NAME JUST ONE thing....ONE THING...revealed by God....

by Terry 284 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Open mind

  Auld Soul I respectfully ask you to more closely examine the "required premises" you have laid out.
  
  You said: "The solution to the need must have been (a) discovered within a single life span, (b) have been simple to employ, and (c) can have been easily communicated to uninterrupted successive generations prior to the advent of written communication."
  
  
  The value of fire could have been "discovered" many times over by many generations of humans in different locales. Lightning strikes produce a local blaze. This learning experience opportunity is provided every summer in many forested areas. Mammals avoid it, including humans. Inferno is over. Curious mammal (human) carefully investigates charred area and notices that the smoldering tree trunk produces warmth and isn't trying to "eat him" like the roaring wild fire was earlier. Playing around with it, a knowledge of fire and fuel could fairly quickly be learned. The value of fire could have been realized for many generations before someone figured out how to "make it" without lightning.
  
  Big, huge, orange fire started by the "Lightning God": BAD. RUN AWAY.
  
  Small, smoky, left-over fire: GOOD. TRY GETTING SOME OF IT BEFORE SMOKE STOPS.
  
  Thus begins an "oral history" or "legend". Yes, writing would certainly help the process, but the lack of writing doesn't make passing on of important information to successive generations impossible.
  
  I could continue speculating but I think I'll stop for now.
  
  Open Mind
  
  (of the, instinctively fire-fascinated, class)
• 

  IP_SEC

  A simple explanation exists, by application of Occam's Razor

  Simpler than saying that human intellegence and knowledge had increased to the point that simultaniously new technologies emerged within disconnected societies?

  Do enlighten me.

  Technology is not simply a function of intellect. Aboriginal tribes of Australia are no less intelligent than other specimen of homo sapiens , but they lacked a lot of the knowledge acquired long prior to their discovery by many other peoples around the globe.

  Im sorry, auld I guess im going to have to go back and read this thread start to finish to understand where you are coming from... or getting at with this.
• 

  quietlyleaving

  Thus begins an "oral history" or "legend". Yes, writing would certainly help the process, but the lack of writing doesn't make passing on of important information to successive generations impossible.

  I agree openmind, humans have also used rituals to perpetuate new discoveries and to pass on info to successive generations.
• 

  theMartian

  Wow, Terry! What put you in such a Destructive Mode?

  If all in the Bible's ignored but the virtues it has REVEALED and extolled- that would be enough to endear it to you!

  Stop and think of how corrupt the world would be now if the Bible never existed, if Christ never taught!

  Can you consider that without the hateful attack?
• 

  eclipse

  I might not answer as eloquently as Terry,

  and I do not claim to be as knowledgeable,

  but if there was no Jesus, there would still be these philosophies:

  http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/A130

  2 The sixth and fifth centuries bc

  The first phase, occupying most of the sixth and fifth centuries bc , is generally known as Presocratic philosophy. Its earliest practitioners (Thales; Anaximander; Anaximenes) came from Miletus, on the west coast of modern Turkey. The dominant concern of the Presocratic thinkers was to explain the origin and regularities of the physical world and the place of the human soul within it (see especially Pythagoreanism; Heraclitus; Anaxagoras; Empedocles; Democritus), although the period also produced such rebels as the Eleatic philosophers (Parmenides; Zeno of Elea; Melissus), whose radical monism sought to undermine the very basis of cosmology by reliance on a priori reasoning.

  The label ‘Presocratic’ acknowledges the traditional view that Socrates (469–399 bc ) was the first philosopher to shift the focus away from the natural world to human values. In fact, however, this shift to a large extent coincides with the concerns of his contemporaries the Sophists, who professed to teach the fundamentals of political and social success and consequently were also much concerned with moral issues (see Sophists). But the persona of Socrates became, and has remained ever since, so powerful an icon for the life of moral scrutiny that it is his name that is used to mark this watershed in the history of philosophy. In the century or so following his death, many schools looked back to him as the living embodiment of philosophy and sought the principles of his life and thought in philosophical theory (see especially Socratic schools).

  http://www.iep.utm.edu/g/greekphi.htm

• Presocratics
• Socrates and his Followers
• Plato
• Aristotle
• Stoicism
• Epicureanism
• Skepticism
• Neoplatonism

East Asian Philosophies

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/buddhism-hinduism-taoism-confucianism.htm

From The Dhammapada;

Not to do any evil, to cultivate the good, to purify one’s mind, this is the Teaching of the Buddhas.

To speak no ill will, to do no harm, to practice self-restraint according to the fundamental precepts, to be moderate in eating, to live in seclusion, to devote oneself to higher consciousness, this is the Teaching of the Buddhas.

By endeavour, diligence, discipline and self-mastery, let the wise person make (of himself) an island that no flood can overwhelm.

All (mental) states have mind as their forerunner, mind is their chief, and they are mind-made. If one speaks or acts with a defiled mind, then suffering follows ..

Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world; it is appeased by love. This is an eternal Law.

Hard to restrain, unstable is this mind; it flits wherever it lists. Good is it to control the mind. A controlled mind brings happiness.

'All conditioned things are impermanent’, when one sees this in wisdom, then one becomes dispassionate towards the painful. This is the Path to Purity.

The following mantra and quotes express the aspirations of Hinduism religion;

OM Asato ma sadgamaya, tamaso ma jyotirgamaya, mrityor mamritam gamaya
" OM Lead me from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality."

