The Book of Tobit-Ancient Storytelling from the Bible

Storytelling was how the ancients transmitted hard won wisdom and cultural values among themselves and down through the ages.

For example, the Iliad and the Odyssey attributed to the ancient bard Homer, tell about manhood, family values, honor, friendship, loyalty, the way of the warrior, weakness, strength, pride, rage and much more.

The Old Testament is a collection of ancient stories from Hebrew authors that tell about the nature of God, man and universe. These stories proved so powerfully true that down through the millennia, they became mankind’s gold standard for ethics, morals and how to live the best possible life.

The Book of Tobit provides great wisdom for Christian disciples in that it teaches the proper disposition for prayer in times of trouble. It teaches that marriage begins and functions through prayer. It teaches about courage and heartbreak and breakdown in the face of the grave troubles that beset people as they go through life.

Yours truly, Silence of Mind has read these stories as the Word of God, before the congregation at Catholic Mass.

Silence of Mind, being an excellent storyteller (no brag, just fact), moved both himself and the congregation to tears of sadness and joy during the recounting of these ancient stories.

The story presents two prayers, one from a man, the other from a woman. Both man and woman are beset by woe so profound that they both wished their lives to end.

Tobit’s prayer has much the same form as the Lord’s Prayer, given to mankind by Jesus.  Tobit begins by glorifying God, than asks for forgiveness of his sins then presents his cause.

Sarah, who was thinking of hanging herself out of shame, reconsidered and presented her prayer to God.  It had the same form as Tobit’s prayer and the Lord’s Prayer beginning by blessing God:

“Blessed are you, O Lord, merciful God,
and blessed is your holy and honorable name.
Blessed are you in all your works for ever!”

In the Book of Tobit we can see the echo of the future Messiah Jesus. A marriage figures prominently in the Book of Tobit and Jesus’ first miracle occurred at the Wedding Feast of Cana.

 

 

58 New Peer Reviewed Studies = No Global Warming

Supporters of global warming have always demanded peer reviewed studies showing evidence that Earth climate is not in crisis. Courtesy of German scientists come 58 new pier reviewed climate studies.  The studies include 80 graphs showing climate data from around the world.

Of particular interest are the graphs of Arctic and Antarctic climate over the last several centuries.  They show a long term cooling trend and ancient temperatures that precede by centuries any of man’s industrial activities.

Ten years ago global warming guru Al Gore predicted that we would all be suffering from massive, continuous heat waves.

Of course as anyone can see, that prediction turned out to be totally bogus.

The inconvenient truth is that global warming is a hoax and it is long past time for people the world over to clean up the swamp and vote any and all global warmers out of public service.

Thank God (and the American voter) for President Donald Trump!

Truth and the God is Dead Christian

Ironically, the philosophy of atheist philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche is particularly helpful to Christians who struggle to reason out an understanding of their faith. Unfortunately, not many Christians bother to reason out an understanding of their faith.

And that is unfortunate because without a basis in reason what we believe in is really a fairy tale constructed around our own personal bias.

This state of affairs, according to Nietzsche, means that the “truth” is nothing more than an interpretation of what we perceive and that a person, instead of dedicating himself to endless, gyrating interpretations, would be much better served dedicating himself to himself.

That is, through understanding himself and the way he interprets things, the person discovers his talents, weaknesses and so forth, and how he may best fit into his surrounding and most of all, discover how best to enjoy his life.

The God is dead Christian is someone who contorts his mind and heart into his personal interpretation of what he perceives Christianity to be (who doesn’t do that?). Since this is essentially life by fairy tale, Nietzsche claims that God too must be a fairy tale, and so, isn’t really alive for us.

Nietzsche was brilliant, original and sincere.  And he followed his philosophy straight into the abyss of madness.

The God is dead Christian is abundantly evident in every nook and cranny of Western Civilization and seems completely oblivious to his part in Christian Civilization crashing down around everyone’s ears.

What to do?

