Chain The Dogma: February 2011

February 22, 2011

Gaddafi, The Family International and the Antichrist

Chain The Dogma - February 22, 2011

Gaddafi, The Family International and the Antichrist

Gaddafi's dictatorship is coming to an end so where is the Antichrist?

by Perry Bulwer

This may come as a surprise to you, but Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, dictator of Libya for 40 years, is either the Anti-Christ or the prophet who prepares the way for him and announces his coming. At least he is if you believe The Family International and the claims of their deceased founder, David Berg. Back in the early 1970s, Berg, the self-proclaimed end-time prophet claimed he received prophecies indicating that Gaddafi, who had recently led a coup and took control of Libya, would fill one of those roles described in the book of Revelation.

Berg communicated with his cult followers, then called the Children of God, by way of letters which he composed with the help of current leader Maria Fontaine. That is just one of her many aliases. She was born Karen Zerby, but has changed her legal name at least once, possibly more and hides behind a variety of fake names. Read the information at that link to her name and you will understand why a leader of a supposedly upright Christian charity group needs to use so many aliases and legally change her name. Most of the letters Berg wrote to his followers were just transcripts of private talks he gave, sometimes to other cult leaders, but often just to Maria. She would record and transcribe almost everything he said, including his interpretations of his dreams, which he considered were messages from God to be passed on.

The quotations below taken from some of those letters, now archived online by former members, show what Berg believed and taught about Gaddafi. But first, there are a few things to point out about Berg's writings. The Family International with Maria at its head has never renounced Berg's writings, although they did try their best to revise history by censoring certain words and phrases. In the quotations below, those deleted words are indicated in square brackets, sometimes with the deleted word included if it was known by the archivists who put the documents online. For example, Berg often used the word "anti-Christ" as a code word for "Jew". He was extremely anti-Semitic and his writings are peppered with hateful references to Jews, so they attempted to clean up his writings in what they called a pubs purge. However, in the quotations below, "anti-Christ" is actually referring to the biblical personality, not to Jews.

The Family International today still revere Berg as a prophet, even though they cannot point to one single thing that he ever truly prophesied accurately. It is now obvious that his prophecies and predictions about Gaddafi are just as false as his prediction that Jesus would return in 1993. After Berg's death in 1994, Maria continued to prophecy that the Anti-Christ was now an adult and that biblical end-time events culminating with Jesus' return would begin while she was alive and leading The Family. There have been recent indications that Maria and her co-leader, Peter Amsterdam (another alias) are now pushing those dates fifty years into the future, preposterously claiming that Jesus has changed his mind, even though one of their favourite scriptures to quote is, "All things change, but Jesus never."

David Berg on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi

[format and emphasis from the orignal publication]

GADDAFI'S THIRD WORLD! by David Berg July 7, 1973

15. THAT VOICE, STRENGTH AND LEADERSHIP OF THIS GRADUALLY EMERGING THIRD WORLD POWER is becoming more and more that of this young and dramatic religious fanatic, Mu'ammar Gaddafi, leader of Libya and the Arab world, and quite possibly the rising figurehead and symbol of the Third World Power, embodying the first effective defiance of both of the other superpowers!

16. AS ONE GREAT HISTORIAN HAS SAID, THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR A SUPERMAN who can unite its political and religious systems, solve its economic and social problems, end its wars and wickedness and bring peace and plenty and haven on Earth!--The Bible predicts that there is going to be such a man in the Last Days of man's rule on Earth, who will temporarily save the world from total destruction just before Christ returns to rule it.

17. IT IS TOO SOON TO SAY IF GADDAFI COULD BE THAT MAN HIMSELF, or whether he is merely preparing the way for such a man who is yet to arise in prominence as a world leader. But he certainly has all the earmarks of the same, and we have had every indication in actual revelations that he is going to have much to do with him.

