veradico
JoinedPosts by veradico
-
5
has anyone else seen this article about what's going on in Egypt? shocking!
by veradico inhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7247228.stm
-
-
-
47
Accessibility to guns to blame for violence?
by 5thGeneration inwith all the talk about the increased violence in schools and among society, it still surprises me that the accessibility to guns argument often tends to trump the cultural argument.. maybe i'm out of touch but showing saw iii uncut on hbo at 10pm and releasing the most violent video games in history and the marketing of violent and perverse music, these are the things to me that desensitises young people first and then may trigger some hurt and unstable kids long before they go and buy a gun.. okay, ready to be blasted (pardon the pun)!.
.
-
-
veradico
Being entertained by some of the things you mention may be a symptom of a predatory or perverse desire, but I doubt it is a cause. The causes of violence are what they have always been. Hate and fear, ignorance and inflexibility of the mind, these are toxic forces in the mind, retarding growth and ossifying the soul. Of course, the availability of guns, particularly the sort that are clearly meant to kill people, not to hunt animals, does not help matters when someone does go off the deep end. When children commit these crimes, as in the case of the shooting of the gay youth earlier this week (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oxnard15feb15,0,7663055.story), it is easier to blame the environment, i.e., entertainment, the hateful attitudes of friends and family, etc. When a graduate student in social work decides to murder, as in the incident at NIU (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-14-shooting_N.htm?csp=34&src=campaign=reprise_bnfeed_google_shooting), something more complex is going on. I don't think violence can be eliminated from our species, but perhaps we can become more efficient in our ability to detect dangerous people and cure them. Has anyone here ever read The Abolition of Man? What do you think of Lewis' argument that some cures give people less human dignity than the punishments they would have been given by past societies? Indeed, it is easy to see that the notion of "curing" a dysfunctional mind deprives that mind of the "dignity" of having chosen to do wrong.
-
35
The enigmatic mystery of the Nephilim, the Rephaim, and the Titans
by Leolaia init has been said that historical memory in oral tradition goes back only a few hundred years before it alters considerably in later retellings, and when even greater time depth is involved the mythic past fills in what has been collectively forgotten.
but myths purporting to relate events hundreds or even thousands of years in the past often contain kernals of historical memory amid the layers of tradition and archetypal folk motifs.
an excellent example from my own reading is that of the inuit eskimo in greenland who have a rich oral tradition about the norsemen who died out over 500 years ago and who originally colonized the land a millenium ago.
-
-
veradico
I just noticed this old thread. What you take with one hand, Leolaia, you return with two arms bearing a cornucopia! One might be dismayed to learn that the Flood, as far as can be discerned from the strands that remain after the J element involving the Nephilim has been removed, had as its cause nothing more interesting than the wicked and distressing ruckus of humanity, as in other related myths of the Near East. It's so much more interesting to see in the story a jealous God who disapproves of humanity's increasing divinity as the gods mingle with the mortals to produce the gigantic heroes of antiquity. But the beauty of your deconstruction of the text and subsequent reconstruction of facts that would otherwise be lost to us is that we now have the additional insights you gave us AND we can still marvel at the elegance of the new narrative produced by the redactor from his sources. A pleasure as always.
-
21
RUSSELL USED SYMBOL LINKED WITTH BA'AL WORSHIP
by badboy inaccoring to good news magazne,winge sun disk is linked with ba'al worship.. this was concerning jezebel's ring they found..
