side chains of the residues forming the cavity wall are shown and numbered in the enlarged view. (C) Surface representation of the AimelOBP3 structure. The binding cavity is covered, and the access to solvent is blocked by residues Asp87, Asn90, and Met39. (D) Model of AimelOBP5 based on the structure of human OBPIIa (PDB ID code 4RUN). (E) Superposition of AimelOBP3 (green) and AimelOBP5 (beige) in ribbon representation. The red arrows indicate the position of the loop 31–42 closing the binding cavity in AimelOBP3. The two proteins appear very similar in structure, despite their poor amino acid identity (17%) and their markedly different binding spectra. The Buried Cavity and the Putative Channel. An electron density is visible in the AimelOBP3 cavity, indicating the presence of an unknown bound molecule. Its size and shape are compatible with trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) used for cryocooling. AimelOBP3 possesses an internal buried cavity with no access to solvent. The same feature was found in several other lipocalins, such as MUP (31), bovine and porcine OBPs (15, 16, 50), and human OBPIIa (51). Most of the residues that form the walls of the cavity are hydrophobic, with the exception of three polar amino acids (Asn90, Ser73, and Ser122) and two charged residues (Asp87 and Glu120) (Fig. 4B). In AimelOBP3, the volume of the cavity (392 Å3) is in the middle of the range (300–500 Å3) observed in other lipocalins. This cavity, however, is shielded from the solvent by only three residues: Asp87, Asn90, and Met39 (Fig. 4B). Modeling and Ligand Binding of OBP5. Since AimelOBP5 exhibits quite different binding properties compared with AimelOBP3, we modeled its structure from human OBPIIa (PDB ID code 4RUN), which shares 66% of identical residues and 93% of similar residues, thus yielding a plausible model (Fig. 4B). Despite their different and complementary binding spectra, AimelOBP3 and AimelOBP5 exhibited very similar structures, as can be appreciated by superimposing the models on one another (Fig. 4E), with only a major structural difference: the segment 31–42 in AimelOBP3 is directed toward the protein interior, while the corresponding stretch is shorter in AimelOBP5 (residues 25–30) and follows a more external path. As a result, the cavity of AimelOBP3 is closed (Fig. 4B), while that of AimelOBP5 is open (Fig. 4D). Design, Expression, and Ligand Binding of AimelOBP3 Mutants. Based on the crystallographic structure of AimelOBP3 and on docking simulations, we designed and prepared three mutants of this protein by replacing either Glu120 or Ser122 with Ala or otherwise, Asn90 with Leu. The recombinant proteins were purified by anion-exchange chromatography and used in binding experiments. All three mutants showed good affinity to 1-NPN, with dissociation constants similar to that of the WT (Fig. 5A). Competitive binding experiments were performed with the same set of ligands (linear aldehydes and plant volatiles) used for the WT protein, excluding the 12 fatty acids that were good ligands only for AimelOBP5. Each mutant showed different binding properties (Fig. 5B, Dataset S2, and Figs. S6–S8). Replacing Glu120 with Ala produced a major disruption in the binding properties of the protein. None of the good ligands of AimelOBP3-WT showed reasonable affinity for this mutant, suggesting that this amino acid substitution most likely affects the whole binding properties of this protein toward tested molecules, although the affinity to the fluorescent probe 1-NPN was barely modified. Binding characteristics of AimelOBP3 mutants. (A) All three mutants prepared bind the fluorescent probe with good affinities, similar to that of the WT. (B) The three mutations affected the binding properties of AimelOBP3 in different ways: in Glu120Ala (m1), affinity to all ligands was strongly reduced, while in Ser122Ala (m2), the amino acid replacement had little effect on the performance of the protein. Mutant Asn90Leu (m3) showed the most interesting behavior, with selective reduction of the affinities to long-chain aldehydes. (C) Ribbon representation of the complex of AimelOBP3 with Z11-16:Ald. The protein has been slabbed at the level of the ligand. The three mutated residues (Asn90, Glu120, and Ser122) are shown in sticks inside the cavity. Red, O; white, C. (D) Space fill of the same complex. The side chains of Asp87, Asn90, and Met39 have been removed to show the cavity entry. (E) Slabbed view to show the ligand inside the cavity. When Ser122 was replaced with Ala, instead, we measured only limited effects; Z11-16:Ald became a weaker ligand, while the affinity of citral improved. Conversely, the binding properties of all other compounds were not appreciably modified. The third mutant (Asn90Leu) showed the most interesting behavior. Binding of linear aldehydes was strongly reduced, while affinities of terpenoids remained unchanged or slightly affected (Fig. 5B). Ligand Binding Inside the Cavity. The strong binding of long-chain aldehydes to AimelOBP3 and the observation that their affinity was markedly and selectively reduced in Asn90Leu mutant prompted us to model the binding of two linear aldehydes in the cavity of the protein. Z11-16:Ald seemed to be an excellent ligand. From a structural viewpoint, it filled the binding pocket, establishing contacts with most of the cavity residues and accepting a hydrogen bond from Asn90 NH2 moiety (Fig. 5 C and D). Z9-14:Ald also fit nicely inside AimelOBP3, and although not entirely filling the cavity, it also established the above-mentioned hydrogen bond with Asn90 NH2 (Fig. S9). Whenever the aldehyde group in both derivatives was changed into the corresponding carboxylate and methyl ester counterparts, all compounds were still able to maintain the hydrogen bond reported above; however, they all fitted less properly within the binding pocket of AimelOBP3, as the additional atoms (hydroxyl or methoxy groups) clash with the cavity residues. Docking of two of the best ligands to AimelOBP3. Z11-16:Ald fits nicely inside the binding cavity, establishing a hydrogen bond with Asn90. The shorter aldehyde Z9-14:Ald also fits in the cavity but leaves some free space. The protein has been slabbed at the level of the ligand. Discussion The giant panda, with an obligate strict diet of bamboo and a carnivorous digestion system, lives on minimum energy at the brink of survival (3). Habitat fragmentation makes such situations worse, with lower food availability and high risk of inbreeding (52–55). Both diet and mating are mediated by chemical cues, and a better knowledge of how the giant panda chooses its food and finds its mate can suggest strategies to improve the life of these animals and protect the species. In this report, we focus on OBPs, soluble proteins acting as carriers of pheromones to the olfactory and vomeronasal mucosa and releasers of pheromones in the environment. Their binding specificity, therefore, may pave the way for the identification of pheromones that are still unknown in the giant panda. We found that AimelOBP3, highly abundant in the nasal mucus, is tuned to two classes of structurally unrelated compounds: plant volatiles and long-chain aldehydes. Among the plant volatiles showing best affinity to AimelOBP3 are several chemicals found in bamboo leaves, such citral, safranal, farnesol, β-ionone, and cedrol. This last compound is one of the best represented in bamboo leaves collected in the spring (when the mating season of the panda occurs), while its concentration drastically decreases in winter (48, 49). Linear aldehydes (ligands for AimelOBP3 as good as some plant volatiles) are common insect pheromones and might likely act as semiochemicals in the panda. The other protein studied in this work, AimelOBP5, binds unsaturated fatty acids but not their corresponding aldehydes or the plant volatiles that instead represent the best ligands for AimelOBP3. Thus, the two proteins exhibit complementary spectra