₦airaland Forum

Stupid ho.

I bet u wouldn't be ''mysteriously attracted to him'' if he were the cleaner or driver at the office.

Go fuuk yourself, stupid gold digging ho.

Mizieya is right in establishing the falsehoods of the bible.

I've not read him say he doesn't 'believe in God'.

He just doesn't believe in God as depicted by the bible.

Who can blame him? The bible ''God'' (who in actual fact is Yahweh, a Jewish tribal god and NOT the Creator of the universes) is a violent, hateful, vengeful monster who thinks nothing of sending thousands of innocents to violent death just to feed the avaricious greed of Israelis (his ''chosen people'').

A ''God'' who routinely orders sex-attack, theft, lying, looting, and mass murder.

And then has the gall to send his ''son'' to be sacrificed to him, so he can forgive our sins.

But who will forgive his?

Listen up. Africans have known the Creator longer than any other region in history, because Africans were the first to be created and civilized.

Our people have ALWAYS believed in God. Every ethnic group in Africa has its traditional name for the Almighty.

Our ancestors believed that God, was 'remote' from human affairs in terms of direct intervention in the course of human history.

If you regard it objectively, you'll see that NOTHING has actually happened to invalidate their conception.

The idea that this God, whom our ancestors for thousands of years believed to be 'remote' from direct intervention in human actions, was all the while focusing his activities on the middle east for thousands of years to their complete ignorance, procuring 'chosen people', ordering massacres, sending down a ''son'' to be sacrificed for all humans etc, all to their ignorance right up till only a couple hundred years ago when Europeans needed slaves, is such a joke that it warrants little further comment.


One more thing. Africans never built any shrines or made any sacrifice to the Creator, as they believed that such was unnecessary, even blasphemous. The idea that the Creator required sacrifice of cattle, sheep, and humans, as practised by the biblical Israelis is abhorrent to the African conceptualisation of the Godhead.

By the way many christians seem not to realise that the Israelites regularly conducted human sacrifice including mass human sacrifice to ''God'', often on demand from ''God'':

"Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods.  In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully.  If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock.  Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it.  Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering [sacrifice] to the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT

Or what about this?


Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.  As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.  In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;  (Wisdom 3:5-7 NAB The Book of The Wisdom of Solomon) 


Or this?

At the LORD's command, a man of God from Judah went to Bethel, and he arrived there just as Jeroboam was approaching the altar to offer a sacrifice.  Then at the LORD's command, he shouted, "O altar, altar!  This is what the LORD says: A child named Josiah will be born into the dynasty of David.  On you he will sacrifice the priests from the pagan shrines who come here to burn incense, and human bones will be burned on you."  (1 Kings 13:1-2 NLT)

He [Josiah] executed the priests of the pagan shrines on their own altars, and he burned human bones on the altars to desecrate them.


That the Creator of the universes would require or demand sacrifice, not to mention human sacrifice would be laughable if it wasn't so slanderous.

African, and other pre-Christian religions lead the way in maintaining the truths about the Creator.

The ''holy books'' of christianity and islam comprise wide-ranging, audacious misrepresentations of the Creator.

Hellfire does not exist.

God does not punish people.

When you die, your soul (consciousness) returns to the spirit world from where it came.

In the spirit world there is life abundant.

Just as you do not need to 'believe in christ' to live in the physical world, you do not need to 'believe in christ' to live in the spiritual world.

Death is but a release of the soul from its physical encampment on earth to its natural freedom.

Many who have had Near Death Experiences and seen glimpses of the afterlife testify that NO CONDITION ON EARTH IS AS GOOD OR AS PLEASANT AS BEING 'DEAD'.

For more information see www.near-death.com

Money is FAR safer in a European bank than it could ever be in a Nigerian bank, and when the constantly depreciating naira is factored in, the decision about where to bank becomes considerably easier to make. Given a choice between banking my LEGALLY AND HONESTLY earned income in Europe or in Nigeria, I would unhesitatingly choose to place my trust in an established Western European bank every time.

If that fiscal preference makes me a fool in the eyes of some, then I will only add that I am a HAPPY and CONTENTED fool who aspires to adding many more foolish acts to my resume before the sun sets.

*** PS. Since this is my 1000th post, I humbly ask that Nairaland contributors kindly chip in funds to cover the cost of the virgins and the requisite animist sacrificial offerings that must be procured and forwarded to commemorate this momentous yet totally insignificant milestone in my pathetic existence. Thank you.

You sound like an exceedingly selfish, myopic and conceited individual.

You obviously have not ''factored in'' the effects of your mindset and consequent actions on the generality of your countrymen.

If we ALL thought as selfishly as you, there'll be not a dime left in the country.

Yes, you are indeed a compound, self-centred fool.

Zeitgeist. This is a gem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRZmzf7WiNg&NR=1

Nigeria is not the second poorest country in the world by even the wildest stretch of the imagination.

These are LIES peddled by foreigners with a definite agenda.

Why else would they manufacture such an OBVIOUS LIE??

Some people say Nigerians are soooo poor, but I DISAGREE.

When you visit some of these African countries, and see the conditions especially outside their capital city, then you'll know what deprivation is.

In some of those places, you'll struggle to find a battery, radio, clothes, soft drinks, a wristwatch, etc  to buy outside their main cities.

But in Naija even in my remote village, you can find these things and more in abundance with loads of buyers, and this is replicated throughout the country. The availabilty of such wares MEANS there are people willing and able to buy them, else no one would carry them.

I realise this is all anecdotal, but that's what's on the ground. Even during festivities like Easter, Christmas and Sallah, you see ''poor starving Nigerians on less than a dollar a day'' doing serious last-minute shopping for clothes, perfumes, jewelry, and presents. On Christmas day itself at my local market, a hefty trade went on with peeps rushing in to purchase goats and cows at the last minute! And this is hundreds of miles from any city!

I've been to other parts of Africa, and you just don't see that.

I even had a Gambian arguing with me the other day when I told him that in my village he could buy deodorant, T shirts, fruit juice, toiletries etc, and wine and dine in an air-conditioned restaurant. The guy said it was a lie!

He was comparing it to his village in the Gambia where, according to him, such 'luxuries' were unavailable. Only in the capital Banjul, and one other town he mentioned, could you find such stuff. Then tomorrow they'll tell us Gambians too are 'richer than Nigerians'.

Also, this idea that ''80% of Nigerians live on less than a dollar a day'' is just LAUGHABLE.

I'm really not sure what the people who declare these figures are smoking. Someone on CBS News (usa) in a documentary even had the nerve to claim that 80% of people in LAGOS lived on ''a dollar a day''.

LAGOS!

Now I'm not sure what part of Lagos this white correspondent went, but the wild inaccuracy of such claims is apparent even by a simple calculation of the cost of a bus ride from Oshodi to CMS, and disregarding every other expenditure including food, rent, school fees, and entertainment.

Yet incredibly, we have Nigerians who believe these worthless assertions.
 
But we cannot ALL be fooled. We realise there are serious problems of poverty in Nigeria requiring urgent attention, but we also know that the gravity of the problem has been WILDLY EXAGGERATED TO THE POINT OF FOOLISHNESS by foreigners with invariably ulterior motives.  

I think we should simply ignore them.

That FE team was just not good enough.

What a sad ending. Our boys lacked a cutting edge. With that we would have finished off the Chileans in regular time.

But there's always two years time.  

Chile are a really good team it has to be said. I saw them destroy Portugal, and I knew they would be a very tough nut to crack.

You must realise that this is not the original plan of Christianity and not all Christians are evil.

Then what was the original plan? To convert only a few people around Jerusalem?

Then WHY is there a christian stipulation that ALL men must ''accept'' ''jesus'' or risk eternal damnation?

If the church had NOT engaged in mass killings the length and breadth of the world, massacres and killings, how many christians do you think there would be today?

Certainly no more than a few thousand if that!

Therefore KILLING and MASSACRES on a mass, global scale is the ONLY reason we have a wide christian followership today. YOUR ANCESTORS WERE MASSACRED. That is why YOU are a christian today.

For 99.9% of christians today, they would not be christians today if such historical massacres had not taken place.

So to say that these massacres (as shown partly above) were 'not the original christian plan' means you should tell us JUST WHAT THE ORIGINAL PLAN WAS, BEARING IN MIND THAT THE BIBLE ITSELF STIPULATES THE KILLING OF UNBELIEVERS.

But from the moment the Roman Empire realised that religion was a powerful tool that can be used to rule the world, the religion changed forever.

There is evidence that the very idea of a ''jesus'' was invented by the Romans.

The first anyone wrote about him was 65 years after he allegedly existed.

And writers were NUMEROUS during the era and in that region, Seneca, Josephus, you name them.

It is obvious - if you read the relevant books - that ''jesus christ'' NEVER existed.

Today again, Christianity is playing another role of financial empowerment.

Erm,  what does that mean?

Thanks Denex. I actually see christianity as an evil cult that has brainwashed many.

The bible is filled with commands from ''God'' to kill, rape, plunder and maim whole societies.

Incredibly, the same book contains exhortations (however few) to 'love and forgive' and 'be merciful', in what has to be the most stupendous of paradoxes.

The different methods of HUMAN TORTURE employed en masse by christians at the same time they were calling our ancestors 'devils' for sacrificing chickens to their God.

Enjoy:


"Breaking on the Wheel

The naked heretic had each limb and joint broken precisely to avoid any fatal blows. He was then 'braided' into the spokes of the wheel and hoisted on to a post. There he was exposed to the elements ? or left to be twirled by passers by who wanted to join in the fun."


"The Pope's Pears

The vaginal pear was used on woman who had sex with the Devil or his familiars. The rectal pear was used on passive male homosexuals and the oral pear was used on heretical preachers or lay persons found guilty of unorthodox practices. Inserted into the mouth, anus or vagina of the victim, the pear was expanded by use of the screw until the insides are ripped, stretched and mutilated, almost always causing death. The pointed ends of the 'leaves' were good for ripping the throat, intestines or cervix open. "


"The Judas Cradle

The victim is raised up by the rope or chain and then lowered until the vagina, anus or the coccyx rests on the point. The torturer could vary the pressure by hanging weights from the victim or rocking or raising and dropping the victim from various heights."


"Iron Spider

The iron would usually be heated to red-hot and then used to slowly rip the breasts from the body. It would be used for such crimes as heresy, adultery, self-induced abortions, blasphemy and other "hideous" crimes. "



"Strappado

Designed to dislocate the shoulders of a victim by hoisting him off the ground, allowing him to fall, and stopping him suddenly before he touched the ground. To add to the torment, weights (varying from 50 to 500 pounds) were tied to the victim's body to dislocate a greater number of bones."


"Cat's Paw

A clawed rake, used to rip the person's flesh and tear the flesh from the bones of any part of his or her body."


"Slow Burn

A 16th century device to lift the victim in and out of the fire, roasting him alive slowly instead of burning him all at once."


"The Holy Trinity 

When a sinner had "blasphemed the holy name of god", or when he had perhaps told some truth about the local priest, it was customary to apply the holy trinity. The Iron mask was heated in an open fire until red hot, then put upon his head. The scourge, also red hot, was then applied to his back. After the mask had cooled, it was removed from the sinner, taking skin (and usually eyeballs) with it.

