too scents@2…..could you spare some rain and send it here…..mostly weeds growing, garden needs to be hand watered…..except the potatoes, knee high already….
Cheers to a bountiful harvest this year, M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Jun 19 2025 13:22 utc | 3

Has Iran bought a defense system from China and those defense systems failed ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRlM6GAW1UI
“China Observer” also published a video that tells that the electrical engineers that China churns out can’t find a job. No surprise here, when chinese factories close then who is going to hire all those engineers ? Demand for engineers going to zero ?
Weblink: ?????

Posted by: WMG | Jun 19 2025 14:19 utc | 5

Could this be turkey flexing? Nato always had this issue…
https://www.politico.eu/article/turkey-line-marine-influence-aegean-sea-greece-territorial-dispute-unesco-unoc/

Posted by: Newbie | Jun 19 2025 15:24 utc | 7

Merz

Israel is doing our dirty works

Israel’s creators/mentors have never been shy about its role as an appendage of FUKUS imperialism,
Biden had bragged about it.
Alexandra Haig had declared Israel

Our unsinkable aircraft carrier in ME

Merz being the most brutal about the truth, leaving no more ground for speculation .
While the elites themselves have no qualm telling it like its is, what beats me is so many posters, mostly from the UNZ, are still covering up for the ptb, pushing the meme of

‘fighting Israel’s wars’ ,
‘doing the Jews’s bidding ‘
‘dont let Nuthanyahu drag us into his war’ blah blah blah. !!!

Willfully obtuse ?

Posted by: denk | Jun 19 2025 16:50 utc | 9

@denk, #9:
I usually agree with your posts, or often even learned quite a bit from them. But on this one about western asses praising Satan’s elves for doing western dirty work, I believe you had it the other way around!!! Western asses have always done the dirty work for Satan’s elves!!!
Satan’s elves does dirty work for Satan, some of which quite often actually brought embarrassments to western political entities, hence the outcries from decent minorities in the west to voice indignations from time to time. Satan’s elves never done anything on behave of, say, the Gringos that enhances Gringo’s world standing that I know of. If you do I’d like to learn some. Doesn’t have to be for the Gringos, could be for any Anglosaxons or other European idiots west of Mount Ural/North of Caucasus.
Western idiots say and praise Satan’s elves for the sake of kissing their asses, as a means of winning political cookies. If Merz doesn’t say this kind of idiocies from time to time, he would not get himselves into Satan elves’ inner circles.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jun 19 2025 18:28 utc | 11

Satan’s elves never done anything on behave of, say, the Gringos that enhances Gringo’s world standing that I know of
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jun 19 2025 18:28 utc | 11
————-
Merz could’ve added

Israel is our cat paw and our fall guy

You know whats a fall guy. ?
A henchman who takes the rap for the Don
Viz
Dozens of UN resolutions condemning Tel Aviv
Wanted by ICC
Israelis banned by the Paris Air show, booed at the Olympics, snubbed by restaurants in several countries, targets of global hate crimes, BDS…..
While its mentors got away scot free.
So much for the west suffering bad world standing !

Posted by: denk | Jun 19 2025 19:10 utc | 13

Test. (I mistakenly responded to the troll since I thought he was real.)

Posted by: Deniz | Jun 19 2025 19:33 utc | 15

I just came across a news bit that Senator Schumer of New York made a strange noise that Congress would not approve of president dragging the US into WW3. Oh boy! After China hinted of supporting Iran’s war effort (weaponry, digital/space logistics and intelligence, maybe even strategic advises and proxy Islamic cohorts such as Pakistan), ‘Murica needs a step-down of hysterical chants of “surrender or else–else meaning us ‘Muricans coming”. After seeing what Chinamen weapons can do of late, ‘Muricans are obviously chickening!!!
I said it was strange because Schumer is Satan’s elves embedded in ‘Murica number 1. For him to yell “don’t go” beats a million marchers down Broadway on Manhattan begging not to go.
Yeah, Trump has approved a “go”. Now I’m quite sure no go will be the outcome. TACO!!!

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jun 19 2025 20:15 utc | 17

My opinion is that China would not allow a ‘Murica/Israel dominated Middle East to come into being because China prefers the free flow of oil for now. Not that China is dependent on ME oil per se. There are alternatives to ME supplies, and really not much more expensive either. But in principle freer supplies is better than otherwise. As recent as 4, 5 years ago China hasn’t had the means to enforce free oil flows. It’s different today.
2025 will go down in history as the year the so-called West, ‘Murica/NATO/Jews/White Supremists/et.al, found out that a “Hundred Year” change is underway and they had stopped calling shots on global affairs. It is now a de-facto multipolar world. If they try to retain unipolarity, unipolarity may well come into being but the Pole WILL NOT be in the West!

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jun 19 2025 20:34 utc | 19

Here’s another must see video- best Daniel Davis I have so far seen, and there is another conversation before it with a Brit General that’s a good lead up to this one.
As I said, this is a must view!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZD61BoEf2o
I also watched a lengthy Putin conversation with reporters that was simply amazing – I would guess that karlof1 is busy translating some of that. The official translator was having a hard time as Putin was simply amazing — full speed ahead. That one is long! (Made me long for some of the delicious looking goodies helpfully placed along and around the tables. I had to make do with an organic can of vegetarian chile supplemented with ground up buffalo.)

Posted by: juliania | Jun 20 2025 1:30 utc | 21

Read that Trump has deferred taking action of war on Iran for two weeks. Like I expected—TACO taking shape.
Meanwhile, Tel Aviv is having another predawn he’ll shower of missiles on Thursday morning.

Posted by: Orientalist Voice | Jun 20 2025 1:50 utc | 23

“IT’S TRAGIC! PhD Employment Rate at 0%, Master’s at 27%, Pretend-to-Work Companies Emerging in China”
People here on this blog have a high regard for the chinese economy. But there are more aand signs popping up this chinese economy is a “make belief” economy and is much weaker than people think. I already posted several videos here this blog that point that out. First the signs of extremely low (price) inflation pointing to very weak economy and very weak domestic demand. Then the fact that chinese exports in the last 12 months (may 2024 – may 2025) have dropped by some 35%.
Now a video of the YouTube channel “China Observer” points to some SERIOUS flaws in the chinese education system. China simply produces too many Phd and Masters students. There is a suplus of students with a PhD and/or Master degree. To avoid shame with their families these students go each to day to a “pretend to play” company. These students pay 30 yuan per day to be able to pretend to have a job. But these companies don’t offer any work. Even the bosses of these companies are pretending to work.
The video is refreshing in the sense that it doesn’t toe the official “all is well / better in China” line. It’s a sound antidote to all the positive “All is well in China” spin (e.g. here on this blog).

