Science...Falsely Called "Falsely So Called"

Science...Falsely Called "Falsely So Called"

 

We all have our stories of how we got here and who we are in the universe. Most stories told by every culture point out the unique origins of that culture, like as not, springing directly from that particular cave or mountain in distant and mysterious times in the past. When the National Geographic Genographic research team gently informed aboriginal Australians of their African origins, according to the DNA evidence, the Elders reacted with a simple "no, we originated here and maybe they came from us." Comforting and upholding of ancient aboriginal beliefs, but not scientifically true. You could feel the tension this new information brought into the cultural beliefs that for so long had encouraged and sustained them. I doubt they will change their understanding of themselves with this bit of scientific information.

 

A similar reaction occurred when the team informed the Navajo in the Americas of their DNA origins linking them to a still existant people in Siberia. The immediate reaction was understandably defensive for Navajo origin stories which had them always living in the Four Corners area of the now United States. In time, I believe they agreed that there was room for both the science and the tradition and, in this case, both maintained their truths on tribal origins. But the science was more literally correct. The uneasiness was palpable.

 

And now the Indigenous People's Council on Biocolonialism, the IPCB is raising even more concerns about the effect this knowledge will have on belief systems of indigenous peoples. For better or worse, "Indigenous peoples have consistently voiced their opposition to this type of research because it breaches cultural values, bioethical standards and human rights law. The IPCB believes the project is being undertaken at the expense of indigenous peoples. Debra Harry, the organization's executive director, writes on their website, "It is quite likely this project will advance new theories of our origins that may contradict our own knowledge of ourselves. There can be no claim as to which understanding is correct, and will result in a clash of knowledge systems. Moreover, there could be serious political implications that result from a so-called "scientific" assertion that indigenous peoples are not "indigenous" to their territories, but instead are recent migrants from some other place. This cuts at the heart of the rights of indigenous peoples, which are based upon our collective, inherent right of self-determination as peoples, under international human rights law." A standard ethical requirement in human research is that the benefits must equal the risk. The IPCB believes that in this type of research, there will be no benefit to indigenous peoples, yet the research creates substantial risk for the individuals and peoples affected."

 

It is this advancement of "new theories of our origins that may contradict our own knowlege of ourselves," that seems to be so difficult for humans to handle. Truth is still true though denied by all. In such defensiveness science always get's called "science so called" and even does in the Bible as "Science, falsely so called" (I Tim. 6:20). This phrase is always used when the science is really not false, but it is threatening to sincerely held beliefs. I don't like someone knocking the nose off my idols any more than the next guy, but that's progress, painful and ever moving forward. The Bible makes fun of learning at times in this nervousness over knowledge when it mocks those who are "ever learning, but never able to come the knowledge of the truth" (II Tim. 3:7), to which I say, at least they keep trying and even Jesus is reported to have said, "seek and ye shall find." Of course he meant spiritually but it's good advice in all endeavors too.

 

 

 

We all have our origin stories that, in time, will probably prove to not be true, at lest not literally. We live in an age where even most Christians realize that the origin stories of mankind in the Garden of Eden, through a first set of parents, Adam and Eve, are not literally true. The problem with believing that is that much of the doctrine in the New Testament requires the story of the first Adam and Eve to be literally true as they lead to such literally true doctrines as the role of women in the church, why women have babies painfully, Jesus being the "Second Adam" and the Doctrine of Original Sin. All of these beliefs and teachings are destroyed by the Genesis story not being literally true.

 

If there was no real Eve, or Adam whose fault this wasn't, who caused all of mankind to fall into original sin, for which we all must repent etc, then there is no need of repenting of that which never happened or of needing a Savior in the way portrayed in the New Testament. Stories and ideas have implications to say the least. Many Christians think it is ok NOT to believe in things being literally true. But that has incredible implications for other things they think they believe but dont' realize the connection and contradictions their position causes theologically. Plainly, if there was no literal Genesis like creation of mankind and fall into sin, and it is shown to not be true by good science, the implications are staggering in how we will have to change our views. Frankly most won't but will, as always, attack the messenger and burn the message, or just burn both.

 

 

 

Actually, a simple cheek swab was all it took for me to find out my own amazing DNA trip out of Africa 70,000 years ago. Perhaps this is done for some reason somewhere, but for the Genome project, this fear is very unfounded. Our genetic history is easily taken from the inside of our mouths. Every cell contains the whole. We are like a hologram where, even if broken, each piece reflects the entire picture when a laser light is passed through it.  Amazing!

