Saturday, 1 March 2025
Friday, 28 February 2025
Beyond the mechanistic?
Biologist Michael Levin: A Farewell to Physicalism
There’s a pattern you notice in science writing. Whenever a scientist is positing something he thinks is really far-out or paradigm-shaking, there will come a place in his writing when he stops and clarifies that he is not, of course, trying to cross The Line. He is not (of course!) saying that anything exists outside the material world.
That may be the biggest sacred cow in modern science: materialism, the idea that matter is all that exists. Or, to be more accurate, physicalism, the idea that the “physical world” is all that exists. (This newer term was coined after it had become glaringly obvious in physics that “matter” is not all that exists. Since “the physical world” has proven a wonderfully flexible concept, physicalism is easier to hold on to than materialism is.)
It’s fine to believe in all sorts of wild and daring things. You can believe in the mind, you can believe in free will, you can believe in teleology and purposiveness, you can even talk about a “vital force” — but at the end of the day, you have to pay your materialist dues and clarify that you are not invoking anything… ahem… spooky.1 You understand that the physical world is all there is, was or, ever will be.2
Michael Levin, however, is done with all that.
Levin is a professor of biology with appointments at Tufts University (the former academic home of none other than atheist Daniel Dennett) and at Harvard, so one wouldn’t necessarily expect him to be in the vanguard of rebellion against materialism. But that’s where he has positioned himself, with a new article (“Ingressing Minds: Casual Patterns Beyond Genetics and Environment in Natural, Synthetic, and Hybrid Embodiments,” currently in preprint) that explicitly and vehemently rejects the materialist paradigm.
Non-Mechanistic Phenomena in Biology
Levin begins his case by pointing to emerging evidence in biology that organisms do not, as is commonly thought, develop according to a mechanistic unfolding of the blueprint coded in their DNA. There is important information in the DNA, of course. But organisms seem to develop with a goal in mind, so to speak, and are able reach that goal in spite of shifting and inherently unpredictable circumstances. This is significant, because if the circumstances and the developmental pathways necessary to adapt to them are unpredictable, then those pathways cannot have been programmed into the organism in advance. They have to be invented on-the-fly.
Some examples: If you cut a salamander’s limb off, it regenerates an identical new limb — regardless of where you made the cut. Tadpoles’ heads can be “scrambled,” but they will rearrange themselves and develop into normal frogs. Developing embryos can adapt to significant changes in the very number of cells comprising them. (In some circumstance, when only one cell is available to form an embryonic structure, the cell will wrap around itself to form the desired structure! The entire mechanism of development is changed, in order to solve an engineering problem.) A developing organism can even work around genetic problems — which is pretty astounding if you think that genes alone are guiding the development. In fact, planarian flatworms can be manipulated to grow the heads of other species of flatworms — without any genetic changes.
Levin writes:
This illustrates the ability to creatively use genetic affordances as needed, to implement a high-level anatomical specification. In other words, an incipient newt coming into the world not only cannot predict the vagaries of the external environment, but worse yet, even its own parts are unreliable. It can’t count on having the correct copy number of genes, or the correct number or size of its cells. It must get the job done using the tools at its disposal in novel circumstances. What can it count on? It can count on the relentless competency of its agential material, honed over eons of evolution, that builds problem-solving agents (not fixed solutions to environments), and the pole star that guides its activity — the attractor in morphospace to which it must find a path.
The Platonic Paradigm
Instead of searching for a purely physical explanation, Levin argues that this evidence points to something else entirely. He proposes a “radical Platonist view in which some of the causal input into mind and life originates outside the physical world.”
Platonism, as far as philosophies go, is about as far from materialism as you can get. It departs from the materialist paradigm at the very root, in maintaining that, not only is not everything physical, but not everything is even particular — universal “ideals” are just as real (and indeed, more foundational in reality) than are particular things in the world. For example: in a Platonist perspective, capital-B Blue exists, by itself, apart from any particular blue object that might be out there.
Although this idea is not necessarily intuitive, the argument for why it must be so is easy to understand: in order for a particular “blue” thing to exist, “being blue” has to be an option in the first place.3
Levin points out that respected physicists have been Platonists (e.g. Werner Heisenberg, Max Tegmark, David Deutsch, George F. R. Ellis, Roger Penrose), as well as plenty of computer scientists and mathematicians. In other words, it’s not that quack-ish of an opinion at all. (Although Levin doesn’t mention it, a number of contemporary biologists have come out as Platonists as well: University of Zürich evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner, Discovery Institute’s Richard Sternberg, the recently departed paleontologist Gunter Bechly.)
It’s not the color blue that has seduced most of these scientists away from the firm dogma of materialism, however. The most common Platonic seductress seems to be mathematics: it’s hard to deny that the world operates according to mathematical principles, and it’s hard to explain how these principles can be physical. Levin argues out that once you invoke non-physical mathematical realities as explanations, you have already left the physicalist paradigm; and yet, it is impossible to explain much in biology without such invocations. Organisms develop into exquisite patterns and structures, and these patterns and structures do not come from the physical world at all — they are mathematical.
Levin is very taken with the fact that these beautiful structures seem to exist on their own in the mathematical world, and much of his argument rests on the fact that unshakeable mathematical rules have explanatory value for physical patterns. It’s not just that a fractal pattern (for example) might be found in a living organism — it’s that you can’t explain why that organism developed the way it did in any meaningful way without getting into the mathematical nature of the fractal. And the nature of fractals is inherently non-physical.
