fulltimestudent

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Posts by fulltimestudent

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  13

  An intellectual feast - A Conference in honour of Prof Samuel N.C.Lieu on his Retirement-Don't read if you don't like ideas

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been invited to attend this conference (limited attendance) and consider it an exciting privilege.

  maybe for many it would be too boring, as a poster said on one of my threads, (my paraphrase) " who cares about the past?".

  but, if i started my adult life as a brainwashed slave to yhwh/jesus (and, don't give me any shit about jw's ignoring jesus), i am finishing it as a (somewhat-grin) enlightened man who just may have some understanding of the development of world thought.

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  fulltimestudent

  First day over. An interesting day, scholars from all over the world. Among the more interesting to me, were Nicholas Sims-Williams from SOAS and Cambridge Universities and his wife ,who is from the British Library, and Enrico Morano, you'll some idea of his academic interests from this page:

  https://independent.academia.edu/EnricoMorano
  

  --------------------

  Actually Sam Lieu is not fully retiring, he's retiring (?) from his position at Macquarie and moving onto Cambridge to be involved in pure research, mainly because his wife, Judith, is already at Cambridge.

  Some people in academia think Judith Lieu is the greatest contemporary New Testament scholar in the world. (Sorry about that Fred).

  And that's what fascinates me - the Jws and other (lower case) Christians, tend to denigrate scholarship. Why? mainly because it often shatters their dreamworld. I don't really object if someone wants to live in a dream world (of any sort), that's why I really don't join much in the hate jws sort of posts, but after my taste of a dreamworld that I thought represented spiritual REALITY, I prefer to be more questioning about what is reality.

  Historians spend their lives attempting to discover what really happened in past (and contemporary) events.

  Many discussions yesterday centred around the reconstruction of document fragments that have been treated badly by time and human agency.

  Without the life efforts of guys like Sam Lieu, we would know little about the branch of Christianity that's called Manicheanism. That's because the victorious branch in the early struggles set out to destroy the documents of the groups that they defeated.

  The people at the conference attempt to bring that censored knowledge back to life.
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  68

  So ... Russia and Nato at war? Should we be worried?

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  it seems unbelievable but turkey (a nato member state) shooting down a russian jet fighter on their syrian border seems to be "meh" news and no one is too bothered about it too much.. the world seems a bit upside down right now.

  i don't think a lot of countries really know who the hell they are fighting and who is and isn't on their side in it all and really what is going on.. smaller incidents than this have led to major conflicts in the past but hopefully calm heads will prevail.

  china shot down a us spy plane years ago and the world survived and forgot about it so things will move on i'm sure.. i'm guessing the price turkey pays for their gas supply from russia will be going up soon though.. man, that republican primary is sucking all the news attention from the room.

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  fulltimestudent

  1.Likely, behind this act of war (?), is Turkish opposition to Kurdish Independence and Russian support for at least some Kurds. The possible winners from this mess will be the Kurds with an independent nation, putting pressure on Turkey to cede its ethnic Kurdish areas to the new Kurdish nation.

  2. Its doubtful that there will be any serious consequences (yet!) but note the next Russian move. From today's Asian Times:

  "Russia will deploy the powerful S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile defense system to its base in Latakia, Syria, as part of its response to Turkey shooting down one its Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer bombers.Russia S-400 surface-to-air-missiles
  Meanwhile, Russia is also moving the missile cruiser Moskva, which is armed with a naval version of the much-feared S-300 missile system called the Fort(Rif-M)­—to the Syrian coast near the Turkish border.

  Additionally, the Russian defense ministry has stated that, henceforth, all Russian strike aircraft will be escorted by fighters—which likely means additional Sukhoi Su-30SM Flankers could be deployed to the region."

  Next time a Russian plane is hit, the hitman will take a serious hit in return.

  (Sorry, cant straighten out the formatting in the quotation.)
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  13

  An intellectual feast - A Conference in honour of Prof Samuel N.C.Lieu on his Retirement-Don't read if you don't like ideas

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been invited to attend this conference (limited attendance) and consider it an exciting privilege.

  maybe for many it would be too boring, as a poster said on one of my threads, (my paraphrase) " who cares about the past?".

  but, if i started my adult life as a brainwashed slave to yhwh/jesus (and, don't give me any shit about jw's ignoring jesus), i am finishing it as a (somewhat-grin) enlightened man who just may have some understanding of the development of world thought.

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  fulltimestudent

  Another Manichean research project that Sam Lieu has worked on is a collection of all

  sources that touch on Mani and his missionary religion. This compilation makes a study

  of this formerly little known Christian religion much easier.

