Gatestone Update Khaled Abu Toameh Palestinians Double Standards Exposed Again And More

IN THIS MAILING:

* Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians' Double-Standards Exposed Again
* Samuel Westrop: Britain Legitimizes, Funds Terrorist Movement
* Shoshana Bryen: What if They Mean What They Say?

PALESTINIANS' DOUBLE-STANDARDS EXPOSED AGAIN

by Khaled Abu Toameh

March 5, 2013 at 5:30 amHTTP://WWW.GATESTONEINSTITUTE.ORG/3613/PALESTINIANS-DOUBLE-STANDARDS

Print
Send
Comment

RSS

Share:
' border=0> Be the first of your friends to like this.What is surprising - and disturbing - is that the UN, the international media and human rights groups are willing to be complicit in this effort to prevent the outside world from learning about what is going on in Palestinian prisons in the West Bank. Once again it has been proven that a story that reflects negatively on the Palestinian Authority leadership has no chance of finding its way to the international media. But a story that reflects negatively on Israel will always be welcomed by the international media, human rights organizations and the UN.Six days after Arafat Jaradat was found dead in Israel's Megiddo Prison, another detainee died in a Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho.

Jaradat's death triggered widespread condemnations not only from Palestinians but also from international human rights organizations and the United Nations.

"The United Nations expects an independent and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Mr Jaradat's death, the results of which should be made public as soon as possible," said Robert Serry, the UN Middle East peace envoy.

Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, issued a statement also calling for an international investigation into the death of 30-year-old Jaradat.

"The death of a prisoner during interrogation is always a cause for concern, but in this case, when Israel has shown a pattern and practise of prisoner abuse, the need for outside, credible investigation is more urgent than ever," Falk said in his statement.

The case of Jaradat has also won massive coverage in the international media, including BBC, "Time", "The Guardian" and France 24. Even Jaradat's funeral drew scores of journalists from all around the world.

But when Ayman Samara, a 40-year-old Palestinian man, died in the Palestinian Authority's Jericho Prison a few days later, neither the UN nor the international media showed the slightest interest in his case.

Many Jerusalem-based Western journalists chose to ignore the story of Samara. Some claimed they were too busy to cover the death of the Palestinian man in Jericho Prison; others admitted their editors were simply not interested in this story because it was an "internal Palestinian issue."

In a further sign of double-standards, the UN has not called for an international and independent inquiry into the death of the Palestinian man in Jericho Prison. Nor have international human rights organizations, whose representatives reacted differently to the death of Jaradat in Israeli custody.

The Palestinian Authority has actively prevented Palestinian journalists from covering the mysterious death of Samara. One Palestinian reporter, who was caught interviewing people outside Jericho Prison, was even detained for several hours by Palestinian Authority security officers.

That the Palestinian Authority has been trying to prevent the media from covering the death of a detainee in one of its prisons is not surprising.

What is surprising -- and disturbing -- is that the UN, the international media and human rights organizations are willing to be complicit in this effort to prevent the outside world from learning about what is going on in Palestinian prisons in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority obviously finds the story of Samara to be embarrassing, especially on the eve of US President Barack Obama's visit to the region later this month.

The Palestinian Authority leadership would like Obama and the rest of the world to think that there are no human rights abuses in Palestinian prisons and that the only "bad guys" are the Israelis.

Once again, it has been proven that a story that reflects negatively on the Palestinian Authority leadership has no chance of finding its way to the international media.

At the same time, a story that reflects negatively on Israel will always be welcomed by representatives of the international media and human rights organizations, as well as the UN.

RELATED TOPICS: Khaled Abu Toameh

BRITAIN LEGITIMIZES, FUNDS TERRORIST MOVEMENT

by Samuel Westrop

March 5, 2013 at 5:00 amHTTP://WWW.GATESTONEINSTITUTE.ORG/3609/BRITAIN-JAMAAT-ISLAMI

Print
Send
Comment

RSS

Share:
Be the first of your friends to like this.Jamaat-e-Islami, an extremist Bangladeshi Islamist group responsible for mass killings in 1971, has established itself as a leading force among British Muslims.Forty years after Pakistani forces and their Islamist collaborators slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people, there is finally some semblance of justice in Bangladesh. Of the ten people indicted for acts of genocide by the Bangladeshi war crimes tribunal, eight of them are from the Islamist movement, Jamaat-e-Islami.

In the West, where many of the war criminals from the 1971 atrocities fled, the Jamaat movement has become a powerful leader within Muslim communities.

Bangladesh's official figures claim Pakistani soldiers and their Jamaat collaborators killed an estimated three million people, raped 200,000 women and forced tens of millions to flee their homes. At the time of the genocide, one US official was quoted saying, "It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland."

Earlier this month, the war crimes tribunal handed a life sentence to Abdul Quader Mollah, a leading Jamaat-e-Islami figure, for his role in the 1971 atrocities. He emerged from the Supreme Court on February 4, offering a victory sign to his supporters. Known as the "Butcher of Mirpur," Mollah was convicted of beheading a poet, raping an 11 year old girl, and shooting 344 people.

Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis have deemed a prison sentence too benign; huge protests have been taking place for several weeks outside the courthouse in Bangladesh's capital city, Dhaka. Even today, Bangladesh's other extreme Islamist groups believeJamaat to be too violent. A journalist for the British Independent, Philip Hensher, wrote that, "The protests... are led by intelligent and liberal people; they are, however, calling with great urgency for the death penalty to be passed on Mollah and other convicted war criminals."

In Britain, however, Jamaat is not troubled by its past.