This point is important for Levin’s case, because many scientists do not care much for complex metaphysical arguments, and prefer a heuristic approach where whatever does the job is used, and whatever doesn’t is thrown out. As my first organic chemistry professor told us, “Science isn’t about what’s true. It’s about what works.” This mindset favors a materialist paradigm, since most of what science “works” for is manipulating the material world. (And if you start manipulating the immaterial world, you are classified as a mathematician or a philosopher, not a scientist.) But Levin makes a strong case that even on the basis of sheer pragmaticism, Platonic ideals have a lot going for them. Scientists use them all the time, even if they don’t think about it. And Levin contends that there are worlds of biological discoveries ahead if we stop treating the incursions of the metaphysical world as an embarrassment, and instead study the physical and the non-physical together in an integrated way.
Not Mere “Emergence”
Despite his emphasis on “what works,” Levin does care about “what’s true.” And he has metaphysical principles. Specifically, he is adamant that his Platonic forms cannot be reduced to mere “emergent phenomena” of the material world.
First, he points out that invoking “emergence” can sometimes be a hand-wave to get off the hook of actually explaining a phenomenon; in his words, it is “a mysterian approach that limits progress.” This is a clever rhetorical move, since emergentists often deride non-physicalist explanations as “mystical.” Mysticism is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.
Beyond that, Levin contends that emergence falls short in biology. It describes some things, of course, but many complex features of life do not simply emerge naturally from their basic physical parts.
Levin writes:
crucial aspect of biological patterns is that they are often not simply results of a process that rolls onward in a mechanical fashion. The parts may well be describable by various aspects of mechanics, but biological wholes have the ability to achieve specific patterns despite novel conditions, interventions, changes of environment and of their own parts, etc. In effect, these patterns serve as goals for intelligent (context-sensitive, creative, problem-solving) navigation in anatomical, transcriptional, physiological, metabolic, and other spaces in the same way that creatures navigate 3D space in traditional examples of adaptive behavior. This is distinct from the complexity/emergence paradigm, dominant today, which focuses on the ability of simple rules to drive complex outcomes. Such “emergence” certainly happens in biology, but by itself it is not sufficient to explain the most interesting aspects of morphogenesis.
According to Levin, the remarkable complex structures that exist in biology are not merely the inevitable result of natural selection. They are not even the inevitable results of physics. Instead, they are based on logical and mathematical realities that can only be described as non-physical: “All of these are specific facts about a world which do not depend on facts from physics — they can be linked to other aspects of mathematics but they form a set of findings that do not reduce to any facts of physics.” Even if you changed all the constants and initial conditions of the Big Bang, Levin points out, these Platonic structures would be untouched: “There is nothing in the physical world that can be used as a control knob to alter them.”
An Immaterial Mind?
If all this seems radical to anyone, Levin is only getting started. He argues that there is no a priori reason why Platonic space would only contain static abstract objects. Indeed, some Platonic realities (such as the ever-changing “this statement is false” paradox) seem to be constantly shifting, in their very natures. And if Platonic space can include objects that move and shift, why can’t it include… minds?
“Why couldn’t Platonic space contain patterns that are intelligent and active to some degree…?” Levin asks. “What if some of the Platonic patterns that matter for biology are, themselves, intelligent to a degree?”
This is an intriguing concept. Unfortunately, Levin does not explain how complexity or being able to move should allow something to experience subjective awareness. In this respect, his theory is no different from physicalist theories of the mind, which tend to make the same leap.
But How Does It Work?
At this point, after all this explanation, you may feel like a piece is missing.
Okay, sure, biological life operates according to abstract principles.
And okay, sure, maybe these principles really exist, and are really not reducible to the physical world.
And, great, the laws of physics and chemistry and biology aren’t enough to explain why life reaches for these abstract goals.
But then why does life follow these principles? What causes organisms to grow and develop towards an immaterial “pole star”?
To his credit, Levin is aware that he hasn’t answered this question. Also to his credit, he doesn’t pretend to be able to.
“Is there a ‘force’, beyond the ‘if you build it, they will come’ model of physical objects pulling patterns from the space?” he asks. “Are the contents of the Platonic space under ‘positive pressure’, somehow encouraging their appearance in the world as intrusive thoughts, archetypes, works of art? Is there a symmetrical dynamic through which they push outward — inherently driven to ‘haunt’ matter as much as matter calls to the patterns that animate it, projecting outward through interfaces made to that space[?]”
Levin doesn’t know. But he thinks that scientists need to get serious about finding out. I can’t say I disagree.
What to Make of This?
Levin’s theory is certainly exciting, but I don’t want to get carried away. Personally (and not without doubts) I’m inclined to believe that Levin is overstating his case concerning the richness of the mathematical realm.
For instance, consider a basic mathematical truth, “2+2=4.” Humans clearly did not invent that truth, so you might say that it was “discovered,” that it is an unshakably real “structure” in Platonic reality. However, if you look at it a different way, you see that this structure is an artifact of language, a side-effect of our ways of talking about numbers: “two” really means “one and one,” and “plus” really means “and,” so “two plus two” really just means “one and one and one and one,” which happens to also be the definition of “four.” Thus, the apparent “Platonic structure” amounts to the fact that “one and one and one and one is one and one and one and one,” which is trivial. My suspicion is that all of the more complex mathematical structures that Levin is so taken by can also be broken down in this way.
But that doesn’t negate Levin’s deeper point. Even if we deconstruct these Platonic structures and find that each amounts to something very simple, a Platonic structure is still there. In the above example, after all our attempts at deflation and explaining-away, we are still left with one (non-physical!) reality: “numerosity,” or the quality of “having a quantity.” That isn’t so easy to get rid of. Likewise, all the Platonic structures in geometry might be deflated into mere “spatiality,” and we would still be left with the reality of spatiality itself to contend with.
In other words, if you want to say that the universe is just matter sitting around in a simple grid of empty Cartesian space, you still have to explain where the grid comes from. Before one lump of cold, dead matter can sit next to another lump of cold, dead matter, “next to” has to mean something.
