Below is an excerpt from The Australian news. Interesting that I just heard a sermon trying to encourage us that we, who live in a Western, ex-Christian nation, are not facing persecution as much as in other nations and society. The article below just shows how we need to be careful about our freedom. It is not impossible at all how secular laws can change even by a bit, and our freedom to worship may hang in the balance.
Stretching this a bit further, people may ask how can modern, advanced, developed nations ever be controlled by one man - as in the End Times? We just need to open our eyes and keep track of the news and see how easy this can happen.....
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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26248153-601,00.html
THE nation's most powerful church leaders have united in a bid to scuttle efforts to create a national charter of human rights, warning the Rudd government it could curtail religious freedoms and give judges the power to shape laws on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
Catholic cardinal George Pell led a delegation of about 20 church leaders to Canberra to raise strong concerns about the impact of a charter on religious freedoms.
The leaders, representing major churches including the Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist and Pentecostal, warned that a charter of rights could restrict the ability to hire people of faith in churches, schools and welfare bodies. Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen did not attend the meeting with Attorney-General Robert McClelland on Wednesday because of a synod meeting but said he staunchly backed the delegation's views.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Noah's Ark story on a Scientific Footing
Here is a link to a scientific article suggesting a possible mechanism of the Great Flood. For the believers, this does not change what is known as Bible fact. For the scientifically curious, this article may show how the Great Flood is true.
Noah's Flood and the Associated Tremendous Rainfall as a Possible Result of Collision of a Big Asteroid with the Sun
It is interesting that the article finishes with the following statement:
"Humanity even now is not prepared to face such catastrophic disaster so it is important to know its mechanism in order to help to predict it and to make proper actions to reduce the damage cause by it."
Noah's Flood and the Associated Tremendous Rainfall as a Possible Result of Collision of a Big Asteroid with the Sun
It is interesting that the article finishes with the following statement:
"Humanity even now is not prepared to face such catastrophic disaster so it is important to know its mechanism in order to help to predict it and to make proper actions to reduce the damage cause by it."
Thursday, July 23, 2009
All humans came from the same source
The Word of God says that the Earth's population was repopulated after the Great Flood by Noah and his three sons' family. The article below shows how scientists agree that the world's population was once living in the same place and then migrated away or spread out.
If evolution was true, wouldn't humans just arise independently at different location or spread out earlier without first congregating?
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Source: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/first-australians-were-indian-research-20090722-dtnh.html
First Australians were Indian: research
July 23, 2009
CLUES about how the first Aborigines arrived in Australia have been unveiled by Indian scientists. Based on a series of genetic tests, they believe Aborigines travelled from Africa to Australia via India.
Dr Raghavendra Rao and researchers from the Indian-government backed Anthropological Survey of India project found unique genetic mutations were shared between modern-day Indians and Aborigines, suggesting Australia's indigenous people had spent time on the subcontinent.
The scientists did genetic tests on 966 individuals from 26 of India's "relic populations" and identified seven people from central Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic tribes who shared genetic traits only found in Aborigines. "We found certain mutations in the DNA sequences of the Indian tribes … that are specific to Aborigines," Dr Rao said.
"This … suggests that the Aborigine population migrated to Australia via the so-called southern route."
Scientists believe the first modern humans began spreading around the world from Africa about 50,000 years ago. But little is known about which routes they took.
Some studies have suggested they used a single southern route stretching from the Horn of Africa, across the Red Sea into Arabia and southern Asia.
They were then believed to have moved along the coastlines of southern Asia, South-East Asia and Indonesia before arriving in Australia about 45,000 years ago.
Dr Rao said the new research, published by the online scientific journal BMC Evolutionary Biology yesterday, indicated there was direct DNA evidence about how modern humans spread from Africa 50,000 years ago. "In this respect, populations in the Indian subcontinent harbour DNA footprints of the earliest expansion out of Africa," he said.
If evolution was true, wouldn't humans just arise independently at different location or spread out earlier without first congregating?
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Source: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/first-australians-were-indian-research-20090722-dtnh.html
First Australians were Indian: research
July 23, 2009
CLUES about how the first Aborigines arrived in Australia have been unveiled by Indian scientists. Based on a series of genetic tests, they believe Aborigines travelled from Africa to Australia via India.
Dr Raghavendra Rao and researchers from the Indian-government backed Anthropological Survey of India project found unique genetic mutations were shared between modern-day Indians and Aborigines, suggesting Australia's indigenous people had spent time on the subcontinent.
The scientists did genetic tests on 966 individuals from 26 of India's "relic populations" and identified seven people from central Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic tribes who shared genetic traits only found in Aborigines. "We found certain mutations in the DNA sequences of the Indian tribes … that are specific to Aborigines," Dr Rao said.
"This … suggests that the Aborigine population migrated to Australia via the so-called southern route."