The prisoner's mouth was then opened and red hot pincers were used to remove the prisoner's tongue.
It is interesting to note that the Holy Trinity was designed not to cause death, so that the maimed, blinded and mute prisoner could live out his days as a burden to his family and as a testimony to what happens when one lets his tongue wag too freely."


[color=darkred]"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."
Luke 19.27[/color]

quote:
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"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."
? Luke 19.27 *
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quote:
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"All sects of heretics are condemned and various punishments are appointed for them and their accomplices."
--Pope Alexander IV (1254-61)
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quote:
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Catholic extermination camps
Surprisingly few know that Nazi extermination camps in World War II were by no means the only ones in Europe at the time. In the years 1942-1943 also in Croatia existed numerous extermination camps, run by Catholic Ustasha under their dictator Ante Pavelia practicing Catholic and regular visitor to the then pope.

There were even concentration camps exclusively for children! In these camps - the most notorious was Jasenovac, headed by a Franciscan friar - orthodox-Christian Serbians (and a substantial number of Jews) were murdered. Like the Nazis the Catholic Ustasha burned their victims in kilns, alive (the Nazis had victims gassed first).

But most of the victims were simply stabbed, slain or shot to death, the number of them being estimated between 300,000 and 600,000, in a rather tiny country. Many of the killers were Franciscan friars. The atrocities were appalling enough to induce bystanders of the Nazi "Sicherheitsdienst der SS", watching, to complain about them to Hitler (who did not listen). The pope knew about these events and did
nothing to prevent them. [MV]
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quote:
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Catholic terror in Vietnam
In 1954 Vietnamese freedom fighters; the Viet Minh; - had finally defeated the French colonial government in North Vietnam, which by then had been supported by US. funds amounting to more than $2 billion.

Although the victorious assured religious freedom to all (most non-Buddhist Vietnamese were Catholics), due to huge anticommunist propaganda campaigns many Catholics fled to the South. With the help of Catholic lobbies in Washington and Cardinal Spellman, the Vatican's spokesman in US. politics, who later on would call the US. forces in Vietnam "Soldiers of Christ", a scheme was concocted to prevent democratic elections which could have brought the communist Viet Minh to power in the South as well, and the fanatic Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem was made president of South Vietnam. [MW16ff]

Diem saw to it that US. aid, food, technical and general assistance was given to Catholics alone, Buddhist individuals and villages were ignored or had to pay for the food aids which were given to Catholics for free. The only religious denomination to be supported was Roman Catholicism. The Vietnamese McCarthyism turned even more vicious than its American counterpart. By 1956 Diem promulgated a presidential order which read:

"Individuals considered dangerous to the national defense and common security may be confined by executive order, to a concentration camp."

Supposedly to fight communism, thousands of Buddhist protesters and monks were imprisoned in "detention camps." Out of protest dozens of Buddhist teachers - male and female - and monks poured gasoline over themselves and burned themselves. (Note that Buddhists burned themselves: in comparison Christians tend to burn others).

Meanwhile some of the prison camps, which in the meantime were filled with Protestant and even Catholic protesters as well, had turned into no-nonsense death camps. It is estimated that during this period of terror (1955-1960) at least 24,000 were wounded - ; mostly in street riots ; - 80,000 people were executed, 275,000 had been detained or tortured, and about 500,000 were sent to concentration or detention camps. [MW76-89].
To support this kind of government in the next decade thousands of American GI's lost their life.
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quote:
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Rwanda Massacres
In 1994 in the small African country of Rwanda in just a few months several hundred thousand civilians were butchered, apparently a conflict of the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups.
For quite some time I heard only rumors about Catholic clergy actively involved in the 1994 Rwanda massacres. Odd denials of involvement were printed in Catholic church journals, before even anybody had openly accused members of the church.
Then, 10/10/96, in the newscast of S2 Aktuell, Germany - a station not at all critical to Christianity - the following was stated:

"Anglican as well as Catholic priests and nuns are suspect of having actively participated in murders. Especially the conduct of a certain Catholic priest has been occupying the public mind in Rwanda's capital Kigali for months. He was minister of the church of the Holy Family and allegedly murdered Tutsis in the most brutal manner.

He is reported to have accompanied marauding Hutu militia with a gun in his cowl. In fact there has been a bloody slaughter of Tutsis seeking shelter in his parish. Even two years after the massacres many Catholics refuse to set foot on the threshold of their church, because to them the participation of a certain part of the clergy in the slaughter is well established. There is almost no church in Rwanda that has not seen refugees - women, children, old - being brutally butchered facing the crucifix.

According to eyewitnesses clergymen gave away hiding Tutsis and turned them over to the machetes of the Hutu militia.
In connection with these events again and again two Benedictine nuns are mentioned, both of whom have fled into a Belgian monastery in the meantime to avoid prosecution.

According to survivors one of them called the Hutu killers and led them to several thousand people who had sought shelter in her monastery. By force the doomed were driven out of the churchyard and were murdered in the presence of the nun right in front of the gate.

The other one is also reported to have directly cooperated with the murderers of the Hutu militia. In her case again witnesses report that she watched the slaughtering of people in cold blood and without showing response. She is even accused of having procured some petrol used by the killers to set on
fire and burn their victims alive, " [S2]

More recently the BBC aired:

Priests get death sentence for Rwandan genocide
BBC NEWS April 19, 1998

A court in Rwanda has sentenced two Roman Catholic priests to death for their role in the genocide of 1994, in which up to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Pope John Paul said the priests must be made to account for their actions. Different sections of the Rwandan church have been widely accused of playing an active role in the genocide of 1994,
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A Large dated compilation of Christian Crimes since its advent:

As soon as Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire by imperial edict (315), more and more pagan temples were destroyed by Christian mob. ''Pagan'' priests were killed.

Between 315 and 6th century thousands of ''pagan'' believers were slain.

Examples of destroyed Temples: the Sanctuary of Aesculap in Aegaea, the Temple of Aphrodite in Golgatha, Aphaka in Lebanon, the Heliopolis.

Christian priests such as Mark of Arethusa or Cyrill of Heliopolis were famous as "temple destroyer." [DA468]

''Pagan'' services became punishable by death in 356. [DA468]

Christian Emperor Theodosius (408-450) even had children executed, because they had been playing with remains of pagan statues. [DA469]
According to Christian chroniclers he "followed meticulously all Christian teachings, "

In 6th century ''pagans'' were declared void of all rights.

In the early fourth century the philosopher Sopatros was executed on demand of Christian authorities. [DA466]

The world famous female philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria was torn to pieces with glass fragments by a hysterical Christian mob led by a Christian minister named Peter, in a church, in 415.
[DO19-25]

Emperor Karl (Charlemagne) in 782 had 4500 Saxons, unwilling to convert to Christianity, beheaded. [DO30]

Peasants of Steding (Germany) unwilling to pay suffocating church taxes: between 5,000 and 11,000 men, women and children slain 5/27/1234 near Altenesch/Germany. [WW223]

15th century Poland: 1019 churches and 17987 villages plundered by Knights of the Order. Number of victims unknown. [DO30]

16th and 17th century Ireland. English troops "pacified and civilized" Ireland, where only Gaelic "wild Irish", "unreasonable beasts lived without any knowledge of God or good manners, in common of their goods, cattle, women, children and every other thing." One of the more successful soldiers, a certain Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, ordered that "the heddes of all those (of what sort soever thei were) which were killed in the daie, should be cutte off from their bodies,  and should bee laied on the ground by eche side of the waie", which effort to civilize the Irish indeed caused "greate terrour to the people when thei sawe the heddes of their dedde fathers, brothers, children, kinsfolke, and freinds on the grounde".
Tens of thousands of Gaelic Irish fell victim to the carnage. [SH99, 225]

First Crusade: 1095 on command of pope Urban II. [WW11-41]

Semlin/Hungary 6/24/96 thousands slain. Wieselburg/Hungary 6/12/96 thousands. [WW23]

9/9/96-9/26/96 Nikaia, Xerigordon (then Turkish), [/b]thousands slain respectively. [WW25-27]

Until January 1098 a total of 40 capital cities and 200 castles conquered (number of slain unknown) [WW30]

After 6/3/98 Antiochia (then Turkish) conquered, between 10,000 and 60,000 slain. 6/28/98 100,000 Turks (incl. women and children) killed.
[WW32-35]

Here the Christians [b]"did no other harm to the women found in [the enemy's] tents - save that they ran their lances through their bellies," according to Christian chronicler Fulcher of Chartres. [EC60]

Marra (Maraat an-numan) 12/11/98 thousands killed. Because of the subsequent famine "the already stinking corpses of the enemies were eaten by the Christians" said chronicler Albert Aquensis. [WW36]

Jerusalem conquered 7/15/1099 more than 60,000 victims (Jewish, Muslim, men, women, children). [WW37-40]
In the words of one witness: "there [in front of Solomon's temple] was such a carnage that our people were wading ankle-deep in the blood of our foes", and after that "happily and crying for joy our people marched to our Saviour's tomb, to honour it and to pay off our debt of gratitude."

The Archbishop of Tyre, eye-witness, wrote: "It was impossible to look upon the vast numbers of the slain without horror; everywhere lay fragments of human bodies, and the very ground was covered with the blood of the slain. It was not alone the spectacle of headless bodies and mutilated limbs strewn in all directions that roused the horror of all who looked upon them. Still more dreadful was it to gaze upon the victors themselves, dripping with blood from head to foot, an ominous sight which brought terror to all who met them. It is reported that within the Temple enclosure alone about ten thousand infidels perished." [TG79]

Christian chronicler Eckehard of Aura noted that "even the following summer in all of Palestine the air was polluted by the stench of decomposition". One million victims of the first crusade alone. [WW41]

Battle of Askalon, 8/12/1099. 200,000 heathens slaughtered "in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ". [WW45]

Fourth crusade: 4/12/1204 Constantinople sacked, number of victims unknown, numerous thousands, many of them Christian. [WW141-148]

Rest of Crusades in less detail: until the fall of Akkon 1291 probably 20 million victims (in the Holy land and Arab/Turkish areas alone). [WW224]

Already in 385 C.E. the first Christians, the Spanish Priscillianus and six followers, were beheaded for heresy in Trier/Germany [DO26]

Manichaean heresy: a crypto-Christian sect decent enough to practice birth control (and thus not as irresponsible as faithful Catholics) was exterminated in huge campaigns all over the Roman empire between 372 C.E. and 444 C.E. Numerous thousands of victims. [NC]

Albigensians: the first Crusade intended to slay other Christians. [DO29]
The Albigensians (Cathars) viewed themselves as good Christians, but would not accept Roman Catholic rule, and taxes, and prohibition of birth control. [NC]

Beginning of violence: on command of pope Innocent III (the greatest single mass murderer prior to the Nazi era) in 1209. Bezi (today France) 7/22/1209 destroyed, all the inhabitants were slaughtered. Number of victims (including Catholics refusing to turn over their heretic neighbors and friends) estimated between 20,000-70,000. [WW179-181]
Carcassonne 8/15/1209, thousands slain. Other cities followed. [WW181]

Subsequent 20 years of war until nearly all Cathars (probably half the population of the Languedoc, today southern France) were exterminated. [WW183]

After the war ended (1229) the Inquisition was founded 1232 to search and destroy surviving/hiding heretics. Last Cathars burned at the stake 1324.
[WW183]

Estimated one million victims (Cathar heresy alone), [WW183]

Other heresies: Waldensians, Paulikians, Runcarians, Josephites, and many others. Most of these sects exterminated, (I believe some Waldensians live today, yet they had to endure 600 years of persecution) I estimate at least hundred thousand victims (including the Spanish inquisition but excluding victims in the New World).

