"Brit-Am Now"-613
Contents:
1. Letters to Tamar: Correction
2. Macaque Monkeys: Racial Coloring and Environment
3. Quotation: Seneca
4. Prof. Paul Eidelberg, "Myths About Science"
5. Some Non-Brit-Am Matters that have to be dealt with
(a) Brit-Am is Alone and Unique.
(b) Brit-Am tries to concentrate on its mandated task of
(c) Ephraimites Moving to Israel?
(d) Converting to Judaism and Missionizing for Christianity.
(e) Eddie Chumney
1. Letters to Tamar: Correction
please correct
Shalom Yair,
I have been getting letters from your people to interview you. PLEASE, have them write me at: tamar@israelnationalradio.com and not Tamary (with the added 'y'. ) First time letters need to come to me at: tamar@israelnationalradio.com and not as you gave them. Please change this asap.
Thanks so much.
Tamar
2. Macaque Monkeys: Racial Coloring and Environment
Anyone who still doubts that environment influences racial coloring
should read our answers to questions on race:
Another point to consider is the existence of
different "racial" coloring amongst monkeys.
For instance:
The Japanese Macaque (Snow Monkey)
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/japanese_macaque.htm
This monkey dwells in cold climates.
It often has a blondish type coating, a reddish or pink face (see photos),
and light colored (greenish) eyes.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/212.shtml
<<Japanese macaques are the most northerly-living non-human primate, living in mountainous areas of Honshu, Japan. They survive winter temperatures below -15 degrees Centigrade, and keep warm in naturally heated volcanic springs.>>
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Macaca
Picture of Macaque monkeys in China
Chinese descriptions of white people in Central Asia etc
sometimes described them as looking like Macaque monkeys.
Interesting Photos Macaque monkeys
http://members.tripod.com/uakari/macaca_fuscata.html
http://phototravels.net/japan/pcd1663/monkey-family-23.html
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/Behavior/Spring2004/tison/tison.html
(blond-red head!)
http://metropolis.japantoday.com/tokyotravel/tokyotravelogue/tokyoworldtravelinc.htm
http://investigate.conservation.org/xp/IB/speciesdiversity/investigate_primates/japanese_macaque.xml
http://www.outdoorjapan.com/features/ojfeature-jigokudani.html
http://www.peta.org.uk/feat/HiddenLifeOfMacaques/
Macaques are also found elsewhere but not always of the same coloring.
Is this an effect of environmental influence?
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwvir/VirusInfo/macaque.html
<<Macaques live in many different habitats across the globe, making them the most widely distributed genus of nonhuman primates... Their coloration includes gray, brown or black fur.
<<Macaques are native to Asia and Northern Africa.
The Barbary Ape is a type of Macaque monkey.
The Monkeys of Gibraltar are actually Barbary Apes .
http://www.ippl.org/05-28-04-09.html
<<How Barbary macaques were first introduced to Gibraltar is unclear but according to legend, Gibraltar will fall from British rule if the monkeys cease to exist on the rock. At the end of World War II, the number of monkeys in Gibraltar had dwindled to as few as three. Upholding tradition, Winston Churchill ordered the import of Barbary macaques from Morocco to replenish and maintain the monkey population.>>
Photos of the "Apes of Gibraltar"
http://www.pbase.com/misterp17/gibraltar_monkeys
3. Quotation:
There is no genius free from some tincture of madness.
Seneca.
Brit-Am Comment: Aren't You Relieved?
4. Prof. Paul Eidelberg, "Myths About Science"
Extracts ONLY:
Reply-to: eidelberg@foundation1.org
Let's reflect on some not very well known facts in the history of science as well as about scientists. First the facts.
The astronomer Hiparchus, who lived in the second century before the common era, calculated the distance of the moon as 30 and 1/4 earth dimensions. That involves an error of a mere 0.3 percent. Not bad.
Again, in the sixth century before the common era, educated men knew that the earth was a sphere. Twelve hundred years later the earth was thought to be a disc.
More familiar to moderns is the name of Copernicus. But few people know that Copernicus got his idea of a heliocentric (as opposed to a geocentric) universe from Aristarchus who studied the heavens some eighteen centuries earlier.
Still less known is the fact that Pope Leo X gave a lecture on the Copernican system contained in The Book of Revolutions. The book was published in 1543. Seventy-three years later the Church, under another pope, placed the book on the Index.
Consider now, the reputed founder of modern science, Galileo Galilei, who brought astronomy down to earth by his mathematization of nature. Opposition to Galileo's new science initially came not from the Church but from his colleagues at the university. At first, the Church extolled Galileo. And were it not for his obnoxious and egotistical character, such was his already established fame that he might not have been excommunicated.
Galileo was not exactly the stuff heroes are made of. His trial or inquisition, during which he recanted, should be compared with the trial of Socrates. I mention this because of currently misleading notions about science and scientists. No German scientist--not even the venerable Max Planck--publicly came to the defense of Jewish scientists who were dismissed from their university positions when Hitler came to power. Hence it's absurd to identify science with humanism or even to regard scientists as the sole repository of objective knowledge.
As a matter of fact, Galileo was an ingrate was well as a dogmatist. He hardly mentions, let alone credits, the great Johannes Kepler, with whose work he was familiar. And despite Kepler's discovery of the elliptical orbits of the planets, Galileo defended, to the end of his life, the circles and epicycles of Copernicus (who added epicycles to those of Ptolemy).
Actually, scientists can be, and have been, no less rigid than religionists. The history of science is replete with dogmatism. Scientists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries regarded Newtonian physics as the last word in man's knowledge of the physical universe.
Scientists also have vested interests. As indicated above, the main opposition to Galileo came from the academic establishment. The reason is simple enough. Academics--physicists, astronomers, etc.--publish books and papers. Their views are matters of public record. Their prestige depends on maintaining the intellectual status quo. Along comes a genius like Galileo who rocks the academic boat.
Here I am reminded of the great mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, who showed, more than seventy-five years ago, that much that passes for education in the social sciences is narrow and misleading. To be sure, the social sciences provide a great deal of useful information. But this information is limited by a narrow conception of human cognition or theory of what man can know. Thus, if you can't see or measure something, it doesn't exist. This view of existence is called "empiricism" or "positivism."
If today's empiricists or positivists were transferred back to the seventeenth century, they would have dismissed the question of what a planet weighs as meaningless. Had their narrow rationalism prevailed, the scientific revolution of that century would never have taken place!
Incidentally, Whitehead traces the origin of modern science to monotheism, that is, to the idea of a Creator God, a God of infinite intelligence.
5. Some Non-Brit-Am Matters that have to be dealt with
(a) Brit-Am is Alone and Unique.
Brit-Am is the only body in the land of Israel representing both Judah and Ephraim.
This does not mean that other such bodies could not exist but at present they do not.
Even beyond that, Brit-Am is the only body (at least at present) in the land of Israel that can represent
Ephraim in a positive manner.
Brit-Am beliefs and proves that the major portion of the Lost Ten Tribes settled amongst
western peoples and only amongst those peoples did they achieve a Biblically-significant expression of their
prophesied destiny.
(b) Brit-Am tries to concentrate on its mandated task of
Research (Biblical and secular), Revelation (propagating the results of research),
and Reconciliation between Joseph and Judah.
We try to avoid theological discussions, religious arguments etc
and on the whole we succeed. We have merited to have formed an island
of spiritual calm to which all can relate based on the Bible.
Nevertheless events and personalities often seem determined to shake us out of the
surety that comes with fulfilling our task and leaving all other matters aside.
(c) Moving to Israel?
Last year (i.e. last Hebrew year, roughly from September to September) a lot of pressure
was put on us and a lot of noise was made by others concerning the possibility of "Ephraimites" being
encouraged to come and settle in Israel. We ourselves tried to advance something along those lines.
This whole activity may have been mistaken and counter-productive.
At all events the time is not ripe for such a move NEITHER Joseph nor Judah being ready for it.
See what we have written in the past on this matter:
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesGeneral.html
Answers to Question #4:
Do you think that members of the Lost Tribes should move to Israel at present?
If anyone says anything different from the Brit-Am position on this matter
my advice is not to accept it, at least not without consulting with us.
(d) Converting to Judaism and Missionizing for Christianity.
We are against Ephraimites missionizing amongst Jews to make them Christians.
We will perhaps explain why in detail at another time.
Likewise,
We do not encourage anyone to convert to Judaism. If they wish to do so
that is their private decision. Last year a former known Messianic Ephraimite personality
did convert to Judaism and was threatened, persecuted, and publicly vilified over a long period of time
by their former peers for doing so.
Brit-Am was not involved in this case one way or other but we know that it happened.
(e) Eddie Chumney
Eddie Chumney is a Messianic leader and a personal friend of ours even though we are religiously Jewish.
Eddie Chumney has also proved himself a loyal supporter of Brit-Am and a true friend.
Recently Eddie was criticized for the wrong reasons and in an unfair manner
in an article that presented itself as speaking from the "Jewish" perspective.
The article also criticized Ephraimite "Identity" beliefs per se.
We hope to answer this article later.
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