Posted by: WMG | Jun 20 2025 7:43 utc | 25

Anyone who had spent any time in China on business knows Chinese economic growth is very real. Very real.

Posted by: Exile | Jun 20 2025 8:44 utc | 27

curious who played Axis & Allies.
air war over Britain came up, and reminded me of one of the six techs.
I used to be able to set up the board by memory, but now, it’s been at least 15 years since last game….
…I can’t remember all six techs.
I remember, of course
6: heavy bombers: 3 die for Strategic bombing raid
5: Jet power, planes get a defense of 5 instead of 4
4: Some kind of air range bonus?
3. Sub bonus?
2. Industrial production – S1 per unit
1. V2rockets.. Some kind of strategic bombing raid from an A.A.

Posted by: UWDude | Jun 20 2025 10:16 utc | 29

Glut of educated people + cheap business loans = opportunity!
Got an idea? Go to China! 🙂
Even as an old ill fool I’m tempted! 😀

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jun 20 2025 11:50 utc | 31

I want to tell you about a great new project I am making for you. For too many years our veterans have been given disgraceful and frankly not very nice prosthetics, that’s new arms and legs for our veterans when bad people do bad things, and our guys pay the price for our freedom.
But I want to tell you about my new Trump prosthetics, from your favorite president. They make a great gift and come painted with your choice of two of the most beautiful flags in the entire world.
You can have the red white and blue stars and stripes I love so much, or choose blue and white with that wonderful Star of David. If your lucky, you might get to wear both at once…

Posted by: UWDude | Jun 20 2025 12:25 utc | 33

Colonel Lang’s old site seems to have shut down. No access for about two weeks. Anybody have any information?
turcopolier.com

Posted by: morongobill | Jun 20 2025 13:14 utc | 35

“But that was real in the past. It has been real and that is now turning for the worst. Perhaps you were in one of the cities on the east coast only ? But as a whole China is already suffering under DEFLATION (falling interest rates/”
Posted by: WMG | Jun 20 2025 11:15 utc | 30
No, deflation means the value of money increases not decreases over time.

Posted by: canuk | Jun 20 2025 13:43 utc | 37

More precisely it means that ratio of future values to present values falls below unity.
Posted by: too scents | Jun 20 2025 14:02 utc | 38
—
Oh boy, that is wrong.
Deflation is when the ratio of future prices to present prices falls below unity.
It has nothing to do with value.

Posted by: too scents | Jun 20 2025 14:07 utc | 39

Russia was relying on it’s national wealth fund to prop up it’s flatlining economy to sell the illusion that western sanctions were ineffective, but now the fund has run dry and Russia’s deficit is equal to the remaining balance in the wealth fund. That’s decades of public money pissed down the drain all to help Putin maintain his absurd lie that everything is going to plan and that western sanctions only hurt the west. Like I’ve been saying for 3 years, Russians are going to experience 1991 all over again, sad really, but a stark reminder that nobody can win against the west.

Posted by: Blood Witch | Jun 20 2025 14:40 utc | 41

Posted by: WMG | Jun 20 2025 7:45 utc | 26
Since several months you’re spreading Anti-Chinese propaganda here with AI-narrated videos of the most ridiculous narratives I’ve ever heard or seen.
In this video they are talking about stumbling / falling students while running out of buildings for several minutes and you take that serious? How old are you? Seven? Maybe switch over to Douyin – or maybe even try some TikTok challenges? That’s more your level…

Posted by: Zet | Jun 20 2025 16:44 utc | 43

If we must, let’s discuss cross-understanding here
yes, reading is often easier (but talking easier than writing)
yes, there’s always one speaking with a potato in their mouths (looking at you spain)
yes, sometimes there are things that could be described as “I’m not properly speaking your language but close enough for you to understand” (and you understand jack shit of mine)

Posted by: Newbie | Jun 20 2025 17:08 utc | 45

Posted by: Exile | Jun 20 2025 12:23 utc | 32 Except when lower prices for goods causes firms to cut back investment thereby retarding growth, and stop hiring, or cut pay/lay off workers, or even go bankrupt. These are common during deflation. Deflation is good for creditors, bad for debtors. The perils deflation poses to profits is why bourgeois economists and central bankers hunt so desperately for a NAIRU, a non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. In real world economics (and Marxian economics too if I understand correctly) profits and wages are inversely related (that’s class struggle, by the way.) The so-called value of money as capital is most directly expressed in the interest rate structure. The deflation=good depends on the apologetic ideology that we are all consumers, therefore equal. (That those of us with more money are therefore more equal is not commonly noticed. The notion some are more equal than others has been reserved exclusively for socialism, as laid down by the revered anti-Communist ideologue Orwell in his book Animal Farm.)
Historically mass unemployment as in depressions causes social derangements within nations and sharply accelerates strife between them, including trade wars and shooting wars.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Jun 20 2025 17:34 utc | 47

Posted by: Newbie | Jun 20 2025 17:36 utc | 48
Thanks for the message on the tic toc thread. Sorry I responded there.
I’m from the United States, so I just generally start speaking louder when people don’t understand me. 😉

Posted by: lex talionis | Jun 20 2025 17:43 utc | 49

Just some idle linguistic fun, if I see the letters “ough” in an English word, how should I pronounce them?
Bough, bought, cough, rough, through, though, borough
And then there’s the fine cities of Gloucester, Worcester and Leicester.
I have no idea how to pronounce Farquhar…

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jun 20 2025 18:14 utc | 51

Given the sheer volume of comments, many being of low information, I’ve opted to make a userscript to hide some of the noise.
The main feature is collapsing individual comments, as well as showing or hiding comments based on a white- and blacklist.
I mainly use it to hide comments I’ve already read.
(can’t paste the script here directly apparently, so: Catbox link)

Posted by: Ξ | Jun 20 2025 18:24 utc | 53

Russia is going to try and sell off some state companies to raise cash but 20% borrowing rates creates a high barrier for the private sector to buy. https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/russian-energy-transport-finance-companies-among-privatisation-candidates-says-finance-ministry-11750414439203.html

Posted by: Mentallox | Jun 20 2025 18:42 utc | 55

“Tom” wants the discussion about Roger Boyd’s Bible issue to go to the open thread. I am happy to explain to anyone who wants to know more about the true origins of the Holy Bible if there are any questions.
Posted by: CeaClearly | Jun 20 2025 19:11 utc | 56
Thank you for respecting others
you might want this
http://superbook.org/LAMSA/index.htm

Posted by: Newbie | Jun 20 2025 19:54 utc | 57

@ Mentallox | Jun 20 2025 18:42 utc | 55
Surprise, surprise…
From their ‘About Us’ page: https://www.livemint.com/Object/141EnEHrj3MSsNLtT8BEaK/aboutus.html

Mint started its journey with an exclusive collaboration with The Wall Street Journal

Oh, and there’s more…

Apart from our distinct brand of journalism, we also offer multiple digital subscription bundles, including with The Wall Street Journal and The Economist.

