How can we believe Falun Gong?

[susanlinch]

On July 28, 2010, a powerful explosion occurred at an abandoned plastics factory in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, causing 13 deaths and 120 others seriously injured. After the incident occurred, it has been the premier tub-thumping for Falun Gong media, who have used lots of fake photos as usual.

Just on the same day, the Epoch Times issued an article titled 100 People Died at Tragic Explosion, A Scared Day for Nanjingers. The article screenshot is below.


In this article, the photo is extremely horrifying, which is marked with the website address of the Epoch Times, and with a note that "cutting out the photo specially for protecting the provider." Here is the photo:


In fact, this picture is not photo of Nanjing explosion, but one of the deadly tanker blast happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo on July 2, 2010. The original photo is as follows:

What has been cut off by the Epoch Times are the watermark of "Ziling.com" and some local people which can expose the photograph is taken in Africa.

After the net friends found its fraud, the Epoch Times has removed the photo, but on another Falun Gong website Yuming, this photo is still existed (URL: http://yuming.qxbbs.org/upload / html/news/mwnm/201007/28-3296.html). Screenshots is as follows:



Besides this photo, Falun Gong media have also used other false pictures. Such as an article Live: Big Bang Explosion of Nanjing; 79 People Died 300 Officers Injured published on Aboluowang.com, has used a photo of Guangxi chemical plant explosion which occurred on August 26, 2008 in Yizhou city, Guangxi province as the Nanjing explosion photo, and they also cut off the vehicle’s license plate number in the photo to confound right and wrong (http://www.aboluowang.com/news/data/2010/0728/article_104863.html). Contrast the two photos as follows:






Another photo of the July 16 Dalian pipeline explosion was also falsely posted by the Epoch Times on July 30 in an article titled "Totally Different Versions between Official and Folk about Nanjing Explosion". Contrast the two photos as follows:





Revealed by the net friends, the Epoch Times has replaced this photo of Dalian oil pipeline explosion now.

[mzteris]

1. why would anyone want to believe

anything this particular cult says?

Anti-gay, racist, the antithesis of "Buddhism".

This is just evidence of the lengths (depths?) they - and most religions - will go to in order to manipulate their followers.

[Dovid Rees]

5. I feel the need to respond

I think we should be wary of calling those religions we do not agree with cults. We should always try to understand others. In any case, I would encourage you to read the central text of the Falun Gong, the Zhuan Falun, which is a text based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I have read it a number of times and I could not find anything "anti-gay," or racist in it. Certainly the Bible and the Koran contain more anti-gay and racist statements and are even more homophobic and racist in practice than Falun Gong.

Also I think that Falun Gong, a group which is heavily involved in human rights work has far more credibility than the Sinofascists.

[mzteris]

6. Sorry - the Falun Gong

is pretty much on record as being virulently anti-gay.

Regardless of what their texts say.

From Religious Tolerance.org

According to the New York Times, Li Hongzhi said that: "...interracial children are the spawn of the 'Dharma Ending Period,' a Buddhist phrase that refers to an era of moral degeneration. In an interview last year, he said each race has its own paradise, and he later told followers in Australia that, 'The yellow people, the white people, and the black people have corresponding races in heaven.' As a result, he said, interracial children have no place in heaven without his intervention."

eliefs about homosexuality:

The Falun Gong movement appears to treat homosexuality -- presumably homosexual behavior not homosexual orientation -- as a degenerate behavior, on a par with sexual promiscuity:
bullet Founder and current leader Li Hongzhi delivered a lecture in Sydney, Australia in 1996. 7 In it, he made a passing reference to homosexuality:

"...the morality of human society has altogether declined. The moral values in people’s hearts have been corrupted. When there is no righteous mind, it means that the Fa [law, principle, way] is no longer effectual. When the Fa is no longer effectual in human society, mankind will decline. ...The change in human society has been quite frightening! People would stop at nothing in doing evil things such as drug abuse and drug dealing. A lot of people have done many bad deeds. Things such as organized crime, homosexuality, and promiscuous sex, etc., none are the standards of being human." (Emphasis ours).

bullet In New York City during 1997, he said during a lecture:

"I often say that humankind has gone through different historical periods before arriving at this day. In other words, many, many times humankind was wiped out after experiencing catastrophes at different points in history. ...Some people talk about how great Greek culture was, but where did those people go? Today something from Greek culture can be found: The elements of Greek culture that have been left are definitely from the final period of Greek civilization’s development, and we’ve found that there was homosexuality in it as well, along with promiscuous sex, and in addition, life was really extravagant and wasteful, corrupt, and terribly degenerate; we can see that humankind had already deteriorated terribly....Aren’t humans in a dangerous state? Your government permits something, your country permits it, your nation permits it, and even you approve it in your thinking, but it isn’t necessarily good. That’s why if you look at today’s society you can see that drug use, drug trafficking, drug making, sex changes, homosexuality, sexual freedom, organized crime, etc., emerge in an endless stream. Selfishness and desires have made people enemies of one another and without any righteous thoughts. All kinds of phenomena of a degenerate human society abound." (Emphasis ours). 8



As for whether they're a cult or suffer other prejudices, I'll just link you to this article: http://www.asianpacificpost.com/article/falun-gong-evil-anti-gay-cult



FWIW - I think they're ALL cults - don't like them either. . . Christian, Jewish, Muslim. Whatever. except maybe Pagan Goddess worship. Maybe. Don't know enough about it. Don't believe in a "supernatural being", period.

I will accept Ch'an PHILOSOPHY somewhat - as there is no "gawd" in it.

[white_wolf]

2. It's Asian Scientology.

Here is an example from RelgiousTolerance.org: "..the Falun, or Dharma Wheel, and is described by Mr. Li as a miniature of the cosmos that he says he installs telekinetically in the abdomens of all his followers, where it rotates in alternating directions, throwing off bad karma and gathering qi. Many Falun Gong adherents say they can feel the wheel turning in their bellies." Oh and they teach that there are hidden aliens on earth and that illness is caused by some kind of evil entity living inside them. See, and you all probably thought I was joking when I said "Asian Scientology."

[marasinghe]

3. agree with your assessment.

their mash-up of spiritual & physical training practices is about as appetizing as KFC to a vegan. having had a bit of exposure to traditional chi kung exercises, the practices of the Fa Lun Gong school seem, to me, about as useful for spiritual development, as modern wu shu for mortal combat.

OTOH, knowing of the paranoid & irrational persecution of Fa Lun Gong followers by Chinese authorities, i am rather doubtful of the original poster's motives & bona fides in posting this thread. granted, i may be mistaken in this assessment.

i really can't understand the logic behind that persecution. if the cultists were left to their own devices, they would collapse under the weight of their own unreasoned beliefs & devolve to the same position as scientologists in US society, gradually disappearing. however, the persecution adds more energy & momentum to the movement. but then again, why expect authoritarians & fascists to display reason in their thought processes.

[ellisonz]

4. I was tempted to lock this thread (it's off-topic)...

...but your wonderful post convinced me to let the discussion be had. I actually don't know all that much about the particulars of Falun Gong. I think your assessment is about right that Falun Gong is a mash-up "about as appetizing as KFC to a vegan."

I would suspect that the poster is a either an official PRC troll or an affiliate. I've had them in a number of my threads on Tibet and they were here in great numbers during the 2008 Olympics. The PRC really does have a legion of internet trolls that are mostly focused on the Chinese internet behind the Great Firewall, but that they would have a dedicated English language is not surprising.

They think that they can use the internet as a political tool, what they do not understand is that you cannot control the thoughts of people in the modern era. The reception they are getting here is not ant-Falun Gong as perhaps expected, but religious tolerance and regret for authoritarianism.



Edit: I locked the other one: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1249547