But Christian missionaries find Japan a tough nut to crack. They always have, ever since the first of them, St. Francis Xavier, landed in Kyushu in 1549. His first impression, based on an initially friendly reception, was, “In my opinion no people superior to the Japanese will be found among the unbelievers.” Two years later, he left disheartened, calling Japanese Buddhism “an invention of the devil.”

Missionaries today use different language but express similar frustration. The Japanese have so eagerly embraced everything Western — from fads to philosophies, baseball to scientific method. Why not Christianity? Even China, officially atheist and repressive of anything outside state control, counts 52 million Christians. In South Korea, 30 percent of a population of 50 million professes Christianity. In Japan? Less than 1 percent.

One explanation comes from Minoru Okuyama, director, as of 2010, of the Missionary Training Center in Japan. That year, he told a global missions conference, “Japanese make much of human relationships more than the truth. Consequently we can say that as for Japanese, one of the most important things is harmony; in Japanese, ‘Wa.'” The Japanese, said Okuyama, “are afraid of disturbing human relationships of their families or neighborhood even though they know Christianity is best.” Chinese and South Koreans, by contrast, “make more of truth or principle than human relationships.”

A shrewd and outspoken samurai character in Shusaku Endo’s historical novel “Samurai” (1980) put a similar thought much more bluntly. His sullen response to a Spanish missionary’s evangelizing, circa 1610, was, “The Japanese don’t care whether God exists or not.”

First time in 100+ years newborn population dips below 1 million
TOKYO - Numbers recently released by the Japanese government show that the newborn population has dipped below 1 million for the first time in more than a hundred years.

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare released demographic data for 2016 revealing the biggest net decrease in the almost 10 years of population decline. The birthrate has fallen to its lowest level since World War II, with only 981,000 births, while the death rate is estimated at 1.3 million. It's the lowest number of births since the census first began in 1899.

Officials projecting the figures have determined the overall population of Japan to decrease to 99.1 million by 2048 and to 86.7 million — a decrease of nearly one third from today's population of 126 million. Additionally, the people are aging, decreasing the working population by almost half — an estimated 46 percent — over the same time period.

God says to kill them.  Are you questioning God?  He will surely send you to hell for such disobedience.

Theological Foundations and Application for Personal and Professional Life
Jama L. White, Psy.D., Amanda M. Blackburn, Psy.D., and Mary K. Plisco, Ph.D. Richmont Graduate University
http://richmont.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Richmont-Rest-as-Virtue-3-27-2015-Final.pdf

In light of these Biblical directives to rest and cultural pressures to perform, the current study was designed to learn more about mental health professionals’ satisfaction with the rest they achieve in their lives. Quantitative and qualitative survey questions assessed participants’ satisfaction with rest practices, barriers to rest, beliefs about rest, and positive experiences of Sabbath-keeping practices.

Hypothesis #1: Those who identified themselves as Sabbath-keepers would report greater satisfaction with their quantity of rest practices than those who did not identify as Sabbath-keepers.

Hypothesis #2: Sabbath-keepers would also report higher levels of satisfaction with their quality of rest than non-Sabbath-keepers.

A concept mapping approach was used to categorize qualitative data regarding barriers to obtaining rest and regarding positive Sabbath rest practices.

Participants
296 mental health professionals or students who were either associated with one of two Christian professional graduate programs or were CAPS
members. 52% described themselves as clinical, 19% as students, 13 % as academic. 68% were married, 32% were single or divorced.

CONCLUSIONS

• Only approximately 25 % of respondents in this study reported
high satisfaction with their quality or quantity of rest.
Judeo-Christian teachings have placed Sabbath keeping as a core
practice for a life with a balance of work and rest.

• In this study, those who did practice Sabbath keeping (defined as
refraining from work one day a week) were significantly more likely
to experience satisfaction with the quality of their rest.

• Sabbath keepers were also significantly more likely to experience
satisfaction with their quantity of rest.