Scientists believe the first modern humans began spreading around the world from Africa about 50,000 years ago. But little is known about which routes they took.
Some studies have suggested they used a single southern route stretching from the Horn of Africa, across the Red Sea into Arabia and southern Asia.
They were then believed to have moved along the coastlines of southern Asia, South-East Asia and Indonesia before arriving in Australia about 45,000 years ago.
Dr Rao said the new research, published by the online scientific journal BMC Evolutionary Biology yesterday, indicated there was direct DNA evidence about how modern humans spread from Africa 50,000 years ago. "In this respect, populations in the Indian subcontinent harbour DNA footprints of the earliest expansion out of Africa," he said.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Nephilim? - Why Neanderthals were always an endangered species
The article below talks about the inferior DNA of Neanderthals. This would not be surprising if in fact Neanderthals turn out to be the Nephilims mentioned in God's Word. Scientifically, hybrids between species usually are not able to produce successfully. In God's own words, he made the all creatures on Earth such that they produce "their own kind", hybrids are not part of God's plan. No wonder the Neanderthal / Nephilim DNA is inferior for reproductive purposes.
Footnote: Sudden extinction of Neanderthals and most of other humans are caused by the Great Flood.
An article on Nephilim and Neanderthal:
http://jacksonsnyder.com/Arc/Essays%206/Neaderthal.htm
Genesis 6:3-5 (New International Version)
3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with [a] man forever, for he is mortal [b] ; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Why Neanderthals were always an endangered species
10:55 17 July 2009 by Ewen Callaway
For much of their 400,000 year history, Neanderthals were few and far between, a new analysis of genetic material from several of the extinct, ancient humans now suggests.
It's difficult to put a number on the population of a species based on DNA alone, but less than a few hundred thousand of the archaic humans roamed Europe and Asia at any one time, says Adrian Briggs, an evolutionary geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. "There never were million and millions of Neanderthals," he told New Scientist.
That conclusion isn't exactly Earth-shattering. Archaeological digs suggest that Neanderthals hardly lived in megacities, and the mitochondrial genome sequence from one individual found in Croatia also hints at low population sizes.
But the new findings represent the most detailed look at Neanderthal genetic diversity yet published.
Low diversity
What is most obvious is how little genetic heterogeneity they possessed. The mitochondrial genomes of six Neanderthals recovered in Spain, Croatia, Germany and Russia differ at only 55 locations out of more than 16,000 letters. This represents three times less mitochondrial diversity than modern humans possess.
.
Because of this low diversity, Briggs' team infers that Neanderthal populations must have been relatively small. "Populations with much larger sizes carry more genetic diversity, you have more individuals and more mutations," he says.
The researchers analysed bone samples that, by and large, came during the twilight of the Neanderthal's reign around 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals probably went extinct somewhere between 24,000 and 28,000 years ago.
It's possible that Briggs' team has taken a genetic snapshot of a species on the verge of extinction, however other genetic clues indicate that Neanderthal populations stayed low for much of their history, he says.
Highs and lows
Neanderthal mitochondria were far more likely than humans or chimpanzees to contain potentially harmful mutations in mitochondrial genes that changed the shape of proteins, Brigg's team found. Since these mutations incur an evolutionary cost, they will eventually be weeded out. But this process occurs very slowly in small populations, Briggs says. Hence, Neanderthals numbers probably stayed low for a long time.
Chris Stringer, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, agrees that Neanderthal populations were probably small. "They must have been on the edge of extinction by this time to have so few people scattered in Europe," he says.
However during warm spells, their numbers and range probably swelled, only to contract in leaner times, Stringer says. "I think the numbers would have fluctuated. They would have had good times and bad times, and this data reflect that in the last 100,000 years they were having bad times."
It's tempting to think that the arrival of modern humans to Europe about 45,000 years ago pushed Neanderthal numbers even lower by competing for increasingly scarce resources. But the invading Homo sapiens would have been relatively rare too, Stringer says. "You've got to consider the possibility that they might not have met each other that often."
Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1174462)
Footnote: Sudden extinction of Neanderthals and most of other humans are caused by the Great Flood.
An article on Nephilim and Neanderthal:
http://jacksonsnyder.com/Arc/Essays%206/Neaderthal.htm
Genesis 6:3-5 (New International Version)
3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with [a] man forever, for he is mortal [b] ; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Why Neanderthals were always an endangered species
10:55 17 July 2009 by Ewen Callaway
For much of their 400,000 year history, Neanderthals were few and far between, a new analysis of genetic material from several of the extinct, ancient humans now suggests.
It's difficult to put a number on the population of a species based on DNA alone, but less than a few hundred thousand of the archaic humans roamed Europe and Asia at any one time, says Adrian Briggs, an evolutionary geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. "There never were million and millions of Neanderthals," he told New Scientist.