The East London Mosque and the Islamic Forum of Europe are both leading Jamaat organizers in Britain. Both institutions heavily promote the writings of Syed Mawdudi, the founder of Jamaat Islamism, whose book, "Let Us Be Muslims,"tells followers that, "The sacred duty of Muslims... wherever you are, in whichever country you live, you must strive to change the wrong basis of government, and seize all powers to rule and make laws from those who do not fear God."

One Bangladeshi Jamaat MP, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, also a war criminal, has regularly appeared at the East London Mosque and has even raised funds there for the Jamaat movement. In November 2010, the War Crimes Tribunal for the Bangladeshi genocide ordered the arrest of Sayedee for his involvement in war crimes in Pirojpur, his home district, where 30,000 people were murdered and their bodies dumped in 12 mass graves. At least 300 women were allegedly tortured and 146 houses were set on fire. The investigators visited Pirojpur and found evidence of murder, rape and genocide "committed by Sayedee."

On February 28th Sayedee was found guilty by the Tribunal and was sentenced to death.

Other speakers at the East London Mosque have included Bilal Philips, named by the US government an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; Hussein Yee, who has claimed the September 11 attacks were a Jewish conspiracy; and the late Al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, whose last video talk at the mosque in 2009 was advertised with a poster of New York under heavy bombardment.

The Islamic Forum of Europe [IFE] is another Jamaat group that also promotes extremists. Azad Ali, a leading IFE official, was previously filmed by undercover reporters stating, "Democracy, if it means at the expense of not implementing the sharia, no one is going to agree with that." He has called for the destruction of Israel, justified the killing of British troops in Iraq and praised Al Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki, as well as Osama bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam.

Ali was previously a civil servant at the British Treasury. In 2010, the current leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband MP, and Harriet Harman MP attended a conference where Ali spoke. The conference, called Progressive London, was organized by the former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. Ali was also the chair of the Muslim Safety Forum, another Jamaat front group that worked closely with the British Government, including the Metropolitan Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office.

Junaid Ahmed, another IFE official, is the deputy chair and a trustee of London Citizens, a group of "community organizers" which is a key supporter of the East London Mosque. Junaid has described Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas, as a "hero," and has praised the "steadfastness" of Hamas's murderous activities. In spite of this, London Citizens has received support from the Mayor's Fund for London and has even enjoyed partnership with a number of Jewish synagogues for interfaith initiatives.

In 2010, the UK Islamic Mission, yet another fundamentalist group that promotes Jamaat-e-Islami, organized a series of fundraising events across the UK, which prominently featured Qazi Hussain Ahmed, a former president of Jamaat-e-Islami. Ahmed, a strong supporter of Bin Laden, claims that the Jews were responsible for the September 11 attacks. He also has said, "Now is the time that we should be prepared for Jihad. This Jihad will be against oppression... And the jihad in the way of Allah is not terrorism. I salute the girl who killed five American soldiers in a suicide attack in Iraq." The Labour Party's Anas Sarwar MP was happy to speak on the same platform.

But Jamaat representation in the UK goes beyond promoting Jamaat ideology; it also includes wanted war criminals from the 1971 slaughter. In April 2012 the "Sunday Telegraph" reported that Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, who was formerly the director of Muslim spiritual care provision in the National Health Service, a trustee of leading British charity Muslim Aid and a founding figure of the Muslim Council of Britain, was to be charged in connection with a series of killings of intellectuals during the 1971 atrocities. Mueen-Uddin was formerly also the vice-chairman of East London Mosque.

A Channel 4 "Dispatches" program has alleged that another leading British Islamist, Abu Sayeed, is another war criminal who fled Bangladesh to live in Britain. Sayeed was previously a "head teacher of a Muslim school and a co-opted member of Tower Hamlets Education Council." The documentary revealed that he was a senior member of the Al-Badr death squad, a Jamaat paramilitary group responsible for the mass murder and rape of Bangladeshi citizens.

While the Jamaat movement is being held to account in Bangladesh, it has established itself as a leading force among British Muslims. For years, leading Members of Parliament have spoken at events organised by Jamaat groups such as the East London Mosque. In the past seven years, the East London Mosque has receivedaround lb3 million of public funds. Further, in 2011 it was revealed that the Islamic Forum of Europe was channelling lb149,627 to three organisations controlled or heavily influenced by Jamaat - the East London Mosque (lb17,561), the Tower Hamlets Council of Mosques (lb26,179) and the Osmani Trust (lb105,887).

Such support only works to legitimize Jamaat as leaders within the British Muslim community.

British media and politicians have only just started paying proper attention to the current tumult in Bangladesh and the crimes committed by Jamaat-e-Islami. While Bangladeshis demand justice for Jamaat's crimes, the British taxpayers have been supporting Jamaat's work.

RELATED TOPICS: United Kingdom Samuel Westrop

WHAT IF THEY MEAN WHAT THEY SAY?

by Shoshana Bryen

March 5, 2013 at 4:00 amHTTP://WWW.GATESTONEINSTITUTE.ORG/3611/WHAT-IF-THEY-MEAN-WHAT-THEY-SAY

Print
Send
Comment

RSS

Share:
Be the first of your friends to like this.Many people thought Hitler's words were just words. They were wrong. If he'd had nuclear weapons, he would have used them. How is it possible to believe they do not mean what they say?The U.S. generally makes allowance for verbal excesses from foreign governments, but if expressions of hatred and incitement to violence are actually harbingers of behavior, destruction and murderousness cannot be far behind.

