Sunday, April 7, 2024

The God Culture: A Review of Solomon's Gold Part 6

While I truly did not want to be writing any more posts about the God Culture I have fallen down a long rabbit hole that really needs to be explored. This post will necessarily be long and detailed in order to ferret out the issues raised and to once again display the shoddy "research" of the The God Culture. Remember The God Culture says to test and prove all things, to check them out and see if they are right. That is exactly what I am doing here. The trail starts with Part 6 of the God Culture's Solmon's Gold series and Tim's citation of Samuel Purchas.


https://youtu.be/12tOU7Szbpk?t=917
Samuel Purchas attempts to put forth an argument for Britain regarding Ophir but there is no such support for any British find nor actual claim that ever matched history, the geography, the Bible facts, as well as the actual life of the people themselves. Spain beat them in all of these arenas hands down. Unfortunately the British Empire overpowered the Spanish and this story was swept under the carpet. That's why you don't hear about this in modern times. It's the victors who write history and they choose to place things under the carpet that they don't want you to know.  
There also was an argument raging in Europe referenced in Careri's journal of his visit to the Philippines he mentions he would not go into the argument raging in Europe at that time over whether the Philippines was actually, originally populated by the descendants of Biblical Tarshish.  Well this is the British so they must be right, right? Wrong! They had an ulterior motive. Spain was their largest rival and they did not want Spain to find Ophir. They wanted to. 
If you notice Tim doesn't actually quote Samuel Purchas. Instead he quotes a passage about him from Ancientphilippines.blogspot.com. That blog is listed as his source in tiny print underneath the quote.
In Samuel Purchas's well-known travel compendium Purchas His Pilgrim, he devotes the entire first chapter to a discussion of Tarshish and Ophir. In particular, he argues strenously that it is beloved Britain and not Spain that deserved the title as the modern Tarshish and Ophir. Curiously, in Careri's journal of his visit to the Philippines, he mentions that he would not go into the argument raging in Europe at that time over whether the Philippines was originally populated by the descendants of Biblical Tarshish.
http://ancientphilippines.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-lost-tribe-of-israel-is-found.html
In fact quite a large chunk of Tim's research originates from that webpage as we shall see. But here is the twist!  The author of AncientPhilippines has copy/pasted their research from someone else! Namely from the document Pilipinas Ang Ophir by Abraham Tabling. The above quote about Purchas can be found on both the title page and page 11 of Pilpinas Ang Ophir. For Tim it's a case of third-hand quoting. Is that the hallmark of any kind of legitmate researcher? Did he even read Purchas? Did he do that?


No. He did not. Here is how Tim cites Purchas in the accompanying PDF of supporting research sources.
5. Samuel Purchas. 
“Purchas His Pilgrimes.” Book 1. Samuel Purchas. Page 18-48 at least. Purchase has a very long dissertation on Ophir bought and paid for by the East India Company (Rothschilds) and never traveled more than 200 miles from Essex in his own words thus he is no explorer according to: Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes, Contayning a History of the World, in Sea Voyages, & Lande Travels, by Englishmen and others by Dr James Robert Wood, Trinity College Dublin. Also, Purchas did not know where Ophir was nor did he actually put up an argument against the Philippines which he does not address. Purchas was peddling a British mindset and never proves anything nor did he locate Ophir as no scholar fully did until Magellan. 
Pages 18-48 at least.  AT LEAST!? He cannot even cite the correct page or pages where Purchas lays out the argument for Britain being the land of Ophir but makes a guess! And we are supposed to believe him? According to the table of contents Purchas does not begin discussing the location of Ophir until page 66. AncientPhilippines does not cite these alleged arguments of Purchas for Britain being Ophir either.  Nor does Tabilog. He does however quote a few lines from Purchas seemingly about this matter.
Samuel Purchas writing in the early 17th century stressed the need for Britain to involve itself in the "Ophirian navigation" to secure its own self-vision as the chosen messianic nation but with a more mercantile twist: 
And this also we hope shall one day be the true Ophirian navigation, when Ophir shall come unto Jerusalem as Jerusalem then went unto Ophir. Meanwhile we see a harmony in this sea-trade, and as it were the consent of other creatures to this consent of the reasonable, united by navigation howsoever by rites, languages, customs, and countries separated.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/20188128/PILIPINAS-ANG-OPHIR pg 29
Tabilog's assertion that Purchas "stressed the need for Britain to involve itself in the "Ophirian navigation" to secure its own self-vision as the chosen messianic nation but with a more mercantile twist" is completely wrong. On pages 2-9 Purchas gives an anagogical interpretation of Solomon's navy sailing to Ophir which sheds light on this quote about "the true Ophirian navigation" which is found further down on page 56.
Or if you had rather adjoyne to the Allegory, the Anagogicall sense and use ; this History will appeare also a Mystery and Type of Eternitie. Every Christian man is a ship, a weake vessell, in this Navie of Solomon, and dwelling in a mortall body, is within lesse then foure inches, then one inch of death. From Jerusalem the Word and Law of our Solomon first proceeded, by preaching of Solomons and Hirams servants, the Pastors and Elect vessells to carry his Name, gathered out of Jewes and Gentiles, which guide these Ships through a stormy Sea, beginning at the Red Sea, Christs bloudy Crosse, which yeelded Water and Bloud, till they arrive at Ophir, the communion of Saints in the holy Catholike Church.
Pages 6-7
What Purchas is doing is employing the anagogical method of interpretation to spiritualize the history of the voyage of Solomon's navy to Ophir to gather earthly treasures. In this interpretation men are ships who voyage to Christ to gather heavenly treasures. Jerusalem is where the Law and earthly King Solomon rule. Ophir is where grace and the One who is Greater than Solomon rule. Thus the true Ophirian navigation is that journey from this earthly life to the heavenly life which is to be found only in Christ and His Church. The "true Ophirian navigation when Ophir shall come unto Jerusalem" is spiritual and has nothing to do with Britain being a chosen messianic nation with a mercantile twist. This allegory is completely lost on Tabilog. It is clear that Tim is also oblivious to it as he pontificates about history being written by the victors and the true location of Ophir being swept under the carpet thereby completely missing the point. Searching through Purchas' text there appears to be no arguments that Britain is Ophir. The text can be read here

