-Caveat Lector-

the British, who controlled the land gave it to the Jews
not the UN

the UN has been pretty consistently anti-israel

so for your analogy to work, the US govt., who controls the land, would have
to give it back to the Indians

clearer now?
-- -- -- -- -- - -- - -- -- - -  - ----- -- --- -- - - - ---- - -- - - - --
---- -- - -- -


Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original
dimensions.


Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.






NEURONAUTIC INSTITUTE on-line: http://home.earthlink.net/~thew

> From: Party of Citizens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: Conspiracy Theory Research List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 11:57:34 -0800
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [CTRL] [2ndrepoftexas] By the Dawn's Early Light
>
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> I don't understand your point so I can't agree or disagree. What yo' say?
> The UN gave a big portion of Palestine to the Jews 50 years ago. Maybe now
> most of the UN would like the change that but they can't. The
> "justification" is found in Law of Return/Right of Return, ie return to
> the land God gave the Israelites about 3,000 years ago. I think the
> analogy is spot on. What if the UN were to give a big chunk of Texas back
> to the Indians, based on a 3,000 year old ancestral claim?
> POC
>
> PS-I recommemd that the Bush estate be right at the centre of the land
> given back to the Indians.
>
>
> On Mon, 4 Feb 2002, thew wrote:
>
>> there are a few flaws here
>> most notably your analogy has no one that corresponds to the British in it.
>>
>> rightly or wrongly, the region was part of the British empire, and the
>> British had the right to do with it as they pleased. This is why one has an
>> empire.
>>
>> In you example, then, the US empire needs to be the ones who give the land
>> to the Indians.
>> -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- - -- -- - -  - ----- -- --- -- - - - ---- - -- - - -
>> -- ---- -- - -- -
>> We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that
>> accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due
>> process of law.
>>
>>
>> Edward R. Murrow
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> NEURONAUTIC INSTITUTE on-line: http://home.earthlink.net/~thew
>>
>>> From: Party of Citizens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>> Reply-To: Conspiracy Theory Research List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>> Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 05:23:42 -0800
>>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> Subject: [CTRL] [2ndrepoftexas] By the Dawn's Early Light (fwd)
>>>
>>> -Caveat Lector-
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 05:08:55 -0800 (PST)
>>> From: Party of Citizens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> Subject: [2ndrepoftexas] By the Dawn's Early Light
>>>
>>> Dear President Bush:
>>>
>>> Suppose the U.N. were to give a large portion of Texas to the modern
>>> Indian people because their ancestors had once inhabited and owned Texas.
>>> Then suppose 5,000,000 foreigners claiming to be the rightful inheritors
>>> of those lands streamed in, killing tens of thousands of current Texans,
>>> seizing their land and driving them from Texas by the millions,
>>> traumatizing the men, women and children of Texas daily for 50 years in
>>> the process. What would you say?
>>>
>>> You might very well call the 5,000,000 foreigners, invaders; and
>>> thieves; and terrorists. You might lead Texans in fighting daily to
>>> reclaim their lands using guns and bombs and all kinds of imported
>>> weapons. You would fight for your lands would you not? Especially if you
>>> realized that the invaders couldn't even come close to proving that they
>>> are the rightful inheritors of the lands of the Ancient Indian peoples any
>>> more than many other foreign groups. You would call the invaders
>>> terrorists and thieves and impostors. Please tell the Palestinian people
>>> why their real circumstance is not like the hypothetical one of the
>>> Texans.
>>>
>>> POC
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2002 13:15:05 -0800 (PST)
>>> From: Franklin Wayne Poley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> Subject: [LIFE-GAZETTE] WHO has Right of Return to Israel: The Question of
>>> True Israelite Identity
>>>
>>> Dear CTV:
>>>
>>> A posting on <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> apprised me that you are
>>> looking for panelists for your Feb. 7 Program on "Israel vs. Palestine".