Spanish Inquisitor Torquemada, a former Dominican friar, allegedly was responsible for 10,220 burnings. [DO28]

John Huss, a critic of papal infallibility and indulgences, was burned at the stake in 1415. [LI475-522]

Michael Sattler, leader of a baptist community, was burned at the stake in Rottenburg, Germany, May 20, 1527. Several days later his wife and other follwers were also executed. [KM]

University professor B.Hubmaier burned at the stake 1538 in Vienna. [DO59]


Giordano Bruno, Dominican monk, after having been incarcerated for seven years, was burned at the stake for heresy on the Campo dei Fiori (Rome) on 2/17/1600.

Thomas Aikenhead, a twenty-year-old scottish student of Edinburgh University, was hanged for atheism and blasphemy.

From the beginning of Christianity to 1484 probably more than several thousand.

In the era of witch hunting (1484-1750) according to modern scholars several hundred thousand (about 80% female) burned at the stake or hanged.
[WV]

15th century: Crusades against Hussites, thousands slain. [DO30]

1538 pope Paul III declared Crusade against apostate England and all English as slaves of Church (fortunately had not power to go into action). [DO31]

1568 Spanish Inquisition Tribunal ordered extermination of 3 million rebels in (then Spanish) Netherlands. [DO31]
Between 5000 and 6000 Protestants were drowned by Spanish Catholic Troops, "a disaster the burghers of Emden first realized when several thousand broad-brimmed Dutch hats floated by." [SH216]

1572 In France about 20,000 Huguenots were killed on command of pope Pius V. Until 17th century 200,000 flee. [DO31]

17th century: Catholics slay Gaspard de Coligny, a Protestant leader. After murdering him, the Catholic mob mutilated his body, "cutting off his head, his hands, and his genitals,  and then dumped him into the river [, but] then, deciding that it was not worthy of being food for the fish, they hauled it out again [,  and] dragged what was left ,  to the gallows of Montfaulcon, 'to be meat and carrion for maggots and crows'." [SH191]

17th century: Catholics sack the city of Magdeburg/Germany: roughly 30,000 Protestants were slain. "In a single church fifty women were found beheaded," reported poet Friedrich Schiller, "and infants still sucking the breasts of their lifeless mothers." [SH191]

17th century 30 years' war (Catholic vs. Protestant): at least 40% of population decimated, mostly in Germany. [DO31-32]

Already in the 4th and 5th centuries synagogues were burned by Christians.Number of Jews slain unknown.

In the middle of the fourth century the first synagogue was destroyed on command of bishop Innocentius of Dertona in Northern Italy. The first synagogue known to have been burned down was near the river Euphrat, on command of the bishop of Kallinikon in the year 388. [DA450]

694 17. Council of Toledo: Jews were enslaved, their property confiscated, and their children forcibly baptized. [DA454]

1010 The Bishop of Limoges (France) had the cities' Jews, who would not convert to Christianity, expelled or killed. [DA453]

1096 First Crusade: Thousands of Jews slaughtered, maybe 12.000 total. Places: Worms 5/18/1096, Mainz 5/27/1096 (1100 persons), Cologne, Neuss, Altenahr, Wevelinghoven, Xanten, Moers, Dortmund, Kerpen, Trier, Metz, Regensburg, Prag and others (All locations Germany except Metz/France, Prag/Czech) [EJ]

1147 Second Crusade: Several hundred Jews were slain in Ham, Sully, Carentan, and Rameru (all locations in France). [WW57]

1189/90 Third Crusade: English Jewish communities sacked. [DO40]

1235, Fulda/Germany: 34 Jewish men and women slain. [DO41]

1257, 1267: Jewish communities of London, Canterbury, Northampton, Lincoln, Cambridge, and others exterminated. [DO41]

1290 Bohemia (Poland) allegedly 10,000 Jews killed. [DO41]

1337 Starting in Deggendorf/Germany a Jew-killing craze reaches 51 towns in Bavaria, Austria, Poland. [DO41]

1348 All Jews of Basel/Switzerland and Strasbourg/France (two thousand) burned. [DO41]

1349 In more than 350 towns in Germany all Jews murdered, mostly burned alive (in this one year more Jews were killed than Christians in 200 years of ancient Roman persecution of Christians). [DO42]

1389 In Prag 3,000 Jews were slaughtered. [DO42]

1391 Seville's Jews killed (Archbishop Martinez leading). 4,000 were slain, 25,000 sold as slaves. [DA454] Their identification was made easy by the brightly colored "badges of shame" that all Jews above the age of ten had been forced to wear.

1492 In the year Columbus set sail to conquer a New World, more than 150,000 Jews were expelled from Spain, many died on their way: 6/30/1492.
[MM470-476]

1648 Chmielnitzki massacres: In Poland about 200,000 Jews were slain.
[DO43]

Beginning with Columbus (a former slave trader and would-be Holy Crusader) the conquest of the New World began, as usual understood as a means to propagate Christianity.

Within hours of landfall on the first inhabited island he encountered in the Caribbean, Columbus seized and carried off six native people who, he said, "ought to be good servants ,  [and] would easily be made Christians, because it seemed to me that they belonged to no religion." [SH200]

While Columbus described the Indians as "idolators" and "slaves, as many as [the Crown] shall order," his pal Michele de Cuneo, Italian nobleman, referred to the natives as "beasts" because "they eat when they are hungry," and made love "openly whenever they feel like it." [SH204-205]

On every island he set foot on, Columbus planted a cross, "making the declarations that are required" - the requerimiento - to claim the ownership for his Catholic patrons in Spain. And "nobody objected." If the Indians refused or delayed their acceptance (or understanding), the requerimiento continued:

"I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter in your country and shall make war against you ,  and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church ,  and shall do you all mischief that we can, as to vassals who do not obey and refuse to receive their lord and resist and contradict him." [SH66]

Likewise in the words of John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony: "justifieinge the undertakeres of the intended Plantation in New England ,  to carry the Gospell into those parts of the world, ,  and to raise a Bulworke against the kingdome of the Ante-Christ." [SH235]

In average two thirds of the native population were killed by colonist-imported smallpox before violence began. This was a great sign of "the marvelous goodness and providence of God" to the Christians of course, e.g. the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony wrote in 1634, as [size=18][color=darkred]"for the natives, they are near all dead of the smallpox, so as the Lord hath cleared our title to what we possess." [SH109,238][/color][/size]

On Hispaniola alone, on Columbus visits, the native population (Arawak), a rather harmless and happy people living on an island of abundant natural resources, a literal paradise, soon mourned 50,000 dead. [SH204]

The surviving Indians fell victim to rape, murder, enslavement and Spanish raids.
As one of the culprits wrote: "So many Indians died that they could not be counted, all through the land the Indians lay dead everywhere. The stench was very great and pestiferous." [SH69]

The Indian chief Hatuey fled with his people but was captured and burned alive. [size=24][color=darkblue]As "they were tying him to the stake a Franciscan friar urged him to take Jesus to his heart so that his soul might go to heaven, rather than descend into hell. Hatuey replied that if heaven was where the Christians went, he would rather go to hell." [SH70][/color][/size]

What happened to his people was described by an eyewitness:
"The Spaniards found pleasure in inventing all kinds of odd cruelties ,  They built a long gibbet, long enough for the toes to touch the ground to prevent strangling, and hanged thirteen [natives] at a time in honor of Christ Our Saviour and the twelve Apostles,  then, straw was wrapped around their torn bodies and they were burned alive." [SH72]

Or, on another occasion:
"The Spaniards cut off the arm of one, the leg or hip of another, and from some their heads at one stroke, like butchers cutting up beef and mutton for market. Six hundred, including the cacique, were thus slain like brute beasts, Vasco [de Balboa] ordered forty of them to be torn to pieces by dogs." [SH83]

The "island's population of about eight million people at the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492 already had declined by a third to a half before the year 1496 was out." Eventually all the island's natives were exterminated, so the Spaniards were "forced" to import slaves from other caribbean islands, who soon suffered the same fate.

Thus "the Caribbean's millions of native people [were] thereby effectively liquidated in barely a quarter of a century". [SH72-73] "In less than the normal lifetime of a single human being, an entire culture of millions of people, thousands of years resident in their homeland, had been exterminated." [SH75]

"And then the Spanish turned their attention to the mainland of Mexico and Central America. The slaughter had barely begun. The exquisite city of Tenochtitlᮠ[Mexico city] was next." [SH75]

Cortez, Pizarro, De Soto and hundreds of other Spanish conquistadors likewise sacked southern and mesoamerican civilizations in the name of Christ (De Soto also sacked Florida).

"When the 16th century ended, some 200,000 Spaniards had moved to the Americas. By that time probably more than 60,000,000 natives were dead."
[SH95]

Although none of the settlers would have survived winter without native help, they soon set out to expel and exterminate the Indians. Warfare among (north American) Indians was rather harmless, in comparison to European standards, and was meant to avenge insults rather than conquer land. In the words of some of the pilgrim fathers: "Their Warres are farre less bloudy, ", so that there usually was "no great slawter of nether side". Indeed, "they might fight seven yeares and not kill seven men." What is more, the Indians usually spared women and children. [SH111]

In the spring of 1612 some English colonists found life among the (generally friendly and generous) natives attractive enough to leave Jamestown - "being idell ,  did runne away unto the Indyans," - to live among them (that probably solved a sex problem).
"Governor Thomas Dale had them hunted down and executed: 'Some he apointed (sic) to be hanged Some burned Some to be broken upon wheles, others to be staked and some shott to deathe'." [SH105] Of course these elegant measures were restricted for fellow Englishmen: "This was the treatment for those who wished to act like Indians. For those who had no
choice in the matter, because they were the native people of Virginia" methods were different: "when an Indian was accused by an Englishman of stealing a cup and failing to return it, the English response was to attack the natives in force, burning the entire community" down. [SH105]

On the territory that is now Massachusetts the founding fathers of the colonies were committing genocide, in what has become known as the "Peqout War." The killers were New England Puritan Christians, refugees from persecution in their own home country England.

When however, a dead colonist was found, apparently killed by Narragansett Indians, the Puritan colonists wanted revenge. Despite the Indian chief's pledge they attacked.
Somehow they seem to have lost the idea of what they were after, because when they were greeted by Pequot Indians (long-time foes of the Narragansetts) the troops nevertheless made war on the Pequots and burned their villages.

The puritan commander-in-charge John Mason after one massacre wrote: "And indeed such a dreadful Terror did the Almighty let fall upon their Spirits, that they would fly from us and run into the very Flames, where many of them perished ,  God was above them, who laughed his Enemies and the Enemies of his People to Scorn, making them as a fiery Oven ,  Thus did the Lord judge among the Heathen, filling the Place with dead Bodies": men, women, children. [SH113-114]

So "the Lord was pleased to smite our Enemies in the hinder Parts, and to give us their land for an inheritance". [SH111].

