monsters....saviours...what about, humans?

Humans are fodder for the gods

are you not up on your sea monster and Marduk?

Tablets of Destiny?

hey?

and all that from John the Revelator!

All facets of the same diamond?

Link Wray make-a-my day

God's Politics are front and center on the TV screen again.

It seems god does not like freedom of speech.

Freedom of Speech is a sin!

A you tube of some crazy religious guy saying my god is better than your god and look what happens. The other god gets pissed off and we have riots and McCain and Romney are saying we need to beef up our military presence in a land where we have been deployed for decades and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

It's insane!

It is all because god hates freedom of speech!

Send in the Behemoths and Sea Monsters and sort it all out!

I think the most interesting my god is better than your god salvo is the Genesis creation myth!

Absolutely! And, as creation myths go (there being literally thousands of them), the Genesis story isn't..........doesn't come close to being the most colorful or fantastical! Check out the Mayan "frogs from the underworld" yarn

Just imagine: arguing over whose invisible friend has the prettiest eyes........and then letting the argument escalate into a bloodbath!

oh yeah...



it was this part that made me go a little goofy

actually i am not up on them? all i have been able to figure, is that there are often similarities among the legends?

From my previous life as an anthropologist:

The primary question remains - did humans invent god(s) or discover god(s)?

If you want to pass the class, your answer BETTER be the former.

Doesn't make it true, but does make it logical.

(I hear William Ockham sharpening his razor)

{Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate, “Plurality should not be posited without necessity.” The principle gives precedence to simplicity; of two competing theories, the simpler explanation of an entity is to be preferred. The principle is also expressed as “Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity.”} ~ Encyclopaedia Britannica

well, all i know is...religion, in my experience...confuses the spirit, downright confuses it!
(the spirit: my meaning...a beingness...being)

Yes, Be-ing! Simplicity in its purest form. And talk about simple......Ockam would probably say something like "The experiential existance of a state of be-ing, refined energy and spirit, an inhabitant interwoven in mutual entanglement and coexistance with the present moment.......that is the "simplest path to spiritual meaning. Lots of the stuff that we call "life" is constantly presenting obstacles, trials and compromises in our attempt to accomplished "pure" be-ing. I'm O.K. with that -I'd settle for just a little more of those moments, just a few more......

Meaning is more complicated. By definition, the meaning of [our] be-ing and the experience of be-ing are the same thing. To "find" a personal or even universal "meaning" of our be-ing would necessitate seperating the two states of existance, so that we could sort of peek in on ourselves. But since we have broken the dichotimous bond that allows the be-ing to exist as one with the moment, the scene we observe is not a true one. It's like those spoken lines from the George Harrison song:

The soul does not exist, it is existence itself.
The soul does not love, it is love itself.
The soul does not know, it is knowledge itself.

Sea Monsters and Behemoths and Tablets of Destiny are ancient Sumerian myths about the origins of humanity.

Marduke (Behemoth) is the champion of the Gods and Tiamat (Sea Monster) is chaos and the Tablets of Destiny are similar to the ten commandments (except they are made of clay instead of stone). The tablets are cosmically inspired script that essentially grants the universe to the god who possesses them. Marduke battles Tiamat for possession and wins and so defines a universe that is structured with humans serving gods. Of course, the gods are on top and liaison with the chosen (the few, the wealthy) who liaison with the merchants who control the majority of the poor dumb bastards. Marduke wins and brings order or the creation of civilization to the universe. Of course, this is a historical myth to Semitic people in general but is the basis for Babylonian religion. Isaiah's prophesy has the Jewish god defeating the Leviathan in the end of days and bringing order to the universe (supposedly a prophesy from the Babylonian captivity). Of course, John the Revelator renews Isiah's prophesy and defines the sea monster as Rome (his world recognized the son of god as the Emperor in Rome, and that ain't right) but that god had destroyed Jerusalem and if he took a boat to Ephesus all he would see would be monuments to that Roman god. He defines the Behemoth as a land monster or antichrist or the theft of the Messiah by Gentiles because of Paul. They have stolen the baby (Messiah) at it's birth from the it's mother, Israel.

An Atheist interpretation but an interpretation none the less.

Oh ya the Genesis story.... I read this in a Karen Armstrong book I believe...any way...all the Old Testament stuff was oral tradition until around the time of the Babylonian exile. That is when it was written down and the people of the book really began. Of course it had to explain why the Jewish god pretty much sucked at war. Of course you hear a lot about unfaithful humans and stuff but they really define god as a camper. He does not need a Temple. A tent is fine.Of course in Job he will test humans (Job also contains the Leviathan). So, captivity and exile are a test of man's faith. God is always there watching. With all that comes a purge of the infidel and Deuteronimists get to write on and on about ritual and god's requirements.

The priests need a creation that tops the Babylonian creation and positions the Jewish god above the Babylonian gods. So what do they do..

They create a god who calmly creates everything in 7 days. He doesn't battle sea monsters for tablets of destiny. He creates the sea and the sea monsters. Ultimately, he creates the tablets of destiny (the ten commandments) and gives them to an undeserving people (humans, not gods).

Gotta love it!

Then there is me, I believe life to be a dissipative structure. Resistance to the greater energy expansion that is reality. The soul is the sum of our experiences and it is perpetuated by our contact with the souls of others while we persist on this planet. When we die, we die! and our soul persists in what others have found worthy of remembering and perpetuating.

To me, that is the simplest physical and spiritual meaning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMS2uMUQNnQ