The findings of this study represent a call to professionals to
reconsider how this ancient practice may be a healing force in our
own lives. The intentional pulling away from the demands of work,
the choice to pause and acknowledge God’s purpose and power in our
lives and in His world, these are powerful forces in our lives as
Christian practitioners. These themes are worthy of our earnest
personal reflection.

I guess you don't read your Bible.

Exodus 31:14-15 New International Version (NIV)

14 “‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. 15 For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.


Leviticus 20:13 King James Version (KJV)

13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

You want to know more, check out these "goodies":

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1367154.0

If a law has no penalty, it has no force. but it does not follow that because we do not believe in stoning people therefore we believe there will be no punishment for those who violate the Sabbath or any other part of the law of God.

The only difference between the ancient Jewish order of things and ours today is as regards the time of punishment and the executor of the punishment. When God was the direct ruler, He saw fit to have an immediate punishment inflicted. Now the evil-doer must look forward to the last great day of judgment . (See Heb. 10:26-29)

Therefore let not the Sabbath breaker feel at ease in his mind simply because God has not suddenly brought sudden judgment upon him for his violation of the fourth precept of the decalogue, which declares that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, Creator of heaven and earth.

The story is told of a certain godless man who found special delight in flaunting his disobedience of the Sabbath command . He lived in a locality where the other farmers near him where devout Sabbath keepers. When October came and he harvested his crop, he found that he had even more in his barn than his neighbors.

Meeting the Sabbath keeping minister on the street one day, he gloatingly mentioned this fact. The minister's only reply was: "God does not always make a full settlement in October." No better answer could have been given.

The faithful Sabbath keeper awaits the day of final judgment to receive his full reward for obedience to God, the Creator of the whole earth. And likewise, the Sabbath violator must await that last great day of accounting in order to receive the final reward for his failure to obey the explicit command of God. The violation of the law of god is sin, the scriptures inform us (1 John 3:4), and the wages of sin is death (rom. 6:23). is that not sufficient penalty?

It does not matter.  God will fuck you up for your sins no matter what you believe.  It is what you do that matters.

You don't kill people who work on Sabbath, you go to hell.  As simple as that. That is what the Bible says.

If a law has no penalty, it has no force. but it does not follow that because we do not believe in stoning people therefore we believe there will be no punishment for those who violate the Sabbath or any other part of the law of God.

The only difference between the ancient Jewish order of things and ours today is as regards the time of punishment and the executor of the punishment. When God was the direct ruler, He saw fit to have an immediate punishment inflicted. Now the evil-doer must look forward to the last great day of judgment . (See Heb. 10:26-29)

Therefore let not the Sabbath breaker feel at ease in his mind simply because God has not suddenly brought sudden judgment upon him for his violation of the fourth precept of the decalogue, which declares that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, Creator of heaven and earth.

The story is told of a certain godless man who found special delight in flaunting his disobedience of the Sabbath command . He lived in a locality where the other farmers near him where devout Sabbath keepers. When October came and he harvested his crop, he found that he had even more in his barn than his neighbors.

Meeting the Sabbath keeping minister on the street one day, he gloatingly mentioned this fact. The minister's only reply was: "God does not always make a full settlement in October." No better answer could have been given.

The faithful Sabbath keeper awaits the day of final judgment to receive his full reward for obedience to God, the Creator of the whole earth. And likewise, the Sabbath violator must await that last great day of accounting in order to receive the final reward for his failure to obey the explicit command of God. The violation of the law of god is sin, the scriptures inform us (1 John 3:4), and the wages of sin is death (rom. 6:23). is that not sufficient penalty?

the nihilist interpretation, which is at once the denial of all foundations and the negation of all objective truth. Quite apart from the fact that it conflicts with the demands and the content of the word of God, nihilism is a denial of the humanity and of the very identity of the human being. It should never be forgotten that the neglect of being inevitably leads to losing touch with objective truth and therefore with the very ground of human dignity. This in turn makes it possible to erase from the countenance of man and woman the marks of their likeness to God, and thus to lead them little by little either to a destructive will to power or to a solitude without hope. Once the truth is denied to human beings, it is pure illusion to try to set them free. Truth and freedom either go together hand in hand or together they perish in misery.