Explaining the Bible to Atheists

All was going so well at John Zande’s place until I started to explain the meaning of a few of the Bible verses to a fellow who I affectionately call, Professor T’Bo’ which is French for Professor Taboo.

Good John Zande began deleting my explanations of holy scripture and replaced them with gay nude pictures of our Lord.  He even threw in a few THE Donald memes.

And one of the other atheists scared the daylights out of me when he told me I wasn’t going to be saved.

It was when I was going to respond by asking how a big atheist dummy like him could possibly know such a thing when I discovered that John Zande…

…had banned me from making further comments on his site.

It kills me when I can’t call someone a dummy when they so richly deserve it.

That was right after another atheist accused me of blasphemy for conveying a teaching of Saint John Paul II, Pope which states that in coming to know God, we come to know ourselves. The atheist read that and thought I was claiming to be God. Four other atheists “liked” her comment.

Consequently, I feel it is my duty to continue explaining the meaning of certain Bible scripture that atheists parade as examples of just how contemptible they opine the Bible to be.

Evidently, someone paraded those same Bible verses in front of them sometime in their impressionable past and it turned them against the most valuable source of wisdom in the world.

Below is Professor T’Bo’s list of Bible verse that he finds offensive.

I am going to explain the meaning of two of the verses and I invite other Christians to explain the other verses, or expand upon the two verses that I have chosen to explain.

Courtesy of Professor T’Bo’:

“Since we’ve been discussing “the Book” here — which Book exactly is still completely unanswered — if I may, I would like to share some quotes from the 325 CE Nicaean Protestant Book/Bible (the CJB version) for consideration:

“If men are fighting with each other, and the wife of one comes up to help her husband get away from the man attacking him by grabbing the attacker’s private parts with her hand, you are to cut off her hand; show no pity.” — Deut. 25:11-12

“Yes, she lusted after their male prostitutes, whose members are like those of donkeys and who ejaculate like stallions.” — Ezekiel 23:20

“The daughter of a cohen who profanes herself by prostitution profanes her father; she is to be put to death by fire.” — Leviticus 21:9

“I will reject your seed; I will throw dung in your faces, the dung from your festival offerings; and you will be carted off with it.” — Malachi 2:3

“But if the charge is substantiated that evidence for the girl’s virginity could not be found; then they are to lead the girl to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her town will stone her to death, because she has committed in Isra’el the disgraceful act of being a prostitute while still in her father’s house. In this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you.” — Deut. 22:20-21

“I will cause them to eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters; everyone will be eating the flesh of his friends during the siege, because of the shortage imposed on them by their enemies and those set on killing them.” — Jeremiah 19:9

“Whoever attacks his father or mother must be put to death.” — Exodus 21:15

“…and if there is something they want to know, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for a woman to speak out in a congregational meeting.” — I Cor. 14:35

“If a person beats his male or female slave with a stick so severely that he dies, he is to be punished; except that if the slave lives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his property.” — Exodus 21:20-21

“A blessing on anyone who seizes your babies and smashes them against a rock!” — Psalm 137:9

“A leak that keeps dripping on a rainy day and the nagging of a wife are the same – whoever can restrain her can restrain the wind or keep perfume on his hand from making itself known.” — Proverbs 27:15-16

“Don’t suppose that I have come to bring peace to the Land. It is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword!” — Matthew 10:34″

God Has a Hard On for the Poor

Silence of Mind recounts a true-life story where the disciple (yours truly) is presented with his very own MISSION FROM GOD.

Silence of Mind being neither of sound mind or body but none the less, a hardy survivor of the great American Bible Belt, does bear witness to the workings of  God most merciful.And whereas, most devout Christian men hallucinate themselves to be great Pauline preachers of the Gospel of Wisdom, God has laid his heavy hand on the back of Silence of Mind so that he might crawl on his belly like a reptile, his speech being merely the soundless flicking of forked tongue.

“Woe to you who come under the spell of the wily priest.” – anonymous

Many moons ago, I went to Confession to be absolved of my sins.  The priest as is usual gave me penance (an activity, action or prayer of atonement).  I was to do a favor, a kindness for someone.  The catch was that I couldn’t cook up the act of kindness myself.  I had to wait for any random someone to ask me for it.

