Posts by venus

16

Creation account is the creation of Moses

by venus in

the word `intelligence' [from inter, “between” + legere, “ to read”] would mean ‘discern things as though reading in between the lines.

now read in between the lines of what moses wrote; his favored and frequent statement is this: ‘obedience to god means blessings, and disobedience means maledictions.’ (deut 28:1-68; 30:15-18) let us try to discern his motive behind this statement.. .

when moses wanted to present 10 commandments and other laws, he naturally wanted to prepare the israelites with a mind-set that ‘we must obey god, otherwise it is problem for us.’ the best way for this was to modify a well-known story of fall from other cultures.

venus

FadeToBlack,

Yes, you are right. There are many scholars who presented proof against Mosaic authorship of Pentateuch. Whenever I read Moses’ books, I used to wonder why supposedly inspired books scatters the attention of the innocent reader by inconsistencies. To mention a few: Moses wrote about his own death, and even declared himself as the most humble man on earth, referring himself in 3rd person (Number 12:3), verses that states that something is the case “to this day” which is inconsistent with Mosaic authorship, then plenty of doublet such as two accounts of creation (means author was cherry-picking from the vast ocean of creation stories, dependence on various sources—not typical of divine inspiration). Story of golden calf immediately after God performed a great miracle is unbelievable. Too unbelievable is the response of the people looking at “a golden calf” and calling it as “our gods” in plural (Exodus 32:4, 23) …

16

Creation account is the creation of Moses

by venus in

the word `intelligence' [from inter, “between” + legere, “ to read”] would mean ‘discern things as though reading in between the lines.

now read in between the lines of what moses wrote; his favored and frequent statement is this: ‘obedience to god means blessings, and disobedience means maledictions.’ (deut 28:1-68; 30:15-18) let us try to discern his motive behind this statement.. .

when moses wanted to present 10 commandments and other laws, he naturally wanted to prepare the israelites with a mind-set that ‘we must obey god, otherwise it is problem for us.’ the best way for this was to modify a well-known story of fall from other cultures.

venus

Smiddy

That is a valid question—why could not have the faithful ones who were living closer to the time of creation written something about creation?

Regarding what Moses supposedly wrote, I feel the most profound reason to doubt the whole story is internal evidence.

1) People who experienced a unique miracle as parting of the Red Sea too soon turned into calf-worship—something that is impossible to happen.

2) Destiny-wise too it badly reflects on God who apparently chose a nation for nothing, and too bad that they earned a name of being “killers of prophet.” (Mathew 23:37) Moses (or Moses story itself was designed) designed story to give an origin and history to a people and distinguish them from others by claiming a divine destiny—something that was never fulfilled. Would God give rise to something only to reflect badly on His choice?

16

Creation account is the creation of Moses

by venus in

the word `intelligence' [from inter, “between” + legere, “ to read”] would mean ‘discern things as though reading in between the lines.

now read in between the lines of what moses wrote; his favored and frequent statement is this: ‘obedience to god means blessings, and disobedience means maledictions.’ (deut 28:1-68; 30:15-18) let us try to discern his motive behind this statement.. .

when moses wanted to present 10 commandments and other laws, he naturally wanted to prepare the israelites with a mind-set that ‘we must obey god, otherwise it is problem for us.’ the best way for this was to modify a well-known story of fall from other cultures.

venus

OnTheWayOut,

There are many who feel the way you feel: "A massive exodus that led to the drowning of Pharaoh's army, says Father Anthony Axe, Bible lecturer at Jerusalem's Ecole Biblique, would have reverberated politically and economically through the entire region. And considering that artifacts from as far back as the late Stone Age have turned up in the Sinai, it is perplexing that no evidence of the Israelites' passage has been found. William Dever, a University of Arizona archaeologist, flatly calls Moses a mythical figure. Some scholars even insist the story was a political fabrication, invented to unite the disparate tribes living in Canaan through a falsified heroic past"--Time Mazazine Dec 12, 2014