>>> I am qualified to be a panelist by having earned my doctorate in
>>> philosophy-psychology with thesis and oral defenses in nature-nurture
>>> theories or "behaviour genetics" (U of A, 1971). The relevancy of that has
>>> to do with the root issue here which is a claim of inheritance, otherwise
>>> referred to as Right of Return or Identity. Let me explain further how
>>> this applies to your forthcoming program. BTW, I have cc'd Prime Minister
>>> Chretien's office because of the reference below re my letter to Jerusalem
>>> Post during his last visit to that region.
>>>
>>> The Israel vs. Palestine conflict is, at its foundation, a matter of Right
>>> of Return. Both Israeli Jews and Palestinian Christians and Muslims lay
>>> claim to Right of Return. Israel's Law of Return is one of its
>>> Constitutional Documents (it has a set of documents and principles said to
>>> be Constitutional instead of a single Constitution as is the case for USA
>>> for example). Behind the Law of Return there is a principle, the Right of
>>> Return. Unless that principle is valid, the Law of Return is not worth the
>>> paper on which it is written. Palestinians also claim Right of Return.
>>>
>>> Right of Return to where? Neither side disputes that in this region,
>>> albeit within uncertain borders by today's knowledge, there is a territory
>>> promised by God (or G-d if you prefer) to the Israelites. Whether that
>>> "Deed" from the Almighty is still valid today is one issue. But I would
>>> rather leave that to the theologians for debate. I am assuming, for the
>>> purpose of this analysis, that it is valid today. The framework for
>>> analysis below is based on consideration of the three broad factors
>>> (Biological, Cultural and Spiritual) which exhaust most, if not all, of
>>> the possibilities. To lay a claim to Right of Return, one would have to
>>> invoke these factors and their sub-factors.
>>>
>>> To say that a modern people called "Jews" have the exclusive Right of
>>> Return begs the question. Jews are not necessarily the modern-day
>>> Israelites. The Law of Return reads "For the purposes of this law, 'Jew'
>>> means a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has become converted to
>>> Judaism and who is not a member of another religion." It doesn't say
>>> anything about whether modern Jews are Israelites. The Jewish Alamanac
>>> (1980, p. 3) says "Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an Ancient
>>> Israelite a 'Jew' or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or Hebrew".
>>> Right of Return then becomes a matter of IDENTITY. Whose modern identity
>>> can be most closely matched to the ancient identity of a people who lived
>>> some 3,000 years ago?  What specific reasons would one give for an
>>> inheritance right to the lands of the Ancient Israelites? If we accept
>>> that God's promise to the Ancient Israelites is valid today, it comes down
>>> to identity. How would one identify a modern Israelite, after the passage
>>> of three millenia?
>>>
>>> While the essay below is phrased in terms of CI (Christian
>>> Identity) vs. JI (Jewish Identity), that does not exclude Muslims from
>>> this analysis. It is just that CI and JI have more developed positions in
>>> the public domain. If my argument is correct, the first two factors
>>> (biological and cultural) are not going to resolve the matter. The
>>> resolution hangs on spiritual considerations. Given that, if Muslims did
>>> not believe they are carrying forward the ancient faith of the Israelites
>>> and Patriarchs before them, they would abandon it for another faith. Thus
>>> it is implicit that they are taking their stand for identity with the
>>> great spiritual teachers of the ancient world as well. Christian and
>>> Muslim Palestinians believe that they are best carrying forward the light
>>> of civilization cast by the spiritual leaders from ancient times as do
>>> Israeli Jews.
>>>
>>> The good news is that identity based on spirituality does not demand the
>>> shedding of blood for its affirmation. It demands reasoning and faith
>>> expressed in the kind of works which will be "a light unto the nations" or
>>> the "salt and light of the world".
>>>
>>> Sincerely-FWP
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> WHO has Right of Return to Israel: The Question of True
>>> Israelite Identity
>>>
>>> by Franklin Wayne Poley, M.Sc., Ph.D.
>>>
>>>
>>> Both Christian Identity (CI) and Jewish Identity (JI) are contenders for
>>> being identified with the people of Ancient Israel. In other words, each
>>> group asserts that it constitutes the closest desendants to Jacob
>>> (Israel) and his children. Each asserts that the other is presenting fake
>>> credentials or Fake Identity (FI if you will). The various arguments sort
>>> into three categories as below: biological, cultural and spiritual.