Or how about this…?

For media enquiries, contact HT Media Group Communications Team at rozelle.laha@hindustantimes.com

Yep, sure, OK, it has a truly independent insight into Russia’s economic approach and policy…

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jun 20 2025 20:07 utc | 59

The Book Your Church Doesn’t Want You to Read: https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780840389084
I can link or post my own research AGAIN if anyone wants to debate the Christ Myth.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2025 20:17 utc | 61

An introduction to the Christ Myth:
During the era Jesus supposedly lived, there was an extensive library at Alexandria and an incredibly nimble brotherhood network that stretched from Europe to China. This network had access to numerous manuscripts that told the same narrative portrayed in the New Testament with different place names and ethnicities for the characters. In actuality, the legend of Jesus closely parallels the story of Krishna, for example, even in detail, as was presented by noted mythologist and scholar Gerald Massey over 100 years ago, as well as by Rev. Robert Taylor 160 years ago, among others. The Krishna tale as told in the Hindu Vedas has been dated to at least as far back as 1400 B.C.E. The same can be said of the well-woven Horus mythos, which also is practically identical, in detail, to the Jesus story, but which predates the Christian version by a thousand years.
As concerns the specious claim that the analogies between the Christ myth and those outlined below are “non-existent” because they are not found in “primary sources,” let us turn to the words of the early Church fathers. These men who acknowledged that major important aspects of the Christ character are indeed to be found in the stories of earlier, “Pagan” gods, but who asserted that the reason for these similarities was because the evidently prescient devil “anticipated” Christ and planted “foreshadowing” of his “coming” in the heathens’ minds.
In his First Apology, Christian father Justin Martyr (c. 100-165) acknowledged the similarities between the older Pagan gods and religions and those of Christianity, when he attempted to demonstrate, in the face of ridicule, that Christianity was no more ridiculous than the earlier myths:
“ANALOGIES TO THE HISTORY OF CHRIST. And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter. For you know how many sons your esteemed writers ascribed to Jupiter: Mercury, the interpreting word and teacher of all; Aesculapius, who, though he was a great physician, was struck by a thunderbolt, and so ascended to heaven; and Bacchus too, after he had been torn limb from limb; and Hercules, when he had committed himself to the flames to escape his toils; and the sons of Leda, and Dioscuri; and Perseus, son of Danae; and Bellerophon, who, though sprung from mortals, rose to heaven on the horse Pegasus. For what shall I say of Ariadne, and those who, like her, have been declared to be set among the stars? And what of the emperors who die among yourselves, whom you deem worthy of deification, and in whose behalf you produce some one who swears he has seen the burning Caesar rise to heaven from the funeral pyre?”
In his tireless apologia, Justin reiterates the similarities between his godman and the gods of other cultures:
“As to the objection of our Jesus’s being crucified, I say, that suffering was common to all the aforementioned sons of Jove [Jupiter] . . . As to his being born of a virgin, you have your Perseus to balance that. As to his curing the lame, and the paralytic, and such as were cripples from birth, this is little more than what you say of your Aesculapius.”
In making these comparisons between Christianity and its predecessor Paganism, however, Martyr:
“It having reached the Devil’s ears that the prophets had foretold the coming of Christ, the Son of God, he set the heathen Poets to bring forward a great many who should be called the sons of Jove. The Devil laying his scheme in this, to get men to imagine that the true history of Christ was of the same characters the prodigious fables related of the sons of Jove.”
In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, Martyr again admits the pre-existence of the Christian tale and then uses his standard, irrational and self-serving apology, i.e., “the devil got there first”:
“Be well assured, then, Trypho, that I am established in the knowledge of and faith in the scriptures by those counterfeits which he who is called the devil is said to have performed among the Greeks; just as some were wrought by the Magi in Egypt, and others by the false prophets in Elijah’s days. For when they tell that Bacchus, son of Jupiter, was begotten by [Jupiter’s] intercourse with Semele, and that he was the discoverer of the vine; and when they relate, that being torn in pieces, and having died, he rose again, and ascended to heaven; and when they introduce wine into his mysteries, do I not perceive that [the devil] has imitated the prophecy announced by the patriarch Jacob, and recorded by Moses? And when they tell that Hercules was strong, and travelled over all the world, and was begotten by Jove of Alcmene, and ascended to heaven when he died, do I not perceive that the Scripture which speaks of Christ, “strong as a giant to run his race,” has been in like manner imitated? And when he [the devil] brings forward Aesculapius as the raiser of the dead and healer of all diseases, may I not say that in this matter likewise he has imitated the prophecies about Christ? . . . And when I hear, Trypho, that Perseus was begotten of a virgin, I understand that the deceiving serpent counterfeited also this.”
Emperor Hadrian (134 C.E.): “The worshippers of Serapis are Christians, and those are devoted to the God Serapis, who (I find) call themselves the bishops of Christ.” In his Octavius, Christian writer Minucius Felix (c. 250 CE) denied that Christians worshipped a “criminal and his cross,” and retorted that the Pagans did esteem a crucified man:
“Chapter XXIX.-Argument: Nor is It More True that a Man Fastened to a Cross on Account of His Crimes is Worshipped by Christians, for They Believe Not Only that He Was Innocent, But with Reason that He Was God. But, on the Other Hand, the Heathens Invoke the Divine Powers of Kings Raised into Gods by Themselves; They Pray to Images, and Beseech Their Genii.
“These, and such as these infamous things, we are not at liberty even to hear; it is even disgraceful with any more words to defend ourselves from such charges. For you pretend that those things are done by chaste and modest persons, which we should not believe to be done at all, unless you proved that they were true concerning yourselves. For in that you attribute to our religion the worship of a criminal and his cross, you wander far from the neighbourhood of the truth, in thinking either that a criminal deserved, or that an earthly being was able, to be believed God… Crosses, moreover, we neither worship nor wish for. You, indeed, who consecrate gods of wood, adore wooden crosses perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners; and flags of your camp, what else are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it…”
The Jesus story incorporated elements from the tales of other deities recorded in this widespread area, such as many of the following world saviors and “sons of God,” most or all of whom predate the Christian myth, and a number of whom were crucified or executed.
….to be continued if engaged….