Because of his readers' assumed knowledge of Deuteronomy, there was no need for Mason to quote the words that immediately follow:
"Thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth. But thou shalt utterly destroy them, " (Deut 20)

Mason's comrade Underhill recalled how "great and doleful was the bloody sight to the view of the young soldiers" yet reassured his readers that "sometimes the Scripture declareth women and children must perish with their parents". [SH114]

Other Indians were killed in successful plots of poisoning. The colonists even had dogs especially trained to kill Indians and to devour children from their mothers breasts, in the colonists' own words: "blood Hounds to draw after them, and Mastives to seaze them." (This was inspired by Spanish methods of the time)
In this way they continued until the extermination of the Pequots was near. [SH107-119]

The surviving handful of Indians "were parceled out to live in servitude. John Endicott and his pastor wrote to the governor asking for 'a share' of the captives, specifically 'a young woman or girle and a boy if you thinke good'." [SH115]

Other tribes were to follow the same path.

Comment the Christian exterminators: "God's Will, which will at last give us cause to say: How Great is His Goodness! and How Great is his Beauty!"

"Thus doth the Lord Jesus make them to bow before him, and to lick the Dust!" [TA]

Like today, lying was morally acceptable to Christians then.

"Peace treaties were signed with every intention to violate them: when the Indians 'grow secure uppon (sic) the treatie', advised the Council of State in Virginia, 'we shall have the better Advantage both to surprise them, & cutt downe theire Corne'." [SH106]

In 1624 sixty heavily armed Englishmen cut down 800 defenseless Indian men, women and children. [SH107]

In a single massacre in "King Philip's War" of 1675 and 1676 some "600 Indians were destroyed. A delighted Cotton Mather, revered pastor of the Second Church in Boston, later referred to the slaughter as a 'barbeque'." [SH115]

To summarize: Before the arrival of the English, the western Abenaki people in New Hampshire and Vermont had numbered 12,000. Less than half a century later about 250 remained alive - a destruction rate of 98%. The Pocumtuck people had numbered more than 18,000, fifty years later they were down to 920 - 95% destroyed. The Quiripi-Unquachog people had numbered about
30,000, fifty years later they were down to 1500 - 95% destroyed. The Massachusetts people had numbered at least 44,000, fifty years later barely 6000 were alive - 81% destroyed. [SH118] These are only a few examples of the multitude of tribes living before Christian colonists set their foot on the New World. All this was before the smallpox epidemics of 1677 and 1678 had occurred. And the carnage was not over then.

All the above was only the beginning of the European colonization, it was before the frontier age actually had begun.

A total of maybe more than 150 million Indians (of both Americas) were destroyed in the period of 1500 to 1900, as an average two thirds by smallpox and other epidemics, that leaves some 50 million killed directly by violence, bad treatment and slavery.

In many countries, such as Brazil, and Guatemala, this continues even today.

Reverend Solomon Stoddard, one of New England's most esteemed religious leaders, in "1703 formally proposed to the Massachusetts Governor that the colonists be given the financial wherewithal to purchase and train large packs of dogs 'to hunt Indians as they do bears'." [SH241]

Massacre of Sand Creek, Colorado 11/29/1864. Colonel John Chivington, a former Methodist minister and still elder in the church ("I long to be wading in gore" had a Cheyenne village of about 600, mostly women and children, gunned down despite the chiefs' waving with a white flag: 400-500 killed.

From an eye-witness account: "There were some thirty or forty squaws collected in a hole for protection; they sent out a little girl about six years old with a white flag on a stick; she had not proceeded but a few steps when she was shot and killed. All the squaws in that hole were afterwards killed , " [SH131]

By the 1860s, "in Hawaii the Reverend Rufus Anderson surveyed the carnage that by then had reduced those islands' native population by 90 percent or more, and he declined to see it as tragedy; the expected total die-off of the Hawaiian population was only natural, this missionary said, somewhat equivalent to 'the amputation of diseased members of the body'.

,

And I've not even started with Africa.

And some christians have the AUDACITY, the TEMERITY to claim that this catalogue of mass global death and destruction is the price to pay to no longer sacrifice chickens to our God and no longer partake in ''rituals''.

Give me chicken sacrifices (even the odd human one) over that devastating catalogue of monstrous EVIL that passes for christianity.

Elody Ann said:

would explain their relatively light skin complexion and business sense. What say you. They are not indigenous to Nigeria.

Just by way of asking, what does having links to Ethiopia have to do with 'business sense'?

Kenya conforms more to the western impression of Africa - zebras, elephants, safari, masai tribesmen, and happy smiley natives.

Nigeria on the other hand exhibits a somewhat more commercial, irreverent identity, and this tends to disorientate many westerners.

And as we all know, what they don't understand they tend to dislike.

Thanks for that Horus.

THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN GODS
THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS

ACCRA - W.E.B. DU BOIS CENTER 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

by Professor Molefi Kete Asante
 
I am pleased that you have come to hear my lecture tonight and I want to thank the organizers of this event for their diligence and generosity. In particular I would like to publicly thank Dr. Kofi Anyidiho, and Executive Director Moore, the staff and the Board of the DuBois Center for making this occasion possible. I give praise to Nyame, Asase Yaa, and the Nananom nsamanfo for whatever clarity I am able to share with you.
 
I shall begin my lecture with a conclusion: [color=darkred]Until an African leader publicly acknowledges, honors and prays to an African God, we Africans will continue to be viewed as pathetic imitators of others, never having believed in ourselves.[/color]
 
So powerful is the concept of religion when we discuss it in connection with civilization that to deny the validity of one's religion is to deny the validity of one's civilization.

Indeed to deny one's religion as valid is to suggest that the person is a pagan, a heathen, uncivilized, and beyond the sphere of humanity. So to talk about religion is to talk about our views of ourselves, our understanding of our ancestors, and our love of our culture.

To establish my argument that we have a crisis in civilization because we have a crisis in religion I will make several points dealing with the themes of tradition, history, religion, and human action.
 
Traditions

There are no people without traditions and traditions are the lifeblood of a people. A people who refuse to express its love and appreciation for its ancestors will die because in traditions, if you are not expressing your own, you are participating in and expressing faith in someone else's ancestors. No person is devoid of an attachment to some cultural fountain. Whose water are we drinking?
 
Our African history has been a recent orgy of forgetfulness.

We have often lost our memories and accepted the gods of those who enslaved and colonized us. This is something the Chinese and the Indians have fought hard to keep at bay. While we have often embraced our enemies gods they have found those gods to be anathema to their interests. Show me the gods we Africans worship and I will show the extent of our moral and ethical decay.
 
Those who speak to us of Christian or Islamic morals have often been the very ones who had defiled our ancestors' memories and called out sacred rites paganism. Malcolm X once said that the world pushes the African around because we give the impression that we are chumps, not champs, but chumps, weaklings, falling over ourselves to follow other people rather than our own traditions.
 
The distribution of religion represents the distribution of power. African distribution is minimal and exists in a few places in the diaspora like Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica and the American South.

The religion that people practice is based on the influences that have captured their imaginations. In the American South and the Caribbean and in South America one will often find the Yoruba religion. It is Africa's most powerful religious export to the Americas, but this is still a minimal influence when one considers the fact that others have imposed their religions on us and we have accepted the imposition often without a fight from our traditional leaders.

Indeed our traditional religious leaders have often been hijacked by the material goods offered by the purveyors of these migrating gods.
 

History

The great African pharaoh, Menes, (Narmer) (see pic below) united the two lands (TAWY) bringing 42 clans or nomes under one government around 3100 B.C. By this time already Africans had formulated the first human response to the unknown. If anything we knew God before anyone else, not because we were wiser but because we were first to be civilized.

https://www.nbufront.org/html/MastersMuseums/ImageFiles/Narmer.jpg
[color=darkred]Narmer (Menes), Pharoah of Egypt (First dynasty 3100 BC)[/color]

 
If you take any of the scientific reports we know that the first hominids were from Africa. Australopithecus afarensis is 4,200,000 years old and Australopithecus ramidus, 3,800,000. When Richard Johnason discovered Dinqnesh, later called Lucy, by the Europeans, he claimed to have found the earliest example of a hominid in Ethiopia.

Until 75,000 years ago all humans were black. Did they have an appreciation for the almighty? Did they formulate a response to the unknown? Of course they did; they were human and human before anyone else.
 
Our ancestors brought forth the first civilizations and gave the world the oldest organized cosmological explanations. Thus, Ra as Ptah, Atum, Amen, Khepera, Khnum - the many names of the one, the Supreme, created Shu and Tefnut, air and moisture, Geb and Nut, earth and sky. Then came Ausar, Auset, Nebhet, and Set.

Ausar was killed by his brother Set and Auset put him back together with the assistance of her sister, Nebhet and her son, Heru, who avenged his father by killing Set. This is the story of good over evil.
 
The purpose was to create Maat, balance, harmony, justice, righteousness, reciprocity, order. These are the key concepts in any ethical system and the fact that they emerged first in the Nile Valley of Africa suggests that other ideas, related to these ideas, found their way into the very practices and beliefs of our people throughout the continent.

The deliberate attempt by the European to separate Africans from the classical civilizations of the Nile is one of the biggest falsifications in history. Only when we reclaim our history will we be able to see that the origins of many religious ideas are African. How is it that the parent has become the child?

Thus, not only do we have the earliest emergence of God, we have the first ethical principles, reinforced by proverbs, and refined in the oral and artistic traditions of our narratives.
 
The ancient name of Egypt was Kemet and it was the culmination of classical Africa's achievements in science, art, architecture, medicine, astronomy, geometry, and religion.

The Greeks honored the Africans as the originators of the science and art practiced by the Greeks themselves. It would be the Europeans of the 15th through 19th centuries that wouild try to divorce Europe from its African origin and deny Africa any role in civilizing the world.
 
The early Greek historian, Herodotus claims that nearly all of the Greek gods came from Africa. We know that the Greeks worshipped Imhotep as Aesclepius, the God of Medicine, and that the name Athens, Athena, is from Aten.
 
When Constantine in 325 A.D. took ideas from African spirituality and created a control mechanism at Council of Nicea he was trying to organize a system for using African spiritual ideas. The early Christian church had to deal with the fact that Christians had used many African ideas, the son of God, eternal life, and the resurrection, in their religion. The sad fact is that since we have forgotten so much we do not know that we are the originators of religion.
 
The abandonment of our history, indeed the abandonment of our gods, the gods of our ancestors, have brought us deep into the quagmire of misdirection, mis-orientation and self pity.

When the missionaries forbade our shrines and punished us in the Americas when we called the names of our gods and sounded our mighty drums they were looking for the Pavlovian reaction they finally got in millions of Africans: African is bad, it is inferior, it is pagan, it is heathen.

We often hear others cursing our ancestors in ways the Chinese, the Lebanese and the British would never allow. Why is this? Are we truly shamed by our military defeat? Can we no longer think about how right our ancestors were in exploring human nature and positing ways to combat the unknown? Cannot we create new forms out of the old mold or must we throw away the mold?
 
What would be anymore pagan than the wanton willful destruction of millions of Africans, Jews, Native Americans, and Chinese by Christians Europeans?

How could white men pray to a god on the second floor of a slave dungeon while on the first floor they held our ancestors, yours and mine, in horrible bondage? What kind of religion denied our humanity at the same time they were raping our women, brutalizing our children, and demanding our wealth and our souls?
 
It is true that the idea of Christian names or Muslim names promotes and advances those cultures. Why must you change your name even if you chose to buy into a foreign religion? What is wrong with your name? Any religion that asks you to do what others do not have to do is asking you to abandon your mother. The question is, why would you abandon your mother?
 

