Vilification of a Kindly Infidel

by compound complex 37 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  cameo-d

  To whom shall we go?

  It seems the majority of people still have Neanderthal minds when it comes to believing the superstitions, lies, and bigotry taught in religious institutions even today.

  Some particularly bright folks realize it earlier than others; the thousand eyes are looking for them, and they are recruited into higher organizations which promote evolution of the species. Brother Luther Burbank became involved with such an organization, not realizing that it is simply trading one lie for another, and like all religions, when it mixes truth in with the lies, it makes the lie stronger and believable.

  Brother Luther Burbank felt a lot of the same anger at organized religion that we all have here at this board. Here are some excerpts from his eulogy which reflect his beliefs (and which many of us recognize as lies of religion also):

  . . . In the orthodox threat of eternal punishment for sin--which he knew was often synonymous with yielding up all liberty and freedom--and in its promise of an immortality,....

  He was defending the rights of man as against the mists of dogma with its brutal mythical tyrant that some yet call God--the Moloch who consigned innocent, little unbaptized children to a fiery hell, or to utter darkness, or who burns the creatures that he has made, knowing when he made them that they were made to burn.

  Then no more shall we have a mythical God that smells of brimstone and fire; that confuses hate with love; a God that binds up the minds of little children, as other heathen bind up their feet--little children equally helpless to defend their precious right to think and choose and not be chained from the dawn of childhood to the dogmas of the dead.

  One of the saddest spectacles of our times is the effort of hidebound theologians, still desperately trying to chain us to the past--in other forms that would still invoke the inquisitions, the fears, and the bigotries of the dark ages, and keep the world in chains. The chains of lies, hypocrisies, taboos, and the superstitions, fostered by the dying, but still the organized, relentless outworn theology of another age. They refuse to see that in their stupid lust for power they are endangering all that is good.

  Brother Luther Burbank believed himself to be a Freethinker. (That is also a Masonic buzz word.) However, can one ever truly be a freethinker when under the influence and philosophy of any organization which promotes a spiritual agenda and adherence to a particular concept?
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  compound complex

  Thanks, Ninj and Clam, for a heavenly George!

  Thanks, too, cameo, for this further revelation.

  CoCo
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  yknot

  Wow....

  Of course this thread is way over my head.... but a very interesting and one I am bookmarking with keen interest!
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  cameo-d

  Ynot,

  Glad you have joined all of us. This subject is NOT over your head. I think what it is, and what you probably meant, is that it is overwhelming.And I must admit it totally made my head swim when I first connected all the dots.

  I have been on this journey before and I know where it leads. But when you walk the woods in different seasons you will always find wildflowers that have sprung up anew, or a creature that did not cross your path the last time. The woods are always full of surprises and changes. And while it is sometimes a dark and solitary path we learn to watch for clues as to how the wolf marks his territory so that we can be aware of the pitfalls.

  This is just such a cautionary tale.

  I was afraid this turn of events was almost a hijack of Mr. CoCo's thread. But, as he so graciously penned:

  I am fascinated as I trip along the yellow brick road to Oz ...

  Whither will I goest,

  Never shall I knowest.

  Be I Winkie, Quadlin',

  Munchkin or Gillikin ...

  Ozomaniac

  We can turn back now....or continue on. We are about to enter the dark heart of the forrest.
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  cameo-d

  How would you quell a potential rebellion?

  In WT, they do it with shunning edicts.

  But what about other religious groups?

  What happens to those who see through the ruse? How do the "Powers That Be" silence them to keep from contaminating the rest of the group with atheist ideas? Do you think these people just simply walk away from the churches and never talk about it?

  What are your guesses?

  Even Luther Burbank kept silent about his thoughts on religion until very late in life, just before his death. Today, people are more outspoken and have support in greater numbers.

  But, in times past, when it seemed that the majority of people adopted fundamentalist religion.... what happened to the brighter ones who saw past the sham? Why did they not rise up and expose the lies of religion?
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  compound complex

  What happens to those who see through the ruse? How do the "Powers That Be"
  silence them to keep from contaminating the rest of the group with atheist ideas?
  Do you think these people just simply walk away from the churches and never talk
  about it?

  Are we, who are loosely joined in protest against the "Powers That Be," a phenomenon peculiar to our time? There are so many factors and variables to consider. I realize that protest is not unique to our generation; however, I sense an empowerment that derives from our unique ability to access information and, where applicable, respond with our mind, heart and feet. Of course, there are trade-offs and the resultant "price to pay."

  What I do know absolutely is that correct information - as opposed to putative truth - has put me here at JWN since having removed myself from all that is ben trovato.

  Muchas gracias,

  CoCo
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  cameo-d

  Baba Yaga: Monsanto has very little to do with botany... and more to do with the summoning of uber evils, as I understand it.

  Brother Luther Burbank thought rather highly of himself.

  For some reason he concluded that he was pretty much on equal footing with god. He claimed to be a co-creator with god. He also said that he was providing a New Earth for the birds with his genetic aberrations creations. Burbank is perhaps best known for his Burbank Russett potato. This is the one used for french fries in all the fast food restaurants today. It is also used for making potato chips. It has a higher sugar content than other potatoes. Whatever would we do without these potatoes? Look what Monsanto has done to continue the genetic engineering of Mr. Burbank's Russett potato.

  Secret Monsanto Genetically Engineered Potato Study Suppressed for 8 Years

  • Press Release
    GM Potatoes are "unfit for human consumption"
    GM Free Cymru, Feb 16, 2007
    Straight to the Source

  A secret feeding study of Monsanto GM potatoes, conducted in 1998 by the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and suppressed for 8 years, showed that the potatoes did considerable damage to the organs of the rats in the study (1) (2). In comparison the rats in the "control groups" which were fed on normal potatoes or on a non-potato diet were healthier, and had much less organ and tissue damage. This research, fully supported by Monsanto through the provision of the GM potatoes, was conducted at approximately the same time as Arpad Pusztai's research in the Rowett Institute.
  
  The potatoes used in the study were Monsanto GM NewLeaf potatoes bred in 1995 from the Russet Burbank variety to be resistant to the Colorado Beetle. excerpt: Playing God in the Garden

  After digging two shallow trenches in my garden and lining them with compost, I untied the purple mesh bag of seed potatoes that Monsanto had sent and opened up the Grower Guide tied around its neck. (Potatoes, you
  may recall from kindergarten experiments, are grown not from seed but from the eyes of other potatoes.) The guide put me in mind not so much of planting potatoes as booting up a new software release. By "opening and
  using this product," the card stated, I was now "licensed" to grow these potatoes, but only for a single generation; the crop I would water and tend and harvest was mine, yet also not mine. That is, the potatoes I will harvest come August are mine to eat or sell, but their genes remain the intellectual property of Monsanto, protected under numerous United States patents, including Nos. 5,196,525, 5,164,316, 5,322,938 and 5,352,605

  Were I to save even one of them to plant next year --something I've routinely done with potatoes in the past -- I would be breaking Federal law. The small print in the Grower Guide also brought the news that my potato plants were themselves a pesticide, registered with the Environmental Protection Agency.
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  cameo-d

  Applying Principles to Humans

  Burbank's work with plants convinced him that the key to good breeding was selection and environment, and he, like so many others of his time, tried to apply his concepts to human society. The product of his thinking on this subject was first published in 1907 as The Training of the Human Plant. Yet despite his vast experience in plant breeding, this book revealed his firm belief in the then-discredited theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics; accordingly, unlike most eugenists of the period, he stressed education and the provision of a good environment generally as the best way to remake human society.