 

Simply speaking, it appears that ALL modern humans originated in and then spread out from Africa within the last 100,000 years or less. What a great story to read at Clan meetings! All the "differences" we see in humans are adaptations we made along the way in our trek from there to Europe, Asia and the Americas. Good science gives us good explanations, always subject to new information about this process.  Those humans who migrated north out of Africa had to give up some of their melenin, which darkens the skin to protect it from overexposure to the sun, to get more sun and vitimin D so their bones would not fail them.  That's it.

 

Indeed, we do need to insure the privacy of the individual if they wish it and we need to be sensitive to the process that others go through when they are faced with the implications of such information and research. It takes time to accept change and as stated, many won't, but rather will just become angry and defensive. We see this all the time in the attacks Christian literalists launch into from their pulpits when new knowledge threatens old ideas. I want to be in church the day we confirm life outside of our own solar system, or even in it. The Universe teems with life including intelligent life.  How do I know this?  It just seems so knowing what we do about the insignificance of our little planet in the whole big uni or  multiverse.

 

It's funny, in my previous church affiliation there was a belief that always annoyed me scientifically. It was the belief, now long discredited, that the Lost Tribes of Israel turned up as the powerful nations of Europe, The British Empire and of course, America. I was Dutch, so that clearly put me in the Tribe of Zebulun, according to the theory. I never gave a sermon on this topic! However, my DNA shows I made no such trip through the middle east to become an Israelite and go on into Europe. Rather it shows a long trip through Iran, Iraq the various "Beckastans" on out onto the steppes of Asia and then one big swing into Europe as Cro-Magnon and then into France, Holland and England in much more recent times. That British-Israelism idea is bunk and DNA testing will show it to be so. That particular idea is racist if ever there was one.  The Mormons also have yet to deal with the implications of DNA realities.   Naive Americans are not related to Israelites.  They come from Siberia which, as of this writing, has not been found to be a hangout for the 12 Tribes. I predict that , in time, the Book of Mormon will be claimed to be "Spiritual" and not literally true in order to keep the story going.  

 

Presidential candidates, as intelligent as they are, cringe when asked about their beliefs in God or Evolution. Their answers reflect not so much truth as expediency and take into account what the voters need them to believe.  However,  those who  believe absurdities can lead others into autrocities if need be.

 

So good science is not "science, falsely so called" or "so called science." Yes, it has implications for theologians and Christians but believing something is true never makes it really true and we need to always have a love of discovery. Sorry to say, it is usually the reactions to new information by those most threatened by it that plunges our world into chaos and still get the messenger in trouble for the message. 

 

Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com

 

Lil' Joel Meeker Has Concerns About The Internet

For some reason all the COG's have a fear of the Internet.  I wonder why........? 

Anyway, Lil' Joel is warning COGWA members about the Internet.   Too much information is not a good thing and starts to change your thinking.  Is Lil' Joel Meeker concerned that too much information about the COGWA, UCG, COG's and their inherent corruption?  Is there a trend that this information  is starting to weigh on peoples minds?  Is it that people no longer have a blind trust in COG leadership anymore?  I guess for Lil' Joel it's not like the French who basically swept the ground for Lil' Joel as he walked along.  Don't want that WonderKid who graduated from God's College to get his shoes dirty....or do an honest days work.

Lil' Joel writes:

A Prophetic Warning About Your Thinking

Posted by Joel Meeker on November 25, 2011

Is the World Wide Web playing a part in rewiring our brains? What does God say about trends in thinking in the end time?

I recently read a fascinating and troubling book called The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, a Pulitzer Prize finalist written by Nicholas Carr. The genesis of the book was the moment the author realized his thinking had changed. He, a man who earns his living by writing, could no longer concentrate on long passages of text; his attention would wander after a page or two.

He realized this change was due to all the time we, in our modern, tech-driven world, now spend on the Internet. On the web, information comes in very short texts, interspersed with embedded video or audio and distracting hyperlinks inviting us to go look at something else before we even finish what we’re reading. (On this blog we try to limit our writing to 800 words—more than that and we risk losing a reader’s attention!)

Rewiring our brains
The use of the Internet is actually reshaping our brains. Literacy, the ability to read, allowed a revolution in human thinking. Information could be transmitted over time and space. Literate people developed the ability to concentrate for long periods of time, to mentally follow complicated lines of reasoning, to contemplate transcendent concepts.