And once you upon the door to one immaterial quality, you can no longer exclude other qualities on mere principle. You have to take them seriously. You have to take them one at a time, and decide if they exist Platonically, or if they amount to mere words. If Numericity and Spatiality can be real — and Levin is right, the heuristic value of these two qualities makes them very difficult to dismiss as unreal — then why not other intangible qualities? Why not, say, Awareness, the quality of something experiencing something else — in other words, Mind? For that matter, why not Pain? Why not Love?
The camel’s nose is under the tent.
And that’s probably why most scientists in the 21st century are not comfortable taking the bold, small step that Levin has taken. “Spooky” things are… well, spooky
Notes
1.The term “spooky” tends to come up when naturalists are trying to explain exactly which category of entity is excluded by their philosophy. For example, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines ontological naturalism as the view “that reality has no place for ‘supernatural’ or other ‘spooky’ kinds of entity.”
2.Except for the other worlds in the multiverse, of course. And the quantum structure that the multiverse presumably arises from.
3.And if you argue that blue is just an emergent property of some other things, such as the wavelength of light, that just pushes back the question to those other things. If those prior things have qualities — and you can’t really talk about something without any qualities (though Aristotle tried) — then those qualities must first exist as possibilities or “settings” in the universe. What is it about the universe that makes things like light waves have “length”? What is “length”? That’s the fundamental argument of Platonism.
On the evolution of the design debate.
Michael Kent: “12 Discoveries That Have Changed the Debate about Design”
Michael Kent is a Fellow with the Center for Science and Culture and a recently retired bio-scientist from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. He has been interested in intelligent design for many years. Since 2005 he has organized quarterly meetings on intelligent design in or near the University of New Mexico campus. Over this twenty-year period, he has developed slide presentations on “12 recent discoveries that have changed the debate about design in the universe,” and now he is turning those presentations into videos.
The 12 discoveries are:
The universe (space-time, matter, energy) had a beginning.
The laws of physics, the fundamental constants, and the initial conditions of the universe are fine-tuned to allow for the possibility of life.
Protein sequence space is far too large to be searched and highly functional sequences (i.e., enzymes) are incredibly rare (~ 1 in 1077).
The number of genes in the simplest free-living organism is about 450.
Life is based on a digital information processing system.
Molecular machines and sophisticated software algorithms are essential to all life-forms.
Random mutation + natural selection has severe limitations as a creative mechanism that are now well understood.
So many highly improbable factors make Earth habitable that it is VERY unlikely that another truly “Earth-like” planet exists in our galaxy.
The “junk DNA” paradigm has been shown to be false. Most, if not all, non-coding DNA has function.
The Cambrian (and other) explosions in the fossil record are not consistent with the Darwinian model of gradual evolution.
Extensive post-translational processing (editing) of genes occurs in eukaryotes: the spliceosome and the splicing code.
Genes extensively overlap in the same or opposite directions within a stretch of DNA (overlapping codes).
The first six plus an introductory video are now viewable here. Though these seven may still undergo further editing, the videos are very much worth watching already. The last six in the list will be converted into videos later but slide presentations for all 12 are viewable here.
Thursday, 27 February 2025
Tuesday, 25 February 2025
Monday, 24 February 2025
Sunday, 23 February 2025
A message from deep time?
Mammoth Bone Structure of 24,000 Years Ago Illuminates Stone Age
At ZME Science, science journalist Tibi Puiu reports on a circle of mammoth bones and tusks, 40-feet in diameter, rediscovered in 2020, that has remained in place for over 24,000 years.
Built by Stone Age hunters, it may be the remains of a now-vanished building. Puiu notes, “It’s one of the most surreal ancient structures ever built — and it’s just one of over 70 found thus far.”
The Kostenki 11 site, located near the Don River, just 300 kilometers from Moscow, is one of the most significant Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe. It contains several circular structures made from the bones of woolly mammoths, some of which are over 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter.
The site is not alone. These types of structures — more than 70 of which have been found thus far across Ukraine and western Russia — have been the subject of speculation for decades. Were they built from freshly hunted mammoths, or were the bones scavenged from long-dead carcasses? “This massive circular structure is made entirely of mammoth bones and skulls.”
“DNA now offers clues about how Ice Age hunters built it,” February 8, 2025 – Updated on February 10, 2025
The structure was built up over time. Back in 2020, science correspondent Brian Handwerk noted at Smithsonian Magazine:
Fires once burned within the structure and food scraps, including vegetables, remain. Several pits containing mammoth bones lie just outside of the bone circle and may suggest food storage. “You obviously get a lot of meat from a mammoth,” [Alexander] Pryor said, “so the idea that there were food processing and food storage activities going on at the site is something that we want to investigate more.”
To some, though, the grandeur of the structure suggests more than practical significance. “People have also speculated a lot about a likely ritual element to this and it’s really hard to say what that might have been,” Pryor adds. “Ritual is embedded in human lives in all sorts of ways. The fact they might have designed a structure of this type as part of both their ritual and their sustenance activities is very reasonable.”
“A Mysterious 25,000-Year-Old Structure Built of the Bones of 60 Mammoths,” March 16, 2020
The DNA researchers note in their open-access article:
Biomolecular sexing of 30 individuals showed a predominance of females, suggesting the Kostenki mammoths are primarily from herds. We identify seven mitochondrial lineages across 16 samples, and thus the mammoths are not all from the same matriline.
Rey-Iglesia, Alba & Pryor, Alexander & Jager, Deon & Wilson, Tess & Teeter, Mathew & Margaryan, Ashot & Khaskhanov, Ruslan & Le Meillour, Louise & Troché, Gaudry & Welker, Frido & Szpak, Paul & Dudin, Alexandr & Lorenzen, Eline. (2024). Ancient biomolecular analysis of 39 mammoth individuals from Kostenki 11-Ia elucidates Upper Palaeolithic human resource use. Quaternary Environments and Humans. 3. 100049. 10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100049.