Religion in General

What is religion but the deification of ancestors, the making sacred of traditions within the context and history? How can we honor any god who was used against us? The only people who accept alien gods are defeated people; all others honor and accept their own name for the Almighty. We must learn to appreciate ourselves and our traditions. What is wrong with the African God?
 
What would we think of a Yoruba who accepted Chinese ancestors as his own? We would find it quite interesting and wonder how it came to be.

But what of Africans' acceptance of others' gods? [color=darkred]Is there no tradition with these alien gods? Of course there is tradition with these gods! To accept the Jews' god or the Arabs' god or the Hindu's god and so forth is to valorize those histories above your own. Indeed, it is to honor the names in those myths and stories higher than your own stories, it is to love the language, the places in their stories above your own. Why is Mecca, Rome, or Jerusalem more sacred that Bosumtwi? Quite simply, it is imperialism, not by force of arms, but by force of religion which sometimes comes armed.[/color]
 
Joel Kotkin's Tribes - a book about people ready for the 21st Century claims that only Jews, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and British are ready. These groups have some commonalities which include (1) strong sense of identity, (2) international network, and (3) a passion for technology.
 
He does not include any African community or ethnic group. In fact, he believes that the African people were best organized under the leadership of Marcus Garvey who believed that Africans were not only capable of achieving without the whites; Africans had to achieve without whites in order to be seen as fully participating in the drama of history. Kwame Nkrumah believed in much the same idea.
 
Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations claims that there are six major civilizations: Chinese, Japanese, Orthodox, Hindu, Western, Islamic. He says each one has a nation that is vanguard, deeply committed to its religion and history.

Africa has no such vanguard nation and furthermore Africa has yet to emerge from under the cloaks of its interventionists. Of 53 nations only one nation is more African in religion than either Christian or Muslim. That nation is small Benin.
 
Benin is 87% popular traditional African Religion. But it is a small nation with limited influence in a propaganda fashion. As such we do not expect African traditional religion to play a major part in the civilization of Africa for a long time to come, but we can begin to examine the questions, to raise the issues, and to interrogate our practices.
 
Let me explore African Religion with you to provide some common understanding.


African Religion

In the first place it is important that we call popular traditional African Religion everywhere by a common acronym, Ptare. This means that[b] Akan, Yoruba, Igbo, Zulu and Shona are the same religion with different branches[/b]. Just as Christians may be Baptists, Methodists, and Catholics, and just as Muslims may be Mourrides, Sunni, or Shiities. There is no difference in speaking of Ptare as one religion and speaking of Christianity or Islam as one religion.
 
I believe that Popular Traditional African Religion everywhere (Ptare) is as old as civilization, indeed, it is much older than either Christianity or Islam. The major characteristics of Ptare are found in all of the traditions from East to West and from North to South. The fact that we have often misunderstood the legacy we have inherited is not the fault of those who left it; it is our fault for preferring the oppressors' legacy over that of our own ancestors.
 

The characteristics of Ptare include:
 
Creator God

Domicile of Gods - Presence, Shrine

Priest/Priestess of God

Devotee of God - medium (Noc??)

Herbalist - Pharmacist

Psychiatrist - mental harmonizer

Diviner - scientist, Hunter's/explorers

All ritual in Ptare seek a return to Maat.

Everything is one - we are a part of the whole and nothing is disconnected from the Almighty. That is why we recognize Mother Earth as well as Nyame.

What Europe sees and teaches as limitations in Ptare are really advantages:

No vast interpretative literary corpus to say what is and what is not - Ptare's interpretations are often dependent on a multitude of situations that demand attention.
 
No concentration on the material manifestations of the God's house. All temples started as shrines and from the shrine place people build other edifices. Buildings should have some historical or religious significance.
 
Advantages of Ptare

The ethical principles are more conducive to community, not so geared toward individualism. Some religions demonstrate their power by showing what they can build but this is only a matter of financial not moral wealth. Are you more civilized because you can build a nuclear bomb?
 
We must not be impressed by the things which can be created because we are human and have the same capacity and can create the same things out of our own minds. But our African gods do not advance destruction. They have never been gods of death, but of life.
 
The material manifestations of religion are not the wisest standard of how good god is unless your god is money. The new religions seem to bring schools and hospitals but we have always had those institutions without calling them by those names.

Now it is time that the practitioners of Ptare explain the interrelationship of the traditions of ordinary life in the context of institutions. Our entire existence is religion. Our shrines are sacred places on sacred land given by the ancestors. Our health is interconnected to our spirituality.
 
We Africans have always believed in a supreme deity whether the name was Nyame, Oludumare, Abasi, Nkulunkulu, Woyengi, Chukwu, Mawu and Lisa. This is true although others have said we did not. They have confused a lot of us.
 
When the white missionaries translated the bible in our languages, they asked our ancestors for the name of the Almighty and they used the names our ancestors had always used for the Almighty and then told us that we did not have a belief in the Supreme.
 
But we now know that our priests were no less wise in their observations than the Greek sophists, the Hebrew prophets, the Arab ulema, or the Chinese literati.
 
Our ancestors believed in pluralism without hierarchy --- many expressions of God without saying mine is right, or the only one, and yours is bad, pagan, and heathen. Perhaps had we done that we would have stopped the alien religions at the shore, but we are the world's first humanists and we allowed others to come with their goods and their gods.
 
They came with a political ideology in the name of religion.

It was imperialism. Imperialism brings destruction, obliteration. How could we fall for it for so long? The introduction of a book or a gun caused us to lose our footing, to stumble on our way, to denounce our fathers and mothers.
 
There are no other people on the earth who have had to denounce their ancestors in order to become better people. Is it because our ancestors are so strong that we are forced to denounce them before our conquerors? This is one thing you shall never find me doing because I know too much about my African contribution to history.
 
Contributions of Ptare

The first naming of the divine, netcher, god, or netcheru divinity from which some say the English word nature is ultimately derived.

The first trinity: Ausar, Auset, Heru which has been repeated by Amen, Mut, Khonsu and then God, the father, God the son, God the holy spirit. The Christians took out the mother who represented Auset -and gave Christians a virgin Mary, but she was no god. Asase Yaa is Mother Earth, but no one can have a son without a mother.

The first idea of a son of god or a daughter of God. Sa Ra or Sat Ra.

The first black stone altars - long before the Kaaba was revealed at Mecca.

The first example of the resurrection from the dead - Ausar. This is also where we find that the Neb Ankh- Lord of Life was not a sarcophagus, that is, not a flesh eater, but something that spoke of life.

The name of god Amen now used by others in their prayers.

The idea that your good should outweigh your evil, that your soul should be lighter than a feather, that perfection is not what is sought after, but overwhelming goodness.

The complementarity of males and females, different roles but not subjugation, Mawu and Lisa, male and female - Auset and Ausar, complementarity.

The first records of ancestors' wisdom. The books of Ptahhotep, Kagemni, Duauf.

The idea of heaven and earth, Nut , Geb, Auset is called, Lady of Heaven.

Here in Africa humans have prayed to God longer than on any other continent. When the pyramids were finished, Europe had given the world not one organized civilization, even Asia was just stirring. Just look at a broad chronology:

2500 B.C. - The African people along the river valleys of the eastern highlands floated stones down the Nile to help build monuments to God.

2500 Hsia Dynasty rises in China.

2200 BC. Harrapa and Mohenjo Daro were found in India.

800 BC Homer is the first voice of the Greeks.

500 Romans come to power in Europe.

639 A.D. Arabs are able to cross into Africa with force under General El As from Arabia-Yemen.

Africans made the idea of the beautiful and the good one world nfr - nefer.

Ptare gave the world its first ethical system: Maat - balance, harmony, justice, righteousness, reciprocity, order - Maat was the only major deity without priesthood since all were priests of Maat.
 
The idea of eternal life - Ankh neheh was African.
The first libations, offerings and burning of incense as ritual forms.
The ten commandments were preceded by the 42 confessions in the Egyptian Book of the Dead or more accurately the Egyptian Book of the Coming Forth By Day.

Ptare gave the idea of collective and communal salvation rather than a rampant individualism which says save me and the rest of the world go to hell.

The Future

All futures are made by human beings.

A few days ago I walked into a Kumasi restaurant and found that I could get Ghanaian food only by pre-arranged request. But western food was immediately available. Imported. Are African Gods only on request? We determine this by how we live.
 
The Wolof and Senegal say wood may remain in water for ten years but it will not become a crocodile. We live Africa by living its tried and true values and customs, this is a credit to our gods.

Almost all of the disarray in Africa can be traced to the disruption of the traditional religion. In fact, one can go from country to country and find that the cause of the problems can be laid at the feet of alien civilizations. This is not a wild statement; it is based on deep reflection and study.
 
I believe in the African gods and believe that just as we have exported our cultural forms in music, art and science, the world needs a more sane and sensible ethic.
 
What Must Be Done

We must talk honestly to our elders --- those who have not abandoned the traditions - consult the priests, learn from them, and discover the source of our problems.
 
Remove all images of a white Jesus. This is not correct even if one is Christian. The historical Jesus had be black in color despite the missionaries' attempt to paint him English and Swedish.
 
We must believe that our names are as sacred as Arabic or European names.
 
We must understand that when others extend their values, religion and institutions they are penetrating our traditions with the poison of alien power that teaches us to hate ourselves and to love our oppressors. Meanwhile, they never follow the prescriptions they leave for us.
 
We must enhance the economic, political and military power of African states because a lack of such power creates self doubt, identity crisis, and a search for the material gods of the west who seem to produce these things. But spirit is greater if we use it and we can only use it if we practice.
 
We need boldness from our leaders to accomplish this transformation.
 
The British called Harry Lee the best Englishman east of the British Isles when he finished Oxford. He changed his name, converted to Confucianism and they wondered what happened to him.

He learned Mandarin Chinese and became Lee Kuan Yew, a leader who rejected Western values.

Asians are calling for Confucianism as they emphasize tradition.

The Japanese are calling for Nihonjinron, Japanese values.

Why must WE be stuck with the attitudes and values of the European, so-called Christian values, particularly since they have shown themselves to be bankrupt on many fronts?
 
We can achieve our aims not so much by modernizing African traditions as Africanizing modernity itself. We are the modern people. Our ecological values, relationships values, respect for others values are the keys to the future.

Conclusions

I recognize that humans cannot advance without answering some basic questions like, Who Am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of existence? Who are we as humans, Africans, Ghanaians, Gas, Ewe, Guans, Akans, African Americans?
 
Religion provides compelling answers and often small communities of others who believe like we do. African deities and the Almighty God of Africa do that for us. They give us identity and direction.
We are the children of the Supreme God sustained by our ancestral connections, formed to glorify the best values of Maat, encouraged to assume responsibility for each other in a community of consciousness.
 
Failure to do this is a deviation, an abomination and we can only re-connect through rites of ablution--- making, doing or sacrificing time, money, energy in the name and interest of Africa.

The concept of the gift is the idea, not what we give.

This may change given education, science, sensibility, scarcity, etc., but we need to sacrifice for Africa.

But our God must not be one of exploitation, egocentrism, conservatism and westernization. If so, we shall go to hell.
 
We must create our African personality and identity in art, dance, medicine, education, science, and religion and if we cannot do it here in the land of Okomfo Anokye, Nkrumah and Du Bois, then it cannot be done in Africa.
 