“Oh brother!” I thought, “What if my sister asks to cut her lawn, rake all the leaves and clean her house?”

I’ll have to say yes, and then my goose will be cooked for the rest of my life.  God couldn’t be so cruel and heartless could he?

DON’T ANSWER THAT QUESTION!

The next day I was driving through the wilderness to the nearest town whose size was large enough for a super Walmart.

When lo and behold someone was standing out in the middle of road flagging me down. Traffic was nearly nonexistent on that early Sunday morning so I felt bound to stop and find out what was what.

It turns out that the young man in the middle of road had attended a nearby secret wilderness rave the night before, and he had become so stinking, blackout drunk that everyone just up and left him after the rave had run its course.  He was hungry and deserted and in bad need of a ride back to town.

Immediately I remembered my Penance promise to help the next person who asked me for a favor.

Apparently, God wanted me to provide better than Uber taxi service for a stinking drunk whose friends didn’t think enough of him to load him up in one of their own vehicles and take him home after the night’s drug fueled revelry.

When I say “stinking drunk” I am not being mean.  That kid STUNK.  In fact, he stunk so bad that his rank odor was glued to the interior walls of my sweet little pick up truck for over three weeks!

During the ride back to town, the stinking kid must have sensed my utter disgust. Yes, I was a slave of the Lord but that stinking kid was utterly disgusting anyway. His odor really got to me and I suppose I was having just a little trouble concealing my visceral disdain for his putrefaction.

He asked me if everything was okay.

I replied quite seriously, “For me, today, you are the will the God.”

.

Gay Rights In Action

A student at the University of Texas Arlington was bullied into suicide by his gay accuser and a university administrator who appointed herself as judge and jury.  The poor student carried out his own execution yesterday, Monday, April 11, 2017.

The full story is here.

“Thomas Klocke, a straight male, was accused by a gay male student of writing anti-gay slurs on his computer during a class.”

The university went after Klocke without due process, thus violating its own sexual harassment policies and the modern Western tradition of a hearing or trial.

There was no evidence presented by the accuser.

The accused was not allowed to mount a legal defense.

This case demonstrates what the gay rights agenda is all about:

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RULE OF LAW

The university administrator responsible for this travesty acted legally.

That is because universities are set up just like the United States government.

All power exists in the hands of administrators (that’s a fancy word for bureaucrat). The right to accuse, judge and punish is in the hands of one person.

Dr. Larry Arnn, President of Hillsdale College provides an in-depth comparison of America as it was founded and America as it is now, an administrative state:

Proof of God in the E. coli Bacteria

Scientific proof that God exists is found in various areas of science. Molecular biology presents almost obvious proof of God’s existence. This should be great news for atheists who profess to be champions of modern science.

Before presenting the proof, however, it is necessary to first define where the proof leads.

Since we are dealing here with scientific proof, a secular definition of God must be provided.

God, by nature, would be the first cause of everything.  It follows then that God would have certain attributes:

1. All-powerful
2. All-knowing

For this post we will infer God’s presence using his attribute of all-knowing. If God did create the universe it is reasonable that evidence of God’s intelligence is imbedded throughout the physical world.

That means if we can find examples of intelligence imbedded in the physical world, we can infer that God exists.

But what constitutes an example of intelligence?

Well, say you were out rock hunting and you found a stone tablet with patterns of scribbles on them.  Later it was found that the patterns of scribbles were written in an actual language that told a story from long ago.

Figure 1  The Flood tablet written in ancient Akkadian by Gilgamesh.

That the author is intelligent and real is obvious.

Molecular biology provides the same analogy and this analogy was found in the lab rat of molecular biology, the E. coli bacteria.  It’s called CRISPR/Cas9.

CRISPR/Cas9 is the immune system of the E. coli bacteria that has been modified for human use.  And immune system possesses the means and methods to identify, remember and destroy foreign script written into the bacteria’s genome by invading viruses.