If not treated and just wait for help from God, the person will die. I feel sorry for people who believe in miracles, and draw pleas for help to God. Religion and health are incompatible. It will tell you any doctor.

Over the last few years research has been showing that a belief in a loving and benevolent god has many health benefits. A large proportion of these studies have been done in the USA but now in a large Norwegian longitudinal health study called HUNT, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) were able to find a clear relationship between time spent in church and lower blood pressure in both women and men.

It was initially thought that the large cultural and religious differences between the US and Norway would make it difficult to apply findings from the US to Norway. However, despite these differences, and the fact that only 4% of Norwegians (as opposed to the 40% of Americans) go to church on a weekly basis, the findings of the health benefits of believing in God were almost identical: those who were religiously active were healthier than those who were not religiously active!

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Other research shows that those who attend church were 30% less likely to suffer depression and those who believe God have a sense of purpose and are 70% less likely to be depressed.

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For many, religious activity changes between childhood and adulthood, and a new study finds this could affect one’s mental health. According to Temple University’s Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active religiously.

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Now a new national study by two Brigham Young University sociologists finds that religious involvement makes teens half as likely to use marijuana. The research showed the protective effect of church and the influence of parents.

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Missouri University health psychology researchers have found that religious and spiritual support improves health outcomes for both men and women who face chronic health conditions. The research showed that both genders may increase their reliance on spiritual and religious resources as they face increased illness or disability.

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Research also shows that religion and spirituality are linked to positive physical and mental health; however, most studies have focused on people with life threatening diseases. A new study from the University of Missouri-Columbia shows that religion helps many individuals with disabilities by enabling them to adjust to their impairments and can give a new meaning to their lives.

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More than 20 percent of atheist scientists are spiritual, according to new research from Rice University. Though the general public marries spirituality and religion, the study found that spirituality is a separate idea — one that more closely aligns with scientific discovery — for “spiritual atheist” scientists.

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A dose of God will help medicine. Research shows that many patients do not feel the medical system adequately meets their spiritual needs,” said Cadge. “By shedding light on how religion and spirituality connect to the practice of medicine, this study is a first step toward addressing such needs of patients and their families during a profoundly threatening chapter of life.

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More than half of physicians believe that religion and spirituality have a significant influence on patients’ health, according to a report in the April 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Physicians who are most religious are more likely to interpret the influence of religion and spirituality in positive ways.

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In times of economic distress and plenty, ninety percent of Americans pray, more than half of us once a day or more. We pray for big things—to stay healthy, to keep our jobs, and to strengthen our relationships. And we pray for small things—to find parking spaces and missing items. Some of us are sure God exists and others pray simply to cover the bases.

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These are just a few of the studies showing that no matter who we are, what is happening or where we are…we NEED to believe!

I don't know how to get a really good conversation with you people because I cannot catch up with your basis of reasoning. I have met a lot of atheists and so far until this day I never had a problem debating with them or cross-checking with facts and scripture. Basing the inexistence of a deity on the scandals of churches? And having statements without any basis like God is a pedophile? On what basis? Have you seen God raping kids? Or have you been into his house and he made you some coffee and you talked about it? I'd rather talk to someone who would have make sense and have a valid conversation with.
...
How can you even have a valid statement on a topic which you have just gathered information on heresays. Maybe if you can read the Bible you will clearly understand that Mary was not raped. Or maybe you're no better than radical christians who have their minds closed on their own ideals and  will not even listen to reasoning. How am I not surprised.

Religion and Progress

The greatest obstacle to human progress is not a technological hurdle but the evil inherent in ourselves. Humans have knowledge of good and evil and with this knowledge we often choose evil.

