Category: Speeches

THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS

The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of traditional Sayings (logoi) of Jesus. It is attributed to Didymos Judas Thomas, the “Doubting Thomas” of the canonical Gospels, and according to many early traditions, the twin brother of Jesus (“didymos” means “twin” in Greek).

We have two versions of the Gospel of Thomas today. The first was discovered in the late 1800’s among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and consists of fragments of a Greek version, which has been dated to c. 200. The second is a complete version, in Coptic, from Codex II of the Nag Hammadi finds. Thomas was probably first written in Greek (or possibly even Syriac or Aramaic) sometime between the mid 1st and 2nd centuries.

There has been much speculation on the relationship of Thomas to the canonical Gospels. Many Sayings in Thomas have parallels with the New Testament Sayings, especially those found in the synoptic Gospels. This leads many to believe that Thomas was also based on the so-called “Q” Document, along with Matthew, Luke, and Mark. Indeed, some have speculated that Thomas may in fact be “Q”. Unlike the synoptic Gospels, and like “Q”, the Gospel of Thomas has no narrative connecting the various Sayings. In form, it is simply a list of 114 Sayings, in no particular order. Comparison with New Testament parallels show that Thomas contains either more primitive versions of the Sayings, or developments of more primitive versions. Either way, Thomas seems to preserve earlier traditions about Jesus than the New Testament.

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Climate Catastrophe and Social Justice: Analysis and Action (2008) | Prof John McMurtry | scienceforpeace.ca

Published 2008-10-04 by John McMurtry

Keynote Address

Science for Peace and University of Toronto Students Union Conference
Climate Catastrophe and Social Justice: Analysis and Action
October 4, Earth Sciences Building, University of Toronto

The destabilization of the world’s climate and hydrological cycles is a catastrophic effect of a more general disorder to which it is not connected — the failed global market experiment and its regulating money-value system which brings degradation and despoliation of human life and life support systems at virtually every level of life organization.

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COMMENTARY by CHARLES WILKIN ON ELECTORAL REFORM- 28-11-16

COMMENTARY by CHARLES WILKIN ON ELECTORAL REFORM-  28-11-16 PDF The last two Federal elections- in 2010 and 2015- were foreshadowed and overshadowed by controversy and lawsuits over the country’s electoral system. Issues in contention included the registration of voters, the constituency boundaries and the overseas vote. Added to these in 2015 were the Motion of… Read More

Annual Africa Caribbean Business Council awards dinner (ACBC)‏ Speech given by Ambassador to the United States of America Her Excellency Dr Thelma Phillip-Browne on November 12, 2016

I wish to register my sincere thanks to the organizers of this ACBC 7th Annual Awards Dinner for the privilege of speaking to you tonight. Some of you may never have heard of my country of all of fifty five thousand inhabitants but considering we were the first British and French colony in the region,… Read More

PRESENTATION TO ST. KITTS AND NEVIS BRANCH OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS OF THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN ON 5TH NOVEMBER 2016 by Charles Wilkin QC

PRESENTATION TO ST. KITTS AND NEVIS BRANCH OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS OF THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN ON 5TH  NOVEMBER 2016 PRESENTATION TO ST. KITTS AND NEVIS BRANCH OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS OF THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN ON 5TH  NOVEMBER 2016 PDF VERSION Allow me to begin my giving you my favorite definition of an accountant. An accountant is someone… Read More

Lest we forget! – 1944 State of the Union Address by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Reproduced from: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/address_text.html State of the Union Message to Congress January 11, 1944 [Click here for a printable version of this page] To the Congress: This Nation in the past two years has become an active partner in the world’s greatest war against human slavery. We have joined with like-minded people in order to defend ourselves… Read More

“The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society” – President John F Kennedy 1961

The secretive jurisdictions of international financial centers which claim to be essential for capital growth and development, like state communism, is going to be the downfall of corporate crony capitalism, as both support conformity and rigidity of ideas in a top-down hierarchical pattern as “efficiently” as possible. This is done without challenge from outside; hence the stifling of genuine innovation and genuine resilience and ability to adapt to new knowledge of our destructive potentials in all of life’s spheres of influence and concerns, hence producing the persistent lack of truth and reconciliation and healing of all of the maladies of humanity and the planet. If this is not a form of globalised supranational “communism” now on steroids, where there is pervasive reverse projection, where the meanings of our labels have been tranmorgrified and no longer mean what they are supposed to mean any more, then I don’t know what is!

For example, do we really still have a “free market” and “democracy” anymore? Aren’t these ideals now usurped by the diktats of the financial-military-corporate media-digital collusive complex which now reign supreme where we have concentration of wealth and power at the top? When The Establishment preaches freedom of choice, freedom of mobility and freedom of privacy, are they talking about freedom for entitlement of theirs at the top, while relegating those of us at the bottom to a form of mental, social and debt slavery? Where is the genuine democracy and freedom in that? Should we not have by now an intelligent system that matches unused life resources to unmet life needs by the supply and demand principles of the free market? What about the genuine ability of the electorate to chose a leader of their choice without the rules of engagement being gerrimandered to maintain the power structure in the first place? Where is the economic and political justice in all of this? Again I stand by my claim that the only difference between state communism and corporate croney capitalism is not one of kind, but one of degree and scale, and the reverse projections that the latter creates to block out the obvious consequences of our life destructive and human indignifying machinations.

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Keynote Address by University of Guelph University Professor Emeritus John McMurty, entitled “Rationality and Scientific Method: Paradigm Shift in an Age of Collapse” given on March 19, 2008 at the University of Windsor

This paper explains what has long been missing across domains and levels of analysis: (1) the life-blind inner logic regulating contemporary paradigms of “rationality” and “scientific method”; (2) the reasons why these regulators of thought select for unforeseen consequences of ecological, social and economic collapse; and (3) the principle of life-ground consistency which corrects this systemic incoherence of thought regime.

KEYWORDS: academy, collapse, collective choice, full coherence principle, game theory, life and money sequences of value, mechanism, global market, rationality, scientific method, truth

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Feature Address given at the Basseterre High School Speech Day and Prize Giving Ceremony on November 18, 2015

In 2004, I was honoured to be asked to give the Feature Address at your Speech Day and Prize Giving Ceremony on the Theme, “Building on our accomplishments as we face the future with confidence.”  Over the past 11 years, much in the world has changed, to the point that our knowledge base and skills… Read More