From My Perspective...

[HexHammer]

eventually i buy a copy and read it.[/quote]Just watch the vid I linked to, you can just have it on audio and read news while doing it, multitasking! ..even put it on x1.25 speed

[gaffo]

eventually i buy a copy and read it.

Just watch the vid I linked to, you can just have it on audio and read news while doing it, multitasking! ..even put it on x1.25 speed
[/quote]

???

welcome any links you provide Sir/Madam.

[HexHammer]

welcome any links you provide Sir/Madam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tv2vY3ga3g

It's sir, a thousand pardons, I would have sworn there was posted a link in my 1st post.

[gaffo]

welcome any links you provide Sir/Madam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tv2vY3ga3g

It's sir, a thousand pardons, I would have sworn there was posted a link in my 1st post.

thanks for link - not heard of the "13th demon" reference for judas.

interesting and thanks!

sad that the work lost 10-percent via poor handling in the last 50 yrs - esp since i doubt we will find another copy in the desert (I hope we do - but doubt we will - most of the gnostic works were willingly destroyed via order from church fathers around 250 AD or so).

I think the 150 AD attributation may be to genorious - more probably 180-200 or so IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIXwSjyxe88

I like Bart - he knows his stuff and have respect for is knowledge - and so offer a link.

thanks for reply Sir.

BTW - there were many forms of Gnostism, from Greek to Jewish - and inbetween, Jewish gnostism predates christian by a century and started via Jews knowledgeable in greek platonism in alexendria. those jews wrote the Kabbala - which is a proto-gnostic work.

[Greta]

As far as I'm aware, the Judeo/Christian Bible is more or less a compilation of stories roughly outlining the history of a very particular clan of people originating and dwelling in a particular region in the Middle East over 2000 years ago. There were doubtless thousands of such groups of people who dwelled in various regions around the world at the time. In contemporary terms it sort of seems a bit like documenting the history of Switzerland and its people and then 2000 years from now (for whatever reason) having a substantial number of human beings spread across the Earth continuously reciting the 20th Century history of Switzerland as somehow the most significant story of humanity.

I generally consider myself "agnostic". Among religious terms, it seems like the most fitting term of any I have encountered to describe my orientation with regard to "religion". However, in spite of my own reservations and skepticism, whether the Judeo/Christian God is in fact the CEO of the universe or not, it does seem pretty extraordinary (and noteworthy) how many of us seem to be particularly enamored with the history of that particular clan of people, despite the fact that the vast majority of us probably have only the most tenuous hereditary connection with them (in relative terms) at best.

I like your entire post. I've wondered the same thing? Why these ancient Middle Easterners, who were an especially bloodthirsty lot.

I suspect the latter is why the Abrahamic ideas spread so far - coercion. It rode a wave of popularity with widespread anti-Roman sentiment based on the shallow endorsement of shared enemies. Then Christianity was increasingly bludgeoned into other cultures, either by coercion (The Crusades) or the manipulation of missions.

To be fair, they were the first to come up with Top God. While everyone else is worshipping the Earth or the Sun or animals or ecosystems, Abrahamics brought out the big trump card - "my God is bigger than your God". The god of everything wins. Since they were first, they got to dictate what The Big Kahuna was like. Still, these were a people who made predictions about the destruction of "the world", with a conception that the world was bounded by Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and Turkey and, of course, the the giant dome that held the Sun, Moon and stars.

What the ancient Middle Eastern tribes know about and can teach us about is the effect on the human heart of the short and dangerous lives they lead in those violent and relatively chaotic times. One of humanity's stands against the tyranny of chaos!

This is a worthy thing but why have the no-doubt heroic and fraught battles against chaos by the ancient Chinese, Indians, SE Asians, central Africans, Eskimos, and indigenous Americans and Australians have not been so valued or spoken about? The others did not so much tend to bludgeon others into believing as they believed. Might is right - again. History is written by the winners - again. [One more relevant cliche here would be nice but is not coming to mind].

[gaffo]

As far as I'm aware, the Judeo/Christian Bible is more or less a compilation of stories roughly outlining the history of a very particular clan of people originating and dwelling in a particular region in the Middle East over 2000 years ago. There were doubtless thousands of such groups of people who dwelled in various regions around the world at the time. In contemporary terms it sort of seems a bit like documenting the history of Switzerland and its people and then 2000 years from now (for whatever reason) having a substantial number of human beings spread across the Earth continuously reciting the 20th Century history of Switzerland as somehow the most significant story of humanity.

I generally consider myself "agnostic". Among religious terms, it seems like the most fitting term of any I have encountered to describe my orientation with regard to "religion". However, in spite of my own reservations and skepticism, whether the Judeo/Christian God is in fact the CEO of the universe or not, it does seem pretty extraordinary (and noteworthy) how many of us seem to be particularly enamored with the history of that particular clan of people, despite the fact that the vast majority of us probably have only the most tenuous hereditary connection with them (in relative terms) at best.

you said this:

it does seem pretty extraordinary (and noteworthy) how many of us seem to be particularly enamored with the history of that particular clan of people

implication by you there being a possible mystical reason (YHWH is the the one ture god - not Wichulopeechli(sp)).


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its just simple history Sir.

We are a product of Roman empirical rule - from 100 AD to dark ages to today. Rome adopted Christianity due to Constatine in 320 AD.

............

FYI - all is historical happenstance. had the caucasions not had 3 waves of murderious smallpox and plague- to kill of the weak (i.e. had we never had that - and the American Indians did (instead of vise versa) - the second we set foot on the Americas, we would have contracted smallpox/plague..........returning to europe to infect, dying by 90-percent.

100 yrs later the American Indians would be settling in Europe and all there and here in the Americas would be worshiping Wichulopeechi(sp) as the One True God of all.

[Greta]

Rome was so full of self loathing that they adopted a sect that hated Rome.

Living conditions were worsening, there were ever more neglected and unkempt areas, people crammed into horrible living conditions, high unemployment and worker exploitation, disillusionment with the endless problems of their expansionary projects, and their leaders were increasingly unhinged and dangerous. Thank goodness there are no such worries today