>>> Overall they constitute an argument from the "Laws of Inheritance" to
>>> determine which people today can claim to inherit the ancestral rights of
>>> Jacob and Israel. If there are any major categories for analysis beyond
>>> these three, please bring this to my attention.
>>>
>>> (1) BIOLOGICAL:  Succintly, nobody has the proof that either CI or JI
>>> is any more closely related to Jacob than his brother, Esau. Josephus, the
>>> famous Jewish historian from Roman times tells us that the Romans forced a
>>> merger of what was left of the Israelite nation with what was left of the
>>> Edomite nation (Esau's nation). Josephus is most explicit that this was a
>>> religious merger too. "From then on, they too were Jews" he writes.
>>> In the Tyndale Bible Dictionary, we read under "Edomites" that "John
>>> Hyrcanus complelled them to be circumcised and incorporated into the
>>> Jewish people. The Herods were of general Edomite stock".
>>>
>>> It is possible, though speculative, that the Israelites selected
>>> their mates for lighter skin colour as CI tells us. We do have the
>>> Biblical record that Esau's marriage to Hittite women displeased his
>>> parents but how much of that is a religious and how much a racial matter
>>> we can't tell. Nevertheless, both Israelites and Edomites were, based on
>>> the lineage of their "founding fathers", descendents of Shem and therefore
>>> "Shemites" or "Semites". Widespread marriage to outsiders could have
>>> caused both populations to genetically drift far beyond initial Shemite
>>> gene pools. And who could tell if the Israelites or Edomites were more
>>> likely to have gene pools which matched initial Shemite gene pools more
>>> closely? Adding to the difficulty we have the Ashkenazi-Khazar conversion
>>> which is standard material in the Jewish Encyclopedias. Ashkenaz is the
>>> name of a descendent of Japheth, not even a Shemite. Most Jews today
>>> are deemed to be of Ashkenazi-Khazar descent. Encyclopedia Britannica
>>> (1992) says "Today Ashkenazim constitute more than 80 percent of the Jews
>>> in the world...." The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia gives an even
>>> higher figure. The Tyndale Bible Dictionary tells us Ashkenaz is the
>>> "Eponymous ancestor of the successive inhabitants of an area between the
>>> Black and Caspian Seas" and is also "a descendant of Noah through Japheth
>>> and Gomer". That region between the Black and Caspian Seas was Khazaria in
>>> ancient times and later was called "The Pale". Refer to Professor
>>> M. Gilbert's "Jewish History Atlas" for maps of Khazaria and The Pale over
>>> the centuries.
>>>
>>> The CI dogmatists seize on this to say Jews are racially Edomite-Shemites
>>> or Ashkenaz-Japhethites. But they are poor geneticists and they ignore the
>>> matter that this is also a question of a GENE POOL FOR A POPULATION, not
>>> exclusively an individual pedigree. Also, from a gene matching
>>> perspective, what would we say if we had Jacob's DNA profile and the DNA
>>> profiles of every human on earth today? Would the 5,000,000 with the
>>> closest genetic matchings to Jacob be allowed "right of return" to Israel
>>> to displace the 5,000,000 Jews who now live there? Or would we match the
>>> gene pool of the 5,000,000 modern people with the Ancient Israelite gene
>>> pool after one or two or x generations? There is no getting away from the
>>> centrality of the laws of genetics to develop an argument in law for the
>>> "right of return" which is an ancestral claim. There is no doubt that the
>>> Ancient Israelite gene pool drifted. Explicitly or implicitly Ancient
>>> Israel (like all of the other ancient cultures) must have had a policy on
>>> inbreeding-outbreeding. In my 1976 text "Individual Differences" with Al
>>> Buss (New York Jewish BTW) you can read about the significant inbreeding
>>> depression found for the progeny of first cousin marriages in Japanese and
>>> Israeli populations (p. 215). Too much outbreeding and you lose the
>>> genotype-phenotype distinctiveness of your population. Too much inbreeding
>>> and you are likely to lose the entire group due to inbreeding depression.