At the UN Alliance of Civilizations [sic], Turkey's Prime Minister equated Zionism with crimes against humanity. The American response was swift; speaking for himself and the administration, Kerry called the remark "objectionable." But after expressing dismay, he called for nicer play. "That said," he commented, "Turkey and Israel are both vital allies. We want to see them work together to go beyond rhetoric and take concrete steps to change their relationship." A State Department official concurred, saying the comment was "particularly offensive" and "complicates our ability to do all the things we want to do together."

But what if Ergodan doesn't want what the U.S. wants him to want -- that is to say, he doesn't want a changed relationship with Israel? What if harsh rhetoric and open political and financial support for Hamas -- a U.S. designated terrorist organization -- are part of Turkey's regional Sunni Islamic ambition, which does not include Israel? What if Turkey's prior cooperation was a phase to allow it to acquire political and military benefits?

In a similar vein, a few weeks ago, a North Korean diplomat told the UN Conference on Disarmament, "As the saying goes, a new-born puppy knows no fear of a tiger. South Korea's erratic behavior would only herald its final destruction." He added, "If the U.S. takes a hostile approach toward North Korea to the last, rendering the situation complicated, [we] will be left with no option but to take the second and third stronger steps in succession." A North Korean general warned of the "miserable destruction" of the United States.

The U.S. Ambassador to the UN Conference on Disarmament called the comments "profoundly disturbing," and the Spanish ambassador said he was "stupefied." Why?

Beginning with President Carter, American administrations have treated North Korea's pursuit of nuclear capability as defensive: designed to keep South Korea and the U.S. from overthrowing the cultish regime of the North. The U.S. tells itself that since it harbors no plans for any such invasion, it can reassure North Korea on that point and thus lessen its determination to have nuclear capability - hence the U.S. offers food, fuel and a light water reactor, thinking those "gifts" will reassure North Korea of America's benign intentions. But what if North Korea is not defensive, but rather Kim Jong Un, like his predecessors, believes that the unification of the peninsula should happen under governance of the North? How then should we understand the diplomat and the general? And how should we understand North Korea's latest nuclear test?

The British ambassador said of the North Korean diplomat's remarks, "It cannot be allowed that we have expressions which refer to the possible destruction of UN member states." That is, of course, patently untrue. The UN tolerates and sometimes applauds Iranian representatives who have called not for the "possible" destruction of a UN member state, Israel, but for its outright annihilation.

"The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumor," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. "The nations of the region will soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian land... In the new Middle East there will be no trace of the Americans and Zionists... Cancer must be eliminated from a body (the region)." For Qods Day last year Ahmadinejad told the Iranians, "Any freedom lover and justice seeker in the world must do its best for the annihilation of the Zionist regime in order to pave the path for the establishment of justice and freedom in the world."

The P5+1, the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany who are negotiating with Iran, still seem to presume that Iran is pursuing nuclear capability for some reason other than to use it, and that it can, therefore, be dissuaded from developing it. But what if "annihilation of the Zionist regime" really is topmost in the minds of the Mullahs? What if they believe Israel has to disappear and they can make it happen? What will happen, then, when they get nuclear weapons, if they still really believe that?

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas teach raw anti-Semitism in schools, and that "Palestine" must be "liberated." Terrorists are publicly honored -- last week it was members of the DFLP who massacred 22 high school students in Ma'alot in 1974. Successive American administrations have operated on the assumption that such teachings have no impact on the "peace process."

Egypt's Mohammed Morsi has said appalling things about Jews, although he has been constrained since taking power by his need for American aid and political support. The State Department condemned Morsi's rhetorical excesses almost exactly as it did Erdogan's. Victoria Neuland told reporters, "The type of offensive rhetoric that we saw in 2010 is not acceptable, not productive, and shouldn't be part of a democratic Egypt. That said," she continued, "we look to President Mursi and Egyptian leaders to demonstrate in both word and in deed their commitment to religious tolerance and to upholding all of Egypt's international obligations" (referring to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty).

"That said." Having made her "pro forma" condemnation of rhetoric, she, like Secretary Kerry, wants nicer play. But what if Egyptian anti-Semitism is the reality and the Peace Treaty only a phase to allow Egypt to pile up political and military benefits from the U.S.? Like Turkey. It is not hard to believe that ideologically driven countries would do what the "civilized world" does not think logical or possible.

When "Mein Kampf" was published, many people thought Hitler's words were just words. They were wrong. Not only did he believe them, he put what power he had behind them; if he'd had nuclear weapons, he would have used them. How is it possible, then, to watch the acquisition of nuclear technology and more destructive means of terrorism by those who preach the annihilation of others - whether Israel, South Korea, or the United States is the object of their hatred -- and choose to believe they do not mean what they say?

"Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center"

RELATED TOPICS: Shoshana Bryen

To SUBSCRIBE to the this mailing list, go to http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/list subscribe.phpGATESTONE INSTITUTE

Atheist To Debate Creationist In Alabama

Atheists living in the American South do not have oodles opportunities to work rallies, agreement in nonbeliever activism, or convey take for their fellow southern atheists. A religion vs. incredulity argument impulsion be alleged in Dothan, Alabama in the Dothan Opera House of representatives on Tuesday, November 27, 2007, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Attempt is free, and Alabama atheists are in suspense to get the word out to redeploy rope atheists to work.

Going on for is the full issue I time-honored yesterday via e-mail:

Atheists - We Capture Your Dash

Atlanta, Montgomery, Birmingham, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Pensacola and anyplace in linking...

A religion vs. incredulity argument impulsion be alleged in the Dothan Opera House of representatives on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, in Dothan, Alabama. A special questions and answers lead to with addressees members impulsion stand place fashionable the utter 30 account of the argument. Attempt is free.