In the source listed as the reference to Purchas being paid by the East India Company to write his 20 volume travel compendium we read the following:
Purchas wrote Purchas his Pilgrimes under the patronage of the East India Company. The Company awarded Purchas 100 pounds to assemble the book and gave him access to many of the letters and manuscripts that Purchas would draw on in writing his magnum opus
http://www.ucd.ie/readingeast/essay3.html
No indications are given as to when this essay was written. There is no date and any search for the author, Dr. James Robert Wood of Trinity College Dublin, comes up empty. Looking through the bibliography it seems the source for this claim might be "Hakluytus Posthumus: Samuel Purchas and the Promotion of English Overseas Expansion” which was published in 1966.
Purchas's East Indian chapters are among the best testimony that the Pilgrimes was both intended to be and was just as promotional as the Principal Navigations. The whole object of these chapters was public approval and support for the efforts of the East India Company. It is not surprising that upon publication of the Pilgrimes, the Company paid Purchas $100 and bought three sets of the work. It was meager pay indeed for the great service he had rendered them.
Hakluytus Posthumus: Samuel Purchas and the Promotion of English Overseas Expansion.” pg. 15
Not only are the claims in this paragraph not sourced, and there are plenty of footnotes on that page, but just 40 years prior to this essay's publication in 1926 a completely different account of Purchas' dealings with the East India Company was given by Sir William Foster, Historiographer to the India Office.
Mr. Bolton Corney, in his edition of The Voyage of Sir Henry Middleton (Hakluyt Society, 1855), declared that Hakluyt had nominated “as his editorial successor” John Pory, the translator of Leo Africans, but that this project came to nothing, and “about the year 1620, under circumstances which are nowhere distinctly stated, the collections formed by Hakluyt came into the hands of  the Rev. Samule Purchas.” Sir Clements Markham was bolder in his statements. According to him (Memoir on the indian Surveys, p.1) Hakluyt was appointed Historiographer to the East India Company in 1601, and consequently “had the custody of all the journals of the East Indian Voyages” ; on Hakluyt’s death these journals were handed over to Purchas, “no doubt with the consent of the Directors,” and the death of Purchas, closely following that of Sir Thomas Smythe, the Governor of the Company, would “possibly account for the loss of some of the earliest journals of the Company’s voyages.” For all this I have been unable to find any warrant in the Company’s records. 
The statement that Hakluyt was appointed Historiographer I have elsewhere shown to be based upon a misreading (by a previous writer) of a passage in the Court Minutes. There is no evidence that the journals were ever placed in his custody or transferred to Purchas ; and when the latter applied to the Company in 1622 for permission to make extracts from their records he was apparently a stranger to them, for he is spoken of as “one Purchas, that wrote of the religions of all nations.” Moreover, the restrictions then placed upon the loan show that the Company were fully alive to the importance of preserving their journals ; and as a matter of fact, several of those used by Purchas are still extant, while the loss of others is easily accounted for by the neglect with which such documents were treated by later generations. That Hakluyt was acquainted with Purchas is highly probable, in view of their common professor and their common interest in geographical matters ; but that the former ever intended to entrust his materials to the later is doubtful, in the absence of any mention of the matter in Hakluyt’s will. On the whole it seems more likely that Purchas applied for them to Hakluyt’s executors, who, having no use for such things, readily agreed to make them over to him.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1782578?seq=1 pgs 194-195
This historiographer who examined the records of the East India Company says Purchas was apparently a stranger to them. Clearly the relation between Purchas and the East India Company is disputed. But even if it were true that Purchas was the Company's historian that does not mean he covered up the true location of Ophir. Such a claim by Tim is an unwarranted conspiracy theory and it is based on an unsubstantiated paragraph from AncientPhilippines. Tim has not read Purchas and does not know if he even did argue that Britain was Ophir.

Now let's deal with the reference to the Rothschilds. If we look at the history of the Rothschilds we see it is completely unwarranted to associate them with the East India Company at least so early as 1614 when Purchas first published his work. The Jews were expelled from Britain in 1290 by King Edward I. They were not allowed to return until Cromwell gave them permission in 1655. The Rothschilds themselves did not gain any prominence or power until the Napoleonic wars in the early 1800's.  

There is a lot of noise on the internet about the Rothschild's alleged involevment in the East India Company but from their official archives we read the following:
As early as 1799, Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836) began to import and distribute Indian goods, and an ‘India Goods’ book, preserved in the Archive records dealings in cloth, indigo, spice, coffee and cotton between 1807 and 1812. Nathan is also reported to have dealt with the East India Company in connection with the famous ‘Waterloo Commission’, the contract from the British Government to supply Wellington's troops with gold coin in 1814 and 1815. In 1834, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton wrote to his daughter recalling the dinner where Nathan told him of an occasion “when I was settled in London, the East India Company had 800,000 lbs of gold to sell.  I went to the sale and bought it all.  I knew the Duke of Wellington must have it… that was the best business I ever did.” Whilst no evidence exists that Nathan held East India Company shares, he did recommend the son John Roworth, his ‘Principal Clerk’for enlistment as a Cadet with the Company in 1818. 
https://www.rothschildarchive.org/collections/treasure_of_the_month/december_2017_east_india_company_stock_list_1815
It is not likely that Jews were allowed to hold shares or control in the East India Company in the early 1600's when Purchas wrote his book as they were banned from Britain and as late as 1815 there was no evidence that Nathan Rothschild held shares in the Company. It is also ludicrous to suggest that the Rothschilds were attempting to cover up the real location of Ophir. Why would they? Tim does not give a reason for this alleged cover up on the part of the Rothschilds. Not to mention there appears to be nothing in Purchas' book to suggest that Britain is Ophir.

