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=== China's Contributions ===

=== China's Contributions ===

What inventions do we owe to ancient China?  A great deal: paper, the compass, the umbrella, the fan, spaghetti, acupuncture, bamboo cultivation, harvesting silk, and perhaps the first planetarium.  China invented fireworks and then, in A.D. 850, China invented gunpowder too.

What inventions do we owe to ancient China?  A great deal: paper, the compass, the umbrella, the fan, spaghetti, acupuncture, bamboo cultivation, harvesting silk, and perhaps the first planetarium.  Chinese invented fireworks and then, in A.D. 850, Chinese invented gunpowder too.

English philosopher Francis Bacon said this about three Chinese inventions:  "Printing, gunpowder and the compass: These three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, in so much that no empire, no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries."<ref>http://www.bjreview.com.cn/forum/txt/2008-08/26/content_146756_2.htm</ref>  Sometimes historians refer to the "Four Great Inventions":  paper-making, printing, compass and gunpowder, and claim that China deserves credit for all four.

English philosopher Francis Bacon said this about three Chinese inventions:  "Printing, gunpowder and the compass: These three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, in so much that no empire, no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries."<ref>http://www.bjreview.com.cn/forum/txt/2008-08/26/content_146756_2.htm</ref>  Sometimes historians refer to the "Four Great Inventions":  paper-making, printing, compass and gunpowder, and claim that China deserves credit for all four.

Paul of Tarsus (now southern Turkey) was Jewish and converted to Christianity within a year or two of the Crucifixion, while on the road to Damascus (now located in Syria), and afterward spread the Good News far and wide within the Roman empire.  He was both a prolific writer and scholar, and a prodigious missionary who traveled on three great missions throughout the Roman empire before being executed by a beheading in Rome in A.D. 62 (as a Roman citizen, Paul could not be scourged or crucified).  Many of Paul's letters are included in the New Testament, and often quoted to this day.  (For example, in Paul's letter to the Romans, he condemns homosexuality.<ref>Romans 1:27.</ref>)  Peter, who was not a Roman citizen, likewise spread the faith before being crucified in Rome, by his choice upside down out of the utmost respect for Jesus's own Crucifixion.

Paul of Tarsus (now southern Turkey) was Jewish and converted to Christianity within a year or two of the Crucifixion, while on the road to Damascus (now located in Syria), and afterward spread the Good News far and wide within the Roman empire.  He was both a prolific writer and scholar, and a prodigious missionary who traveled on three great missions throughout the Roman empire before being executed by a beheading in Rome in A.D. 62 (as a Roman citizen, Paul could not be scourged or crucified).  Many of Paul's letters are included in the New Testament, and often quoted to this day.  (For example, in Paul's letter to the Romans, he condemns homosexuality.<ref>Romans 1:27.</ref>)  Peter, who was not a Roman citizen, likewise spread the faith before being crucified in Rome, by his choice upside down out of the utmost respect for Jesus's own Crucifixion.

One misconception about early Christians is the claim that they could not read or write.  But several several early Christians wrote letters while held in jail by Roman authorities.  Moreover, many of the insights and truths revealed in the Gospels by the Apostles could only have been understood and taught by people of tremendous intelligence and faith.

One misconception about early Christians is the claim that they could not read or write.  But several early Christians wrote letters while held in jail by Roman authorities.  Moreover, many of the insights and truths revealed in the Gospels by the Apostles could only have been understood and taught by people of tremendous intelligence and faith.

Mark founded a church in Egypt under the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, first converting Alexandrian Jews such as Theophilus and also converting many native Egyptians who were neither Greek nor Jewish.  It was for Theophilus and the Egyptian community that Luke wrote his Gospel and Acts of the Apostles, addressing Theophilus in the beginning of each.<ref>''See'' Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1.</ref>  The local language in Egypt was Coptic, and translations of the Gospels into that language have been discovered which date from the first half of the second century.  Coptic Christianity remains in Egypt now, although Islam has become the dominant religion there.  Some cite the acceptance of Arabic as a liturgical language by the Pope of Alexandria as aiding the rise to dominance of Islam there.  Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas each year on January 7th.

Mark founded a church in Egypt under the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, first converting Alexandrian Jews such as Theophilus and also converting many native Egyptians who were neither Greek nor Jewish.  It was for Theophilus and the Egyptian community that Luke wrote his Gospel and Acts of the Apostles, addressing Theophilus in the beginning of each.<ref>''See'' Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1.</ref>  The local language in Egypt was Coptic, and translations of the Gospels into that language have been discovered which date from the first half of the second century.  Coptic Christianity remains in Egypt now, although Islam has become the dominant religion there.  Some cite the acceptance of Arabic as a liturgical language by the Pope of Alexandria as aiding the rise to dominance of Islam there.  Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas each year on January 7th.