If we do not do it here in the land of Yaa Asantewaa, then we can never be the hope of the hopeless.

If Africa cannot find its way, then I fear the prospects of the world.
 
But Africa will rise to throw off the vestiges of mental enslavement and there shall be rejoicing among the Nananom nsamanfo. The ancestors will sing: Rejoice! Rejoice! Let the Gods of Africa Rejoice!


-----------------------

Professor Molefi Kete Asante is the author of 42 books, more than 200 articles, and the creator of the first doctoral program in African American Studies. http://www.asante.net/

For more on the Black African origins of Egypt visit:

http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/blackegypt101.html

Graphikdon said:

I don't see  what the hoopla is all about. YES, they built 'Pyramids' but not really for the same exact purpose of the Egyptian pyramids and they had no connection with with Egypt.

How do you know this

Do you know anything about the history of Egypt?

Do you realise that many ethnic groups in Africa migrated from the Nile Valley in antiquity, and share numerous cultural, linguistic, political, and religious similarities with the ancient Nile Valley population?

Do you realise that the ancient Greek writers/explorers like Herodotus, considered the 'father of history' by Europeans, wrote,  that the ancient Egyptians were ''black skinned with wooly hair''?

Do not allow the current western WHITEWASHING of history to confuse you.

Do not allow the deliberate colonial MISEDUCATION of the African to confuse you.

The first pyramids were not built in Egypt but in SUDAN.

The Egyptians, in the the Edfu Text, (3000 bc) wrote that they 'came from the south'.

Know who this guy is?

https://www.nbufront.org/html/MastersMuseums/ImageFiles/Narmer.jpg
Menes the 1st or Narmer, Pharoah (1st dynasty). 

Menes united the 'two lands' north and south of Egypt to form the first Egyptian state in 3100 BC.

There was a great wave of southward migration of Africans from the Nile Valley in first in 300 BC with the invasion of Alexander 'the great' which led to the rule of Ptolemy the Greek, and then another invasion later in 600 Ad by Arabs.

This was the period that witnessed great migrations southwards by black Africans, and coincides with the arrival of the likes of Oduduwa and the Hausa princes in the Nigerian region, and similar arrivals in other parts of West Africa , such asthe Wolof of Senegal.

The Wolof language is a virtual carbon copy of the Ancient Egyptian (AE)  language of Medu Netr.

Common similarities I remember off hand are:

Water: Igbo (miri) Yoruba (omi) AE (miri)

Dwarf: Yoruba (Danga) AE (Danga)


Ancient Egyptians called their country Kemet, meaning ''black country'', and referred to themselves as 'Kemmui' - black.


Manding:  kami,"charcoal'


Also, they used the word KaMi meaning Black, not only to indicate their land, but also by extension our continent. This root inherited from our ancestors is found in the following languages:

KaMa meaning Black in Coptic,
iKaMa meaning Blackened in Mbochi,
KaMi meaning Burnt in Bambara,
KeMi meaning Burnt in Mandjakou,
KeM meaning Burnt in Wolof,
Kim meaning Burnt in Mossi, etc, 
Also let us note that KeMbou meaning Charcoal in Pulaar,
KeMpori meaning Black in Vai , KeMatou meaning completely burnt in Mandjakou are to be compared to the Egyptian KaMtou .

The Egyptian word KaMa represented graphically by a piece of burning wood drift of the KaLa radical also meaning Coal in some of our languages, like in Kikongo, Teke, Zigoula, Mbati, etc,  In India, the word KaLa means black in Tamil and the Black goddess that has been worshipped for at least 5000 years was named Kali.


OBENGA

Obenga (1978) gives a phonetic analysis of Black African and Egyptian. He illustrates the genetic affinity of consonants within the Black African (BA) and Egyptian languages especially the occlusive bilateral sonorous, the occlusive nasal apico-dental /n/ and /m/ , the apico-alveolar /r/ and the radical

proto-form sa: 'man, female, posterity' in Black Africa.

Language

Agaw asau, aso 'masculine

Sidama asu 'man'

Oromo asa id.

Caffino aso id.

Yoruba so 'produce'

Meroitic s' man

Fonge sunu id.

Bini eso 'someone'

Kikongo sa,se,si 'father'

Swahili (m)zee 'old person'

Egyptian sa 'man'

Manding si,se 'descendant,posterity,family'



Obenga (1978) also illustrated the unity between the verbs 'to come, to be, to arrive':

Language

Egyptian: ii, ey  

Loma: dye

Mbosi yaa Bisa gye

Sidama/Omo: wa

Wolof: nyeu

Caffino: wa

Peul: yah, yade

Yoruba: wa

Fonge: wa

Bini: ya

Mpongwe: bya

Igbo: Bia

Manding: ya,dya

Swahili: (Ku)ya

between t =/= d, highlight the alternation patterns of many Paleo-African consonants including b =/= p, l =/= r ,and

g =/= k.

The Egyptian term for grain is sa #. This corresponds to many African terms for seed,grain:

Galla: senyi

Malinke: se , si


Egyptian: sen 'granary'

Kannanda: cigur

Bozo: sii

Bambara: sii

Daba: sisin

Somali: sinni

Loma: sii

Susu: sansi

Oromo: sanyi

Dime siimu

Egyptian: ssr 'corn'

id. ssn 'lotus plant'

id. sm 'herb, plant'

id. isw 'weeds'


In conclusion, Diop has done much to encourage the African recovery of their history. His theories on linguistics has inspired many African scholars to explain and elaborate the African role in the history of Africa and the world. This has made his work important to our understanding of the role of Black people in History.

Forget about the fallacy stuff, it ain't no fallacy. My own beef is that I don't see what we have to gain from that in the present. Perhaps someone will actually shoot me if I present some of the wonderful  machinations of my ancestors,  they are fantastic considering the days they were put together but now they are there well preserved but I don't see what I stand to gain from these apart from the 'wow' factor.

Millions of people around the world are interested in ancient sites and countries make billions yearly from restoring, promoting, studying their ancient sites. Stonehenge is just a colection of stone slabs in ther middle of nowhere, yet the English make billions from people just visiting the site from across the world.

We need a similar mindset in Africa. We need to value supremely our ancient relics and artefacts, restore them, and display them to the world with pride, just like other cultures do.

is this Jen33 the same idiot who came accusing me of making "patently false" statements on another thread?

What do we call this ridiculous claim of yours?

Not another air-head twerp.

Why not visit the archaeological site in question, speak to the locals etc if in doubt?

Afterall, the location is not hidden. (How can you dismiss anything without investigation unless you're stupid?)

Failing which you may direct your enquiries regarding the Nsude pyramids to Dr Patrick Darling and his team of archeologists at Bournemouth University, UK.

Though I seriously doubt they'll have the time to entertain your catastrophic inferiority complex.

Same goes for Ziddy, the 2nd slave Uncle Tom above you there.

MP007 said:

are u kidding me? wetin them build also,  ogija shrine? WHO POSTED THIS SHIT?

You're insufferably STUPID.

Why not kuku don a white hood ala KKK, paint your face white, put up a blonde wig, and go about your business since you despise your heritage with such a passion?

Self-hating slave, or should I say, Stupid UNCLE TOM.

Daviddylan said:

rebels are in control of our oil wells and we are the second most corrupt nation on earth.

You make very ignorant comments. Both those statements are manifestly false.

You need to do some proper research before coming on here to spew ignorance.

If we had been invaded and colonised by the Chinese, you brainwashed slaves would be here today singing the praises of the BUDDHA.

Nothing else would come close in your minds as to where lies ''the truth''.

Jesus, in your eyes would be a repulsive heathen.

But because we were ''lucky'' enough to have been invaded and enslaved by Europeans, we ''luckily'' discovered ''Christ'' whom we now worship with a zeal that surpasses that of the original founders.

OUR IGNORANCE AS AFRICANS NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME.

Keep worshipping your slavemaster's invention called ''Jesus'' while the rest of the globe laughs at your extreme foolishness and stupidity.

http://www.africawithin.com/asante/africangods.html

The words, May His Soul Rest In Peace constitute the most blatant example of our cluelessness and ignorance regarding the nature of the afterlife.

This cluelessness came about with the introduction of christianity and islam. Prior to these false religions, we knew that the soul survived death and went on to live a fullfilled existence in eternity - NOT TO REST IN PEACE.

This is why in traditional Africa all the way back to ancient Egypt, our people buried their dead with a variety of appurtenances to facilitate a comfortable stay in the world beyond.

Rather than the soul going to ''sleep'' or to ''rest in peace'' as christianity and islam have brainwashed us into believing, the soul is moving on to a FULLER EXISTENCE, teaming with learning and leisure of a type and scope unknown on earth.

If we had been invaded and colonised by the Chinese, You ''Christian'' slaves would be here today singing the praises of the BUDDHA.

Nothing else would come close in your minds as to where lies ''the truth''.

Jesus, in your eyes would be a repulsive heathen.

But because we were ''lucky'' enough to have been invaded and enslaved by Europeans, we ''luckily'' discovered ''Christ'' whom we now worship with a zeal that surpasses that of the original founders.

OUR IGNORANCE AS AFRICANS NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME.

Keep worshipping your slavemaster's invention called ''Jesus'' while the rest of the globe laughs at your extreme foolishness.

http://www.africawithin.com/asante/africangods.html

You know this is a really interesting topic. Kudos to the guy that raised it.

I personally do not believe in the existence of the entity known as Satan. I do believe in God of course.

But I do not accept that the entity described as ''God'' in the Bible IS the Creator of the universes, and the Source of ALL life and all that is.

At best I see this Biblical ''God'' as an ancient Jewish tribal deity of particular viciousness and ill-temper.

I find many of the Yoruba deities for instance to be far superior in moral content.

Regards 

There is only one God the creator of all the heavens and the earth and all that is in existence and all that ever existed.

No one here to my knowledge disputes that. In fact, we as Africans knew that before the westerners who introduced the bible to us via the slave trade.

The Igbo name for God is Chukwu or Chineke. This name was used centuries before the first slave traders arrived with the Bible.

He causes all to be and he sustains all things, him alone must we serve for he created us for this purpose.

I do not like to look upon the Creator as someone who needs to be 'served'. I see him more as a friend and companion, even a father, rather than a master.

I know him as Jehovah through the prophets and his spoken word, Jesus.

Fair enough. All routes lead to God. 

If you like call him the God of our oppressors, thats your business, but even he created these so called oppressors for them to serve him which they have failed woefully in that regard

I think the issue is not whether we should worship God or not, but whether we should regard the imported Biblical interpretation of religion/religiosity as paramount, and on what basis.

Yar'Adua's recent announcement to the effect that officials must curb their congratulatory visits to Abuja, in order to let him get on with his job, is another good thing happening in Nigeria.

They brought it back deformed.  

A Moment of Truth
Jayne Smith's near-death experience

Thirty-five years ago, Jayne Smith was in the hospital in labor with her second baby. In the process, she experienced clinical death and had a near-death experience. The following is taken from her video entitled A Moment of Truth where she describes her near-death experience. In my opinion, her near-death experience is one of the most profound near-death experiences I have ever come across. After reading about her near-death experience, I am certain you will agree.

Information on how to obtain a video tape of her describing her near-death experience can be found below. On the video tape, she answers some very profound questions concerning life and life after death.