18. IF HE IS NOT ACTUALLY THE ONE HIMSELF, HE IS CERTAINLY PREPARING HIS WAY, for he is not only uniting the Third World behind his leadership with his growing strength and clearly rising voice, but the world is going to have to listen to him, as they are beginning to find out, whether they want to or not, because the Arabs control most of the world's oil for which they are rapidly getting most of the world's gold!--And these are going to be some of the only valuables left when the world's monetary system has collapsed and the fuel runs out, as it is rapidly now doing.

"MORE ON [EDITED: "A COUNTRY'S LEADER"]!"--MO June 7, 1973

7. (July 20, 1973) For he is... (MO pauses silently)--(Maria: He is what?) AND HE IS THE EIGHTH WHICH SHALL BE WOUNDED UNTO DEATH, AND YET SHALL HE ARISE AGAIN and shall rule as I have promised. Even so shall I fulfil the Words which I have spoken to thy Father. (O Jesus, help him to believe! Help him that he shall fulfil Thy will!) (Maria: Who is the eighth?) Search the Scriptures for they shall reveal unto thee the Words of thy Father's bosom. [DELETED] I speak of him.--If he shall fulfil the Words of My heart and the thoughts of My bosom, he is faithful.

***

10. EVEN THE ANTICHRIST COULD HAVE STARTED OUT SERVING THE LORD and supposedly worshipping God! It does say of the Antichrist that in the long run he doesn't honour the God of his fathers, so obviously his fathers did have God and he came from some faith that honoured Him. But I never thought of him as starting out as a servant of God to do the will of God. As I pondered this, immediately I got a picture of Satan's fall and this message; "Why should this be strange? This is the way Lucifer began, as a servant of God! But then in his pride his heart was lifted against Me."

11. YOU SEE, GOD COULD WANT TO USE HIM TO HELP SAVE THE WORLD AND DIVIDE THE FORCES OF CAPITALISM AND COMMUNISM AND RAISE UP A THIRD WORLD POWER. After all, the Antichrist couldn't be raised up with out the power of God. God has to permit it and ordain it, and he will do the world good at first. But then his heart could become proud.--Just like the Devil: He started out right and wound up wrong, because he was not satisfied with just being the hand of God, but wanted to be God. I thought, "How could he be so good and yet become so bad?" Well, that's the way the Devil became, and many men have done that though history, when you come to think of it, even some of the prophets. But then they became lifted up in pride and exalted in self-glorification, and therefore lost the blessing of God.

12. IT IS IN THE MIDST OF THE WEEK THAT HE CHANGES, apparently, profanes the altar and exalts himself as God. It appears that during the first three and a half years he has the blessing of God, because how could he rule the world without the permission of God? But then when he becomes exalted and forgets that God is doing it, and begins self-worship, then begins the time of the world's great Trouble--and his too!

13. [DELETED] The Antichrist is Man's last-ditch stand with the most perfect government and most perfect ruler, and yet it will fail because he doesn't give God the glory, So why shouldn't we, if we're going to be preserved and God is going to keep us, begin from scratch with that very power[DELETED]? This is the way many prophets operated, from Joseph to Daniel and others: They lived and worked under the protection of heathen kings! As long as he's doing the Will of God, why couldn't we work with him? [DELETED]

GADDAFI--AND THE CHILDREN OF GOD! by David Berg June 11, 1973

26. DO YOU GET THE POINT? HE IS MAKING A CALL TO ARMS, SO TO SPEAK: "COME, LET US BELIEVERS IN GOD JOIN TOGETHER AND TAKE THE WORLD FOR GOD in opposition to anti-man Capitalism and anti-God Communism!" I think he's got tremendous appeal! I didn't realise he was this far along with it. He paid for this whole four full-page section in the London Times! He knew he could reach the world in London!

27. LOOK WHAT HE SAYS: "OUR THIRD THEORY IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO CAPITALIST MATERIALISM AND COMMUNIST ATHEISM. IT'S AN IDEOLOGY WHICH CALLS FOR THE RETURN OF MANKIND TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD!" Hallelujah! Isn't that terrific? Isn't that amazing? Praise God!--Can't we agree with that? Amen!

28 THE BIBLE SPEAKS OF THE ANTICHRIST, and talks about the religion of his fathers. But see what happens when he finally comes into power? Apparently the whole thing goes to his head. He gets into power with the co-operation of the religious people, but when he finally does come to power the thing goes to his head, and he becomes possessed of the Devil and wants all religions wiped out and only complete worship of himself!

29. [DELETED] [EDITED: "ALL"] IS NOT CLEAR from those revelations we've gotten. I can't quite figure them out yet. There's one thing he will be or he is: I gather that he is to prepare the way for him, if nothing else. Maybe he's going to be the prophet, the one who is the propaganda manager for the [EDITED: "coming world leader"], the one who prepares the way for the [EDITED: "world leader"], just like Jesus had John the Baptist.

30. IF THIS IS THE MAN WHO'S GOING TO PREPARE THE WAY, he definitely has something to do with the [EDITED: "coming world leader"]. He may either be [EDITED: "that person"] himself, or he is preparing the way for [EDITED: "him"]. But it is God-ordained, and it's obvious God has predicted it: He has prophesied it, He has revealed it through the Bible, Grandmother, Jeane Dixon and us!

http://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.ca/p/family-international.html

February 11, 2011

Video demonstration of how Christian fundamentalists indoctrinate children with anti-science creationist lies

Chain The Dogma

by Perry Bulwer

Ken Ham, the Christian evangelical behind the anti-science website Answers in Gensis and the Creation Museum now wants Kentucky state funds to create a theme park based on Noah's ark.

Watch this video for an example of how Ken Ham and his ilk indoctrinate children with Bible lies:

http://www.youtube.com/v/eLeQkuTGSOs&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3

Now contrast that method of unthinking learning by rote with the following critical thinking method. Watch this series of videos for an example how a real scientist teaches the facts of evolution to children:

https://www.youtube.com/v/jHoxZF3ZgTo&rel=0&hl=en_GB&feature=player_embedded&version=3

http://www.youtube.com/v/xGyh1Qsw-Ak&rel=0&hl=en_GB&feature=player_embedded&version=3

https://www.youtube.com/v/YT1vXXMsYak&rel=0&hl=en_GB&feature=player_embedded&version=3

https://www.youtube.com/v/_igTWNidwnk&rel=0&hl=en_GB&feature=player_embedded&version=3

http://www.youtube.com/v/qm-0Z0ceezQ&rel=0&hl=en_GB&feature=player_embedded&version=3

https://www.youtube.com/v/pxlPVSAnWOo&rel=0&hl=en_GB&feature=player_embedded&version=3

February 7, 2011

Blind men and an elephant: a duet by Natalie Merchant and PZ Myers

Chain The Dogma - February 7, 2011

Blind men and an elephant: a duet by Natalie Merchant and PZ Myers

by Perry Bulwer

Today I posted an article to my archive of news articles on religion and child abuse on how creationism is weakening the U.S. education system The article is written by PZ Myers, the author of the popular Pharyngula science blog.

It reminded me of my own experience in the Canadian education system, which failed to properly educate me on the reality of evolution. That neglect endangered me because without that scientific foundation, I was easily led astray by religious fundamentalists. That's an over-simplification, of course, as there were other cultural and social factors involved in making me susceptible to a religious world-view. However, I am convinced that had I been properly taught accurate information about evolution and related scientific realities such as geography and the age of the earth, starting in elementary school, I would have been better able as a teenager to fend off the ravenous religious wolves who encircled me. In my previous post on this blog I provide a few more details about that experience and how I was recruited into an evangelical, apocalyptic cult when I was 16. I plan to elaborate more on that in the book I'm working on. see: Who is the Real Anti-Christian: the Atheist or the Fundamentalist Christian?

Myers article on creationism in the classroom also reminded me of another article by him in which he retells the parable of the blind men and the elephant. That in turn reminded me of a song on the same subject by Natalie Merchant in her most recent album, Leave Your Sleep. I've copied below both Merchant's lyrics [update: they lyrics are verbatim from the poem by John Godfry Saxe] and Myers article, which in case you were wondering, constitutes the duet in my blog title.