That conclusion isn't exactly Earth-shattering. Archaeological digs suggest that Neanderthals hardly lived in megacities, and the mitochondrial genome sequence from one individual found in Croatia also hints at low population sizes.
But the new findings represent the most detailed look at Neanderthal genetic diversity yet published.
Low diversity
What is most obvious is how little genetic heterogeneity they possessed. The mitochondrial genomes of six Neanderthals recovered in Spain, Croatia, Germany and Russia differ at only 55 locations out of more than 16,000 letters. This represents three times less mitochondrial diversity than modern humans possess.
.
Because of this low diversity, Briggs' team infers that Neanderthal populations must have been relatively small. "Populations with much larger sizes carry more genetic diversity, you have more individuals and more mutations," he says.
The researchers analysed bone samples that, by and large, came during the twilight of the Neanderthal's reign around 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals probably went extinct somewhere between 24,000 and 28,000 years ago.
It's possible that Briggs' team has taken a genetic snapshot of a species on the verge of extinction, however other genetic clues indicate that Neanderthal populations stayed low for much of their history, he says.
Highs and lows
Neanderthal mitochondria were far more likely than humans or chimpanzees to contain potentially harmful mutations in mitochondrial genes that changed the shape of proteins, Brigg's team found. Since these mutations incur an evolutionary cost, they will eventually be weeded out. But this process occurs very slowly in small populations, Briggs says. Hence, Neanderthals numbers probably stayed low for a long time.
Chris Stringer, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, agrees that Neanderthal populations were probably small. "They must have been on the edge of extinction by this time to have so few people scattered in Europe," he says.
However during warm spells, their numbers and range probably swelled, only to contract in leaner times, Stringer says. "I think the numbers would have fluctuated. They would have had good times and bad times, and this data reflect that in the last 100,000 years they were having bad times."
It's tempting to think that the arrival of modern humans to Europe about 45,000 years ago pushed Neanderthal numbers even lower by competing for increasingly scarce resources. But the invading Homo sapiens would have been relatively rare too, Stringer says. "You've got to consider the possibility that they might not have met each other that often."
Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1174462)
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Codex Sinaiticus - Oldest Bible now Online
Codex Sinaiticus, the world's oldest Bible, unified online for the first time in over a century
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2009/07/06/2009-07-06_oldest_bible_the_codex_sinaiticus_.html#ixzz0Kfz9yAKL&C
The surviving sections of the world’s oldest Bible have been pieced together and unified online Monday, creating a unique opportunity for scholars to learn more about the centuries-old manuscript.
As part of a four-year joint project, the Codex Sinaiticus, has been digitized for the first time, reuniting sections held by the British Library in London, the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, Egypt, the National Library of Russia and Leipzig University Library in Germany, according to Reuters.
The Codex Sinaiticus was hand-written in Greek by four scribes in the mid-fourth century, around the time of Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who embraced Christianity.
The Codex, which was originally around 1,400 pages long, is now a collection of 800 pages and fragments.
The text was written on vellum, a type of animal hide, and the pages that have survived include the entire New Testament and the earliest surviving copy of the Gospels, written after Christ’s death by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Half of a copy of the Old Testament is also among the pages that remain. The rest has been lost over time.
"The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the world’s greatest written treasures," Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library, told Reuters.
"This 1,600-year-old manuscript offers a window into the development of early Christianity and first-hand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation to generation," said McKendrick.
The pages include numerous revisions, corrections and additions, thought to have been added as the manuscript was passed down over time.
With each page measuring 16 inches tall by 14 inches wide, the Codex "is arguably the oldest large bound book to have survived," McKendrick told Reuters.
"Critically, it marks the definite triumph of bound codices over (papyrus) scrolls – a key watershed in how the Christian Bible was regarded as a sacred text," he stated.
Reuniting the remaining pages of the Codex has helped to reveal other mysteries surrounding the oldest Bible, including more information about who made it and how it was produced.
Experts at the British Library told Reuters that the project has already produced evidence that suggests that a fourth scribe worked on the texts. Three other scribes have previously been recognized as authors.
Each institution owns various amounts of the Codex, but the British Library, which was the first to digitize pages of the book in London, possesses the most.
The joint project to compile all the pages online began in 2005, with the objective of preserving the ancient manuscript and creating an online archive.
The collection will also include previously unpublished pages of the Codex, which were found in a blocked-off room in 1975 at St. Catherine’s Monastery. Several of these pages are in poor condition, which has made them difficult to study.
McKendrick said the project should finally allow scholars to be able to view the documents as part of a whole, making their studies more complete and comprehensive.
While there are still many unknown answers about the origins of the Codex – such as how the manuscript came to be, which religious order commissioned it, and how long it took to produce – unifying the book on the Internet will hopefully initiate new research into the manuscript.
"It is our hope this will provide the catalyst for new research and it is already creating great interest," Juan Garces, project manager of Greek manuscripts at the British Library, told Reuters.