Collectivism exists because it employs aggregated force to limit evil especially the forms of evil linked to physical violence. Collectivism is expensive and inefficient but these inefficiencies are less than the cost of unrestrained individualism. Collectivism aggregates capital for the common good and we are far from outgrowing our need for this.

1.   Prehistory required the aggregation of human capital in the form of young warriors willing to fight to protect the tribe.
2.   The Agricultural Age required physical capital in the form of land ownership and a State to protect the land.
3.   The Industrial Age required the aggregation of monetary capital to fund large fixed capital investments and factories.

A farmer in the agricultural age could achieve some protection from theft and violence by arming himself. He could protect himself against a small hostile groups by forming defensive pacts with neighboring farmers. To defend against large scale organized violence, however, requires an army and thus a state.

In 1651 Thomas Hobbes argued for the merits of centralized monarchy. He believed that only absolute monarchy was capable of suppressing the evils of an unrestrained humanity. He described in graphic wording the consequences of a world without monarchy a condition he called the state of nature.


There may well have been a time in human history when the absolute monarchy of Hobbes was the best available government but Hobbes was writing at the end of that era. England had been transformed from a nation almost completely conquered by the Odin worshiping Great Heathen Army of 865 to a country that protected the legal rights of nobles in the Magna Carta of 1215 to a devoutly Christian nation that formalized the rights of judicial review for common citizens in the 1679 Habeas Corpus act. Hobbes had failed to appreciate the growth of moral capital that allowed for superior forms of government with increased freedom.

Our forefathers understood that it is morality and virtue that allows for freedom a lesson many today have forgotten.


In human interactions we often face a choice between cooperation (reaching a mutually beneficial exchange) and defection (advancement of ourselves to the detriment of our fellow man). The nation state, police, and laws suppress physical violence but do nothing to maintain the morality and virtue that sustain freedom. Collectivism limits some avenues of defection while opening entire new possibilities. New opportunities for defection arise along the entire economic spectrum. Everything from special interest lobbying, to disability scammers, and on a larger scale our entire fiat monetary system are essentially forms of defection allowing the few to profit at the expense of the many. Nation state collectivism has allowed for the creation of great civilizations and yet is entirely unsustainable in its current form.


The perishing of Western civilization, however, does not mean fragmentation and collapse. Indeed in this instance the opposite appears to be true and collapse looks set to drive us via economic fundamentals and debt into a single world government paradigm for reasons discussed at length elsewhere.

The evolution of the social contract is a progressive climb to higher potential energy systems with increased degrees of freedom. The state of nature begat tribalism. Tribalism grew into despotism. Despotism advanced into monarchy. Monarchies were replaced by republics. It is likely that in the near future republics will be consumed by world government, and perhaps someday world government will evolve into decentralized government.

Each iteration has a common theme for each advance increases the number of individuals able to engage in cooperative activity while lowering the number of individuals able to defect. Each iteration increases the sustainable degrees of freedom the system can support. Moral capital is the foundation that allows this progress to occur. For this reason ethical monotheism is the single greatest contributor to human progress from any source since human culture emerged from the stone ages.


The utopia of limited to no government would only be possible for a population constantly striving at all times to be moral. Such a utopia would require all individuals to always act cooperatively, honesty, and transparently. We lack the required moral fiber for anything like this to work at our current juncture in history.

See: Freedom and God for more.

The interference these two religions have on the governments of various nations is very evident. Look at countries such as South Korea and Philippines in Asia. The church has forced the government to shelve plans for popularizing family planning.

The near-term demographic future of the southern half of the Korean Peninsula looks grim. Assuming that the current low-low fertility rate of 1.19 children per woman continues indefinitely, as NARS did, the population of South Korea will dwindle to less than half its current size by the end of the 21st century. It will go from 50 million down to 20 million, losing 60% of its population in less than 100 years..
South Korea’s low fertility is in large part the result of American efforts to combat “overpopulation” by exporting so-called “family planning” programs around the world. In South Korea, as in so many other countries, these efforts had a coercive element as families who dared to have more than two children were punished in various ways.[1]

Population control efforts in South Korea proved all too successful, and South Korean fertility rates plummeted from around 6 in 1960 down to a shockingly anemic 1.2 children in 2004. Even after overt anti-natal policies were discontinued in 1996, the fertility rate did not recover, but continued to drop.