16

Creation account is the creation of Moses

by venus in

the word `intelligence' [from inter, “between” + legere, “ to read”] would mean ‘discern things as though reading in between the lines.

now read in between the lines of what moses wrote; his favored and frequent statement is this: ‘obedience to god means blessings, and disobedience means maledictions.’ (deut 28:1-68; 30:15-18) let us try to discern his motive behind this statement.. .

when moses wanted to present 10 commandments and other laws, he naturally wanted to prepare the israelites with a mind-set that ‘we must obey god, otherwise it is problem for us.’ the best way for this was to modify a well-known story of fall from other cultures.

venus

OnTheWayOut,

That is what exactly the impression I too get from my reading in between the lines.

16

Creation account is the creation of Moses

by venus in

the word `intelligence' [from inter, “between” + legere, “ to read”] would mean ‘discern things as though reading in between the lines.

now read in between the lines of what moses wrote; his favored and frequent statement is this: ‘obedience to god means blessings, and disobedience means maledictions.’ (deut 28:1-68; 30:15-18) let us try to discern his motive behind this statement.. .

when moses wanted to present 10 commandments and other laws, he naturally wanted to prepare the israelites with a mind-set that ‘we must obey god, otherwise it is problem for us.’ the best way for this was to modify a well-known story of fall from other cultures.

venus

waton,

Retrograde way is the only one we are sure about. That is why some classical physicists have different view other than a starting from 'a big bang.' http://www.nature.com/news/cosmologist-claims-universe-may-not-be-expanding-1.13379; http://www.physicsmyths.org.uk/expansion.htm; http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2014/05/the-universe-is-not-expanding-an-alternate-theory-to-big-bang-cosmology.html; https://bigbangno.wordpress.com/

16

Creation account is the creation of Moses

by venus in

the word `intelligence' [from inter, “between” + legere, “ to read”] would mean ‘discern things as though reading in between the lines.

now read in between the lines of what moses wrote; his favored and frequent statement is this: ‘obedience to god means blessings, and disobedience means maledictions.’ (deut 28:1-68; 30:15-18) let us try to discern his motive behind this statement.. .

when moses wanted to present 10 commandments and other laws, he naturally wanted to prepare the israelites with a mind-set that ‘we must obey god, otherwise it is problem for us.’ the best way for this was to modify a well-known story of fall from other cultures.

venus

Bible itself says "test everything. Hold on to what is good (kalos, what is inherently good and logical)".--1 Thessalonians 5:21. It primarily applies to Bible itself. Hence when we find things that are not logical in the Bible, we need to ignore them.

16

Creation account is the creation of Moses

by venus in

the word `intelligence' [from inter, “between” + legere, “ to read”] would mean ‘discern things as though reading in between the lines.

now read in between the lines of what moses wrote; his favored and frequent statement is this: ‘obedience to god means blessings, and disobedience means maledictions.’ (deut 28:1-68; 30:15-18) let us try to discern his motive behind this statement.. .

when moses wanted to present 10 commandments and other laws, he naturally wanted to prepare the israelites with a mind-set that ‘we must obey god, otherwise it is problem for us.’ the best way for this was to modify a well-known story of fall from other cultures.

venus

The word `intelligence' [from inter, “between” + legere, “ to read”] would mean ‘discern things as though reading in between the lines. Now read in between the lines of what Moses wrote; his favored and frequent statement is this: ‘Obedience to God means blessings, and disobedience means maledictions.’ (Deut 28:1-68; 30:15-18) Let us try to discern his motive behind this statement.

When Moses wanted to present 10 commandments and other laws, he naturally wanted to prepare the Israelites with a mind-set that ‘We must obey God, otherwise it is problem for us.’ The best way for this was to modify a well-known story of Fall from other cultures. This seems to be the origin of creation account and the subsequent story of “tree of good and bad” which shows suffering was the result of disobedience to God.