For an atheist it would be like the Hebrew modification to the flood story originally written by Gilgamesh. Today everyone knows the story about Noah and the Flood.  However, Gilgamesh is long forgotten, except by ancient history geeks. In microbiology that’s what’s called a viral assault and take over of the original organism.

And in the case of CRISPR/Cas9, the modification from the original immune system makes it just a little easier to understand. The modification to the bacterial immune system makes CRISPR/Cas9 a premier gene editing tool when put in the hands of molecular biologists.

Here is a diagram of CRISPR/Cas9:

Figure 2  CRISPR/Cas9

1. Cas9 is a enzyme protein (the light blue figure with the little cutters). Genomic DNA that has been edited by a virus (dark orange seen on the right of the Cas9 enzyme) feeds into the Cas9 enzyme on the left.

2. PAM (light orange) is an essential targeting component which distinguishes bacterial self from non-self DNA. The Cas9 enzyme snips the DNA strand at the PAM.

3. The guide RNA (purple) provides a template to write the viral DNA into memory so that it is immediately rejected the next time the same virus attacks.

4. In the lab the CAS9 snips out errors that are replaced by donor DNA (green).

Hopefully it has become obvious that literature must first exist before it can be edited.

In biology, the literature that defines an organism is called, genome.  Each organism has its own genome, or detailed literature that defines every aspect of the organism. It is from the genome and the power specified by the genome to edit, repair and remember specific parts of itself that we can infer the existence of intelligence.

From the squiggles on the Akkadian tablet we can infer that the author was intelligently expressing himself in a coherent language.

This is equally true of the genome which defines each individual creature.

In the genome we can infer that the author intelligently expresses itself in the coherent language of life on earth.

Modern science has proven that the intelligent author of life is God and the language it used is the genetic code.

The Truth About Noah’s Ark

Dedicated to the one’s I love (Clare and Violet)…

Atheists cite the biblical story of Noah’s Ark and the flood as indisputable proof that God is a cruel, genocidal maniac unworthy of omnipotence. But could this simply be an example of the moral blindness that atheists so vehemently deny possessing?

Let’s take a look.

The source of atheist ire and offense comes from the following verses from the book of Genesis, Chapter 6.  The following are verses that illustrate God’s reasoning and frame of mind.

“5 And now God found that earth was full of men’s iniquities, and that the whole frame of their thought was set continually on evil;”

“11 There lay the world, corrupt in God’s sight, full of oppression;”

Imagine a world where the meanest, most maniacal  bullies ruled and where weaker men, women and children where raped, beaten, murdered and enslaved for the pure joy of it, every hour of the day, every day, every where.

After witnessing the fascist Axis powers at the beginning of the 20th century the biblical description of mankind’s unbridled moral state is undeniably right on the money.

What was the Allied response to the “oppression” and “iniquity” of the Axis powers?

The Allies had no choice but to exterminate them.

Below is a photo of dead German civilians piled up like so much trash after their city, Dresden, was bombed to rubble by the Allies.

Here are Imperial Japanese soldiers practicing Bushido on a baby:

Were President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill evil genocidal maniacs for exterminating the German Third Reich and Imperial Japan?

Of course not.

Similarly, was God an evil genocidal maniac for exterminating the kind of worldwide evil mankind saw expressed by the NAZI and Imperial Japanese fascists?

Of course not.

Consequently, the atheist insistence on condemning God for the Flood can only be the result of ingrained, willful, moral blindness.

Any questions?

God of the Bible – What’s Not to Love?

Atheists make the case that God is a cruel, malevolent, genocidal maniac. And since that is so, it is up to the a rational, capable, godless mankind to figure out for himself, how to be civilized.

Here are examples of God of the Bible (Leviticus 19, 1-18) laying out the rules of love to  mankind who is lost in hate, bullying, pettiness and greed.

“You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart.”

“You shall not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind…”

“Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen.”

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Atheists deny God who taught mankind these rules of love and the Christian Western Civilization that wove them into their global civil society for the first time in human history.