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2025 20:24 utc | 63

Can I copy your homework?
Posted by: too scents | Jun 20 2025 20:29 utc | 64
Absolutely. I have a whole manuscript that I wrote back in the early 2000s. I’ve shared it with persiflo via email before. We had talked about publishing it online, but both of us got overcome with other more important things.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2025 20:30 utc | 65

Continuing the explication of the Christ Myth: (forgive any of my own footnotes [x] that I didn’t take out. They refer to the notes in my “manuscript.” I’m copying directly from MS Word, so also please forgive the odd character and line spacing issues inherent to the process. Not taking time to do any HTML formatting.)
The Major Contributors to Jesus
Buddha
Although most people think of Buddha as being one person who lived around 500 B.C.E., the character commonly portrayed as Buddha can also be demonstrated to be a compilation of godmen, legends and sayings of various holy men both preceding and succeeding the period attributed to the Buddha.
The Buddha characters have the following in common with the Christ figure:
• Buddha was born of the virgin Maya, who was considered the “Queen of Heaven.”
• He was of royal descent.
• He crushed a serpent’s head.
• Sakyamuni Buddha had 12 disciples.
• He performed miracles and wonders, healed the sick, fed 500 men from a “small basket of cakes,” and walked on water.
• He abolished idolatry, was a “sower of the word,” and preached “the establishment of a kingdom of righteousness.”
• He taught chastity, temperance, tolerance, compassion, love, and the equality of all.
• He was transfigured on a mount.
• Sakya Buddha was crucified in a sin-atonement, suffered for three days in hell, and was resurrected.
• He ascended to Nirvana or “heaven.”
• Buddha was considered the “Good Shepherd”, the “Carpenter”, the “Infinite and Everlasting.”
• He was called the “Savior of the World” and the “Light of the World.”
Horus of Egypt
The stories of Jesus and Horus are very similar, with Horus even contributing the name of Jesus Christ. Horus and his Father, Osiris, are frequently interchangeable in the mythos (“I and my Father are one”). The legends of Horus go back thousands of years, and he shares the following in common with Jesus:
• Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave/manger, with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men.
• He was a child teacher in the Temple and was baptized when he was 30 years old.
• Horus was also baptized by “Anup the Baptizer,” who becomes “John the Baptist.”
• He had 12 disciples.
• He performed miracles and raised one man, El-Azar-us, from the dead.
• He walked on water.
• Horus was transfigured on the Mount.
• He was crucified, buried in a tomb and resurrected.
• He was also the “Way, the Truth, the Light, the Messiah, God’s Anointed Son, the Son of Man, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, the Word” etc.
• He was “the Fisher,” and was associated with the Lamb, Lion and Fish (“Ichthys”).
• Horus’s personal epithet was “Iusa,” the “ever-becoming son” of “Ptah,” the “Father.”
• Horus was called “the KRST,” or “Anointed One,” long before the Christians duplicated the story.
In the catacombs of Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the virgin mother Isis, the original “Madonna and Child”. The Vatican itself is built upon the papacy of Mithra. Mithra shares many qualities with Jesus and existed as a deity before the Jesus character was formalized, as the following section describes.
However, back to Horus, who has no history between the ages of 12 and 30, as Jesus. There exists a very old Egyptian papyrus dated to 75 C.E. but based on an older document, which contains a story about the “Son of Osiris” (i.e., the “Son of God”) that parallels in a number of details the gospel narratives. The Son of God is claimed to have wondrous powers and to have outwitted all of the teachers in the Temple of Ptah. In the papyrus there is also a tale of two dead men that closely resemble the biblical fable of Dives and Lazarus (Lk. 16:19-31).
Much like the revered fish symbol found in Christianity, Massey [see 12]: “Horus in Egypt had been a fish from time immemorial, and when the equinox entered the sign of Pisces, Horus, was portrayed as Ichthys with the fish sign of over his head.” Dujardin: “The patriarch Joshua, who was plainly an ancient god of Palestine and bore the same name as the god of Christianity, is called the son of Nun, which signifies ‘son of the fish.'” Walker: “The fish symbol of the yonic Goddess was so revered throughout the Roman empire that Christian authorities insisted on taking it over, with extensive revision of myths to deny its earlier female-genital meanings.” Wheless: “The fish anagram was an ancient Pagan symbol of fecundity . . .”
Churchward. Massey, MC: “It was the gnostic art that reproduced the Hathor-Meri and Horus of Egypt as the Virgin and child-Christ of Rome . . . .You poor idiotai [idiots], said the Gnostics [to the early Christians], you have mistaken the mysteries of old for modern history, and accepted literally all that was only meant mystically.”
Mithra, Sungod of Persia
The story of Mithra precedes the Christian fable by at least 600 years. According to Wheless, the cult of Mithra was, shortly before the Christian era, “the most popular and widely spread ‘Pagan’ religion of the times.” The Christian hierarchy is nearly identical to the Mithraic version it replaced. Virtually all of the elements of the Catholic ritual, from miter to wafer to water to altar to doxology, are directly taken from earlier pagan mystery religions. [13] Mithra has the following in common with the Christ character:
• Mithra was born on December 25th.
• He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
• He had 12 companions or disciples.
• He performed miracles.
• He was buried in a tomb.
• After three days he rose again.
• His resurrection was celebrated every year.
• Mithra was called “the Good Shepherd.”
• He was considered “the Way, the Truth and the Light, the Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah.”
• He was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb.
• His sacred day was Sunday, “the Lord’s Day”.
• Mithra had his principal festival on what was later to become Easter, at which time he was resurrected.
• His religion had a Eucharist or “Lord’s Supper.”
“The cave of the Vatican belonged to Mithra until 376 A.D., when a city prefect suppressed the cult of the rival Savior and seized the shrine in the name of Christ, on the very birthday of the pagan god, December 25.” Shmuel Golding, in The Book Your Church: “Paul says, ‘They drank from that spiritual rock and that rock was Christ’ (I Cor. 10:4). These are identical words to those found in the Mithraic scriptures, except that the name Mithra is used instead of Christ. The Vatican hill in Rome that is regarded as sacred to Peter, the Christian rock, was already sacred to Mithra. Many Mithraic remains have been found there. The merging of the worship of Attis into that of Mithra, then later into that of Jesus, was effected almost without interruption.”
Wheless: “Mithraism is one of the oldest religious systems on earth, as it dates from the dawn of history before the primitive Iranian race divided into sections which became Persian and Indian . . . When in 65-63 B.C., the conquering armies of Pompey were largely converted by its high precepts, they brought it with them into the Roman Empire. Mithraism spread with great rapidity throughout the Empire, and it was adopted, patronized and protected by a number of the Emperors up to the time of Constantine.” Of Mithraism, the Catholic Encyclopedia states: “The fathers conducted the worship. The chief of the fathers, a sort of pope, who always lived at Rome, was called ‘Pater Patratus.”
….Krishna is next….