Though One, Brahman is the cause of the many.
Brahman is the unborn (aja) in whom all existing things abide. The One manifests as the many, the formless putting on forms. (Rig Veda)

Behold but One in all things; it is the second that leads you astray. (Kabir)

The word Brahman means growth and is suggestive of life, motion, progress. (Radhakrishnan)

Hindu cosmology is non-dualistic. Everything that is is Brahman. Brahman is the eternal Now, and in eternity there is no before or after, for everything is everywhere, always. To use the words of Pascal 'it is a circle the center of which is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.' (Sudhakar S.D, 1988)

And we would also have muslim teaching.

Sources on Muhammad’s life concur that he was born ca.570CE in the city of Mecca in Arabia. [8] He was orphaned at a young age and was brought up by his uncle, later worked mostly as a merchant, and was married by age 26. At some point, discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic tradition, it was here at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event, Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islam) [9] is the only religion (din), [10] acceptable to God, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and other prophets. [11] [12] [13]

Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was largely met with hostility from the tribes of Mecca; he was treated harshly and so were his followers. To escape persecution, Muhammad and his followers migrated to Yathrib (Medina) [14] in the year 622. This historic event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad managed to unite the conflicting tribes, and after eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to ten thousand, conquered Mecca. In 632, on returning to Medina from his 'Farewell pilgrimage', Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of Arabia had converted to Islam.

The revelations (or Ayats, lit. Signs of God), which Muhammad reported receiving till his death, form the verses of the Qur'an, [15] regarded by Muslims as the “word of God”, around which the religion is based. Besides the Qur'an, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) are also upheld by Muslims.

and also judiasm:

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/religion-judaism-jewish-jews.htm

Introduction to Judaism

Judaism is the religion, culture, ethics and law of the Jewish people. It is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths (4000 year history).
14 million jews practice judaism today. (Source of statistics: adherents.com updated 2005).
Historically, Judaism founds many other religions, including Christianity and Islam.
As the Catholic encyclopedia suggests (Volume VIII, 1910);

Several centuries before Mohammed's birth (c. 570), the Jews had effected important settlements in Arabia, and in the course of time, they had acquired a considerable influence upon the Arab population.
In fact, it is certain that at one time, there existed in Southern Arabia (Yemen), an Arab-Jewish kingdom which was brought to an end in 530 by a Christian king of Abyssinia. But although they had lost their royal estate, the Arabian Jews were still numerous and powerful, in the Hedjaz, north of Yemen. There was indeed but a small Jewish population in Mecca, Mohammed's birthplace; yet it is probable that contact with the Jews of that city was one of the means by which the founder of Islam became acquainted with Judaism, its beliefs, and it Patriarchs. This acquaintance became naturally closer after the Hegira (Flight) of Mohammed (622) to Medina, the chief centre of the Arabian Jews.

(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08386a.htm - Catholic Encyclopedia, 1910, History of the Jews)

Religious view of the History of Judaism

According to religious Jews, the Biblical patriarch Abraham was the first Jew. Rabbinic literature records that he was the first to reject idolatry and preach monotheism. As a result, God promised he would have children, starting with Isaac, who would carry on his work and inherit the land of Israel (then called Canaan) after having been exiled and redeemed. God sent the patriarch Jacob and his children to Egypt; after they eventually became enslaved, God sent Moses to redeem the Israelites from slavery. After the Exodus from Egypt, God led them to Mount Sinai and gave them the Torah, and eventually brought them to the Land of Israel.

God set the descendants of Aaron, Moses' brother, to be a priestly class within the Israelite community. They first officiated in the tabernacle (a portable house of worship), and later their descendants officiated in the Temple in Jerusalem

Once they had settled, the tabernacle was planted in the city of Shiloh for over 300 years during which time God provided great men, and occasionally women, to rally the nation after he sent enemies to attack them. As time went on, the spiritual level of the nation declined to the point that God allowed the Philistines to capture the tabernacle in Shiloh.

The people of Israel then told Samuel the prophet that they had reached the point where they needed a permanent king like other nations had. God knew this was not best for the Jews, but acceded to this request and had Samuel appoint Saul, a great but very humble man, to be their king. When the people pressured Saul into going against a command conveyed to him by Samuel, God told Samuel to appoint David in his stead.

Once David was established, he told the prophet Nathan that he would like to build a permanent temple. As a reward, God promised David that he would allow his son to build the temple and the throne would never depart from his children. David was not allowed to build the temple because he had been involved in many wars, and it was thus inappropriate for him to build a temple representing peace. David's son Solomon built the first permanent temple according to God's will, in Jerusalem.

After Solomon's death, the kingdom was split into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Israel had a variety of kings, but after a few hundred years, because of the rampant idolatry God allowed Assyria to conquer Israel and exile its people. The kingdom of Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem and contained the temple, remained under the rulership of the house of David. However, idolatry increased to the point that God allowed Babylon to conquer it, destroy the temple which had stood for 410 years and exile its people to Babylon, with the promise that they would be redeemed after seventy years.

After seventy years the people were allowed back into Israel under the leadership of Ezra, and the temple was rebuilt. This second temple stood for 420 years after which it was destroyed by the Roman general (later emperor) Titus. This is the state in which it is to remain until a descendant of David arises to restore the glory of Israel (the current existence of the Islamic Dome of the Rock doesn't matter to the Rabbinical view).

The Torah given on Mount Sinai was summarized in the five books of Moses and together with the books of the prophets is called the Written Torah. The details which are called the Oral Torah were to remain unwritten. However as the persecutions of the Jews increased and the details were in danger of being forgotten, they were recorded in the Mishna, and the Talmud, as well as other holy books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism

There are probably more that I am forgetting, so this is just a sample of the world religions and philosophies of that time.

All of the above teach some form of morality, or how to treat your neighbour.

I think the world would of been just fine, albeit different, if Jesus never came along. I just think that another religion would of taken over.

Just my 2 cents.