Rocky

Who cares whether Mike tells you your answers might be wrong. Mike, however, with his overly simplistic and generalized proposal demonstrates a gigantic failure of imagination. Regarding those good words and fair speeches... For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. Romans 16:18 (KJV) Mike seems to indict both Victor Wierwille and himself in doing so. And pretty much ALL of us who fell under his influence, had our hearts deceived for a time.

Another quote, "what interests him [scientist (an actual academic) Petr Janata, who teaches at UC Davis] is how movement, music, and emotion influence each other."

https://curiositystream.com/video/8174 My Music Brain, a documentary highlighted by having Sting have an fMRI to measure electrical activity of a master musician. Here's a quote that caught my attention: "the deepest parts of your brain are ordering you to move."

Mike, are you trying now to find a new rationalization for bibliolatry? Are you reluctant to challenge your beliefs?

I wasn't refuting, rebutting, or arguing contrary to your point. And I still wouldn't. Would you have a problem with a thread in the doctrinal forum on the subject of bibliolotry?

Well, I still maintain Victor Wierwille's entire enterprise was based on and revolved around bibliolatry. Nevertheless, on other things, I've held the same concern you raised and believe your concern is quite valid. Perhaps I'll start a thread on the topic of bibliolatry in the linked forum. I appreciate your assertiveness in raising the issue.

Got it. Thanks.

I've been watching this for a while. It appears to be playing on a loop. I say this because I see Nancy Mace (R-SC) saying the exact same thing a second time.

Though this clip is from a Congressional hearing, it's clearly NOT partisan.

As I understand it, sexual predation IS core to any social organization based on authoritarian leadership unless strong guardrails are in place and effective. I just learned "Women Talking" will be on Amazon Prime (for no charge) beginning August 29, 2023.

Did you view the video with Michio Kaku?

And not that discussion with Mike or the subjects we engage in on GSC are science, but this brief TED talk seems relevant. Then again, he seems to approach them in a pseudo-scientific way sometimes.

That wasn't the issue. I've known all along. The question, as I see it, is why it took so long to pin him down, rhetorically.

https://alexandercenter.com/alexandertechniquebooks.html

My view is Mike is completely free to have been a seeker who just decided. However, that's not what Mike's role as an activist for promoting all things Wierwille, PFLAP, and the associated written collateral materials... ARGUING (incredibly poorly) for that position. Last night, I tried to pin him down and get him to justify his position. He replied with what I read as extreme frustration, expressed with emotionally immature and accusatory language. I realized at that time the only way for me to reasonably respond to him when he does that is with compassion. I maintain that his advocacy for all things twi is worthy of reasonable and aggressive pushback. When he seems to go off the rails, that signals to me he needs to be responded to with compassion.

I mentioned recently I believe this topic is completely germane to the About the Way forum because Victor Wierwille built his entire enterprise on and around bibliolatry.

In Avalos' book, The End of Biblical Studies, he cites a past president of the Society for Biblical Literature, Morton S Enslin, who "sounded a near death-knell on December 27, 1945. In a presidential address titled "The Future of Biblical Studies," he posed the question "Is there a Future of Biblical Studies?" His initial answer is "Of course there is." But the rest of the speech is not so optimistic, and near the end he proclaims that "we are destroying our future through showing ourselves unworthy of having one." pg 308.

YW. I am confident you will benefit greatly from her message, her insight, her wisdom.

Yes, that's an astute assessment. Restated in the framework of Brené Brown's research, Mike is apparently too insecure to vulnerably show up as himself. Instead of "fitting in," he has spent more than two decades trying to make readers here fit in to his belief system, even though pretty much everyone he addresses has rejected that world view and belief system. Mike also adamantly heretofore has refused and rebuffed efforts to reach out to him with compassion. He doesn't engage in legitimate discussion. That's sad for him and sad for us.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57763399-the-power-of-vulnerability

And not in some hip contemporary sense of the word wicked.