tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post2542519762595678435..comments2023-12-25T01:24:48.957-05:00Comments on Republic of Gilead: The Botkins' "Ready for Real Life" Webinar: Part IIAhabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675629709031865432noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post-81610465118453312262013-10-26T19:33:41.002-04:002013-10-26T19:33:41.002-04:00Anonymous -- This tendency to recoil from a suppos...Anonymous -- This tendency to recoil from a supposedly "evil" world is one I'm seeing in different parts of the fundamentalist world. As you explained, though, it's contrary to Jesus' example -- and nearly impossible too. The world is growing smaller and more connected, and people need to engage it instead of flee from it.Ahabhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14675629709031865432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post-19729265134683397242013-10-26T18:18:30.326-04:002013-10-26T18:18:30.326-04:00I find it ironic that the Botkins family sees the ...I find it ironic that the Botkins family sees the outside world as evil. Jesus came to Earth and lived among the poorest of the poor. He picked some of society's most despised people for his followers: fishermen, a tax collector, women. He touched and healed those deemed untouchable: lepers, the bleeding woman, a Roman soldier's daughter. His final command was to go into the world and preach the Gospel to all nations.<br /><br />If Jesus had followed the Botkins way of life, we wouldn't have Christianity today. He would have stayed inside his home and there wouldn't be any followers!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post-78074597840211851152013-10-26T18:14:03.115-04:002013-10-26T18:14:03.115-04:00I find it ironic that the Botkins family sees the ...I find it ironic that the Botkins family sees the "outside world" as a corrupting influence. Jesus came to Earth and live among the people -- most of them very poor. He picked some of the most hated people of his day for followers: fishermen, a tax collector, women. He touched lepers and healed them, and allowed the bleeding woman to touch him so she would be healed. His final command was to out into the world and preach the Gospel to all the nations -- not sit at home in your fortress and hide.<br /><br />If Jesus had lived as the Botkins family advises, we wouldn't have Christianity. There wouldn't be any followers!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post-1637466452825399932013-10-06T20:28:19.357-04:002013-10-06T20:28:19.357-04:00Infidel -- You nailed it. No matter how much the B...Infidel -- You nailed it. No matter how much the Botkins wax poetic about learning, their teaching model is stagnant and constrictive. If they already believe that they have all the answers via the Bible, what motivation is there to discover or question?Ahabhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14675629709031865432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post-79594883135310561292013-10-06T19:03:24.179-04:002013-10-06T19:03:24.179-04:00There's almost too much to comment on here, bu...There's almost too much to comment on here, but what really hit me was this part:<br /><br /><i>First, when I think of intellectual "heavyweights" from the past two centuries, ideologues such as Mao Zedong do not come to mind. David Botkin could have chosen from hundreds of groundbreaking men and women whose ideas changed the world, but he chose Marx (a boogeyman of fundamentalists) and Mao Zedong (a communist dictator) instead</i>.<br /><br />If I had to choose one person as the most revolutionary thinker of all time, it would be Charles Darwin. No one else, before or since, has so radically transformed our conception of life and of what we as human beings <i>are</i>. The realization that we are actually animals, and that all life on Earth is literally related, has such tremendous implications that even now, 154 years later, we are still struggling to come to terms with them. And Darwin achieved his insights not by clinging "resolutely" to some ancient preconceived notion, but by carefully observing the evidence and following where it led.<br /><br />The Botkins' view of human knowledge is closed-off and dead -- it's a view in which the final answers to everything important are already known and there is nothing new to be discovered. This attitude has been an obstacle to progress wherever and whenever it has held power. If their view became dominant, it would make the US a stagnant society, while progress was carried on elsewhere.Infidel753https://www.blogger.com/profile/10965786814334886696noreply@blogger.com