Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: ut-emx!bill@emx.utexas.edu (Bill Jefferys) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Peace Sign Message-ID: Date: 5 Mar 91 02:40:40 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas Lines: 47 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article awmurray@eos.ncsu.edu (ALAN WAYNE MURRAY) writes: #In article , #chuck@csn.csn.org (Chuck Luciano) writes: #> The origin of the peace sign is of interest to me. I can't quote you #references #> for this but here is my hearsay: #> #> The peace sign is infact a broken cross as is the swastika. They are both #> ancient (probably 1st century AD) symbols of satanism and witchcraft as is #> the pentacle and the cross of confusion. # # As for the peace sign, it was originated by drawing a circle around a #cross, turning the cross upside down, and breaking the arms. Larson #goes on to list several more (around a dozen or so), and to tell us why #not to play role-playing games(esp. AD&D) and why not to listen to heavy #metal. There is such a thing as going overboard, I'm afraid... # #[Let me ask again, is there clear evidence that the people who #advocate this as a peace symbol actually created it by mutilating the #cross, or is someone simply making up an uncomplimentary explanation #after the fact? The interpretations of the symbol given by those who #use it are rather different. There should be fairly clear evidence #before we accuse fellow Christians of being liars. --clh] I would like to second this request from our moderator. I happen to have been involved in the peace movement from the mid-fifties, and I never heard this interpretation until the seventies at least. I always understood that the symbol was invented by the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and that it was based on the semaphore for `ND'. I was a subscriber to a British peace publication at the time, and remember reading about this origin. The name of the person who invented the symbol is known. So I ask for clear evidence. Acceptable evidence would be: A reference or references in books published PRIOR TO 1950 that can be found in a good University library such as ours, that clearly and unambiguously describe the symbol and the alleged origin; or references in scholarly (repeat: SCHOLARLY) books published after 1950 to SPECIFIC ancient manuscripts containing information about the alleged origins, that could be verified by a scholar. Bill Jefferys -- If you meet the Buddha on the net, put him in your kill file --Robert Firth