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Repenting of Our Patriarchy & Heterosexism Trisha Famisaran

Repenting of Our Patriarchy & Heterosexism Trisha Famisaran — Feb 23 2013 HD (Mirror)

pakenhamin

Published on Sep 28, 2013

On February 22, 2013, Trisha Famisaran, who is assistant professor of philosophy and theological studies and director of the honors program at La Sierra University, preached a sermon at the Hollywood SDA Church, California.

For some reason or other the original video disappeared from YT. Where or not you agree with the presentation it is important enough that I believe it should remain on the public record as an indicator as to where some Adventist congregations are currently headed.

More commentary can be found at http://advindicate.com/articles/3029

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The hidden origins of the hippie movement

The hidden origins of the hippie movement





BY *A**V*
--A YOUTHFUL VIEW--



See me, Feel me, Touch me, Heal me!


Many people ask "what were the origins of the hippie movement"?


Where did they come from?


To most people they seemed to come out of no where.


What was their tradition?


Did they revive any traditions?





These are questions often asked by historians.
Most assume that the whole hippie phenomenon simply grew out of the drug culture of the 60's.



Little do they know, that the culture the hippies created was not only envisioned by folkish and spiritual pan-Germanics in and out of Germany, but the very idea of growing a "Longhaired tribe" or an "Aryan Christ", a new race of Longhaired Aryans in tune with the forests and meadows activating the Christ-consciousness in all life, began with such German folkists as Carl Jung and Fidus, they already envisioned a nation of hippies!
-A nation of Longhaired Germanic nature worshiping Christs was the vision these German idealists had for the future Aryan Race.
The dawning of the 60's youth culture was an attempt to breed a community of Christ like Aryans, of which the very conceptions which the hippies adopted were identical to those of the German folkist movements and of the individuals who originated and believed in their vision.
So what traditions did the hippies reactivate?
They specifically activated the tradition of the Longhaired troubadours personified by the Merovingian's and similar illuminated peoples.
The hippies were in an effect a Merovingian youth.
So it seems that the mixture of Germanic blood and soil conscious, country living, -folkish movements mixed with the sensuality of the Franco-Hebrew influence gave birth to this Merovingian youth, which was a youth of musicians, artists-creators, poets, wizards, occultists, revolutionaries, spiritual reformers and idealistic dreamers of every type.
They created a "new order", by reviving the genuine order of eternity and sweeping away the old order of their parents.
So the 60's youth movement really did take that "Christ like" component within the various free-spirit movements of the Middle Ages to the German naturalists and Bohemian folkists of the 19century and create a 'new culture' of Aryan people where "every man looked like Jesus, and every woman looked like Mary, and they had their spirit"!
This was the birth of a new interpretation of the world.


The very ideas which the hippie movement adopted and gave new life to had their original resurrection among the folkish movements in Germany such as the Wandervogel and many others. Of which many got absorbed in the Nazi movement and the Hitler Yourth.
The interesting thing is that it was individuals such as Carl Jung that started the "Aryan Christ Movement".
He wished to breed a race of Christs in America. This new man would have perfect polarity between the divine male and the divine female, and would be at peace with nature. He hoped that this would stimulate the Christ like energies in nature and thus guide the evolution of life to it's next state of development.
Again, Long Hair would be a major source of this mystical power and connection, with the healing feminine and masculine forces in nature forming them into an androgynous whole.
Thus it was Germans like Fidus and Carl Jung who planted the seeds that would later grow into the hippie movement in the 1960's.



"Lichtgebet" ("Prayer To The Sun") by Fidus, 1913

While he regretted the militarization and thus de-Christification of the nazi government, he still saw the light in nazism and in Hilter, and many times praised the nazis in their fight against certain ills such as materialism, Judeo-anti-folkish institutions etc;
praising their liberation of nature.
Many of his supporters were sympathetic to Nazi Germany if not completely pro-Hitler.
Paticuarly Fidus wanted to raise an Aryan Youth of Longhaired mystics, wizards, and saviors. Their long hair would help them develop a mystical Christ like relationship with the planet.

 

Professor Arnold Ehret, taken shortly after his 49 day fast in Cologne, Germany, circa 1905. Ehret later migrated to southern California and helped to spawn a new sub-culture in America, based upon his natural philosophy and lifestyle. His books have never been out of print in over 70 years. (Photo courtesy of Fred Hirsch)


So in a sense Abbie Hoffman, Timothy Leary and the whole of the psychedelic youth movement conspired to activate this "Christ gene", or "Christ consciousness" within the White masses of America, so that they could awaken the "Christ consciousness" in all creation.
Through marijuana, sex, and music they succeeded in liberating the gentle and energetic spirit of the American youth.
Through LSD, Eastern Religions and other exotic forms of enlightenment the leaders of the flower youth movement succeeded in opening the "cyclic understanding" of history and the nature of life to all who would tune in.
Timothy Leary and other agents of free spiritualism took after the German conspiracy of Aryan Christs that Carl Jung and many other German and American folkish societies and individuals such as Arnold Ehret, Maximillian Sikinger, Eden Abez, Hermann Hesse, Carl Jung, Isadora Duncan, D. H. Lawrence, Arnold Ehret, Franz Kafka, Adolf Just, Ernst Haeckel and so many more had envisioned.





Nature Boy, Maximillian Sikinger, at home in the Santa Monica Mountains, 1946. Max left Germany in 1935 then made his way to Southern California where he inspired many American kids to become "Nature Boys". By the 1960s, he was a regular fixture at pop festivals and concerts and was considered a guru to many Topanga hippies.
I think it interesting that Timothy Leary looked to Carl Jung as one of those who were "in tune", when the majority of civilized society was 'not'.
Hitler, the Wagnerian, was certainly a folkish person and embraced the ideals of the Wandervogel -free wandering spirits- and was in fact fighting for their very survival.
He was using violent Templars (the SA and especially the SS) to destroy the anti-natural world and pave the way for the future of free folkish communities in Germany.

In this essay by Gordon Kennedy & Kody Ryanon displayed at the website entitled "hippyland" explains the nature of the Wandervogel movement:



Wandervogel print from the local group in Darmstadt, 1911

"Wandervogel members, aged mainly between 14-18 years and spread to all parts of Germany eventually numbering 50,000. Part hobo and part medieval, they pooled their money, wore woolen capes, shorts and Tyrolean hats and took long hikes in the country where they sang their own versions of Goliardic songs and camped under primitive conditions. Both sexes swam nude together in the lakes and rivers and in their hometowns they established "nests" and "anti-homes", sometimes in ruined castles where they met to plan trips and play mandolins and guitars.



Wandervogel, 1926

Their short weekend trips became 3 to 4 weeks long journeys of hundreds of miles. Soon they were establishing permanent camps in the wild that were open to all. With no thought of pay, the bands worked at improving their campsites and building cabins for which they made the furniture-in all forming a complex of precedents underlying the youth-hostel movement which began in 1907 when Richard Schirmann opened the first hostel in Altena Germany.




Nudists worshipping the Sun, 1926

Mostly the Wandervogel sought communion with nature, with the ancient folk-spirit as embodied in the traditional peasant culture, and with one another. They developed a harmonious mystic resonance with their environment.
The expression "Lebensreform" (life-reform) was first used in 1896, and comprised various German social trends of the 19th and first half of the 20th century.




Elizabeth Dorr with some of her daughters at Ascona, 1905 (Note the headbands!)


Particularly:
1. vegetarianism
2. nudism
3. natural medicine
4. abstinence from alcohol
5. clothing reform
6. settlement movements
7. garden towns
8. soil reform
9. sexual reform
10. health food and economic reform
11. social reform
12. liberation for women, children and animals
13. communitarianism
14. cultural and religious reform: i.e. a religion or view of the world that gives weight to the feminine, maternal and natural traits of existence
Further south in Switzerland, Ascona was a little fishing village on the shore of Lake Maggiore, on the Swiss side of the border with Italy. In the year 1900 a counter-culture renaissance began and lasted until about 1920. Ascona became the focal point for all of Europe’s spiritual rebels.
Life experiments were in vogue: surrealism, modern dance, dada, Paganism, feminism, pacifism, psychoanalysis and nature cure. A few of the participants were Hermann Hesse, Carl Jung, Isadora Duncan, D.H. Lawrence, Arnold Ehret and Franz Kafka.




