Post by FaithWalker on Jul 29, 2008 7:07:27 GMT -6
A Christian organization is pressuring the community of Elberton, Ga., to tear down a massive, granite monument that lists an alternative set of Ten Commandments that the organization labels satanic.
The monument, known as the Georgia Guidestones, was built under a cloud of mystery in 1980. It lists 10 commandments in eight different languages, including a call to establish a new world language, limit human population to 500 million and avoid being "a cancer on the Earth."
"We have atheists and Satanists getting the Bible's Ten Commandments removed from public property," said Mark Dice, spokesman for the group The Resistance, "yet the satanic Georgia Guidestones have stood for decades, and nobody seems to care. Well, we do."
Comparing the monument's command to "maintain humanity under 500 million in perpetual balance with nature" with an estimated world's population of over 6 billion, Dice told WND, "Regardless of anyone's religion, I think they would find it objectionable that there's this monument that calls for the elimination of over 90 percent of the world's population."
Dice told WND his group is contacting officials of the Elberton community, trying to rally citizens of the town to pressure their leaders and hoping to generate grassroots opposition from around the country. Since the land the monument sits upon is owned by a private trust and is not public property, Dice said, the battle against the monument will have to take place in the court of public opinion, rather than a court of law.
The 19-foot tall, 237,746-pound monument, sometimes referred to as "American Stonehenge," consists of four granite tablets, each 16 feet high, over 6 feet wide, and 1 foot, 7 inches thick radiating out from a central "Gnomen Stone" and crowned with a capstone that weighs nearly 25,000 pounds by itself.
Sandblasted into the tablets are over 4,000 characters that list the 10 commandments in eight languages: English, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Spanish and Swahili.
The commandments themselves are as follows:
1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
10.Be not a cancer on the Earth – leave room for nature – leave room for nature.
Set flush in the soil several feet from the monument is an explanatory stone that says, "Let these be guidestones to an age of reason."
Far from "reason," however, Dice sees pagan, New Age and even satanic themes in the message's exhortation of one-world unity, condemnation of humanity as a plague on the planet and call to seek "harmony with the infinite."
"I've spoken to people in the community," Dice told WND. "They told me that on Halloween people party out there and often leave their occult regalia behind; during certain solstices, pagan groups use it."
The monument's ties to astronomy and seasons can be seen in its design and orientation, including the directions the stones point, a hole drilled in the stone to view the North Star and a slot carved in the central stone that aligns with sun at different positions during solstices and the vernal and autumnal equinox.
The origin of the stones, however, remains part of the mystery and allure of the monument.
According to Dice, some people believe the stones were erected as a publicity stunt for a town famous for its granite production. Others dismiss the stones as the creation of an eccentric environmentalist and some see darker forces at work.
The modern-day mystery stems from the fact that so little is known about the stones' creation or the mysterious "R.C. Christian" who paid to have the monument built.
According to a website devoted to the stones, an unnamed man walked into the offices of the Elberton Granite Finishing Company in June 1979, asking about the cost of building a large monument to conservation. He told the company's president he represented a group of Americans living outside of Georgia who wished to remain anonymous forever.
The same man, who later called himself "R.C. Christian" and claimed his name reflected his faith, arranged with a local banker to serve as an intermediary for the project. After the stones were bought and the monument built, the banker surrendered all documents on the monument's construction to the mysterious Mr. Christian, who took them and disappeared.
The monument was constructed on a five-acre plot, at the highest point in Elbert County, seven miles north of the small town of Elberton. The monument can be seen from Georgia State Highway 77, where a path leads to the stones for visitors.
The monument was unveiled March 22, 1980, but the veil shrouding the identity of the mysterious "R.C. Christian" has never been lifted.
Link
The monument, known as the Georgia Guidestones, was built under a cloud of mystery in 1980. It lists 10 commandments in eight different languages, including a call to establish a new world language, limit human population to 500 million and avoid being "a cancer on the Earth."
"We have atheists and Satanists getting the Bible's Ten Commandments removed from public property," said Mark Dice, spokesman for the group The Resistance, "yet the satanic Georgia Guidestones have stood for decades, and nobody seems to care. Well, we do."
Comparing the monument's command to "maintain humanity under 500 million in perpetual balance with nature" with an estimated world's population of over 6 billion, Dice told WND, "Regardless of anyone's religion, I think they would find it objectionable that there's this monument that calls for the elimination of over 90 percent of the world's population."
Dice told WND his group is contacting officials of the Elberton community, trying to rally citizens of the town to pressure their leaders and hoping to generate grassroots opposition from around the country. Since the land the monument sits upon is owned by a private trust and is not public property, Dice said, the battle against the monument will have to take place in the court of public opinion, rather than a court of law.
The 19-foot tall, 237,746-pound monument, sometimes referred to as "American Stonehenge," consists of four granite tablets, each 16 feet high, over 6 feet wide, and 1 foot, 7 inches thick radiating out from a central "Gnomen Stone" and crowned with a capstone that weighs nearly 25,000 pounds by itself.
Sandblasted into the tablets are over 4,000 characters that list the 10 commandments in eight languages: English, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Spanish and Swahili.
The commandments themselves are as follows:
1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
10.Be not a cancer on the Earth – leave room for nature – leave room for nature.
Set flush in the soil several feet from the monument is an explanatory stone that says, "Let these be guidestones to an age of reason."
Far from "reason," however, Dice sees pagan, New Age and even satanic themes in the message's exhortation of one-world unity, condemnation of humanity as a plague on the planet and call to seek "harmony with the infinite."
"I've spoken to people in the community," Dice told WND. "They told me that on Halloween people party out there and often leave their occult regalia behind; during certain solstices, pagan groups use it."
The monument's ties to astronomy and seasons can be seen in its design and orientation, including the directions the stones point, a hole drilled in the stone to view the North Star and a slot carved in the central stone that aligns with sun at different positions during solstices and the vernal and autumnal equinox.
The origin of the stones, however, remains part of the mystery and allure of the monument.
According to Dice, some people believe the stones were erected as a publicity stunt for a town famous for its granite production. Others dismiss the stones as the creation of an eccentric environmentalist and some see darker forces at work.
The modern-day mystery stems from the fact that so little is known about the stones' creation or the mysterious "R.C. Christian" who paid to have the monument built.
According to a website devoted to the stones, an unnamed man walked into the offices of the Elberton Granite Finishing Company in June 1979, asking about the cost of building a large monument to conservation. He told the company's president he represented a group of Americans living outside of Georgia who wished to remain anonymous forever.
The same man, who later called himself "R.C. Christian" and claimed his name reflected his faith, arranged with a local banker to serve as an intermediary for the project. After the stones were bought and the monument built, the banker surrendered all documents on the monument's construction to the mysterious Mr. Christian, who took them and disappeared.
The monument was constructed on a five-acre plot, at the highest point in Elbert County, seven miles north of the small town of Elberton. The monument can be seen from Georgia State Highway 77, where a path leads to the stones for visitors.
The monument was unveiled March 22, 1980, but the veil shrouding the identity of the mysterious "R.C. Christian" has never been lifted.
Link