Here's a link to Natalie's official site where you can listen to all the songs on that album, including "The Blind Men and the Elephant" at: http://www.nataliemerchant.com/l/leave-your-sleep/the-blind-men-and-the-elephant

Lyrics at:
http://www.nataliemerchant.com/r/leave-your-sleep/lyrics/the-blind-men-and-the-elephant

The Blind Men and the Elephant

John Godfry Saxe (1816 – 1887)

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
“'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

The Fifth who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: ”E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Moral

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

***************************

Elephants' Wings

by PZ Myers at: http://hermiene.net/essays-trans/elephants_wings.html

Once upon a time, four blind men were walking in the forest, and they bumped into an elephant.

Moe was in front, and found himself holding the trunk. "It has a tentacle," he said. "I think we have found a giant squid!"

Larry bumped into the side of the elephant. "It's a wall," he said, "A big, bristly wall."

Curly, at the back, touched the tail. "It's nothing to worry about, nothing but a piece of rope dangling in the trail."

Eagletosh saw the interruption as an opportunity to sit in the shade beneath a tree and relax. "It is my considered opinion," he said, "that whatever it is has feathers. Beautiful iridescent feathers of many hues."

The first three, being of a scientifical bent, quickly collaborated and changed places, and confirmed each other's observations; they agreed that each had been correct in the results of their investigations, except that there wasn't a hint of feathers anywhere about, but clearly their interpretations required correction and more data. So they explored further, reporting to each other what they were finding, in order to establish a more complete picture of the obstacle in the path.

"Tracing the tentacle back, I find that it is attached to a large head with eyes, fan-shaped ears, and a mouth bearing tusks. It is not a squid, alas, but seems to be a large mammal of some sort," said Moe.

"Quite right, Moe — I have found four thick limbs. Definitely a large tetrapod," said Larry.

Curly seems distressed. "It's a bit complicated and delicate back here, guys, but I have probed an interesting orifice. Since this is a children's story, I will defer on reporting the details."

Eagletosh yawns and stretches in the shade of a tree. "It has wings, large wings, that it may ascend into the heavens and inspire humanity. There could be no purpose to such an animal without an ability to loft a metaphor and give us something to which we might aspire."

The other three ignore the idling philosopher, because exciting things are happening with their elephant!

"I can feel its trunk grasping the vegetation, uprooting it, and stuffing it into its mouth! It's prehensile! Amazing!", said Moe.

Larry presses his ear against the animal's flank. "I can hear rumbling noises as its digestive system processes the food! It's very loud and large."

There is a squishy plop from the back end. "Oh, no," says Curly, "I can smell that, and I think I should go take a bath."

"You are all completely missing the beauty of its unfurled wings," sneers Eagletosh, "While you tinker with pedestrian trivialities and muck about in earthy debasement, I contemplate the transcendant qualities of this noble creature. 'Tis an angel made manifest, a symbol of the deeper meaning of life."

"No wings, knucklehead, and no feathers, either," says Moe.

"Philistine," says Eagletosh. "Perhaps they are invisible, or tucked inside clever hidden pockets on the flank of the elephant, or better yet, I suspect they are quantum. You can't prove they aren't quantum."

The investigations continue, in meticulous detail by the three, and in ever broader strokes of metaphorical speculation by the one. Many years later, they have accomplished much.

Moe has studied the elephant and its behavior for years, figuring out how to communicate with it and other members of the herd, working out their diet, their diseases and health, and how to get them to work alongside people. He has profited, using elephants as heavy labor in construction work, and he has also used them, unfortunately, in war. He has not figured out how to use them as an air force, however…but he is a master of elephant biology and industry.

Larry studied the elephant, but has also used his knowledge of the animal to study the other beasts in the region: giraffes and hippos and lions and even people. He is an expert in comparative anatomy and physiology, and also has come up with an interesting theory to explain the similarities and differences between these animals. He is a famous scholar of the living world.

Curly's experiences lead him to explore the environment of the elephant, from the dung beetles that scurry after them to the leafy branches they strip from the trees. He learns how the elephant is dependent on its surroundings, and how its actions change the forest and the plains. He becomes an ecologist and conservationist, and works to protect the herds and the other elements of the biome.

Eagletosh writes books. Very influential books. Soon, many of the people who have never encountered an elephant are convinced that they all have wings. Those who have seen photos are at least persuaded that elephants have quantum wings, which just happened to be vibrating invisibly when the picture was snapped. He convinces many people that the true virtue of the elephant lies in its splendid wings — to the point that anyone who disagrees and claims that they are only terrestrial animals is betraying the beauty of the elephant.

Exasperated, Larry takes a break from writing technical treatises about mammalian anatomy, and writes a book for the lay public, The Elephant Has No Wings. While quite popular, the Eagletoshians are outraged. How dare he denigrate the volant proboscidian? Does he think it a mere mechanical mammal, mired in mud, never soaring among the stars? Has he no appreciation for the scholarship of the experts in elephant wings? Doesn't he realize that he can't possibly disprove the existence of wings on elephants, especially when they can be tucked so neatly into the quantum? (The question of how the original prophets of wingedness came by their information never seems to come up, or is never considered very deeply.) It was offensive to cripple the poor elephants, rendering them earthbound.

When that book was quickly followed by Moe's The Elephant Walks and Curly's Land of the Elephant, the elephant wing scholars were in a panic — they were being attacked by experts in elephants, who seemed to know far more about elephants than they did! Fortunately, the scientists knew little about elephant's wings — surprising, that — and the public was steeped in favorable certainty that elephants, far away, were flapping gallantly through the sky. They also had the benefit of vast sums of money. Wealth was rarely associated with competence in matters elephantine, and tycoons were pouring cash into efforts to reconcile the virtuous wingedness of elephants with the uncomfortable reality of anatomy. Even a few scientists who ought to know better were swayed over to the side of the winged; to their credit, it was rarely because of profit, but more because they were sentimentally attached to the idea of wings. They couldn't deny the evidence, however, and were usually observed to squirm as they invoked the mystic power of the quantum, or of fleeting, invisible wings that only appeared when no one was looking.

And there the battle stands, an ongoing argument between the blind who struggle to explore the world as it is around them, and the blind who prefer to conjure phantoms in the spaces within their skulls. I have to disappoint you, because I have no ending and no resolution, only a question.

Where do you find meaning and joy and richness and beauty, O Reader? In elephants, or elephants' wings?

An obsession with polite or correct public language is a sign that communication is in decline. It means that the process and exercise of power have replaced debate as a public value.

The citizen's job is to be rude -- to pierce the comfort of professional intercourse by boorish expressions of DOUBT. Politics, philosophy, writing, the arts -- none of these, and certainly not science and economics, can serve the common weal if they are swathed in politeness. In everything which affects public affairs, breeding is for fools.

John Ralston Saul, The Doubters Companion, p. 237

Cultures that endure carve out a protected space for those who question and challenge national myths. Artists, writers, poets, activists, journalists, philosophers, dancers, musicians, actors, directors and renegades must be tolerated if a culture is to be pulled back from disaster. Members of this intellectual and artistic class, who are usually not welcome in the stultifying halls of academia where mediocrity is triumphant, serve as prophets. They are dismissed, or labeled by the power elites as subversive, because they do not embrace collective self-worship. They force us to confront unexamined assumptions, ones that, if not challenged, lead to destruction. They expose the ruling elites as hollow and corrupt.

If we can do nothing else we must, even as individuals, nurture the private dialogue and the solitude that make thought possible. It is better to be an outcast, a stranger in one's own country, than an outcast from one's self. It is better to see what is about to befall us and to resist than to retreat into the fantasies embraced by a nation of the blind. - Chris Hedges