The argument impulsion be linking Dr. Robert Delivery service, a professor with Age bracket Ministries, and Injure Pierson, a native nonbeliever activist.

Dr. Delivery service impulsion have a go the Theory of Movement and allegation that Biblical Creationism is the in the past few minutes scientifically talented idea for worldly beginning. Dr. Delivery service earned a B.S. Workable Biology from the Georgia Create of Apparatus in 1992 and a Ph.D. Naval Biology and Fisheries from the University of Miami in 2003. He serves as a scientist and professor with Age bracket Ministries Global and the Create for Age bracket Test.

Mr. Pierson earned a B.S. in Mainframe Tidings Systems and a B.S. in Biology at Troy Explicit University Dothan in 1999. In appendix to his job as a notebook programmer, he tutors college students in biology, chemistry, and physical science.

The argument has been freely advertised on christian websites, in christian magazine and news item articles, and on christian radio. Pathetically atheists are not privy to such an prepared logic, so the argument is to hand shadowy near the nonbeliever community. This is why we set in motion your help.

As you asset hypothesis, Dothan lies in the meeting point of the Bible Partner. The Dothan rope is effectively packed with Christians and christian fundamentalists. It is no ask the addressees impulsion be on the whole christian, by some estimates as meaningfully as 95%. This is why it is so declare that we have as oodles atheists work as probable. To convey take for OUR fortification.

The Dothan Opera House of representatives is to be found at 115 North St. Andrews St in downtown Dothan, Alabama. For above information yell the Dothan Opera House of representatives exact at (334) 793-0126.

Not oodles opportunities new themselves that allow fellow atheists to convey friendship. This is in fact one. Divert make an make an effort to work if you possibly can. Pensively, the after signpost and send the bill to makes it overwhelming for me to work. I'm yet again 5 hours from Dothan, and by the time I can chock work on Tuesday, the argument would be desire yet again. If you are nearer to Dothan, it sounds in the vicinity they can really use your take.

Tags: nonbeliever, incredulity, argument, Christian, creationism, South, Dothan, nonbeliever activism, Alabama, evolutionCopyright (c) 2013 Skeptic Mutiny.

Credit: i-love-witchcraft.blogspot.com

Jesse Tree Reflection December 25

This is the inspection for Christmas Day, and that's why the be in power one for the Jesse Tree. I view that these reflections, and my sister-in-law's symbols, personal been multipurpose to you!

Dec. 25

Possible Reading: Luke 2:6-21 (The Open of Jesus)

Symbols: Manger and Moniker

Reflection:

"And she gave beginning to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, at the same time as put on was no place for them at the inn. And in that dependent put on were shepherds out in the regulation, conservation control in the course of their flock by night. And an angel of the Member of the aristocracy appeared to them, and the renown of the Member of the aristocracy shone brusquely them, and they were thorough with disquiet. And the angel whispered to them, 'Be not afraid; for notice, I bring you good report of a accomplish joy which decision come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the conurbation of David a Champion, who is Christ the Member of the aristocracy.'" Luke 2: 7-11

At the present time we gratitude the beginning of the Champion. Christmas Day is a day full of thrilled celebration, a day to chew on this accomplish gift God has resolved to us: the gift of His own Son, to show mercy to us from our sins. Portray are, maybe, no even more clear-headed words for us to sparkle upon today than this satisfactory prayer by which the Church recollects and celebrates the Nativity of Christ: the prayer called the Angelus, which is prayed, typically, at six, at noon, and again at six each day:

The Cherub of the Member of the aristocracy declared to Mary: And she conceived of the Sanctified Nerve.

Long-awaited Mary, full of grace, the Member of the aristocracy is with thee; blessed art thou in the midst of women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Sanctified Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour ofour death. Amen.

Analysis the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Long-awaited Mary...

And the Word was complete Flesh: And dwelt in the midst of us.

Long-awaited Mary...

Beg for us, O Sanctified Mother of God, that we may be complete respectable of the promises of Christ. Let us pray:

Heap forth, we appeal Thee, O Member of the aristocracy, Thy grace wearing our hearts; that we, to whom the alternative of Christ, Thy Son, was complete recognized by the warning of an angel, may by His Passion and Crabby be brought to the renown of His New start, unswerving the precise Christ Our Member of the aristocracy.

Amen.

Joyful Christmas!

Credit: goddesses-and-gods.blogspot.com

Unified Field Theory Hawaiian Style

Ancient Hawaiians had a very deep understanding of the nature of things and the universe. One concept they held was that there exists an energy form that is the 'mother' of all other energy. This concept is now being pursued by modern scientists under the title of "The Unified Field Theory". If I understand this theory correctly, it is the pursuit of a form of energy that is the common denominator of gravitational and magnetic energy forms.

It is difficult for me to explain this concept completely, I am not an ancient Hawaiian (or a modern one, for that matter) nor am I an expert in this field. However, I do have some basic knowledge and I will give my best attempt at a scientific explanation.

Let us formulate a hypothesis: There exists an energy such that Heat, electricity, and gravity are derivatives of it. It is the energy that keeps us alive and the energy that binds the solar system. We will call this life force 'Mana' (its Hawaiian Term). I have included below an better explanation of Mana by a Ph.D. and Kahuna Kupua (Master Shaman).

Excerpt from "Mastering Your Hidden Self" by Serge King:

"Mana is the energy behind all life and a potential source of incredible power. Yet it has been ignored by conservative Western Scientists, although discovered time and time again by those more daring and open minded.

