The earth from a distance

[Coxhere]

It's a very easy way to deceive people and give them wrong impressions - to lie by ommission.

"Oopsie, sorry but I forgot to mention that bit."

Yeah. If my memory serves me right, our teacher said that the library was destroyed by "infidels." All I remember was that all that all that accrued knowledge was burned. I wondered how long it would take to re-acquire what was lost.

 

[Outdated]

I wondered how long it would take to re-acquire what was lost.

Very little was lost. Back then they had a very limited vision of what "the known world" contained which was basically just Europe. Their purge of information didn't extend any further in to Asia or Africa.

I had the benefit of having a Tibetan Monk for a history teacher one year, that was the first time I started to take an interest in history.

 

[Coxhere]

Very little was lost. Back then they had a very limited vision of what "the known world" contained which was basically just Europe. Their purge of information didn't extend any further in to Asia or Africa.

I had the benefit of having a Tibetan Monk for a history teacher one year, that was the first time I started to take an interest in history.

So, all these many years, I thought great treasure books of knowledge were forever lost!

 

[Outdated]

So, all these many years, I thought great treasure books of knowledge were forever lost!

Mind you, a lot of what that monk taught us disagreed with contemporary christian versions of history and the school didn't renew his contract at the end of that year. It was a shame, he was a seriously good teacher.

 

[Coxhere]

Mind you, a lot of what that monk taught us disagreed with contemporary christian versions of history and the school didn't renew his contract at the end of that year. It was a shame, he was a seriously good teacher.

Is the nation of Australia a religious state or a secular one? Do religious fanatics have great influence on the governments of the States of Australia like they do here? Did you study in public secular or private religious schools?

 

[Outdated]

Is the nation of Australia a religious state or a secular one? Do religious fanatics have great influence on the governments of the States of Australia like they do here? Did you study in public secular or private religious schools?

In this Australia is vastly different from the US. According to our constitution we have a secular government, but for a very long time things didn't really work that way and religion dominated our society. We were a nation of white supremicist religious extremists.

That collapsed in the late 60s and through the 70s and the people turned away from religion and all the corruption that goes with it in a big way. In Australia any politician that dares mention the word God will find themselves losing the next election by a landslide, religion is not popular here by a long shot.

There have been a lot of religion based schools in Australia for the last couple of decades now but they're starting to find themselves in all sorts of trouble with our laws. I'm a big campaigner on that front too, if they want to receive public funding then they must accept students from all of the Australian public and they're not allowed to discriminate in any way.

That means they have to accept gay and trans students without discrimination, they also have to accept Islamic students and respect those student's religion.

A religious faction in our government tried to introduce what they called a "Religious Freedom" bill that basically stacked everything in favour of christianity. That bill never passed but we did latch on to the name and completely rewrote the entire thing in a form that did get passed. We now have religious freedom in Australia, and for many of us that means we have the right to be free from religion. People aren't allowed to come knocking on your door and trying to ram their religion down your throat any more, that's illegal because it's disrespectful to people of other religions.

It was only ever christians that did that anyway. No more young yanks in black suits calling themselves Elder.

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

@Outdated Ironically, the actual Scriptures described the Earth as a circle which sounds round not flat.
Bible Gateway passage: Isaiah 40:22 - King James Version

 

[Outdated]

@Outdated Ironically, the actual Scriptures described the Earth as a circle which sounds round not flat.
Bible Gateway passage: Isaiah 40:22 - King James Version

That's organised religion for you. Most of them will simply ignore their own scriptures wherever it's not convenient.

 

[Coxhere]

In this Australia is vastly different from the US. According to our constitution we have a secular government, but for a very long time things didn't really work that way and religion dominated our society. We were a nation of white supremicist religious extremists.

That collapsed in the late 60s and through the 70s and the people turned away from religion and all the corruption that goes with it in a big way. In Australia any politician that dares mention the word God will find themselves losing the next election by a landslide, religion is not popular here by a long shot.

There have been a lot of religion based schools in Australia for the last couple of decades now but they're starting to find themselves in all sorts of trouble with our laws. I'm a big campaigner on that front too, if they want to receive public funding then they must accept students from all of the Australian public and they're not allowed to discriminate in any way.

That means they have to accept gay and trans students without discrimination, they also have to accept Islamic students and respect those student's religion.

A religious faction in our government tried to introduce what they called a "Religious Freedom" bill that basically stacked everything in favour of christianity. That bill never passed but we did latch on to the name and completely rewrote the entire thing in a form that did get passed. We now have religious freedom in Australia, and for many of us that means we have the right to be free from religion. People aren't allowed to come knocking on your door and trying to ram their religion down your throat any more, that's illegal because it's disrespectful to people of other religions.

It was only ever christians that did that anyway. No more young yanks in black suits calling themselves Elder.

Does each Australian state have its own constitution or is there a national constitution that says you can't smear Gay Australians and you can't go door-knocking for the LDS church?

Everything about politics in this damn country is tied tightly to Christianity, which of course is idiotic. Every politician here must use the word "god" or they're in trouble. god-this-and-god-that. SICKENING! On the other hand, if a "godly" politician would condemn Gay people, that politician would gain support. It's not so bad now because there are so many Americans who've "come out of the closet" that it doesn't gain votes so much anymore. It's still great to HATE Gays in the south, however.

In this last election, an Islamic woman was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives. She represents one of the northern states, of course, possibly Minnesota or Wisconsin. How she won, I have not idea. However, Trump got wind of her victory and is having her investigated for terrorist activities. Had you heard about this?

Oh by the way, several years ago, the Southern Baptist Church held it's "convention" in Dallas, Texas. They like to get together on the national level and let everyone know how powerful they are. (Southern Baptists separated from the rest of the Baptists over slavery and the American Civil War. They've NEVER changed their name back to plain Baptists even though the insurrectionist south lost the war- - - -160 years ago- - - -and the Union was saved.)

I gotta stop, Outdated, thinking about this crap makes me sick!

 

[Outdated]

Does each Australian state have its own constitution or is there a national constitution that says you can't smear Gay Australians and you can't go door-knocking for the LDS church?

We're a federation of self governing states, each with their own constitution and their own parliament. State constitutions are not allowed to contradict the federal constitution in any way and where ever there is a discrepancy in legal battles federal law takes precedent over state law. Other than that we're pretty independent and every state except for the Northern Territory and New South Wales is also self sufficient. We have trade surplusses, not debts.

Under Australian law all non profit organisations* also have to have their own constitution that doesn't contradict the Australian constitution. They are given a base copy of the constitution that they can work from with marked areas where they can make amendments if they like, provided that none of those amendments contradict the original. That means all sporting clubs, food charities, rural fire brigades, all those sorts of things.

*churches are still exempt. Oh boy do I want to see that one changed, no more siphoning tax free money out of my country.

 

[Judge]

*churches are still exempt. Oh boy do I want to see that one changed, no more siphoning tax free money out of my country.

When I was an insurance underwriter, I still recall how many social clubs masqueraded as "churches" just to attain such a tax status. And how aggressive the insurance agents could be if and when I questioned their purpose, often based on comprehensive loss control inspections of the premises and interviews with the management.

One of the few situations where we were powerless to avoid them legally. Though their exposure to loss in general wasn't very great.

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

When I was an insurance underwriter, I still recall how many social clubs masqueraded as "churches" just to attain such a tax status. And how aggressive the insurance agents could be if and when I questioned their purpose, often based on comprehensive loss control inspections of the premises and interviews with the management.

One of the few situations where we were powerless to avoid them legally. Though their exposure to loss in general wasn't very great.

I think it is sad that so many people blame God for the things people who claim to serve Him do even though the things they are doing are contrary to His commands.

 

[Coxhere]

I think it is sad that so many people blame God for the things people who claim to serve Him do even though the things they are doing are contrary to His commands.

If I remember correctly back many years ago, Jesus said that he gives a new commandment for people to love one another. I really don't like the verb, "to command," and the noun, "commandment." The word means "the right to govern or rule or determine," command implies the power to make arbitrary decisions and compel obedience. I am an anti-authority freak and to compel obedience gets a knee jerk reaction from me. I'm NOT going to obey! You can ask me nice or not at all.

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

I think that is sad, but you have to decide for your self whether to follow Christ or not. Since I would not even exist if God had not created humans, I think He knows better how things should be than I could hope to.

 

[Coxhere]

I think that is sad, but you have to decide for your self whether to follow Christ or not. Since I would not even exist if God had not created humans, I think He knows better how things should be than I could hope to.

I think you've treaded into a territory that mods might not permit. I'm tempted to write more but won't.

 

[Judge]

I think it is sad that so many people blame God for the things people who claim to serve Him do even though the things they are doing are contrary to His commands.

That's not blaming God for anything. Just a business perspective regarding avaricious people attempting to take advantage of tax loopholes and ambiguities. They were not entities operating under the auspices of any religions that our loss control inspectors could identify. Just exposures indicative of a private social club with recreational facilities.

As if their spirituality as a non-profit business entity only came up on paper. Essentially the same scrutiny that they likely got from the Internal Revenue Service.

God doesn't commit acts of fraud. People do.

As far as insureds went, my favorite religious institutions I underwrote and insured were various Jewish temples primarily in San Francisco. Very conscientious about their exposures and property. Particularly their valuable Torahs and exposure to vandalism.