One of the greatest religious thinkers and debaters of any age was my patron Thomas Aquinas. His particular strength was his ability to put himself into the minds of his opponents. He could understand, and explain their positions even better than they could themselves.

People are much more willing to listen to someone who they believe truly understands them. On the contrary, feeling misunderstood is one of the greatest obstacles to communication – especially in a contentious situation. David shows a remarkable ability in this article to understand the mindset of both sides of the equation.

The link is here

I was wondering if you would be interested in a thread on intuitives, energywork, etc. I just saw your Reiki thread and had not realized your involvement. I wrote some material a while back for a publication and recently returned to it to pull some info for a class. THAT got me thinking about several things.

if you are interested, is this the forum? Or another?

In the meantime, be well.
Loa

Someone tell me what that verse is supposed to mean!

Birds have two legs and don’t creep.

FTA – your discussion on why a finite creature, such as a human, cannot commit any sins that merit infinite punishment, and why all are likely to eventually be saved

Eretz – How you define sin to be acting in an unGodlike manner, which is why it hurts God, and therefore merits corrective action

I recall both of your arguments, but you both do it much better than I.

http://pcmb.insightbb.com/apache2-default/index.php?board=15.0

Pahu is still playing over there, and OGM discovered him and is duly frying him once again.

The case was 27 counts, each read aloud which took about 23 minutes, of anal, oral and vaginal assault on a child under the age of 13. The little girl was 7. The initial crime was perpetrated by her father. As far as I am concerned, after her outcry to a friends mother she did not know, nearly every other adult around her should have been charged with something… She told her “granny” (the perps mother) how her daddy was hurting her, who told her she was not to say that. She told her mother, who is dumber then a box of cornflakes her daddy put his “deal in her private part and it hurt” who asked her Mother in law what to do… She finally told a stranger. We were given testimony from law enforcement, counselors, forensic interviewers, SANE medical person, her mother- We saw recorded images of the pretty little girl, fine and loquacious describing, in awful exacting detail all her father did to her- where, how, what, when- Including the threats that if she told or yelled out, he would do it harder. We were shown letters she brought to her counselors from home saying her father didn’t really do it, that it was someone else… this after her mother took her to jail to visit her father… And her grand mother told her she was the cause of the family turmoil– Imagine the life of this girl! She should be watching cartoons and riding her bike- which was also used as a threat against her by her father- She would perform oral sex on him, or he would throw away her bike.

We were preparing to hear the little girls testimony, when we were asked to leave the room. A while later we returned to the court room and were informed the father had decided to opt for a plea. I think it was because his lawyer could probably see that even though we as a jury were not allowed to discuss the case, even with each other, our expressions alone did not bode well for his client- making the baby sit in front of all of us and testify could not help.

Each count was worth 12.5 years. He plead to one count and said he wouldn’t make his daughter testify. The judge took it and tacked on her (the little girls) current age, which is 10, and the years he had been molesting her, which was 3. He is 36 years old. She (the judge) is fairly positive he will serve all 25 years, since any early parole will need to go through her. The girl will be 35.

Part of me wishes we, the jury, could have meted out the penalty, as he would not ever see the light of day outside- but the human part of me agrees that the girl had been through enough.

I have had many emotions these past few days. Anger. Sadness. Pity. Violence. Shock. Dirty. Disgusted. Helpless. And that’s just living in it for 3 days as an observer. This is the kind of case that you really can’t come away from feeling clean. Or even good.

I hope the girl stays in therapy and that what ever is left of her childhood is safe. We were told her mother and grandmother will be keeping her. They who told her she had it wrong, that it must have been someone else. They who told her to write a book about how much she loved her daddy and give it to her therapist to help get him home. They who took a victim to visit her abuser every week for 3 months until the state caught them.

My god. What can we do for these children?

A debate continues to exist between mankind on whether morality is fundamental or relative. Does underlying foundational truth define our moral actions or does civil indoctrination determine our morality and ethics; are actions truly good or evil?

I believe both a foundational truth of good and evil and our relative understanding and adoption of the truth of good and evil exists. What say you?

Sincerely,

Eretz Israel

“No one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, nor to delegate its initiation.”

Sounds like something Jesus might agree with.

Just to be clear, this is a prohibition against INITIATING force. It doesn’t stop you from defending yourself, or apprehending and punishing someone who has already initiated force. Also, to be perfectly honest, the definition of “aggression” can get a little wiggy, and end up including a variety of non-actions, such as withholding from someone something to which they have a right.

But on the whole, I like ZAP. The problem is that, if we really take ZAP seriously, then much of conventional society and conventional government needs to be totally re-thought. Taxes, for example, as typically administered and collected, clearly violate ZAP. That, to my mind, is an argument in it’s favor