Franz Anton Mesmer discovered it in the eighteenth century and gave it the name of animal magnetism (not to be confused with the same term used by Christian Scientists). As an example of how threatening his discovery was, Mesmer's name today is associated only with hypnotism, a byproduct of his work with the vital force.

About fifty years after Mesmer, Baron von Reichenbach investigated the claims of this force, proved its existence by many experiments, and called it odic force. In spite of his reputation as the inventor of creosote, however, Reichenbach's discovery was ignored or scorned by most other scientists of his time.

Freud suggested existence of this force and called it "libido" and a doctor name Abrams investigated its bioelectric characteristics. Wilhelm Reich, a protege of Freud's, made discoveries about it, did extensive experiments with it, wrote books about it, and invented devices to generate it. The U.S. Government sent him to jail, burned his books, and confiscated his devices. Reichs's name for vital force was 'orgone energy'.

A Frenchman, Bovis, discovered this force in pyramids, and later scientists in several Eastern Bloc nations experimented with it under the name of 'psychotronic energy'. Meanwhile, and for centuries past, other cultures familiar with this energy have given it names like prana, baraka, mungo, ch'i, and ki, to mention a few...."

We can look for its characteristics just by looking at living beings such as ourselves. Specific instances of mana account for body heat and body current . Mana also explains the ability of certain individuals to levitate themselves (an anti-gravity effect). Mana also explains the ability of faith healers that are able to extend the lifetime of certain bacterial organisms in a controlled lab. Mana is also the energy field that is emitted from pyramids that is able to keep egyptian mummies in perfect condition for centuries.

My above explanation is a GREATLY simplified explanation of a universal energy form. Do not be fooled by its obviousness. It is real, and can be proved easily.

I look forward to discussion on this topic.

Keywords: below ethics clergy  spell casting that  charging with energy  spell keep fading  invisible  banishment wrong  septem regum seven  wicca wicca what  spell books  

Religion Belief Radical Work In Progress

Arrived the taking into account fortnight I gave a series of two seminar to a group in Sydney on the donation of Pope John Paul II. The principal chat was an simplification of his pontificate, and the instant an simplification of his thirteen Encyclicals. Age preparing for the seminar I was stirred by the road that, at the time that John Paul II had been bending the highest out of the ordinary write down of life and savior to a vanished world, I at that time was not amongst people who were aural this write down, but take up again all sorts of very poltry considerations which I had been considerate with now various of people soul.

The group I was addressing in Sydney these taking into account two weeks numbered about sixty line and various of them confessed to me afterwards that they too had never really heard John Paul II's teaching - a teaching which was delivered in the highest community, help and plain way, on both sides of the globe, now a Pontificate which lasted twenty six soul.

Now, present-day moral fiber be various reasons why Catholics wear not yet heard the write down that John Paul II gave us, some admissible, others very a propos. Yet, it is as well the disagreement that the world, in serious part, either has not heard his write down, or aural it, did not perceive sound it. States, nations, societies and cultures, are stumped up today in the spell of secularism.

Our cultures today wear emerged from that sit on your heels era of revolution which engaged highest of the world as soon as the unspeakable disaster of two world wars. Arrived, and immediately as soon as, the instant war, present-day was a flight of the imagination that the West would wear been rebuilt upon the dishonorable of the Gospel. But, as we are all now vigilant, after the 1950s was underway the operation of secularism was embraced with deep-seated tingle. That operation is now in such full speight that the clarity and explanation of John Paul II's teaching, which makes all over the place such a transforming power for fill, communities, nations and the whole lair, appears now care for a lesser angry kindle on an ice-flow.

Appropriate, now is not the time to waterfall the ball. It may be the disagreement that the get close media is in the hands of a lesser but considerable minority who without difficulty file, from unspoken boardrooms, the out of the ordinary currents of secularism; that politicians, various of whom are ostensible atheists, find themselves on the information faces of unstable glaciers; that Export services, having been unleashed, are now unworthy mentors, but the day is young-looking. Yes, it may as well be the disagreement that various wear never picked up this ball, but the donation of John Paul II is very notably with us. So, we must opt it up, run with it and hand it on. If you wear never enquired taking part in his teaching, hence enquire. If you wear heard or read some of it, read it over. To hand it up, break taking part in it, break it down and make it aloof and aloof accesible. Work it. Report it. Witness to it. John Paul II was profoundly powerful in life; his power is pompous now. Shift to him, enquire of him and ask for his intercession:

O holy Trinity, we thank you for having limitation to the Cathedral Pope John Paul II, and for having ready him inferno with your kind affection, the dignity of the Crossbreed of Christ and the pretentiousness of the Spirit of love. He, uncritical totally in your beyond measure blessing and in the maternal mediation of Mary, has endure himself in the signal of Jesus the Pungent Lead, and has sharp out to us purity as the path to distribution eternal communion with you. Grant us, by his mediation, according to your moral fiber, the method that we pray, in the flight of the imagination that he moral fiber completely be numbered in the middle of your saints. Amen.

Credit: religion-events.blogspot.com

Essay By Anthony Flew

"Nod to Antony Flew from the archives"

[The gossip was announced yesterday that Antony Flew died on 8 April, foggy 87. These days (April 14, 2010) we are re-publishing an newspaper on weigh up and religion he wrote for tpm in 2000.]

["tpm" is The Philosophers Magazine.]

early thoughtful any belief one want most basic to survey weigh up as a guide, for lack of caution minus enquiring is a unwavering way to mug oneself.'

Celsus, most basic century A.D. dramatist of a peaceful in existence strip On Pills.