Bill Pester at this palm log cabin in Palm Canyon, California, 1917. With his "lebensreform" philosophy, nudism and raw foods diet, he was one of the many German immigrants, who "invented" the hippie lifestyle more than half a century before the 1960s. He left Germany to avoid military service in 1906 at age 19, for a new life in America. (Photo Courtesy of Collection Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California)

At the turn of the century Germany had 56 million people, and had as many large cities as all of the rest of Europe combined. Industrialism, technology, pollution and "affluenza" began a crisis amongst the over-privileged German-speaking of that period. The disenchanted began to arrive in Ascona by the hundreds.
The beautiful natural setting inspired urban people to sunbathe in the nude, sleep outdoors, hike, swim and fast. This village quickly developed a universal reputation as a health center.
Hermann Hesse was excited when he saw four longhaired men with sandals walk through his village on their way to Ascona. He followed them, settled in and then took a nature cure for his alcoholism. The year was 1907.





"Herbst" (Autumn), mural sketch by Fidus, 1934
(Note "peace" symbol on top)


These communities have been characterized by many as "rightwing hippie movements" because while they embraced nearly every hippy ideal, they were also German nationalists and believed in the power and beauty of racial purity as inseparable from their land, forest and water preservation ideals.
They felt that they were tied to the land by blood and soil, as this was the land where their ancestors dreamed and evolved.
Like the American Indians, they were tied to their land by spirit and by race.

Hitler was the most militant of the folkists, he was the only one who actually made an attempt to destroy the enemy of free spirit movements by force. In this process, he came to be perceived by many of these free spirited peoples as the opposite to their nature, but it seems that they instinctively understood that the struggle he was taking on had to be fought eventually.
One thing is for sure, if Hitler were around today he would be a leftist-libertarian of the "middle path".



He once said that his dream was for Germany and England to march together against America!
The hippies of the 1960's were much like those folkish communities in Germany, like the "Wandervogel" and similar movements.
For the youth to gain understanding of the secrets of the universe and of the Aryan soul is what many flower children of the psychedelic generation did, they understood that ancient reality and attempted to transform their world so it could again resemble that lost paradise.
The way in which the magical generation looked to transform the world is actually a fallen version of what Hitler wanted: For the youths of the world to rise up and inherit what is rightfully theirs, the world.
A nation of Artistic masters, wizards, poets and musical revolutionaries, this would be his elite and this is what happened to the youth of America in the 60's.
Certainly the people on the neo-nazi-skinhead mentality could never be members of the divine race which Hitler planned to re-create.
I doubt whether any neo-nazi-skinheads listen to the music of Richard Wagner and understand it's true significance for the New Age of the Aryan millennium.
No, Hitler would have greatly despised the degenerate nature of the skinhead movement and they could never be his children.
Hitler would have much rather hung out with young hippies than with skin-heads! Skin-heads are just the degenerate humanity that Hitler planned to rid the earth of!
Oh how they know not whom they worship!



Just as his critics today know not whom they put down!
Being a skin-head is not being a nazi anymore than it is being an Aryan.
The Nazi's used to shave the heads of their inferiors, ironically, to take away their self pride.
In all esoteric cultures such as the Long Haired Kings of the Merovingians, Cathars, Nazorenes and all manner of Nazirites, their long and beautiful hair was a major source of their mystical powers and charisma. From Noah to Jesus to the Cathars to the hippies, long hair on Aryans gave them occult powers and divine authority. Their beautiful hair was a signature of their divine inheritance and of their spiritual identity. The Nazi SS who were members of a warrior military order, as all the Hitler Youth, took every aspect of their superior being into praise, -their eyes and hair, as marks of their divinity, power and beauty which reflects the nature of the beings which inhabit higher realms of the dimensions of blue and white light. Jesus was a vegetarian, and so was his long lost brother Hitler! If Hitler had not been so misguided he could have been the New Age Messiah!
Though he chose the dark path in that life, he is STILL HERE.
HE HAS NOT GONE ANYWHERE.
He must have been rehabilitated to understand where he went wrong last time!
He is back and this time he is going to be a mixture beetween Adolf and Gandhi!
A real peace warrior!
This time we're going to judge everyone not by the color of their skin, but by the level of their intelligence and content of their character!
As he said: "One thing I can predict to the eaters of meat, THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE WILL BE VEGETARIAN!!!!!!!!"



Trust me--Hitler was way beyond The Ku Klux Klan ; they wouldn't have had much of a place in his new vision of the world. Hitler and John Lennon tapped into the same visions when they thought about the future of Christianity. When John Lennon said: "Christianity will go, it will vanish" "I am right and I will be proven right." -Which he followed by his famous saying " The Beatles are more popular than Jesus now" which received protests and death threats from the Ku Klux Klan and other Rightwing Christian groups in America. John was simply stating the truth. The truth was that kids were more enthusiastic about going to Beatle concerts than they were about going to Church. John Lennon could see that his charismatic musical religion was more popular than Christianity.



Hitler had the same effect, he could see that more kids were attending his rallies than church and you can even say that he became more popular than Jesus.
What John Lennon said could be put side by side with what Hitler said on the future of Christianity: " We are witnessing the final summersaults of Christianity, it will last another hundred years or so, then it will vanish." For Hitler was also witnessing, as John did, a new religion that would replace the Christian church. If you looked at a film of a Hitler rally and then looked at films of the early Beatle concerts and if someone didn't tell which was what, you would not be able to tell the difference.
Both had fanatical screaming and crying white girls with their heads in the air.
Many people remarked at this when the Beatles first hit the scene. -Many older people said that it was reminiscent of the early Nuremberg Rallies. In fact, when John himself returned to his hometown in Liverpool, while standing on a balcony, young kids were fanatically cheering so loudly he felt that the kids were acting like the early Hitler youth! -So much though that he gave the Hitler Salute, shouting "Sieg Heil" and putting his finger to his nose symbolizing the Hitler mustache and the kids just kept cheering !! The Beatles had become a sort of "Gods on earth" and had won the hearts and minds of the youth. This is partly what drove John Lennon to say that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus because, like Hitler 35 years earlier, it was true.
It was the Jewish-Leftist-Liberal, multi-cultural, "Old Roosevelt Democrats" who became political revolutionaries and who used the revolution that happened mostly among middle class whites in the sixties, because they felt the freedom and love that this generation generated. The hippy movement started to liberate everyone until the system beat them down and whacked all their early leaders from John and Robert F Kennedy to John Winston Lennon... The reactionary establishment then took advantage of the freedom fight that had been launched by this new generation to beat down Aryan culture.
Now the only cultures that survived are the diseased Redneck Puritan cultures, and the Jewish neo-cons.



Thus today, if you are not one of those two, and you are a kid, you have to bow down to the crazed negroes who have gotten too drunk with a false sense of power. I'm talking about "ghetto culture", or as black comedian Chris Rock calls it "nigger culture". And they hate whites who have not lost their identity. And this is why they hate anything to do with the sixties culture to the point where they now violently threaten the old whites who fought for their liberation from pigs because of their own moral conscience, only to get spat in face for it by arrogant black youth.
The Sixties movement was actually more racially identified than most people think, and the emerging hippies hated this materialistic society that beats up on everything natural, everything free, and everything Aryan.
They came back to give that evil American WWII generation hell once more, only this time instead of doing it with guns, they did it with music, art, and prophetic protests aimed at the whole capitalist system of the pig tribes. This was a war between the creative Aryans, and the destructive Pig peoples, as Abbie Hoffman called them: "culture-vultures".
The Hippy movement was an Aryan folkish rebellion against the post WWII Pigs who believed the world was their oyster to exploit. Many of those hypocrites did not even deserve to win WWII but ended up coming out looking like the good-guys because of the propaganda lies regarding atrocities which the axis powers were supposed to have committed. Atrocities which were part and parcel of any war and committed by all parties, axis and allies alike. Now they had inherited the world after that war. It was also the war that had gotten them out of economic depression, so they viewed war as a good thing and could not understand why their strange kids refused to fight for that bullshit system that they had believed in, because of their upbringing. The magical generation had different plans for the future, and were not gonna let the old generation get in their way. They were gonna lead and not follow -as Hitler said "let youth be lead by youth". The right to direct the future destiny of the nation is the right of youth and it is the duty of the young generation to overthrow a corrupt system build upon lies. The youth of Germany respected the revolutionary heroic leadership of Hitler and the nazi party. For the sixties generation their heroes were the musicians who spoke to them and instigated them to revolt! Jim Morrison sang: " lost in a Roman....wilderness of pain........and all the children are insane, ........waiting for the summer rain yea"... The British Kings came back to conquer America and enforce their culture on the natives, only this time the natives were Christian Pigs, and the British conquered America with Music. The British Kings like John Lennon, Pete Townsend, and many others came to settle their "old scores" with the despised Americans.