  Reference: https://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/department_of_ancient_history/resources/corpus_fontium_manichaeorum/
  
  

  Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum

  

  A Project within the Ancient History Documentary Research Centre
  at Macquarie University in Australia

  Directed by
  Prof. A. van Tongerloo (KU Leuven)
  Prof. Sam Lieu FAHA (Macquarie, Sydney)
  Prof. J. Van Oort (Utrecht and Nijmegen)

  The Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum (Corpus of sources of the Manichaeans) Project is a major international research and publication project sponsored by UNESCO under the aegis of the Integrated Study of the Silk Road. It is a project of the Union of International Academies (Union Académique Internationale UAI) and its sponsoring academy is the Australian Academy of the Humanities. It is also co-sponsored by the British Academy (1990-) and has received major funding from the Australian Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) and the Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation for International Academic Exchange (Taiwan, ROC) as well as minor funding from the Royal Swedish Academy of History and Letters (1990-91), the Leverhulme Trust (UK, 1990-93), Society of Antiquaries (UK, 1990-94) and the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust (UK, 1990-91) in addition to grants from research foundations in Germany and Denmark. The Corpus is published by Brepols of Turnhout (Belgium). The project is also one of the main avenues of publication for the International Association of Manichaean Studies (IAMS).

  The religion of Mani (c. 216-c.276 CE) was a missionary religion par excellence. Manichaean texts have been found in Egypt in Coptic, Greek and Syriac, and in N. Africa in Latin and in sites along the Ancient Silk Road in Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Bactrian, Tocharian B, Chinese and Uighur (Old Turkish) as well as in substantial citations in a wide range of Arabic writings. The project aims to publish not only genuine Manichaean texts but also principal witnesses of the religion from Islamic and Christian (Patristic) sources and the voluminous writings of Saint Augustine on the religion of which he was a member for nine years will form a substantial part of the series. Each volume of the text-series contains introduction, critical text, translation (in English, French or German), commentary and extensive word indices. The Series Subsidia produces research tools such as bibliographies and the multi-volume Dictionary of Manichaean Texts. The Series Archaeologica focuses on the artistic and archaeological remains of the sect now in museums and in situ at archaeological sites.

  For more information on Manichaeism consult:
  http://www.uni-muenster.de/Philologie/Iaek/mani.html

  Project History

  The project began originally as the Database of Manichaean Texts and Dictionary of Manichaean Terms and Concepts at Warwick University, (UK). It was recipient three consecutive Major Research Grants from the British Academy and an unprecedented fourth renewal under the aegis of the Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum. With the appointment of Professor Sam Lieu to the Chair of Ancient History at Macquarie a substantial part of the project moved base to Sydney, Australia. The Institute of Classical Studies in the University of London participated in completing the work on Volume One of the Dictionary of Manichaean Texts and the project now has a U.K. base at the School of Oriental and African Studies but the research office is at the research library of the Ancient India and Iran Trust at Cambridge. The project is administered from Leuven but the research is devolved and Sydney (Manichaean Documentation Centre, Macquarie University), Cambridge (Ancient India and Iran Trust), Münster (Germany) and Aarhus. The administrative HQ for the project is at KU Leuven but the Research Archive of the project is kept and maintained at the Manichaean Documentation Centre which is part of the Ancient History Documentary Research Centre at Macquarie University. The Centre has facilities for Visiting Fellows and doctoral candidates from other institutions to consult this major collection.

  https://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/department_of_ancient_history/resources/corpus_fontium_manichaeorum/
  
• 
  13

  An intellectual feast - A Conference in honour of Prof Samuel N.C.Lieu on his Retirement-Don't read if you don't like ideas

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been invited to attend this conference (limited attendance) and consider it an exciting privilege.

  maybe for many it would be too boring, as a poster said on one of my threads, (my paraphrase) " who cares about the past?".

  but, if i started my adult life as a brainwashed slave to yhwh/jesus (and, don't give me any shit about jw's ignoring jesus), i am finishing it as a (somewhat-grin) enlightened man who just may have some understanding of the development of world thought.

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  fulltimestudent

  Of course, Lieu's studies have included much more. Here's his University bio page.

  https://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/department_of_ancient_history/staff/professor_samuel_lieu/
  
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  13

  An intellectual feast - A Conference in honour of Prof Samuel N.C.Lieu on his Retirement-Don't read if you don't like ideas

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been invited to attend this conference (limited attendance) and consider it an exciting privilege.

  maybe for many it would be too boring, as a poster said on one of my threads, (my paraphrase) " who cares about the past?".

  but, if i started my adult life as a brainwashed slave to yhwh/jesus (and, don't give me any shit about jw's ignoring jesus), i am finishing it as a (somewhat-grin) enlightened man who just may have some understanding of the development of world thought.

