Hey everyone!

I'm 20 and still deciding what to do career wise with my time on this earth. I thought I would do Primary teaching, but recently had my first practicum and couldn't cope with controlling 33 children. I'm still not sure, I'm going to give it one last shot this semester, and if I still don't like it I'll do something else. Although I'm not sure what, and at the moment I'm leaning toward a Bachelor of Arts degree since it will only take two years, then afterwards I could do a 2 year degree to get into teaching if I still wanted to.

The Teaching degree has 'electives' which can be any course they offer at the uni, and the Arts degree has a major in 'religious studies'. I'm not sure what I want to do yet, so I'm choosing courses from both degree's so I can easily switch if I need to.

I just chose religious studies because, as much as I'm going to disagree with almost everything they say, I'm still going to enjoy it more than half of their other Major options like drama, art or film.

So I just enrolled in this http://www.newcastle.edu.au/course/THEO2004.html if anyone wants to check it out. Apart from what it says on that page, I'm clueless as to what to expect. I doubt I'll actually learn anything about Yah in the course, but it'll be interesting to see what the lecturer has to say anyway.

Last semester for my teaching degree I needed 40 units from a certain category, and I chose PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION simply because I thought I'd be good at it, or at least more interested in it than some of the other topics. Plus included in the 40 units was a class on Islam and after reading Prophet of Doom I thought I'd have a good understanding of it, even though I'm sure they'd ignore the dangers of it and focus on the politics and the supposed 'good' it's done for the world. Although after the first lecture of philosophy 101 I left and enrolled in ancient history instead lol.

Do people think enrolling in the course is a good idea or should I swap to something like film?

Thanks for your reply! That's why I originally thought teaching would be a good idea, because you're garaunteed a job afterwards. It might just be casual or you might have to pack up and move in the country to get a full time job, but there were jobs available nevertheless.

Well most of the people I know left and got trades too, only about 5 out of the roughly 40 boys in my yr12 high school class went on to further education. I think I just missed the whole social environment so I wanted to get back out there lol.

Haha! That's true, there's always going to be a need for AC repairers! I tried my hand in electrician work too, but like you said, I didn't enjoy those hot rooves either, they would have been the death of me! I'm interested in electronics too, so I could always try that if university fails.

Thankyou for your prayers! :)

I was going to be a teacher ks77. Then I went to China....and I realized that just about everything I had been taught was either a lie or was tinted with agenda. It is a shame because I loved teaching. I taught English in China (which isn't even my favorite) and I did love it. I think that when put in its proper place and context a teacher is one of the most valuable professions there are. But nothing is right in this world. I could have just switched from history to something more definite like English or a hard science but my passion was for history. I like language alright but not enough to do it for the rest of my life and I hate science and math. There is no subject more agenda driven than the social sciences. Be it history or government studies or psychology. If you choose that route you are going to be a mouthpiece for the state. I couldn't do that. Not after what I saw in China being so different from what I read. Then works of revisionist history came out like mao:the unknown story which made so much more sense with my experience. Mao wasn't anything that I read in textbooks and for that matter other history books. He was not a great military commander, he was not a peoples champion, he was not affable or persuasive nor was he charismatic. The people weren't on his side and he wasn't capable. Stalin, FDR and company, and even Chiang himself saved Mao's bacon all throughout his early career. Furthermore, there were no good characters. Chou was a snivelling dog that would tuck his tails between his legs and do Maos bidding to the letter just so he didn't have to sit on a hard chair. All these people were criminals attracted to a criminal system....the ideals of communism are low....low low low. Even on their face they are not noble or enabling or liberating. It is no wonder it always attracts murderers, thieves and megalomaniacs. Only people devoid of decency can run it. And what did I get in school. How brilliant K. Marx was....how noble the revolutions were...even if they fell short of their high ideals....how terrible the systems were that proceeded them. Listen I am no fan of imperialism or monarchy.....but life was incredibly better both in China and in Russia under the emperors/then nationalists and tzars. They may have been corrupt authoritarians....but they were also inept and for the most part sedentary. Life could still go on and people could still lead a decent life. The Communists made it unbearable. Everyone I talked to who was old enouth to remember a China without communism said life was better under the nationalists. And I asked her...how were the nationalists.....she said....lousy. I think that should tell you something.
I remember in elementary school reading about Robert Mugabe in my social studies text book....how it was such a wonderful thing that this charismatic man who cared about the plight of his people came to liberate them from the whites....things were getting better....and reconcilliation between the races was well on its way.....the healing had begun. That was obviously a pretty old text book.....I wonder if Houghton-Mifflin or whoever it was that published that garbage still feels the same way....after all the white farmers were run off the land was confiscated and given to people who had no idea what they were doing...thus creating a dessert out of the former agricultural superpower of Africa. I wonder if they still think he is so wonderful....even after violent repression, racial animos, hyperinflation, and starvation have become the realities of Zimbabwe?

I couldn't teach islam in an unbiased or slightly positive fashion that is demanded by the curriculum. I wasn't going to sit there and say things like Muhammad received his revelations from the angel Gabriel. Even as you have to teach that it is recorded or the jews believe or supposedly Moses.....

I couldn't do it....I couldn't teach that garbage. I couldn't be a mouthpiece of democracy worship....I couldn't embrace the leftism or socialism inherent in mainstream history, economics or government studies.

But even if I decided to teach English...how long would be be before I have to have the class read "pumperknickle has 2 daddies....or "what gay penguins can teach us"....or..there is a monster in my closet....and he is just dying to get out and show the world how fabulous he is.
Even if I did teach another course....I would still be a part of the state aparatus. I would still be making my living off the back of the people, participating in a system that has brought the nation to financial and moral ruin. I would have been responsible for creating more politically correct cookie cutter indoctrinated mediocre talentless yet arrogant entitled sheep....fat and ready for slaughter. I couldn't do it.
So I decided to farm....I thought that would be a lot cleaner. That is my 2 cents.

Wow, that's a lot to take in. I completely agree, I'm not sure if I could get up and teach that either. It would be bad enough just to be sitting in on a class where someone is talking about Islam in even a nuetral way without going insane. We were told in university to never say "mums and dads" and that we should use "parents" instead. I could never teach about homosexuality in a promotive way either. Reading your post makes me want to do electronics even more. Thanks for your insight!

Old Testament is not an appropriate designation, but not because testament is of pagan origin. It's wrong for several reasons.
First a testament is a will, especially one that relates to the disposition of one's personal property. Nothing about the Torah, Prophets and Writings has anything to do with being a Testament.

Second, the earliest known usage of the term was Marcion and it was created to promote his idea that Yahowah was dead, and replaced by the more loving god of the New Testament, which to him was Luke, Acts and Paul's writings.

Third, the term old should not be associated with anything Yah said, what He says is eternal.

If you want to email Yada on it you can reach him at email@yadayahweh.com

As for resources, I would say get a few books on Hebrew grammar and tenses, You can use them to show that Hebrew tenses do not relate to past, present and future, but are in fact universal for all time, thus what ever Yah says is for all time and can not be old.

As for Marcion, there is a lot of info online, but I don't know of any published books. I do know from what I have read that virtually nothing Marcion wrote is still extant, but that the best source for it is Tertullian's book Against Marcion. Remember that while Marcion's ideas have since been incorporated into Christianity, he was originally declared a heretic. You can find Tertullian's book on Amazon rather cheap, interestingly Tertullian is the first known person to promote the idea of a trinity, at least as it relates to Yah.

Hope this helps. You might email Yada for some of the sources he used on Marcion.