SCEPCOP Forum

A fascinating story of a Christian Missionary deconverted by a tribe in Brazil.



Based on the book "Don't Sleep, There are Snakes". Here it is on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There- ... 274&sr=8-1

Book Description

A riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Pirahã, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil. Daniel Everett arrived among the Pirahã with his wife and three young children hoping to convert the tribe to Christianity. Everett quickly became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications. The Pirahã have no counting system, no fixed terms for color, no concept of war, and no personal property. Everett was so impressed with their peaceful way of life that he eventually lost faith in the God he'd hoped to introduce to them, and instead devoted his life to the science of linguistics. Part passionate memoir, part scientific exploration, Everett's life-changing tale is riveting look into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.

Could I take a quick poll, please?

How many of you watch youtube videos posted by Scepcop?

None or very rarely of them
Some of them
About half of them
Most of them
Almost or all of them

Let me start--none or very, very rarely...

Guess I'd have to go with some of them...

Yea. . . I used to but after the first month of seeing the same tripe over and over and over and over. . . well, I became disgusted at my self for thinking I might have something in common with Winston (who invited me to this forum) and though we share some points of view on a small handful of items, I can't help be find myself concerned for his mental health and wellness given this obsession with quackery vs. the "real" world. I don't know if it's just an extension of adolescent contrariness or if he's become so dismayed by the world that he really believes in such questionable ideologies as a way to escape "Life" and deal with tangible in the now type reality.

AS TO THE CONVERSION THINGY. . . firstly, you can't "deconvert" someone, you can just help them see things differently and question their beliefs. Surprisingly (yea, right) most Christians that are put into a saturation type environment, especially of this sort, will grow away from the bias views and ideas they've been told to buy into. Not all "convert" to a new theology but most will alter the philosophical manner by which they view and live their lives, which frequently means not participating in church related rituals, politics, etc. One of the biggest problems faced by the Puritan overlords when populating North America was the number of people who were denouncing the pious ways of the church and embracing the more benevolent ways of living WITH the land as the natives did. This is one reason why so many christian factions fought to pass laws forbidding natives of observing their native faith, speak their native tongue, etc. Ironically, in this land in which Freedom of Religion is so loudly boasted, it wasn't until the mid-1980s that the Native Peoples could legally re-embrace the ways of their ancestors and escape the brainwashing antics of Priests.

This is a very old tale and the day we finally segregate the church from politics, allowing genuine religious freedom, we might actually catch a glimpse of Utopia.

ProfWag, if you don't like my topics, then don't read them. Your cheesy attacks are unnecessary and petty. It is not constructive to just ridicule everything I post. And not logical either.

I have a long standing position in forums - I do not waste my time watching videos. Videos contain so little information compared to the written word. A 20 minute video hardly ever contains more than 3 minutes of reading material. Usually there is a 1 to 10 ratio with a 20 minute video containing less than 2 minutes of reading material.

Videos are passive and require no thinking. In fact, I propose that they turn off the brain. If the material is written there is a greater likelihood that people will do a search on some of the terms or phrases.

I did not watch the video in this thread. I did read the written material from Amazon.

Scepcop's personal contribution appears to be the 1 line introduction.

My question is: Scepcop do you think this is an unusual occurrence or do you think that other missionaries have been converted. No one was deconverted here. Someone was converted and it was not the people that were visited by an outsider.

Actually, video has its place in that some people absorb information better on the visual & audio level than they do by wrote; I've endured such complications in my earlier years, before we have special studies about Dyslexia and ADD/ADHD -- that old school age where those that were so plagued had to develop their own techniques around the problems vs. drugs, drugs, drugs and, if you're lucky, a bit of steady counseling. Today I think the combination of media is where the real key is to be found, especially when you take people to the hands-on phase of things and help them to absorb details by doing the work and literally "seeing" what is what; this is something I still find preference to though I do have a found passion for books (at least 5-6 monthly and NOT dime store novels).