Moses wanted to show his people are special because God chose them as His own giving them The Law, and to convey: “You do well if you obey the Law.” That’s all what Moses did! That means story of “tree of good and bad” has no significance to the humanity, and God and Satan are nowhere in the picture as the creation account is the creation of Moses who wrote for his own people, not to the world. Interestingly, Jesus himself testifies that Moses was whimsical. (Mathew 19:7, 8) Moses did everything to project one nation as God’s chosen one—something that God would not do because He simply cannot be partial (Deut 10:17), and also exalting one nation over the others is spiritual ego which is more harmful than material ego (root of all problems) seen in individuals.

If creation account is creation of Moses, then how did universe come about? To me this question looks very simple. If one reads in between the lines of the famous question: “What came first chicken or egg?” he would get the answer as “none,” it is a chain without any beginning! We are conditioned to think in term of a beginning. But our experience is that nothing happens without something preceding to it, and it is ad infinitum. God does not create anything. This “creation” is a natural manifestation of something inherent in the nature and God. He does not deliberately engage in any action to bring “creation” into existence, it just happens. So God is not directly responsible for “creation” (just like a dreamer does not design the dream, nor does he control the dream, but it happens in a natural way).

18

Human element seen in 10 commandments

by venus in

i appreciate 10 commandments because they try to ensure law and order in the society.

however, i have problem with introductory statements that say: “you shall have no other gods before[a] me… you shall not bow down to them or worship them; for i, the lord your god, am a jealous god, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (exodus 20:3-6).

1) this contradicts the characteristics of god described in mathew 5:44-48 where love is described as loving everyone without thinking whether others reciprocate or not.

venus

Hi Anders Andersen,

That is true. Hamurabi's laws (dating back to BCE 1754) were older than and superior to Moses' law. For example, woman could have gone for an easy divorce: "Law #142: "If a woman quarrel with her husband, and say: "You are not congenial to me," the reasons for her prejudice must be presented. If she is guiltless, and there is no fault on her part, but he leaves and neglects her, then no guilt attaches to this woman, she shall take her dowry and go back to her father's house."

17

Good luck with that

by Lost his mind in

what is the big deal when you say "good luck with that" or he just had bad luck?

i have never been a jw, but what is the problem with saying these things?

my husband was so mad, he went to bed and would not talk to me.

venus

JWs associate luck with demonic worship, hence they do not use that expression. Demons really do not exist--for example Jews do not believe snake that spoke in the garden of Eden is Satan. In the temptation account involving Jesus, Satan is shown as somebody who believes the shape of earth is flat because he takes Jesus to the top of the mountain to show "all the kingdoms of the earth." Hence Bible too shows that Satan is symbolic of sin, not a real person. If Satan is real, he would have caused an accident where ever nuclear weapons are kept and would have already caused the destruction of the humanity. Hence modern history too shows that Satan is not real, hence his supposed supporters called demons too are not real.

Hence you can use the expression luck because luck exists. For a high-profile job opportunity, suppose two equally good people are finally short-listed, yet one only will be selected--that one is the lucky one.

Another example, my friend was to board a plane, but was prevented from doing so because of a spelling mistake found in his passport and other documents. But five minutes after take off, plane had a mid-air collision with another plane leaving no survivors. My friend's apparent bad luck turned out to be a real luck.

18

Human element seen in 10 commandments

by venus in

i appreciate 10 commandments because they try to ensure law and order in the society.

however, i have problem with introductory statements that say: “you shall have no other gods before[a] me… you shall not bow down to them or worship them; for i, the lord your god, am a jealous god, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (exodus 20:3-6).

1) this contradicts the characteristics of god described in mathew 5:44-48 where love is described as loving everyone without thinking whether others reciprocate or not.

venus

Thank you Simon for that link: Some of the rewriting of Christopher Hitches are too good such as:

I: Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or color.
II: Do not ever use people as private property.
V: Do not condemn people for their inborn nature.
VI: Be aware that you too are an animal and dependent on the web of nature, and think and act accordingly.
VII: Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus rather than with a knife.
X: Be willing to renounce any god or any religion if any holy commandments should contradict any of the above