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2025 20:35 utc | 67

Continuation of breaking down “Christ’s” origins (I won’t post anymore after this. As noted previously, there were plans to publish the whole thing. MOA patron @persiflo has the entire manuscript, which I will categorically state was authored by me, and you can search online to verify it does not exist anywhere else, except perhaps on an old archived blog I used to manage under a defunct email address. Furthermore, I abandoned this research more than 20 years ago – it’s possible that subsequent scholarly information has been surfaced or other theories proposed that either support or debunk my (admittedly) “junior” research at the time.) Enjoy (or hate). LOL
Krishna of India
The similarities between the Christian character and the Indian messiah are many. Indeed, Massey finds over 100 similarities between the Hindu and Christian saviors, and Graves, who includes the various noncanonical gospels in his analysis, lists over 300 likenesses. It should be noted that a common earlier English spelling of Krishna was “Christna,” which reveals its relation to ‘”Christ.” It should also be noted that, like the Jewish godman, many people have believed in a historical, carnalized Krishna.
• Krishna was born of the Virgin Devaki (“Divine One”)
• His father was a carpenter.
• His birth was attended by angels, wise men and shepherds, and he was presented with gold, frankincense and myrrh.
• He was persecuted by a tyrant who ordered the slaughter of thousands of infants.
• He was of royal descent.
• He was baptized in the River Ganges.
• He worked miracles and wonders.
• He raised the dead and healed lepers, the deaf and the blind.
• Krishna used parables to teach the people about charity and love.
• “He lived poor and he loved the poor.”
• He was transfigured in front of his disciples.
• In some traditions he died on a tree or was crucified between two thieves.
• He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.
• Krishna is called the “Shepherd God” and “Lord of lords,” and was considered “the Redeemer, Firstborn, Sin Bearer, Liberator, Universal Word.”
• He is the second person of the Trinity, and proclaimed himself the “Resurrection” and the “way to the Father.”
• He was considered the “Beginning, the Middle and the End,” (“Alpha and Omega”), as well as being omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent.
• His disciples bestowed upon him the title “Jezeus,” meaning “pure essence.”
• Krishna is to return to do battle with the “Prince of Evil,” who will desolate the earth.
It should be noted that the terrible story of Herod killing the infants as portrayed in Matthew is not found in any histories of the day, including Josephus, who does otherwise expose Herod’s real abuses. The “slaughter of the infants” is yet another part of the standard Mythos. This story is a rehash of the Krishna tale: “[The tyrant Kansa] ordained the massacre in all his states, of all the children of the male sex, born during the night of the birth of Christna…” (Jacolliot)
Jesus believers attempt to distinguish their godman from all these others by claiming a historical framework, which gives more credence to their “Savior” being the “right” one. Let us pretend that Jesus was historical. Followers of Krishna also claim he was historical, yet his advent predates that of Jesus by hundreds to thousands of years. If we assume both are historical, and both are teaching nearly the identical thing, why should we not go to the source and become Krishna followers? Here, we see clearly the ugly head of cultural bigotry, when the Christians claim their godman superior to one already in existence that is virtually identical. Why not go with Krishna? Because he was not of the “right” ethnicity? The question is moot, however, since both characters are mythological.
Prometheus of Greece
The Greek god Prometheus has been claimed to have come from Egypt, but his drama took place in the Caucasus mountains. Prometheus shares a number of striking similarities with the Christ character.
• Prometheus descended from heaven as God incarnate as man, to save mankind.
• He was crucified, suffered and rose from the dead.
• He was called the Logos or Word.
Five centuries before the Christian era, esteemed Greek poet Aeschylus wrote Prometheus Bound, which, according to Taylor, was presented in the theater in Athens. Taylor claims that in the play Prometheus is affixed to die (crucified) “on a fatal tree” and the sky goes dark:
“The darkness which closed the scene on the suffering Prometheus, was easily exhibited on the stage, by putting out the lamps; but when the tragedy was to become history, and the fiction to be turned into fact, the lamp of day could not be so easily disposed of. Nor can it be denied that the miraculous darkness which the Evangelists so solemnly declare to have attended the crucifixion of Christ, labours under precisely the same fatality of an absolute and total want of evidence.”
Tradition holds that Prometheus was crucified on a rock, yet some sources have opined that legend also held he was crucified on a tree and that Christians muddled the story and/or mutilated the text, as they did with the works of so many ancient authors. In any case, the sun hiding in darkness parallels the Christian fable of the darkness descending when Jesus was crucified. This remarkable occurrence is not recorded in history but is only explainable within the Mythos and as part of a recurring play.
The Christians went on a censorship rampage that led to the virtual illiteracy of the ancient world and ensured that their secret would be hidden from the masses, but the scholars of other schools/sects never gave up their arguments against the historicizing of a very ancient mythological creature. We have lost the arguments of these learned dissenters because the Christians destroyed any traces of their works. Nonetheless, the Christians preserved the contentions of their detractors through the Christians’ own refutations.
For example, early Church Father Tertullian (160-220 C.E.), an “ex-Pagan” and Bishop of Carthage, ironically admits the true origins of the Christ story and of all other such godmen by stating in refutation of his critics, “You say we worship the sun; so do you.” The reason why all these narratives are so similar, with a godman who is crucified and resurrected, who does miracles and has 12 disciples, is that these stories were based on the movements of the sun through the heavens, an astrotheological development that can be found throughout the planet because the sun and the 12 zodiac signs can be observed around the globe. In other words, Jesus Christ and all the others upon whom this character is predicated are personifications of the sun, and the Gospel fable is merely a rehash of a mythological formula (the “Mythos”) revolving around the movements of the sun through the heavens.
For instance, many of the world’s crucified godmen have their traditional birthday on December 25th (“Christmas”). This is because the ancients recognized that (from an earth centric perspective) the sun makes an annual descent southward until December 21st or 22nd, the winter solstice, when it stops moving southerly for three days and then starts to move northward again. During this time, the ancients declared that “God’s sun” had “died” for three days and was “born again” on December 25th. The ancients realized quite abundantly that they needed the sun to return every day and that they would be in big trouble if the sun continued to move southward and did not stop and reverse its direction. Thus, these many different cultures celebrated the “sun of god’s” birthday on December 25th. The following are the characteristics of the sun god:
• The sun “dies” for three days on December 22nd, the winter solstice, when it stops in its movement south, to be born again or resurrected on December 25th, when it resumes its movement north.
• In some areas, the calendar originally began in the constellation of Virgo, and the sun would therefore be “born of a Virgin.”
• The sun is the “Light of the World.”
• The sun “cometh on clouds, and every eye shall see him.”
• The sun rising in the morning is the “Savior of mankind.”
• The sun’s “followers,” “helpers” or “disciples” are the 12 months and the 12 signs of the zodiac or constellations, through which the sun must pass.