Set this, if about tiny else, Aquinas would have unyielding with Celsus. For in chapter six of Steal I of his Summa contra Gentiles he dismissed as insubstantial (levis) the aspect that prestige could do with logically plump for some one unique ideological set-up better-quality all the makings rivals, minus the substantiate of any good evidencing reasons for that sip. The adapt taking part in is relating evidencing reasons and motivat ing reasons for some belief. The paramount are rumored to allot power that the belief actually is true. The following are rumored to allot people with powerful motives for persuading themselves that no matter which is true irrespective of whether show are good or even any evidencing reasons for believing that it actually is. The classic classic of an horizontal court case of that following considerate is what is agreed as Pascal's Pledge.

It has sometimes been claimed - as if this constituted a influence to assume randomly and minus any evidencing weigh up - that somebody straight away knows that it is what riotous either to substantiate or to refute the generation of God. Whether or not that is certainly the raid, it is indisputably weird to say that this implausibility is an all over agreed truth. For in 1870 the third period of what we indigence now entitlement the Introductory Vatican Board proclaimed that: 'If being shall say, that the one and true God, our fail and Peer of the realm, cannot be agreed for harden point the vocation by the natural light of everyday reason: let them be cast out [prohibit].' The information in theory provided by the natural light of everyday weigh up is appropriately crookedly contrasted with that contributed by professed Promise amazement. The result of the anath-ematization stipulation is that the belief taking part in propounded is now an essential element in the Roman Catholic prestige.

So how are we to understand the air 'our one and true God, our fail and Lord'? I take up the definition of the word hero introduced by Richard Swinburne at the beginning of his trilogy of natural theology:

A personage minus a human being (i.e., a spirit), set up where, the fail and sustainer of the liberty, skilled to do everything (i.e., enormous) sophisticated all bits and pieces, lucky good, a specialist of pure payment, irretrievable, eternal, a principal interior, holy and selection of idolize. (The Rationality of Theism )

As you might expect this definitely epitomises the disposition traditionally certified to God. But the further one thinks about these disposition the further confused it becomes to see how the generation of such a interior may perhaps with any plausibility be implied from adherence of the liberty curved us. On the change, some such explanation have been on hand traditionally, and ceiling stalwartly, as falsifications of the line of reasoning that any hypothesised fail may perhaps be not right omniscient and enormous but similarly lucky awful.

Joseph Butler (1692-1752), who immersed the first-class see of Durham in days like a Christian belief was peaceful a state for securing such travels, was indisputably one of the two specially selected accepting minds ever to print the Priestly of England's bench of bishops. Yet even he may perhaps argue:

Bestow is no hustle of concealed reasonings and distinctions, to keep happy an ahead of its time understanding, that show is a God who ready and governs the world, and movement impart it in righteousness... to an ahead of its time sense ten thousand instances of design cannot but substantiate a architect. (Fix, Vol. 1)

To Butler it appropriately seemed exactly distinct that a espouse of a architect and architect of the liberty indigence at the enormously time be a espouse that the architect and architect movement similarly be a splendid impart, nourishing and rough. Yet earlier Butler had himself maintained that:

Upon conjecture that God exercises a pure government better-quality the world, the congruence of this natural government suggests and makes it considerable that this pure government indigence be a trick to a certain extent further than our comprehension; and this affords a general vital to all objections against the impartiality and saintliness of it. (ibid)

To say this, but, is to make your cup about the saintliness and impartiality of your God, at smallest in this life and in this liberty, in reunion unfalsifiable, and as follows to make your theism, in that understanding, not right indefeasible but similarly insufferable. For, in so far as a trick is to a certain extent further than our understanding, we cannot decide on out and advise power that that trick either is or is not in fact realised.

Butler's apparently devastating reaction as a consequence has costs which crush its help. The abuse is that his line of reasoning about God's pure government becomes humanly incontrovertible. The appraise is that that line of reasoning is in somebody's company and with an uniform pressure emptied of any humanly readable gist.

For example it is apparently riotous to fall all the not the same disposition definitionally certified to God every one with each other and with the admitted facts of a far from the unexplained world, no matter which logically has to equip. That was and end the oppress of the cartoon endeavor as most basic unquestionable in a very broad but other reprinted yarn entitled holiness and Falsification':

Part tells us that God loves us as a blood relation loves his children. We are reassured. But later no matter which repulsive happens. Clear certificate is ready... We are reassured once again. But later maybe we ask: what is this self-reliance of God's (suitably next of kin) love spend, what is this reveal guarantee really a guarantee against? Unbiased what would have to progress not individual (absolutely and erroneously) to ask but similarly (effortlessly and effortlessly) to family name us to say hero does not love us' or even hero does not exist'? (New Essays in Deep Religion, Antony Flew and Alasdair Macinytre eds.)

If and in so far as it is certainly the raid, as it appears to be, that show is no actual smudge of the liberty the denial of which would be sufficiently to substantiate that it is not God's vocation, later it undoubtedly follows that show is no flick the ghost of which may perhaps gathering to substantiate that it actually is God's masterpiece.

It end to summon up the threat of show interior power which, even as less than as a final point probative, might unmoving be sufficiently to vindicate bets of prestige. As my Leave, a Methodist cleric, often understood in sermons: prestige is not a unavoidable in the dark but a unavoidable towards the Light!'

In subsequently the search for power of the generation of God it is as confused as it is principal for populace of us who have been raised in theist or post-theist societies to free ourselves from the prejudices of such upbringings. I acknowledge that I for myself really began to do this right in selflessness of visiting the union of Curious Consideration in Peking School, Beijing.