of binding. We still do not know the structures of pheromone components in the panda. Analyses of perianal secretions, used by pandas to deposit scent marks, showed the presence of several fatty acids as well as some aldehydes (27, 29, 30). We can hypothesize on the basis of the best ligands found for our OBPs as well as on the information available for pheromone components in other mammals that both long-chain aldehydes and their corresponding carboxylic acids might represent suitable candidates. In the case that long-chain unsaturated aldehydes prove to be the real pheromone components, then the presence of their corresponding carboxylic acids might be the result of spontaneous oxidation in the environment. If this is the case, we can venture and speculate that using AimelOBP3 and AimelOBP5 as two distinct olfactory channels to monitor aldehydes and fatty acids could provide the panda with a sort of clock to evaluate the age of the scent marks. Our data provide some tools that might be useful for additional investigation of the chemical ecology of the giant panda and suggest putative structures for its pheromones. Moreover, the approach used in this work to search for pheromones by studying their binding proteins suggests a shortcut, which may have wider applications to other mammals and vertebrates. This method would prove particularly useful when dealing with species endangered or difficult to reach, for which it would be difficult to obtain enough biological samples or perform accurate behavioral observations. Materials and Methods Biological Material. Samples of nasal mucus and saliva were obtained at Yaan panda base and Dujiangyan base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) at Wolong, Sichuan, China. Collection of samples was performed during regular health examination and did not cause discomfort to the animals. Detailed information on panda management can be found elsewhere (56). In brief, animals were housed individually in pens consisting of an indoor house (6 × 4 m) and an outdoor yard with shrubs, climbing facilities, and a small pond, and they were fed on bamboo, shoots, panda bread (containing nutritional supplements), apples, and carrots. Sample collection was performed according to the regulations of CCRCGP and adhered to the Chinese Regulations and Standards for Captive Animals. All protocols for animal management were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Beijing Normal University (CLS-EAW-2014-013). Protein Extraction and Purification. Saliva and nasal mucus samples of A. melanoleuca were extracted with 50 mM Tris⋅HCl (pH 7.4) buffer and used for SDS/PAGE and Western blotting experiments or purified through Mono-Q column (GE Healthcare Biosciences). Proteomics. Gel slices were triturated, in-gel reduced, S-alkylated with iodacetamide, and digested with trypsin (57). Digest samples were desalted by μZip-TipC18 using 50% (vol/vol) acetonitrile and 5% (vol/vol) formic acid as eluent. Resulting peptide mixtures were analyzed with a nanoLC-ESI-Q-Orbitrap MS/MS system consisting of an UltiMate 3000 HPLC RSLC nano system-Dionex coupled to a Q-ExactivePlus mass spectrometer through a Nanoflex ion source (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Peptides were loaded on an Acclaim PepMap RSLC C18 column (150 mm × 75 μm i.d., 2-μm particles, 100-Å pore size; Thermo Fisher Scientific) and eluted with a gradient of solvent B [19.92/80/0.08 (vol/vol/vol) water/acetonitrile/formic acid] in solvent A [99.9/0.1 (vol/vol) water/formic acid] at a flow rate of 300 nL/min. The gradient of solvent B started at 3%, increased to 40% over 40 min, raised to 80% over 5 min, remained at this percentage for 4 min, and finally, returned to 3% in 1 min, at which it remained for an additional 20 min. The mass spectrometer operated in data-dependent mode using a full scan (m/z range 375–1,500, nominal resolution of 70,000) followed by MS/MS scans of the 10 most abundant ions. MS/MS spectra were acquired in a scan m/z range 200–2,000 using a normalized collision energy of 32%, an automatic gain control target of 100,000, a maximum ion target of 100 ms, and a resolution of 17,500. A dynamic exclusion value of 20 s was used. Bioinformatics. MS and MS/MS raw data files were loaded into Proteome Discoverer v 2.1 software (Thermo Scientific) and searched with Mascot v 2.4.2 (Matrix Science) against a homemade A. melanoleuca protein database containing Uniprot and NCBI sequence entries (June 17, 2016). For PTMs discovery, we used Bionics 2.6.46 (Protein Metrics) and PEAKS Studio 8.0 (Bioinformatics Solutions) software. In all cases, we used the following search parameters: carbamidomethylation of Cys as a fixed modification and oxidation of Met, deamidation of Asn and Gln, pyroglutamate formation of Gln, phosphorylation of Ser/Thr/Tyr, and glycation of Asn with common mammalian N-linked glycans as variable modifications. Peptide mass tolerance was set to ±20 ppm, and the fragment mass tolerance was set to ±0.05 Da. Proteolytic enzyme and maximal number of missed cleavages were set to trypsin and three, respectively. Protein candidates assigned on the basis of at least two sequenced peptides with an individual peptide expectation value <0.05 (corresponding to a confidence level for peptide identification >95%) were considered confidently identified. Definitive peptide assignment was always associated with manual spectra visualization and verification. Results were filtered to 1% false discovery rate. Plasmids and Reagents. Full-length genes encoding mature AimelOBP3 and AimelOBP5 were custom synthesized at Jinsirui Biotechnological Company. Plasmids were sequenced at Sheng Gong. All enzymes were from New England Biolabs. All other chemicals and reagents were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich and were of reagent grade. Bacterial Expression. The custom synthesized cDNAs were amplified using specific primers bearing enzyme recognition sites (underlined) at both ends: AimelOBP3-Nde: AACATATGCACGAGGAAGGTAACGAC; AimelOBP3-XhoI: AAACTCGAGTTACGCTTTCTCGCTGCC; AimelOBP5-Nde: AACATATGCAGGACCCGCCGAGCTT; AimelOBP5-Eco: AAGAATTCTTACATGTGGCTGCTGGT. After digestion, they were inserted into expression vector pET30a (Novagen). Protein expression was induced by isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactoside, and cells were grown for another 2 h. After sonication and centrifugation, recombinant proteins, which were mainly present as inclusion bodies, were dissolved in Tris buffer containing 8 M urea and 1 mM DTT and refolded by extensive dialysis against Tris buffer. Proteins were purified by anion-exchange chromatography on DE-52 (Whatman) followed by chromatography on Mono-Q (GE Healthcare Biosciences). Synthesis of Mutants. Specific mutations were introduced into the gene encoding AimelOBP3 by PCR using the following primers: for AimelOBP3-m1: fw: ATGATGGCACTGAGCGC, rv: TTACGCTTTCTCGCTGCC; for AimelOBP3-m2: fw: GATGGAACTGGCCGCGCGTGA, rv: TTACGCTTTCTCGCTGCC; for AimelOBP3-m3: fw: T7, rv: AACACGAGATAGCCATCGTA. PCR conditions were (i) first step: 95 °C for 3 min; (ii) 35 cycles: 95 °C for 30 s, 60 °C for 30 s, and 72 °C for 1 min; and (iii) final step: 72 °C for 10 min. The amplified band was excised from the gel, extracted, and used for the second PCR using the following conditions: nine cycles at 95 °C for 30 s and 68 °C for 6 min and then, at 68 °C for 16 min. This second PCR product was digested with DpnI at 37 °C for 2 h and used to transform Trans-T1 Escherichia coli competent cells (Tiangen). Colonies containing the expected mutation were used for expression of recombinant proteins. Fluorescence Binding Assays. Fluorescence was measured on a Horiba Scientific Fluoromax-4 spectrofluorometer using slits of 3, 4, or 5 nm according to the protein and a light path of 1 cm. The pure protein was dissolved with 50 mM Tris⋅HCl (pH 7.4) at a final concentration of 2 µM. The ligands, dissolved in methanol at the concentration