Hitler's greatest vision was that "one day Germany and Britain, would march together against America".
The German youth and many folkish movements were already being reincarnated in America, and their British Kings had come to liberate them.
Thus the youth of Germany and England came to re-conquer America, just as Hitler had dreamed!
The magical youth of the sixties planned on recreating the destiny that was taken from them.
This is what the psychedelic Atlantian Aryan youth of the sixties tried to do, and they believed in the power of love.
They were the first youth in the world to totally take charge of their nation, stop a war, and create a new culture in the history of mankind. The Aryan youth had suddenly become the saviors of the world! -As the black civil rights leader Dick Gregory once put it "all of a sudden the white race had produced a movement where every guy looked like Jesus, and every girl looked like Mary, and they acted like them and had their spirit!"
They had the Merovingian-Cathar spirit.
The movement was mostly middle class whites who looked more like they were from the European culture than from the puritan American culture. And the Jews who got caught up in it were all Jews who hated the 'Jewish system' and wanted to wash off their Jewish identity in the sink, reject the Old Testament vengeance and join the white Aryans who were changing the world through the philosophy of peace and free love. This was a folk movement that had it's roots in the German youth movements like the "free-wanderings-spirits" of the "Wandervogel," most of whom got caught up later in the Hitler youth. They both had the ideals of nature-worship, communalism, vegetarianism, nudism, and firm belief in the magical power of youth. The Hitler Youth slogan was--"let youth lead youth". In Hitler's Germany youth were even given power over their parents, to turn them in and to get them off their back. The hippy youth were of the same mindset, -that the youth had the right to to lead the future and if the elders couldn't "tune in" they had to "drop out". The hippies didn't care much about their parents or about the struggles they went through in the depression or WWII. They were of the past and now had to step aside and accept this new order. The Woodstock Nation was very natural. Most of them were whites and preferred to live and mate with other whites.



This California surfer and his girlfriend were some of the young folks who went to live wild in nature during the late 1960s and early '70s, mostly in California, Hawaii and parts of Europe. This most radical form of communalism was a replay of the Wandervogel and Naturmensch period some 60 years before in Germany and Switzerland (Taylor Park, Kauai, Hawaii, 1971)

It was an Aryan movement of nature worship and honor for the connection to the land. This is why they embraced the native American peoples because they understood better than anyone the religion of blood and soil and the need for folkish-socialist communities.



The hippie movement was by majority Anglo-Germanic and people of other races were drawn to it and intrigued by it, but they were never really part of it. The blacks, through the Black Panthers, were going to establish a separate black state for black people who wished to live separate from whites.
The north would be the Nation of Rock and Roll and would be predominantly white in identity because many hippy tribes were actually old Aryan tribes coming together to take over.
No wonder ghetto liberal youth culture today puts down the cultural revolution that looked to destroy the Zionist materialistic system that was oppressing them and that is now oppressing many artistic white-kid dreamers who want to change their world which they sense is full of LIES.
There is a saying about the 60's generation: "In the 60's all we wanted was love, now we want the truth!" That's the generation of the day but I still believe and I have many friends who agree with me and who are sure Hitler was an artist, a visionary, a prophet, and a conqueror! I believe in "Mein Kampf" he said that ever since he was a child he knew he would never be a civil servant, but rather an Artist!

The war between the Luciferic powers (fallen light) and Satanics (powers of this world) can be seen all through history.
The holy bloodline of the Pleadians which was inherited by Noah, passed down to David and remained in his descendants, who Yeshua Ben Yoseff and his brothers Judas and Jakob was born of and which was most likely passed down from members of Yeshua's family if not Yeshua himself, which made their magical appearance in the people of the Cathars, Merovingians and others. -Right down into our present days the spirit which was so strongly present in the hippie phenomenon and which was a reaction to a doomed world by the magical youth who discovered their powers and looked to transform the world to resemble heaven.




They were young and had no leaders to look up to besides the fallen Luciferic energies of the music they enjoyed, which I have enjoyed.
Therefore their revolution ended in failure, just like many others before it. (Nazorene, Cathar, Mareovingians--all "long haired kings").
They liberated and opened the cages which let out the many demons which are now at work on our planet.
Their revolution was crushed and their liberation used for the benefit of their enemies.
The freedom that they had shown the world has been used to further the dark agenda of the present enemies of the children of light.
Those of us who have a yearning to go beyond the limits of humanity feel so because of the intertwining of our blood relations with the various extraterrestrials who colonized this primitive planet and-or because the "star dust" which our souls are made of is still vibrating. We are some of the last remaining "children of light" on this doomed planet and our mission is to try to reverse the karma of those destructive elements which exist on this earth and effect us all. "WE ARE STARDUST, WE ARE GOLDEN and we've got to get ourselves back to the GARDEN! Yea!"

Thanks for hearing me out and always remember that the light remains throughout the centuries. Though it has taken many forms: Nazirites, Essenes, Merovingians, Cathars (all LongHaired Kings), the forces of which got caught and tangled in the chaos of a fallen Germany, and reacted like a tortured animal in the failed nazi experience, and then the fallen era of flower-power in the sixties when the children of the sun finally, after eons of oppression, exploded in unrealistic imaginations and psychedelic visions of the paradise that was lost.
Now we are back only this time we are going to learn from the experiences of all our previous incarnations and take what was good from them and build the new future.

Sieg Heil!
















Source: http://www.gnosticliberationfront.com/hidden_origins_of_the_hippie_movement.htm
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Italian publication says it does not see ISIS violence as 'war of religion'

Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA.

Rome, Italy, Sep 8, 2014 / 11:10 am (CNA).- Jesuit-run Italian newspaper La Civiltà Cattolica has clarified that it does not view ISIS violence as a 'war of religion,' although it believes the radical group sees its aggression in this manner.

The clarification comments involve an editorial published in the most recent issue of the newspaper.

Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., editor-in-chief of the publication, told CNA that the editorial stated “that ISIS thinks it's in a 'war of religion,' but WE must be on guard against thinking that way.”

He voiced his disappointment at what he described as “false news” being circulated about the editorial.

On Sept. 4, prominent Vatican analyst Sandro Magister noted the editorial in a post for his Settimo Cielo blog at l'Espresso. He said the article expresses a view of ISIS aggression as a religious war, and that this view can in fact be extended to apply to the Holy See as well. CNA covered Magister’s analysis Sept. 4.

“Obviously, to promote peace it is necessary to know what the war truly is, and not what one would like it to be. It is crucial to study and to comprehend why and how the Islamic State fights. Theirs is a war of religion and of annihilation,” reads the editorial penned by Fr. Luciano Larivera, S.J.

The article continues, “It should not be confused or reduced to other forms, such as the Bolsheviks or the Khmer Rouge. They instrumentalize the power of religion, and not vice versa. Their danger is greater than that of al-Qaeda.”

Magister had suggested that the editorial represented the stance of the Holy See, observing that “Each line of 'La Civiltà Cattolica' is passed beforehand for examination by authorities of the Vatican, who allow publication, or not.”

The editorial also suggests that current military efforts to stop the radical group are inadequate and urges that ISIS “should be cut off from its supply of arms, the recruitment and training of new combatants, it financing channels, energy infrastructure, and logistics.”

ISIS – also known as the Islamic State (IS) – emerged as one of the rebel groups fighting in the Syrian civil war; this spring it spread its operations to Iraq, taking control of Mosul and swaths of territory in the country's north and west.

While Iraq's population is majority Shia Muslim, the Islamic State was able to consolidate control of Sunni-majority areas, where the people have perceived discrimination at the hands of the Shia-led government.

The radical terrorist has persecuted all non-Sunni persons in its territory: Christians, Yazidis, and Shias have all fled the caliphate.

Fr. Spadaro said that the editorial was showing the importance of realizing that ISIS militants view the conflict as a war of religion, although La Civiltà Cattolica does not share that view.

Magister, however, maintained that his analysis was true to the views being expressed in the editorial, from which he quoted heavily.

“Euphemisms do not help in bringing clarity,” he told CNA. “Actually, in this case they take us away from reality. For a war to be defined as 'religious,' it suffices that one of the contenders reputes it as such and fights in this perspective. And this is exactly what 'La Civiltà Cattolica' asserts regarding the war unleashed by IS.”

He continued, “Showing its agreement, the magazine justly quotes the editorial of Ernesto Galli della Loggia in 'Corriere della Sera' which begins with this: 'Question number one: How can we make war against an aggressor that continuously invokes God and its religious affiliation without also inevitably giving an equally religious character to any military response? In other words: Is it truly necessary, in order to speak of a religious war that both adversaries proclaim it as such, or does it suffice instead that only one do it? If someone kills me because I am a Shiite, a Christian, a Hebrew or an 'infidel' and I try to defend myself by hitting back, what else is this if not a religious conflict?'”

