fredag 30 november 2012

Animal empathy, suffering, killing a sentient being is always cruel

Animals are suffering and you are trying to rationalize a way this with argumentation based on your thoughts, not based on what the animals are feeling or are going through.
You are not putting yourself in their position! You are not even trying to feel what they are feeling!!!
Many people understand how much a dog can suffer. Cows, sheep, pigs and other animals are no different.

If you just want to understand the animal's perspective, instead of coming with insensitive and careless rationalizations of a barbaric human practice (i.e. the animal consumption), then please Google cows and suffering and see some video footage.
Killing an innocent, sentient being is always cruel and barbaric. There is no such thing as “humane” slaughter.

torsdag 29 november 2012

Vår kära hund Ahisma, en fredlig, kärleksfull rottweiler

Hej,
Ja vi tar med henne i vinter!!!! : )
Vår kära hund heter Ahisma.

Lärde mig det av Philip Wollen (en person som stödjer 400+ organisationer som hjälper människor och djur), som har en fantastisk video, där han talar i tio minuter om varför det är oetiskt att ta medvetande djurs liv.
Han har även oerhört tänkvärda citat som jag gillar mycket.
"The most beautiful single word ever written in any language in human history came from the Upanishads, three thousand years ago in India. . . . . Ahimsa. . . .  . Non violence to any living being."
"If we have learned anything it is this. . . . . . .  in their capacity to suffer, a dog is a pig is a bear . .  . . . . . is a boy."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQCe4qEexjc

Vi träffade vår kära hund hos personen som hon växte upp hos; och hon gosade mycket med Hannah och vi blev väldigt fästa vid henne. Vi är så glada för vår härliga hund och älskar henne mycket!!!! : ) Det fanns många egenskaper som vi tyckte om med rottweilers - trofasthet, förmågan att skydda om det skulle komma någon elak människa som vill oss ont, och mer. Hon är väldigt lekfull och även gosig!
Hon har varit med oss sen i fredags. Vi får se om vi går på någon/några hundkurser.

Ta hand om dig kära syster; ser mycket fram emot att se dig!!!

Predators, suffering of animals

Reply to a Facebook-post:
:(
Both the cat and the bird are sentient beings. Both love life, both love their family. Both feel suffering, joy and love at times. The individual's family suffers when their beloved family member is killed.
So it so sad that many sentient individuals of species throughout the ages decided to kill and eat each other.
I think it is so sad when a fox kill or a rabbit, or a snake kills a human, or a human kills a cow.
Please watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQCe4qEexjc

Honey, bees are sentient beings

Jennifer,
Hope you are doing well!
This is all good advices, except for the honey.
Did you know that bees are sentient beings; they need the honey they are creating; and they are usually suffering because of the practices of those whom are stealing the honey from their hives and are "taking care" of the bees:
More about bees and human exploitation:http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm
I was ignorant about bees and honey until quite recently.

Do plants communicate with each other? Are plants sentient?

Knut,
It is very interesting and I am really fascinated of how complex organisms are!!
The researcher I quoted agrees on that plants are communicating. I agree with him on that this doesn’t imply that plants are sentient, thinking beings,  that are able to feel subjective pain.
You can e.g. create robots that are communicating. I think the trees communication is much more complex. But a more complex design, doesn't imply that they are sentient.

The researcher answers the question “Do plants communicate with each other?”:
At a basic level, yes.  But I guess it centers around how you define communication. There is no doubt that plants respond to cues from other plants. For example, if a maple tree is attacked by bugs, it releases a pheromone into the air that is picked up by the neighboring trees. This induces the receiving trees to start making chemicals that will help it fight off the impending bug attack. So on the face of it, this is definitely communication.

http://news.yahoo.com/plants-think-110000318.html

Plant's dont suffer any subjective pain and they are not able to think.

Trees don't suffer any subjective pain, nor are they able to think. They are not sentient.