Saturday, 22 February 2025
1914 a marked year?
One of the main evidences of biblical inspiration is the prophetic nature of JEHOVAH'S Word. Indeed the Holy Bible does not only recount the uttering but the fulfillment of numerous prophecies these for a tapestry of a harmonious narrative that is itself prophetic,
Genesis ch.3:15NKJV"And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”"
The appearance of this offspring who will conquer the demonic intelligences whom the apostle Paul referred to as the cosmocrats See ephesians ch.6:12. is a key element in this narrative. Many millions take for granted that Jesus of Nazareth a.k.a Jesus Christ an influential first century Jewish religious teacher, who was killed through a conspiracy of the religious and political elite of his time and place, but who Witnesses ,many on pain of death, testified had been resurrected by the God that both they and the Hebrew religious establishment claim in common. Is in fact that promised messiah/Savior. So it is interesting that the very year in which Jesus appeared as the Messiah and the precise length of his earthly ministry and the tragic end of his earthly course, and what it accomplishes are all precisely predicted in the book of Daniel.
Daniel ch.9:25-27ESV"Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built againe with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Itsf end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 27And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week,g and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”"
Governor Nehemiah arrived from Shushan to Jerusalem with a royal proclamation to rebuild that city's walls with its gates and towers in the latter part of 455b.c.e , but of course the Messiah did not appear a literal 483 days thereafter. However in addition to a system of 7 day weeks the seventh of which was a sabbath the ancient Hebrews also had a system of 7 year cycles ( a week of years)
A footnote in the JPS tanakh alludes to that in Daniel ch.925-27.
Further the book of ezekiel mentions that figurative time measuring the penalizing and restoring of the nation should be reckoned as one day per year
Ezekiel ch.4:6NIV"“After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year."
So checking from 455b.c.e a total of 483 years we come to 29c.e where the historian Luke informs us
Luke ch.3:1,2NIV"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness"
John ch.1:32-34NIV"Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.” f"
Additionally Daniel prophecy predicts the death of the mesiah and the destruction of the city.
Daniel ch.9:27NKJV"Then he shall confirm a [k]covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the [l]desolate.”"
Jesus alludes to Daniel prophecy in his endtimes discourse at Mark ch.13:5 onward,Luke ch.21:8 onward,Matthew ch.24:3 onward. Specifically the desolating abomination Matthew ch.24:15,16NKJV"“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16“then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. "
There is also specificity about the final week the at half of the week sacrifices at the physical temple will have no value being superseded by a better sacrifice,
Daniel ch.9:26NIV"After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. g The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. "
Certainly not something any Hebrew living at that time would conceive let alone fabricate. For another three and a half years the nation would continue to be privileged as the gospel would only be preached to the circumcised.
But eventually the desolation foretold by both Daniel and Jesus Christ came to past how long was this desolation to last.
In answer Jesus made another reference to the book of Daniel,
Luke ch.21:24NIV"They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times(kairoi) of the Gentiles are FULFILLED."
At Daniel ch. 4 a prophetic dream is given by JEHOVAH to King Nebuchadrezzar.
The purpose of which was to make known JEHOVAH'S Right and might to but the world under which ever man he chose, even the lowliest, the one his fellows might judge as unqualified.
Daniel ch.4:16,17NKJV"Let his heart be changed from that of a man,
Let him be given the heart of a beast,
And let seven times(kairoi)[b] pass over him.
17‘This decision is by the decree of the watchers,
And the sentence by the word of the holy ones,
In order that the living may know
That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men,
Gives it to whomever He will,
And sets over it the lowest of men.’"
Regarding the imagery of the tree the babylonian dynasty is likened to lumberjack
In a prophetic dirge.
Isaiah ch.14:8NIV"Even the trees of the forest— the cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon— sing out this joyous song: ‘Since you have been cut down, no one will come now to cut us down!’"
Many commentaries have stated that the trees referred to here are in fact the various royal dynasties brought to a finish by the babylonian regime,numbered among these "trees" would be the line of davidic kings leading to the messiah. A symbol of JEHOVAH'S Rightful rule over this earth.
Nebuchadnezzar was not by any stretch lowly of mind, or he would gave heeded the wise counsel of the of the prophet Daniel.
Daniel ch.4:27NIV"Therefore, Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.”"
Alas the Babylonian monarch demonstrated that he did not know his place and thus JEHOVAH Felt the need to put him in his place. The man receiving JEHOVAH'S Kingdom is the one humbling himself and thus not needing to be humbled.
Acts ch.17:31NIV"For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”"
Humbling himself as far as a willing death, refusing the honor of his fellows but choosing instead to patiently wait on exaltation of his God JEHOVAH
John ch.6:15NIV"Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself."
After the literal seven "kairoi" the lowest of men even among those existing at the time was not awarded the throne over JEHOVAH'S Kingdom,we can conclude that there is a larger and more significant antitypical fulfillment Than nebuchadnezzar restoration,Jesus's reference to the "kairoi" of the Gentiles that would be FULFILLED with an end to the trampling of the Rule of JEHOVAH as symbolised by Jerusalem further strengthens that conclusion.
Using the same formula that work so spectacularly at Daniel ch.9:25-27 ,and taking the start of the conquest of Jerusalem and the effective end of the independence of davidic dynasty as the beginning of the seven "kairoi" we arrive at 1914,even secular historians acknowledge that 1914 is a unique year and that effectively one world(civilisation) ended and another began before and after that year,true the brothers forgot that JEHOVAH'S Assessment of time is worlds away from man's assessment of time and thus JEHOVAH'S Soon after us not the same as what we might consider soon
2Peter ch.3:8,9NIV"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
But the the sign that Jesus gave as signifying his "parousia" a noun symbolising the official visit of a dignitary see the way it is used at Philippians ch.2:12 for instance. So the synthelia of the present age and the parousia of Christ parallel each other neither succeeds or precedes the other.
