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Jack Oskar Larm
Good point. As you state, many 'pagan' cultures believed that everything had a soul, ie trees, rocks, a single thread in a tapestry, the knife that cut the bread, etc. A healthy dose of worship was spread around to those things that were part of one's life. I suppose it was about respect for the world around you - the world that sustained life. As we distanced ourselves from the mundane and worked towards 'civilisation' we could start to take life for granted. Basically, the Earth Mother was replaced by a singular god to reflect our new priorities. We were starting to see ourselves as greater than our instincts, our human nature.

But look at the price we are paying for turning our backs on her.

I more-or-less agree with you on that. Especially your final comment. Am I fair in assuming you mean the singular god reflects the ideal of 'civilisation'. And of course, the 'God's image' story serves as justification for humanity's dominance over nature (as does the 'take dominion of the earth' statement). The essential point is that in Judeo-Christo-Islamic religion, humans are distanced from the natural world and order by being placed 'above' it to 'govern/rule/dominate/care/etc' over it. While it too is 'God's creation' it is innately inferior to that which is essentially an extension of God himself (or itself, in the original hebrew) - i.e. the image of deity (however it is interpreted). Interestingly, while the theory of evolution technically returns the concept of humanity as an aspect of nature, the general mentality that it is there to be controlled still remains, largely unconscious.

That didn't really relate to the JOS, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Eudaemonium:

It is important to stay focused on the topic of a thread.

You can start a new thread focused on another topic though.

The topics here have general categories outlined from the main page of the message board.

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rrmoderator
Eudaemonium:

It is important to stay focused on the topic of a thread.

You can start a new thread focused on another topic though.

The topics here have general categories outlined from the main page of the message board.

Acknowledged and accepted; I apologise. It won't happen in future.

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Eudaemonium
But power corrupts, as does money - the JOS majorly started going downhill once she started the whole 'donations' racket. Considering she effectively lived off donations, the amount of 'research' she did and the time she spent answering questions just seemed to drop almost every week.

Were there a lot of 'donations?' :shock:

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kath
Were there a lot of 'donations?' :shock:

I was led to believe so. That said I was never offered figures, however several older, more affluent, members allegedly donated quite large sums of money to her. The items you get from her store aren't exactly worth the $ they cost either (think 20 sheets of A4 paper folded in half and stapled for the 'books'). However it was made fairly clear that she used donation money (as well as to purchase her pseudo-science alt. history 'study material') to pay her bills, buy food etc. I recently read on the JOS website (which I return to occasionally simply to see whether they're going downhill), that "Father Satan rewarded" her with a two week holiday - this was probably paid for by the donations.

When she was confronted about it, and it was stated that "If Satan provides for you, surely he can give you money," she said she had spoken to him and that the donations was "Father Satan's idea" - thereby stating she had divine guidance on asking for money, and that Satan wanted people to donate money to her.

this sounds crazy. who would beleive such a lie? It is too obvious. Why they cannot see?

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shininglight
this sounds crazy. who would beleive such a lie? It is too obvious. Why they cannot see?

Think of famous cults- Heaven's Gate, Charles Manson. By a strong leader and other methods people can be convinced to believe anything. And the people- who are often children- in the JOS are particularly young too.

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kath
Think of famous cults- Heaven's Gate, Charles Manson. By a strong leader and other methods people can be convinced to believe anything. And the people- who are often children- in the JOS are particularly young too.

Aside from famous cults, aren't all cults driven by "a strong leader"? Without one, I don't quite see how a cult could be formed.