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  fulltimestudent

  Its quite amazing to understand the energy that Mani (the founder) must have put into his mission. He covered far more ground than Paul did and likely achieved greater results. This is how the Quanzhou temple portrays him:

  
  

  If you've never heard of Mani, this is a brief history:

  Prophet Mani
  Born	216 CE Ctesiphon, Parthian Babylonia[1](modern-day Iraq)
  Died	2 March 274 AD[2] Gundeshapur, Sassanid Empire(modern-day Iran)
  Ethnicity	Iranian
  Known for	Founder of Manichaeism
  Religion	Born to Elcesaites Later founded Manichaeism
  Parent(s)	Pātik and Mariam

  And this is an image of Mani presenting a painting to King Bahram - unfortunately its a 16 C CE painting so unlikely to be accurate.

  
  
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  13

  An intellectual feast - A Conference in honour of Prof Samuel N.C.Lieu on his Retirement-Don't read if you don't like ideas

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been invited to attend this conference (limited attendance) and consider it an exciting privilege.

  maybe for many it would be too boring, as a poster said on one of my threads, (my paraphrase) " who cares about the past?".

  but, if i started my adult life as a brainwashed slave to yhwh/jesus (and, don't give me any shit about jw's ignoring jesus), i am finishing it as a (somewhat-grin) enlightened man who just may have some understanding of the development of world thought.

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  fulltimestudent

  If you wanted to know something about the early alternative version of Jewish Christianity that is now called

  Manicheanism, you could consult Lieu's book - Manichaeism in Central Asia and China.

  https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Yl2DteLY8jcC&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=Professor+Samuel+N.C.Lieu&source=bl&ots=wddSmUQJDO&sig=QLI9TdqgZveo8XI0aVhsTrlSAos&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwit0K2lxKrJAhXF46YKHWpvCmsQ6AEIRjAJ#v=onepage&q=Professor%20Samuel%20N.C.Lieu&f=false
  

  I've posted info previously about this last temple (being used as a Buddhist temple) in Quanzhou, Fujian province.

  

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao%27an
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  13

  An intellectual feast - A Conference in honour of Prof Samuel N.C.Lieu on his Retirement-Don't read if you don't like ideas

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been invited to attend this conference (limited attendance) and consider it an exciting privilege.

  maybe for many it would be too boring, as a poster said on one of my threads, (my paraphrase) " who cares about the past?".

  but, if i started my adult life as a brainwashed slave to yhwh/jesus (and, don't give me any shit about jw's ignoring jesus), i am finishing it as a (somewhat-grin) enlightened man who just may have some understanding of the development of world thought.

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  fulltimestudent

  I've been invited to attend this conference (limited attendance) and consider it an exciting privilege. Maybe for many it would be too boring, as a poster said on one of my threads, (my paraphrase) " Who cares about the past?"

  But, if I started my adult life as a brainwashed slave to YHWH/Jesus (and, don't give me any shit about Jw's ignoring Jesus), I am finishing it as a (somewhat-grin) enlightened man who just may have some understanding of the development of world thought

  For eight years, (thanks to the generous Australia government scheme that allows me to do this) I've been wandering through Asia with the help of two universities, the home (if you count Greece and Egypt as border zones). I've criss-crossed Asia, east to west, north to south and past to present. I have at least some knowledge of major religious and political developments and know where to go for more detailed information. (I will make clear at this point that I have not studied Islamic history and thought - it just turned me off.)

  Macquarie was not my first choice university, but it turned out to be probably the best choice. When I first entertained the idea of studying for a degree, I was torn between learning about my past, in studying the origins of Judeao-Christianity or East Asia. In practise I found I was able to study both areas (with a little manipulation of the courses). One of the reasons for that was the presence of Sam Lieu at Macquarie, he didn't do a lot of teaching these past few years, but his research, particularly in the field of Manichean studies, and the early Asian churches has had great influence on the University courses.

  Maybe the program will give you an insight:

  Thursday: EURASIA ❂ SILK ROAD ❂ BYZANTIUM

  A Conference in Honour of Prof. Samuel N.C. Lieu on His Retirement - Ancient History Documentary Research Centre

  Macquarie University, Sydney - 26–27 November 2015

  ✮ Program ✮

  Thursday 26 November

  10.00-10.15 Welcome - GUNNER MIKKELSEN - IAN PLANT, HOD Ancient History

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  10.15-11.15 HYUN JIN KIM (University of Melbourne)

  Ethnic identity and the ‘Barbarian’ in ancient Eurasia: Classical Greece and early China

  Chair: Paul McKechnie

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  11.15-12.15 NICHOLAS SIMS-WILLIAMS (SOAS, London)-