The Bible can be viewed online for free at http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/ . The collection includes modern Greek translations, in addition to certain sections which have been translated into English.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2009/07/06/2009-07-06_oldest_bible_the_codex_sinaiticus_.html#ixzz0KfzPJne2&C
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2009/07/06/2009-07-06_oldest_bible_the_codex_sinaiticus_.html#ixzz0Kfz9yAKL&C
The surviving sections of the world’s oldest Bible have been pieced together and unified online Monday, creating a unique opportunity for scholars to learn more about the centuries-old manuscript.
As part of a four-year joint project, the Codex Sinaiticus, has been digitized for the first time, reuniting sections held by the British Library in London, the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, Egypt, the National Library of Russia and Leipzig University Library in Germany, according to Reuters.
The Codex Sinaiticus was hand-written in Greek by four scribes in the mid-fourth century, around the time of Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who embraced Christianity.
The Codex, which was originally around 1,400 pages long, is now a collection of 800 pages and fragments.
The text was written on vellum, a type of animal hide, and the pages that have survived include the entire New Testament and the earliest surviving copy of the Gospels, written after Christ’s death by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Half of a copy of the Old Testament is also among the pages that remain. The rest has been lost over time.
"The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the world’s greatest written treasures," Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library, told Reuters.
"This 1,600-year-old manuscript offers a window into the development of early Christianity and first-hand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation to generation," said McKendrick.
The pages include numerous revisions, corrections and additions, thought to have been added as the manuscript was passed down over time.
With each page measuring 16 inches tall by 14 inches wide, the Codex "is arguably the oldest large bound book to have survived," McKendrick told Reuters.
"Critically, it marks the definite triumph of bound codices over (papyrus) scrolls – a key watershed in how the Christian Bible was regarded as a sacred text," he stated.
Reuniting the remaining pages of the Codex has helped to reveal other mysteries surrounding the oldest Bible, including more information about who made it and how it was produced.
Experts at the British Library told Reuters that the project has already produced evidence that suggests that a fourth scribe worked on the texts. Three other scribes have previously been recognized as authors.
Each institution owns various amounts of the Codex, but the British Library, which was the first to digitize pages of the book in London, possesses the most.
The joint project to compile all the pages online began in 2005, with the objective of preserving the ancient manuscript and creating an online archive.
The collection will also include previously unpublished pages of the Codex, which were found in a blocked-off room in 1975 at St. Catherine’s Monastery. Several of these pages are in poor condition, which has made them difficult to study.
McKendrick said the project should finally allow scholars to be able to view the documents as part of a whole, making their studies more complete and comprehensive.
While there are still many unknown answers about the origins of the Codex – such as how the manuscript came to be, which religious order commissioned it, and how long it took to produce – unifying the book on the Internet will hopefully initiate new research into the manuscript.
"It is our hope this will provide the catalyst for new research and it is already creating great interest," Juan Garces, project manager of Greek manuscripts at the British Library, told Reuters.
The Bible can be viewed online for free at http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/ . The collection includes modern Greek translations, in addition to certain sections which have been translated into English.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2009/07/06/2009-07-06_oldest_bible_the_codex_sinaiticus_.html#ixzz0KfzPJne2&C
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Hand and Eye of God
Check out these two very interesting photo.
Remnants of a supernova - "Hand of God"?
Isaiah 40:12
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?
Helix planetary nebula - "Eye of God"?
For the original story see
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25340647-5014239,00.html
Remnants of a supernova - "Hand of God"?
Isaiah 40:12
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?
Helix planetary nebula - "Eye of God"?
For the original story see
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25340647-5014239,00.html
Sunday, January 25, 2009
By Forgiving Traditionalists, the Pope Offends Jews
After years of restoration work the Christian community has done regarding the injustices toward our Hebrew brethren, the article below may be a sign in the opposite direction.
Let us remember what God said about His original chosen people:
Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
Below is an excerpt of the article from:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1873855,00.html
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By Forgiving Traditionalists, the Pope Offends Jews
Pope Benedict XVI has reinstated four bishops from an archconservative breakaway wing of the Roman Catholic Church, a decision that is bound to stir controversy within his own flock. But Saturday's announcement that the Vatican will undo the 20-year schism between the Vatican and the so-called Lefebvrian movement is all the more sensitive because it comes only days after the broadcast of an interview in which British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, one of those Benedict is bringing back into the fold, denies that the Nazi Holocaust ever happened.