Neither Tim, AncientPhilippines, nor Abraham Tabliog assert that Purchas made any comments about the lost tribes but it would do good to read what one author has written on that subject in order to be thorough.
As early as the first two decades of the seventeenth century, the educated person could read about the ten tribes in, among other places, Samuel Purchas’s (c. 1575–1626) huge and popular Pilgrimages and Relations of the World series, a collection of world geography, voyages, and navigations. The kingdom of the ten tribes first appeared as part of biblical history, on its maps of the Holy Land (prepared by Hondius) with Samaria, the capital, in a large font. Similar maps, portraying the territories of the tribes before their exile, had been popular since the mid-sixteenth century. (For instance, Walter Raleigh’s [1552–1618] influential “history of the world,” published for the first time in1614, provided detailed information about the territories of each tribe during the period of the settlement of the Holy Land after the Exodus.) 
About the ancient geography of the ten tribes in Palestine, there was little dispute. Purchas, however, placed great importance on the religions attached to each region of the world. The ten tribes after exile, a group whose location and religious status were highly unclear, were a matter of particular concern. Purchas was an attentive collector of materials on the subject. In 1613, Purchas discussed—and did not rule out—the possibility that the ten tribes were in Tartary, relying, apparently, on Ortelius. In 1625, a year before his death, he declared, “The Tartars are not Israelite,” and spent time on Esdras’s allegations that this was the case, reviewing in the course of doing so all other possible locations in Asia, America, Arabia, and Ethiopia. Even after years of study, he could not be sure.
Despite his skepticism, Purchas liked to tell tales about the “closed Jews.” In a section dedicated to the Persian Gulf, Purchas “intreate[d]” his readers’ “patience,” digressing to discuss at length “the Jewish fables” about the “Sabbatical streams”—the River Sambatyon. This comes just after mention of European travelers who had lost their lives or fortunes looking for the legendary river—something he called a “Jewish tragedy.” The learned geographer ridiculed the lack of geographic knowledge displayed by Jewish writers and could not resist a witticism concerning “the Sabbatical river: now you shall understand how the Jews generally drowned their wits therein.” He had as his two examples “Rambam [Maimonides; 1135–1204] who called it [the River] Gozan,” and Eldad Ha-Dani, whose story should serve as “favorable entertainment.” Purchas tells a version of Eldad’s story, which he claims to have read in a “translation of Génebrard.” Fable or not, Purchas did not deny the existence of the “closed Jews” and encouraged his reader to become acquainted with the fascinating story of the “traveler Eldad.”
The Ten Lost Tribes A World History, Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, pgs. 205-206
If Purchas says nothing about the British being members of the lost tribes it stands to reason he said nothing about Britain being Ophir. Of course one would have to actually read the text to find out what he says about the location of Ophir. I will leave that task to the God Culture.

Let's look at the reference to Careri next. Who is this man? Tim doesn't tell us. He just repeats what he cribbed from AncientPhilippines as if everyone knows about the guy. Careri is Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri. He travelled the world in the late 17th century and ended up in the Philippines. The passage quoted is correct that there appears to have been a debate going on in Europe about the origin of the Filipinos.
For to endeavor to determine the first settlers of these lands, whence and how they came, whether they were Carthaginians, Jews, Spaniards, Phoenicians, Greeks, Chinese, Tartars, etc., is reserved for God, who knows everything; and this task exceeds all human endeavor. And if such study obtain anything, it will amount only to a few fallible conjectures with danger of the judgment, and without any advance of the truth or of reputation.
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Vol. 40, pg. 296-297 
Whether this debate was raging is not something determinable. Were there pamphlet wars about the subject? The passage above was written by Juan Fransisco San Antonio in 1744. Careri died in 1725. If there was a debate raging about about whether or not Filipinos were from Tarshish nothing was resolved by 1744.  

Careri wrote a book titled "A Voyage to the Philippines." In this book a word search for both Ophir and Tarshish turn up nothing. Likewise a search of his book "A Voyage Round the World" brings up zero hits for either Ophir or Tarshish. If Careri ever opined about the Filipinos and their relation to Tarshish it is not to be found in these two most likely places. It could be in there somewhere but that appears to be not the case. This is why it is crucial that anyone doing research, especially of the type where a new history of the world is being eked out, needs to properly cite all their sources. Timothy Jay Schwab, AncientPhilippines, and Abraham Tabilog all fail on this point.

In the next slide Tim tells us all the names given to the Philippines by their neighbors.


The sources Tim lists are as follows.

For Chryse: Pomponious Mela, Marinos of Tyre and the Periplus of the Erythaean Sea mentioned this island. 100BC.  These are sources that Tim refers to many times in his videos and which I have covered elsewhere.

For Suvarnadwipa: Ancient Hindu Name for the Philippines. That is not a source. That is an assertion. I am having trouble chasing down this name because the more common appellation is SuvarṇabhūmiThe only place I can find where this name is claimed to be how the Hindus anciently referred to the Philippines is http://maharlikhan.blogspot.com/2014/11/ancient-world-heritage-of-maharlikha.html. No source for this claim is given on that blog. According to Wikipedia no scholar  is of the opinion that this place is the Philippines.
The location of Suvarnabhumi has been the subject of much debate, both in scholarly and nationalistic agendas. It remains one of the most mythified and contentious toponyms in the history of Asia. Scholars have identified two regions as possible locations for the ancient Suvarnabhumi: Insular Southeast Asia or Southern India. In a study of the various literary sources for the location of Suvannabhumi, Saw Mra Aung concluded that it was impossible to draw a decisive conclusion on this, and that only thorough scientific research would reveal which of several versions of Suvannabhumi was the original.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suvarnabhumi
For Lusong Dao: Chinese traders 300 AD. Again that is not a source. It is an assertion. The blog Maharlikhan also mentions this name but gives no source to verify the claim.