  The Bactrian archives: Reconstructing the lost history of Ancient Afghanistan

  Chair: Ken Sheedy

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  12.15-13.15 Lunch

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  13.15-14.15 ENRICO MORANO (Turin & Berlin), ACRC Visiting Research Fellow

  Some remarks on the corpus of the Berlin Manichaean Sogdian texts in Manichaean script: among books, glossaries, letters, booklets, bilingual and trilingual texts, normal, bold and cursive script

  Chair: Javier Alvarez-Mon

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  14.15-15.00 URSULA SIMS-WILLIAMS (British Library)

  Manuscripts from the Southern Silk Road

  Chair: Peter Edwell

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• 
  4

  Living with Islam - in the small Australian city of Bendigo

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the wife of my friend (the one i call gayxjw) had ancestors from there.. back in the 19th century a lot of people came from all over the world to look for gold.

  among them there were many chinese.

  they were often very organised, bringing baby pigs on the ships from china, seeds and seedlings for gardens they planned to start, etc.

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  fulltimestudent

  Bendigo seems an unlikely place to learn a lesson of tolerance. But maybe its not. The wife of my friend (the one I call GAYXJW) had ancestors from there.

  Back in the 19th century a lot of people came from all over the world to look for gold. Among them there were many Chinese. They were often very organised, bringing baby pigs on the ships from China, seeds and seedlings for gardens they planned to start, etc. They were organised in the way they went about looking for gold too. That was all in great contrast to European and American gold seekers, whom brought little with them and expected to find big nuggets of gold. The Chinese dug the ground over carefully, and I think, likely found all the gold that could be found. This aroused great jealousy and hatred and often led to riots .

  

  But back to the story of my friend's ancestors-in-law.

  One of the Chinese gold seekers in the Wangaratta area of Victoria, did strike it rich (so to speak) and decided to stay in Australia. He bought a small pub in a town called Bright,

  
  

  some of his descendants still live there. He looked around for a wife, and found a half-Chinese girl in the nearby town of Bendigo. From that union came a family that produced at least one soldier who fought in WW1, and another who fought in WW2 and was a POW of the Germans after being captured in Crete. So perhaps Bendigo, already had some tolerance toward those who could be called 'outsiders.'

  The one who was captured by the Germans on Crete, became an atheist. Working in burial details, they had to look for identification and he noted that usually these dead soldiers all had worn photo's of family loved ones that they would never see again, thinking about it, he concluded that there was no god. But he did later became a JW, (quite a few Jws were once atheists- curious isn't it?) and was on the circuit work for some years.

  I've gone to some detail to set a scene. At a time, when Australia became hostile to Chinese, and the start of what was called the "White Australia Policy," some were prepared to try another way. (Btw, from piks my friend has shown me, most of the family lost their Chinese looks).

  Bendigo is again in the news, with perhaps a lesson in how to overcome intolerance.

  This is quite a long TV show (about 45 minutes) but you may learn something from it:

  Its from the Australian ABC. (Owned by the Australian government). It maybe only available for a few weeks, so apologies if later it cant be viewed.

  http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/australian-story/NC1556Q043S00
  
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  3

  Merry Armageddon

  by Watchtower-Free in

  1. social
  2. humour

  .

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/excult.

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  fulltimestudent

  Dont forget the one who carries out (obediently) teh execution:

  Quote: (From Revelation 19)

  The Heavenly Warrior Defeats the Beast
  11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
  king of kings and lord of lords.
  17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”

  
  

  Does Jesus exult as he slaughters, saying, "take that you!!!." as he slashes a baby in half?

  Does he laugh and grin at the fun he's having as he drools saliva, while he's wielding his mighty sword?

  
  

  Or, ar'nt we supposed to think about that?

  

  Remember what the song we used to sing said:

  "Kiss his arse, lest he be angry and you perish in the way."
• 

  The European tolerance of milk was inherited from Russian herders moving west from the Steppes.

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  dr bastien llamas, from the australian centre for ancient dna at the university of adelaide, has been studying the dna of peoples who are tolerant to milk as adults.. he argues that the dna from 230 eurasians who lived between 6500 bc and 300 bc, showed that russian herders from the great steppes, brought the enzymes for lactose tolerance into europe.. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-24/europeans-drink-milk-tolerate-lactose-dates/6955414.

• 

  fulltimestudent

  Dr Bastien Llamas, from the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, has been studying the DNA of peoples who are tolerant to milk as adults.

  He argues that the DNA from 230 Eurasians who lived between 6500 BC and 300 BC, showed that Russian herders from the Great Steppes, brought the enzymes for lactose tolerance into Europe.

  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-24/europeans-drink-milk-tolerate-lactose-dates/6955414