We can see this from the book of Daniel's commentary on the matter.
Daniel ch.2:44NIV"“In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. "
So there is no collapse of human rule prior to the setting up of the kingdom (the parousia) the kingdom is set up in the midst of its enemies,
Psalm ch.110:2NIV"The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of your enemies!”"
So there is a period where the established kingdom of JEHOVAH Rules alongside the dregs of human rule before It pulverises these final human kingdoms and reasserts JEHOVAH'S Lawful sovereignty over his earthly creation. All of this in JEHOVAH'S Time so too slowly for his loyalists and too quickly for his enemies.
Friday, 21 February 2025
Thursday, 20 February 2025
Against litigious XVI
Litigiius:Introvigne’s argument also fails to address the broader ethical and legal implications of religious communities receiving state funding while engaging in coercive practices. Norway’s decision to deny state subsidies to Jehovah’s Witnesses does not amount to persecution or discrimination.
Myself: you speak of these state subsidies as if they are manna fallen from heaven,the money the state holds in trust is the fruit of our honest toil, and denying us access to it because you find our free exercise of our religious belief icky reduces the state to thuggery,there is no Right to anyone's association if you find my freely choosing to not associate with you traumatic that is your tough luck no state as any business compelling any citizen to associate with anyone they would rather not associate with.
should the state compel a romantic partner to continue to have intimate relations with someone who has decided to start another relationship with another, because said philaderer finds being denied such intimacies coercive.
Or what if someone cuts of association over your choice of political affilistion should the courts insert themselves in that dispute as well.
All a secular court must concern itself with is the assessing of measurable losses and the safeguarding of actual rights not the fabricated rights our enemies are using to deny us our actual right to freedom of association.
Litigious:Instead, it upholds a principle of fairness: religious organizations that receive public funds must adhere to fundamental human rights standards, including the right to freely exit a religion. The European Court of Human Rights has consistently upheld the right of states to regulate religious organizations that engage in harmful practices. Jehovah’s Witnesses' loss of registration and state subsidies in Norway does not prevent them from practicing their faith or gathering as a religious community. Rather, it prevents them from benefiting from state support while maintaining coercive disciplinary measures that violate fundamental human rights.
Myself:people have every right to exit our religion and if they find being denied the free association of a tiny minority of the population unbearable all they have to do us not get baptized,an option not available to those born in Catholic homes. They are free to associate with unbelieving relatives family members workmates,even if they chose to get baptized and were later expelled. according to our self-styled betters these types of association would be superior, and would provide an opportunity for them to be deprogrammed from their cult brainwashing, so this isolation should actually be view as a good thing if people like litigious were being consistent. The free exercise of our right to associate with or indeed not associate with whom we choose to cannot be the business of the state, that is a stupid and dangerous precedent.
Litigious;In conclusion, Introvigne’s defense of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway is flawed both legally and morally. The Oslo District Court’s decision is not an attack on religious freedom but a necessary protection of individual rights, particularly the rights of minors. Religious freedom does not include the right to impose psychological coercion on members who wish to leave. The Catholic Church’s understanding of religious liberty recognizes the dignity of the human person and the importance of ensuring that religious commitments are made freely, without coercion or fear of social isolation. Ultimately, the decision in Norway aligns with the principles of justice and human dignity. Jehovah’s Witnesses, like all religious groups, have the right to practice their faith, but this right does not extend to practices that unduly infringe upon the freedoms of others. The Oslo court's ruling is a step toward ensuring that religious liberty is genuinely free and not merely a tool for control and coercion.
Myself: the Catholic Church is hypocritical in the extreme it never misses and opportunity to use state power(actual coercion) to force it's mores on individuals at gunpoint,and then shamelessly presumes to speak down to those who are merely exercising their individual rights as guided by their own conscience, those who choose to wield state power to impose their values at gunpoint on unbelievers and other believers are the real threat to civil liberty not those exercising their right to freedom of association they are no threat to any one.
And it is not only equal access to the taxes the state extracts at gunpoint from us that us at stake,but our weddings and funerals would no longer be recognized also the cost of doing necessary business would rise,
Our enemies are being misleading when they make the payments that courts have Said that all taxpayers are justly entitled to are all that are at stake here.
Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Monday, 17 February 2025
The facts
I publish for my readers consideration the full text of the pamphlet a declaration of facts addressed to the state and people of Nazi Germany requesting that Jehovah's servants in Hitler's Germany be left in peace to carry on their preaching and teaching work circa 1933.I've done this so that you can read the document in its entirety and form your own conclusions.
Declaration of Facts
"This company of German people, who are peaceable and law-abiding citizens
representing many others from every part of Germany, all of whom are
earnestly laboring for the highest welfare of the people of this land,
being now duly assembled at Berlin this 25th day of June, AD.. 1933, do
joyfully declare our complete devotion to Jehovah, the Almighty God, and to
his kingdom under Christ Jesus, whose shed blood bought the human race. We
declare that the holy Scriptures set forth in the Bible constitute the Word
of Jehovah God given to men for their guidance in righteousness, and that
the Word of God is the truth, and that it is of greatest importance that
man have a knowledge of his relationship to God. We ask to be judged by the
standard of the Word of God.
"Christ Jesus is Jehovah God's great Witness to the truth, and as his
faithful and devoted followers we are, by His grace, witnesses to the
truth. The purpose of this Declaration is that we may present a true and
faithful witness before rulers and the people as to the name and purpose of
Jehovah God and our relation thereto.
"We are wrongfully charged before the ruling powers of this government and
before the people of this nation; and in order that the name of Jehovah God
may be exalted in the minds of the people, and that his benevolent purposes
be better understood and our position fairly placed before the government,
we do respectfully ask the rulers of the nation and the people to give a
fair and impartial consideration to the statement of facts here made.
"The Scriptures plainly state that the chief opposer of Jehovah God and the
greatest enemy of mankind is Satan the Devil whose name is also that of
Serpent and Dragon. It is written in the Scriptures that Satan, who has
long been the invisible ruler of this world, deceives and blinds the people
to the truth in order that the light of and concerning Jehovah God and
Christ Jesus may not shine into the minds of men. (2 Corinthians 4: 3,4)
Frequently by fraud, subtility [sic]] and deception Satan has induced
honest persons to war with each other, in order that he might turn them all
away from God and destroy them. Above all things, the people need to know
Jehovah God and his gracious provision for their general welfare.
"By the term 'clergy', as used in our literature, reference is made to the
class of professed religious teachers, priests and Jesuits who employ
improper political means to accomplish their ends and pin forces even with
those who deny God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the same class to
whom Jesus referred as his persecutors. We have no criticism of any honest
religious teacher.
"When Jesus went to the Jews to tell them of the truth, it was the Jewish
clergy, that is to say, the Pharisees and priests, that violently opposed
him and persecuted him and caused him to be charged with all manner of
crimes and offenses. They refused to hear the truth, and addressing them
Jesus said: "Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot
hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father
ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of
his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the
truth, ye believe me not.' (John 8: 43-45) Although the Pharisees and
priests then claimed to represent Jehovah God Jesus told them that they
were in fact the representatives of Satan the Devil.
"We have no fight with any persons or religious teachers, but we must call
attention to the fact that it is generally those who claim to represent God
and Christ Jesus who are in fact our persecutors and who misrepresent us
before the governments and nations. As true followers of Christ Jesus we
are to expect such opposition, and we mention it here in explanation of why
we have been misrepresented before the rulers of this nation. To his
faithful followers Jesus said: 'Remember the word I said unto you, The
servant is not greater than his lord. If they [the false religious
teachers] have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also.' (John 15: 20) Furthermore,
Jesus said that this same class of men would cause his true followers to be
wrongfully charged before the ruling powers, his language being: 'But take
heed to yourselves: for they [false religious teachers] shall deliver you
up to councils [police power]; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten;
and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a
testimony against them.' (Mark 13: 9) This explains why Jehovah God now
permits his faithful witnesses to be misrepresented and persecuted, namely,
that those of a wrong spirit may identify themselves as opponents of God
and thus bear witness against themselves. The same materialistic spirit
that caused the persecution of Jesus Christ now exists and is back of the
persecution of us his faithful followers.
"It is falsely charged by our enemies that we have received financial
support for our work from the Jews. Nothing is farther from the truth. Up
to this hour there never has been the slightest bit of money contributed to
our work by Jews. We are the faithful followers of Christ Jesus and believe
upon Him as the Savior of the world, whereas the Jews entirely reject Jesus
Christ and emphatically deny that he is the Savior of the world sent of God
for man's good. This of itself should be sufficient proof to show that we
receive no support from Jews and that therefore the charges against us are
maliciously false and could proceed only from Satan, our great enemy.
"The greatest and most oppressive empire on earth is the Anglo-American
empire. By that is meant the British Empire, of which the United States of
America forms a part. It has been the commercial Jews of the
British-American empire that have built up and carried on Big Business as a
means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many nations. This fact
particularly applies to the cities of London and New York, the stronghold
of Big Business. This fact is so manifest in America that there is a
proverb concerning the city of New York which says: 'The Jews own it, the
Irish Catholics rule it, and the Americans pay the bills.' We have no fight
with any of these persons mentioned, but, as the witnesses for Jehovah and
in obedience to his commandment set forth in the Scriptures, we are
compelled to call attention to the truth concerning the same in order that
the people may be enlightened concerning God and his purpose.
Our Literature
"It is said that our books and like literature, when circulated amongst the
people, constitute a danger to the peace and safety of the nation. We are
certain that this conclusion is due to the fact that our books and other
literature have not been carefully examined by the rulers and hence are not
properly understood. We respectfully call attention to the fact that these
books and other literature were written originally in America and the
language therein used has been adapted to the American style of plainness
of speech and, when translated into German, the same appears to be harsh.
We admit that the same truths might be stated in a less blunt and more
pleasing phrase, and yet the language of these books follows closely the
language of the Bible.
"It should be borne in mind that in the British Empire and in America the
common people have suffered and are now suffering greatly because of the
misrule of Big Business and conscienceless politicians, which misrule has
been and is supported by political religionists, and hence the
writers of our books or literature have endeavored to employ plain
language to convey to the people the proper thought or understanding. The
language used, however, is not as strong or emphatic as that used by Jesus
Christ in denouncing the oppressors and false teachers of his time.
"The present government of Germany has declared emphatically against Big
Business oppressors and in opposition to the wrongful religious influence
in the political affairs of the nation. Such is exactly our position; and
we further state in our literature the reason for the existence of
oppressive Big Business and the wrongful political religious influence,
because the Holy Scriptures plainly declare that these oppressive
instruments proceed from the Devil, and that the complete relief therefrom
is God's kingdom under Christ. It is therefore impossible for our
literature or our work to in any wise be a danger or a menace to the peace
and safety of the state.
"Our organization is not political in any sense. We only insist on teaching
the Word of Jehovah God to the people, and that without hindrance. We do
not object or try to hinder anyone's teaching or believing what he desires,
but we only ask the freedom to believe and teach what we conceive the bible
to teach, and then let the people decide which they wish to believe.
"To know Jehovah God and his gracious provision for mankind is of most
vital importance to all persons, because God has declared in His Word that
where there is no vision or understanding of his Word the people perish.
(Proverbs 29: 18) We have devoted our lives and our material substance to
the work of enabling the people to gain a vision or understanding of God's
Word, and therefore it is impossible for our literature and our work to be
a menace to the peace and safety of the nation. Instead of being against
the principles advocated by the government of Germany, we stand squarely
for such principles, and point out that Jehovah God through Christ Jesus
will bring about the full realization of these principles and will give to
the people peace and prosperity and the greatest desire of every honest
heart.
"Our organization seeks neither money nor members, but we are a company or
organized body of Christian people engaged solely in the benevolent work of
teaching the Word of God to the people at the least possible cost to them.
Our organization was originally incorporated in the United States of
America in 1884 under the name of the WATCH TOWER BIBLE 15r TRACT SOCIETY,
and in 1914 incorporated under the laws of Great Britain by the name of the
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION. These are merely the corporate
names of our organization for legally carrying forward its work. The
Scriptural name by which we are known is 'Jehovah's witnesses'. We are
engaged solely in a benevolent work. The purpose of our organization is to
aid the people to understand the Bible, which discloses the only possible way
for the complete relief and blessing for mankind. Our organization has
extended its work throughout the earth. The education, culture and
upbuilding of the people must and will come through the agency of God's
kingdom concerning which we teach as set forth in the Bible. The salvation
of the people depends upon the true knowledge of and obedience to Jehovah
God and his righteous ways.
"The people are in great distress and in need of help to understand the
reason for their unhappy condition and what is the means of relief. The
Scriptures, when understood, make this matter clear. Instead of collecting
money from the people and using the same to erect great buildings and to
support men in luxury, we print the gospel message of God's kingdom and
carry it to the homes of the people that they may, at the least
inconvenience to themselves, gain a knowledge of God's purposes concerning
them.
"A careful examination of our books and literature will disclose the fact
that the very high ideals held and promulgated by the present national
government are set forth in and endorsed and strongly emphasized in our
publications, and show that Jehovah God will see to it that these high
ideals in due time will be attained by all persons who love righteousness
and who obey the Most High. Instead, therefore, of our literature and our
work's being a menace to the principles of the present government we are
the strongest supporters of such high ideals. For this reason Satan, the
enemy of all men who desire righteousness, has sought to misrepresent our
work and prevent us from carrying it on in this land.
"For many years our organization has put forth an unselfish and persistent
effort to do good to the people. Our American brethren have greatly
assisted in the work in Germany, and with money freely contributed, and
that at a time when all Germany was in dire distress. Now because it
appears that Germany may soon be free from oppression and that the people
may be lifted up, Satan, the great enemy, puts forth his endeavours to
destroy that benevolent work in this land.
League of Nations
"The language in our books or literature concerning the League of Nations
has been seized upon as a reason for prohibiting our work and the
distribution of our books. Let us remind the government and the people of
Germany that it was the League of Nations compact that laid upon the
shoulders of the German people the great unjust and unbearable burdens.
That League of Nations compact was not brought forth by the friends of
Germany. In America at one time the public press announced
that 140,000 clergymen had set aside a certain period of time in which a
concerted movement was to be made, and which was made, to induce the
American people to fully endorse the League of Nations. It was the
Federation of Churches in America that issued a manifesto stating that the
'League of Nations is the political expression of God's kingdom on earth',
and which by them was substituted in the place and stead of God's kingdom
under Christ. It was in America that our organization under the visible
leadership of its president pointed out emphatically that the League of
Nations is not an institution of Jehovah God, because it is oppressive and
unfair. It was that condition, existing at the time, which called forth
language that appears in our books concerning the League of Nations and
also calling attention to the fact that such League of Nations compact can
never bring about the relief and blessing of the people, because such
relief and blessing can come by adhering strictly to the principles laid
down in God's Word and in the manner which Jehovah has pointed out.
"For almost half a century our strictly Christian organization has carried
on its work in various parts of the earth. Its books are published in more
than 50 languages, and upward of 140 million of these books are in the
hands of the people. For more than thirty years our books and literature
have been distributed throughout Germany, and millions of these are now in
the hands of the German people and are read by the people, all of whom will
bear testimony to the fact that these books, based strictly on the Bible,
are of great help to them and upbuild them and give them hope for a
realization of the blessings which JEHOVAH God long ago promised. In all
these years of our work, and in the wide distribution of our books and
literature, not one instance can be truthfully cited wherein our work or
literature has been a menace to the government or has in any wise
endangered the peace and safety of the nations.
"The endeavors of our organization being exclusively confined to bearing
testimony to the name and Word of JEHOVAH God, it would be entirely
inconsistent for us to attempt to exert any political influence in the
governments of this world or to do anything that would endanger the peace
and safety of the nation. We have no desire nor inclination to do anything
except to carry out our divinely given commission to proclaim the Word of
JEHOVAH God.
"In America, Canada and other parts of the British Empire the political
clergy, priests and Jesuits have persistently persecuted and continue to
persecute those of our organization, and without just cause or excuse; and
we have every reason to believe that a like influence has been subtly
[sic] employed by the great enemy Satan to misrepresent us and our work in
Germany. We remind you that in the years past the political clergymen have
brought more sorrow upon the German people than probably any other class of
men. We have no desire to fight with the clergymen, but we do ask that the
ruling powers of the nation judge us not by the misrepresentation of such
men, but that we be judged according to the Word of God and the work we are
doing consistent therewith. Jehovah God persecutes no one, but permits each
one to choose his own course, holding him responsible for his acts
according to knowledge. Jehovah God has emphatically expressed his anger
against those who do persecute others who are trying to serve him; and this
proves that those who persecute us do not represent God, but that they are
incited so to do by the enemy of God and man.-Psalm 72:4
Great Truths
"The Holy Scriptures, viewed in the light of present-day events which are
in fulfilment of divine prophecy, disclose that: The time has arrived when
Jehovah will make his name known to all creation and vindicate his name and
clear it from the defamation which Satan has placed against that holy name.
(Psalm 83: 18) When Jesus Christ, the Vindicator, ascended into heaven
Jehovah commanded him to wait until his due time to put the enemy down.
That period of waiting has now come to an end and God has sent forth his
beloved Son to oust the enemy and rule in righteousness. (Psalm 110: 14;
Hebrews 10: 12,13) The world, or uninterrupted rule, of Satan has ended,
and this began to be evidenced by the World War in 1914, and since then
until now is the time when the gospel of the Kingdom must be told to the
people. (Matthew 24: 3,14) Satan has now been cast out of heaven and down
to the earth and now confines his operations to the earth in an endeavor to
blind the people to the truth and destroy them, and that is the reason for
the present-day sufferings of humanity. The prophetic words of Jesus now
apply: 'Woe to the inhabiters [the rulers] of the earth, and of the sea
[the people in general]! for the devil is come down unto you, having great
wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.'-Revelation 12:12
"The people of Germany have suffered great misery since 1914 and have been
the victims of much injustice practiced upon them by others. The
nationalists have declared themselves against all such unrighteousness and
announced that 'Our relationship to God is high and holy'. Since our
organization fully endorses these righteous principles and is engaged
solely in carrying forth the work of enlightening the people concerning the
Word of Jehovah God, Satan by subtlety [sic] endeavors to set the
government against our work and destroy it because we magnify the
importance of knowing and serving God. Instead of our organization's being
a menace to the peace and safety of the government, it is the one
organization standing for the peace and safety of this land .
We beg to remind all that the great crisis is upon the world because the
transition period from bad to good is at hand, and the hope of the world is
God's kingdom under Christ, for which Jesus taught his followers to
constantly pray: 'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is
done in heaven.'
"The power of Jehovah God is supreme and there is no power that can
successfully resist him. His time to exercise his power in the interest of
humanity and to the vindication of his great name is here. In this
connection we respectfully call attention to the admonition and warning of
Jehovah God, both to the rulers and to the people, which applies to this
very hour, wherein he says: "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of
Zion.... Be wise now, therefor, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but
a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.'-Psalm 2: 6,
10-12.
'"The present government having declared adherence to the aforementioned
high ideals, we are persuaded that the rulers do not desire to knowingly
resist the progressive witness work to the name of Jehovah God and his
kingdom which we are now carrying forward. If our work is merely that of
men, it will fall of its own weight. If it is of Jehovah God and being
carried forward in obedience to his commandment, then to resist it means to
fight against God.-Acts 5: 39.
We therefore appeal to the high sense of justice of the government and
nation and respectfully ask that the order of prohibition against our work
and our literature be set aside, and the opportunity be given us to have a
fair hearing before we are judged. We respectfully ask that the government
appoint a committee of impartial men to hold conference with a committee of
our organization and that a fair and impartial examination of our
literature and our work be made, to the end that all misunderstanding may
be removed and that we may without hindrance obey Jehovah God's commandment
now applying to us, to wit: 'Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye
the way of the people; cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up
a standard for the people.'-Isaiah 62: 10.
"The peoples of Germany are a God-fearing people and should not be deprived
of an opportunity to learn of Jehovah God and of his gracious provision to
bring lasting peace, prosperity, liberty and everlasting life on earth to
all those who know and obey him. Let all who love God work together to the
honor and vindication of his name. All who take a
contrary course must take responsibility before God; but as for us we will
serve Jehovah forever.
"RESOLVED, That copies of this Declaration be respectfully delivered to
high officials of the government and that the same be given wide
publication to the people, that the name of Jehovah may be further known."
Ps.The two world wars remain an enormous embarrassment for Christendom the spectre of supposed Christians indulging in the most unchristian mass fratricide on an industrial scale has certainly called the west's Christian credentials into question especially WWII the co-operation of the Protestant,Catholic and evangelical churches with both sides of what still holds the record as the most lethal international conflict of all time has left a particularly stubborn stain.The most notable exception to this failure to adhere to the christian principle of unarmed and pacific neutrality re:The national/political conflicts of the present civilisation (see Matthew26:52,Revelation13:10) has been Jehovah's servants in the twentieth and twenty first centuries.For their steadfasness in obeying God and Christ in this regard they have had to endure all manner of ill treatment at the hands of the political powers of this world with the full support of their religious confederates.
While no apology has ever been given by this civilisation's politicised religions for the ungodly hostility in which they have participated in against Jehovah's people their representatives have been quite busy spreading all manner of libellous distortions half-truths and outright lies about us.
My aim in publishing in full the Watchtower Society's 1933 declaration to the German state and people is to counter one particularly egregious revision of the historical facts by anti-JW propagandists.The steadfastness of German servants of Jehovah in refusing to give any political/military co-operation to the Nazi state or even to so much as say "heil Hitler" is a matter historical record as is the suffering they willingly endured as a result.
Alas anti-JW propagandists aren't the sort to let a little thing like the facts get in the way of their mission thus some have quote mined the above document in an attempt to support the claim that the society proposed some kind of political compromise with the German state.
By way of providing some background at the time the Nazi party had just ascended to power as part of a coalition a mere three months before so the concentration camps,the final solution were yet ahead and like all entities indulging in electoral politics there was much rhetoric uttered about standing up for the common man against the elite,restoring or extending national greatness,supporting the family as the basic unit of the society and other platitudes with which no sane person would/could take issue.
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