For Chin-Chou: I-Tsing, Buddhist Pilgrim, 200 BC. This is a name and not a source. While Tim does not give his source for this information a deeper look reveals that it may originate from the book "A record of the Buddhist religion as practised in India and the Malay archipelago" which was written by I-Tsing also known as Yijing. Here is what he has to say about Chin-Chou on page 17.
Sometimes an emperor greatly opens the way to the Triyana and invites the teachers, preparing hundreds of seats ; sometimes he constructs Kaityas (sepulchres) throughout his dominion, so that all the wise incline their hearts to Buddhism ; or he builds temples (Saiigharama) here and there throughout his realm in order that all the ignorant may go and worship there to mature their merit. Farmers sing merrily in their fields, and merchants joyfully chant on board ship, or in their carts. In fact, the people who honour cocks (i.e. Korea, see below) and those who respect elephants (India), as well as the inhabitants of the regions of Chin-lin (lit. gold-neighbours) and Yii-lin (lit. Gem-hill), come and pay homage at the Imperial Court. Our people manage their affairs peacefully in a peaceful state (or better,'peace and tranquillity are our objects'), and everything is so perfect that there can be nothing to be added. 
He says nothing about Chin-chou. However there is a footnote for Chin-lin which reads as follows:
Chin-lin (lit. Golden Neighbours) is, according to Kaxyapa, the same as 'Chin Chou' (lit. Golden Island), which corresponds to Skt. Suvarwa-dvipa. The 'Golden Island' is the name once applied, by I-tsing, to Sumatra or at any rate to Sribhoga, where gold is said to have been abundant. 
Chin-chou is mentioned again on page xli.  
9. Gold seems to have been abundant. I-tsing once calls Sribhoga ‘Chin-chou,' 'Gold Isle.'
The footnote here is:
Chavannes, p. 1S1, note 2. Cf. Reinand, Relation, torn, i, p. lxxv. Sumatra is famous for gold ; Yule, Marco Polo, vol. ii, chap, ix, p. 26S. 
At this point the trail goes cold because the book referred to, which I think is "Memoir Written in the Grand Tang Dynasty by Yijing on the Religious Men Who Went to Search for the Law in the Western Lands" translated into French by Émmanuel-Édouard Chavannes is not online and not translated into English. The task of searching this out further falls upon The God Culture. What is very clear is that Yijing did not refer to the Philippines as Chin-chou. He also did not write in 200 BC as his dates are 635-713 AD. His travel route bypassed the Philippines as the map on his Wikipedia entry shows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yijing_(monk)

Tim has gotten this source wrong entirely because he did not check it out. Ironic how Tim keeps getting things wrong because he fails to check his sources when he admonishes his audience to test and prove all things.

For Chin-San and Chin-Lin: 17th Century, Dominican Gregorio Garcia. Again that is a name and not a source. I am unable to examine any of Gregorio Garcia's works because they appear to not have been translated into English. I am unable to find any sources linking Garcia with those two names. He is mentioned in the Wikipedia article about Names of the Philippines under the section "disputed" but for the name Ophir not Chin-San and Chin-Lin.

For Zabag: 1609 AD Juan de Pineda and Former Prime Minister Pedro A Paterno, Conjectural Anthropology. Those are names and not sources. In fact Paterno never wrote a book titled Conjectural Anthropology. It appears Tim got this reference from Wikipedia.
Former Prime Minister Pedro A. Paterno said in one of his works on conjectural anthropology that Ophir is the Philippines because the scented wood Solomon received from Ophir also exists in the Islands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Philippines#Disputed
But then again perhaps not because Tim claims Paterno as a source for the name Zabag and not Ophir. The same goes for Pineda who is also mentioned in the Wikipedia article alongside Paterno and Garcia. Whatever the case may be we see that this is shoddy research on Tim's part.  He claims to list sources but does not. He also has not chased down these names to find out how they were used and by whom. Except for the references to Chryse this slide is worthless and unreliable. That is not to say Chryse is an ancient name for the Philippines, which is Tim's assumption, just that he gets the sources right for that particular name.

The next slide to look at deals with Antonio Pigafetta.

https://youtu.be/12tOU7Szbpk?t=1632

Oops!  This quote ism't from Pigafetta as Tim admits in the PDF of supporting research sources.
10. “Mindoro Possess Great Skill in mixing gold”: 
CORRECTION: Please NOTE: The original source cited Pigafetta as the source but this quote comes from Hernando Riquel instead: Hernando Riquel, Excerpts From: “The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55 / 1569-1576 / Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Re- cords of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century.” P. 65 Print Edition.

P.100 e-book:

Without naming AncientPhilippines Tim admits in this correction that he used them as his source. Funny that in the video he does not attribute that blog but instead Pigafetta'a book! Why did he do that when he knew he was not actually referencing Pigafetta's book but the blog AncientPhilippines as he admits in the PDF of supporting research sources? It is proof that he did not even check the veracity of the source and that he is being a tad duplicitous. He got too cocky and simply copy/pasted what he read and made it his own by telling us it came from Pigafetta and showing the book on the slide all the while knowing he was referencing AncientPhilippines and not Pigafetta. This wrong attribution to Pigafetta is also reproduced on page 62 of Tabilog's paper.

For all his corrections Tim messes up again! The real quote is as follows:
During these five days, the Moros had, little by little, given two hundred taels of impure gold, for they possess great skill in mixing it with other metals. They give it an outside appearance so natural and perfect, and so fine a ring, that unless it is melted they can deceive all men, even the best of silversmiths.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=miun.afk2830.0001.003&view=1up&seq=79
It is to be found on page 81 of the print edition not page 65.  He writes 65 because the Gutenberg website has page 65 next to the section in which this quote is found. A minor mistake which is just more evidence that he is not very careful with his sources. 

The next slide to look at from this video has a quote from Antonio De Morga.

https://youtu.be/12tOU7Szbpk?t=2279
And where did this gold come from? When the Spanish arrived, the Philippines was so gilded with gold that most of the gold mines had been neglected. "... the natives proceed more slowly in this, and content themselves with what they already possess in jewels and gold ingots handed down from antiquity (ancient times) and inherited from their ancestors. This is considerable, for he must be poor and wrethced who has no gold chains, calombigas, and earrings." Again who had this gold and jewelry wealth? Everyone! Not just the royal class which was innumerable by the way. Not a small group that led the country. No. And it was handed down from their ancestors. Not necessarily forged in that era as the gold mines were neglected. One actually stood out as poor if if they did not have gold and jewels on their person. The mines had been neglected meaning they had enough gold from their ancestors and gold was not in demand among Filipinos, Ophirians.  Can you imagine this? 
If you notice I have misspelled "wretched" and so has Tim. That is because we both copy/pasted from AncientPhilippines who in turn copy/pasted from Tabliog's paper Pilipinas Ang Ophir page 61. That's some really great research Tim is doing right? All this copy/pasting? Because he did not read this source he gets it totally wrong!

Were the mines neglected because the natives had too much gold? Let's go to the source and see what it says.  
All these islands are, in many districts, rich in placers and mines of gold, a metal which the natives dig and work. However, since the advent of the Spaniards in the land, the natives proceed more slowly in this, and content themselves with what they already possess in jewels and gold ingots, handed down from antiquity and inherited from their ancestors. This is considerable, for he must be poor and wretched who has no gold chains, calombigas [bracelets], and earrings. 