>>> Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich writes in his book, "A Concise History of
>>> Israel" (1957, p. 80) that "Mixed marriage was not forbidden down to the
>>> time of the kings...The list of Ezra x. 18ff. mentions 109 cases of mixed
>>> marriage; but from  Neh. xiii. 23ff. we know that they were annulled only
>>> in special cases." Certainly it was not forbidden. To a degree it had to
>>> be encouraged. Who is to say what degree of mixed marriage, IF ANY, would
>>> cause the population to lose Israelite identity?
>>>
>>> Inbreeding coefficients are calculated for populations by quantitative
>>> geneticists. There is no fast rule as to what the inbreeding coefficient
>>> must be before a group can be called a "race". Moreover, even if we do say
>>> that modern Jews constitute a race, that does not mean the modern race
>>> is matched to those called Jews in the Bible. They could well be matched
>>> to another ancient population as discussed above under Edomites and
>>> Ashkenazis. Inbreeding also figures in the retention of deleterious genes
>>> by certain populations. Once such genes are located in a population (eg by
>>> mutation or migration of the deleterious genes into the population) the
>>> more people continue to marry within that population, the more likely it
>>> is to continue from generation to generation and to show up in increasing
>>> numbers. Conditions like Hemophilia in European Royals and Tay-Sachs in
>>> Jews are examples. Again there is no merit in drawing incorrect
>>> conclusions about such genes proving any racial identity. They prove no
>>> such thing.
>>>
>>> The Cohen Y chromosome constancy is a special case of biological-genetic
>>> argument. But it fails to help us solve this problem of inheritance rights
>>> as some have claimed. The most that Y chromosome constancy could prove is
>>> a common male ancestor from the distant past. That male ancestor could
>>> come from one of many populations. Even if additional evidence should link
>>> the ancestor to a region like the Middle East, how does that help us? Many
>>> nations, cultures, tribes etc. lived in that region. Adding "name
>>> game" pseudo-evidence also fails to help. Some have suggested that the
>>> phonetic similarity of Cohen or Cohn as modern names to the Cohanim
>>> priesthood from the time of Moses is supportive evidence for JI
>>> claims. But it is not since there are similar sounding names in other
>>> populations as well, including the Khazar-Ashkenazi population and the
>>> Edomite population. Phonetically similar family names of historical
>>> importance from ancient times include Khan and Korah.
>>>
>>> The CI dogma that the Israelites were White is fatuous. How likely is it
>>> that the White Romans found their racial kin in the Middle East, engaged
>>> in a religious struggle with non-Whites, and failed to make any record of
>>> this whatsoever? SOME may well have been White but that doesn't lend
>>> support to the CI position. The fact that Jewish family trees are quite
>>> short, the longest only going back a few centuries, is consistent with
>>> a reported high conversion rate. The Council of Jewish Federations
>>> demographic survey tells us that "Since 1985, most Jewish marriages have
>>> been intermarriages and the chance that the child of an intermarried
>>> couple will be raised as a Jew is only 28%".
>>>
>>> In other words there are no continuous biological pedigrees for
>>> today which take us back anywhere close to Jacob's day. Not for CI. Not
>>> for JI. There are no DNA matchings from the people of today to Israelites
>>> 3 millenia ago. There are no family picture albums and the few paintings,
>>> coin images and sculptings still leave us in doubt. And that is where the
>>> matter lies on biological-genetic criteria. In the greatest of doubt for
>>> all concerned. But this is certain: biological criteria alone do not give
>>> anyone a deed to the lands of Israel as far as laying claim to the
>>> Kingdom of Ancient Israel is concerned. Thus we turn to (2) Cultural and
>>> (3) Spiritual, criteria, to determine "Right of Return" based on identity.
>>> True identity, not FI, "fake identity".
>>>
>>> That's about as brief as I can make (1) while getting the main points in.
>>> Dogmatists from either side will shout that THEY are the latter-day
>>> Israelites by biological-genetic-geneological criteria. The reply of those
>>> who value truth and reasoning is: SHOW US THE PROOF. I have yet to see it
>>> and I have reasons to think it is not forthcoming. Three thousand years of
>>> history have blurred the record of matching to an ancient race so much
>>> that it seems unlikely it will ever be found. Some would say that the
>>> Almighty in His wisdom has given all races an equal opportunity to prove
>>> that they are His chosen people.
