Qing's arrival and beyond .

[Arnold]

That is a very graphic film Arnold, both in visual and sound.

Did you watch the original Hebrew version or did you have subtitles?   Did Qing have problems following the dialogue, I certainly did?

It was with the subtitles, but both of us had no problem keeping up. It did surprised me somewhat, that Qing was able to follow it mostly... otherwise I told her what was happening when I could see a Question mark on her face.
I will have nightmares, she'd say... but it was all calm in the morning.

definitely a Film I wouldn't want to see a second time...

[Rhonald]

Jesus certainly had one thing in his mind at that time.  He was the only person to have ever died who was 100% definately certain that there is another life. The rest of us can only hope that our beliefs come to fulfilment.

Budda believed in the Parinirvana and at his death he has been said to have achieved that state.

I have as yet, not seen the movie, but I remember the controversy when it did come out. It is too bad the Mel Gibson's recent Alcohol abuse and legal issues that have come out has tarnished his career. I always enjoyed his movies.

My wife and I recently saw Agora, about the philosopher Hypatia  during the Christianization of the Roman empire. What struck me is how the movie portrayed how zealously early Christians pushed to ban other religious thought. It was akin to how we today perceive the Muslims doing in the middle east.

[David E]

Might I gently remind you all that we have a religion thread so that those of us who find religion irrelevant and faintly ludicrous dont have to get puffed up and reply to such threads as this.....

Having said that....It was only the delusional last chance effort by Emperor Constantine to preserve the future of the "mighty" Roman Empire that enabled Christians to achieve such a status.

This was the Empire that had a 500 year old tradition of Polytheism and was founded on the bloody rituals of sacrifice and such barbarities.

Without Constantine, Christianity would only be a minor fringe religion...and Constantine had not the slightest interest in religion...he only wanted to do something to protect his very tenuous position at the head of a failing Empire...and it did not work. Within avery short time the Roman Empire fell into ruin...."God" certainly did not help Constantine or the Roman Empire !!!!

[Arnold]

Might I gently remind you all that we have a religion thread so that those of us who find religion irrelevant and faintly ludicrous dont have to get puffed up and reply to such threads as this.....

 

Sorry David, I knid of knew that I was going to be in hot water with you.. Posting this. I was just going to mention about the Movie and Qing watching it with me. I also was thinking about putting it into the Religious Threat, then... this Threat is about both of us and that is why I decided to go for "Here".

[Rhonald]

Yes, being Arnold thread, I could see why he placed this part here. I too watch movies with my wife, getting them on loan from the library. She has seen a few Mel Gibson movies since coming here: Bounty, Foerever Young, Ransom, and Conspiracy Theory, but the library doesn't seem to have this movie. It is interesting exploring our cultural differences when she gets exposed to our culture style movies.

As a side note, I have read this past month 3 books that explore the culture clash between Chines & American culture. Mao Last Dancer was a movie I have seen so I decided to read the book as well. Brave Dragons: A Chinese Basketball Team, an American Coach, and Two Cultures Clashing was an eye openere on professional sports in China. And currently I am reading American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China that has the writer studing for 2 years at a shaolin temple. The author Matthew Polly loves puns, so when one of his master's girlfriend was always so vocal denoucing her boy friend, Matthew gave her a chinese name of Shou Ting.

American Shaolin: Craig Ferguson

[Willy The Londoner]

Might I gently remind you all that we have a religion thread so that those of us who find religion irrelevant and faintly ludicrous dont have to get puffed up and reply to such threads as this.....

 

Sorry David, I knid of knew that I was going to be in hot water with you..

My guess was the same as Arnold. My thoughts were to bring you out of the heat of Australia and put us in the hot water here.   

 Nice to see you back David.

Willy

[David E]

My guess was the same as Arnold. My thoughts were to bring you out of the heat of Australia and put us in the hot water here.   

 Nice to see you back David.

Willy

So...your new pastime is to poke me into responding....You know whatn they say about the Devil finding work for......!!!!!!! Seems to me you are bored Willy...maybe need a hobby 

However, you are correct, the whole of Australia seems to be on fire at the moment, the highest temperatures and the highest bush-fire risk we have ever seen. Could you please politely ask your God to stop these fires and to prevent more ruination of the Country Community and more tragic loss of innocent lives...people, plants, animals etc.

It will be interesting to see the progress of our new Royal Commission which is to make the most comprehensive and exhaustive findings on the sexual abuse of children over the past 50 years...anecdotally, we already are aware that the vast majority of the bastardly crimes against innocent children were (and still are ) perpertrated at the hands of the religious Community with connivance, avoidance and downright deceit practised by the Church heirarchy. It is systemic Institutionalised criminal behaviour against every moral code in the book.

So forgive me if I get a bit cynical about the "peace on Earth and Goodwill to all Men (and children) thing..........as for the benign, merciful God you speak about......try telling that to the families and Communities that have been devastated by the bushfires and on the other front, to those thousands of innocent children whose lives have been ruined for ever at the hands of the evil monsters within the Church Community. If only it was within MY power to visit appropriate punishment upon these monsters, we would see many public executions, together with hanging, drawing and quartering....and I would enjoy it immensely !!!!!!!!!

and ps...I have never been away...just lurking, because I did not feel that I had much to contribute of late. There is a distinct lack of current interest in finding a Chinese bride...maybe due to the economic realities that are prevailing across ,most of the Western World is stopping guys embarking on this journey...or maybe its something else...I dont know.

Cheers from an angry Aussie 

[Willy The Londoner]

Your probably correct in what you say David.  If only Jimmy Saville had been a Priest! We could have a bigger field day on that one.

Did you see the Film 'Sunshine and Oranges'   Even I learn something from that.  The British Government with the aid of well known Children's and christian charities took more than 130,000 children from their mothers and shipped them off to Australia. Some as young as 5 or 6.  They were said to be sent there for a better life, but what really happened was that they were kept in institutions until they were 15 and forced to work in the fields and to endure regular sexual abuse. 
 
 The mothers who were unmarried nor could not cope at that time but went they went they went to institutions to collect their children, sometimes only months later, they were told they child had been adopted. By the time one woman from England took up their cases many of the mothers had died.  A very moving film.100 years or more ago! No they were doing this in the 1960's, 70's and 80s. 

Even brought a tear or two to these old eyes.

Willy

[RobertBfrom aust]

and ps...I have never been away...just lurking, because I did not feel that I had much to contribute of late. There is a distinct lack of current interest in finding a Chinese bride...maybe due to the economic realities that are prevailing across ,most of the Western World is stopping guys embarking on this journey...or maybe its something else...I dont know.

Cheers from an angry Aussie 

David E , I to can also be called a lurker ha ha , maybe with so many lovely Chinese and other Asian ladies within our cities now that even us older guys are getting computer smart , they are meeting within their own countries , we have recently been party to bringing over a few well off Chinese widow ladies along with their children for schooling here and as they have to lodge somewhere in the region of 100k plus for the 1 st 3 years before they even get out here they are all looking for Australian husbands and even though due to stupid visa restrictions they are not required to work , we have found them all jobs within 48 hours of them arriving , and as you well know 9 out of 10 of them want to work , regards Sujuan and Robert .

[David K]

Might I gently remind you all that we have a religion thread so that those of us who find religion irrelevant and faintly ludicrous dont have to get puffed up and reply to such threads as this.....
Having said that....It was only the delusional last chance effort by Emperor Constantine to preserve the future of the "mighty" Roman Empire that enabled Christians to achieve such a status.
Cheers from an angry Aussie  [/]
Hi David E
I'm not at all sure how one does cheers when one is angry I've tried, but I cant manage it

But I'm entirely sympathetic to your perspective on religion. 
I've just finished reading Albert Schweitzers last book, written
when he was 75, after a lifetime of repairing sick Africans in Africa and restoring old organs in Europe
He considered first 300 years of Christianity to be ridden with factionalism, politics and downright
murder ..and that it strayed well away from the teachings of its founder....

Hence the atheists prayer:
" Lord protect me from your followers"

So how does this relate to my lovely chinese bride, and those who converse here on the net??
Well, I have found that if I set aside (momentarily) my notions of how it all is. and just look
afresh, I discover that Yan is far quicker to let go of any grievance that I am, and far slower
to enter into judgements.
"forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us"
"judge not lest you be judged"
So somehow she knows this stuff without having to have formal beliefs.
This led me to a study of LaoTze, and his appreciation that formal beliefs
get in the way of experiencing Tao.
So these days, if it springs from kindliness, whatever that means, I'm open to it.
If its a belief that must be followed, or a theology that must be adopted
I'm just ahead of that cloud of dust and small stones on the horizon.

So I see lots of kindliness here - and I've said as much, probably to the embarrassment
of those like Willy, you, Jerry, Shaun and others that I've talked to.
But most of all, its from my lovely wife.
We've been together every night for over 3 years, and I will often wake up trying to figure
how I ended up next to this absolute Goddess for over 1000 nights. 
She brings laughter, grace, commitment and adoration to the relationship,
and awakes those same qualities, long dormant, in me.

I've been richly blessed...with miracles, you might say..
So when someone invites me to to join in a belief system based on suffering
and guilt and loss, I can understand that that is where they are and not "nail them to the cross"...
But I walk on, and try to see kindness behind the evident insanity...

For me, there is no turning back
If you want more detail, PM me  :-)

[David E]

David K

Sorry...should have translated the "cheers" thing. It is a generic Aussie idiom covering (approximately) bye-for-now, see ya later, au revoir or similar. It has nothing to do with any sense of "cheerfullness". I will try to avoid such 'strine concoctions in the future 

You obviously have found your inner peace, your balance and your place in the grand scheme of things, aided also obviously by your beloved.....and that is a very nice place to be !! I am sure that many of us have also found our own place of peace, with or without our Chinese brides etc etc. I dont know how I ever deserved such a woman as Ming...but the Universe dealt me a full house on this particular hand and I dont question that at all !!........just enjoy it.

But my own personal peace is different from yours or anybody elses', it belongs to and resides uniquely within my own self, my own persona. For me, I need to be angry about a few things that contrive to put human beings at the lower end of the evolutionary spectrum....one of which is organised or Institutionalised religion, which under the unsupported premise of eternal life and happiness has consistently perpertrated or been complicit in, nearly all of the most evil aspects of the Human condition. It apeals to the most gross aspect of human beings....that being the utter arrogance and delusionment that of all things that have ever lived, both on this insignificant little ball of dirt and on countless other balls of dirt within the Universe, we are something special and deserving of something more.

The premise defies any logic, science, common sense or humility and is founded on the desperate need to have somebody else provide us with a better life because we basically stuffed up the first one.

I cant suscribe to this nonsence and I cant tolerate the great procession of syncophants and no-hopers who feel free to engage in the worst of human depravities whilst hiding behind some sort of "free-pass" because they believe in "God"

I cant suscribe to their never ending babble that "they" have somehow found a truth that has been denied to those of us who have no such beliefs...and their never ending endorsement of mythical, unproven, unsustainable and untenable claptrap. I have every right to defend my own belief system...same as those religious nuts who take every opportunity to ram their system down my throat as "the only one that has any truth in it"...when it is all founded on a myth and hearsay.

Now I will go back to contemplating my navel !!!! because I am on dangerous ground continuing this debate which should be in the religion thread....and Martin is gonna nail me any time soon !!!

Bye for now

DavidE

[David K]

David E...
Heres a trick I've found useful...

There is apparently a sin in Christendom thats unforgivable...
Blaspheming against the Holy spirit I think its called.
So when I am approached by one of 'them' seeking to 'convert' me to medieval thinking,
I mention that I have committed this unforgivable trespass,
 am therefore beyond the pale and thus have a right to be left in peace.

If they persist, I threaten to repeat the unforgiveable sin in their presence, thus earning
the instant wrath of God (see pic). I also point out that I am wearing asbestos underwear
and being banished to a Christian free zone hold no fears for me....

This usually works...
Although realising that its all much ado about nothing helps also :-)

[Arnold]

First I like to say, that I did not (ever) wanted this to be of any Religious debate.. especially here on my Thread.

My last paragraph:Besides, if I look back... I see many blessings/miracles coming my way in my Life. If you believe in the Lord and live by his "Law's", he'll shower you with Wealth (not the Money type) and Health... that only "He" can. I should know, just looking back into my Blog alone has proof of it.

Was "Only" my feelings alone and not to tell anyone.. that this is how one gets rewarded for their faith. So, I only ask a question if anybody else had shown their LaoPo this film and not to debate it in any other way.
I'm the last one to push anything on anybody, even my LaoPo... like I've said, she is interested in my Faith.. so I tell her. Not to convert her if she doesn't want to.

People with other believes/colors are no less of human beings as myself, therefore I do not judge their lifestyle or put them into catagories.. it's not me and never will be.

[David K]

Oh well, David E,
You are correct.. standby for 'incoming' for daring to poke your head above the parapet

But, as Willy will likely point out, all this has been foreshadowed by a wise Englishman
several centuries ago

 “If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended,
  that you have but slumber’d here, while these visions did appear.
  And this weak and idle theme, no more yielding but a dream.”
Midsummer Night’s Dream, V.i.425-430

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
The Tempest, IV.i.156-158

If you want to explore this further, you might care to start a separate thread

[David K]

And just to address Arnolds concerns:
I too am not looking to get into religious wars...

But, being somewhat older than most, I am interested in whether
the delightful relationship I have with my wife lapses when I quit
the body, or it is a reflection of some eternal truth.....
" now I see as through a glass darkly, then I shall see face to face"
 
Having a scientific / engineering background, I tend to be fairly rigorous
in my truth testing, but only to have greater confidence in what remains..

I'll track down the religious thread if I'm feeling brave, and David E doesnt
start one of his own