Some placers and mines were worked at Paracali in the province of Camarines, where there is good gold mixed with copper. This commodity is also traded in the Ylocos, for at the rear of this province, which borders the seacoast, are certain lofty and rugged mountains which extend as far as Cagayan. On the slopes of these mountains, in the interior, live many natives, as yet unsubdued, and among whom no incursion has been made, who are called Ygolotes. These natives possess rich mines, many of gold and silver mixed. They are wont to dig from them only the amount necessary for their wants. They descend to certain places to trade this gold (without completing its refining or preparation), with the Ylocos; there they exchange it for rice, swine, carabaos, cloth, and other things that they need.' The Ylocos complete its refining and preparation, and by their medium it is distributed throughout the country. Although an effort has been made with these Ygolotes to discover their mines, and how they work them, and their method of working the metal, nothing definite has been learned, for the Ygolotes fear that the Spaniards will go to seek them for their gold, and say that they keep the gold better in the earth than in their houses."
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 vo. 16, pgs 101-102
Tim says the mines were neglected because they had a surplus of gold. De Morga tells us mining was slowed down and the mining process kept hid for fear of the Spanish stealing all their gold. He also says the natives only dig for what is necessary for their wants. The mines were not neglected at all according to De Morga. Tim gets it wrong because he didn't check his sources. Throughout this video he is cribbing from AncientPhilippines and trying to pass off their research as his own by adding his singular little spin and presentation as he did with the wrongly cited Pigafetta quote. All the while unbeknownst to him he is also taking from the work of Abraham Tabilog. 

I ask again is this how a serious researcher works? Using a random blog as a main source rather than using it as a jumping off point to the original sources? Not checking the sources? Not bothering to read them? Is that what a real researcher does? This is why I say again and again that Tim misuses his sources, picks and chooses what he will, and in some cases does not even read the source and he is not a credible person. He is a man on a mission to prove his thesis and not a serious researcher taking all the facts the sources present into consideration. If a source contradicts Tim's thesis it is because of a great conspiracy to cover up the truth.

Before we wrap up I have one more slide to look at and it's about chicken DNA.

https://youtu.be/12tOU7Szbpk?t=2750
Before we wrap up haven't we all been taught that people came to the Philippines from the other Pacific islands? Wouldn't that dispel a lot of this  if it were true it would. But a new study has been released by the American National Academy of Sciences that actually disproves that.  
It declares that Philippines is the most likely ancestral homeland of the Polynesians, who's forebears colonized the Pacific about 3,200 years ago. Polynesian chickens had their genetic roots in the Philippines. Through chicken migration patterns, and chickens do not island hop on their own without human intervention by the way, scientists have proven the Polynesian roots are in the Philippines.  
This study absolutely does not declare "that Philippines is the most likely ancestral homeland of the Polynesians." The study is wholly about chickens. Tim does not even bother to cite any material from the study itself or its authors but instead quotes from Ancient-origins.net. Both that webpage and Timothy read way too much into this study. National Geographic sheds more light.
Scientists looking into the DNA of ancient and modern chicken breeds found throughout Micronesia and Polynesia have determined that they are genetically distinct from those found in South America. The research runs counter to apopular theory that Polynesian seafarers might have reached the coast of South America hundreds of years ago, before European explorers. 
Researchers sequenced mitochondrial DNA from 22 chicken bones found at Polynesian archaeological sites and 122 feathers from modern chickens living on islands across the South Pacific. They used an enzyme to remove any contamination by modern DNA that may have clouded the results of earlier studies. When the team compared the "cleaned-up" DNA of Polynesian chickens with that of ancient and modern South American chickens, they found the two groups were genetically distinct. 
The chicken DNA does not support a connection between the peoples separated by the Pacific, Cooper said. "Indeed, the lack of the Polynesian sequences [of DNA] in modern South American chickens ... would argue against any trading contact as far as chickens go." 
Cooper and his colleagues were able to trace the origins of Polynesian chickens back in time and across the Pacific, following the lines of what must rank as one of the boldest, most romantic, and least understood human migrations of all time—the peopling of the tropical islands of the South Seas. 
"We can show [from chicken DNA] that the trail heads back into the Philippines," Cooper said. "We're currently working on tracing it farther northward from there. However, we're following a proxy, rather than the actual humans themselves."
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/3/140318-polynesian-chickens-pacific-migration-america-science/
The point of this study was to show the genetic difference between South American and Polynesian chickens. They trace the lineage across the islands of the Pacific back to the Philippines and say they are attempting to trace it further northward.  They also say that they are not following "the actual humans themselves" but a proxy which is the chicken DNA. This study is not about people. It is about chickens. Did Tim read the study?  The abstract at least? No. If he did he would have read this:
Two modern specimens from the Philippines carry haplotypes similar to the ancient Pacific samples, providing clues about a potential homeland for the Polynesian chicken.
https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/111/13/4826.full.pdf
"Clues about a POTENTIAL HOMELAND" which is why Cooper says they are looking to trace the line further northward. This study does not say anything about the Philippines being the homeland of the Polynesians nor does it suggest it. After all as Tim says, "chickens do not island hop on their own without human intervention" which means they were brought to the Philippine islands from elsewhere which means Filipinos came from elsewhere. The study is solely about chickens and anything else is mere speculation on Tim's part. Of course he cribbed it from Ancient-Origins which means, like a naughty school boy, he copied someone else's wrong answers.

Solomon's Gold Part 6 showcases the same academic dishonesty I have thoroughly documented in all the other posts I have written about the God Culture. They misuse sources, copy/paste from others, and sometimes don't read the sources at all. That is no way to do research. That is not research at all. Don't forget The God Culture claims to be a team doing "deep research including history, geography, archeology, science, language." What a joke!

This is why I did not want to be writing about the God Culture again. Anything I could write about them would repeat the formula of looking up their sources and showing how they get them wrong. It would be redundant, tedious, and boring. As I wrote before, if they don't get their sources right here they won't get them right there. And if they don't get their sources right then their conclusions will be wrong. These several posts have proven that to be true. 

Saturday, April 6, 2024

The God Culture: Jewish Fables

What do you get when you romanticize and fetishize a people overlooking their inherent qualities and ignoring their actual state of being? You get the myth of the noble savage. In the Philippines no one is more guilty of holding to that myth than Timothy Jay Schwab of the God Culture and Kyle Jennerman of Becoming Filipino. Those two men are like peas in a pod. While they inhabit different ends of the ideological spectrum both treat Filipinos the same way. To Tim and Kyle Filipinos as they are cease to exist and instead become the idealized fantasies they wish for them to be.  Let's take a look.