>>>
>>> (2) CULTURAL:  Do cultural-social arguments favour one side or
>>> the other? Are there customs and habits and features of language which
>>> support the CI or the JI position and tell us which group is closer to the
>>> Ancient Israelites of 3,000+ years ago? These arguments are illusory. They
>>> can give the impression of credibility while lacking the substance and
>>> that can be seen by just a small amount of reasoning. For example, is
>>> speaking of the Hebrew language proof of ancestry? Not a bit. Hundreds of
>>> schools, perhaps thousands, in Christian and Islamic nations teach Hebrew.
>>> Speaking Hebrew doesn't make one a Hebrew any more than speaking Latin
>>> makes one a Roman of Imperial Rome. Beside that, "Eber" the original
>>> Hebrew lived many centuries before Jacob (Israel) and a number of Hebrew
>>> dialects arose. Ehrlich tells us "From geographical links it is probable
>>> that northern Mesopotamia was the seat of the Hebrews; the names of
>>> Abraham's ancestors correspond to names of cities near Haran: Peleg, Srug,
>>> Nahor, Terah." (p.4). The point is that an argument of identity made from
>>> Hebrew language usage is very circumspect indeed. Which Hebrew language
>>> should it be? Can anyone show us where the Almighty stipulated that His
>>> chosen people could only speak one dialect of Hebrew? Even if that was the
>>> dialect used by Jacob what is the likelihood that it held constant for the
>>> next thousand years of Israelite history? If we go back 1,000 years the
>>> English language is so different that a modern Englishman cannot
>>> understand it.
>>>
>>> Next, what about the well known dietary laws like prohibitions
>>> against eating pork or shell fish? If I were to adopt the diet of the
>>> Ancient Aztecs would that make me an Aztec? If I dine with relish on
>>> grasshoppers but reject ants on my plate does that make me an Ancient
>>> Israelite? The JI counterpart to the fatuous CI "White Israelite
>>> Race" dogma is found here. If JI really believes this Jewish Cultural
>>> Identity dogma, then what is there to prevent anybody on earth from
>>> adopting the attendant customs and habits, stepping off a plane in
>>> Tel Aviv and claiming instant Jewish citizenship which is what Jews can
>>> now do? Those customs or habits are well known. Adding the stamp of
>>> approval of all of the rabbis in the world isn't going to add anything to
>>> the performance of either a perfect actor and counterfeiter claiming
>>> cultural identity or another perfect actor who is is a genuine "latter-day
>>> Israelite". However, if 'acting like a perfect Israelite' is the
>>> standard, there must be degrees of perfection. How many points for the
>>> performance are assigned to dress, dietary habits, language etc? And then
>>> we come back to the counterpart to genetic drift. Accepting that the
>>> founding clan of Israel in ancient times consisted of sensible people,
>>> they would have recognized that their gene pool would change over time and
>>> that the change would be beneficial. Likewise for "cultural drift". How
>>> much cultural drift would they have accepted as beneficial and how much
>>> would they have called a "loss of cultural identity"? Can anyone today
>>> answer this question? Not likely.
>>>
>>> Consider too the many modern innovations from airplanes to
>>> xylophones. There are no ancient laws and customs to match. If there is
>>> any matching to be made it must be based on the spirit of the ancient laws
>>> and not the letter of those laws. If the spirit of the law is to accept
>>> progress when it betters the lot of a people, why not accept progress in
>>> dietary or nutritional science, linguistics etc. as well? If JI says CI is
>>> too lax in adhering to the ancient customs, CI might reply that they
>>> could set up a special training camp at Hayden Lake, Idaho and soon they
>>> will have mastered whatever dialect of Hebrew is required, eschewed
>>> lobster and abalone and pork and what then? Will JI accept that they are
>>> True Israelites? Did Ancient Israelites have pointy heads and did they run
>>> around in bed sheets? Would Jacob have held it against them if they did?