"No I wouldn’t, but maybe that’s where I’m still limited in my own thinking! To me thinking and information processing are two different constructs. I have to be careful here since this is really bordering on the philosophical, but I think purposeful thinking necessitates a highly developed brain and autonoetic, or at least noetic, consciousness. Plants exhibit elements of anoetic consciousness which doesn’t include, in my understanding, the ability to think.  Just as a plant can’t suffer subjective pain in the absence of a brain, I also don’t think that it thinks."
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-plants-think-daniel-chamovitz&page=3

Animals love life, fear death; no humane slaughter

Zeeshan,
I don't agree with everything in the article.

"I never said that to eat animals you have to toss a live baby male chick. This is industry which I am totally against."
I didn't think you did either.
The point with my quote was that grass doesn't feel any pain; and neither do people think so. If they actually did think that grass feels pain when we walk on it, I hope they wouldn't walk on it.

If you actually do think that plants are conscious and feel pain; then it is possible for you to partake of fruits and nuts in a way that doesn’t hurt the plants.

"Refer to this article and Its scientifically proven that slaughtered animals don't feel pain. "
Did you mean that certain slaughter method?
It is possible to kill human’s animals as well painlessly (I mean pain caused from the actual assault) - but it is still morally despicable.
Slaughter will always involve the taking of an innocent, precious being; and will cause emotional pain!

Cows and other animals don’t want to die. Please don’t take their life!!!
Why would you ever want to take the life of a sentient, feeling, precious being?
They are not of less worth just because most humans can’t understand their way of communicating; or because that the human has a bigger intellectual capacity.

What do you think determines the worth of an individual?

“Like all animals, cows value their lives and don't want to die. Stories abound of cows who have gone to extraordinary lengths to fight for their lives.

A cow named Suzie was about to be loaded onto a freighter bound for Venezuela when she turned around, ran back down the gangplank, and leaped into the river. Even though she was pregnant (or perhaps because she was pregnant), she managed to swim all the way across the river, eluding capture for several days. She was rescued by PETA and sent to a sanctuary.
When workers at a slaughterhouse in Massachusetts went on break, Emily the cow made a break of her own. She took a tremendous leap over a 5-foot gate and escaped into the woods, surviving for several weeks during New England's snowiest winter in a decade, cleverly refusing to touch the hay put out to lure her back to the slaughterhouse.

When she was eventually caught by the owners of a nearby sanctuary, public outcry demanded that the slaughterhouse allow the sanctuary to buy her for one dollar. Emily lived out the rest of her life in Massachusetts until she died of cancer in 2004. Her life is a testament to the fact that eating meat means eating animals who don't want to die. “
Quote: http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/hidden-lives-of-cows.aspx

onsdag 28 november 2012

Bible, organic farming, slaughter

First of all,
Sorry for making an over-generalizing statement about ‘organic farming’ in the last post. My comment, written when being tired and very frustrated at the terrible maltreatment of animals and the big ignorance of it, was meant to criticize the myth of animal welfare of most organic farms. Furthermore, an explanation of what I was meaning was given at the link. I am aware that there are some farms that do treat their animals decently until the horrendous slaughter. People say that you can slaughter animals humanely. I disagree in that you can kill another innocent individual humanely. Surely there are methods that inflict the animal less pain; but you are still taking the life of another individual who love his family, love you (assuming you have treated him/her well) and love to live.

I believed in the Bible for 10 years (firstly as a Christian), observed the Torah for 5 years (after rejecting Christianity and NT); and now this autumn I came to the realization - based on facts, love, compassion and using all of my intellectual capabilities to pursue the truth - that the Torah contains errors and that the Creator didn’t give a soul/life to animals for any other species to take it. Animals - including humans - are meant to die when we naturally give up our breath.

I don’t agree with all PETA does. I don’t eat any processed ‘foods’. I eat very nutritious food and me and my wife love cooking.
Me and my wife plan to lives at a farm when we can afford it. Instead of contributing to the death of precious, sentient beings, we will have a safe haven where animals get to live their full life - just like the wonderful organizations ‘Gentle Barn’ and ‘Animal Sanctuary’.
My wife grew up at a farm. We live in an area with many farms and like being out taking walks. We haven’t yet found any farm that treats their animal well. Chickens all cramped up in a farm house getting sent to the slaughter house when they are 1 month old, in two farms they have pigs cramped up in small area - about 8 pigs in 6m^2. You can feel the smell from the pig house at a long distance showing that they don’t care for the pig’s health and environment.

Animals love life, be a vegan

It is wrong on every level to take away the liberty and life of an innocent and defenseless being.
Please don't participate in using animal products (including meat), since it leads to the death and suffering of precious, sentient, feeling and conscious animals !!! They love life, they love their family
. They feel suffering, fear. Please don't inflict them pain, which is done by the slaughter-industry -- and you partake of the carcasses.

Consider this:
King Lear, late at night on the cliffs asks the blind Earl of Gloucester “How do you see the world?”
And the blind man Gloucester replies “I see it feelingly”.
Shouldn’t we all?
Animals must be off the menu because tonight they are screaming in terror in the slaughterhouse, in crates, and cages. Vile ignoble gulags of despair.
I heard the screams of my dying father as his body was ravaged by the cancer that killed him. And I realised I had heard these screams before.
In the slaughterhouse, eyes stabbed out and tendons slashed, on the cattle ships to the Middle East and the dying mother whale as a Japanese harpoon explodes in her brain as she calls out to her calf.
Their cries were the cries of my father.
I discovered when we suffer, we suffer as equals.
And in their capacity to suffer, a dog is a pig is a bear. . . . . . is a boy."
Please listen to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQCe4qEexjc

Animals, herbivores, A God of love doesn't want any animal to suffer



Qasim,
I don't believe in a God that is pleasured by the suffering and death of any sentient being. I believe in a God that loves all conscious beings and takes care of them all!
I don’t believe in a God that is pleasured by the fox killing a rabbit; neither in a God that is pleasured in the snake killing a human, or a human killing a cow.
A God that endorses suffering, violence and death to innocent sentient beings (including all animal species) –that all are an integral part of the slaughter-industry – is a God that hasn’t love and compassion. I don’t believe in a God that in a “holy” book is endorsing his followers to kill other sentient beings. On the contrary, I think that such statements are written by people not grasping the Will of our Compassionate and Loving Creator.

I believe that our purpose – and all other animal’s purpose – on this planet are to live peacefully with each other and without hurting each other.
Certainly there are animals that are not doing this; and the human, who is a herbivore, is manufacturing weapons and nets to put other individuals to suffering, just to satisfy a meat-craving.

"And when I say 'empathy', what I'm saying is: place yourself in the position of the animals, and start to view this issue from the animals' point of view. From the victims' point of view. When you examine any form of injustice, whether humans are victims or animals are victims, please remember the victim's point of view."

"If you are not the victim, don't examine it entirely from your point of view because when YOU'RE not the victim, it becomes pretty easy to rationalize and excuse cruelty, injustice, inequality, slavery, and even murder. But when you're the victim, things look a lot differently from that angle." [Quote: Gary Yourofsky ]

You wrote: “I am agree to animal abuse and cruelty like cutting some of their body parts is really not ok. They should also live natural life.”
How can it ever be natural to be slaughtered???
Virtually no animal is living a “natural life” before slaughter either.

Please watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6U00LMmC4

The statement about medicine is not incorrect. Eating meat is a danger for the human health. Please study through the research referenced at this website: www.drfuhrman.com
Also this research: http://www.thechinastudy.com/

Finally for your last argument,
The sole reason that the animal population is growing so fast, is because of the increased meat-eating that humans partake in.
E.g. lots of cows are forcefully inseminated each year to have calves; and then when they have been so mistreated that the industry doesn’t count them as viable anymore, they are slaughtered.
There are humane ways of limiting the future animal population in a way that doesn’t involve the killing of innocent sentient beings.

tisdag 27 november 2012

Conscious animals, science, religion, traditions

There is plenty of evidence that animals are conscious and we know both science that animals are able to feel suffering and how they communicate suffering.

"An international group of prominent scientists has signed The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in which they are proclaiming their support for the idea that animals are conscious and aware to the degree that humans are — a list of animals that includes all mammals, birds, and even the octopus.
There is plenty of evidence that animals are feeling suffering."