The Ecstasy of God

I was totally aware. I was in blackness. I couldn't see anything. I was thinking to myself, "This isn't the way it is supposed to be. I'm not supposed to know anything and I do. What on earth has happened?"

At that point I felt something leave my body. It was a whoosh. It went up through the top of my head. I could feel it and I could hear it. Just a gentle whoosh. At that point I found myself standing in a kind of gray mist. Then I knew I had died.

The memory of this experience is seared into my very soul. When I found myself standing in this gray mist with the realization that I had died I remembered feeling so overjoyed, so thrilled, because I knew that even though I was what we call "dead", I was still very much alive. Very much alive. I was totally aware. I began to pour out these feelings of thanksgiving. I wasn't doing it verbally, but it seemed that the very essence of me was saying "Thank you, thank you, God for setting it up this way, that I really am immortal. I was not annihilated."

I was involved in this tremendous pouring forth of gratitude and joy and as that was going inside me, this white light began to infiltrate my consciousness. It came into me. It seemed I went out into it. I expanded into it as it came into my field of consciousness. There was nothing I was aware of except this brilliant white light. The light brought with it the most incredible feeling of total love, total safety, total protection. I was just enveloped in it. I remember feeling almost cradled by it. It was so dynamic it was almost palpable.

As I existed in this white light, in this incredible love, I began to be rapturous. The rapture built. The bliss built. My consciousness began to expand with the bliss of it all. Suddenly there came into my field of consciousness an entire field of knowledge It was like a whole block of knowledge that just simply came in and settled itself on me. I knew, what takes several sentences to tell, but it didn't come in several sentences - it came all in one piece. What I knew was that I was immortal, that I was eternal, that I was indestructible, that I always had been, that I always will be, and that there was no way in this world I could ever be lost.

It was impossible for me to fall into a crack in the universe somewhere and never be heard from again. I just knew that I was utterly safe and I always had been forever and ever.

When that block of knowledge was digested by me, as it were, another block of knowledge came in. A whole field of knowledge came in to my being and what I knew then was that the universe runs according to a perfect plan. I knew that the plan was perfect. Everything that we think about as being hard to understand or unfair or cruel or whatever, that was really all without meaning. I know that is very difficult, but I knew this. I understood it. I comprehended it in a way that when I came back from the experience I really couldn't comprehend anymore. I understood that all of the things that we worry about and concern us, we really don't have to worry about at all. There is a perfect plan and the plan is working itself out in its perfection.

Then I simply remember I became more blissful, more rapturous, more ecstatic. I was just filling and filling with this light and love that was in the light. The dynamics of this light are not static at all. They are so dynamic and so much going on in there of love and joy and knowledge. As you take it into yourself, or as it goes into you and you receive it, your ecstasy level just becomes tremendous.

I knew that I had lost all sense of having a body. It was just my consciousness, sort of pure and free floating, and I did not think at all during this part of the experience. I had no thoughts. I was a receiving station. I merely felt and absorbed and took in and did not think at all. I reached the point in the rapture of it all where I thought to myself suddenly, the first thought.

"I wonder how much more of this I can stand before I shatter?"

With that thought, the light began to recede. So, the universe will not let us shatter. We cannot take in more of this bliss and joy than we are able to handle at a time.

The Beautiful Meadow

As the light began to recede, the rapture that I had built up also began to dissipate. For a couple of seconds, I could not remember what was going on. I remember thinking to myself, "I don't know how I got here. I can't remember what's going on." I didn't know if I had been in that light for a minute of a day or a hundred years. I think the force of all that energy just produced a condition in me of amnesia for a couple of seconds. But that was not allowed to last very long either.

Within a second or two, I found myself standing in an absolutely beautiful green meadow. I knew then what was going on. I knew once again who I was, that I had died. My amnesia period was over with.

I stood there in this gorgeous meadow and I remember that the light there was different from the light here on earth. Though it was not that brilliant white light in which I was involved, it was a more beautiful light. There was a goldenness to this light. I remember the sky was very blue. I don't recall seeing the sun. The colors were extraordinary. The green of the meadow was fantastic. The flowers were blooming all around and they had colors that I had never seen before. I was very aware that I had never seen these colors before and I was very excited about it.

I thought I had seen all colors. I was thrilled to death of the beauty that was incredible. In addition to the beautiful colors, I could see a soft light glowing within every living thing. It was not a light that was reflected from the outside from a source, but it was coming from the center of this flower. Just this beautiful, soft light. I think I was seeing the life inside of everything.

When I finished looking at this exquisite beauty, I started to walk. I had only taken a few steps before I saw that there was in front of me a hill, a low hill. There were perhaps 18 to 20 people standing on the hill. They were dressed in robes, very simple, I suppose Grecian type robes. They were also in all these beautiful colors. There were men and women - more men than women I don't know why. I thought about this a little bit, but there were both men and women there. There was no one that I knew, but then I had no close emotional ties on the other side so it is not surprising that there was no one there that I knew.

I felt to myself, "Oh, I want to talk with them." It seemed that immediately I was there on the top of the hill. I don't know whether I was able to just glide there effortlessly or whether I only had to think I wanted to be there and I was there. What I do remember was that I did not have to climb the hill. There was no effort involved in this.

The Moment of Truth

As I found myself at the top of the hill, I saw that over on the horizon and just a little bit lower on the horizon, there was a city. I realized in some way that this was more than just a city, that what I was seeing actually represented a world. I wondered, "Was that the world I just came from or the one I am going to?" I never had a chance to find out because right at that moment, 3 or 4 of the men that were in this group of people over on the hill, came to me and we met.

I said to them, "I know what has happened. I realize that I am dead. I know what's going on."

One man in the group did all the talking to me. He was quite tall, taller than the rest. I remember the robe he was wearing was purple. He had a white fringe of hair that went around his head. The top of his head was bald. He had an absolute marvelous face. It was very noble, very kind, what we would think of as a very spiritual face. He also had about him a great deal of authority, so that I felt I was talking to someone that I could trust completely.

When I said to him, "I know what's going on. I know that I have died," he said, "Yes, that's true, but you are not going to be staying here. It isn't time for you to be here yet."

I must tell you that when we talked, we did not move our mouths. I can remember that I only had to have the impulse that contained the things that I wanted to say and he would immediately be able to get that and answer me. Even though he was not moving his mouth when he talked with me, I could hear the sound of his voice in my inner ear. I know what he sounded like. It was a mental transmission, yet I could hear what he sounded like. For a long, long time, I could remember the sound of his voice.

I said to him again, "Everything that has happened to me since I crossed over is so beautiful. Everything is so perfect. What about my sins?"

He said, "There are no sins, not the way you think of them on earth. The only thing that has any meaning here is what you think."

Then he asked me a question. "What is in your heart?"

Then in some incredible way that I don't understand at all, I was able to look deeply inside myself, really into the very core of me to my essence. I saw that what was there was love, nothing else. My core was perfect love, loving perfection. I had complete love and acceptance for everything. I saw my own gentleness, tenderness, harmlessness. I simply was perfect and loving.

I said to him, "Of course!" I felt I was connecting with knowledge that I had known before. I wondered how on earth had I forgotten anything that important. I have known that.

I said, "Can you tell me what everything is all about - the whole world - everything?"

He said, "Yes."

He told me in only three sentences at the most. It was so simple. I understood that immediately. I had total comprehension of what he was saying to me. I remember again saying to him, "Of course!" Then there was that feeling again of connecting with knowledge I had once had. I wondered how on earth did I forget that.

I said to him, "Since I am not going to be able to stay, there are so many people I want to take this back to. May I take this all back with me?"

He said, "You may take the answer to the first question back, the one about sins. But the answer to the second one, you are not going to be able to remember."

The next thing I knew, there was a tremendous banging in my head. It was loud, it was fast, and it was extremely irritating. It went on for just a few seconds - a loud bang, bang, bang, bang. Then that was over and there was a sort of electronic click in my ear. I will never forget the sound of that click because I remember thinking that it sounded almost like a tape recorder. When the click clicked, that was it, I was back and I opened my eyes. My doctor was standing over me and he was doing something that was extremely uncomfortable.

After the experience, I have never been able to remember the specific two or three sentences I was told. I have tried and I have tried for years after this experience to make a concerted effort to try, especially after I went to bed at night, when I would be lying there in that not quite asleep state. And I never could. Finally, I just stopped trying to do that.

But, I do think I know what he was telling me even though I cannot recall the actual two or three sentences. I know that it has to do with love. I believe it has to do with what I was enabled to see when he said, "What is in your heart?" I looked inside myself and saw that I was perfect love.

Now this does not apply to just me. It applies to all human beings. That is what we are. That is our core. This love, this perfection, this God-ness. I believe that what it is all about is that the world will keep turning and we will have all these experiences and it will go on forever and ever and ever. As we bring that into our consciousness and have it remain there all the time, our connection with God will be there, not somewhere in our unconscious. We will be consciously aware of who we are all the time. I think that's what the journey is.


To obtain Jayne's video write to:


Jayne Smith
150 Lakeside Drive
Lewes, Delaware 19958



"Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." - R. W. Raymond


For more on the NDE phenomenon, visit www.near-death.com

Anyone Can See the Light

Dr. Dianne Morrissey's NDE

When Dianne Morrissey, PhD, was twenty-eight years old, she was electrocuted and had a very profound near-death experience. Her experience transformed her entire life in a very big way. Today, she is a certified hypnotherapist and has taught 25,000 people to see and feel God's presence during the dream state. Her excellent book, You Can See The Light, will train you to do this very thing yourself. Her practical techniques will not only give you a transformational mystical experience but can actually heal your physical body.

The following is an excerpt from her book, You Can See the Light: How to Touch Eternity and Return Safely. Her previous book on out-of-body experiences is entitled Anyone Can See the Light. Also, I highly recommend her video entitled Soul Journeys Beyond the Light. It is one of the best NDE videos I have ever seen.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was electrocuted by 119 volts and dead for forty-five minutes. My near-death experience changed my life. I quit playing professional clarinet and started lecturing at local colleges on near-death and out-of-body experiences as well as related paranormal phenomena. I never believed in such things before I died. I was raised Catholic and I am sure I would not have believed such a story before I died myself.

The doctors said they were amazed that I ever woke up. I asked the emergency doctor how he thought I came back. He said, "I don't know, maybe it was your dog?"

I knew what he meant because during my near-death experience I was floating at the ceiling in my den when I noticed below me was my dog, Tuffy, was trying frantically to awaken me. He scratched my arm and lightly bit the side of my face repeatedly to awaken me. Later, when I was out of the hospital my dog never let me lay on the floor again. He would stand firmly and bark continuously until I would get up. (I guess he thought that the floor caused my near-death experience).

When I first came out of my body I noticed that I was transparent and wondered how I could see so good without my glasses, because I saw them on the floor next to my lifeless body.

I was thrown by such force that my physical body was thrown about 10 feet away from where I was standing and my head went right through the wall about 1-1/2 feet off the ground. I felt no physical pain. I watched it all happen out-of-my body. I had what researchers call a "core" near-death experience. That is an experience where all the phenomena associated with near-death occur.

I wanted to save me at first and became more dispassionate about saving me as my near-death experience continued. I first tried to call for help, but could not as my hand went right through the telephone. I tried to open a door and went right through the plate glass window. I was truly amazed by it all and even tried to get a man's attention walking down my street to save my physical body. I put my hand through his upper left shoulder blade when I tried to shake him. This amazed me.