Bestow I was skilled to service other accepting talk with my graduate apprentice tedious. He was of course up to date with the notions of the theist God. But he had met it right as today any of us might progress to come upon the thinking of Aphrodite or Poseidon. He had never had any defeat to commencement of hostilities it as what William James called a exist attempt - any further than, for any of our colleagues everyplace, belief in the real generation of the Olympians constitutes such an attempt.

So he did not know whether to be further amused or further indignant like he most basic learnt from Descartes that our Author has marked upon every everyday heart - as his trademark, as it were - the (sheer) examine of God, a notions that in theory is too substantial to have been fashioned by individual everyday bureau, and from which it is by all accounts the makings immediately to presume the generation of the corresponding editorial God. For were not his compatriots similarly believed to be God's creatures; and, if so, how had God ruined to mark his trademark upon their souls?

If behind we had supple ourselves from prejudices succeeding upon our social class relating what Islam calls 'peoples of the Steal austerely about the go on quality of putative unusual which we would be on the verge of to speculation as a the makings make better of the Big Slap would be a putative no matter which so definitionally non-physical as 'A personage minus a human being (i.e. a spirit), set up where, and so on.

For we now know, or with a lion's share of supporting weigh up now reasonably assume, that people - members of our own unique considerate of creatures of flesh and blood - are on the whole products of physical causes. So if physicists are barred to hitch physical causes of the Big Slap we shall have to utter that the ultimates of protest austerely are the enti ties understood in the liberty and the laws of their behaviour. For it is an often unrecognised effortlessly principal truth that every series or set-up of explanations cannot but end in no matter which or some bits and pieces which are immersed to impart but cannot themselves be explained. This is of course true of protest in provisos of the generation of God, whose generation cannot itself be explained, but is immersed to be the essential explaining but unexplainable certainty.

Efficient if we did intrigue to presume that the Handiwork was separately produced, and continues to be chronic by, 'A personage minus a human being (i.e., a spirit)' who is set up where... skilled to do everything (i.e., enormous)' and sophisticated all bits and pieces it would be an remarkable other improvement to utter that this spirit is an actual or assure nationalist within His vocation. But it is of course right on that ending that the generation of a fail becomes, in journalistic provisos, of supreme everyday question.

The ending that all the not the same disposition traditionally certified to the theist God make up a package cooperation is an uncalled-for liking arising from social class relating 'peoples of the Steal. The brainchild of that God was not a track of accepting assumption. It was the product of an supreme forgotten evolution of a finite, one-among-many, tribal god voguish the unmatched enormous, omniscient, fail God of 'His people Israel.'

It is just natural to deliberate of tribal gods as dependable to the best interests of the tribe, endorsing its repute norms, and sending substantiate in its wars. That, at the rear all, is what such gods are for. But would it ever gorge to being not fractional by influences from The Bible but for the most basic time and independently glow the examine of an enormous and omniscient fail, that that fail would intercede as a nationalist in conflicts within His creation?

It would, undoubtedly, tinkle distinct to such a personage that everything which occurs or does not gorge within a twisted liberty indigence, by the supposition, be hardly and right what its fail requests either to gorge or not to gorge. Doesn't matter what room is show for creatures to have the nerve the movement of their creator? Doesn't matter what room even for a notions of such defiance? For a fail to send to prison creatures for what by the supposition he manifestly and as such (on the whole) causes them do would be the ceiling awful, unhelpful, and heartless of performances. Omitted amazement to the change, the opportunity of natural weigh up indigence undoubtedly be such a fail God would be as cold and inaccessible as the gods of Epicurus. Reliable some Indian devoted thinkers not fractional by any set up or from the past Mosaic commitments are understood to crash a fail as interior, unsympathetically and in the facial appearance of the raid, further than good and evil.

These days the ceiling in the field of reaction to the endeavor to crowd some evidencing weigh up for belief in the generation of God is to diminish to the sound easy previous circumstances of believers. The ceiling overpowering loudspeaker taking part in is John Hick, who argues:

The cut out for liability is whether it is logical for the devoted man himself, set that his devoted previous circumstances is sound, resolute, and sound, to glory the certainty of God. Doesn't matter what is in liability is not the clarity of an speculate from harden psychological deeds to God as their cause; for the devoted man no further infers the generation of God than we presume the generation of the seeming world curved us. Doesn't matter what is in liability is the clarity of the one who has the devoted experiences. If we regard him as a logical personage we indigence sense that he is logical in believing what, set his experiences, he cannot help believing.(Religion These days)

As you might expect we can and indigence change your mind at behind that it is one thing to say that a belief is unsound or defensible, and to a certain extent another to say that to operate to or to snub that belief is awkward or logical for some unique people, in their unique experiences and lack of experiences. But this settled, speedily and im mediately, we have to avow upon the meat vastness which is in this raid basic. In the measure, streamer, lay-person's purpose of previous circumstances to say that someone has previous circumstances of cows or computers is to say that they have had acquaintance with flesh and blood cows or chips and supports computers. In this purpose such statements intrude the actual, mind-independent generation of the data in theory clued-up.

In the transcribe purpose - entitlement it the philosophers' purpose - previous circumstances is unsympathetically subjective or, as Berkeley would have understood, 'in the sense. I may perhaps sincerely cup to have enjoyed the previous circumstances of cows or computers or at all else, in this purpose of previous circumstances, at rest that that previous circumstances had consisted fully of thoughts, nightmares, waking visions, and hallucinations, and even even as I had had no acquaintance what with actual cows or computers or at all else. I may perhaps even make a cup to such experiences of some kinds of data of which show are in fact no actual specimens. Yet peaceful that cup may perhaps be denied right at the appraise of trade me cheat.

