Biography Paul the Apostle - Paul of Tarsus, Christian apostle

Paul the Apostle (Greek: Παῦλος Paulos; c. 5 – c. 67), original name Saul of Tarsus (Greek: Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς Saulos Tarseus),[4] was an apostle (though not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the gospel of Christ to the first-century world.[5] He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age.[6][7] In the mid-30s to the mid-50s, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul used his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to advantage in his ministry to both Jewish and Roman audiences.[5]

Fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul, and approximately half of the Acts of the Apostles deals with Paul's life and works. Seven of the epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic, with varying degrees of argument about the remainder. The Pauline authorship of Hebrews, already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries [8] but almost unquestioningly accepted from the 5th to the 16th centuries,[9] is now almost universally rejected by scholars.[10] The other six are believed by some scholars to have come from followers writing in his name, using material from Paul's surviving letters and letters written by him that no longer survive.[5][6][11] Other scholars argue that the idea of a pseudonymous author for the disputed epistles raises many problems.[12]

Today, his epistles continue to be deeply rooted in the theology, worship, and pastoral life in the Roman and Protestant traditions of the West, as well as the Orthodox traditions of the East.[13] Among the many other apostles and missionaries involved in the spread of the Christian faith,[5] his influence on Christian thought and practice has been characterized as being as "profound as it is pervasive".[13] Augustine of Hippo developed Paul's idea that salvation is based on faith and not "works of the law".[14] Martin Luther's interpretation of Paul's writings heavily influenced Luther's doctrine of sola fide.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle

Biography Confucius - Philosopher

Confucius (551–479 BC)[1] was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history.

The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official sanction and were further developed into a system known as Confucianism.

Confucius is traditionally credited with having authored or edited many of the Chinese classic texts including all of the Five Classics, but modern scholars are cautious of attributing specific assertions to Confucius himself. Aphorisms concerning his teachings were compiled in the Analects, but only many years after his death.

Confucius's principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He championed strong family loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives. He also recommended family as a basis for ideal government. He espoused the well-known principle "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself", an early version of the Golden Rule.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius

Biography Gautama Buddha - Spiritual leader

Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama,[note 1] Shakyamuni,[note 2] or simply the Buddha, was a sage[3] on whose teachings Buddhism was founded.[4] Born in the Shakya republic in the Himalayan foothills,[5][note 3] Gautama Buddha taught primarily in northeastern India.

Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in an era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of our age. [note 4]

Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the Sramana (renunciation) movement [12] common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kośala.[13][14]

Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writing about 400 years later.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha

Biography Isaac Newton - Scientist

Sir Isaac Newton PRS MP (/ˈnjuːtən/;[8] 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727[1]) was an English physicist and mathematician who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid the foundations for most of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics and shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the invention of the infinitesimal calculus.

Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. It also demonstrated that the motion of objects on the Earth and that of celestial bodies could be described by the same principles. By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from his mathematical description of gravity, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the cosmos.

Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours of the visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound. In addition to his work on the calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, and developed Newton's method for approximating the roots of a function.

Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He was a devout but unorthodox Christian and, unusual for a member of the Cambridge faculty, he refused to take holy orders in the Church of England, perhaps because he privately rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. In addition to his work on the mathematical sciences, Newton also dedicated much of his time to the study of alchemy and biblical chronology, but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death. In his later life, Newton became president of the Royal Society. He also served the British government as Warden and Master of the Royal Mint.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

Jesus Christ - Spiritual leader

Jesus (/ˈdʒiːzəs/; Greek: Ἰησοῦς Iesous; 7–2 BC to 30–33 AD), also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity,[12] whom the teachings of most Christian denominations hold to be the Son of God. Christianity regards Jesus as the awaited Messiah of the Old Testament and refers to him as Jesus Christ, a name that is also used in non-Christian contexts. He is also a major figure in Islam.[12]

Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically,[e] although the quest for the historical Jesus has produced little agreement on the historical reliability of the Gospels and how closely the biblical Jesus reflects the historical Jesus.[19] Most scholars agree that Jesus was a Jewish rabbi from Galilee who preached his message orally,[20] was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate.[21] Scholars have constructed various portraits of the historical Jesus, which often depict him as having one or more of the following roles: the leader of an apocalyptic movement, Messiah, a charismatic healer, a sage and philosopher, or an egalitarian social reformer.[22] Scholars have correlated the New Testament accounts with non-Christian historical records to arrive at an estimated chronology of Jesus' life. The most widely used calendar era in the world, in which the current year is 2014 (abbreviated as "AD", alternatively referred to as "CE"), counts from a medieval estimate of the birth year of Jesus.

Christians believe that Jesus has a "unique significance" in the world.[23] Christian doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin, performed miracles, founded the Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, whence he will return.[24] The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of a Divine Trinity. A few Christian groups reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural.