of 1 mM, were added as aliquots to the protein solution. The fluorescent probe 1-NPN was excited at 337 nm, and emission was recorded between 380 and 450 nm. Competitive binding was measured by titration of a solution of both protein and 1-NPN at the concentration of 2 µM by adding aliquots of 1 mM methanol solution of ligand to final concentrations of 2–16 µM. Dissociation constants for 1-NPN were calculated using the software Graph Pad Prism. Dissociation constants of the competitors were calculated by the equation Kd = IC50/(1 + [1-NPN]/K1-NPN), where IC50 is the concentration of ligands halving the initial fluorescence value of 1-NPN, [1-NPN] is the free concentration of 1-NPN, and K1-NPN is the dissociation constant of the complex protein/1-NPN. Experiments were performed in triplicates, except for ligands showing not significant binding that were analyzed in single experiments. Crystallization and X-Ray Diffraction of AimelOBP3. Diffraction-quality crystals of the AimelOBP3 were obtained by sitting-drop vapor diffusion at 277 K using a Mosquito robot (TTP Labtech) in 2.2 M ammonium sulfate and 0.2 M potassium nitrate at pH 7.0. Crystals were briefly soaked in TMAO before being flash-cooled in a nitrogen gas stream at 100 K. Crystals belong to the hexagonal space group P6522 with unit cell dimensions a = b = 94 Å and c = 114.5 Å. Diffraction data were collected under standard cryogenic conditions on beamline Proxima 1 using a PILATUS 6M detector at the Soleil synchrotron (Saint Aubin, France); 1,000 images were collected with an oscillation step of 0.10° and 0.1-s exposure time. Data were integrated, scaled, and merged using the XDS package (58). The crystal structure of AimelOBP3 was determined from single-wavelength native diffraction experiments by molecular replacement using MOLREP (59), with the structure of major mouse urinary protein IV (3KFF) as the starting model. Refinement was performed with autoBUSTER (60) alternated with display modeling with COOT (61) (Table S2). Cavity analysis was performed with PISA (62). Figures were made with Pymol (63). Modelization of AimelOBP3 Complexes. The ligand structures were constructed using the CCP4 tool Sketcher (64). They were fitted manually within the AimelOBP3 cavity using COOT (61) in the best position to avoid steric clashes and maximize favorable interactions. Geometry optimization was performed with REFMAC (65). Modelization of OBP5. AimelOBP5 was modeled manually from the human OBPIIa structure (PDB ID code 4RUN) using COOT (61), and geometry optimization was performed with REFMAC (65). Supplementary Material Supplementary File Supplementary File Supplementary File Acknowledgments We thank the staff at the CCRCGP for their assistance in sample collection and animal management. We also thank the Soleil synchrotron for beam time allocation. This work was funded by Natural Science Foundation of China Grant 31472009 (to D.L.) and Opening Project Programme of State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Disease and Insect Pests Grant SKLOF201502 (to G.W.). Footnotes The authors declare no conflict of interest. This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. Data deposition: The 3D structure of AimelOBP3 reported in this paper has been deposited in the Protein Data Bank, www.wwpdb.org (PDB ID code 5NGH).	Share RESOURCES As a library, NLM provides access to scientific literature. Inclusion in an NLM database does not imply endorsement of, or agreement with, the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health. Learn more: PMC Disclaimer \| PMC Copyright Notice Significance The giant panda, an endangered species and a popular emblem, still conceals puzzling unexplored aspects. It shares with bears, to which it is evolutionary related, a carnivorous digestive system but follows a strictly herbivorous diet. The low energy obtained from such poor food accounts for its slow movements and probably, a reduced reproductive activity. Feeding and mating are regulated by olfaction, still poorly investigated in this species at the molecular level. Here, we describe two odorant-binding proteins with complementary affinities to different chemical classes and present the 3D structure of one of them. In a reverse chemical ecology approach, which could be adopted for other vertebrates, we use ligand-binding data to suggest putative structures of still unknown sex pheromones. Abstract The giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca belongs to the family of Ursidae; however, it is not carnivorous, feeding almost exclusively on bamboo. Being equipped with a typical carnivorous digestive apparatus, the giant panda cannot get enough energy for an active life and spends most of its time digesting food or sleeping. Feeding and mating are both regulated by odors and pheromones; therefore, a better knowledge of olfaction at the molecular level can help in designing strategies for the conservation of this species. In this context, we have identified the odorant-binding protein (OBP) repertoire of the giant panda and mapped the protein expression in nasal mucus and saliva through proteomics. Four OBPs have been identified in nasal mucus, while the other two were not detected in the samples examined. In particular, AimelOBP3 is similar to a subset of OBPs reported as pheromone carriers in the urine of rodents, saliva of the boar,	yes
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	yes_statement	the "giant" panda is still "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the status of the "giant" panda as an "endangered" "species" remains unchanged.	https://westernwildlife.org/6-of-8-bear-species-threatened-with-extinction/	6 of 8 bear species threatened with extinction - Western Wildlife ...	6 of 8 bear species threatened with extinction Six of the world’s eight species of bear are threatened with extinction, according to a report from the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The smallest species of bear, the sun bear, has been included on the list for the first time, while the giant panda remains endangered, despite comprehensive conservation efforts in China. The IUCN, which has updated the status of the seven species of terrestrial bear on its Red List of Threatened Species, said despite claims that panda populations were on the rise due to a ban on logging, the creation of panda reserves and reforestation programmes, it still considered the bear to be endangered. “Quite a bit is now known about the ecology of giant pandas, and substantial work and expense has been aimed at trying to estimate total numbers of these animals. However, these estimates are imprecise and prone to significant error,” said David Garshelis, the co-chairman of the IUCN bear specialist group. “Too much uncertainty exists to justify changing their status to vulnerable. It would be unwise to assume that in less than 10 years under the new habitat improvement policies in China that panda populations could have dramatically increased,” he added. The sun bear, which lives in south-east Asia, Sumatra and Borneo, has been included on the list for the first time, and is classed as vulnerable. It was previously listed as “data deficient” because not enough was known about the species. The IUCN bear specialist group, which announced its findings after a meeting in Mexico over the weekend, estimates that sun bears have declined by at least 30% over the past 30 years and would “continue to decline at this rate”. “Although we still have a lot to learn about the biology and ecology of this species, we are quite certain that it is in trouble,” said Rob Steinmetz, the co-chairman of the IUCN bear specialist group’s sun bear expert team. “Deforestation has reduced both the area and quality of their habitat. Where habitat is now protected, commercial poaching remains a significant threat.” Steinmetz said the IUCN was working with government, protected area managers, conservation groups and local people “to