tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post3518344668512325252..comments2024-03-28T16:22:14.888-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Chinese numerology and world historyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-18961894146597808242012-06-06T22:04:39.218-07:002012-06-06T22:04:39.218-07:00Nothing strange if one knows that 23 is the number...Nothing strange if one knows that 23 is the number of judgment in the Bible, 46 = 23×2, 1998 = 3×666, and also numbers with digits in differrent sequence all have the same NUMERICAL ROOTS. For example numbers 1998, 1989, 8991, 1899, 9981, 9819, etc all shares the same root, which is the fish number, 153. 64 is the theomatic value for “truth” in Greek.Aubreyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15868530464120883372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31562141449243322832012-06-06T21:05:34.630-07:002012-06-06T21:05:34.630-07:00"When I came to the US at 6 and had to attend..."When I came to the US at 6 and had to attend a Christian nursery, I'm proud to say I gave the caretakers "hell". "<br /><br />I'm sure they celebrate the day you arrived. How does your 'tude benefit your adopted country?<br /><br />------------<br /><br />Veritas!Haciendanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-38453586598548196192012-06-06T14:32:10.408-07:002012-06-06T14:32:10.408-07:00"When I came to the US at 6 and had to attend..."When I came to the US at 6 and had to attend a Christian nursery, I'm proud to say I gave the caretakers "hell". "<br /><br />I'm sure they celebrate the day you arrived. How does your 'tude benefit your adopted country?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-3800771946853999242012-06-06T14:16:50.340-07:002012-06-06T14:16:50.340-07:00"In contrast, Hindus saw man and nature as pa..."In contrast, Hindus saw man and nature as part of one whole, which is why they worship Ganesh the baby elephant god. "<br /><br />Ganesh is not a baby elephant, he is the son of Shiva(the destroyer in the Hindu trinity), who got his head hacked off by his father for insolence. And then got an elephant head after his mother pleaded for her son.<br /><br />Use cow next time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-1834263876076911592012-06-06T13:21:06.919-07:002012-06-06T13:21:06.919-07:00Sacredness carries with it taboos, and taboos are ...Sacredness carries with it taboos, and taboos are obstacles to close observation and clear thinking. <br />Judeo-Christianity, by decoupling the material world from spirituality that came to be concentrated in the abstract form of an invisible Heaven-centered Deity, de-spiritualized the world(especially in the context of Eden's fall), and that may have opened up a closer examination of the material world without the warning signs of taboos.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-52478986935467582322012-06-06T13:16:52.525-07:002012-06-06T13:16:52.525-07:00"Wasn't it the Japanese who rejected gunp..."Wasn't it the Japanese who rejected gunpowder, because it devalued the Samurai? With the result that Commander Perry could order them about when he arrived?"<br /><br />I think you saw too many bogus ninja movies. Japanese adopted western firearms long before unification, and many crucial battles among top samurai clans were actually decided by guns than swords. (Also, in actual close combat, arrows and spears more crucial than swords in many cases.) Thus, even before the unification of Japan, the sword had become more a symbol than the central weapon in combat. <br /><br />Otoh, maybe 250 yrs of peace under the Tokugawa made the Japanese less dependent on the gun since a united Japan was at peace. But then, they didn't have much use for swords either for combat since there weren't many of those either. But the sword lived on for its sacred symbolic value. <br />Japan did use guns and cannons against Western encroachment in the 19th century but soon realized their small guns were no match for big guns of the West. <br /><br />I wonder if Japan chose to modernize because it was a relatively small island nation and felt all alone. Surrounded by Western ships, they really had no choice. <br />China, on the other hand, was huge, and so Chinese maybe thought they could withstand the Western assault for much longer--that Westerns were like mosquitos that would eventually tire from sucking blood out of an elephant. And nations attached to China maybe thought they could rely on big brother China to save them from West and Japan. Not so.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-73527842759462060712012-06-06T12:54:05.041-07:002012-06-06T12:54:05.041-07:00"Throughout their history they have rejected ...<i>"Throughout their history they have rejected technology (sailing ships, gunpowder, etc.) that have threatened the oligarchy and the West has mostly embraced it"</i><br /><br />Wasn't it the Japanese who rejected gunpowder, because it devalued the Samurai? With the result that Commander Perry could order them about when he arrived?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-83321252841562278292012-06-06T02:47:52.389-07:002012-06-06T02:47:52.389-07:00Stanley Jaki, a mute monk from Seton Hall, Christi...Stanley Jaki, a mute monk from Seton Hall, Christian apologist, wrote a book, 'Science and Creation,' where he tags China with the crippling world view of circularity. Thus their Newborn Science was aborted in a pool of Yin and Yang.