I moved through many dimensions and at one point I knew I was dead. I met an angel-like woman on the other side who explained much to me, who helped me with my life review. I went through many tunnels, not just one.

I will never forget the love that surrounded me at that moment, or the joy that ran through me. Can you imagine being hugged by God and your angel? It's an experience that defies description!

In this rapturous place, I recognized that there were two aspects of "me." My soul was my consciousness, everything that had made me who I had been and what I had become. My spirit, on the other hand, was the part of me that was now transparent and glowing, dressed in white.

I felt torn between two desires: wanting to go into the light and wanting to touch something tangible and retain my connection with all that was physical. Both desires grew stronger. The light became more intense, more radiant, more loving. As I lifted the lace and extended my hand toward the brilliance, wanting to touch the light, it rushed under the lace and touched the outstretched middle finger of my right hand,

Within the light, I knew that everyone and everything is connected to it. God is in everyone, always and forever. Within the light was the cure for all diseases.

I've found that people who hear about my journey to the Other Side are both fascinated and cautiously optimistic that a similar experience awaits them.

All I can say is, once you have seen the light and then return, life will never be the same again.

[Dr. Morrissey's near-death experience is described in much greater detail in her book, You Can See The Light. Her experience is one of the most profound experiences I have ever read. I highly recommend this book.]


"If I lived a billion years more, in my body or yours, there's not a single experience on earth that could ever be as good as being dead. Nothing." - Dr. Dianne Morrissey

The numerous documented accounts of Near Death Experiences (NDE) gives us an idea of what happens to us when we die, devoid of the religious baggage.

Truth is - everyone survives death. The body is simply a coat for the soul (consciousness) to exist usefully on the earth plane.


Whispers of the Soul

Josiane Antonette's near-death experience

 
Born in France and trained as a nurse, Josiane Antonette had a near-death experience in 1966 when she became aware of her ability to "communicate with the other side." For over 30 years, she has worked with the dying and the living, in hospitals as a chaplain, universities as a teacher, as a spiritual counselor, healer and ceremonial leader. Her understanding of living, dying and the spiritual realms has touched many people.

The following are short excepts from her most excellent book, Whispers Of The Soul. It is a book I highly recommend.


The Realm of Restless Spirits

My near-death experience shattered my world. It shook me into remembering spirit and other dimensions of life, which I had known as a child but had forgotten so that I could fit into society. I feel the jerking of the ambulance as it rushes me through the dark streets of Marseille to the hospital. Twenty-four hours have passed since my underground abortion with a feuseuse d'anges, an "angel maker." Abortion is illegal in France now, and many women die because of the unsanitary conditions of the procedure. I am only twenty-four years old, a young nurse. Am I dying? Am I outside myself observing? I see my body and its pain. I look at my feet; they are pale and lifeless. My legs cannot move. My face is white and drawn.

I watch as the walls of the ambulance dissolve. I see the lights of the city speed toward me. I can see the stars! What am I doing up so high? Why does everything look so small all of a sudden?

Memories pass before my eyes as in a movie.

(She momentarily returns to her body)

I see family members at the foot of my bed through a haze. Suddenly they disappear. From where they stood I see faces rushing toward me with incredible speed. They race toward my face, expanding then dissolving. Face after face washes over me! I am terrified. I'm drifting. I'm unable to keep my eyes open.

Who are these people? Some I recognize as people I've known who have died. Others I do not recognize.

"Stay away! Where is my family?"

Now the whole room is filled with spirits! They hover near me and look into my eyes. I try to push them away. I fight them. The experience seems to go on forever. These are spirits who are restless. Their faces are twisted with pain. They seem lost. It's frightening to see them walking back and forth around my bed. And now – spirits with glowing faces come close to me. They reflect a gentle and powerful light, reminding me of the pictures of beautiful angels that I love so much. I feel nurtured and loved by them, and enveloped by their luminescence. These beings are made of light, and even though their brilliance is intense, I am not blinded. Tremendous compassionate love surrounds me!

Now – I am filled with the essence of love and compassion. This magnetic power is filling every atom of me. I have never before experienced such depth and power of love. I am the power of love! Merging into an intimate dance wherein all boundaries have disappeared, I feel myself one with these beings of compassion.

No words or sounds are being exchanged, and yet communication is happening.

A strong presence assures me, "Yes, you are dying to the world of men. But to us you are being born. Do not be afraid. You have always been with us; we have always been with you. We know you. You just fell asleep during your time on earth and forgot who you are. Now you are remembering."

Revelation fills my awareness – of course, yes! I am of the Beings of Light and they are of me! What is this new surge of energy? It begins as a very gentle vibration rising through the length of my body, from my feet to the top of my head, but now my whole self is vibrating. I hear buzzing. It is growing louder, and now the vibration and the buzzing are becoming one.

I feel such a wonderful release! I'm free! I can't resist this new and wonderful tide of energy sweeping my body upward. Now I'm on the hospital room ceiling gazing down! Everything appears so small: I see my bed; my body looks small and colorless; the people around the bed are tiny. Overwhelming grief and sorrow fill the room, and yet I feel completely disconnected from the scene below me. I hover nearer and look at the strange form lying on the bed. I feel compassion beyond words. I understand everything, but I have no feeling of attachment to anyone. I look at each person standing at the bedside and feel tremendous love.

I want to say to them, "I'm all right. You don't have to worry. I'm all right. Look at me! I'm fine!"

I am love; I am understanding; I am compassion!

My presence fills the room. And now I feel my presence in every room in the hospital. Even the tiniest space in the hospital is filled with this presence that is me. I sense myself beyond the hospital, above the city, even encompassing earth. I am melting into the universe. I am everywhere at once. I see pulsing light everywhere. Such a loving presence envelops me!

I hear a voice say, "Life is a precious gift: to love, to care, to share."

Seeing a World of Darkness

Questions race through my awareness: Why is there so much pain in the world? Why are humans made of different colors? Why with different creeds? Why with different languages?

A vision appears. I see our world from the vantage point of a star, or another planet. Earth appears as a sphere cut in half. The surface of the planet is flat and colorless. The ground is bare. No living plant grows from the earth. Tree branches are naked. There are no fruits, no flowers, no leaves. The barren hills are obscured behind a gray veil. It is a passionless place where no one rejoices at the sunrise, and no one knows when night comes. Naked phantom-like people stand on what seems to be a stage. All the actors are puppets animated by an invisible force. They move in unison and stop all at once.

On one side of half of the sphere, a sun attempts to shine upon the stage, but no one pays attention or makes a sound. Even the birds in the dead trees are silent and motionless. The other side of the half sphere is in darkness. I watch as the darkness grows with frightening speed and covers the whole planet. No one pays attention. Now the darkness covers the sunlight, and now it covers all the bright planets in the universe.

"This is the world with the absence of light, love, and free will," the voice states. "It is the people's choices that created the world you have just seen."

With these words, the nightmarish world begins to dissolve and is replaced by the other half of the planet – a place of vibrant, breathtaking beauty. I perceive how the earth, the sun, the moon, the darkness, the light, the planets, and all forms of life – plants, rocks, animals, people – are interconnected; they come from the same source of light. Everything is united by a transparent net, or web, and each thread shines with great radiance. Everything pulses with the same luminosity – a magnificent light of unparalleled brilliance.

"From the light we have come, and to the light we all shall return," continues the voice.

I realize now I have been standing in the middle of the two worlds. And with this understanding, an image of the path I have been walking appears. It is narrow and rocky; I have the sensation of losing my balance. I grow afraid of falling into the darkened planet. Free will! With the remembering, I gaze at my invisible feet. The narrow path changes into a wide road. The darkness is replaced by light.

"Never, never forget." I hear the voice say.

Merging with the light, I am so overcome with gratitude and overwhelmed by the love that fills me that I cry.

Suddenly, time and space are different again, and I am momentarily aware of my body.

I am aware that the window to the left of my bed is filled with vibrant, powerful light. It seems to be calling me and pulling me toward it like a magnet. I hear the buzzing again, and ,  Whoosh! I'm zooming through the window! I merge with the light! I am the light, and the light is me.

"From the light we have come, and to the light we shall all return," repeats the voice.

What a joy to bathe in this incredible all-knowing, all-loving,

I can travel through walls, ceilings, and space at amazing speed! I visit my son, Philippe, who is only four.

A tremendous power moves me. I am boundless, formless, no longer controlled by my emotions. I am everything. Everything is me!

I'm back in the hospital room. A mist coming from the door facing my bed attracts my attention. In the middle of the vapor is a being with the most heavenly smile. Jean Pierre! It is my cousin, Jean Pierre! I am overwhelmed with joy. As I gaze at Jean Pierre, the hospital room disappears. We are suspended in midair. There are no windows or doors, no ceiling or ground. A brilliant radiance fills all space. He slowly approaches my bed and bends to kiss me. I feel the moisture of his lips on my face, the weight of his body against mine, the gentle touch of his hands on me.

Jean Pierre is the brother I never had. After a long and painful battle with lung cancer, he died two years ago when he was only twenty-two. I am still grieving his passing. How wonderful to see him again! And what is this? He is wearing his butterscotch jacket. This jacket has been the subject of many discussions. He loves it; I hate it.

"How did you know I was here?"

My question is a thought not yet put into words as Jean Pierre answers, "We know everything about you, and we welcome you."

Such a warm feeling of peace! I am complete – whole! I am free of pain and fear. There is no past or future – everything is! There is no need to speak to be understood or to communicate. I feel serenity beyond anything I have ever known. And joy of joys: I can fly! I swirl easily and with great speed around my cousin in a playful way, expressing the ultimate joy that is me. Everything is the way it should be. Never have I felt so clear, so complete, so loved. I gaze at myself: I am whole and healed! I can interact and play with Jean Pierre with my natural vigor. Familiar Beings of Light are here, too. I immerse myself in their loving presence. It's as if they are protecting me and carrying me. We are all interconnected. I relax into the timeless joy. What a glorious feeling! I want to be here forever. Jean Pierre is gazing at me now as the other beings begin to depart. His dark eyes are filled with great tenderness and purity. He turns to leave with the others, and I plead with him to take me with him. His eyes fill with sadness.

"Not now," he responds. "There is much, much work for you. You have to go back and tell them. Life is a precious gift. Each moment is filled with great opportunities. Don't waste your time on earth. Spread love and understanding. We will always be with you – guiding you, protecting you, awaiting the time when we will be reunited – when your work on earth is over."

I watch as Jean Pierre dissolves into the same brilliant light with which he had entered. The light is fading away, too.

The room is empty now. My grief is intense. I start to cry out of desperation and loneliness.

Suddenly, I'm back in the hospital in bed. I am fully aware of my surroundings and my physical state of being. Tubes are implanted in my body. The pain is overwhelming. My sadness is intense. I am so weak I cannot speak. I have lost my voice, and the doctors are alarmed by the tears which are using up the strength I need to recuperate. Crying is all I want to do! My body feels like a suit that is too tight; the room is confining; the smell of sickness surprises my senses; the human condition saddens me.

"Josianne, you're back!" I recognize my sister's voice. I see her careful gaze. "You've been in a coma for three days. We didn't know if you were coming back."

"From the light we have come and to the light we shall return." - Josiane Antonette