• The sun at 12 noon is in the house or temple of the “Most High”; thus, “he” begins “his Father’s work” at “age” 12.
• The sun enters into each sign of the zodiac at 30°; hence, the “Sun of God” begins his ministry at “age” 30.
• The sun is hung on a cross or “crucified,” which represents it’s passing through the equinoxes, the vernal equinox being Easter, at which time it is then resurrected.
Zeus, aka “Zeus Pateras,” who we now well accepted to be a myth and not a historical figure, takes his name from the Indian version, “Dyaus Pitar.” Dyaus Pitar in turn is related to the Egyptian “Ptah,” and from both Pitar and Ptah comes the word “pater,” or “father.” “Zeus” equals “Dyaus,” which became “Deos,” “Deus” and “Dios” and later “God.” “Zeus Pateras,” like Dyaus Pitar, means, “God the Father,” a very ancient concept that in no way originated with “Jesus” and Christianity. There is no question of Zeus being a historical character. Dyaus Pitar becomes “Jupiter” in Roman mythology, and likewise is not representative of an actual, historical character. In Egyptian mythology, Ptah, the Father, is the unseen god-force, and the sun was viewed as Ptah’s visible proxy who brings everlasting life to the earth; hence, the “son of God” is really the “sun of God.” Indeed, according to Hotema, the very name “Christ” comes from the Hindi word “Kris” (as in Krishna), which is a name for the sun.
Furthermore, since Horus was called “Iusa/Iao/Iesu” the “KRST,” and Krishna/Christna was called “Jezeus,” centuries before any Jewish character similarly named, it would be safe to assume that Jesus Christ is just a repeat of Horus and Krishna, among the rest. According to Rev. Taylor, the title “Christ” in its Hebraic form meaning “Anointed” (“Messiah”) was held by all kings of Israel, as well as being “so commonly assumed by all sorts of impostors, conjurers, and pretenders to supernatural communications, that the very claim to it is in the gospel itself considered as an indication of imposture . . .” Hotema states that the name “Jesus Christ” was not formally adopted in its present form until after the first Council of Nicea in 325 C.E.
In actuality, even the place names and the appellations of many other characters in the New Testament can be revealed to be Hebraicized renderings of the Egyptian texts.
As an example, in the fable of “Lazarus,” the mummy raised from the dead by Jesus, the Christian copyists did not change his name much, “El-Azar-us” being the Egyptian mummy raised from the dead by Horus possibly 1,000 years or more before the Jewish version.[31] This story is allegory for the sun reviving its old, dying self, or father, as in “El-Osiris.” It is not a true story.
Horus’s principal enemy, originally Horus’s other face or “dark” aspect, was “Set” or “Sata,”, no small surprise to then find the biblical “Satan.” Horus struggles with Set in the exact manner that Jesus battles with Satan, with 40 days in the wilderness, among other similarities.[16] This is because this myth represents the triumph of light over dark, or the sun’s return to relieve the terror of the night.
“Jerusalem” simply means “City of Peace,” and the actual city in Israel was named after the holy city of peace in the Egyptian sacred texts that already existed at the time the city was founded. Likewise, “Bethany,” site of the famous multiplying of the loaves, means “House of God,” and is allegory for the “multiplication of the many out of the One.” Any town of that designation was named for the allegorical place in the texts that existed before the town’s foundation. The Egyptian predecessor and counterpart is “Bethanu.”
One can find certain allegorical place names such as “Jerusalem” and “Israel” in the Book of Revelation. Massey asserts that Revelation relates the Mithraic legend of Zarathustra/Zoroaster. Hotema says of this mysterious book, which has baffled mankind for centuries: “It is expressed in terms of creative phenomena; its hero is not Jesus but the Sun of the Universe, its heroine is the Moon; and all its other characters are Planets, Stars and Constellations; while its stage-setting comprises the Sky, the Earth, the Rivers and the Sea.” The common form of this text has been attributed by Churchward to Horus’s scribe, Aan, whose name has been passed down to us as “John.”
The word Israel itself, far from being a Jewish appellation, probably comes from the combination of three different reigning deities: Isis, the Earth Mother Goddess revered throughout the ancient world; Ra, the Egyptian sungod; and El, the Semitic deity passed down in form as Saturn.[19] El was one of the earliest names for the god of the ancient Hebrews (whence Emmanu-El, Micha-El, Gabri-El, Samu-El, etc.), and his worship is reflected in the fact that the Jews still consider Saturday (day of Saturn) as “God’s Day” or the Sabbath.
Indeed, that the Christians worship on Sunday betrays the genuine origins of their god and godman. Their “savior” is actually the sun, which is the “Light of the world that every eye can see.” The sun has been viewed consistently throughout history as the savior of mankind for reasons that are obvious. Without the sun, the planet would scarcely last one day. So important was the sun to the ancients that they composed a “Sun Book,” or “Helio Biblia,” which became the “Holy Bible.”
There have been “Passions” of many gods. Dujardin: “Other scholars have been impressed by the resemblance between the Passion of Jesus as told in the gospels and the ceremonies of the popular fêtes, such as the Sacæa in Babylon, the festival of Kronos in Greece, and the Saturnalia in Italy. . . . If the stories of the Passions of Dionysus, Attis, Osiris and Demeter are the transpositions of cult dramas, and not actual events, it can hardly be otherwise with the Passion of Jesus.”
When someone studies mythmaking, one can readily discern and delineate a pattern that is repeated throughout history. Whenever an invading culture takes over its predecessors, it either vilifies the preceding deities or makes them into lesser gods, “patriarchs” or, in the case of Christianity, “saints.”
Indeed, the legend of Moses, rather than being that of a historical Hebrew character, is found predated around the ancient Middle and Far East. The character having different names and races, depending on the locale: “Manou” is the Indian legislator; “Nemo the lawgiver,” who brought down the tablets from the Mountain of God, hails from Babylon; “Mises” is found in Syria and Egypt, where also “Manes the lawgiver” takes the stage; “Minos” is the Cretan reformer. The Ten Commandments are simply a repetition of the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi and the Hindu Vedas, among others. Like Moses, Krishna was placed by his mother in a reed boat and set adrift in a river to be discovered by another woman. A century ago, Massey outlined, and Graham recently reiterated, that even the Exodus itself is not a historical event. That the historicity of the Exodus has been questioned is echoed by the lack of any archaeological record, as is reported in Biblical Archaeology Review (“BAR”), September/October 1994.
“Esther” of the Old Testament Book of Esther is a remake of the Goddess Ishtar, Astarte, Astoreth or Isis, from whom comes “Easter” and about whose long and ubiquitous reign little is said in “God’s infallible Word.” Per Harwood (Mythology’s Last Gods, 230), “Esther” is best transliterated “Ishtar” and “Mordechai” is “Mardukay.” The Virgin Mother/Goddess/Queen of Heaven motif is found around the globe, long before the Christian era, with Isis, for instance, also being called “Mata-Meri” (“Mother Mary”). As Walker says, “Mari” was the “basic name of the Goddess known to the Chaldeans as Marratu, to the Jews as Marah, to the Persians as Mariham, to the Christians as Mary . . . Semites worshipped an androgynous combination of Goddess and God called Mari-El (Mary-God), corresponding to the Egyptian Meri-Ra, which combined the feminine principle of water with the masculine principle of the sun.”
In one of the most notorious of Christian deceptions, in order to convert followers of “Lord Buddha,” the Church canonized him as “St. Josaphat,” which represented a Christian corruption of the buddhistic title, “Bodhisat.”

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2025 20:44 utc | 69

@Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2025 20:24 utc | 63
All of the Monotheistic religions were utilized by unitary states to legitimize and consolidate their power while reducing the possibility of break away areas utilizing other Gods. Better to have just one God, as with Rome and Christianity and the Arab states and Persia with Islam, rather than the previous many Gods.
As a simple ideological tool they could be an agglomeration of many different mythologies and rituals. In South America the Catholic Church regularly included local pagan rituals to enhance the ability to dominate local populations culturally (as well as the destruction of all other places of worship). To believe that anything in the Bible is based on reality is to be utterly taken in by a fairy story concocted as the “Opium of the Masses”. The church serves the establishment, and if any part of it veers off the good path of oligarch service – as with Liberation Theology – it will be rapidly disciplined and the threatening ideas (and people) cast out.
Sometimes even more insane ramblings will be accepted as a “fringe” interpretation, as with Mormonism, as long as it agrees to rid itself of any parts that are too troubling. One of the great differences of China is the lack of such a state religion and a Confucianism that does not rely upon a deity.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jun 20 2025 20:52 utc | 71

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jun 20 2025 20:52 utc | 71
“Fairy story” is pretty much it.
I’m not gonna hang around to debate this stuff with CeaClearly, but hopefully have given him/her something to chew on for a bit, and will check back in this weekend.
BTW – I like your Substack blog. Haven’t had a chance to read much lately with all that’s going on in West Asia, but good work. Also glad to hear that bevin is commenting there.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2025 21:07 utc | 73

A&A memory returns ,,, yes, the range extension was the missing one! +2 for fighters and bombers I think, and this is the “strategic bombing” part. Bombers’ attacking power tripled I liken to the atomic bomb.

Posted by: persiflo | Jun 20 2025 21:12 utc | 75

Posted by: Just Anna | Jun 20 2025 21:30 utc | 76
^^typed into her phone as the Schwarze Sonne tattoo was being finished^^
Yeah, the old “gas station with nukes” BS favored by clueless neocons and neolibs.
“Victim complex” lol – I think there’s a small colonial occupation state in the Levant that owns that title.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2025 21:59 utc | 77

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jun 20 2025 20:52 utc | 71:

All of the Monotheistic religions were utilized by unitary states to legitimize and consolidate their power while reducing the possibility of break away areas utilizing other Gods. Better to have just one God, as with Rome and Christianity and the Arab states and Persia with Islam, rather than the previous many Gods.

You got it right! Monotheism is just a tool of mind (and subsequently one’s activities) control. There is this Great Being; this Great Being has subordinates on earth (Popes, Pastors, Mullahs et al); y’all have to obey the utterance of these subordinates, or else!!! This scheme has worked in many, many societies through millenniums, even in Buddhist societies. The average human is simply stupid

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jun 20 2025 22:41 utc | 79

Absolutely. I have a whole manuscript that I wrote back in the early 2000s. I’ve shared it with persiflo via email before. We had talked about publishing it online, but both of us got overcome with other more important things.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2025 20:30 utc | 65
It’s here.

Posted by: persiflo | Jun 21 2025 0:09 utc | 81

Re the non-theism of Confucianism: That does not mean it is not a religion. Many sects of Buddhism do not have a deity. (I’m not sure there aren’t some Hindu theologies that verge on denying a personal deity…and then there’s Vedanta, a development from the Upanishads.) Taoism can be treated as a philosophy but Taoism and magic and popular religion are historically closely intertwined. Even the original Confucianism had a canon, which included the Book of Rites (religious rites) and the Book of Changes (a divination manual.) Confucian classics include The Doctrine of the Mean and The Great Learning, which to my eyes read very much like religious works, even if Mencius and The Analects of Confucius read more like religious texts. Plus later versions of Confucianism were influenced by Taoism and Buddhism (as well as Legalism.) Yin-Yang, the Five Elements, Chinese traditional medicine also intersect magic and religious thinking and blend with Confucianism. In many respects, Confucianism is like an elite version designed to be compatible with popular religion, much like some Stoics defended popular religious rites. In modern terms, you might think of Confucianism as a highly refined theology that minimized the supernatural, magical strain of religion for those upper class people above common superstitions, the kind of so-called liberal theologies that some fundamentalists get very worked up about. But that doesn’t mean someone like Paul Tillich wasn’t a religious thinker.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Jun 21 2025 1:19 utc | 83

Here’s an example of what I was describing above, part of the great Easter canon:
David, the ancestor of Christ God,
Danced for joy before the Ark
Which was but a symbol
As for us the holy people of God
When we see that these symbols
Of the Old Law have passed away
Let us rejoice with divine rejoicing
For Christ almighty is risen.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 21 2025 1:40 utc | 85

Also, I think in his ‘Philosophical Fragments’, Kierkegaarde (sp?) gives a lovely modern interpretation, that of the apex of a triangle being the life of Christ on earth, with before Christ all philosophers and prophets on one ‘arm’ and then what happens after on the other. The ‘apex’ then is heaven touching earth, or infinity touching the finite historical realm. I quite like that image as it awakens lots of musings about how it might have been determined to choose that particular historical moment over any other. Especially with all the harking back to Roman times and before that we comment on here. Maybe just before the apex folk were realizing economical truths and after, sort of losing their way?

Posted by: juliania | Jun 21 2025 2:04 utc | 87

@ Oriental Voice | Jun 21 2025 0:37 utc | 82
Who wrote:

@LuRenJia, #80:
…I’m not much of a Buddhist, but to among various religions of today I found Buddhism as one being intellectually intriguing and fascinating, worthy of exploring.
However, the Zen story you cited is an example of my opinion that even in Buddhism there are people using supernatural scare tactics to mind control. Why is 500 fox incarnations bad as opposed to 500 incarnations of human?
In Buddhism nothing is good or bad. Good/bad are just illusions in ones own mind 🙂
Zen, 禪宗， is to be sect of Buddhism I admire ge most. It’s main tenet is 明心見性，let open your heart to take in things as they are, then you’ll have no attachment and therefore no re-incarnation because incarnations of any one form is no different from any other form. You simply ARE, whatever you are.

Just a quick reply to a few of your points, OV.
A basic teachings of the texted buddhdharma holds that a precious human life is the optimal working basis for the attainment of enlightenment.
A precious human life is defined as having the “leisures, endowments and three faiths (faith in causation, faith in the possibility of attainment and faith in clarity of path)” favorable for dharma practice — a human life free of the unfavorable causes and conditions for practicing the dharma. (Gampopa’s text, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, lays out clearly this teaching handed down over generations. Available online)
Whilst a fox may be a bodhisattva, the teaching is that it most probably had an earlier precious human life in which it practiced virtue.
I, too, love zen teachings. Shunryu Suzuki, who lived in California, brought many westerners onboard many decades ago.
As for your point, “In Buddhism nothing is good or bad. Good/bad are just illusions in ones own mind,” be careful not to fall into nihilism. Neither essentialism nor nihilism, the middle way. Some Buddhist meditations use illusion to dispel illusional reality — to point out the nature of reality, but virtue is always center.
One sees vastness but attempts to always acts with careful precision.

Posted by: suzan | Jun 21 2025 2:19 utc | 89

@Suzan, #89:
Thank you for your input. I’ve always admired your postings, deeply spiritual in superb prose. Thank you also for reminding me of the nihilism trap in pondering the zen nothingness. You’re right, one can hardly distinguish between nihilism from indifferism. I certainly can’t, and thus still get angry or exhilarated from time to time. Angry, mostly:-).
It is arguably possible that human form may have a higher chance to enlightenment than animals. Be that ad it may, to reach zen one still must not ‘wish’ to possess that higher chance, no? On this point, even though I consider myself a novice Buddhist, I can dismissively say that I wouldn’t care less to re-incarnate to be a fox for having given wrong messages on zenism:-)
Thank you and LuRenJia for having this interesting discussion.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jun 21 2025 3:12 utc | 91

Yes, Tom, you’ve missed my email. Or perhaps it was lost along the way, which seems to happen in rare cases. I can’t write a scholarly introduction for your paper, as I am not a church historian and can safely say I know much less about the bible than you. There’s a historian I know who might be able to, but we’ve parted ways momentarily. For the time being I guess it’s a collective effort.

Posted by: persiflo | Jun 21 2025 4:24 utc | 93

My other major issue with modern “Christians” (and once more, I point out that I am only commenting on Christianity – I do not interact regularly with Jews or very many devout Muslims) is how the concept of “faith” has been so distorted and bent to impure ends. This is a large part of my own disavowal of Christianity given my personal history with some of the most “faithful” people one could ever meet. It becomes an excuse to do many terrible things in THIS world knowing that one will be “forgiven” if one only accepts Christ…..blah blah you all know where this is going.
Anyway, I appreciate the dialog.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 21 2025 3:18 utc | 92
I appreciate the dialogue also, Tom, and my apologies if you feel I am butting in. I can’t comment on Oriental spiritualism as I’ve had no direct contact with it though two of my children and three grandchildren are Buddhists. My own need has been to understand the faith I found myself in almost by accident – well, there are no accidents – and that, western Christianity with which I had earlier experience of a fairly casual nature hadn’t made impossible for me to explore more deeply.
Eastern Christianity doesn’t require one to ‘accept Christ’ but is more, I would say from experience, a saturation process. I had some serious theology in a Catholic highschool on convent grounds, which I found valuable though I wasn’t tempted to become a part of it; it was too different from my ‘Sunday School exposure in New Zealand. There the stories had fascinated me as a child; I still have that appreciation. The nuns prepared me for college, and I was grateful for that.
But I came to Orthodoxy through literature, by reading Dostoievski. Then into a little church which no longer exists – and the seamless quality of beautiful music, everyone there singing and the church year unfolding. Many interesting and helpful discussions with Russians, Greeks, old and young. I gradually got to recognize a continuity with my sunday school experiences. It is still about the stories, the parables, the teachings of Christ as his disciples differently record those.
I began with the theology of John’s Gospel and to me it made sense. Far more sense than Thomas Aquinas or even Saint Augustine. John is the beloved disciple and that is obvious in how he writes (I’d taken greek in college.) That he’d become disraught by the persecutions, that made sense to me as well, and I like that there is a chain of continuity right from the disciples through their disciples and on – tradition. John didn’t disappear during the persecutions but he was younger, probably attracted sympathy, and was exiled rather than taken to Rome for execution. But from exile he watched and suffered as we now do for the Palestinians. So he wrote about it, in the style of Daniel.
Of course, this is different from ‘history’ factually speaking, but there were scribes and back and forth arguments disputing the faith, person to person. There are lots of historical persons discussing what was happening. It’s hard for me to credit that you don’t find actual human beings creating this legacy.
I come from New Zealand, and it is interesting in my family that on the pakeha side it’s all very cut and dried, everything about my forebears has been recorded on my father’s side. But on my mother’s side there is a native component and that is not so cut and dried even though it exists; it is real. It happened. And the native side knows about who is related to whom, how they were in life, having an oral tradition. I think that influences my judgment. It’s a different way of keeping track, person to person, that is sound and impossible to fake. So I believe it.
As Mercouris often remarks – just saying 🙂 Don’t mind me; I’m one of those odd ones. Off the beaten track a bit but I do respect Eastern Orthodox tradition, going all the way back. It’s really beautiful, and they were not charlatans. Good people, not users; just explainers of the worst of times and something wonderful that had happened then. I’m so glad to have found it; if I hadn’t I would still be looking.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 21 2025 5:44 utc | 95

LOL “This article has been updated to clarify the minister’s comments refer to NATO “as it is.””
https://www.politico.eu/article/nato-no-reason-to-exist-italian-defense-minister-us-europe-summit-giorgia-meloni-mark-rutte-guido-crosetto/

Posted by: Newbie | Jun 21 2025 9:13 utc | 97

Reshetnikov and Nabiullina focus on different matters. While both could suggest what the other could do to reach a goal, one cannot over extend and generalize their specialty across the other’s specialty. Reshetnikov focuses on creating jobs and boosting long-term growth, while Nabiullina focuses on controlling inflation and stabilizing the financial system. What Reshetnikov could be saying is that Nabiullina can lower interest rates, keep ensuring financial stability, to make borrowing easier, encouraging investment and job creation that supports long-term growth. If supply was low and demand too high, well, through investment increase supply and keep diversifying.

Posted by: Aant Adam | Jun 21 2025 10:46 utc | 99