"The neural substrates of emotions do not appear to be confined to cortical structures. In fact, subcortical neural networks aroused during affective states in humans are also critically important for generating emotional behaviors in animals. Artificial arousal of the same brain regions generates corresponding behavior and feeling states in both humans and non-human animals. Wherever in the brain one evokes instinctual emotional behaviors in non-human animals, many of the ensuing behaviors are consistent with experienced feeling states, including those internal states that are rewarding and punishing. "

Quote: http://io9.com/5937356/prominent-scientists-sign-declaration-that-animals-have-conscious-awareness-just-like-us

"For the animal kingdom, the Holocaust never ended."

"Cruelty to an animal is something we learn. Put a child in a room with a toy and a bunny. If she plays with the toy and is cruel to the bunny, I will buy you a new car."

"Our culture, religion and tradition starts with oral history. Our belief in the superiority of humans is rooted in the darkness and superstition, passed on by word of mouth for centuries. It has become holy, writ large by human hands. If we taped an oral history of animal kingdom, the anguished screams would drown out the sound and fury of the Big Bang."

[Quotes: Philip Wollen]

måndag 26 november 2012

Evolution, natural selection, veganism, counter arguments

Andy,
Animals are conscious and have a soul.
These are the claims of science: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528836.200-animals-are-conscious-and-should-be-treated-as-such.html ; and also the claims of millions of people being in touch with animals whom understand that the connection and relation they have with them is not the connection/relation with a non-conscious 'fur-robot'. Without any soul that is exactly what the animals would be.

Man and animals didn't miraculously pop up on earth. What you observe here today is the result of billion individual’s decision throughout hundreds of millions of years (and the resulting evolution of certain instincts, etc., based on choices made by animals); and it is not logical to blame the Creator of choices that His creations have made.  The Creator created the universe, but didn’t control everything that occurred afterwards. Animals have a choice of what actions to make.
I don’t believe that the Creator sees any satisfaction or joy at all when a fox kills a rabbit; causing fear, suffering and death to the rabbit; and suffering to her family and potential human companions. I don’t think He approves of it.

You wrote: “As for empathy and cruelty, don't get me wrong, it is important for man to treat animals humanely, and in all honesty, we don't always do so.”
Good that you state so!!!!!
However, your meat eating states the opposite. You are preaching by your actions.
There is no secret that anyone’s meat eating is causing severe pain and suffering for animals: See e.g. this documentation: http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming.aspx
Your lifestyle gives your silent approval of this.
You state: “Animals are not described as being created in God's image.”
And this is according to a book, which is written by human animals, and based on their misunderstanding.
Yet many animals are showing far more love and compassion to their fellow beings and humans compared to men themselves.

I believe that sentient beings all have attributes that resemble the nature of our Creator. However, most sentient beings are not showing love and compassion to all animals and are thus not living according to the image of our Creator.

I haven’t found any evidence that humans are ‘ABOVE’ animals. Surely man has attributes and brain capacities that other animals don’t have. However, a less complex brain/brain not using all of its potential functions in a human or another animal doesn’t make an individual of any less worth.

Spirituality, animals vs humans, empathy, Gary Yourofsky

Plant-eating-animals are on a higher spiritual understanding than those human animals whom participate in killing sentient human or non-human animals.
Taking another innocent sentient being's life is certainly the worst atrocity you can commit!
Just because writers of religious books, including the Torah, wrote that it is okay, does NOT make it ethical.
Causing sentient beings suffering and death doesn't reflect a loving and compassionate Creator.
There exists no proof whatsoever that the value/worth of a non-human animal, would be any less than the value of a human animal.

”I want to ask you, to use some empathy right now. And when I say ‘empathy’, what I’m saying is: place yourself in the position of the animals, and start to view this issue from the animals’ point of view. From the victims’ point of view. When you examine any form of injustice, whether humans are victims or animals are victims, please remember the victim’s point of view. If you are not the victim, don’t examine it entirely from your point of view because when YOU’RE NOT the victim, it becomes pretty easy to rationalize and excuse cruelty, injustice, inequality, slavery, and even murder. But when you’re the victim, things look a lot differently from that angle.” - Gary Yourofsky

söndag 25 november 2012

Vegan, ethical lifestyle; 'organic meat' a myth

Brian,
You wrote: "Not all meat is poor quality product produced in industrial plants, there is another choice - to eat organic "

First of all, It is always unethical to take the life of another sentient being. It also causes them and their famlily suffering. Who gave man the right to take the life of any sentient and feeling being?

