fulltimestudent

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Posts by fulltimestudent

• 
  27

  Why didn't Jehovah know the flood wouldn't work?

  by OverlappingGeneralizations in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this has been something that is bugging me lately-.

  jehovah is all knowing.

  he knows that to do away with evil, he has to do away with satan.

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  fulltimestudent

  DesirousOfChange: How did I really believe all this bullshit?

  A question I also often ask.

  And sadly, its is not just the 'believing' bit, but the way we based our lives on this myth. I can recall my former wife being absolutely terrified that the demons were attacking her through a valuable ring that some relative had given her. I'm sure that many others will recall the years (late 1950s or 1960s) when a certain booklet warned the idiotic (include me in that) witnesses that the demons could even be in the bed you slept on.

  OF course, its not just the witnesses (witlessnes) that are so superstitious. Millions and millions of Americans fervently believe this rubbish.

  I googled Satan and the nephilim - here's just a sample of the idiocy that come up:

  
  

  
  

  Bloodlines of the Nephilim - A Biblical Study | Beginning ...

  beginningandend.com › Aliens/Nephilim
  Aug 26, 2012 - As more God-fearing sons began to populate the Earth, Satan instituted his Nephilim plan into action. By corrupting the seed of the woman, ...

  Satan, "ha-satan," Lucifer, and the Nephilim

  theisticsatanism.com › ... › Biblegod's finitude, henotheism, & the Devil
  Satan, "ha-satan," Lucifer, and the Nephilim. Should the topic of Satan happen to come up in your discussions with Christians, here are some references that ...

  Nephilim, Aliens and Satan's angels have a common ...

  www.thepropheticyears.com/.../nephilim-aliens-and-satans-angels-have-a...
  Dec 1, 2009 - Nephilim, Aliens and Satan's angels have a common connection in end time prophetic events. Expect what happen in the days of Noah to ...

  My Theory of the Nephilim - Stargods

  www.stargods.org/MyTheory.html
  Now satan orders his fallen angels to come down to earth to mate with the women. This was ... When the flood came the Nephilim giants were killed off the earth.

  Nephilim Among Us Today: Satan's Throne Is Ready--Obama

  beforeitsnews.com/.../nephilim-among-us-today-satans-throne-is-ready-o...
  Mar 23, 2014 - Nephilim Among Us Today: Satan's Throne Is Ready–Obama, Freemasons, Secret Luciferian Architecture, and the Coming Satanic Empire!

  Could The Anti Christ Be A Nephilim, fathered by a Fallen ...

  www.fallenangels-ckquarterman.com/could-the-anti-christ-be-a-nephilim...
  I think the Anti Christ will be a Nephilim an angel-human hybrid. And whereas ... Satanwill indeed have sex with a human woman and have a child. This was ...

  The Difference between Aliens, Demons and Fallen Angels

  www.thewatcherfiles.com/sherry/who-is-what.html
  Most people are familiar with the rebellion of Satan wanting to be like God and wanting to be worshipped as .... The antichrist will be Satan's seed--a Nephilim.

  Who Rules The World? - Part 3 - Rense

  www.rense.com/general86/whorules3.htm
  Although the Bible introduces Lucifer as Satan when he seduces Eve in the Garden .....Only Satan himself, his embodied `Nephilim`[12], the Watchers and their ...

  The Nephilim - Praesidium of Warriors of St. Michael

  pwsm-ri.org/Demonology/The-Nephilim.html
  Fr. Jack Ashcraft in his booklet: “Fallen Angels And Nephilim” includes this. “For of the ... Lucifer/Satan was over all the fallen angels and was extremely powerful.

  ---

  Searches related to satan and the nephilim

  
  

  
  
  
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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

  styng: Do you think you could provide me with more info about what happened, including the program of the second day as I would be really interested to hear more.

  OK- here goes!

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

  Friday 27 November

  10.00-10.30 LYNDON ARDEN-WONG (Macquarie University)

  Manichaean architecture and the Eastern Uighur

  Khaganate

  Chair: Gunner Mikkelsen

  Lyndon is interested in the archaeology of the Steppe people and in this paper looked at certain sites and what we can learn from the remains of certain sites that he has been visiting and has worked on. These remains tell us who may have been the main influences via the architectural details that have been found. To generalise, I think that the influences may have been mixed. As you would expect, the further east you go, the more likely to find Chinese influence and so on.

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

  10.30-11.15 ROSS BURNS (Macquarie University)

  The Lost Monuments of Syria—The path of destruction

  at Palmyra and Aleppo

  Chair: Peter Edwell

  I intend to post later on Professor Burn's talk.

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

  11.15-12.00 BRONWEN NEIL (Australian Catholic University)

  Studying dream interpretation from early Christianity to

  early Islam

  Chair: Paul McKechnie.

  Bronwen spoke about the use of dream manuals which offered some common definitions to explain dreams and their use in both early Christianity and early Islam. and later medieval dream literature. Interesting topic from the viewpoint that the dreams/visions of certain people are still considered by some to be authorative.

  
  

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

  12.00-13.00 Lunch

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

  13.00-14.00 ROGER SCOTT (University of Melbourne)

  Malalas and Justinian’s New Age

  Chair: Danijel Dzino

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

  14.00-15.00 JANE CHAPMAN (University of Lincoln)

  Continuities in Anzac tradition from Gallipoli to 1931:

  the ‘Aussie’

  Chair: Martina Möllering

  Jane Chapman's contribution can hardly be called Ancient History. But one of Sam Lieu's interests was the archaeology of Gallipoli and the failed invasion of what is now Turkey by Allied forces during WW1. Jane discussed the war-time (and post-war) influence of so-called 'trench' newspapers. These often had what you could call a 'morale' building function during the war.

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

  15.00 Concluding words

  MARTINA MÖLLERING, FOA Executive Dean

  MALCOLM CHOAT, ACRC Director

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

  Jane Chapman's contribution can hardly be called Ancient History. But one of Sam Lieu's interests was the archaeology of Gallipoli and the failed invasion of what is now Turkey by Allied forces during WW1. Jane discussed the war-time (and post-war) influence of so-called 'trench' newspapers. These often had what you could call a 'morale' building function during the war.

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

  Half banana: FTS, enjoy your conference. Hearing the serious thinkers in the field of late classical knowledge is a joy. I heard a lecture last week from the academic Karen Armstrong, (she is extremely well informed and assiduous in presenting an accurate picture but still, I believe, leans towards a deist interpretation).

  Thnx for your good wishes! Many of the academics that I have come to know reasonably well, are believers. But their beliefs may not conform to orthodoxy.

  Perhaps there are more books about YHWH/Jesus than any other topic, but (aside from the true believers) there are many,many differing views about the development of belief in this deity.

  HB: I agree heartily on the matter of JW mistrust of proper disinterested scholars, they are the ones at the coal-face of reality not "Bible scholars" who have only one object in mind.

  I wasn't thinking only of Jws. Perhaps most 'true believers' distrust scholarship, and will accept biblical statements as 'truth' as evidence of their 'faith.'

  HB: To understand the true birth of christianity demands a knowledge of contemporary life and thought which involves knowledge of the many sects and pagan beliefs. Manicheanism was an important ingredient as was the big cover-up you mentioned once Roman Christianity had gained ascendancy.

  I agree.

  HB: Have you early textual references for this ?

  I suggest to you that its a matter of the starting point and the evidence for that starting point.

  If you see Judaism, the context for early Christianity as a unified, structured, coherent organisation (like a modern church organisation) - then you will likely also believe that early Christianity was a similar highly structured and organised social group.

  But were they? More, were the predecessors of the Judaism of early Christianity, also coherent organisations? Did everybody that lived in first temple Israel believe the same things?

  Did the peasant farmers have the same beliefs as the elites? Did the political elite (Military and its organisation and the King and his court administration) have the same beliefs as the religious elite (the priests who may have been factionalised) at lest on occasion?

  During the so-called Babylonian captivity, did the peasants etc, that stayed behind have the same beliefs as the elites who were taken to Babylon?

  We find some evidence that during the exile, the Jews absorbed some Zoroastrian beliefs like 'dualism' and that likely the Jews who remained behind in Babylon and never returned to second temple Judaism (in Jerusalem) moved on a somewhat different doctrinal trajectory to those who did return.

  If you start to question some of the 'accepted' views of the development of second temple Judaism, you may easily understand why Josephus could argue for three somewhat different (but related) religious groups (doctrinally) in saying that they were the Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes. A close reading of the translated Dead Sea Scrolls indicates quite distinct differences when compared to the Pharisees, who were distinct again from the Sadducees. Were there still other groups? We dont know for sure, but can suspect that there were. It's often that Jews in Jesus time were expecting the Messiah. Who were these people? Were they organised? Were did they live? Did they talk to each other? If so, how? Did they meet in little groups? Were they connected in some way, outside of a shared belief?

  And in regard to these Messiah expectant Jews, did they all accept Jesus as the Messiah? What about those who had heard about the Messiah figure described in the Books of Enoch? And how did all these interact with the Essenes and any other group?

  Similarly, what about the early Christians? The WTS pictures them as a united organisation, but they may not have been so united, but rather existed as distinct groups but sharing a common (but not neccesarily identical) belief in Jesus. We can trace differences between Paul's group and James' group. How distinctly were they organised? Some scholars suggest that the people addressed in the John letters were another distinct group. Since the various books of the NT were not united into one canon for a few hundred years, there is really little evidence that all these groups of believers in Jesus shared more than a common belief in Jesus.

  Why not start somewhere there and using google scholar ( a search engine that focuses on scholarly research, see what you can find. If you live near a university you may be able to access the library for a fee. (Sydney uni charges $40 for 6 months). You are likely able to download for free many scholarly essays on topics of interest.

  Hoping that helps you on your way.
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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

  Hi styng, nice to meet a fellow xjw that studied at macquarie.

  I think this function started as a staff thingie (I'm not staff - but got an invite because I'm sort of a barnacle on the place). I wanted to advertise it on my Asian history FB page, but was asked not to, because they could not accommodate more than 50.

  As for the friday program, I shall post tomorrow, as I feel mentally buggered today - after spending the day helping a friend write a sort of academic resume.

  Thnx for making yourself known.
• 
  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.
• 
  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/
  
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  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