Source

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The Limitations of Freethinking

Thoughts have their ethics as well as deeds. A man has a right to his opinion; but not always. He has a right to his opinion if his opinion is right. Perhaps that opinion is born of ignorance ; if so, to say that he has a right to the opinion is to assert that he has a right to the ignorance. That opinion may be the result of prejudice, and he has no more right to hold the one than to entertain the other. A man has a right to hold a right opinion, and the further right to be righteously disabused of a wrong opinion. Human laws, in regulating the external actions of men, but formulate the civilization that enacts them. But they only regulate the conduct of men toward each other. "With acts that begin and end with the individual, and which nowise affect the rights of others, human laws have nothing to do. Laws are expedients. What instinct does for the lower animals, in securing for them peace and plenty, that human laws do for men. The most perfect laws the world has known or can know but guarantee to man what instinct secures to the brute creation. Not only the bees and the ants live in a perfect society, but the bears and the vultures enjoy the luxury of good government. In the vast wilderness, where the foot of man has never trodden, the savage beast enjoys a law which its instinct, could it think, would formulate into our " Salus populi suprema lex esto." But there are fountains of law far beyond the reach of the human lawgiver, fountains of freshness and purity from which only the conscience can drink. Beyond our high and grand civilization there is a higher and grander still — the civilization of the cult- ured soul. The ages of the world most renowned for their material civilization were oftentimes eras of exceptional brutality. The most polished nation in the world is the French ; yet a French duelist will withdraw his rapier from out the heart of his antagonist, executing a bow the while that would make a society actor turn yellow with envy. The Antonines sought solace from the cares of state by witnessing a butchery in the amphitheater, and in the days of cultured Greece cripples and idiots were outside the protection of the laws.

- D. S. Phelan

The Limitations of Freethinking
(Page 287 of 287-295)

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Pope Francis to Atheists: 'Just Do Good'

Thursday, 23 May 2013 09:17 AM

By Courtney Coren


Pope Francis says that atheists should be embraced as good people if they do good, and that all people, whether religious or not, should be able to work together.

The papal leader made the comments during the homily of his daily morning Mass Wednesday, during which he spoke without prepared remarks, according to The Guardian newspaper in London.

The comments came in the context of a story he told about a Catholic who asked if Jesus had redeemed atheists.

"Even them, everyone," the Pope explained on Vatican Radio. "We all have the duty to do good. ... Just do good, and we'll find a meeting point."

Pope Francis' remarks run contrary to those of Pope Benedict, who was often criticized by non-Catholics for giving the impression that he saw them as second-class believers, the Guardian noted.

Source

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A Great Reformation

The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganisation. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organisation would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath, of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure.

Who has authority to begin such a movement? We have our Bibles. We have our experience, attested to by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. We have a truth that admits of no compromise. Shall we not repudiate everything that is not in harmony with this truth?

I hesitated and delayed about the sending out of that which the Spirit of the Lord impelled me to write. I did not want to be compelled to present the misleading influence of these sophistries. But in the providence of God, the errors that have been coming in must be met.

Selected Messages, book 1, p 204-205

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a great reformation

" The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? -- The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath, of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure."


Testimonies for the Church Vol. 7, p.39.

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Jesuit Uses Philosophy to Explore Universal Principles of Society

March 29th, 2012 | Author: Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders

How do we make sense of life? How should we treat others? When human life is at stake, are there reasonable principles we can rely on to guide our actions? What kind of society should be built?

Many people rely on their religious beliefs to answer these questions. But not everyone accepts the same religious premises or recognizes the same spiritual authorities. In an effort to understand this balance, Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer wrote the book “Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy of the Life Issues” to explore the ten basic principles that must govern the reasonable person’s thinking and acting about life issues.

The 10 universal principles discussed in the book are broken down into four sections under the topics of reason, ethics, justice and natural rights, and identity and culture.

Fr. Spitzer – former president of Washington’s Gonzaga University and founder of the California-based Magis Institute – said that he wanted the work to be “very accessible” and help everyday Catholics learn how to oppose issues such as euthanasia by using philosophy.

A highly-regarded philosopher, Fr. Spitzer appeared on EWTN’s Bookmark to discuss the book in depth:

Source

Teilhard de Chardin

TEILHARD DE CHARDIN
1881 - 1955
By Anodea Judith

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a visionary French Jesuit, paleontologist, biologist, and philosopher, who spent the bulk of his life trying to integrate religious experience with natural science, most specifically Christian theology with theories of evolution. In this endeavor he became absolutely enthralled with the possibilities for humankind, which he saw as heading for an exciting convergence of systems, an "Omega point" where the coalescence of consciousness will lead us to a new state of peace and planetary unity. Long before ecology was fashionable, he saw this unity he saw as being based intrinsically upon the spirit of the Earth:
"The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now, if we would not perish, is to build the Earth."

Teilhard de Chardin passed away a full ten years before James Lovelock ever proposed the "Gaia Hypothesis" which suggests that the Earth is actually a living being, a collosal biological super-system. Yet Chardin's writings clearly reflect the sense of the Earth as having its own autonomous personality, and being the prime center and director of our future -- a strange attractor, if you will -- that will be the guiding force for the synthesis of humankind.

"The phrase 'Sense of the Earth' should be understood to mean the passionate concern for our common destiny which draws the thinking part of life ever further onward. The only truly natural and real human unity is the spirit of the Earth. . . .The sense of Earth is the irresistable pressure which will come at the right moment to unite them (humankind) in a common passion.

"We have reached a crossroads in human evolution where the only road which leads forward is towards a common passion. . . To continue to place our hopes in a social order achieved by external violence would simply amount to our giving up all hope of carrying the Spirit of the Earth to its limits."

To this end, he suggested that the Earth in its evolutionary unfolding, was growing a new organ of consciousness, called the noosphere. The noosphere is analogous on a planetary level to the evolution of the cerebral cortex in humans. The noosphere is a "planetary thinking network" -- an interlinked system of consciousness and information, a global net of self-awareness, instantaneous feedback, and planetary communication. At the time of his writing, computers of any merit were the size of a city block, and the Internet was, if anything, an element of speculative science fiction. Yet this evolution is indeed coming to pass, and with a rapidity, that in Gaia time, is but a mere passage of seconds. In these precious moments, the planet is developing her cerebral cortex, and emerging into self-conscious awakening. We are indeed approaching the Omega point that Teilhard de Chardin was so excited about.

This convergence however, though it was predicted to occur through a global information network, was not a convergence of merely minds or bodies -- but of heart, a point that he made most fervently.

"It is not our heads or our bodies which we must bring together, but our hearts. . . . Humanity. . . is building its composite brain beneath our eyes. May it not be that tomorrow, through the logical and biological deepening of the movement drawing it together, it will find its heart, without which the ultimate wholeness of its power of unification can never be achieved?"

In his productive lifetime, Teilhard de Chardin wrote many books, which include the following:

LET ME EXPLAIN
THE APPEARANCE OF MAN
THE DIVINE MILIEU
THE FUTURE OF MAN
HOW I BELIEVE
HYMN OF THE UNIVERSE
LETTERS FROM A TRAVELLER
LETTERS TO LEONTINE ZANTA
THE MAKING OF A MIND
MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE
THE PHENOMENON OF MAN
SCIENCE AND CHRIST
THE VISION OF THE PAST
WRITINGS IN TIME OF WAR
BUILDING THE EARTH

Most of these quotes were taken from Building the Earth, and The Phenomenon of Man, but as I no longer have a copy, but only old notes, I can't quote exact page numbers.

by Anodea Judith, Dec. 96.
SHAKTI7@aol.com

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Source: http://www.gaiamind.com/Teilhard.html

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Modern versus postmodern Adventism: The ultimate divide?

2005 » June

Reinder Bruinsma, Ph.D., is the retired president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Netherlands, Huis ter Heide, Netherlands.


When did modernism give way to postmodernism? It is impossible to pinpoint the beginning and the end of any era in a precise manner. Just as it was not immediately clear when the "Middle Ages" ended and the "modern" period began, so it is with the far-reaching transitions and thought trends of our time. Only the perspective of history can provide a reasonably clear picture of such mega trends. So the fuller picture of what is now happening to our world will become clear only gradually, but that something is happening and that the world is in major transition is beyond any doubt.

Modernity
When we use the word "modern" or its derivatives to refer to the period that followed the Middle Ages, we do so in a particular way. It is a label for the Enlightenment Project that got underway when people began to think differently, as the Cartesian approach to philosophy began to sink in.

Descartes' famous dictum "I think therefore I am" became the foundation for a new way of looking at humans and God. The autonomous human, endowed with reason, and soon also fortified by the new scientific method that was developed by Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton, became the measure of all things.