Secondly,
Why their may be a few farmers whom treat their animals well for a few year, before their horrendous slaughter of their companions;
the term 'organic meat' is usually a myth: http://www.peta.org/issues/Animals-Used-For-Food/Free-Range-Organic-Meat-Eggs-Dairy.aspx

Lastly I would like to recommend everyone this video with many convincing and ethical arguments of why to live a vegan lifestyle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQCe4qEexjc&feature=plcp

Vegan life style; don't eat animal products

For me it was an easy shift. It is impossible for me to eat animal products (including eggs, milk and honey), since I don't want to partake in sentient beings death and suffering. And everyone eating animal products is contributing to this.

Animals are just treated terribly; some examples: http://www.peta.org/search/SearchResults.aspx?q=factory%20farm [also in Sweden they are, e.g. chickens: http://www.djurskyddet.se/se/vart-arbete/tips--rad-om-djur/konsumera-ratt/livsmedel/kyckling ]


People whom have eating meat can have a lot of meat cravings, since regular meat-eating in several ways is like a drug; but with a strong motivation one can overcome it.

I also recommend you this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQCe4qEexjc
I found this website helpful (ignoring that which contains animal products): www.drfuhrman.com/

There are plenty of very tasty vegan food to make.

Why do you find it difficult?
Have a great day my friend !! Take care!!


måndag 19 november 2012

Bibeln, djur , vegetarian, vegan

Hej Aram,
Här följer en del som jag håller för sant nu (bl.a. om djur):
Jag argumentar att vi inte ska äta någon individ som har ett medvetande, inklusive kan uppleva smärta och andra känslor.
Plantor har inget medvetande – och det är ingen individ som vi orsakar skada genom att äta plantor. Jag hävdar att vi har rä
tt att på ett etiskt sätt använda oss av det som endast är materia utan medvetande, t.ex. plantor, vatten och bakterier.
Fiskar, kor, hästar och många andra djur har ett medvetande. Även många insekter kan ha ett medvetande: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1228661/Insects-consciousness-able-count-claim-experts.html

Varför ska vi orsaka andra medvetande individer smärta? Vad ger oss den rättigheten?

Vi kan så enkelt undvika det eftersom det inte är några svårigheter att leva på en vegansk diet.

Varför jag menar att man inte ska äta någon individ med ett medvetande: Jag tror det finns en Skapare och det påverkar min etik i hur jag ser på en individs liv och vårt förhållningssätt till alla individer. Jag tror inte längre på någon religiös bok (efter 11 år som en religiös fundamentalist- inget som jag är stolt över) eftersom jag har funnit fel, motsägelser och oetiska bud. Jag hävdar att Skaparen har gett individer en själ – en icke-fysisk komponent som ger individer t.ex. möjlighet att ha en fri vilja (och som gör oss till mer en oerhört sofistikerat robot, som inte har ett medvetande eller fri vilja). Vidare menar jag att vi inte har fått någon rätt att ta det liv som Skaparen har gett till individer.

De flesta människor förstår att det är objektivt fel att ta en oskyldig människas liv. Jag gör inte någon skillnad på arten av denna individ; och tycker inte att en mer avancerad hjärna och t.ex. en mer avancerad förmåga att resonera ger oss en rättighet att ta andra individers liv och att orsaka andra individer smärta och lidande. Jag menar istället att ökad kunskap och vårt stora medvetande att vi kan leva en livsstil utan att ta andra individers liv (oavsett art) ger oss ett större ansvar i fråga om hur vi lever.

.... [Slut citat]

Vad tycker du?
Jag har sett två grisfarmar här i Rakkestad. Igår såg jag grisar på en yta på 6 m^2 med 8 grisar. Det är helt oacceptabelt att blanda djur så. Grisar trivs som bäst när dem får springa runt på gräs och leka. De tycker om livet när folk behandlar dem bra!
Jag menar att Bibelns författar hade fel när dem trodde att Skaparen gav dem tillåtelse att offra och döda djur.