Plato, Moses and Jesus Speak to the Futility of Atheism

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philosophy

Most atheists in the West are captains of whatever endeavor they are involved in.  For the most part they are great students, superb artisans, conscious medical professionals and passionate champions of what they think is right and just.

But what is right and just?

For the atheist’s endeavors as a student, right and just is excellent academic performance which yields an A.

For the atheist artisan (guitar maker in this case) an beautiful, sonorous musical instrument is right and just.

For the atheist brain surgeon what is right and just is the daily pyrotechnic display of technique, knowledge and artistry that lead to healing, healthy patients.

And who could not agree?

Universal agreement is possible in these cases because of a shared, common, objective standard of what is right and just.

But what about rightness and justice with regard to non-physical concepts like morality?

Witnessing the rightness and justice of great students, artisans and surgeons in action is easy compared to examining whether economic or political policies are effective (right and just).

This is because with the complex systems that make up civil society so much remains open to personal opinion with regard to what is right and just even with a shared, common, objective standard of what is right and just.

The purpose of this post is to demonstrate that with regard to the moral needs of civil society (what is right and just), atheism is futile. And for that we look back into Antiquity, a time long ago when philosophers worked out the basic moral foundations of civil society in Christian Western Civilization.

First up is Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher whose tour de force, “The Republic,” examines the nature of the soul using the Greek city-state as an analogy of the soul. Plato makes clear that man must reason his way toward the truth through dialog and prodigious contemplation.

During the dialog Socrates reasons is way to “the good” which is the form or idea which is the source of reality.  Nearly a 1000 years later in late Antiquity, Christians would complete Plato’s contemplation of “the good” with the understanding that “the good” is actually God.

God, the source of reality became the universal standard of what is right and just during the first centuries of what became Christian Western Civilization.

Next up is Moses who lived about 1000 years before Plato.

The biblical literature attributed to Moses provides the foundation for Christianity. In the Bible book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 5, Moses transmits to mankind the universal moral standard given by God. This universal moral standard is called The Law and boils down to a list of rules which govern personal conduct.

Here we see that what is right and just begins with the individual and that The Law applies to everyone equally. What is right and just begins with the individual which is a thread common to both “The Republic” and the Bible.

In Deuteronomy Chapter 6, Moses exhorts the Jews to ponder or contemplate the meaning and implications of The Law. Moses’ exhortation to the contemplation of what is right and just is in common with Plato’s admonition to his readers to do the same.

In his letter to the Romans (5:13), Saint Paul issues forth with slam dunk Greco-Roman reasoning based on the teachings of Moses:

“Now, it is only where there is a law to transgress that guilt is imputed…”

That is, knowledge of what is right and just is only possible if there exists a common, universal, objective standard (The Law).

Clearly, the Christian understanding of what is right and just is not a product of religious dogma but of much thinking and reflection.

Finally, are the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Upon examining the Gospels in context with the rest of the Bible we come to understand that Jesus was steeped like strong tea in the teachings of Moses and the Wisdom books of the Bible.  That means that Jesus was transmitting moral standards based on The Law given by God to Moses.

And keeping to Hebrew tradition, Jesus taught using the parable. And Jesus used the tool of sound reasoning when conversing with those around him.

The parable requires much thought and contemplation on the part of the listener. This method of teaching used by Jesus along with sound reasoning indicate that comprehension of what is right and just requires rational thought and contemplation.

Jesus also  began each of his miracles with a short dialog with those people involved with the miracle. Also seen centuries later with Plato, the dialog produces literature that lives and breaths and meets the reader exactly where and when he is.

In conclusion, Western Civilization is the result of thousands of years of contemplation of a particular, universal, objective moral standard given to mankind by God, “the good” who is the source of reality.

Atheism is futile simply because it requires the rejection of the existence  of God.

For only from God can come a universal, objective moral standard by which to understand what is right and just.

That means atheism requires the rejection of what is right and just.

Logically then, futile atheism hearkens back to a brutal, uncivilized world where justice was always the advantage of the strong.