Any thoughts on this quote from the Bible?

by siegswife 24 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  JosephAlward

  I think the "leaven" of the New Testament is the "meme" of today, a behavior-altering, self-propagating idea. Just as genes are propagated through humans, so are memes. Memes, like viruses, can remain dormant for long periods, start off as small as a mustard seed and then rapidly infect a society, transmitted from one human to another.

  Just as yeast expands the dough, so do memes expand through society as persons share the idea with others. Some memes explode exponentially into a population, as one person tells two, the two tell four, then the four tell eight, and after twenty replications a million have been infected. Some memes are good, others bad; they can be corrupting, or correcting, informing, concealing, inspiring, or enlightening; they can be suppressed, purged, or planted, and they can be used to subdue. Thus, the Kingdom is God is compared in the Bible to a meme, a spirit-altering idea, small as a mustard seed, which eventually becomes spread over the entire earth.

  Joseph F. Alward
  "Skeptical Views of Christianity and the Bible"

  * http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html
• 

  pomegranate

  And you call yourself a skeptic?
• 

  Satanus

  Pom

  I think joe is getting hooked on this board.
• 

  siegswife

  Good thoughts everyone. It's helping me to look at this from different perspectives. I like the idea of it being looked at from a positive angle. I have to wonder what the three measures mean? I was trying to apply it to the 3 religions that stem from the same believe in God. Maybe the represent something else? And why doesn't the state of people's spirituality seem to be more enjoined in the worship of God? It appears that the opposite is happening. And who was the woman that hid the leaven? Did someone compare it to 'the church'? Why would the church 'hide' the thing that makes the bread fermented, if it's a good thing?

  I realize that the leaven IS compared to the Kingdom of God, though, so I'm hesitant to stick a bad connotation to this particular thought.

  Could the 'leaven' represent Jesus, who was considered to be a man of lawlessness? Because of the lawlessness in the world, things don't often appear as they seem. Maybe that is why faithful today appear to be so divided (even to themselves), yet the reality of what is going on is the fermenting which won't be fully apparent until the whole lump is done...?
• 

  Bang

  The meal should be considered also.
  Typically I would think of the meal as Christ (Christ in Spirit), and also His Father is just like Him, and the Holy Spirit.
  But if one were considering three religions, wouldn't the main three be christianity, islam and buddhism, or the types of? (And christianity is the fulfillment/continuation of judaism)

  With christianity we have Christ, the Father and the Spirit.
  With islam we have the Father and the Spirit (Christ in Spirit).
  With buddhism we have the Spirit and Christ in Spirit.

  Whichever way you look at it there are 'two or three metrice a piece'.

  Bang