[1] Mosher, Steven W. "The Crisis of the Empty Cradle." Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2008. 20-25.

@CoinCube, haven't you heard the wisdom, "no pain, no gain".  

If I can't feel it in my grubby hands, then it ain't cool enough to be real money.  

Btw, check out the math I found which unequivocally proves that Bitcoin is evil. The correspondence to the predictions in Revelation is somewhat disturbing.

In its several-thousand-year history, money has gone through an ever-accelerating evolution in its form. The first stage was commodity money — grain, oil, cattle, metal, and many other things — that functioned as media of exchange without possessing any fiduciary value. This stage lasted several millennia. The next step was coinage, which added fiduciarity to the intrinsic metallic value of silver and gold. Money consisted then of two components: a material and a symbolic.

It was quite natural that eventually the symbol would become detached from the metal, which is what happened with the advent of credit money in the Middle Ages and even before. In China, the first paper money (which was actually a kind of bank draft) was in use by the ninth century and circulated as far as Persia. (1) In the Arab world, a form of check was in wide use around that time as well. Italian traders used bills of exchange as early as the twelfth century, a practice that spread rapidly and was followed in the sixteenth and seventeenth century by fractional-reserve banking.(2) This was a major innovation, since it freed the money supply from the metal supply and allowed it to grow organically in response to economic activity. The detachment of money from metal was gradual. During the fractional-reserve banking era, which lasted several centuries, bank notes were still, at least in theory, backed by metal.

Today the era of fractional-reserve banking is over, and money has become pure credit. This is not widely recognized. Many authorities, including most economics textbooks and the Federal Reserve itself, (3) still maintain the pretense that reserves are a limiting factor in money creation, but in practice they almost never are.(4) Banks’ real constraints on money creation are their total capital and their ability to find willing, creditworthy borrowers — that is, those with either uncommitted earning potential or assets to use as collateral. In other words, social agreements govern the creation of money, primary among them the dictum, encoded in interest, that money should go to those who will make even more of it in the future. Today’s money, as I shall explain, is backed by growth; when, as is happening now, growth slows, the entire financial edifice begins to crumble.
...
Some observers, seeing the disastrous consequences of today’s credit-based currencies, advocate a return to the good old days of currencies backed by something tangible, such as gold. They reason that commodity-backed currency would be noninflationary or would eliminate the compulsion for endless growth. I think some of these “hard currency” or “real money” advocates are tapping in to an atavistic desire to return to simpler days, when things were what they were. Dividing the world into two categories, the objectively real and the conventional, they believe that credit-money is an illusion, a lie, that must inevitably collapse with every bust cycle. Actually, this dichotomy is itself an illusion, a construct that reflects deeper mythologies — such as the doctrine of objectivity in physics — that are also breaking down in our time.

The difference between an unbacked and backed currency is not as great as one might suppose. On the face of it, they seem very different: a backed currency derives its value from something real, while an unbacked currency has value only because people agree it does. This is a false distinction: in either case, ultimately what gives money value is the story that surrounds it, a set of social, cultural, and legal conventions.

...

CoinCube

Go ahead and heft a tube of 20 Gold Eagles, and then tell me that...  

I read somewhere that "someone" has a theory that gold is somehow hard-wired into humanity as something considered of great value.  Hey, could be.

This is the most misleading statement about the viability of metals ever.  Just because someone attempts to debase the currency does not mean gold or silver has "failed" in any way.  It's valued by it's metal content, not anything else.  Contrary to whatever lies Armstrong will tell you, when they debased silver by 50% in Rome, the soldiers just asked for twice as much pay, and so did the merchants for their goods.  Yes, a king or whoever can sometimes trick people with debasement over a short period of time, but never the long run.