"I believe there were no gas chambers," Williamson said. The bishop, who has been accused of anti-Semitism in the past, declared that the historical evidence was "hugely against" the accepted belief that close to 6 million Jews were systematically exterminated as part of Adolf Hitler's Final Solution. Williamson claims that no more than 300,000 Jews died during World War II. (View images of the pope in France)
Let us remember what God said about His original chosen people:
Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
Below is an excerpt of the article from:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1873855,00.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By Forgiving Traditionalists, the Pope Offends Jews
Pope Benedict XVI has reinstated four bishops from an archconservative breakaway wing of the Roman Catholic Church, a decision that is bound to stir controversy within his own flock. But Saturday's announcement that the Vatican will undo the 20-year schism between the Vatican and the so-called Lefebvrian movement is all the more sensitive because it comes only days after the broadcast of an interview in which British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, one of those Benedict is bringing back into the fold, denies that the Nazi Holocaust ever happened.
"I believe there were no gas chambers," Williamson said. The bishop, who has been accused of anti-Semitism in the past, declared that the historical evidence was "hugely against" the accepted belief that close to 6 million Jews were systematically exterminated as part of Adolf Hitler's Final Solution. Williamson claims that no more than 300,000 Jews died during World War II. (View images of the pope in France)
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Catholic bishops want the word of God on iPods
(source: Sydney Morning Herald 28 Oct 2008)
Catholic bishops want the word of God on iPods
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October 27, 2008 - 2:19PM
Catholic bishops meeting in Rome said they want the word of God to be heard through what could be considered an unlikely channel: iPods.
The bishops, attending a synod at the Vatican since October 5, called for increased distribution of the Bible "in the largest variety of our planet's languages".
They said in a message to believers that the printed text is no longer sufficient at a time when communication has been transformed by technology.
"The voice of the divine word must also resonate over the radio, Internet channels with virtual online distribution, CDs, DVDs, iPod ...", it said.
It went on to add to the list "television and cinema screens, in the press, at cultural and social events."
The synod on the theme of the "Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church" ended on the weekend.
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You can get your e-bible in Text (*.txt) format at:
http://ruwach.googlepages.com/bibletext
Catholic bishops want the word of God on iPods
*
* Printer friendly version
* Normal font
* Large font
* Saved
October 27, 2008 - 2:19PM
Catholic bishops meeting in Rome said they want the word of God to be heard through what could be considered an unlikely channel: iPods.
The bishops, attending a synod at the Vatican since October 5, called for increased distribution of the Bible "in the largest variety of our planet's languages".
They said in a message to believers that the printed text is no longer sufficient at a time when communication has been transformed by technology.
"The voice of the divine word must also resonate over the radio, Internet channels with virtual online distribution, CDs, DVDs, iPod ...", it said.
It went on to add to the list "television and cinema screens, in the press, at cultural and social events."
The synod on the theme of the "Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church" ended on the weekend.
-----------------------
You can get your e-bible in Text (*.txt) format at:
http://ruwach.googlepages.com/bibletext
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Financial Crisis: What Would the Talmud Do?
Heard about the Financial Crisis recently? Here's an interesting reminder that God has already revealed His Financial System, if only we would follow it.........
see - The Financial Crisis: What Would the Talmud Do?
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1849231-2,00.html
(original article copied below)
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The Financial Crisis: What Would the Talmud Do?
By David Van Biema Friday, Oct. 10, 2008
Would the current financial crisis have been avoided if traders followed Jewish traditions embodied in the Bible and the Talmud? Two scholars from the Conservative and Orthodox branches of the Judaism are suggesting just that. They also conclude that the tradition prescribes significant regulation to begin to redress the debacle.
That may not be so exotic as it sounds. Every theology has a subdivision for business ethics, but Judaism's is especially complete. It is said that more of the 613 commandments in the Jewish bible deal with keeping one's money kosher (or "fit") than pertain to one's food; and the business literature springing from that concern may be the longest and most continuous in the world.
In an article to appear shortly in a book from Oxford University Press, Aaron Levine, chair of the economics department at a respected New York college opens with the assertion: "The current downturn is the first post World War II recession that has its roots in widespread moral failure." It's an interesting, if debatable contention, but equally interesting is the authorities Levine cites as he makes his argument: the Jewish torah, the mishna (transcribed oral law), talmud, the work of medieval jurists like Maimonides, and host of rabbinical opinions (responsas) ever since. Levine is an Orthodox rabbi as well as a prof, and his institution is Yeshiva University. The book is titled Judaism and Economics; and his article's title is "The Recession of 2008: The Moral Factor — A Jewish Law Analysis."
It is not surprising that scholars like Levine have begun to bring Jewish religious teaching to bear on the current crisis — which, if not completely about ethics, certainly has a large ethical component. Says Rabbi Eliezer Diamond, Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, a body of the Conservative arm of Judaism, puts it, "What any religious tradition calls on us to ask is, 'how can I make money and simultaneously be a responsible member of the society in which I live, protecting the interests of both the buyer and the seller?' Clearly that consideration was absent from this whole process."
Neither Levine nor Diamond claims that Jewish participants in, say, the sub-prime mortgage crisis have been more virtuous than non-Jews. But both are inclined to analyse it through the lens of Jewish law, especially regarding proper financial disclosure, on which so much of the current fiasco has hinged. Here are some of the ancient principles they feel are applicable to today's bad news
•Bamboozling the "Blind"
Much Jewish ethical thought flows out of Leviticus 19:14, which reads "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind." From an early date, rabbis expanded this into a general prohibition on bad advice. In time, it became part of the language specifically regarding loans, mostly regarding the need for witnesses. But Diamond says it now applies to the whole loan debacle and "any expert who tells someone who probably shouldn't take out a mortgage 'you'll be able to do it, no problem.'" There are a lot of financially "blind" people out there, and a lot of people mis-advised them.
•Hidden Flaws and the "Reasonable Man"
Medieval jurists like Maimonides identified a more specific kind of bad advice. They tackled the idea of the "hidden flaw," which, Levine points out, leads directly to a demand for fiscal disclosure. "If you sell an animal, you had to disclose to the buyer what the hidden flaw is," he explains. Not only that: "the disclosure has to be made so that a 'reasonable,' or average man can decide" whether to buy. Once again, almost the entire chain of transactors in the mortgage crisis is guilty: predatory brokers for not alerting working-class borrowers to the fine print; middle-men selling mortgage debt to investment banks sliced and diced into "tranches" that obscure their riskiness; bankers who used hard-to-fathom financial instruments that leave ultimate responsibility for a loan a mystery even to experts. Like many observers, Levine is particularly exercized about credit default swaps, a largely unregulated field since 2000.) And anyone who willfully ignored the fact that real estate prices must eventually come down.
•The Bath House Rule
An extension of the disclosure concern, Diamond reports, was explored by Jews through the unexpected vehicle of marriage law. The tractate Ketubot in the Mishna dictates that a betrothal is valid only if the bride-to-be has no hidden blemishes that would have disqualified the match, had they been public. However, there is a heavy responsibility on the groom: if he has relatives who could have observed the disfigurement by checking out his fiance in the womens' bath but neglected to do have them do so, he can't complain. This suggests (feminist complaints notwithstanding) that culpability in sub-prime crisis does not lie solely on the mortgage broker who glided over the fact that payments ballooned in the third year; but also on the buyer who happily neglected to read the fine print: : "Ignorance of the facts is no defense," Diamond says.
•Morals of the Mark-Up
Leviticus 25 of the Bible explains that you cannot charge the same price for land that is about to become useless (in this case, by reverting to its original tribal ownership) as for a parcel that still has decades of use left. Rabbinic tradition, says Diamond, interpreted that as a check on price-gouging and ruled that nobody should charge more than one-sixth above market value for anything.
If this last bit sounds too ethical to be true, that's because, these days, it is. "To be honest," Diamond explains, "In the medieval and the modern periods, Jewish law caved to the marketplace on this." The financial markets that Jews found themselves in routinely assumed profits of over 6%, and they followed suit. "It became more an aspiration than a duty," he says. "Let's say that the more pious among us would take this seriously in establishing prices that are responsible, based on the marketplace." Indeed, with the exception of those involved in specifically Jewish markets like the Kosher foods industry that may fall partly under the jurisdiction of religious courts, Jewish businessmen are far less likely to be discussing rabbinic ethics than people like Levine and Diamond.
But the desire to apply them to the wider world may be growing. Diamond belongs to a group called Rabbis for Obama, and says that in light of the financial crisis, its members have begun to discuss how the old wisdom could mediate the new mess. The question these days, he says, is not whether Jews can be induced to be more ethical than the market, but whether the market can be made more ethical. "I think classic rabbinic tradition is certainly pro-regulatory," he says. Meanwhile, Yeshiva's Levine calls in his journal article for what he describes as "an incentive structure in the workplace that would dissuade people from wrongdoing." He gets quite specific, imagining a "carrot and stick" arrangement. One stick would be an expansion of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which mandated greater accountability for CEOs of publicly-owned companies, among other things.
Sarbanes-Oxley is not popular among free-market advocates. "I know," says Levine, "people involved in all this will say that they wanted to maximize shareholder value." But he thinks that today's capitalism needs to be a little more bounded in order to protect the possible victims of its excesses. That term includes the poor man who mistakenly takes an impossible mortgage. But increasingly it may mean all of us. In regulating, says the rabbi-economist, "we have to imitate God, in the way He shows compassion and mercy when he deals with mankind."
see - The Financial Crisis: What Would the Talmud Do?
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1849231-2,00.html
(original article copied below)
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Financial Crisis: What Would the Talmud Do?
By David Van Biema Friday, Oct. 10, 2008
Would the current financial crisis have been avoided if traders followed Jewish traditions embodied in the Bible and the Talmud? Two scholars from the Conservative and Orthodox branches of the Judaism are suggesting just that. They also conclude that the tradition prescribes significant regulation to begin to redress the debacle.
That may not be so exotic as it sounds. Every theology has a subdivision for business ethics, but Judaism's is especially complete. It is said that more of the 613 commandments in the Jewish bible deal with keeping one's money kosher (or "fit") than pertain to one's food; and the business literature springing from that concern may be the longest and most continuous in the world.
In an article to appear shortly in a book from Oxford University Press, Aaron Levine, chair of the economics department at a respected New York college opens with the assertion: "The current downturn is the first post World War II recession that has its roots in widespread moral failure." It's an interesting, if debatable contention, but equally interesting is the authorities Levine cites as he makes his argument: the Jewish torah, the mishna (transcribed oral law), talmud, the work of medieval jurists like Maimonides, and host of rabbinical opinions (responsas) ever since. Levine is an Orthodox rabbi as well as a prof, and his institution is Yeshiva University. The book is titled Judaism and Economics; and his article's title is "The Recession of 2008: The Moral Factor — A Jewish Law Analysis."
It is not surprising that scholars like Levine have begun to bring Jewish religious teaching to bear on the current crisis — which, if not completely about ethics, certainly has a large ethical component. Says Rabbi Eliezer Diamond, Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, a body of the Conservative arm of Judaism, puts it, "What any religious tradition calls on us to ask is, 'how can I make money and simultaneously be a responsible member of the society in which I live, protecting the interests of both the buyer and the seller?' Clearly that consideration was absent from this whole process."
Neither Levine nor Diamond claims that Jewish participants in, say, the sub-prime mortgage crisis have been more virtuous than non-Jews. But both are inclined to analyse it through the lens of Jewish law, especially regarding proper financial disclosure, on which so much of the current fiasco has hinged. Here are some of the ancient principles they feel are applicable to today's bad news
•Bamboozling the "Blind"
Much Jewish ethical thought flows out of Leviticus 19:14, which reads "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind." From an early date, rabbis expanded this into a general prohibition on bad advice. In time, it became part of the language specifically regarding loans, mostly regarding the need for witnesses. But Diamond says it now applies to the whole loan debacle and "any expert who tells someone who probably shouldn't take out a mortgage 'you'll be able to do it, no problem.'" There are a lot of financially "blind" people out there, and a lot of people mis-advised them.
•Hidden Flaws and the "Reasonable Man"
Medieval jurists like Maimonides identified a more specific kind of bad advice. They tackled the idea of the "hidden flaw," which, Levine points out, leads directly to a demand for fiscal disclosure. "If you sell an animal, you had to disclose to the buyer what the hidden flaw is," he explains. Not only that: "the disclosure has to be made so that a 'reasonable,' or average man can decide" whether to buy. Once again, almost the entire chain of transactors in the mortgage crisis is guilty: predatory brokers for not alerting working-class borrowers to the fine print; middle-men selling mortgage debt to investment banks sliced and diced into "tranches" that obscure their riskiness; bankers who used hard-to-fathom financial instruments that leave ultimate responsibility for a loan a mystery even to experts. Like many observers, Levine is particularly exercized about credit default swaps, a largely unregulated field since 2000.) And anyone who willfully ignored the fact that real estate prices must eventually come down.
•The Bath House Rule
An extension of the disclosure concern, Diamond reports, was explored by Jews through the unexpected vehicle of marriage law. The tractate Ketubot in the Mishna dictates that a betrothal is valid only if the bride-to-be has no hidden blemishes that would have disqualified the match, had they been public. However, there is a heavy responsibility on the groom: if he has relatives who could have observed the disfigurement by checking out his fiance in the womens' bath but neglected to do have them do so, he can't complain. This suggests (feminist complaints notwithstanding) that culpability in sub-prime crisis does not lie solely on the mortgage broker who glided over the fact that payments ballooned in the third year; but also on the buyer who happily neglected to read the fine print: : "Ignorance of the facts is no defense," Diamond says.
•Morals of the Mark-Up
Leviticus 25 of the Bible explains that you cannot charge the same price for land that is about to become useless (in this case, by reverting to its original tribal ownership) as for a parcel that still has decades of use left. Rabbinic tradition, says Diamond, interpreted that as a check on price-gouging and ruled that nobody should charge more than one-sixth above market value for anything.
If this last bit sounds too ethical to be true, that's because, these days, it is. "To be honest," Diamond explains, "In the medieval and the modern periods, Jewish law caved to the marketplace on this." The financial markets that Jews found themselves in routinely assumed profits of over 6%, and they followed suit. "It became more an aspiration than a duty," he says. "Let's say that the more pious among us would take this seriously in establishing prices that are responsible, based on the marketplace." Indeed, with the exception of those involved in specifically Jewish markets like the Kosher foods industry that may fall partly under the jurisdiction of religious courts, Jewish businessmen are far less likely to be discussing rabbinic ethics than people like Levine and Diamond.
But the desire to apply them to the wider world may be growing. Diamond belongs to a group called Rabbis for Obama, and says that in light of the financial crisis, its members have begun to discuss how the old wisdom could mediate the new mess. The question these days, he says, is not whether Jews can be induced to be more ethical than the market, but whether the market can be made more ethical. "I think classic rabbinic tradition is certainly pro-regulatory," he says. Meanwhile, Yeshiva's Levine calls in his journal article for what he describes as "an incentive structure in the workplace that would dissuade people from wrongdoing." He gets quite specific, imagining a "carrot and stick" arrangement. One stick would be an expansion of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which mandated greater accountability for CEOs of publicly-owned companies, among other things.
Sarbanes-Oxley is not popular among free-market advocates. "I know," says Levine, "people involved in all this will say that they wanted to maximize shareholder value." But he thinks that today's capitalism needs to be a little more bounded in order to protect the possible victims of its excesses. That term includes the poor man who mistakenly takes an impossible mortgage. But increasingly it may mean all of us. In regulating, says the rabbi-economist, "we have to imitate God, in the way He shows compassion and mercy when he deals with mankind."
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Hurricanes - "they swirl around"
Recent hurricanes in the south of the US had some experts noticing how severe they had become. Global warming and climate change never fail to get mentioned we such news. However, something else may be at work here ........
Job 37
11 He loads the clouds with moisture;
he scatters his lightning through them.
12 At his direction they swirl around
over the face of the whole earth
to do whatever he commands them.
13 He brings the clouds to punish men,
or to water his earth [b] and show his love.
.... for a complete picture, read Job 37. Or better still read Job. The passage above reminds us about the sovereignty and power of our Creator and Loving Father.
Comments welcome...
Job 37
11 He loads the clouds with moisture;
he scatters his lightning through them.
12 At his direction they swirl around
over the face of the whole earth
to do whatever he commands them.
13 He brings the clouds to punish men,
or to water his earth [b] and show his love.
.... for a complete picture, read Job 37. Or better still read Job. The passage above reminds us about the sovereignty and power of our Creator and Loving Father.
Comments welcome...
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Weeds among the Wheat
Gay clergy has split Anglican Church: Jensen
Jason Koutsoukis
June 22, 2008
(http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/gay-clergy-has-split-anglican-communion--archbishop-jensen/2008/06/21/1214009179925.html)
So it is in these times that enemy will infiltrate the Body of Christ and cause confusion and division. Here this parable from the Lord:
Matthew 13:
24Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, "(U)The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25"But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed [a]tares among the wheat, and went away.
26"But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
27"The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?'
28"And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' The slaves said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?'
29"But he said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.
30'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but (V)gather the wheat into my barn."'"
-----------
If you need an explanation, the Lord actually explains this in Matthew 13:36
Jason Koutsoukis
June 22, 2008
(http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/gay-clergy-has-split-anglican-communion--archbishop-jensen/2008/06/21/1214009179925.html)
So it is in these times that enemy will infiltrate the Body of Christ and cause confusion and division. Here this parable from the Lord:
Matthew 13:
24Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, "(U)The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25"But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed [a]tares among the wheat, and went away.
26"But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
27"The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?'
28"And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' The slaves said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?'
29"But he said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.
30'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but (V)gather the wheat into my barn."'"
-----------
If you need an explanation, the Lord actually explains this in Matthew 13:36
Friday, June 6, 2008
Credit Crunch reveals World Financial vulnerability
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23229288-7583,00.html
http://www.shares.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=5392
The recent credit crunch which is still unfolding has the potential to undermine the current global financial system. The article above highlights the amount of debt in the system itself. It should serve as a reminder where our treasures is and where our priority lies.
James 5:2
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
http://www.shares.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=5392
The recent credit crunch which is still unfolding has the potential to undermine the current global financial system. The article above highlights the amount of debt in the system itself. It should serve as a reminder where our treasures is and where our priority lies.
James 5:2
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Rehersal for Passover Lamb Sacrifice
See the article above about the movement to rebuilt the Temple and the rehearsal of the Mosaic sacrificial system.
Update 3 April 2021
Passover has just finished, and Covid has reached a turning point. A few interesting things are happening in this Passover in Israel.
https://www.israel365news.com/188734/passover-sacrifice-dry-run-takes-place-near-temple-mount-police-warm-up-to-the-idea-watch/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/299065
https://www.israel365news.com/188111/prominent-rabbis-ask-netanyahu-to-allow-the-pascal-sacrifice-on-temple-mount/
It seems like a practice version of the Passover Sacrifice is taking place near the Teemple Mont since there are still many restrictions. The practice is getting closer to the full event, and the actual Passover Sacrifice in its original form may take place sooner than many people have expected.
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