<br />Christianity, however was linear, things always improved you see. There was a goal, humanity or Christendom always got better. Also the Christian God had just the right amount of omniscience(not too much like the Arabs)so Science and material progress bloomed in the West and now we are so successful and we feel so guilty we are giving it all away which,in the end, seems kind of circular.Conatushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12543138570489872681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-5269998775919024862012-06-05T20:36:46.854-07:002012-06-05T20:36:46.854-07:00But all said and done, China has too many Four-Fi...But all said and done, China has too many Four-Fingered Wu's.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43947808808838649862012-06-05T20:34:41.171-07:002012-06-05T20:34:41.171-07:00One time I went to get some acupuncture for aches,...One time I went to get some acupuncture for aches, the Chinese guy had all sorts of graphs and diagrams on the wall showing how yin mixed with yang and whatever. It was just hocus-pocus mumbo-jumbo stuff to me, but for him, it was a genuine medicinal system. <br /><br />Jews didn't have this problem cuz they separate man/world from God/spirit. Though God's spirit could enter man, man could never be Godly. Though God created the world, things of the world stood separate from God--and thus could be understood on their own terms.<br /> <br />Greeks had many gods, but they had a rationalist advantage over Chinese and Hindus because, more than most pagan cultures, they separated man and nature. Though there is much natural stuff in Greek mythology, all the gods are human, and man has a special place in Greek myths. Man stands atop and apart from nature. In contrast, Hindus saw man and nature as part of one whole, which is why they worship Ganesh the baby elephant god. And Chinese idea of Tao and other stuff saw a mystical union between man and nature. It didn't prevent Chinese from doing nasty things to animals, but Chinese didn't develop a strong sense of Man as separate from nature. <br /><br />As for 'technology', it too is wrong when it comes to China. Technology(as opposed to science) connotes pragmatism over theory. This was not the problem of China. After all, US favored technology/pragmatism over science in the late 19th century and became a great power. Thomas Edison, Graham Bell, and Wright Brothers may not have been Einsteins but they sure created new transform-ative technologies. <br />The problem with Chinese is they tended to be anti-technological because of their 'science' and traditionalist philosophy. Chinese spiritual philosophy was hostile to disharmony. New technology brought about disharmony, rapid change, and upheaval. And so the Chinese emperor ordered an inventor of a flying machine to be killed--at least according to Ray Bradbury's fiction. In the 19th century, many Chinese objected to Westernism because they hated the technology of the West. Chinese saw big ships, big trains, big guns, and etc. and found them all barbaric, ugly, and chaos-producing and headache-inducing. They would overturn the tranquil way of Middle Kingdom Chinese. They would upset the way of feng shui. Thus, Chinese adherence to their spirit-science halted the development of technology. <br /><br />Another brake against technology was Chinese mania of work-ethics that might even be called toil-ethics. If Western man thought work was good, Chinese thought toiling like a madman was good. Thus, Chinese became suspicious of technology as a lazy way to do things, a way of shirking one's duty to toil in life. <br /><br />Maybe Chinese did have a point in a way. Modern technology has allowed blacks and yobs to take it easy and live on welfare and enjoy lots of free time. And what do they do? Blacks and British working class had more dignity when they toiled on the fields.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-12332957562589343992012-06-05T20:34:22.217-07:002012-06-05T20:34:22.217-07:00It's wrong to tag China with magic/technology....It's wrong to tag China with magic/technology. Though there was magic-stuff in China, Chinese cosmology was a kind of science. Take I Ching. When we think of magic, we think of simple chants and trickery, the voodoo stuff we see in Haiti. Chinese took a very intellectual and systematic approach to their mysticism, writing big books on the subject. It was heavy in theory and speculation and analysis. The yin and yang stuff has a whole 'scientific' explanation behind it. THAT was the problem. Chinese exerted tremendous theoretical brain power in the service of mysticism to the point where matter merged with spirit. Same thing happened in India where spiritualism became an all-encompassing 'science' to explain phenomena. So godliness and spirit was everything and in endless forms. Indian spiritualism may have influenced Taoism. <br />In contrast, Jews invented a religion where there was one God and He was up there in Heaven. He created the world, but His essence was not of this world. Thus, even as Jews worshiped God in Heaven, they didn't see the world around them as mystical. God was spirit, and matter was matter. Granted, Jews didn't become the masters of Western science until much later, but their division of reality into spirit-in-form-of-one-God and matter-of-stuff-around-you made it possible for man to not confuse spiritualism with materialism. God ruled Heaven while man's world was made of solid stuff. (This is why it was problematic when Western science veered into astronomy. It began to tinker with the realm of God. It began to apply rules of matter on Earth to stuff up above. Even Jews and Christians had fused spirit and matter up there in Heaven. Sky was God's realm. But science advanced to such a degree on Earth that it eventually reshaped Western man's theories about heaven as well. Btw, Buddha did separate spirit and matter, and focused on the spirit. Problem is he said all matter was illusion, and