The human was going to solve the world's problems. God was at a distance, while the recently discovered laws of nature kept the uni verse going in an orderly manner. The future would be marked by continuous progress, as the enormous resources of this planet were increasingly exploited to human benefit.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century, the Enlightenment Project was beginning to run out of steam, as Friedrich Nietschze and Sigmund Freud came on the scene. New philosophical approaches that focused on language and the interpretation of texts began to blossom. They began to deliver a message of relativism, uncertainty, and even pessimism. The Holocaust, if anything, made it impossible for life to continue as before.

Philosophers in Europe and in the United States began to emphasize that the time of such grand narratives as Marxism, Communism, and Christianity had been eclipsed. They declared that there were no longer any all-encompassing schemes that offer a comprehensive explanation of life. Instead, they said, there are only fragmented and contradictory smaller stories of individuals and groups in all their diversity. All is difference, they pro claimed. And all judgment needs to be deferred! There are no absolutes; Truth has been replaced by truths.

From the 1970s onward the term postmodernism came into use to describe the changes that became more and more apparent in the arts and in architecture, and then also in philosophy and even theology. Today the term has become a catch-all label that can be attached to almost anything.

But though, admittedly, the term is imprecise and postmodernity means different things to different people, it cannot be denied that something is going on, particularly in the Western world. The Enlightenment era has come, or is rapidly coming, to an end, and we participate, whether we want to or not, in a momentous process of change.

The postmodern person
What is a postmodern person? What does he or she think? What do they do? Where are they to be found?

There is no shortage of books that list the main characteristics of the postmodern man and woman. Most authors will indicate that there is a superficial kind of postmodernism, which is almost synonymous with consumerism and hedonism, and which allows its adherents to live most of their lives in a virtual world.

But there is more to it than that, and in most cases this description would be unfair.

Rather than describing the average postmodern person as a gadget-happy, amusement-seeking, shallow individual, metaphors like nomad or flaneur might be more apt. It should also be said that there is often an interesting mix of modernity and postmodernity in one person.

Below are some of the most notice able characteristics of the postmodern approach to life.

These are given in an abbreviated, summary form, and the list is by no means exhaustive, even though it is helpful in understanding or recognizing postmodern trends.

1. The postmodern person does not believe that everything will become better and better. The idea of progress is largely abandoned. Science is not seen to be the unconditional blessing it once was thought to be.

2. There are no absolutes. We all have our own private truths. Communities and cultures have their own language games. What they talk about and believe in does not necessarily relate to any one particular reality. Everything is subjective, relative, uncertain, contingent, and ambiguous.

3. The metanarratives (grand stories) and the grand ideals have disappeared.

4. Postmodern people like a juxta position of incompatible elements. In art we find a great interest in collation, mixing of artistic styles, a blurring of the lines between real life and fiction, the real and the virtual.

5. Scientists are becoming more modest in their claims and confess that they often see what they want to see, and that many of the so-called foundations of science may not be so certain after all.

6. People know they live in a global village. The computer a symbol of postmodernity gives them instant access to the world. Yet, at the same time, global strategies and alliances are under suspicion and there is a strong interest in regional and local issues.

7. The postmodern person has a strong dislike for religious institutions but is open to spirituality. In fact, some advocate a re-enchantment of the world. Mystery is OK. The nonrational, new age-type approach to the questions of life is popular.

The impact of postmodernism
Once we become aware of the main characteristics of the postmodern mindset, we see the impact of post modern thinking everywhere. Look at some recent buildings in western cities: no longer the modem boxlike monotonous structures of concrete, steel, and glass. Ornamentation is coming back and styles from different periods are combined, so that post modern buildings can tell their own story.

It is easy to detect the postmodern trends in many recent novels that blend stories from different periods; in films that leave a person wondering where the historical ends and the fiction begins. This is seen, for example in the "infotainment" and "docusoaps" of the latest television productions.

We also find postmodern ambiguity in the political arena, as, for instance, in parts of Europe where a majority of the people support the idea of a European unity but at the same time will do anything to protect a local dialect.

Further, one quickly detects the postmodern approach of many Western people to religion and to the church. Religion is in, but the institutional church is out. Experience and emotion are OK, but doctrines are considered largely irrelevant. Absolute, propositional truth is replaced by what works for me, and there are as many legitimate ways to interpret the Bible as there are readers.

Christianity is one religious option among a series of world religions all are equally valid, historically and culturally conditioned responses of the human self to the "Beyond." Sin has been reduced to a sense of regret that things have not gone as expected, with little or no place for something like atonement, where Someone steps in on my behalf.

More often than not, those who do turn toward Christianity want to pick and choose as to which teachings they are willing to accept, and will often be reluctant when it comes to manifesting full and permanent commitment.

Postmodernity and the Adventist Church
The postmodernism wave has not bypassed the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Many of the issues and concerns, particularly in the Western sectors of the church, are directly related to postmodern influences.

Clearly, for a growing number of Adventist believers in the West the metanarrative of Adventism as a worldwide, divinely ordained movement, united by one theology and one organizational model, with uni form programs and resources, has outlived its sell-by date. More and more church members tend to think and act locally. They have little or no interest in the church's hierarchy and are suspicious of centralized institutional structures.

Many are increasingly weary of doctrinal fine print and establish their own truth, largely, but not exclusively, within the framework of Adventist tradition. They tend to regard Adventism as one option among other options and are not so sure that their traditions are the one and only true church.

Worship styles have significantly changed, with an increasing emphasis on experience, and on contemporary music, drama, and informal small group meetings. Traditional church discipline has lost much of its corrective power, and an increasing amount of spiritual cross-border shopping takes place.

It has often justifiably, I think been noted that Adventism has an underdeveloped ecclesiology. This fact will increasingly haunt us, as this happens to be the arena where many of the postmodern questions of our church members are asked. What is the church? Is it the church universal! Is it the visible, historic, institutional church, or the invisible church of all ages? Or is it a small remnant, with a message that changes in emphasis and focus as one Christian era gives way to the next?

All these questions are directly related to our Adventist identity. Is the Seventh-day Adventist Church the only true church and are all other Christian organizations to be labeled as Babylon? Or is Adventism simply one option beside a whole gamut of other Christian options, which may be just as valid? Or perhaps Adventism, it may be thought, represents something special, an option that offers a series of insights not readily available else where?

The question for some influenced by postmodernism may be, Does Adventism possess the absolute truth in all areas of theology, or should we be a little more modest and claim at most that our church makes a significant contribution to the rich diversity of Christianity?

There is much confusion and dis agreement about the answers to be given, and the response one gives is largely determined by whether one is a modern or postmodern Adventist!

The modern versus the postmodern Adventist
Categorizing people is dangerous. Most people simply do not fit neatly into any one category. This is also true when we try to separate modern from postmodern Adventists. So, we must remember that the profiles given below are inexact and are, at least to some extent, caricatures. But, nonetheless, they are basically true in outline.

The modern Adventists are in the majority, and will be for some time to come. They are found wherever there are Seventh-day Adventists. They are the traditional Adventists, mostly conservative in their beliefs and in the way they view their church and the surrounding world.

They believe in the grand story (the "metanarrative") of Adventism as God's "remnant church," with its worldwide mission mandate, called forth by God at the appointed time and assured of its ultimate success.

Modern Adventists believe in absolutes. They dislike questions that may undermine the certainties of the believers. They defend the historical positions of the church with regard to doctrine, organizational structure, worship, and ethics. They welcome a strong emphasis on eschatology and are staunchly anti-ecumenical. They hold a very "high" view of inspiration, both with regard to the Bible and Ellen G. White. They are strong on policy and on the church manual. They want their church to remain united and believe that this unity is fostered by uniform programs and a solid central system of governance.

But postmodern Adventists are a growing minority, in particular in Western countries: the United States and large parts of Europe and Australia, with smaller groups in other parts of the world. They tend to be well educated and tend to be in more affluent areas. They do not have the same interest in the metanarrative of Adventism as their "modern" brothers and sisters.

Their focus is much more regional or local. They are often suspicious of the church's hierarchy and, as previously mentioned, are simply not interested in the upper layers of the church's organizational structure. They are weary of ecclesial authority and do not unduly worry about church discipline, policy, or the church manual.

They tend to allow for diversity in doctrine, and want to pick and choose which of the 27 fundamental beliefs of the Church they will embrace. Their religion is much less rational than traditional Adventism. Experience, celebration, praise, and Holy Spirit are the catchwords for the way many of them want to "do" church.

They are open to outside influences, even tend to engage in some cross-border shopping, for they usually view other, in particular evangelical, Christians in a much more positive light than modern Adventists do. The postmodern Adventist will often tend to postpone or have reservations about making a total commitment to the church and its message.