-
-
veradico
The winged sun disk is, of course, ubiquitous in Egyptian and Mesopotamian representation of royalty and divinity. But I wonder what the symbol meant in the unique context of Israel. If I remember correctly, Mark Smith cites an emendation of the word "shield" in Psalm 84 to read something like "sovereign". Both God and his anointed king are referred to in Ps. 84 as shields, and God is exhorted to "behold" the king, in effect, to shine upon him. In Is. 58:8, we find the healing sun imagery connected to the "glory" of God and the pillar of fire that play such prominent roles in the Exodus. YHWH as storm god and as sun god performs vital, life-giving functions. The storm imagery comes primarily from Ba'al, but there is a body of evidence suggesting that YHWH absorbed solar iconography as well from the surrounding cultures. Cloud and flame imagery mingle beautifully in Psalm 18, wherein YHWH rides on the cherubim and comes "on the wings of the wind." While the wings of the sun disk were, I suspect, originally intended to represent the diffusion of light surrounding the sun, especially at dawn (cf. "rosy-fingered Dawn" in Homer) and sunset, I further suspect that this is not what they meant to the Jews. After encountering the glory of God on his mountain, Moses, like the kings of Israel, is in some sense divine, and consequently radiates a fear-inspiring divine light which must be veiled, just as God's fire must be masked by cloud. Mark Smith's book mentions that some scholars interpret Moses' face emitting "rays" (lit. "horns") and his wearing the "veil" in Exodus 34 as a memory of animal masks (esp. of bulls) worn by priests when serving the god. (I think Jerome simply didn't understand the Hebrew idiom involved.) Throughout the Near East, bulls and horses are often linked with solar imagery, and Jehovah is the Bull of Jacob, the Calf of Samaria (called the "Calf of Samaria" because of the "golden calves" or cherubim placed in Dan and Bethel to represent God's presence over Israel). Whether Moses is being depicted as a type of Near Eastern sovereign, participating in the glory of the national God, or as a priest, the solar connection is clear. In any case, I'd like to suggest the hypothesis that the solar disk would be viewed by Hebrews as a representation of God's presence (the shekhinah) which was especially located above the cherubim (cf. the cover of the Ark of the covenant and various depictions in prophetic theophanies). The golden cherubim function sometimes as the guardians of the divine garden on the top of the cosmic mountain (cf. the depiction of Eden in Genesis and Ezekiel) and sometimes as the bearers of God, the bulls of Heaven. What do you think?
-
58
Evolutions billion dollar question!
by Blackboo inhow did emotions evolved???
*grinning* are emotions, thinking, and morals biological?
please answer this sincere question..i am actually being nice this time.
-
-
veradico
I found the following passage in that article on the evolution of emotion interesting:
"An emotion is not reducible to any one category of effects, such as effects on physiology, behavioral inclinations, cognitive appraisals, or feeling states, because it involves evolved instructions for all of them together, as well as other mechanisms distributed throughout the human mental and physical architecture.
"All cognitive programs - including superordinate programs of this kind - are sometimes mistaken for 'homunculi', that is, entities endowed with "free will". A homunculus scans the environment and freely chooses successful actions in a way that is not systematic enough to be implemented by a program. It is the task of cognitive psychologists to replace theories that implicitly posit such an impossible entity with theories that can be implemented as fixed programs with open parameters."
I tend to think of emotion as a certain category of judgments, i.e. judgments that a benefit or harm is being done to one's self or to a person or thing with which one identifies (family, friends, God, country, etc.). This category of judgments (emotion) produces certain physiological and psychological effects (feelings), but these are secondary and contingent. Specific emotions will arise spontaneously when one encounters specific situations, and specific feelings will result from the emotions. Thus, as the author states, one cannot locate "free will" in the situation. However, though I think our behavior at a given moment is determined, I think we can modify ourselves in the present so that our reactions in the future will be different from what they would be now. What do you all think? -
68
To all those who support Evolution EXPLAIN this....
by Blackboo inthink about this and close your eyes...think about what it is to have no existence for all existence..and nothing for all existence...notice how u cannot have both at the same time lol!
that is crazy!
that means if there was nothing for all existence..then it has to remain that way..and even if some particles or energy exploded to give life to earth and the planets..it still does not make sense to believe that a explosion can design humans or animals...thats just like saying i am gonna get a another house out of a explosion!