In Islam, Jesus (commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God's important prophets and the Messiah, who was sent to guide the Children of Israel. To Muslims, Jesus is a bringer of scripture and the child of a virgin birth, but neither divine nor the victim of crucifixion. According to Muslim traditions, Jesus was not crucified but was physically raised into the heavens by God; another person was substituted in place of Jesus. Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus

Biography Muhammad - Secular and religious leader

Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim (Arabic: ابو القاسم محمد ابن عبد الله ابن عبد المطلب ابن هاشم‎; c. 570 – c. 8 June 632),[1] also transliterated as Muhammad (محمد), was a man from Mecca who unified Arabia into a single religious polity under Islam. Believed by Muslims and Bahá'ís to be a messenger and prophet of God, Muhammad is almost universally considered by Muslims as the last prophet sent by God to mankind.[2][n 1] While non-Muslims regard Muhammad to have been the founder of Islam,[3] Muslims consider him to have restored the unaltered original monotheistic faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets.[4][5][6][7]

Born in about 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca,[8][9] Muhammad was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married at age 25.[10] Being in the habit of periodically retreating to a cave in the surrounding mountains for several nights of seclusion and prayer, he later reported that it was there, at age 40,[8][11] that he was visited by Gabriel and received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islām) is the only way (dīn)[n 2] acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets.[12][13][14]

Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was met with hostility from some Meccan tribes. To escape persecution, Muhammad sent some of his followers to Abyssinia before he and his followers in Mecca migrated to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, which is also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. After eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to 10,000, took control of Mecca in the largely peaceful Conquest of Mecca. He destroyed the pagan idols in the city[15] and then sent his followers out to destroy all of the remaining pagan temples in Eastern Arabia.[16][17] In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from The Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and he had united Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity.[18][19]

The revelations (each known as Ayah, lit. "Sign [of God]") — which Muhammad reported receiving until his death – form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the "Word of God" and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammad's teachings and practices (sunnah), found in the Hadith and sira literature, are also upheld by Muslims and used as sources of Islamic law. Muslims discuss Muhammad and other prophets of Islam with reverence, adding the phrase peace be upon him whenever their names are mentioned.[20] While conceptions of Muhammad in medieval Christendom and premodern times were largely negative, appraisals in modern history have been far less unfavorable.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad

Biography Agnes Monica singer-songwriter, actress, dancer, fashion designer, producer and voice actress

Birth name     Agnes Monica Muljoto
Also known as     AGNEZ MO
Born     1 July 1986 (age 27)
Origin     Jakarta, Indonesia
Genres     Pop, R&B, dance, soul, hip-hop
Occupations     Singer-songwriter, actress, dancer, producer, voice actress
Instruments     Vocals
Years active     1992–present
Labels     Aquarius Musikindo, Sony Music Entertainment, The Cherry Party

Agnes Monica Muljoto (Indonesian pronunciation: [aɡˈnez ˈmoɳikæ̯ ˈmuljot͡ʃ]; born in Jakarta 1 July 1986), known abroad as AGNEZ MO, is an Indonesian singer-songwriter, actress, dancer, fashion designer, producer and voice actress. She started her career in the entertainment industry at the age of six as a child singer. She has recorded three children's albums. She also became a presenter of several children's television programs. As a teenager, Agnes expanded her career to include acting. Her role in the soap opera Pernikahan Dini rocketed her name into the industry.

In 2003, she released her fourth studio album And the Story Goes, which marked her transition from a child singer to a female artist. On her fifth studio album, Whaddup A.. '?! (2005), she collaborated with American R&B singer Keith Martin. She also appeared in two Taiwanese drama series, The Hospital and Romance in the White House. She participated in the 2008 and 2009 Asia Song Festival in Seoul, South Korea, and received "Best Asian Artist Award" at each event. Agnes took creative control of her sixth studio album, Sacredly Agnezious (2009), for which she served as the producer and songwriter. In 2010, she was appointed as one of the judges on the talent show Indonesian Idol and was also one of the international hosts of the red carpet at the American Music Awards of 2010 in Los Angeles.

In addition to her commercial success, Agnes is the most-awarded Indonesian singer. She has received numerous awards, including ten Anugerah Musik Indonesia awards, seven Panasonic Awards, and four MTV Indonesia Awards. She was also honored with a Nugraha Bhakti Musik Indonesia (NBMI) from the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Singers, Songwriters, and Music Record Producers Association of Indonesia (PAPPRI) for her contribution and support for the Indonesian music industry.[1] She was also appointed as an anti-drug ambassador of Asia, and as the ambassador of MTV EXIT to combat human trafficking.

Throughout her career, she has often been controversial in Indonesia. When she was a teenager, her frequent comments about her goal to break into the international market was viewed by some as a pompous proclamation. In 2010, however, she began work on a debut English studio album. Consequently, her slogan "Dream, Believe, and Make it Happen" was used in a 2011 cultural conference to inspire young people organized by the US Embassy in Jakarta.

References:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Monica