Challenges
Postmodernism in and outside the church confronts the church with a set of tremendous challenges. How does the church stay together when people operate on sharply differing premises and no longer see eye to eye regarding the identity and mission of the church? How do Church leaders relate to those who have different ideas about the importance of doctrine as such, and with regard to particular fundamental beliefs? How will the institutional church worldwide be affected by the growing disinterest in the church's organizational structure and global programs among a relatively affluent segment of the church?

Must these trends be judiciously welcomed, or must they be strongly rejected and fought tooth and nail? Or is there some middle road?

I would suggest that we should not come to hasty conclusions. Both modernism and postmodernism have facets that are in tension with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The old question of the relationship between culture and gospel has reappeared in a new garb. It is, of course, important that the gospel address the issues raised by postmodern people and that those who proclaim the gospel are sensitive to the ways in which people think, feel, and react.

At the same time, every culture including postmodernism must be judged by the biblical gospel. We need not and we must not uncritically accept the pluralism and relativism of postmodernity. The claim that all "grand stories" have been eclipsed cannot deter us from proclaiming the metanarrative of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Postmodernity has facets that dangerously undermine the core of the biblical message and the certainty of salvation, but it also offers great opportunities. Because of the basic attitudes that are part and parcel of postmodernity, once again it is all right to talk about religion. There is a new thirst for spirituality and are markable openness to the supernatural. There is more willingness than in recent decades to listen to the small stories of those who have encountered Jesus Christ.

A crucial question is, How can modern and postmodern Adventists stay together, dialogue together and grow together, and worry together about the essential content of the biblical message rather than about the cultural forms in which the gospel message is preached and in which the institutional church operates? Will church leadership allow for such dialogue, or even encourage it? Or will it try to protect its "modern" achievements at any cost?

The Truth is only in Christ Jesus. But could it be that there are modern as well as postmodern truths that may help us to discover ever more of the Truth? Only as we learn to listen to one another, as we understand that we live in a time of transition (or is it the time of the end?), and as we continue to seek answers that are relevant to our contemporaries through an open-minded and Spirit-directed reading of the revealed Word only then, I believe, will we be able to nurture our modern or postmodern soul, build the church we love, and dis cover ways of reaching out to both the modern and the postmodern men and women around us.

Many of us differentiate between conservative and liberal Adventists. That may, however, turn out not to be the most significant classification. Modern versus postmodern may well be the most challenging division among us.

May God make us wise and deter mined to stay together, as He shows us the way to create reliable bridges across this new and challenging divide.

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Source: http://www.ministrymagazine.org/assets/images/covers/MIN2005-06.jpg

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P.S. Bolds and Highlights added..

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Marx, the Young Hegelians, and the Origins of Radical Social Theory

Marx, the Young Hegelians, and the Origins of Radical Social Theory
Dethroning the Self

Series: Modern European Philosophy
Warren Breckman
University of Pennsylvania
Paperback (ISBN-13: 9780521003803 ISBN-10: 0521003806)

Also available in Hardback

For price and ordering options, inspection copy requests, and reading lists please select:

Europe, Middle East and Africa Americas Asia Australia and New Zealand

Please note local prices may apply

This is the first major study of Marx and the Young Hegelians in twenty years. The book offers a new interpretation of Marx’s early development, the political dimension of Young Hegelianism, and that movement’s relationship to political and intellectual currents in early nineteenth-century Germany. Warren Breckman challenges the orthodox distinction drawn between the exclusively religious concerns of Hegelians in the 1830s and the sociopolitical preoccupations of the 1840s. He shows that there are inextricable connections between the theological, political and social discourses of the Hegelians in the 1830s. The book draws together an account of major figures such as Feuerbach and Marx, with discussions of lesser-known but significant figures such as Eduard Gans, August Cieszkowski, Moses Hess, F. W. J. Schelling as well as such movements as French Saint-Simonianism and ‘positive philosophy’. Wide-ranging in scope and synthetic in approach, this is an important book for historians of philosophy, theology, political theory and nineteenth-century ideas.

• The first major study of Marx and Hegelianism in 20 years • Considers major figures such as Feuerbach and Marx as well as lesser-known significant figures • An important chapter in modern intellectual history for philosophers, historians of ideas, political theorists, and theologians

Contents
Introduction; 1. At the end of idealism: from 'nihilism' to 'positive philosophy'; 2. The transcendent sovereign and the political theology of restoration; 3. Ludwig Feuerbach and Christian civil society; 4. The social and political discourse of personality, 1835–1840; 5. Pantheism, social question and the third age; 6. Arnold Ruge: radical democracy and the politics of personhood, 1838–1843; 7. Karl Marx: from social republicanism to communism; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography.

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Source:http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521003803

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John Locke

Why do so many contemporary "economists" quote John Locke?

Let's investigate who he was:

John Locke (1632-1704)

"Though the familiar use of the Things about us, takes off our Wonder; yet it cures not our Ignorance."
---An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (III. vi. 9)

"...he that will not give just occasion to think that all government in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules but that of beasts, where the strongest carries it...must of necessity find another rise of government, another original of political power..."
---from The Second Treatise of Civil Government


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John Locke was an Oxford scholar, medical researcher and physician, political operative, economist and idealogue for a revolutionary movement, as well as being one of the great philosophers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. His monumental Essay Concerning Human Understanding aims to determine the limits of human understanding. Earlier writers such as Chillingworth had argued that human understanding was limited, Locke tries to determine what those limits are. We can, he thinks, know with certainty that God exists. We can also know about morality with the same precision we know about mathematics, because we are the creators of moral and political ideas. In regard to natural substances we can know only the appearances and not the underlying realities which produce those appearances. Still, the atomic hypothesis with its attendant distinction between primary and secondary qualities is the most plausible available hypothesis.


Locke's Two Treatises of Civil Government were published after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 brought William of Orange and Mary to the throne, but they were written in the throes of the Whig revolutionary plots against Charles II in the early 1680s. In this work Locke gives us a theory of natural law and natural rights which he uses to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate civil governments, and to argue for the legitimacy of revolt against tyrannical governments.

Locke wrote on a variety of other topics Among the most important of these is toleration. Henry VIII had created a Church of England when he broke with Rome. This Church was the official religion of England. Catholics and dissenting Protestants, e.g Quakers, Unitarians and so forth, were subject to legal prosecution. During much of the Restoration period there was debate, negotiation and manuevering to include dissenting Protestants within the Church of England. In a "Letter Concerning Toleration" and several defenses of that letter Locke argues for a separation between church and state.

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Source: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/locke.html

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Oxford:

Historic Oxford Tours
Catholic Oxford. This tour aims to introduce the Catholic heritage of the University and city. It ranges from the middle ages through the reformation and ...www.historicoxfordtours.co.uk/ - Cached - Similar

Oxford movement: Definition from Answers.com
The Oxford Movement was a religious revival in the Church of England (1833) that emphasized the church's Catholic heritage in doctrine, polity, and worship. ...www.answers.com/topic/oxford-movement - Cached - Similar

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Catholic Oxford: This Website
1609 Douay translation of the Bible, prepared mainly by Catholic Oxford scholars working overseas, appears, two years before King James' 'Authorized ...www.catholicoxford.com/ - Cached - Similar

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Catholic Heritage Participating Institutions Society of Jesus ...
Campion Hall was founded at Oxford in 1896. Many Jesuit missions became parishes ... Holdings of the Society of Jesus accessible through Catholic Heritage ...www.catholic-heritage.net/.../tabid/140/Default.aspx - Cached - Similar

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FROM RELIGION TO REVOLUTION: THE OCCULT ORIGINS OF SOCIOPOLITICAL UTOPIANISM

FROM RELIGION TO REVOLUTION:
THE OCCULT ORIGINS OF SOCIOPOLITICAL UTOPIANISM
PART 1


by Phillip D. Collins
January 30, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

Arguably, all Weltanschauungs are unavoidably religious in character because all of them must proffer a core metaphysical claim. Metaphysical claims have traditionally been the province of religions. The same holds true for the various anti-theistic movements that have sought to create a radically secular Utopian world. This series shall demonstrate the religious character of sociopolitical Utopianism, particularly the revolutionary faith that enshrined science as the chief means for ontologically transplanting heaven within the physical universe and apotheosizing man.

It is with Gnosticism that one finds the proximate origins of sociopolitical Utopianism. The Gnostic trappings of early sociopolitical Utopian movements are demonstrable in the various ideas promoted by Enlightenment luminaries. One case in point is Condorcet's "doctrine of a coming Utopia, where indefinite progress would bring forth a 'natural salvation' of plenty and immortality" (Goeringer, "The Enlightenment, Freemasonry, and the Illuminati"). Condorcet's doctrine of "natural salvation" merely reiterated the Gnostic doctrine of self-salvation.