that meant there was no need to study any of it.) <br />According to Hindus and Chinese, not only the realm of heaven but the world of man was surrounded and permeated by all sorts of spirits and mystical essences. If China and India had been simple cultures, they would have kept their notions on the level of magic. But as they were high civilizations, they elaborated their mysticism into spiritual sciences of mind-boggling complexity that came to influence medicine, construction(feng shui), politics, family life, etc. Thus, spiritualism became science, and science became spiritualism. Hindu Brahmins weren't merely magic-peddlers like voodoo women with chicken in Africa. They saw themselves as cosmic scientists who understood the workings of the cosmos through elaborate theory and literature. <br />Chinese 'superstition' was grounded in exacting theories of what must be done, what must go where, and etc, etc according to a vast web of theories. It served as an psycho-architectural blueprint for how to live, how to heal, how to solve problems, etc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-29004886238244775342012-06-05T20:17:11.818-07:002012-06-05T20:17:11.818-07:00If the Chinese truly understood Westerners they wo...<i><br />If the Chinese truly understood Westerners they would be shocked at their belief in so-called representative democracy and this mysterious thing called equality where women are said to be able to do every thing that men can and you can turn savages (from Detroit) into rocket scientists.<br /></i><br /><br />Heh. Yeah, those Chinese movies with the flying swordsmen are the equivalent of the butt-kicking babes in Western movies.<br /><br />Of course, the Chinese were doing the butt-kicking babes stuff first. Hua Mulan is the original butt-kicking babe.<br /><br />It reminds me of a story a Chinese guy told me.<br /><br />Mulan was in a battle and was knocked off her horse. She was having her period at the time. They got her to a medic (or equivalent) and when they took off her trousers, the medic said: "Holy sh*t. He was so badly injured his d*ck was chopped off!"<br /><br />So, even Chinese guys know it is sh*t.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-86364000864935118342012-06-05T18:50:41.050-07:002012-06-05T18:50:41.050-07:00"Except for Western Christendom and Japan, al..."Except for Western Christendom and Japan, all the major old-world civilizations (Eastern Christendom, Islam, India, China) were overrun by steppe nomads between 1000 and 1500 AD, and none of them ever recovered their pre-invasion vigour. So the rise of the West was no huge surprise."<br /><br /> The Ottomans, the Qing Dynasty and the Mughals are vigorous for a while. <br /><br /> I'm suspicious of steppe invasion as a grand theory of disparities in development between civilizations - the West (formerly Latin Christendom) developed empirical science, strong legal and fiscal institutions, and proceeded from there. Other places didn't - history is unpredictable and arbitrary like that.Ron Woonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31568758391504735402012-06-05T18:20:39.985-07:002012-06-05T18:20:39.985-07:00"Oh utter garbage - I know so many Chinese bu..."Oh utter garbage - I know so many Chinese business people and intellectuals who are scornful of Westerners for continuing to subscribe Christianity and astounded at the prevalence of creationism in certain segments of Judeo-Christian cultures. "<br /><br />I've known since I could think (age 4) that Christianity is superstition.<br /><br />When I came to the US at 6 and had to attend a Christian nursery, I'm proud to say I gave the caretakers "hell". <br /><br />Catholic education is in free-fall in the US because of kids like me (when I was a kid).Haciendanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-87653609806005845552012-06-05T13:23:17.888-07:002012-06-05T13:23:17.888-07:00The fact that we got our first good look at China ...<i>The fact that we got our first good look at China during the Yuan dynasty may be the excuse for this mystification: China was prosperous under the Mongols, and the fact that they had ceased advancing in any meaningful way was far from obvious at first glance. But as far as I know, every invention and discovery that China made before Europe was pre-Ghengis Khan, and I doubt that's a coincidence.</i><br /><br />Except for Western Christendom and Japan, all the major old-world civilizations (Eastern Christendom, Islam, India, China) were overrun by steppe nomads between 1000 and 1500 AD, and none of them ever recovered their pre-invasion vigour. So the rise of the West was no huge surprise.<br /><br />CennbeorcAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-408870502390117712012-06-05T09:30:06.558-07:002012-06-05T09:30:06.558-07:00"I'll be damned if the real answer has an..."I'll be damned if the real answer has anything to do with "science and theology versus technology and magic."<br /><br />Genghis Kahn and the Mongol Empire. It's a key to unlocking so much of Eurasian history. Yet, somehow the world has such a hard time remembering this time period. It was too painful, I guess.Haciendanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-15999881539505341272012-06-05T07:16:30.408-07:002012-06-05T07:16:30.408-07:00Wow, this thread really brought out the teenage at...Wow, this thread really brought out the teenage athiests trying to show how 'edgy' they are.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-57170368119661303392012-06-05T07:15:20.167-07:002012-06-05T07:15:20.167-07:00"The Olympics open with the Olympic Flame whi...<i>"The Olympics open with the Olympic Flame which is supposed to honor Zeus and his wife Hera." LOL, Steve Sailer PAWN4D.