Se mer här om hur mycket kor, grisar och får älskar liv och hur illa folk behandlar dem: http://www.youtube.com/user/gentlebarn

Ha det bra!
mvh Anders

Bees, honey and being vegan


Hello Paul,
I hope you are doing well!
Regarding honey: In the bee-industry they many time kill the queens; and bees get hurt when they take away THEIR honey.
You agree that we shouldn't hurt conscious beings.
Bees are conscious and actually can feel the pain.
I found this today: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1228661/Insects-consciousness-able-count-claim-experts.html
I have stopped eating honey.

lördag 17 november 2012

Religious people, truth, Torah? Use your compassion, love and intellect to be a good person

Andrew,
If you follow a religious book you are blindly following other people's eyes and heart - i.e. their understanding/claimed understanding. This is quite disastrous for millions of innocent animals and people suffering and getting killed throughout millennium. So why, o why, are you assuming Torah to be true?????
You are accusing me and other people claiming that we are not allowed to take the life of the Creator's sentient beings, of serving myself rather than the Creator --- but where is your evidence for this accusation??

I rather use and develop my compassion and love, intellect and logic - attributes which the Creator bestowed in us (without using all of my abilities given to me by the Creator) - then blindly follow a book with contradictions, errors and immoral killings and other immoral practices .

Killing animals is immoral

James Walker,
It is indeed very sad!
Slaughtering them on the same day (which is not described in the above on text); or on different days --- you are still taking the life of an individual - which is immoral; and causes suffering to the cow being killed and to his/her family.
Just because it is in a religious book written by ancient people doesn't mean that the Creator endorses it. The Creator gave the cow many years to live, and people are shorten it by e.g. 5 or 10 times. The Creator gives life and has not given us permission to take it.

lördag 3 november 2012

Animals, value in the eyes of our Creator?

Argument: "It's silly to say that we shouldn't eat meat when our hominid ancestors and primate cousins have been eating meat for many thousands of years.
If it is as you say and we are no more important that the animals, how can we be held to a different standard? They kill for food, so can we."

Here are my thoughts:
With greater understanding comes greater responsibility.
We must consider the improved capabilities that we have compared to other of our Creator's creations, and use them wisely and with love and compassion.
We have the capability of reasoning about whether it is ethical to take the life of another of our Creator's sapient being and this responsibility shouldn't be taking lightly.
To without any evidence assume a religious book, or assume what anyone else teaches about moral including killing sapient beings, to be correct isn't using all of the capabilities that we have.
How can we assume that the Creator wants us to prematurely take the life of His other sapient beings? Who gave us this right? We do not own them and we don't own their life.

Is an immoral individual of less value to the Creator?
Do we judge individuals based on if they are doing their best according to their understanding?
Does an increasing understanding of the Will of our Creator lead to an increased responsibility to act according to our increased understanding?
Does the act of starting to behave more morally cause an individual to be of more value to the Creator; and vice versa?
Why do people claim that we are allowed to take innocent animals life, but not the life of innocent men? Where is the consistency?
What would give man the right to take another sapient beings life?

Related to this behaviour: Where is the logic, where is the love, where is the compassion?
Where is the care for the animals life? Where is the care for their family?
----

How would you answer it?
What do you think about the above answer? How can it be improved?

Have a wonderful day!!! :)

False argument: Hominid ancestors ate meat, thus humans should also

With greater understanding comes greater responsibility.
We must consider the improved capabilities that we have compared to other of our Creator's creations, and use them wisely and with love and compassion.
We have the capability of reasoning about whether it is ethical to take the life of another of our Creator's sapient being and this responsibility shouldn't be taking lightly.
To without any evidence assume a religious book, or assume what anyone else teaches about moral including killing sapient beings, to be correct isn't using all of the capabilities that we have.
How can we assume that the Creator wants us to prematurely take the life of His other sapient beings? Who gave us this right? We do not own them and we don't own their life.


Stephanie wrote:
"
It's silly to say that we shouldn't eat meat when our hominid ancestors and primate cousins have been eating meat for many thousands of years."

Vegetarian, vitamins, B-12, plants

These multivitamin supplement made completely from non-animalic products proves the assumption to be wrong that you can't get B-vitamins from plants:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/shop/GCF.aspx
The daily dosage off this supplement contains 500% of the recommended daily intake of B-12.

Have a nice day!

Ancient Israelites - erroneous understanding of Torah and god?


Gary,

A few errors? Or much more than a few errors? If you research carefully and without a bias which filters pertinent facts – you will find out.
And even if a religious instruction manual was error-free or consistent with itself – what would that prove?
It still wouldn't prove that the instructions it contains originate from our Creator..
If you assume any religious instruction manual to be true and follow its moral commandments blindly without researching and using all facts available and all of your capabilities to discern if the commandments are desireable and moral, you may end up doing things that are not good.

”What does this have to do with serving our Creator David?? ”
How do we obey our Creator?
By assuming that an ancient people's understanding is correct? How would this be reliable?
How do you think the ancient people – e.g. the Israelites – came to conclusions about what they claimed to be the Will of the Creator?
How can you be sure that the commandments wasn't influenced by their own understanding – i.e. that there are commandments which are solely inspired by themselves and not by the Creator?

” How can you attack Torah from the outside and use outside resources to disprove something they know little about but only make general observations?””

Real, knowledgable scholars do have an intimate knowledge of Israelite culture and practises. Joining the Israelite religion doesn't give access to any secret knowledge.
In fact knowledgable religious Scholars study much more broadly than the vast majority of all adherents to any religion. Adherents to a religion often study very selectively and avoid facts which could cause them to question their religion. And if they ever would study such facts there bias highly affects what they are reading. The same mistake I did when I belonged to Christianity for six years and later to Judaism for five years.
An example of a Scholar is Moshe Weinfeld. I bought his book 'Deuteronomy 1-11'. I will not read it as most religious persons read their religious book – i.e. without questioning the facts and the con clusions made.

fredag 2 november 2012

Errors in the Bible and in the Quran

Umair Javed,
Hello!

He is correct about that the logical conclusion based on the available evidence is that there exists a Creator whom created this universe.

He assumes without any evidence that the Creator wants us to obey any of the big religions/any religion.
His claims about Judaism and Judaism being exclusively for those whom are born Jews is erroneous. If you study ancient Jewish sources you will see this.
I did for many years insist that the Creator wants us to obey an ancient instruction manual and I believed this manual to be Torah.
I even thought that I had proof…
However, when I started to study I saw that I was wrong about this.
There is no proof for Islam being the religion of the Creator.
Islam advocates killing of animals and some people – which the Creator never has given permission to.
Religious books are attempts by ancient men to either understand the will of the Creator / a way of gaining power.
If you rely on a religious book you rely on the understanding of the author/authors of that book. There is no guarantee that he/they is/are right.
I think that to determine the Will of our Creator we should use all of the capabilities we have, our intellect, love and compassion and all facts that are available; and to based on this make an as unbiased conclusion as possible about the Will of our Creator?

Surely, we can study different religious book and learn from them, but we shouldn't assume that they are right in all of what they do command.

torsdag 1 november 2012

Creator does not allow us to take the lives of His creations-including animals

Jonathan,
"Prove ...that the Creator never gave permission to eat them"
The same logic that prohibits us to take the life of humans.

Why do you think that animals are of less worth than humans?

You would found it reprehensible with someone killing their dog, cat or your horses. I agree it would be terrible!!
The Creator's other beings are of NO less worth.

Assuming a holy book to be true, so many people have hardened their hearts; and think it is of okay to kill some of our Creator's sentient beings.

The Creator gave their lifespan. Who are we to shorten it??
He gave our lifespan and their lifespan for a reason. Slaughter houses many time reduce their life span more than 10 times.

I write only this because I care of you and care of the animals:
You may assume it to be right to take the life of other beings; but it will never change reality.
Reality is that there are no proofs at all that the Creator allowed men to take the life of animals; and that we should take care of His creations -- not kill them!!!