I don't understand what counterparty risk has to do with money/currency distinction? Counterpaty risk is the probability of not getting good or services you have paid for or not getting the money if you're the seller. If I hold a gold coin in my hand or I''m the only one that knows the private keys of a bitcoin address then there is no counterparty risk and I'm 100% confident that I received payment for goods or services I sold.

It doesn't matter how many members one organization has - two or five or 50. You have to define what do you mean by "secured by"? I'm using "depends on". Doesn't depend on means if that organization of two or five or 50 members disappears this asset was and still is money if it still has value. If the value of this asset goes to zero then it was currency before losing its value as it was backed by a second asset that disappeared. The distinction is very clear. If something is backed by nothing and is used as money then it is money!

Until 1971 the US dollar was currency. It was a certificate giving you the right to convert it into gold as it was pegged to gold. After gold window was closed the US dollar became money. Yes, that's right! If you present a 100 dollar bill to the Fed they will not redeem it as they don't have any obligation whatsoever. If Fed disappears the US dollar will still have value IF it is scarce and has limited supply! I'd even say that without Fed the value of US dollar will increase.

No. The distinction between money and currency is quite clear!

Money is the monetary form itself. It is the "thing" we use as money. Its value doesn't depend on a single body or entity safeguarding its value.

Currency is the certificate that certifies you have money kept in a storage somewhere else. It is a storage receipt payable to bearer on demand. The storage owner/keeper has to take care that all issued certificates are backed by adequate quantity of the "thing". In different countries and during different times this certificate was different. It had different properties, attributes, and requisites to avoid dishonest storage owners/keepers and counterfeiting. The latest reliable certificate with most current properties, attributes, and requisites was most widely used for transactions. Hence, the newly coined word "currency" describing current certificate in circulation.

If we use LN we'll be using bitcoin not as money but as currency. Using currency instead of money is riskier but much cheaper. It is a trade-off. People will have a choice depending on their willingness to take small risk in exchange for much lower tx fees. And that is GOOD!  

The difference is that cryptocurrency has the potential to someday climb beyond fiat beyond gold even on Exter's pyramid.

Gold can essentially be thought of as an eternal partially anonymous POW blockchain. It is mined and mining requires work limiting its supply and allowing it to be used as a store of value. Gold does have counterparty risk. The counterparty is society. The purchaser of gold takes the risk that the gold network (the network of individuals in society willing to buy and own gold) will continue to exist. Governments play a role here in that they have the power through their actions to strengthen or weaken this network but they lack the ability to destroy it entirely. The gold network has existed for thousands of years it has also survived multiple government attempts to eliminate it so the counterparty risk is lower than with anything else that exists.

To displace gold cryptocurrency would need to have a counterparty risk that was lower than gold.
This would require
A) Demonstration of enternal nature currency would need to hold its value over several generations
B) Demonstration of resilience cryptocurrency network it would need to show its ability to survive outlast and not be broken or destroyed by hostile government action.

The jury is still out on whether bitcoin can meet these very high hurdles. However, even if bitcoin fails it seems almost inevitable that something will come along someday that can meet them.

Once again you ruin your analysis by conflating morality and opportunity cost. Morality is your hammer and everything is a nail. Humans aren't doing everything they do because they are weak. They are acting rational from an opportunity cost analysis. Tragedies-of-the-commons are the result of rational localized actions in which the aggregate result is irrational. Morality is not a solution, because it is never absolute truth and is always manipulable as well. Gold is an inferior measure of value because for example regional distribution/control of mines is not equitable or non-manipulable (well everything fungible is manipulable as I explained in my recent mini-essay). I explained in that essay that I am working on a solution that will supercede morals and absolute values.

You are correct that voting would make Bitcoin another fiat system. But it isn't because humans are weak. It is because of the economics of voting. See my prior post.

And someone didn't want to accept my statement that bitcoin is a currency and not money so I had to explain in greater detail why:

And someone didn't want to accept my statement that bitcoin is a currency and not money so I had to explain in greater detail why: