I Reject, I Affirm. ''Raising the Black Flag'' in an Age of Devilry. - Page 15 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15067660
Part of my life is believing in miracles, trusting in them every day. Today for example is the feast in the Orthodox Christian Calendar of St. Simeon the ''God-Receiver'', or ''Bogopriimets'' in Russian. He is the one who prophesied of Christ when the Child was taken by the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph to the Temple for the sacrifice;

And here one day righteous Simeon, knowing of it by the Holy Spirit, was come to the Jerusalem Temple. It was on that very same day (the fortieth after the Birth of Christ), when the All-Pure Virgin Mary and Her Betrothed Joseph had come there in order to perform the ritual set down by Jewish Law – to present before the Lord His Own Divine First-Born and to offer the established sacrifice.
When righteous Simeon beheld their arrival, the Holy Spirit revealed to him that the God-Infant Whom the All-Pure Virgin Mary held, – was the Promised Messiah, the Saviour of the world. The elder took into his arms the Infant Christ and pronounced his prophetic words: "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart, O Lord, with peace according to Thy word, wherefore hath mine eyes beheld Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to the enlightening of gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel". He blessed the All-Pure Virgin and Righteous Joseph and, having turned to the Mother of God he said: "Behold, This One is set for the fall and rising up of many in Israel and for the sign spoken against, and for Thee thyself a sword shalt pierce the soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed"


As tradition says, Saint Simeon was one of the 72 scholars sent from Jerusalem to King Ptolemy Philadelphos in Egypt to translate the Jewish Scriptures into the Septuagint. This would have made Saint Simeon well over 250 years old by the time of Christ, an Angel having said to him that he would not die until after he had seen Him himself.

I've got no problem with that at all. It's just one of those things I take on Faith, and why not? Even our Natural events are miraculous, and the world is stranger and more mysterious than most of us seem to realize.
#15067669
Furthermore along these lines, I attack the Western idea of Causation and therefore the idea of Western Science at it's foundation. To quote from Al-Ghazali;



'' The connection between what is habitually believed to be a cause and what is habitually believed to be an effect is not necessary, according to us. But [with] any two things, where “this” is not “that” and “that” is not “this” and where neither the affirmation of the one entails the affirmation of the other nor the negation of the one entails negation of the other, it is not a necessity of the existence of the one that the other should exist, and it is not a necessity of the nonexistence of the one that the other should not exist—for example, the quenching of thirst and drinking, satiety and eating, burning and contact with fire, light and the appearance of the sun, death and decapitation […] and so on to [include] all [that is] observable among connected things in medicine, astronomy, arts, and crafts. Their connection is due to the prior decree of God, who creates them side by side, not to its being necessary in itself, incapable of separation.

For we allow the possibility of the occurrence of the contact without the burning, and we allow as possible the occurrence of the cotton’s transformation into burnt ashes without contact with the fire. [The philosophers], however, deny the possibility of this.''


This is not to say that Technical achievement isn't possible for example, but that there is no absolutely necessary connection between things in and of themselves. We live in a consensus reality, and few venture to speak of experiences outside that consensus reality.
#15067685
If I had the money and lived in LA I would overuse private helicopters too.

You have a big brain annatar and you know what they say about big brained guys. But you are also a fellow Yakubian. You don’t believe in equality do you?
#15067687
Wulfschilde wrote:If I had the money and lived in LA I would overuse private helicopters too.

You have a big brain annatar and you know what they say about big brained guys. But you are also a fellow Yakubian. You don’t believe in equality do you?


Shit on someone else's thread, Special Olympian. I figure that's who you are because he's the only guy who thinks it's funny to talk about ''Yakubians''.
#15067688
annatar1914 wrote:Shit on someone else's thread, Special Olympian. I figure that's who you are because he's the only guy who thinks it's funny to talk about ''Yakubians''.

I’m not Special Olympian I just read his posts and realized that I’m a Yakubian. It explains a lot. Sorry about your thread I’ll leave :(
#15067979
@Potemkin , @Zionist Nationalist and others;

Speaking of ''getting it'', I know that some people may not understand why I've come to this point, but I am basically a Zionist when it comes to having a homeland for the Jewish Nation. Now for many this would seem uncontroversial, but for many years I was Anti-Zionist in reaction to the numerous Evangelical Dispensationalist Protestants who i've known my entire life, who are simply monstrous and ignorant dolts, heretics, and no true friends to the Nation-State of Israel at all. No better than the Fascists who oppose the Jewish people's existence in the Middle East and elsewhere, their very existence.

I didn't come by this decision of political philosophy easily, but I have come to believe as a man of moral principle that it is the only right decision I can make. I remain a theological opponent of the Jewish religion as constituted, and desire their conversion to Orthodox Christianity as with all Humanity, but stand with the Jewish Nation and it's right to exist as appears to be the will of God. And not only to exist but have it's historically proper frontiers from the Jordan to the Sea, from the Lebanon Mountains to the river of Egypt. They return in unbelief, but not in unbelief forever.

The rest is details. I worship the King of the Jews, how can I despise His Cousins, even if they might ignorantly despise Him themselves? How can I slap the face of His Mother, figuratively speaking, with my words and actions by mockery and hatred of the other children of the Holy Ancestors of Christ? Or if I have not really done that, how can I support those who have?

I stand with all the victims of Fascist oppression;

Image

As does He.
#15068514
annatar1914 wrote:@Potemkin , @Zionist Nationalist and others;

Speaking of ''getting it'', I know that some people may not understand why I've come to this point, but I am basically a Zionist when it comes to having a homeland for the Jewish Nation. Now for many this would seem uncontroversial, but for many years I was Anti-Zionist in reaction to the numerous Evangelical Dispensationalist Protestants who i've known my entire life, who are simply monstrous and ignorant dolts, heretics, and no true friends to the Nation-State of Israel at all. No better than the Fascists who oppose the Jewish people's existence in the Middle East and elsewhere, their very existence.

I didn't come by this decision of political philosophy easily, but I have come to believe as a man of moral principle that it is the only right decision I can make. I remain a theological opponent of the Jewish religion as constituted, and desire their conversion to Orthodox Christianity as with all Humanity, but stand with the Jewish Nation and it's right to exist as appears to be the will of God. And not only to exist but have it's historically proper frontiers from the Jordan to the Sea, from the Lebanon Mountains to the river of Egypt. They return in unbelief, but not in unbelief forever.

The rest is details. I worship the King of the Jews, how can I despise His Cousins, even if they might ignorantly despise Him themselves? How can I slap the face of His Mother, figuratively speaking, with my words and actions by mockery and hatred of the other children of the Holy Ancestors of Christ? Or if I have not really done that, how can I support those who have?

I stand with all the victims of Fascist oppression;

Image

As does He.


For @Potemkin and @Zionist_Nationalist;

Part Two of my earlier commentary on being a supporter of the existence of the State of Israel, possible Part Three coming later;

If I were dealing more now with material power concepts, socialism, the working out of progressive forces in history, I could look no further than the creation of the State of Israel, and the Soviet Union under Stalin's immediate recognition of the Jewish Nation-State. Stalin knew.

The Israeli Nation's existence puts humanity in a number of camps in dialectical response;

1. Those who recognized Israel's geopolitical importance and worked hard to turn Israel into a colony of the West that would help secure the oil and shipping lanes in the Middle East and put pressure on the Reactionary Oil Sheiks when necessary. This is the West's original position essentially.

2. Those who do not recognize or have extreme antipathy for the Jewish State for ideological/theological reasons, ranging from anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism in fervor. The world nexus point for this camp lies in the Middle East, concentrated particularly with Islamist reactionaries, and of course, resurgent Fascists and Nazis around the world.

3. The USSR and Soviet Bloc after Stalin, seeing the effects of number #1 and number #2 and thus allying with the Reactionary forces worldwide under heading #2. I don't think Stalin would have approved. Point is moot now since the Soviet Union physically doesn't exist anymore, except that the Left today has unthinkingly accepted this position by default.

4. The Western Camp is now slowly tending towards #2 with respect to Israel, which is divided into defeatist versus nationalist camps itself.

Stalin i'm sure saw that while the Jewish State might be somewhat reactionary itself, the forces of International Capital and Reaction would turn against it over time given it's lone position in the Middle East. This, and that Zionist Jewry had a seemingly innate tendency towards Socialism in the course of it's Settlement of the Holy Land.

But where does that leave us today, with almost no Old Left of significance, and the collapse of both the Communist Bloc and of the West's spiritual and moral moorings, in regards to the Jewish question?
#15068698
@Potemkin , This is Part Three of my recent musings on the Jewish Question and the existence of the State of Israel;


So, what Israel seems to be doing by virtue of it's mere existence, is in bringing out the alliance of the dark and retrograde in this world, regardless of their alleged ideological labels.

What is one to make of this merging or fusion of concerns on both sides?
#15068713
annatar1914 wrote:@Potemkin , This is Part Three of my recent musings on the Jewish Question and the existence of the State of Israel;


So, what Israel seems to be doing by virtue of it's mere existence, is in bringing out the alliance of the dark and retrograde in this world, regardless of their alleged ideological labels.

What is one to make of this merging or fusion of concerns on both sides?

I think that objective historical forces can make strange bedfellows....
#15068716
Potemkin wrote:I think that objective historical forces can make strange bedfellows....


:D

Must be that Hegelian/Marxian ''Cunning of History'' and ''Divine Providence'' at work.

I think in a Orthodox Christian sense it means that good people can truly be trusted to recognize their good interests, and can distinguish between the wolves and the sheep-dogs harrying and protecting the sheep respectively.
#15068720
annatar1914 wrote::D

Must be that Hegelian/Marxian ''Cunning of History'' and ''Divine Providence'' at work.

Indeed. :D God has a Plan, and (often contrary to appearances) the Plan is working....

I think in a Orthodox Christian sense it means that good people can truly be trusted to recognize their good interests, and can distinguish between the wolves and the sheep-dogs harrying and protecting the sheep respectively.

There is also the point that in moments of great historical crisis, responsible and mature human beings can no longer delude themselves. The Second World War was one such crisis, and we may be about to enter another such moment....
#15068728
Indeed. :D God has a Plan, and (often contrary to appearances) the Plan is working....


It sure is. ''His strength is manifested in weakness'', so that no one man can boast (does anybody in their heart of hearts truly love a ''Bonapartist''? Reminds me of that Steely Dan song (''Pretzel Logic'') that mentions him;

''...I have never met Napoleon
But I plan to find the time
I have never met Napoleon
But I plan to find the time
'Cause he looks so fine upon that hill
They tell me he was lonely, he's lonely still...''


Hell is the inability to love.



There is also the point that in moments of great historical crisis, responsible and mature human beings can no longer delude themselves. The Second World War was one such crisis, and we may be about to enter another such moment....


Oh yes, it's near, our time paralleling the era before WWII with the Spanish Civil War and the Italo-Ethiopian War and the Sino-Japanese War (1931-45) just being the ongoing spasms of fighting between 1919 and 1939... One war from 1914 to 1945 really, and one war against the Bolshevik Revolution between 1917 and 1991 (we're ''veterans'' of that are we not?) and the Gulf War which hasn't truly ended since it began in 1979....The ''Mother of all Battles'' as Saddam Hussein rightfully called it.
#15069237
This being the ''Spirituality'' sub-forum of an explicitly Political forum, I may be forgiven perhaps-I hope-for the small point where my spiritual life intersects with the very real concern for my neighbor, and my sense of justice in this fallen and sinful world.

What did the October Revolution of 1917 accomplish on that same level, albeit a political change producing a spiritual one? It's too early to tell, the Revolution still goes on.


Was this the case of a ''Red Antichrist''? Or ''Bolshevik Idol''? There is wickedness in the hearts of men, revolutions and revolutionaries are no exception to this rule. But does not an evil tree produce evil fruit and a good tree good fruit? Yes. But one needs examine the whole garden, and what man intends for evil-like the sale of the Patriarch Joseph into slavery by his brothers-God uses for man's good.

Sure, it would have been great had Tsar Nicholas adopted the program of Socialism, mobilized the whole country, declared a ceasefire with the Central Powers, etc... But he and his whole reactionary crew were incapable of it. In order to sign Brest-Litovsk, one had to have had the people willing to negotiate and sign Brest-Litovsk in power to do it. And the culmination of Tsar Peter's attempts at westernization bore their final fruit in Bolshevism.
#15069361
annatar1914 wrote: In order to sign Brest-Litovsk, one had to have had the people willing to negotiate and sign Brest-Litovsk in power to do it. And the culmination of Tsar Peter's attempts at westernization bore their final fruit in Bolshevism.


The Revolution in it's immediate causes grew out of the patriotic desire for peace, while the Whites in their movement initially grew out of a desire to obey the Allied Western powers and force Russia to continue her war against Germany and Austria-Hungary.

But isn't it strange that the most politically and socio-economicaly advanced idea allegedly of the Western World, Socialism/Communism, would become the cornerstone of the Revolution in Russia?

Not at all, because Russia was full of Christians, and the West is not so much. However, the Bolshevik Revolution was fatally, yet Dialectical in it's movement hampered in it's own goals by atheism. And the ''official'' alleged ''Russian Orthodox Church'', was itself hampered by a Tsarist state organizational structure which could only but engender and tempt atheism in the hearts of thoughtful men.