First up, the God Culture. From the 100 Clues Series, Clue#25: Philippines is Ophir: Magellan, Pinto, Barbosa, King of Spain, Cabot KNEW - Ophir, Tarshish. 

https://youtu.be/NGz-gWv46K4

The majority of this video is a justification of Magellan's falsification of Barbosa's book as if that is evidence that Magellan was prescient and knew the location and identification of the Philippines as Ophir and Tarshish. That does not concern us here. It is the first few minutes which are important. Tim quotes an Anglican churchman quoting a Jew who allegedly located some of the lost tribes in the Philippines.

Starting at 2:00
First to follow up on Columbus from our last video. We said Columbus in his margin notes and journal had initially found in his research the location of Ophir, Tarshish, the Garden of Eden, and some of the lost tribes of Israel all in the Philippines in fact. He was not the only one however in his era. 
Now, this original writing is lost to history but preserved in an 1846 book by Rev. Thomas Stackhouse.  Stackhouse records that Italian-Jewish scholar and contemporary to Columbus, Farrisol, reached the very same conclusion regarding the lost tribes. He says the lost tribes of Israel are in, for one,...THE PHILIPPINES!  Huh? Ever hear that one in your history class? Yeah. Us either. 
Gee, these Italian-Jews were searching hard for the lost tribes in the Philippines. And why? Well just look at what Columbus did to what he thought were the lost tribes of Israel in Haiti. He enslaved them and took their gold and resources. That's pleasant. And Magellan was headed in the same direction until of course he lost his head that is.  
The Spanish continued to repeat the same pattern. Columbus is cited to acquire this gold for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Yet the funny thing is if he believed these were lost tribes, knowing the prophecy that they are to return to Jerusalem would they not be a brother to a fellow Jew? It makes one wonder if Columbus and his brand of Jew were even Hebrews in the first place. Hmm. We'll leave that one for another time.   
If Tim had actually read the source he is quoting he would have saved much time and effort because he would have ended up chucking it into the garbage and not giving it another look. By this point it should be no surprise that Tim does not thoroughly read his sources, gleans from them whatever supports his thesis while tossing the rest, and that he manipulates them rather shamelessly to make them say what he wants them to say. Sometimes he disdains the need for sources entirely! In the video for Clue #53 he makes this incredible statement at 18:00:
Thomas Suarez's book just to glean something that is actually common knowledge and doesn't require a source even. Talk about a non-issue!  
https://youtu.be/ffA5sWIdXI4?t=1075
Talk about fallacious reasoning! Who knew the the locations of Chryse and Argyre and the Turin map, all things he "gleans" from Suarez, are just plain old common knowledge like how rubbing Vicks on your feet will cure everything?  Is it any wonder that one cannot reason with this guy when in pursuit of his thesis he chucks all reason to the curb?

The section of this book Tim quotes from actually starts on page 648 and is titled, "Of the Transportation of the Ten Tribes and Their Return." After briefly discussing the dispersion of the Ten Tribes Stackhouse writes:
Such, with very small exception, has been the case of this unhappy people, ever since the time of the Assyrian captivity; and yet, such is their pride and arrogance, that instead of owning the truth, they have devised fables of their living all along in great prosperity and grandeur in some unknown land, as a national and united body, in an independent state, and under monarchies or republics of their own. So, that before we begin to inquire into the real places of their transportation, and some other circumstances thereunto belonging, it may not be amiss to examine a little the merit of these pretensions, and what foundation they have for such mighty boasts. 
It is the pretension of the Jews to locate their lost brethren as living in the nether parts of the world in prosperity and grandeur.  Before discussing where the tribes have been located he mentions the oft quoted passage from 2 Esdras 13:40-45 which it would not be amiss to quote here:
40 Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land.  
41 But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt,  
42 That they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land.  
43 And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow places of the river.  
44 For the most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over.  
45 For through that country there was a great way to go, namely, of a year and a half: and the same region is called Arsareth. 
https://biblia.com/bible/kjvapoc/2-esdras/13/40-45
These are the key verses which serve as a prooftext for any number of lost tribes theories, Tim's included.  Rev. Stackhouse is less enthusiastic about the entire book of 2 Esdras than Tim.
In short, this counterfeit Esdras, who seems to have been a Christian, and to have lived about the end of the first, or the beginning of the second century, is not only so inconsistent in his account of this, and several other transactions, but so fond of uncertain traditions, and so romantic and fabulous about the divine inspiration which he boasts of, that there is no credit to be given to what he says, a concerning the retreat of the ten tribes into an unknown land.
It is not only Esdras whom Stackhosue accuses of being fond of the romantic and fabulous. He also accuses Farissol, a man whom Timothy thinks is telling the absolute truth, of spouting fantastic nonsense and forgeries.
Another Jewish author, in his description of the world, has found out very commodious habitations for the ten tribes, and in many places has given them a glorious establishment. In a country which he calls Perricha, inclosed by unknown mountains, and bounded by Assyria, he has settled some, and made them a flourishing and populous kingdom. Others he places in the desert of Chabor, which, according to him, lies upon the Indian sea, where they live, in the manner of the ancient Rechabites, without houses, sowing, or the use of wine. Nay, he enters the Indies likewise, and peoples the banks of the Ganges, the isles of Bengala, the Philippines, and several other places, with the Jews, to whom he assigns a powerful king, called Daniel, who had three other kings tributary, and dependent on him. But this is all of the same piece, a forged account to aggrandize the nation, and to make it be believed, that the sceptre is not departed from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, and that Shiloh consequently is not yet come. 
Stackhouse then describes other alleged locations of the lost tribes such as in the New World among the American Indians, rejects them all, and concludes:
Thus we have endeavoured to find out the situation of the ten tribes of Israel, and yet can meet with nothing, but either the fabulous accounts of the Talmudists, or the uncertain conjectures of modern critics; let us now have recourse to the Scriptures, and know what the information is that they can supply us with, in this our inquiry. 
Rev. Stackhouse dismisses the writings of Farissol and the rest of the Jews concerning the lost tribes out of hand as nothing but "the fabulous accounts of the Talmudists." On Farissol's Wikipedia page there is a link to the book "Chapters on Jewish Literature."  