The brain of someone who reads is not shaped exactly like the brain of an illiterate person because our brains develop along the lines of the uses to which they are put.

Heavy Internet use is also reshaping our brains, and research shows that many people are losing the ability to concentrate for longer periods and to think deeply about complex concepts. It’s too much work. Short texts, photos and video are much easier to process and more entertaining.

So what?
For Christians this trend should be alarming. Our God reveals Himself, His plan, the purpose of our existence and His laws for life—all in writing. In fact, they are in lengthy, not always easy-to-read texts. To lose the ability or desire to read and concentrate on what we read is to distance ourselves from God.

Perilous times from wrong thinking
A Bible prophecy for the time just before the return of Jesus Christ states that human thinking will have become shallow and entirely self-absorbed:
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
If and when people lose the ability or desire to think abstractly and to control their thoughts, they will be left only with what they feel, and what they feel will be mostly about themselves, not others and not God. This is prophesied for the time ahead us, and our increasing dependence on the Internet may be hastening that day.

 I’m not suggesting that we stop using the Internet entirely; that’s not a realistic possibility for many of us. But we must be aware of how Internet use is changing our thinking. We must control our use of the Internet and not allow it to control us. And we must discipline ourselves to continue a deep and regular study of the Word of God.

Full aricle is here:  A Prophetic Warning About Your Thinking

Weinland Says: "Laura and I understand that this is part of what we must face..."

Weinerdude, the documented failed prophet of the Church of God Preaching the Kingdom, has finally responded to the lawsuit filled by the US Government against him and his cult for tax fraud.

He says:

This will be my response to the indictment concerning the accusation of using Church funds for personal use (beyond normal income), which in turn is being used to say I did not pay taxes upon those funds.

I’ve rewritten this posting several times, as this entire matter has been rather difficult for me to digest. I have been waiting to find out the full details of the indictment and it has been somewhat unsettling as it simply takes time to receive all the information that it is based upon. Although we have known that an investigation has been ongoing since mid 2008, it has all been rather difficult to understand why.

There really is no basis for this. This investigation that covers several years has been difficult to understand, especially in the light of the fact that we have never at any time received any civil notice from the IRS. There has never been a request for an audit of which we would have fully cooperated, as our desire has always been to do things correctly in filing our taxes. The Church has a great team of lawyers and an investigator who are vigorously working to defend the Church and myself.

As people tend to believe what they will, I’ve decided that a posting is not the forum to address the issues at hand, but to fully use our legal system and the courts to do so.

Weinerdude wants you to know that this is Satan at work attacking the true church and it's Two Witless Witnesses.  If Witless Witnness Laura is such a profound end time prophet why is she so silent?  Is she really drunk on the kool-aide from Weinerdude's sippy cup?  Can she be that stupid that she believes she is one of the two witnesses?

Laura and I understand that this is part of what we must face as part of the work we believe God has given us to do in this end-time. We will continue to do as we have ever since we became part of the ministry of God’s Church back in 1981. That makes over 30 years of serving in the ministry. Indeed, we have always sought to faithfully and zealously serve God and His Church. Our plans have not changed and we will continue as we do now by visiting the many congregations of the Church which are scattered throughout the U.S. and other countries.

Then to justify the funds transfers, he claims that they brought that Swiss Bank account monies back to the States in order to finance his failed 2008 end of the world scenarios.  As we all know first hand, every single thing he said has been an abject failure.  So I guess Weinerdude is admitting that the monies wasted on this fraudulent campaign are truly lost. Poor widows tithe money down the drain for nothing.

False Prophet Weinderdude continues:

This posting also provides me with the opportunity to remind our readers of two important doctrines of the Church. One concerns tithing and government taxation, and the second concerns our teaching of what it means to be a “good citizen” in the country where one lives.

Concerning the first of those two doctrines I have referred, we adhere to a strong belief in tithing and giving of offerings as many other Christian churches and those in Judaism also believe. We deeply believe the instruction of Jesus Christ who said that we should pay to Caesar what is Caesar’s (taxation to be paid to government agencies) and to God what is God’s (tithes and offerings). Members are to be as zealous in being faithful to God in tithing as they are faithful to God in paying their taxes to whatever government is over them.

Concerning the second doctrine to which I have referred, you can read on the Church website what the Church teaches about being a “good citizen” in a country, especially as we draw nearer to the end of the final three and one-half years of this end-time. This is stated in the FAQ section under the “Topics” and is entitled, “Citizenship in a nation.”

As the Church continues to remain faithful to God, God is faithful to lead us and fight our battles for us. Indeed, we look to God and His Son Jesus Christ to guide our way and always deliver us.

Weinerdude has made it clear to his minuscule group of followers that they are to continue to send in money to fiance his cult.  Will he end up in Tuscon when the IRS takes over his cult headquarters and repossesses his home?  Will he start claiming persecution.  Will the time of the end be near?  He seems to think so as he claims we are drawing hear to the end of the final 3 1/2 years.  What a moron!

Apostle Malm: "There is no more grace, no more forgiveness"

The Apostle is expounding on the Book of James today.  It's not a pithy read at all.  Typical Malmism's fill the article demanding that you be a law keeper because salvation only comes through the law.

God’s law is a law which brings about liberty. It delivers us from the chains of sin, from the burdens of sin.

That statement along exposes all that is wrong with Malmism and the rest of the harlot Armstrongite splinter cults.  The law takes precedence just like the "piggie" does in Armstrongism.

Imagine making a mistake and bbq some burgers for a quiet Saturday afternoon.  In Malmism you are damned to the lake of fire for that mortal sin.

If you show no mercy to others, no mercy will be shown to you; by God in the
judgment.  If you break the smallest law you are guilty of breaking the whole law itself.  If you cook a meal on sabbath, have a barbeque ect; you face the same judgment as the homosexual if you do not repent.  For the wages of sin is death.

Since Malm does not keep the entire law, he breaks them all every single day.  Is he damning himself here?  And, why are the COG's so titillated by "homosexuals?"  They seem to be the favorite scapegoat for everything  wrong..

His next comment shows how completely ignorant he is of any of the concepts that are brought out in the new covenant.

This is also the issue of Law and Grace; for if we break the law silfully (sic), their is no more grace, no more forgiveness. 

A great many of us are in danger of damnation and we know it not.  Christ will reject us UNTIL WE REPENT, and if we do not repent we shall be condemned.

Malm would do well to heed the wise words of Martin Luther on sin. "Be a sinner and sin boldly..."

."If you are a preacher of Grace, then preach a true, not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly. For he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here we have to sin. This life in not the dwelling place of righteousness but, as Peter says, we look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. . . . Pray boldly-you too are a mighty sinner." (Weimar ed. vol. 2, p. 371; Letters I, "Luther's Works," American Ed., Vol 48. p. 281- 282)

Of course the concept that Luther is trying to get across is totally oblivious to those Armstrongites steeped in their legalistic bullshit.  The law and piggies have more power than their "jesus" does.

Next the Apostle wants you to know that you are not to be friends with the world and society around you.

I cannot help commenting and I know many will take this the wrong way, but when
Herbert Armstrong used to brag about how he was friends with the world and he used to say that he is friends with this king, and that prime minister, and this ruler,
and those people, and those members of parliament, and he valued the friendship
of the world. He should have read the Scripture, “Know you not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God.” It is wrong to try and be
friends with this world, with this society.

This is the verse and reasoning that Armstrongisms has always used to get around feeding the homeless, the poor, the disenfranchised, etc.  Why dirty our righteous clean hands when God will deal with it all later.

If we stop breaking God’s commandments, we can be forgiven. If we don’t stop,
how can we be forgiven?
How can we possibly be forgiven if we’re continually repeating the same sin, continually repeating the same criminal act of breaking the law of the kingdom?
If we are continually repeating and continually committing criminal acts, we will be judged a criminal and we will pay the penalty for our crimes.
It is only if we stop being a criminal, stop committing the criminal act, stop breaking the law of the kingdom, only then can we be forgiven, only then will our sins be covered by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God!

Sigh........, Malm just doesn't get it!  Doesn't get it at all!

UCG Hypnotizing Its Members?

If things could not bet any weirder on Apostle Malms blog.  Today he has headed down a new path.  Subliminal seduction, the subconscious mind, hypnoses, visual stimuli, and more.

The human mind filters everything that is put into it; based on its knowledge, previous experience and logic.  If we hear someone say that black is actually not black but  bright red, our subconscious mental filter dismisses that automatically without having to think about it; that is our subconscious filter at work.

Changing the basic settings on our subconscious filter [changing our basic foundational references] is called brainwashing or mental conditioning.  When the basic subconscious filter has its settings changed, we will look at things in a different manner.  Our natural filter will now filter out different things and accept different input as fact without question, than it did before. We will see our world in a completely different way.