But what have I seen in my own days? Anecdotal evidence, mainly. A friend in Russia telling their Communist grandmother that I was an Orthodox Christian, then told her I was a Socialist, to which she exclaimed; ''thank God!''... The programs I've seen where the fighters of the Donetsk and Lughansk People's Republics are very much Soviet and also pious Christians, but also demographic and voting patterns which maybe suggest an intersection of Belief and Sovietism/Communism at least outside the two major cities, etc... And the probable state of being in which today's Russian atheists are generally those of the ''New Russian'' Capitalist class, materialism not limited to yesterday's Bolsheviks. Not much substantive overall perhaps, but something which I sense.
#15069398
annatar1914 wrote:The Revolution in it's immediate causes grew out of the patriotic desire for peace, while the Whites in their movement initially grew out of a desire to obey the Allied Western powers and force Russia to continue her war against Germany and Austria-Hungary.

But isn't it strange that the most politically and socio-economicaly advanced idea allegedly of the Western World, Socialism/Communism, would become the cornerstone of the Revolution in Russia?

Not at all, because Russia was full of Christians, and the West is not so much. However, the Bolshevik Revolution was fatally, yet Dialectical in it's movement hampered in it's own goals by atheism. And the ''official'' alleged ''Russian Orthodox Church'', was itself hampered by a Tsarist state organizational structure which could only but engender and tempt atheism in the hearts of thoughtful men.

But what have I seen in my own days? Anecdotal evidence, mainly. A friend in Russia telling their Communist grandmother that I was an Orthodox Christian, then told her I was a Socialist, to which she exclaimed; ''thank God!''... The programs I've seen where the fighters of the Donetsk and Lughansk People's Republics are very much Soviet and also pious Christians, but also demographic and voting patterns which maybe suggest an intersection of Belief and Sovietism/Communism at least outside the two major cities, etc... And the probable state of being in which today's Russian atheists are generally those of the ''New Russian'' Capitalist class, materialism not limited to yesterday's Bolsheviks. Not much substantive overall perhaps, but something which I sense.


Kind of along these same lines, there's a man from Texas who went to Donetsk to help the people fight against the Fascists in 2014. He's still there, became a citizen of the Donetsk People's Republic. I don't know much about him, I do know he is a Communist and was baptized a Russian Orthodox Christian there. He has some interesting things to say in his simple plainspoken way in this video;



Evil wins when good people let it win, do not listen to what God is saying to them at the time He is speaking directly to them, to do what must be done.
#15069499
annatar1914 wrote:This is going to be my last post on PoFo until the end of Great Lent and the coming of Orthodox Easter, all of you take care and i'll be back writing after the 40 days or so is done. God bless!

Take care of yourself, annatar1914. I'm looking forward to reading your future thoughts. :)
#15069979
Potemkin wrote:Take care of yourself, annatar1914. I'm looking forward to reading your future thoughts. :)


@Potemkin , thank you my friend. However;

I look around me, read what's going on in the world, and I realize that maybe I was too hasty to pull out of posting for Great Lent.

I mean, look at this story;

https://archive.fo/8vQRd
defence forces Mariusz Blaszczak NATO poland polish-hungarian relations tibor benkő
Hungary, Poland to Become Strategic Partners in NATO Cooperation
MTI-Hungary Today 2020.02.25.
Hungarian Defence Minister Tibor Benkő and his Polish counterpart Mariusz Blaszczak on Monday signed an agreement on the two countries’ strategic partnership within NATO’s special operations cooperation, the Hungarian defence ministry said.
The ministers also discussed regional cooperation of the defence forces, the statement said.
Benkő said Hungary had a vested interest in Poland prioritising the Visegrad Group as a framework for cooperation.
Blaszczak said Poland wished to keep up cooperation especially in education, training, military exercises and curbing migration.
Benkő said handling migration, and preventing terrorism “which goes hand in hand with it”, is crucial for Hungary’s security.
After the talks, the ministers travelled to Skierniewice in central Poland, and laid wreaths at the memorial of Hungary’s contribution to Poland’s war of independence against the Red Army in 1919-1921.
Featured photo via honvedelem.hu


I mean, this is a step in the revival of the ''Intermarium Project'' of Poland, and behind it the Vatican, which is going forwards under the umbrella (for now) of the American nuclear aegis...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermarium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheism

This is worthy of reflection.
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