Chapters on Jewish Literature

Chapter 20 of this book is titled "Traveller's Tales" and is all about the fabulous tales of Jews and how they located the lost tribes in sundry places throughout the world during their travels. Farissol is mentioned in this chapter very briefly. The point here is to say that the writings of Farissol and his fellow Jews, including Columbus, are nothing but fantastic falsehoods. The dreams of a dispossessed people longing to regain their former glory. The Jews have placed the lost tribes in every nook and cranny of the world, the Philippines included. But no one believes any of their fevered fantasies just like no one believes in the legends of Prester John, El Dorado, Sir John Mandeville, Chryse and Argyre, or the Fountain of Youth. Except perhaps Tim and the God Culture.

Contrary to what Tim claims in his video Farissol's book is not lost to history. In fact here is the Latin/Hebrew edition on Google Books.


Abraham Farissol

This Renaissance-era tome is referenced in the 2013 book "The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History" by Zvi Ben-Dor Benite. A PDF of that book can be downloaded from this link. The "Philippines" does not appear in its pages despite the author discussing where Farissol, Columbus, and other writers locate the lost tribes. He writes the following on page 133:
Farissol’s actual treatment of the ten tribes is rather disappointing, despite the fact that they appear as a distinct item in the title page of the Igeret and although he dedicates a whole chapter to David. Farissol does not have much new to report and, by his own admission, resorts to the familiar Talmudic “India.” The big change is that he includes the tribes for the first time within a real charted geography.
On page 180:
In Farissol’s Igeret (which he cites), the ten tribes are in the old southern location somewhere between Arabia and India
"Somewhere between Arabia and India." Not the Philippines. Either Benite is not telling us everything Farissol wrote about the locations of the lost tribes or Stackhouse is reading Farissol wrong. Either way Tim has not read Farissol and should not be citing him. That he does so is more evidence of the poor research which permeates his videos. No serious researcher would use hearsay as evidence for his claims yet this is what Tim does by quoting Farissol. He bases many of his assertions that the Israelites made their way to the Philippines in this video and in others on one paragraph in Stackhouse's book which is not even a quotation from Farissol but is only a brief summation of what he allegedly wrote. I challenge Tim with all his Hebraic linguistic skills to translate Farissol into English so we can read what he actually wrote about the lost tribes being located in the Philippines.

What's really interesting to note here is that Tim presents Stackhouse as an authority.
A vicar of the Church of England no less. Yeah, we'll keep an eye on this guy too as he quotes a Pharisee trying to figure out the markers but there is something to this once again and his interpretation is not necessarily off it's actually pretty good so we wish to share it.
https://youtu.be/xv3QPH4UGOI?t=2382
But he declines to tell his listeners about Stackhouse's negative remarks concerning Farissol and all the other Jews who attempted to locate the lost tribes. With this partial quote it appears as if Stackhouse is presenting Farissol in a positive light when just the opposite is true. He completely misrepresents the good Rev. Thomas Stackhouse. As with all the other sources Tim uses they are only authoritative insofar as they further his agenda. He "gleans" what he will and tosses out the rest as chaff. It is simply more deception and intellectual dishonesty on Tim's part. He can be found using this source in the same way in the following videos:
Where Did the Lost Tribes of Israel Go? Part 2C: Ophir, Philippines? THE HISTORY Continued
Lost Tribes Series Part 2G: The Landing of the 2nd Exodus In Ophir, Philippines
In those two videos he takes Stackhouse's account of Farissol's work and put's it to a historical test resulting in some of the silliest linguistic gymnastics like in the following slide:

https://youtu.be/xv3QPH4UGOI?t=2558

Farissol allegedly located some of the tribes in a place called Perricha. Tim shows just what a cunning linguist he is by telling us that Perricha sounds like Pharisee which sounds like Persia which means Kurdistan! Tah-dah! The Kurds are also part of the lost tribes. It must be heard to be believed and I encourage all to click the link beneath the slide.


What Timothy Schwab is doing by referring to Farissol as a genuine historical source is perpetuating Jewish fables.  Why did Thomas Stackhouse dismiss Farissol and other Jews locations of the lost tribes as "the fabulous accounts of the Talmudistsbut Timothy Jay Schwab embrace him? Why are Jewish fables which the Apostle Paul said to reject (Titus 1:41 Tim 1:4) exalted to the status of Gospel truth for Tim? Because Tim is at heart a Judaizer. He takes his Christianity scattered, smothered, and covered with Judaism and he encourages others to do the same. Timothy Jay Schwab's message is not simply that Filipinos are members of the lost tribes but that they must also worship God in a Jewish manner. They can begin to do this by keeping the Sabbath and the Biblical feasts. Look at this comment from one of Tim's videos about the Feasts of YHWH.

https://youtu.be/IfDwuaXYnTc

Worshipping on the Sabbath and lighting a shabbat candle gets an, "Awesome!! Yah Bless," from Tim. But far more than Saturday worship is on Tim's mind. He envisions the Philippines as being of vital importance to all of humanity in learning the correct manner of worshipping God.

Obviously there is no temple in Israel today so no actual need to go there although certainly visit that's fine. But we don't need that anymore. In fact watch our Solomon's Gold series and you will find His Holy of Holies on earth has always been permanently in the Garden of Eden which we locate in the Philippines. And the one in Israel was very temporary of course. Thus everyone should really travel to  the Philippines for these feasts. How about that? Something to think about. And this is why we say that the Philippines is where they will reinstate these feasts in full especially.
If that is not fetishizing and romanticizing Filipinos and the Philippines then I don't know what is. Not only are Filipinos members of the lost tribes but the Holy of Holies is right here in the Philippines in the Garden of Eden and everyone should travel here to keep the feasts. The Philippines is not only the home of God's people, it is the home of God Himself! 

How much more ludicrous can this guy get? In an earlier post I wondered if Tim might be an actual heretic and here he is being an actual heretic, a Judaizer! Telling people to keep the feasts, which Jesus fulfilled, despite admitting to not even knowing the proper calendrical calculations. (Feasts of YHWH 1A). Telling people to return to the schoolmaster which was supposed to lead us to Christ. Telling people that they are both children of the bondwoman and the free. (Galatians 3-4) Telling people that there has been no changing of the law even though there has been a change of the priesthood. (Hebrews 7:12) He is so Judaized that he can not even bring himself to use the names Jesus, God, or Lord but resorts to using his own Hebrew configurations of Yahua and Yahusha. Listen at 7:52 of Feasts of YHWH 1A where he reads from Matthew and corrects the name of Jesus with the fake name of Yahusha. Better still go watch his Name of God video series and hear just how Judaized the man really is as he tells us all what the REAL names of God and Jesus are.