>>>
>>> Thus we can go on and on with these examples. Ancient customs and laws had
>>> their purposes. But there was both the spirit and the letter of the
>>> law. Concretely, there were known health dangers at the time associated with
>>> certain foods. As science dealt with these problems why should the taboos
>>> remain? IDENTITY is just identity. What would the Ancient Israelites have
>>> said about the customs to which their descendents should adhere? Like most
>>> people they would probably have said they wanted them to be living in a
>>> better world, to have healthy and happy lives. Given that spirit of the
>>> law, would they expect them to rigidly dress, talk, eat, transport and
>>> house themselves as they did or adapt to the changing times? Professor
>>> Terry Blodgett has found that some Germanic languages of today contain
>>> 1/3 Hebrew-derived words. Would the Ancient Hebrews have accepted that as
>>> an adaption to the modern era or would they have insisted on rigidly
>>> staying with the ancient language? If the latter, why not stay with all of
>>> the ancient customs? And then, to what avail is scientific progress? Does
>>> it make the Amish more Christian if they continue using horses for
>>> transportation as did the Christians of ancient times? (At least it
>>> reduces the likelihood of drive-by shootings). Are people more
>>> Israelite if they live just like the Ancient Israelites or would the
>>> Ancient Israelites laugh at this and say such people just don't "get
>>> it" when it comes to the spirit in which the ancient Israelite laws were
>>> given? Frederic W. Farrar, former Dean of Canterbury tells us about the
>>> ongoing clash of Hagadists and Halachists. He writes in his book, "The
>>> Life and Works of St. Paul" (1879) that "The two classes of students
>>> despised each other." The conflict was based on the fact that "...the
>>> Hagadists were grasping the spirit, while the Halachists were blindly
>>> groping amid the crumbled fragments of the letter." (p.34).
>>>
>>> What it comes down to is this. If an argument is made for identity from
>>> cultural indicators and those who are most matched in this way, why not
>>> for other ancient peoples as well? Could anthropologists or archaelogists
>>> studying ancient Egyptians or Babylonians or Incas suddenly say, "We are
>>> now the closest descendents to those ancient people because we now know
>>> and practice their customs"?
>>>
>>> If CONTINUOUS, generation-by-generation lineage were established from
>>> Jacob to people today, and those modern people were to adhere to some of
>>> the ancient customs that would be a different matter. Just as the royal
>>> families of Europe have that kind of continuous claim to their thrones,
>>> modern Israelites could claim to be the bona fide inheritors of Israelite
>>> title. Title to material assets like land is of course another
>>> matter, in contrast to title as a nominal claim. Various assets of the
>>> modern royalty have been lost over the centuries and there is no dispute
>>> in law about those losses. For example, none of the royal families claim
>>> to rule by "Divine right" today. If they did, they could claim that they
>>> retain the over-riding power over all of the legislatures of Europe.
>>> Today the closest we have to any people exercising "Divine right" is in
>>> the Middle East where Palestinians were displaced by the millions by JI
>>> people claiming the Almighty had given them the Deed to this land. More
>>> rational minds might ask to see that Deed and to see the specific borders
>>> set by the Almighty (not by very human wars of conquest).
>>>
>>> Modern JI family trees (pedigrees) do not go back any further than the
>>> middle ages as far as I can tell from checking the geneology reference
>>> works and few families can even claim that much of a geneological record.
>>>
>>> But there is a curious kind of continuous lineage which DOES apply
>>> today. That is the generation-by-generation SPIRITUAL lineage which is
>>> claimed by the Christian churches (whether Protestant, Roman, Orthodox or
>>> other) and is known all the way back to Peter and Jesus. Then it is
>>> curious because it switches to a generation-by-generation BIOLOGICAL
>>> lineage known from Jesus all the way back to Jacob, if the geneologies
>>> given in the Bible are correct. If this kind of spiritual-biological
>>> "geneology" is accepted, then CI in the broadest sense can claim Israelite
>>> identity. Thus the final determiner of true identity becomes our last
>>> category, spiritual.
>>>
>>> (3) SPIRITUAL:  Since biological and cultural means for claiming identity
>>> leave the issue up in the air, what about spiritual? Christians and
>>> Muslims clearly believe that they are carrying forward the ancient
>>> spiritual teachings of the Patriarchs and Israelites in the best way
>>> possible. If they believed otherwise they would change their religions.