</i><br /><br />Well done comparing bananas and peanuts. When the number of Westerners who believe in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Flame" rel="nofollow">Prometheus myth</a> rises above zero, you will have a point.Scrutineerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16556970103045514403noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-50839361814687150712012-06-05T06:44:25.443-07:002012-06-05T06:44:25.443-07:00"If westerners truly understood Chinese and o..."If westerners truly understood Chinese and other east Asian peoples, they would be shocked by how belief in fate, superstition, magic etc pervades *all* members of society - even the richest and most powerful.<br />I would not be surprised if all major decisions were not take without recourse to an astrologer or an I-Ching practitioner."<br /><br /> Oh utter garbage - I know so many Chinese business people and intellectuals who are scornful of Westerners for continuing to subscribe Christianity and astounded at the prevalence of creationism in certain segments of Judeo-Christian cultures. <br /><br /> Garbage like the Yi Jing, Feng Shui and TMC are little different from things like Western astrology and naturopathy in my opinion - persistent, yet not definitive.Ron Woonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-85989167255568201912012-06-05T06:43:00.148-07:002012-06-05T06:43:00.148-07:00If westerners truly understood Chinese and other e...<i><br />If westerners truly understood Chinese and other east Asian peoples, they would be shocked by how belief in fate, superstition, magic etc pervades *all* members of society - even the richest and most powerful.<br />I would not be surprised if all major decisions were not take without recourse to an astrologer or an I-Ching practitioner<br /></i><br /><br />If the Chinese truly understood Westerners they would be shocked at their belief in so-called representative democracy and this mysterious thing called equality where women are said to be able to do every thing that men can and you can turn savages (from Detroit) into rocket scientists.<br /><br />(Also, I suspect you do not know any real Chinese or east Asians at all, because I know a few and your characterization of Chinese and east Asians does not match some of those I know.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-49675832299775068642012-06-05T06:40:18.541-07:002012-06-05T06:40:18.541-07:00http://nymag.com/news/features/peter-beinart-2012-...http://nymag.com/news/features/peter-beinart-2012-6<br /><br />Peter Beinart thought his new book would rally liberal Zionists. Instead, it's been attacked by his peers and embraced by some whose views he finds terrifying.<br />By JASON ZENGERLEAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-75249364141446677462012-06-05T06:26:40.409-07:002012-06-05T06:26:40.409-07:00http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21876-was-hu...http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21876-was-humanity-born-in-the-mother-of-all-plagues.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-6581971124326091542012-06-05T06:00:17.694-07:002012-06-05T06:00:17.694-07:00http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-limit...http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-limits-of-universalism-7397Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-7371926548836587652012-06-05T03:37:58.589-07:002012-06-05T03:37:58.589-07:00Saying China is about "magic and technology&q...Saying China is about "magic and technology" vs. Western theology and science probably has validity in a specific context, but as an overall view of Chinese society and civilization it seems too much of a shorthand and possibly ignorant.Kai Carverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15104699147862191024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-34730265192592660052012-06-05T01:20:44.144-07:002012-06-05T01:20:44.144-07:00This 18th century-style couplet about science and ...This 18th century-style couplet about science and magic and theology is just bunk. Civilizations are complex systems that can't be encompassed in a phrase, and the fact is that "progress" insofar as it's a quantifiable term at all, has a random element. In the 2nd century AD the Roman empire was the most advanced civilization on earth; China was not in the same league. A millennium later the positions were reversed.<br /><br />Then the biggest hammer in human history descended on the poor Han Chinese in the form of the Golden Horde. Chinese technological advances stopped in their tracks - because millions of them were killed by Mongols! - and this gave rise to the ponderous "Needham question" of how, possibly, China could have fallen behind the West in civilizational progress. Gee.<br /><br />The fact that we got our first good look at China during the Yuan dynasty may be the excuse for this mystification: China was prosperous under the Mongols, and the fact that they had ceased advancing in any meaningful way was far from obvious at first glance. But as far as I know, every invention and discovery that China made before Europe was pre-Ghengis Khan, and I doubt that's a coincidence.<br /><br />It seems to me that events - like the Mongol invasions, or the collapse of the Western Roman empire, or the Black Death, etc. - are a better source of historical explanations than epigrammatic encapsulations of entire societies in one clever phrase. I don't know Chinese history and I may be wrong about why, exactly, they didn't rule the world in the 19th century - but I'll be damned if the real answer has anything to do with "science and theology versus technology and magic."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com