Watching Tim's Feasts of YHWH videos is quite painful. It is painfully obvious he does not understand basic Christianity or Church History. When he speaks about Easter Tim makes the outlandish and easily disprovable accusation that Constantine entered into a conspiracy with the Bishops to censor and cover up the truth of Passover. Since he rejects what was decreed at Nicea concerning Easter it is almost certain that he also rejects the faith which was promulgated at Nicea and enshrined in the Nicean Creed. Does Tim believe in the Trinity or not?

 Let's hear in their own words why the Bishops rejected the Jewish Passover:
When the question relative to the sacred festival of Easter arose, it was universally thought that it would be convenient that all should keep the feast on one day; for what could be more beautiful and more desirable, than to see this festival, through which we receive the hope of immortality, celebrated by all with one accord, and in the same manner? It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded. In rejecting their custom, we may transmit to our descendants the legitimate mode of celebrating Easter, which we have observed from the time of the Saviour's Passion to the present day [according to the day of the week]. We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Saviour has shown us another way; our worship follows a more legitimate and more convenient course (the order of the days of the week); and consequently, in unanimously adopting this mode, we desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews, for it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction we could not keep this feast. How can they be in the right, they who, after the death of the Saviour, have no longer been led by reason but by wild violence, as their delusion may urge them? They do not possess the truth in this Easter question; for, in their blindness and repugnance to all improvements, they frequently celebrate two passovers in the same year. We could not imitate those who are openly in error. How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are most certainly blinded by error? for to celebrate the passover twice in one year is totally inadmissible.
http://www.futuresgood.com/council_of_nicea.html
The Bishops of Nicea set the date of Easter the way they did in the name of unity and to separate themselves from the Jews. Tim on the other hand wants to be a Jew. He even wants to discover lost Jews. As of this writing he has made almost two hundred videos just to prove Filipinos are members of the lost tribes of Israel.  Tim has swallowed the Talmudic fables of Farissol, Columbus, and others to the point that he proclaims the Philippines as being the Garden of Eden wherein resides the Holy of Holies! Never mind that man will NEVER RETURN to the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:23-24) Never mind that the Holy of Holies is not on earth but in heaven where Christ entered in to obtain eternal redemption for us. (Hebrews 9) Never mind that all Tim believes about the Philippines and Filipinos is "a farrago of nonsense that is contravened by a multitude of eyewitness accounts, inconvenient facts, and simple common sense." Never mind any of that. Filipinos are Israelites. Farissol says so. Columbus says so. Magellan says so. Timothy Jay Schwab says so. End. Of. Story.

It should come as no surprise that Tim would utilize one of Kyle Jennerman's videos in his own video series. After all these two are practically cut from the same cloth. Here is Kyle "Kulas" Jennerman starring in Clue #14.

https://youtu.be/2wOr9SHludQ

If you look closely you can see in TINY FONT at the bottom of the title cards for each of the God Culture's videos a copyright notice telling the viewer:
Re-uploading this video to Youtube in part to whole is prohibited.
Did Tim receive Kyle Jennerman's permission to use his video about Romblon? Or is Tim doing to Kyle exactly what he prohibits others from doing to him? He did place a notice in the bottom corner  of this video while Kyle was on screen saying:
Editorial use only 
As if that excuses him from cribbing Kyle's entire video minus 30 seconds.  The original can be viewed here.

See also how Tim places Kyle's information in TINY FONT in the bottom right corner which blends into the background sometimes and is partially obscured by the God Culture logo? That is all the mention Kyle gets. Not once does Tim bother to thank Kyle or mention him either in the video or in the description or any of the links he posted in the comment section. How rude is that? To use this man's video to further his agenda and barely acknowledge him!

To make matters worse this video is monetized!



That means Tim and the God Culture are making money, however little, off Kyle's video! And they can't even give him a proper shout-out!? Incredible!

Kyle is very different from Tim because Kyle actually wants to become a Filipino. Now that may be a little hyperbolic but not really. I don't think it's a schtick either.  My take is that Kyle hates himself. He has grown up in Canada being bombarded by all the propaganda telling him that the White Man is the bane of all existence, the root of all evil and he has taken that to heart.  He is alienated from himself and his culture which the media has constantly told him is the worst thing on Earth. You see Kyle, just like Tim, has also believed in Jewish fables. During his travels he ends up in the Philippines and he falls in love with Filipinos and Filipino culture which he sees as more innocent, more pure, and thus morally superior to his own people and culture. Filipinos love "Kulas" and he loves them.  He loves them so much that he wants to be one of them even going so far as to excuse their glaring faults, like a penchant for violence, as stereotypes.

Remember that time in May 2017 when Kyle whined on Facebook about how his parents could not visit him in Mindanao because the Canadian government issued a notice to avoid all travel to that island?

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2017/05/canadian-blogger-dismisses-terrorism-in.html
I believe that the first step is changing perception here in the Philippines... because from personal experience that word has a lot of negative stereotyping and generalizing attached to it here locally and spread by local people. If we can all start spreading positive education about this part of the Philippines, I believe it can help fight back at these incredibly difficult advisories
And then do you remember how after writing all that the Marawi siege happened and Mindanao was placed under martial law only two weeks later? Some stereotype, huh! Just goes to show how boneheaded Kyle is and that despite having lived here for so long he knew nothing about the people of Mindanao. Has he learned anything in the past 3 years? Probably not.

Tim has also moved to the Philippines. No more Mr. Florida. Now he is Mr. Somehwere North of Manila. Even though both Tim and Kyle live in this nation they really don't live here.  They live in a Philippines of their own making populated by Filipinos created in their own image. For Tim they are God's chosen people, Israelites, who are asleep to their true origin and ultimate destiny and need to be awakened so they can Rise Up. For Kyle they are noble savages untainted by the stain of modern civilization, always smiling and full of love for strangers. Of course there is much to be said for the theory that we each live in a Philippines, nay a world, of our own perceptions.

The God Culture: The Book That Changed The World

If there is one thing that can be said about Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture it is that he is a prideful and self-important man. T...