prevent extinctions of the many small, isolated sun bear populations that remain in many parts of south-east Asia.” Bears in Asia and South America are the most in need of urgent conservation action, the IUCN said, with Asiatic black bears, Andean bears (formerly called spectacled bears), and sloth bears all listed as vulnerable. Sloth bears live on the Indian subcontinent in Sri Lanka, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, where habitat loss has been severe. They have found sanctuary mainly in the reserves set up to protect tigers. The bear specialist group has indicated this species may have disappeared entirely from Bangladesh. Threatened existence The main threat to bears across south-east Asia comes from poaching. Although illegal, poachers are prepared the risk the small chance of being caught against the lucrative gains they can make from sales on the black market. Prized bear body parts include the gall bladder, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine, and their paw, which is considered to be a delicacy. Another threat to bear populations comes from living in close proximity to human settlements. Bears are often killed when they prey on livestock or raid crops, or killed when the roam too close to a village because they are seen as a threat to human safety. “Although the bear population estimates for Asia are not as reliable as we would like, we estimate that bears in south-east Asia are declining at a particularly rapid rate due to extensive loss of forest habitat combined with rampant poaching,” said Garshelis. The polar bear, which has recently become a symbol for climate change and its effect on animals, is listed as vulnerable, but as it is technically a marine mammal it is distinct from the other seven terrestrial bears and has a different specialist group. Only two bears – the brown bear and the American black bear – were listed as being of “least concern”. Brown bears, the most widespread species, are not listed as being threatened globally because large numbers still live in Russia, Canada, Alaska and some parts of Europe. However, the IUCN said very small, isolated and “highly vulnerable” populations exist in southern Europe and central and southern Asia. Several brown bear populations are protected under national or provincial laws, while grizzly bears are considered threatened under the US Endangered Species Act everywhere except Alaska. Only the American black bear is secure throughout its population range, which includes Canada, the US and Mexico. With a population of 900,000, the IUCN said there were more than twice as many black bears than all other species combined. They are legally hunted in most parts of their range. Bruce McLellan, another co-chairman of the bear specialist group, said: “An enormous amount of effort and funding for conservation and management continues to be directed at bears in North America where their status is relatively favorable. “It is unfortunate that so little is directed at bears in Asia and South America where the need is extreme. We are trying to change this situation, but success is slow.”	6 of 8 bear species threatened with extinction Six of the world’s eight species of bear are threatened with extinction, according to a report from the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The smallest species of bear, the sun bear, has been included on the list for the first time, while the giant panda remains endangered, despite comprehensive conservation efforts in China. The IUCN, which has updated the status of the seven species of terrestrial bear on its Red List of Threatened Species, said despite claims that panda populations were on the rise due to a ban on logging, the creation of panda reserves and reforestation programmes, it still considered the bear to be endangered. “Quite a bit is now known about the ecology of giant pandas, and substantial work and expense has been aimed at trying to estimate total numbers of these animals. However, these estimates are imprecise and prone to significant error,” said David Garshelis, the co-chairman of the IUCN bear specialist group. “Too much uncertainty exists to justify changing their status to vulnerable. It would be unwise to assume that in less than 10 years under the new habitat improvement policies in China that panda populations could have dramatically increased,” he added. The sun bear, which lives in south-east Asia, Sumatra and Borneo, has been included on the list for the first time, and is classed as vulnerable. It was previously listed as “data deficient” because not enough was known about the species. The IUCN bear specialist group, which announced its findings after a meeting in Mexico over the weekend, estimates that sun bears have declined by at least 30% over the past 30 years and would “continue to decline at this rate”. “Although we still have a lot to learn about the biology and ecology of this species, we are quite certain that it is in trouble,” said Rob Steinmetz, the co-chairman of the IUCN bear specialist group’s sun bear expert team. “Deforestation has reduced both the area and quality of their habitat. Where habitat is now protected, commercial poaching remains a significant threat.”	yes
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	no_statement	the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".	https://www.npr.org/2021/07/09/1014593425/china-giant-pandas-endangered-vulnerable-iucn	China Says Giant Pandas Are No Longer An Endangered Species ...	China Says Giant Pandas Are No Longer An Endangered SpeciesThe announcement comes five years after the International Union for Conservation of Nature officially removed giant pandas from its endangered list. Finally Some Good News! China Says Giant Pandas Are No Longer Endangered A Giant panda enjoys bamboo at the Beijing Zoo during the first day of the public display in 2008 in Beijing. Feng Li/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Feng Li/Getty Images A Giant panda enjoys bamboo at the Beijing Zoo during the first day of the public display in 2008 in Beijing. Feng Li/Getty Images It's a good day to be a giant panda. Chinese conservation officials have announced that they no longer consider giant pandas in China an endangered species. Their status has been updated to "vulnerable," Cui Shuhong from China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment said Wednesday, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reports. There are now 1,800 giant pandas living in the wild, a number that officials credit to the country's devotion to maintaining nature reserves and other conservation initiatives in recent years. As a result, other species have also flourished: Siberian tigers, Asian elephants, and crested ibises have all seen a gradual increase in population numbers, according to the outlet. Internationally, the giant panda has been considered "vulnerable" for five years. The International Union for Conservation of Nature removed giant pandas from its list of endangered species in 2016 — a decision that Chinese officials challenged at the time. "If we downgrade their conservation status, or neglect or relax our conservation work, the populations and habitats of giant pandas could still suffer irreversible loss and our achievements would be quickly lost," China's State Forestry Administration told The Associated Press at the time. "Therefore, we're not being alarmist by continuing to emphasize the panda species' endangered status." Two giant pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, are seen at the Bifeng Gorge Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Yaan city in 2008. Sam Yeh /AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Sam Yeh /AFP via Getty Images Two giant pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, are seen at the Bifeng Gorge Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Yaan city in 2008. Sam Yeh /AFP via Getty Images It's not clear that the number of giant pandas living in the wild has changed significantly since 2016, when IUCN first made its decision. At the end of 2015, there were 1,864 pandas living in the wild, according to a Reuters report that cites the Chinese government. That number was a significant increase from the 1,100 giant pandas that were living in the wild and 422 living in captivity in 2000. In a statement to NPR, the World Wildlife Fund called it "another sign of hope for the species." "Thanks to decades of collaboration between the Chinese government, local communities, companies and NGOs, the giant panda's future is more secure," said Colby Loucks, WWF's Vice President for Wildlife Conservation. "China's successful conservation of giant pandas shows what can be achieved when political will and science join forces," he continued. "Continuing these conservation efforts is critical, but we need to stay vigilant on the current and future impacts climate change may have on giant pandas and their mountainous forest habitat." Still, giant pandas aren't out of the woods just yet. They live in bamboo forests, which are at risk due to climate change.	China Says Giant Pandas Are No Longer An Endangered SpeciesThe announcement comes five years after the International Union for Conservation of Nature officially removed giant pandas from its endangered list. Finally Some Good News! China Says Giant Pandas Are No Longer Endangered A Giant panda enjoys bamboo at the Beijing Zoo during the first day of the public display in 2008 in Beijing. Feng Li/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Feng Li/Getty Images A Giant panda enjoys bamboo at the Beijing Zoo during the first day of the public display in 2008 in Beijing. Feng Li/Getty Images It's a good day to be a giant panda. Chinese conservation officials have announced that they no longer consider giant pandas in China an endangered species. Their status has been updated to "vulnerable," Cui Shuhong from China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment said Wednesday, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reports. There are now 1,800 giant pandas living in the wild, a number that officials credit to the country's devotion to maintaining nature reserves and other conservation initiatives in recent years. As a result, other species have also flourished: Siberian tigers, Asian elephants, and crested ibises have all seen a gradual increase in population numbers, according to the outlet. Internationally, the giant panda has been considered "vulnerable" for five years. The International Union for Conservation of Nature removed giant pandas from its list of endangered species in 2016 — a decision that Chinese officials challenged at the time. "If we downgrade their conservation status, or neglect or relax our conservation work, the populations and habitats of giant pandas could still suffer irreversible loss and our achievements would be quickly lost," China's State Forestry Administration told The Associated Press at the time. "Therefore, we're not being alarmist by continuing to emphasize the panda species' endangered status. " Two giant pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan,	no
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	no_statement	the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".	https://www.livescience.com/55991-giant-pandas-no-longer-endangered.html	Giant Panda Is No Longer Endangered Species \| Live Science	The giant panda, commonly a symbol for conservation, is no longer considered an endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In an update to their Red List of Threatened Species on Sunday (Sept. 4), which assesses a species' conservation status, the IUCN reported the giant panda population has improved enough for the endangered species label to be downgraded to "vulnerable." A nationwide census in 2014 found 1,864 giant pandas in the wild in China, excluding cubs — an increase from 1,596 in 2004, according to the IUCN. Including cubs, the current population count is approaching 2,060, the organization said. The report credits forest protection and reforestation measures in China for increasing the available habitat for the species. [Baby Panda Pics: See A Cub Growing Up] "The decision to downlist the giant panda to 'vulnerable' is a positive sign confirming that the Chinese government's efforts to conserve this species are effective," the IUCN noted in its assessment. The giant panda was once widespread throughout southern China, and is revered in the country's culture. The IUCN's first assessment of the species in 1965 listed the giant panda as "very rare but believed to be stable or increasing." The species has been the focus of an intensive, high-profile conservation campaign to recover an endangered species since the 1970s, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) — which has used the panda in its logo since 1961. "For over fifty years, the giant panda has been the globe's most beloved conservation icon as well as the symbol of WWF," Marco Lambertini, director general of the WWF, said in a statement. "Knowing that the panda is now a step further from extinction is an exciting moment for everyone committed to conserving the world's wildlife and their habitats." Decades of conservation efforts have included the banning of giant panda poaching — their hides were considered a commodity — as well as the creation of the panda reserve system, increasing available habitats. There are now 67 reserves in China protecting nearly 5,400 square miles (14,000 square kilometers) of habitat and 67 percent of the panda population, reported CNN. "The recovery of the panda shows that when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together, we can save wildlife and also improve biodiversity," Lambertini said in the statement. The Chinese government's partnerships with the international organization have also spread conservation and breeding efforts. In June, a healthy male cub was born in a Belgian zoo. The captive population is not taken into consideration by IUCN for the Red List, which is specific to species in the wild. However, the captive population being bred for recovery and reintroduction are part of the overall conservation picture, according to Joe Walston, Vice President of Conservation Field Programs for the Wildlife Conservation Society. The giant panda is not completely in the clear, however. The IUCN warned that climate change and decreasing bamboo availability could reverse the gains made in the past few decades. More than one-third of the panda's bamboo habitat could disappear in the next 80 years, according to the IUCN. "It is a real concern, and this is emblematic of what species are facing globally with regard to climate change," Walston told Live Science of the threat to habitat and food supply. "The most important thing we can do at the moment is to be able to grow the extent and range of that habitat and by doing that you allow pandas to move across landscapes." Wildlife as a whole can adapt to short-term changes and season extremes, Walston said, but they need to space to move and adapt. As such, conservation efforts continue and the giant panda will continue to be considered "a conservation-dependent species for the foreseeable future," the IUCN's report concluded. Live Science newsletter Stay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Kacey Deamer is a journalist for Live Science, covering planet earth and innovation. She has previously reported for Mother Jones, the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press, Neon Tommy and more. After completing her undergraduate degree in journalism and environmental studies at Ithaca College, Kacey pursued her master's in Specialized Journalism: Climate Change at USC Annenberg. Follow Kacey on Twitter.	The giant panda, commonly a symbol for conservation, is no longer considered an endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In an update to their Red List of Threatened Species on Sunday (Sept. 4), which assesses a species' conservation status, the IUCN reported the giant panda population has improved enough for the endangered species label to be downgraded to "vulnerable. " A nationwide census in 2014 found 1,864 giant pandas in the wild in China, excluding cubs — an increase from 1,596 in 2004, according to the IUCN. Including cubs, the current population count is approaching 2,060, the organization said. The report credits forest protection and reforestation measures in China for increasing the available habitat for the species. [Baby Panda Pics: See A Cub Growing Up] "The decision to downlist the giant panda to 'vulnerable' is a positive sign confirming that the Chinese government's efforts to conserve this species are effective," the IUCN noted in its assessment. The giant panda was once widespread throughout southern China, and is revered in the country's culture. The IUCN's first assessment of the species in 1965 listed the giant panda as "very rare but believed to be stable or increasing. " The species has been the focus of an intensive, high-profile conservation campaign to recover an endangered species since the 1970s, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) — which has used the panda in its logo since 1961. "For over fifty years, the giant panda has been the globe's most beloved conservation icon as well as the symbol of WWF," Marco Lambertini, director general of the WWF, said in a statement. "Knowing that the panda is now a step further from extinction is an exciting moment for everyone committed to conserving the world's wildlife and their habitats.	no
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	no_statement	the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".	https://plantbasednews.org/news/animal-species-no-longer-endangered/	Animal Species That Are No Longer Endangered, And How To Help ...	It’s Earth Day, and as millions of people turn their attention to our glorious planet and the ways society is harming it, the internet becomes flooded with information on the climate emergency we’re facing. And rightly so; it’s an ever-present and unfortunately, worsening crisis that must be addressed across all sectors – including fossil fuels, fast fashion, and animal agriculture, among others. It’s also a day to show our appreciation for Mother Nature and all the wildlife she sustains. And, to highlight the vital work being done by climate scientists, activists, non-profits, and even plant-based food producers, to name a few, that takes us closer to restoring the planet. Earth Day is a reminder to do better. To learn from our mistakes, to carve out innovative ways forward, and an opportunity to look back on the progress we’ve made. And in that way, it’s also a reminder that together, change is possible. A disclaimer It’s important to note that animals losing their endangered status isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes, the loss of such labels causes species to lose their government-instilled protections, too. For instance, in 2020, when the gray wolf was no longer considered endangered, the Trump administration removed the species’ federal protections. This kickstarted hunts against the species, despite still having relatively unstable population numbers. (In February of this year, the animals were reintroduced to the Endangered Species Act and consequently regained protections). The species on the below list are no longer listed as endangered. But, like many others, they still face threats (most of which are human-caused). So whilst we celebrate these wins, we must continue fighting for the survival of all species – in the wild, in labs, in our homes, and on farms. Species that shook off their endangered status Giant panda Adobe Stock Giant panda populations have nearly doubled. Last year, Chinese officials announced that the country’s national animal, the giant panda, was no longer endangered. In the late 1970s, there were around 1,000 giant pandas living in the wild. But populations have since blossomed, nearly doubling due to government recovery schemes. Fun fact: according to WWF, to obtain estimates about panda population numbers, teams of researchers scale through mountainous forests looking for panda dung and chewed bamboo. The latter is particularly useful, because panda bite marks are all unique, like fingerprints. Giant pandas still face threats, including poaching and habitat loss relating to farming and tourism. Southern white rhinoceros The herbivorous subspecies – the second-largest land mammal after the elephant – was once thought to be extinct, chiefly due to hunters targeting them for meat and sport. But in 1895, a group of under 100 southern white rhinos were found in Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa. Now, following a century’s worth of conservation efforts, there are more than 20,000 southern white rhinos on Earth. They live predominantly in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya in protected areas and private game reserves. Southern white rhinos still need our help. They’re especially at risk of illegal poaching for their horns, particularly in South Africa, to meet demand from Asia (mostly Vietnam and China). Save the Rhino International is fighting to protect all five rhino subspecies. Learn more here. Arabian oryx Adobe Stock The Arabian oryx can smell rain across vast distances. In the early 1970s, things were looking grim for the Arabian oryx, when hunting had completely wiped out the species in the wild. However, a slew of reintroduction schemes steered population numbers upwards, so that by 2011, the animal became the first to regain vulnerable status after being listed as extinct in the wild. Today, there are around 1,200 Arabian oryx living freely in Saudi Arabia, with another up to 7,000 in captivity. The unique animals – which can actually smell rain in the distance, and lead their herds towards it for fresh grazing – are still hunted for their meat, horns, and skins. Fauna & Flora International, thought to be the world’s oldest international conservation organization, had a helping hand in rescuing the species. Learn more about the charity here. American alligator Adobe Stock American alligators are predominantly threatened by habitat loss and hunting. Like most examples of animal populations making a comeback, it was a matter of humans undoing the damage we were responsible for in the first place. Still, the fact that American alligators reached the very edge of extinction in the 1950s – after spending 200 millions years on the planet – only to become one of the first endangered species success stories is worth celebrating. In 1967, after hunters and poachers drove American alligator numbers down to near-extinct levels, the species was granted federal protections, banning the hunting of the reptiles. By 1987, they were officially dubbed fully recovered. Now, they’re classified as of least concern (the lowest status there is). There are currently an estimated five million American alligators in the southeastern United States (more than one million of them live in Florida). American alligators – which can grow up to 16 feet long – are mainly threatened by habitat loss caused by development. They are also still hunted for their meat and skins, though the trade is now regulated. Humpback whale Adobe Stock Australia’s Minister for the Environment called it a “message of hope.” Earlier this year, the majestic humpback whale was removed from Australia’s threatened species list. The whaling industry had pushed numbers down drastically over several decades; at one point, just 1,500 humpbacks were living in Australian waters. Now, an estimated 40,000 individuals reside there, and that figure is still climbing. Australia’s Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley assured that despite the listing change, the species will continue to be protected from whaling. Ley named it an example of “what can be achieved through coordinated action.” “It is a message of hope for the welfare of a number of species,” they said. Lake Erie water snake This water snake only calls one destination home: Lake Erie – which spans 9,910 square miles (25,667 square kilometers). But, in the 1990s, habitat-destroying development and resident-led culls (since locals considered the Lake Erie water snake a pest) saw the species reach the brink of extinction.es is exclusive In response, the federal government added the water snake to the Endangered Species List in 1999. This made it illegal to kill or injure the snakes, which can live for up to 12 years in the wild. In 2011, the Lake Erie water snake population had slithered up to 12,000, and was removed from the list. Advocates for Snake Preservation aims to change the way the public view snakes, and promote peaceful coexistence with the animals. You can learn more about the organization on its website. Bald eagle Adobe Stock Bald eagles were heavily impacted by pesticide use. The US’ iconic national bird was nearly wiped out after decades of hunting, habitat loss, and the use of DDT, a toxic pesticide that had severely contaminated waterways, then fish, then the animals consuming those fish, including the bald eagle. By the 1960s, just 487 nesting pairs of bald eagles were alive in the US. The species (which can dive at speeds of 100 miles per hour, or 160 kilometers an hour) was included in the Endangered Species Act in the 1970s, and DDT was banned. Populations soared, and bald eagles were federally delisted in 2007. “The bald eagle is one of the original species listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act,” conservation biologist Margaret Fowle told myChamplainValley.com. “It was kind of a wake up call with this decline that the bald eagles went through for us to realize some of the things we’re doing to the environment and how they affect the wildlife and the ecosystem.” Still want ways to help? There are a wealth of avenues we, as a society, can take to better protect non-human animals. Global bans on poaching, hunting, and trading wildlife, for example, and heightened penalties for those who violate such laws, are integral approaches. Comprehensive animal protection legislation and policies are also an important part of the equation. But besides signing petitions and (when possible) donating money, individuals carry more power than one might think. A report published last month found that eating less meat could help reverse the decline of hundreds of plant and animal species. Researchers stated that increasing intake of fruits and vegetables whilst lowering meat intake could bring “significant health and environmental benefits.” In fact, if the population of the UK ate an additional handful of vegetables a day, an estimated 407 to 536 species could be protected, the report said. Indeed, a range of environmental studies have linked animal products to significant deforestation, habitat loss, ocean acidification, and pollution. One sizeable meta-analysis on farming’s environmental on the planet uncovered that plant-based eating is one of the most effective ways to help protect the planet. Support Plant Based News in our mission to plant 1 million trees by 2030. 🌳 Your donation supports our mission to bring you vital, up-to-the-minute plant-based news and research and contributes to our goal of planting 1 million trees by 2030. Every contribution combats deforestation and promotes a sustainable future. Together, we can make a difference – for our planet, health, and future generations. The Author Jemima Webber Jemima is the Head of Editorial at Plant Based News. Originally from Newcastle, Australia, she has written extensively about vegan living, animal rights, law, psychology, music, and the environment, and is also passionate about intersectional feminism and LGBTQIA+ issues. Jemima currently lives in Canada with her senior plant-based dog Levi.	For instance, in 2020, when the gray wolf was no longer considered endangered, the Trump administration removed the species’ federal protections. This kickstarted hunts against the species, despite still having relatively unstable population numbers. (In February of this year, the animals were reintroduced to the Endangered Species Act and consequently regained protections). The species on the below list are no longer listed as endangered. But, like many others, they still face threats (most of which are human-caused). So whilst we celebrate these wins, we must continue fighting for the survival of all species – in the wild, in labs, in our homes, and on farms. Species that shook off their endangered status Giant panda Adobe Stock Giant panda populations have nearly doubled. Last year, Chinese officials announced that the country’s national animal, the giant panda, was no longer endangered. In the late 1970s, there were around 1,000 giant pandas living in the wild. But populations have since blossomed, nearly doubling due to government recovery schemes. Fun fact: according to WWF, to obtain estimates about panda population numbers, teams of researchers scale through mountainous forests looking for panda dung and chewed bamboo. The latter is particularly useful, because panda bite marks are all unique, like fingerprints. Giant pandas still face threats, including poaching and habitat loss relating to farming and tourism. Southern white rhinoceros The herbivorous subspecies – the second-largest land mammal after the elephant – was once thought to be extinct, chiefly due to hunters targeting them for meat and sport. But in 1895, a group of under 100 southern white rhinos were found in Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa. Now, following a century’s worth of conservation efforts, there are more than 20,000 southern white rhinos on Earth. They live predominantly in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya in protected areas and private game reserves.	no
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	no_statement	the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".	https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/37273632	Giant Panda no longer an endangered species - BBC Newsround	Giant Panda no longer an endangered species The number of giant pandas has increased thanks to conservation efforts over decades in China to save the species. With population counts at approximately 2,000 adults and cubs it is no longer considered an "endangered" species, but is still thought to be vulnerable from future deforestation and concerns surrounding climate change. The increase in numbers is being put down to special breeding programmes and protection for bamboo forests. Image source, GERARD JULIEN The change was announced as part of an update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list, which includes 82,954 species, both plants and animals. Almost 24,000 of these species are listed as being threatened with extinction. While it's been good news for Pandas, the eastern gorilla is now critically endangered, joining three other great ape species on the list. Their population has collapsed over the last 20 years mainly due to illegal hunting. Image source, Brent Stirton The western gorilla, the Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan are all considered critically endangered. While gorillas in Africa have suffered due to illegal poaching, the orangutans in Indonesia and Malaysia are faced with rapid deforestation and loss of habitat. Image source, CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN And it's not just animals that are endangered. Plant species are threatened too. The endangered Ohe kiko'ola - a beautiful flowering tree found only on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, has been almost wiped out. Image source, Jesse Adams Nearly 90 per cent of native Hawaiian plants that have been assessed are threatened with extinction.	Giant Panda no longer an endangered species The number of giant pandas has increased thanks to conservation efforts over decades in China to save the species. With population counts at approximately 2,000 adults and cubs it is no longer considered an "endangered" species, but is still thought to be vulnerable from future deforestation and concerns surrounding climate change. The increase in numbers is being put down to special breeding programmes and protection for bamboo forests. Image source, GERARD JULIEN The change was announced as part of an update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list, which includes 82,954 species, both plants and animals. Almost 24,000 of these species are listed as being threatened with extinction. While it's been good news for Pandas, the eastern gorilla is now critically endangered, joining three other great ape species on the list. Their population has collapsed over the last 20 years mainly due to illegal hunting. Image source, Brent Stirton The western gorilla, the Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan are all considered critically endangered. While gorillas in Africa have suffered due to illegal poaching, the orangutans in Indonesia and Malaysia are faced with rapid deforestation and loss of habitat. Image source, CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN And it's not just animals that are endangered. Plant species are threatened too. The endangered Ohe kiko'ola - a beautiful flowering tree found only on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, has been almost wiped out. Image source, Jesse Adams Nearly 90 per cent of native Hawaiian plants that have been assessed are threatened with extinction.	no
Endangered Species	Is the Giant Panda still considered an endangered species?	no_statement	the "giant" panda is no longer "considered" an "endangered" "species".. the "giant" panda has been removed from the list of "endangered" "species".	https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/giant-pandas-are-no-longer-endangered-are-still-danger-180960349/	Giant Pandas Are No Longer Endangered but Are Still in Danger ...	Giant Pandas Are No Longer Endangered but Are Still in Danger Conservationists got a mixed bag of news following an international group overseeing the world’s species protection initiatives meeting this weekend. On the positive side, officials decided to officially take the giant panda off of the endangered species list, citing steady successes in preserving the bears’ natural habitats. But though this is certainly a small victory, pandas are far from out of the woods when it comes to their species’ long-term survival. For decades, the giant panda was considered one of the world’s most threatened species, thanks to the iconic bear’s rapidly shrinking habitats and rampant poaching for their black-and-white pelts. In the 1990s, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared giant pandas to be an endangered species as their wild populations dwindled. Since then, reports of wild panda populations appear to have steadily risen by 17 percent over the last 10 years, giving conservationists hope that China’s anti-poaching initiatives and expansion of protected habitats are helping bring the bears back from the brink of extinction, Maddie Stone reports for Gizmodo. Now, the pandas have been officially labeled as a “vulnerable” species rather than “endangered.” However, while recent reports suggest that wild panda populations have risen to more than 2,000 individuals for the first time in decades, some are questioning the decision to downgrade their status. While most conservationists agree that China’s efforts in banning poaching and increasing the panda’s habitats have been paying off, the question is by how much, Christine Dell'Amore reports for National Geographic. "It is too early to conclude that pandas are actually increasing in the wild—perhaps we are simply getting better at counting wild pandas," Marc Brody, senior advisor for conservation at China’s Wolong Nature Reserve tells Dell’Amore. While China now has 67 panda preserves (up from 33 in 2015), many of them are small and fragmented. Because the typically solitary bears need a lot of room to roam, this limits the number of pandas each region can support to just a few dozen individuals. Meanwhile, scientists say that pandas are likely to lose nearly 35 percent of their bamboo-covered habitats over the next century due to climate change, Emanuella Grinberg reports for CNN. “You celebrate the small victories, but you keep track of the war,” Conservation International’s senior scientist M. Sanjayan tells Dell’Amore. Things might be tentatively looking up for the giant panda, but the future of our great ape relatives has gotten more dire. According to a report at the same IUCN meeting, four of the six species of great apes are now facing greater danger of extinction than ever before. In particular, the eastern lowland gorilla – the largest primate to walk the earth – is critically endangered, having seen its worldwide population decline 70 percent since the 1990s. Three other species of great ape (the western gorilla, Bornean orangutan and Sumatra orangutan) are also now considered critically endangered, Grinberg reports, all thanks to hunting and loss of habitat to human development. “We are the only one species of great ape that is not threatened with extinction,” Carlo Rondinini, who runs the IUCN’s Global Mammal Assessment Program, tells Dell’Amore. While some conservationists may be cautiously optimistic about the giant panda’s current conservation status, more time is needed to determine if they can rally enough support for the great apes to make a difference. Danny Lewis is a multimedia journalist working in print, radio, and illustration. He focuses on stories with a health/science bent and has reported some of his favorite pieces from the prow of a canoe. Danny is based in Brooklyn, NY.	Giant Pandas Are No Longer Endangered but Are Still in Danger Conservationists got a mixed bag of news following an international group overseeing the world’s species protection initiatives meeting this weekend. On the positive side, officials decided to officially take the giant panda off of the endangered species list, citing steady successes in preserving the bears’ natural habitats. But though this is certainly a small victory, pandas are far from out of the woods when it comes to their species’ long-term survival. For decades, the giant panda was considered one of the world’s most threatened species, thanks to the iconic bear’s rapidly shrinking habitats and rampant poaching for their black-and-white pelts. In the 1990s, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared giant pandas to be an endangered species as their wild populations dwindled. Since then, reports of wild panda populations appear to have steadily risen by 17 percent over the last 10 years, giving conservationists hope that China’s anti-poaching initiatives and expansion of protected habitats are helping bring the bears back from the brink of extinction, Maddie Stone reports for Gizmodo. Now, the pandas have been officially labeled as a “vulnerable” species rather than “endangered.” However, while recent reports suggest that wild panda populations have risen to more than 2,000 individuals for the first time in decades, some are questioning the decision to downgrade their status. While most conservationists agree that China’s efforts in banning poaching and increasing the panda’s habitats have been paying off, the question is by how much, Christine Dell'Amore reports for National Geographic. "It is too early to conclude that pandas are actually increasing in the wild—perhaps we are simply getting better at counting wild pandas," Marc Brody, senior advisor for conservation at China’s Wolong Nature Reserve tells Dell’Amore. While China now has 67 panda preserves (up from 33 in 2015), many of them are small and fragmented.	no

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.