Another case in point is Enlightenment luminary Voltaire. Linda de Hoyos elaborates on the Gnostic elements of Voltaire's Weltanschaaung:

...Voltaire's own anti-Christian beliefs are exposed in his 1756 short piece, Plato's Dream, where he embraces the ancient gnostic doctrine of the universe. In this exercise, Voltaire not only peddles the complete separation of the material and spiritual world, but upholds the gnostic doctrine that all material reality is inherently evil. The corollary to this doctrine, of course, is that man is thereby excused from all compunctions to be moral, since he is a helpless victim trapped in an evil universe not of his own making. This doctrine was likely the source of Voltaire's world view since as early as 1711, when he was introduced into the Temple of Taste, a secret society of debauchees who then forwarded him to England for further indoctrination in buggery. ("The Enlightenment's Crusade Against Reason")

The Enlightenment also shared Gnosticism's veneration of God's chief opponent. In The Hypostasis of the Archons, an Egyptian Gnostic text, the serpent in Eden is portrayed as humanity's benevolent "Instructor" and "incognito savior" (Raschke 27). Of course, Revelation 12:9 and 20:2 identifies the serpent as Satan, the Adversary of both God and man. Meanwhile, the Hypostasis caricatures Jehovah as "the archon of arrogance" (27). Likewise, the Enlightenment depicted the Devil as man's liberator and God as the oppressive force of superstition. However, the sociopolitical Utopians of the Enlightenment would exalt Satan under his original appellation, Lucifer. Conrad Goeringer elaborates:
If the bible was the holy book of the Christian enlightenment, then the Encyclopedia was the inspiration of the Enlightenment. Here was a compendium of human knowledge dealing with arts, sciences mechanics and philosophy which swelled to some 36 volumes by 1780. Begun by the Atheist Diderot in 1751, the Encyclopedia bore the imprints of Voltaire, Montesque, Rousseau, Buffon, Turgot and others. Gracing the title page of Diderot's compendium in the first edition was a drawing of Lucifer, symbol of light and rebellion, standing beside the masonic symbols of square and compass. ("The Enlightenment, Freemasonry, and the Illuminati")

This veneration of the Devil under his original angelic title constituted the religion of Luciferianism. Like some varieties of Satanism, Luciferianism did not depict the devil as a literal metaphysical entity. Lucifer only symbolized the cognitive powers of man. He was the embodiment of science and reason. It was the Luciferian's religious conviction that these two facilitative forces would dethrone the "superstitious" institutions of God and apotheosize man. This re-conceptualization of Lucifer reiterated the theme of Gnostic immanentization. Lucifer, whom traditional Christianity regards as a spiritual entity, was rendered purely immanent. Now, Lucifer was ontologically transplanted within the human mind, which Enlightenment adherents believed to be a purely corporeal entity.

Diderot's inclusion of Masonic symbols on the title page of Encyclopedia was quite appropriate. Luciferian thought permeated the early Masonic Lodge. In Morals and Dogma, 33rd Degree Freemason Albert Pike expresses unabashed praise for Lucifer:

LUCIFER, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish Souls? Doubt it not. (321)
Freemasonry, which enjoyed a certain degree of prominence during the Enlightenment, would play a significant role in disseminating Luciferianism on the popular level as secular humanism. Basically, secular humanism qualifies as an anthropocentric religion and its central precept is synopsized by the Protagorean dictum: "Man is the measure of all things." Whittaker Chambers, former member of the communist underground in America, provides an eloquent summation of secular humanism:

"Humanism is not new. It is, in fact, man's second oldest faith. Its promise was whispered in the first days of Creation under the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil: 'Ye shall be as gods.'" (Qutd. in Baker 206)
Indeed, the only logical conclusion that a secular humanist can arrive at is that man is becoming god. It is interesting to note that Diderot, who was ostensibly an atheist, would select religious personages such as Lucifer to adorn his "compendium of human knowledge." Diderot's appropriation of the "symbol of light and rebellion" as a core icon for the title page of Encyclopedia suggests a conception of human knowledge that parallels the fallen angel's hubristic belief that he would make himself "like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:14). Atheism provides the philosophical segue for the enthronement of man as the Most High. This enthronement begins with the recognition of a logical contradiction inherent to atheism. Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias delineates the logical contradiction of atheism:

[Atheism] is not saying, "I do not think there is a God." It is not even saying, "I do not believe there is a God." It is affirming the nonexistence of God. It affirms a negative. It affirms the nonexistence of God... anyone with an introductory course in philosophy recognizes that it is a logical contradiction. How can you affirm a negative in the absolute? It would be like me saying to you, "There is no such thing as a white stone with black dots anywhere in all of the galaxies of this universe." The only way I can affirm that is if I have unlimited knowledge of this universe. So, to affirm an absolute negative is self-defeating because what you are saying is, "I have infinite knowledge in order to say to you, 'There is nobody with infinite knowledge.'" ("Why I am Not an Atheist, Part one," Let My People Think)

The only way to affirm the nonexistence of God is to lay claim to one of his core attributes: omniscience. Philosophically and conceptually, the claimant is already on a slippery slope towards to the belief in self-deification. Ron Carlson and Ed Decker reiterate:

It is philosophically impossible to be an atheist, since to be an atheist you must have infinite knowledge in order to know absolutely that there is no God. But to have infinite knowledge, you would have to be God yourself. It's hard to be God yourself and an atheist at the same time! (17)

Indeed, to conclude with all certainty that there is no transcendent God outside the ontological plane of the physical universe, one must first claim omniscience. However, omniscience is a trait reserved exclusively for deities. Therefore, the claimant must conclude that he or she is a god. In this sense, atheism is not the rejection of a deity. Atheism is but a philosophical segue for the ontological relocation of God within man himself. Herein is the occult conception of man as an emergent deity.


Sources Cited:
1 - Baker, Jeffrey. Cheque Mate: The Game of Princes. Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1995.2 - de Hoyos, Linda. "The Enlightenment's Crusade Against Reason." American Almanac 8 Feb.1993.3 - Goeringer, Conrad. "The Enlightenment, Freemasonry, and the Illuminati.” American Atheists 2006.4 - Pike, Albert. Morals and Dogma. 1871. Richmond, Virginia: L.H. Jenkins, Inc., 1942.5 - Zacharias, Ravi "Why I am Not an Atheist, Part One." Let My People Think

© 2009 - Phillip D. Collins - All Rights Reserved

Source: http://www.newswithviews.com/Collins/phillip129.htm

AUGUSTINE AND THE WESTERN CHRISTIAN WORLD-VIEW

Saint Augustine and the Western Christian World-View

By Lewis Loflin

A very influential and great philosopher and theologian of Late Antiquity, Saint Augustine of Hippo is the most important of the Latin Church Fathers. His works, especially his Confessions (a self-biography) and City of God, helped distinguish the Church in Western Europe from the Church as it developed elsewhere. Protestant reformers Calvin and Luther, would draw their theology from this man. It would be very wise to find out what this man really taught. Augustine would also justify the "Just War" doctrine to give the church the theological grounds for murder and terror in Christ' name.

Augustine did have one opponent and his name is Pelagius, a British monk. The church went along with Augustine and declared Pelagius a heretic in the West, but he was cleared in the East.

In Confessions that I read in college we have a profile of a disturbed and unhappy man. As a child he complained of wanting to play like other children yet goes on to talk about harsh beatings for neglecting his studies and how his parents "enjoyed" his torment. He never married, but bore a son with a concubine that he fell in love with. He grieved when she was sent away and he couldn't marry her because of some social custom he never went into. His father died before he went to Italy. He would grieve later for his mother and the sacking of Rome.

He was born to Latin speaking parents of mixed religious beliefs on November 13, AD 354 at Thagaste, in the north African province of Numidia. Augustine's father, Patricius, was a pagan and his mother (Saint Monica) while a Christian still held some pagan ideas. Their mixed beliefs caused confusion for Augustine and led him to question religion in general. It made sense that Augustine searched for truth, as well as deciding at a later date to convert to Christianity. It should be noted that his religious confusion, search for truth, and deep emotional pain in his personal life twisted his vision of Christianity once he did convert.

Financed by a family friend at the age of sixteen, Augustine moved to Carthage to study rhetoric. At seventeen he read Cicero's "Hortensius" which further inspired him to know the truth. Soon Augustine joined the Manichees. The Manichees were a religious group that stressed purity of life and the need to place emphasis on the importance of Christ. The Manichees seemed so valuable to Augustine because they promised to provide him with the "truth" he was seeking. With the Manichees, Augustine was able to write his first work which dealt with aesthetics and was entitled, "On the Beautiful and the Fitting."

One point not brought out in Confessions is, "Who are the Manichees?" When he wrote his biography the Manichees were a well known and altering type of Christianity. Drawing from Christianity, Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism/Mithraism and Greek paganism, their main theme was all creation (flesh) was evil. They believed all sex, even in marriage including the birth of children was evil and sinful. Thus celibacy is best and in my opinion the Catholic church drew its celibacy nonsense from this introducing another pagan concept into the faith. Augustine, because of his love of sex, would be torn between sex and sin. Lastly, Manichees were dualist and apocalyptic believing in good versus evil, Satan versus God, etc. (Zoroastrianism) The Book of John and Book of Revelation are heavy on Gnostic symbolism and perhaps proto-Gnostic. The Manichees were declared heretics and wiped-out by the Church.

Even more important is the Gnostic and Manichean influence was very strong in Alexandria, Egypt and in my opinion that along with Neo-Platonism would influence the Trinity. The Christianity of the 4th century was not the Christianity of most early Christians or anything Jesus ever taught. See Gnosticism, an Overview.

By 384 Augustine was unsatisfied with the Manichees and he broke away to open the New Academy, a school of rhetoric, in which he became the official orator of Milan. Much of his time seem to be spent trying to get his pupals to pay him. Augustine was finally converted to Christianity in 386 and was baptized the next year. The damage was already done. In 391 he returned to North Africa to live a somewhat monastic (celebrate) life before being ordained as a priest in order to assist the archbishop of Hippo. Four years later Augustine became the Bishop of Hippo, from which point he devoted all his work to the service of the church.

It was in 397 that Augustine began his autobiographical Confessions. His intention for this work was to give an account of his conversion to Christianity. Augustine also expressed his ultimate desire for truth and happiness therein. Just page after page of happy self-loathing. He finished his Confessions in 401. Shortly thereafter he began work on another book during that period which was titled City of God. In it, Augustine traced the story of the human race from the time of Adam and Eve in the Tigris-Euphrates river region to his own time.

Augustine remained Bishop of Hippo until his death in 430 AD.

Also see the following:

• Notes on Neoplatonism
• Early Christian and Medieval Neoplatonism
• Sufism as seen by Muslim Fundamentalists
• Pelagius: To Demetrias, why he was cleared of heresy
• Pelagius: Chapters
• Pelagius and why he was right.
• Defense Of The Freedom Of The Will
• How Christianity drew on Philo's synthesis of Judaism and Hellenism
• Augustine IEP

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Augustine invented the concept of Original Sin as we have it today. From the Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia on Original Sin,

Original Sin, in Christian theology, the universal sinfulness of the human race, traditionally ascribed to the first sin committed by Adam. Theologians advocating original sin argue that the concept is strongly implied by the apostle Paul, the apostle John, and even by Jesus himself. Late Jewish apocalyptic writings attribute the world's corruption to a prehistoric fall of Satan, the temptation of Adam and Eve, and the resulting disorder, disobedience, and pain of human history.

Saint Augustine appealed to the Pauline-apocalyptic understanding of the forgiveness of sin, but he also included the notion that sin is transmitted from generation to generation by the act of procreation. He took this idea from 2nd-century theologian Tertullian, who actually coined the phrase original sin. Medieval theologians retained the idea of original sin, and it was asserted by 16th-century Protestant reformers, primarily Martin Luther and John Calvin. Liberal Protestant theologians later developed an optimistic view of human nature incompatible with the idea of original sin.

Tertullian of Carthage: (150-225) advised that: "Divine revelation, not reason, is the source of all truth." The struggle between reason and revelation has been the hallmark of the church. See Deism. The ancient Greeks knew the world was round and the earth circled the sun, but "revelation" said the opposite so scripture was right, reason was wrong. Augustine would further expand on this.

Augustine's idea that we are responsible for Adam's "Fall" is a direct contradiction of Ezekiel 18 where God clearly says only the sinner will die and their children are innocent. The Bible never mentioned Original Sin as such, and Jesus never implied it in this manner.

In 410, when Augustine was in his fifties, Visigoths sacked Rome, a disaster for which the classical consciousness was unprepared. Pagans and Christians blamed each other for the disaster. Even Christians expressed anxiety, "Why were the righteous also suffering?" Where was the kingdom of God on earth that had been prophesied? Augustine was further shattered emotionally.

Augustine's The City of God was a response to the crisis of the Roman Empire in the same manner that Plato's Republic was a reaction to the crisis of the Athenian polis. But whereas Plato expressed hope that a state founded on rational principles could remedy the abuses of Athenian society, Augustine maintained that the worldly city could never be the central concern of a Christian. He said that the ideal state could not be realized on earth, that it belonged only to heaven.

The misfortunes of Rome, therefore, should not distress a Christian unduly, for Christianity belonged to the realm of the spirit and could not be identified with any state. The collapse of Rome did not diminish the greatness of Christianity, for the true Christian was a citizen of a heavenly city that could not possibly be pillaged by ungodly barbarians, but would endure forever. Compared to God's heavenly city, the decline of Rome was unimportant. The welfare of Christianity was not to be identified with Rome's material progress or even its existence. Thus like the Manichees he saw nothing worthy in world at all, but that doesn't mean he would ignore it.

He stipulated that although the earthly city was the very opposite of the heavenly city, it was a reality that people must face. Christians could not reject their city entirely, but must bend it to fit a Christian pattern. The city that someday would rise from the ruins of Rome must be based upon Christian principles. Warfare, economic activity, education, and the rearing of children should all be conducted in a Christian spirit. Although the City of Man was ever evil, imperfect, and of no consequence in comparison to the City of God, it was not about to disappear and be replaced by the Kingdom of God on earth. The church could not neglect the state, but must guide it to protect human beings from their own sinful natures. The state must employ repression and punishment to restrain people, who were inherently sinful, from destroying each other and the few good men and women that God had elected to save from hell. It was in "warfare" and terror this perversion of Jesus' Church would excel.

See Good Wars by Darrel Cole.

Finally, like Tertullian, Augustine repudiated the distinguishing feature of classical humanism—the autonomy of reason. (This wasn't the atheistic secular humanism of today.) For him, ultimate wisdom could not be achieved through rational thought alone; reason had to be guided by faith. Without faith there could be no true knowledge, no understanding. Philosophy had no validity if it did not first accept as absolutely true the existence of God and the authority of his revelation. Valid ethical standards could not be formulated by reason alone, but were revealed to people by the living God. Christian truth did not rest on theoretical excellence or logical consistency; it was true because its source was God. Yet Augustine continued to insist "revelations" were true even if in direct contradiction of both Jesus or the Old Testament. Without reason all we have is blind superstition and a cult. See Humanism Rejected

In conclusion Augustine's influence on Western Christianity is second only to Paul and Jesus. His great influence on Luther and Calvin would distort Protestant outlooks as well. His outlook on the City of God and City of Man is still the vision of repressive Puritanism and modern Protestant fundamentalism.

Marvin Perry, Western Civilization, Ideas, Politics, and Society, 2nd edition. Pages 167-70

Additional material

It would be unfair to judge "The City of God" by the standard of modern exegetical and historical scholarship. Augustin's interpretations of Scripture, although usually ingenious and often profound, are as often fanciful, and lack the sure foundation of a knowledge of the original languages; for he knew very little Greek and no Hebrew, and had to depend on the Latin version; he was even prejudiced at first against Jerome's revision of the very defective Itala, fearing, in his solicitude for the weak and timid brethren, that more harm than good might be the result of this great and necessary improvement. His learning was confined to biblical and Roman literature and the systems of Greek philosophy.

He often wastes arguments on absurd opinions, and some of his own opinions strike us as childish and obsolete. He confines the Kingdom of God to the narrow limits of the Jewish theocracy and the visible Catholic Church. He could, indeed, not deny the truths in Greek philosophy; but he derived them from the Jewish Scriptures, and adopted the impossible hypothesis of Ambrose that Plato became acquainted with the prophet Jeremiah in Egypt (comp. De Doctr. Christ. II. 28), though afterwards he corrected it (Retract. II. 4). He does not sufficiently appreciate the natural virtues, the ways of Divine providence and the working of His Spirit outside of the chosen race; and under the influence of the ascetic spirit which then prevailed in the Church, in justifiable opposition to the surrounding moral corruption of heathenism, he even degrades secular history and secular life, in the state and the family, which are likewise ordained of God. In some respects he forms the opposite extreme to Origen, the greatest genius among the Greek fathers. Both assume a universal fall from original holiness. But Augustin dates it from one act of disobedience,--the historic fall of Adam, in whom the whole race was germinally included;

From: The Philosophy of History, 1874, pp. 17 sqq.

Source: http://www.sullivan-county.com/id2/augustine.htm