To reset our mental filter, new input must be passed by the existing filter and then replace the core beliefs in that existing filter.  Normally that new information would be automatically FILTERED OUT and REJECTED as wrong according to the ingrained standards of  our existing filter.  So the key to resetting our basic beliefs is to argue logically and painstakingly prove our points; or to bypass our existing filter and reset our foundational beliefs.

When the new material intended to be internalized is regarded as patently false by the recipient, the proof and logic route is clearly a most difficult one.

The attempt to condition the brethren to apostatise therefore mainly  involves the use of brainwashing techniques intended to circumvent the presently established core beliefs of our subconscious mind or internal filter.

The main technique is the use of modified hypnosis.  This involves getting the brethren into a very relaxed situation which they are familiar with and quite comfortable in.

When the brethren feel comfortable and are in their familiar safety zone, their normal defenses are in neutral as they are in their safety and comfort zone and hearing from people they trust.  Their defenses are lowered and the are susceptible to suggestion.

At that point an error is slipped into a pile of truth as a straw is slipped unnoticed into a haystack of truth.  Over months, more and more bad straws are slipped in, until the stack of core beliefs begins to look very different; and the error outweighs the truth in our mental stack of truth and error.
This is a gradual process, often referred to, by the frog in the heating pot metaphor.

Apostle Malm thinks UCG is heading down a slippery slope towards changing it's doctrines to liberalize Sabbath and Holy Days.  He is particularly incensed that the remaining UCG leadership is comprised of men who were active participants in disfellowshipping COG members during the Tkach years.  These liberal heretics are in teh process of changes doctrine which will damn UCG members to the Lake of Fire.

It all started with them allowing members to eat on on Saturdays after Church.  Eating out makes you make someone work to fix your food.  And don't use that lilly-livered sissy response that, "...but they are already working."  God forbid if you kept your day care center open for a few minutes after sundown!

Apostle Malm wants you to know how UCG is slowly brainwashing you:

Another part of the technique is: Visual stimuli will be quickly flashed before an individual can process them, with a relaxed and undefended mind; or flashed and then hidden among some truth, thereby interrupting the processing.

Most of us learn by seeing, while some of us learn by hearing; others learn in a hands on manner.  To combine the methods of hearing and seeing, is most effective in reaching any group of people.

The UCG Feast film is a classic in mind conditioning; first disarming the mind with lots of touchy feely, sickly sweet, love love, and pictures of the familiar and safe; followed suddenly with quick flashes of doctrinal apostasy, flashed so fast that neither the eye nor the mind can have time to properly consider the meaning of what is being presented to them; thus bypassing the natural filter or mental defense system.

People just internalize the message that what we eat is not important without questioning or thinking about it, or even realizing it.  later they may hear sermons on the same idea that we are to be defined by our “love” and tolerance and not by what we chose to eat.

Over time and as this is done in a variety of similar subjects the mind is conditioned into the “Love is all” concept; while the very definition of love; which is the keeping of the commandments is destroyed in the mind of the victim.

Apostle Malm goes on to quote part of a letter from a UCG member that "gasped with shock" at what she heard in  the UCG Feast film.

The UCG feast film is very subtle but I cannot understand how brethren can sit through it and think nothings going on because it’s soooo obvious !!

It starts off with the UCG President Luker preaching directly to camera at what looks like the home office.
It is very sugary sweet at times, nice warm close ups of mature  brethren in United talking about how they came into the Church and nicely reminiscing about the past, talking about Herbert Armstrong.

These close ups of mere brethren are cut to nice warm fuzzy childhood memories of Aaron Dean and Eddington. But then the subtle sinister odd part happened amongst these nice, warm cost memories are the screen goes completly blank with a black background and in tiny White type quotes from the NIV flash up. These blackout NIV quots must only be up for a few seconds blink, blow your nose, turn your head away and you would miss them.

The one I found highly suspect was a blackout which had the NIV quote about how we are not defined by what we eat or drink. I was so shocked I actually gasped.

So eating bacon is more defining than being a good Samaritan?  A little sausage is more important than feeding the homeless?  An occasional shrimp cocktail is more important than loving your neighbor?

All I can say is the quicker UCG starts dumping the heretical load of legalistic crap than burdens down members the better!  A life of grace is sure better than all the law keeping legalistic rigamarole that Malm wants to imprison members with.

UCG, it is time to set your people free!  It's no longer 1986!