>>> Thus the identity issue widens enormously with respect to the populations
>>> effected. All Jews, Christians and Muslims (as well as some smaller
>>> splinter groups) believe they are identifying most closely with the
>>> great spiritual teachers of the ancient world. Who then is the modern
>>> "light of the world"? What criteria would be used to decide whether the
>>> way of life prescribed by this biological-cultural-spiritual group or that
>>> is more conducive to a modern "enlightenment" for the human race?
>>>
>>> The answer I gave to this was presented to the Jerusalem Post in a letter
>>> a couple of years ago when Prime Minister Chretien was visiting in that
>>> region. They said they were interested in publishing it though I don't
>>> know if they did as I read JP only occasionally. Most of humankind live in
>>> and around villages and cities. Why not see who can design these habitats
>>> to best benefit the human race? They can be very explicit about how the
>>> designs incorporate the principles and practices of their faith. To give
>>> an example, what about the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill"? Here in
>>> Vancouver proper with 500,000 people living in 36 square miles, >30 people
>>> are killed every year in vehicular accidents. Would city planners mindful
>>> of that commandment not design a new city when called upon to do so, which
>>> would attempt to eliminate all such fatalities?
>>>
>>> There is even a precedent for such an undertaking, at least at the village
>>> level. In the 1970's the UN asked the architect Peter Land to lead a team
>>> of 13 eminent architects from 13 countries to design a model village for
>>> the world. Peter Land did so and stayed on to lead the construction as
>>> well. The resulting village was "PREVI" in Peru. One of the architectural
>>> team, Charles Correa, was chief architect for a city built anew called New
>>> Bombay or Navi Mumbai, in India. The initial population of 250,000 is over
>>> 1,000,000 today. Today the world population increase approaches
>>> billion per decade and almost all of that increase will accrue to villages
>>> and cities and nearby surroundings. "Faith without works is dead" so the
>>> manifestation of faith in constructive and benign and life enhancing
>>> projects of this kind would be the best expression of identity with those
>>> who made their contribution as a light in the darkness of this world over
>>> 3,000 years ago.
>>>
>>> St. Paul continued to identify himself as a Jew (from Tarsus) and an
>>> Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin. However, it was neither his biology
>>> nor his cultural identity which he emphasized. In Romans 2:28-29 we read
>>> "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that
>>> circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew which is one
>>> inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in
>>> the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God".
>>>
>>> What kind of charity or compassion do we see in the design of the modern
>>> lifestyle? And that was the point of my letter to Jerusalem Post. It is
>>> inconceivable that a Buddhist would not want to see the complete societal
>>> expression of the Buddhist lifestyle manifested; or a Muslim the Muslim
>>> lifestyle; or a Marxist the Marxist lifestyle. And while the mere outward
>>> simulation of such a lifestyle has its limitations as discussed above,
>>> "faith without works is dead" is a maxim which applies in its own way to
>>> everyone from Atheist to Zoroastrian. To CI, JI or any other genre of
>>> believer, I would say, "Show us your faith in your works...your Culture
>>> X. And let us decide which is best according to the principles you
>>> espouse."
>>>
>>> "Peace" is more easily said than done in the case of the Palestine-Israel
>>> conflict. Fifty years of continual warfare and strife cannot be stopped by
>>> good wishes. If, however, an international peacekeeping force can restrain
>>> the combatants, another kind of competition will take over. And it will
>>> have take its toll in the egos of those who lose. Those who claim to be
>>> the "light unto the nations" or the "salt and light of the world" will
>>> have hundreds of foreign countries and thousands of foreign cultures
>>> watching, with high expectations.
>>>
>>> "Show us" they will be saying, adding that "faith without works is dead".
>>> So far both sides are complicit in horrifying, even traumatizing, the
>>> global village. So far neither side is at all convincing in any
>>> claim to be carrying the light of civilization from ancient times. What
>>> will happen when peace is declared? Will either then emerge as a light for
>>> civilization? That is what identity and right of return are really about.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> What kind of city with surroundings would one expect of a "faith-based
>>> public
>>> works" project with the objective of designing and constructing a "culture
>>> of
>>> life"? Would a George Bush "culture of life" be the same as a Vatican
>>> "culture
>>> of life"?
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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>>
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screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please!  These are
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That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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