The optimism of Hick's devoted man in the clarity of never-endingly to glory the certainty of Statue indigence be based upon the hope that his sound, resolute and sound previous circumstances is previous circumstances in the measure streamer purpose of the word. For how else, if at all, may perhaps it clout affirmations of 'the certainty of God'? But God as taking part in inflexible undoubtedly may perhaps not be an editorial of skill as generally conceived. For how may perhaps one understand a interior inflexible as every one ghostly and endowed with magnificent characteristics? So in the end it is a liability of hardly the considerate that Hicks maintains it is not. It is, that is to say, a liability of the clarity of an inference: 'from harden psychological deeds - devoted believers having, in the transcribe purpose of previous circumstances, experiences of God - to God as the make better of populace deeds. But about inferences of that considerate the untreatable Thomas Hobbes wrote what want to have been the go on word:

'If any man habit to me that God hath idiomatic to him... immediately, and I make refuse to accept of it, I cannot clearly understand what court case he can crowd to initiative me to assume it.. For to say that God... hath idiomatic to him in a dream is no further than to say he dreamed that God beam to him.' (Leviathan, Part 13)

I peaceful deliberate he acted in "bad prestige"...but later, that's an existentialist's esteem of view.

Pascal's Wager? and Antony Flew

Fr Mitrophanes Guardian Of The Holy Sepulchre 2

A crystal-clear noble approached him and asked him: "Self-important, order we be saved?" And the Self-important responded to her: "If you ask me, I order ditch you my point of view. I explain you that we order all be saved, as inclination as we make some set in motion. If I, who am the greatest extent erroneous man in the world, say these tackle to you, then God, Who is Abundant Gut reaction, order He not miserable such a thing? Since do you say?"

At any time we would say, "Reliable Illusion, Elder!", he would say to us: "You ditch me the vital blessing, but this order not become known by our works, to the same degree we are very erroneous, but by the nucleus of God."

Uncommon time to the same degree I told him, "Reliable Paradise!", he supposed to me: "Spirit that I may figure out, and a long time ago, do not preoccupy, all order be easy for you."

The Self-important eternally had sweetie on his chart, and when I supposed to him: "Self-important, can I shut in a candy?" He responded: "One? Not one, but demand three."

The clasp time he established Sacred Communion, which he established from a priest of the Taxiarchi Church in Thessaloniki, Fr. Panagioti, "the downright Sacred Communion issued myrrh" according to the priest's hypothesis. No matter which associated to this was fixed to me by an Athonite hieromonk who asked that I not reveal his name. He told me that to the same degree he visited the Self-important at Chariseio Think about Situation, "the downright booth issued myrrh" someplace he lived. And as he approached him closer, to be crystal-clear if this was sure inside, he noted that sure "a very strong aftershave issued from the babble of Self-important Mitrophanes".

At the end of his life, a hearsay painful him very considerably, whether or not he established the Great Schema, to the same degree due to his old age he began to wish for. A textile bear that he did was agreed by the Grigoriou Hieromonk Fr. Photios Kapsanis who gave him the Great Schema in the Metochion of the Monastery in Stavroupolis.

In the Church of Saint Nektarios, which is in the sticks of the Chariseio Think about Situation, someplace he would attend church uniformly, Fr. Mitrophanes would see "Saint Nektarios praying with the priest in the altar all through the Anticipate Liturgy". He would extremely see "holy report" in the Devout Monastery of Eleftherotrias in Outlook Thessaloniki. He extremely saw Saint Nektarios at the funeral service of the Hieromonk Fr. Panteleimon, who served as secretary for the Sacred Kibbutz of Mount Athos: "Inside the funeral service, Saint Nektarios took the lead."

At any time someone gave him their name, to grade them, "yes" he would say to him. "Why don't you hug the name, Self-important, so you won't wish for it", they would say. He responded: "Don't preoccupy, to the same degree in my prayer I say by means of You saw Lady their status. God knows your name."

He would regularly ditch the picture that he "quarreled with God". No, no, even though it appeared he quarreled with God, he wasn't, to the same degree the incredibly nature rational was the incredibly nature answering. "My God, You shut in completed a error. Does God ever make a mistake?" he answered. "Why did You hug me as a guardian of Your Burial chamber for 58 whole years and I altercation with everyone? So you can sincere yourself," he would satisfy, "to the same degree you Mitrophane are the greatest extent erroneous nature in the world, a zero!" Fr. Mitrophanes would satisfy again: "If I am, my God, a nil for my God, what excessively do I need? Is contemporary any leader thing than a nil from my God?" At other grow old he would say: "Inside I am using up, drinking and dead to the world, and You are paying my God." He was referring of course to His Holiness Metropolitan Panteleimon II of Thessaloniki, who payed for his care for subsequent his accomplishment at the Sacred Sepulchre and was brought from Jerusalem to Chariseio Think about Situation in Thessaloniki.

That which completed a robust picture on me was that he never tired, to the same degree from start to evening, he would frequently undergo band and be comforted.

And to the same degree, usually on higher holidays, like Christmas or Pascha, his niece, Put in the wrong place Popi, would demand him to her motherland all through these Sacred Days, he would untrue that the ride out was bothering him and for this good reason he desired to return anew to Chariseio Think about Situation. This was not the truth even so. The truth was that the Self-important desired to run away, to the same degree in Chariseio Think about Situation he would see a range of band who gave him solace, and he in turn, so as to not run away them not possible, would bring them closer to God. If he supposed to you the incredibly thing ten grow old, he supposed it with such Smoothness, that not sole would it not tire you, but it completed you "reach from his entrance".

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos