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   alt.religion.christian.amish      Kickin' it REAL old school...      1,739 messages   

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   Message 464 of 1,739   
   AVERY NEWMAN to All   
   The Passion - FROM FAITH TO FREEDOM (55/   
   28 Aug 04 15:02:40   
   
   [continued from previous message]   
      
   [11] Sadashiva was a great Tantric Preceptor who lived mainly in India and   
   Nepal. Even to this day the people living there revere him as the father of   
   human civilization. For more information, one may best consult the book, Namah   
   Shiva'ya Sha'nta'ya, by    
   Shrii Shrii Anandamurti.   
      
   [12] Human beings belong to the category of creatures which prefer to live   
   collectively as opposed to individually. However, the human sentiment for   
   collective living is not strong enough to resist narrow-mindedness and,   
   therefore, many clans and other    
   group-types have developed. Hence human social consciousness may best be   
   described as a demi-social mentality.   
      
   [13] These may be termed respectively as socio-sentiment minimitis and   
   socio-sentiment maximitis or socio-sentiment excellencio.   
      
   [14] Ordinary humanism is a form of extended nationalism. This must be   
   carefully distinguished from internationalism, which admits the existence of   
   separate nations and wants those nations to co-exist on a “live and let live”   
   basis. In addition, an    
   internationalist may also feel some concern for provision of the basic   
   necessities to all inhabitants of those nations. Internationalism, though, is   
   grossly impractical for, as soon as one discovers a particular nation   
   exploiting another (which is the    
   norm in today's world), one is compelled to oppose it and that very opposition   
   leads eventually to world war.   
      
   [15] Mark 10:21-22.   
      
   [16] Matthew 5:44.   
      
   [17] Such a love has also been the cause of many inter-creature conflicts,   
   with the result that human beings have wantonly tortured and destroyed   
   countless animals and plants. Even those animals and plants to which human   
   beings are attracted or indebted    
   have been constantly and cruelly mistreated.   
      
   [18] Matthew 22:37-40.   
      
   [19] Matthew 6:24.   
      
   [20] Luke 14:25-26.   
      
   [21] For a more thorough analysis of the symbiotic relationship between state   
   and church, please refer to Chapter 10 “State Church and Church State”.   
      
   [22] Exodus 21:24.   
      
   [23] An orthodox Jew and a fundamentalist Christian or Moslem would dispute   
   any reference to Moses as Preceptor. They prefer to recognize Moses as not   
   more than a prophet par excellence or a faithful messenger of God. Curiously,   
   while this attitude tends    
   to underrate the genius of Moses and his enormous contribution, for better or   
   for worse, in many fields of human existence, it has exactly the opposite   
   effect with respect to the teachings which would otherwise have been   
   attributed to Moses. By demeaning    
   the man Moses, his every teaching has been elevated to the status of being the   
   incontrovertible “word of God”. For reasons which will become more clear as   
   this book proceeds, the orthodox or fundamentalist viewpoint simply cannot be   
   accepted unless one    
   is ready to denigrate not just Moses but also God.   
      
   [24] It is not at all likely that Abraham introduced a monotheistic religion   
   as Jews understand Judaism today. More probably Abraham was tolerant regarding   
   the existence of other gods, declaring only that his god was the greatest of   
   them all. On the    
   other hand, Moses probably did introduce a so-called monotheism as the   
   religion of the Jews, but he was likely to have received his inspiration for   
   his “One God” from the Egyptian tradition rather than the Hebrew tradition.   
   Although the Old Testament    
   implies that Moses lived around the 15th Century B.C. (see 1 Kings 6:1), all   
   historians are agreed that he was born in the late 14th Century B.C. General   
   belief holds that Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt some time during the   
   reign of Ramses II (1304-   
   1237 B.C.). Ramses II was famous as a prolific builder of pyramids. If this   
   more-accepted analysis of history be taken as fact (and a calculation of time   
   based on the generations given in Chronicles would support the later date –   
   see, for example, 1    
   Chronicles 2:1-151, then Moses lived soon after the rule of Ikhneton, also   
   known as Amenhotep, the leader best known for his introduction of monotheism   
   in Egypt. Ikhneton reigned from 1379-1362 B.C., perhaps just thirty or forty   
   years before the birth of    
   Moses. Thus, the idea of Moses learning about monotheism from the Hebrews is   
   far less likely than his having learned it in some corner of the Pharaoh's   
   palace. This argument is amplified when one remembers that Moses was far more   
   committed to monotheism    
   than Aaron, his alleged brother and the apparently undisputed high priest of   
   the Jews, who constructed an idol of a golden calf for the Hebrews to worship   
   while Moses was still atop Mount Sinai, supposedly communing with the “One   
   God”. (See Exodus 32:1-6.   
   )   
      
   [25] Genesis 17:1-14.   
      
   [26] Exodus 3:17.   
      
   [27] The rite of circumcision was practiced by many peoples, including several   
   Semitic tribes other than the Hebrews. There are a number of theories   
   regarding its origin and function, but it is commonly accepted that as a   
   health practice for a desert-   
   based society, where water was scarce and bathing infrequent, circumcision   
   must have substantially benefitted both men and women.   
      
   [28] Genesis 13:16.   
      
   [29] When one is called to testify in a court of law, s/he is asked to swear,   
   with right hand on the Bible, that testimony given will be “the whole truth   
   and nothing but the truth”, presumably just as the contents of that sacred   
   book are taken to be the    
   whole truth and nothing but the truth.   
      
   [30] Genesis 1:1-2:3. Not all idols are made of clay, stone, metal or wood   
   –many idols exist purely within the realm of imagination. The Jewish God   
   presented in the Creation story is one such idol, for he clearly has far too   
   many human limitations to be    
   in fact the one formless, infinite Entity. If God did take a rest on the   
   seventh day, then who is it that administered this vast and complicated   
   Universe on that first Sabbath?   
      
   [31] Joshua 10:12-13.   
      
   [32] Matthew 17:1-9.   
      
   [33] Revelation 13:1-2.   
      
   [34] Matthew 3:13-17.   
      
   [35] Genesis 17:1-14.   
      
   [36] Exodus 3:1-10.   
      
   [37] Exodus 1:1-2:10.   
      
   [38] One further point in support of this hypothesis is the fact that Moses   
   apparently became a fugitive in his early life, allegedly due to his sympathy   
   for the Hebrews. (See Exodus 2:11-15.) For whatever reason, he evidently did   
   murder an Egyptian man    
   and was forced to flee, thus putting an end to any future which there might   
   have been for him before that incident in the royal household. Thereafter, if   
   Moses were to continue living in the manner to which he had been accustomed,   
   he was virtually    
   compelled to set up his own kingdom.   
      
   [39] For example: Exodus 4:14; Exodus 7:1-2; Numbers 20:7-8.   
      
   [40] Exodus 4:10-17; Exodus 6:12-13; Exodus 6:30-7:2. Many scholars claim here   
   that “uncircumcised lips” refers to the earlier self-admitted speech   
   obstruction of Moses. However, that seems illogical since God had already   
   replied to that problem by    
   allegedly sending Aaron with Moses to overcome this drawback. Thus, why would   
   Moses bring up the same point once again? It seems more logical here to assume   
   that Moses was raising a wholly new objection – one that God apparently chose   
   to ignore, implying    
   that the question of circumcision was unimportant, at least in the special   
   case of Moses. Of course many people must have known that Moses was   
   uncircumcised, and it seems that Moses had no intention of submitting to this   
   ritual surgery. His excuse: “I    
   told God twice about my condition, but God never seemed to be concerned about   
   the point”.   
      
   [41] Exodus 4:24-26.   
      
   [42] Joshua 5:5-9.   
      
   [43] Genesis 17:14.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)   

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