-
-
veradico
Blackboo, if you are willing to agree that something has always existed, why not have it be the universe? You agree that an eternal regress is nonsense, that is, that as long as the system as a whole is explained, new origins do not need to be invoked. Every day of your life the existence of the universe is confirmed by your own consciousness. However, unless you claim to be a prophet or some other individual who has directly experienced God, you simply believe (based on good or bad reasons) that God exists. There are various models for an eternal universe. For example, one can reason from the fact (one of the foundations of quantum mechanics) that empty space is not ever really "empty" in the sense that you mean when you say NOTHING (by the way, I have trouble understanding why you capitalize some of the words you do. are you replicating the intonations of your speech pattern?). Thus, over an unimaginable period of time it is reasonable to posit a quantum instability that exploded. Now the universe could follow two paths. According to one model, everything would expand to a certain point, then re-collapse, then explode outward again. However, it's also possible to imagine the material of the universe spreading out until all is cold and "empty" again. In this case, another instability could eventually occur, and the process would start again. All of this is speculative. This is theory, not science. But it should provide you with a couple of examples of "atheistic" cosmological genesis theories that don't involve absolute nothingness.
-
110
If you believe in Evolution then your a fool! God really is REAL!
by Blackboo inhere are some questions evolution never bring up or will evade questioning.
these are serious questions that kill all the silly beliefs about how the earth or universe got here..and here is why.
think about this for a second we would not be here if nothing for all existence did not exist.
-
-
veradico
Will do! Your distracting me from the question of whether or not we were created has also helped me to ask, Does it matter? The author of Revelation thought so ("You are worthy...because you created"), but many of the pagans didn't. They didn't worship the divinity who created man (Prometheus, or any other philosophical or religious demiurgos). Whether a god did or didn't create us, whether (granting creation) he/she/it did so benevolently, malevolently, or apathetically, it does not follow that we would owe such a being anything.
-
110
If you believe in Evolution then your a fool! God really is REAL!
by Blackboo inhere are some questions evolution never bring up or will evade questioning.
these are serious questions that kill all the silly beliefs about how the earth or universe got here..and here is why.
think about this for a second we would not be here if nothing for all existence did not exist.
-
-
veradico
Ink, no worries. Your comment sent me down what has been for me a much more interesting line of thought than a debate about evolution. I'm much more interested in knowing what I am than where I came from.
-
110
If you believe in Evolution then your a fool! God really is REAL!
by Blackboo inhere are some questions evolution never bring up or will evade questioning.
these are serious questions that kill all the silly beliefs about how the earth or universe got here..and here is why.
think about this for a second we would not be here if nothing for all existence did not exist.
-
-
veradico
(Whoever started this evolution thread: Sorry I slightly hijacked it with my free will comment, but I want to respond to DT.)
Yes. When I look back at my thought process, I can always locate the causal chain that led up to my actions. I don't mind that they were not "free." But in the present it feels like I'm free, and, if I'm not a free moral agent, it's hard to see how I or anyone else could be held ethically responsible for anything. "Sure. Someone's body pulled a trigger on a gun and shot someone else's body, but they only did so because of a an endless causal chain leading back to the movements of the first atoms." Everything operates in certain ways in accord with its specific physical nature. Behind psychology lies biology. Biology can be reduced to chemistry. In the end, it's all particles and void. Even if randomness is a factor (i.e., the uncertainty principle), that's not freedom; it's just chaos, madness. I might redefine free will as "something caused by the dynamic collection of physical and mental properties I identify as my 'self,'" as opposed to something imposed on me by some external influence. But that's not satisfying when I realize that all the movements of the atoms of which I consist are, in a very real sense, determined by their physical nature and thus by the "laws" which emerge therefrom. -
110
If you believe in Evolution then your a fool! God really is REAL!
by Blackboo inhere are some questions evolution never bring up or will evade questioning.
these are serious questions that kill all the silly beliefs about how the earth or universe got here..and here is why.
think about this for a second we would not be here if nothing for all existence did not exist.
-
-
veradico
Evolution avoids explaining the origin of life because it is a science. Science does not deal with things that can't be tested. That's why it works. Anyone can make a religion that explains where life came from because the only limit is one's imagination. Science may start with an imagined hypothesis, but then it must be tested, challenged, overturned, replaced, tested, overturned, replaced, until the weight of supporting data makes a theory virtually unassailable, though it may not be as poetic as "In the beginning, the Word was, and the Word was with God." And still, the scientific process should assail the theory, testing every remaining aspect of it. Evolutionary biology is still a young science. Indeed, all of the sciences are still young. Thus, there are many unexplained phenomena and unanswered questions. But science will not create imaginary or fantastic answers to those questions and then rest in the comfort of faith.