All categories - 29 August 2006

"A thorough reading and understanding of the Bible is the surest path to atheism” ~ Donald Morgan

Let's consider the cosmology of Genesis. In biblical times, people thought that the earth and heaven were all that there was... and that the earth was essentially a 'terrarium' (you might want to look that up). They thought that the sky was a solid object, called the 'firmament', and that the sun, moon, and stars were affixed to it. So, essentially, heaven is 'on the other side of the sky'.

The story of Genesis is comprised of the myths, superstitions, fairy tales and fantastical delusions of an ignorant bunch of Bronze Age fishermen and wandering goat herders, lifted from the oral traditions of other cultures, and crafted into a tale that incorporated some of their own folk tales and pseudo-history. This collection of ignorance provides the basis for the Abrahamic death cults of desert monotheism... Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The cosmological aspects of Genesis are perfectly understandable, if you contemplate it in the proper context. At the time the bible stories were concocted, the perception was that the earth was the object and the center of creation. Why? Because they had no reason to think otherwise. Today, as we advance science, we stand upon the shoulders of all the scientists that came before. Back then there were no shoulders to stand upon... so they did the best they could with what they had... their senses and their imaginations.

* They had no concept of 'outer space', and so they conceived that in the beginning all that existed were dark waters.

* They had no concept of 'nothingness'. Remember, the concept of 'zero' wasn't invented (discovered?) until thousands of years later. With that in mind, the term 'void', as it is employed in Genesis, can not refer to 'nothingness'... it can only be applied in its alternative definition, which is 'empty'. So, the waters were dark, formless and empty (devoid of content).

* They thought that all of creation consisted of the earth and an unseen 'heaven', and they thought that the sky was a 'thing'... a substantive 'firmament' (the sky) that was created by god to separate the waters and differentiate earth from heaven, when both were created.

# They had no idea that Earth was a planet, orbiting the sun.

# They had no idea that there is no firmament... that the sky is not a 'thing'.

(If you don't believe that they thought the sky was an object... a solid barrier... consider the Tower of Babel, that they were building to reach heaven. Apparently, God ALSO thought that the sky was an object, since it concerned him so much that he confounded their speech, so as to disrupt their project and keep them from reaching his domain. God must be pretty much of a dumbass, if he doesn't even know the actual configuration of the universe that he created. So much for the 'inerrant' bible.)

* They thought that the sun was a light that god had placed upon the 'firmament' to differentiate night from day.

# They had no idea that the sun is a star... the center of our solar system.

# They had no concept of 'stars' in the same sense that we understand them today.

* They had no idea that night and day were a consequence of the earth's rotation.

* They thought that the moon was a 'lesser' light that god had caused to travel across the firmament to enable man to differentiate the seasons, and provide illumination at night.

# They had no concept of the moon as a satellite.

* They thought that the stars were tiny lights that god had placed upon the firmament to provide for omens. (Some thought that the stars were 'holes' in the firmament that allowed the 'light of heaven' to shine through.)

# They had no idea that the stars were suns, just like our own sun.

# They thought the eyeball-visible planets (Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn) were 'wandering stars'.

# They had no idea that the planets were actually sun-orbiting bodies, just like earth.

* They had no idea that the earth, itself, is a planet.

# They had no clue as to the actual nature of the earth, our solar system, the place of our solar system in the galaxy... or even of the existence of our galaxy. (Up until very recently, we didn't even know that there were other galaxies. Our galaxy, when it was first known that there actually WAS a galaxy, was thought to be the whole universe.) From their perspective, the 'earth' and 'heaven' (i.e., whatever existed on the other side of the sky) represented all that there was. A terrarium.

I do not say this things to disparage what they thought back then. They were trying to do what science is trying to do today... trying to understand reality. Today, we have technology and disciplined meta-procedures (scientific method) to help us extract answers from nature.

Back then, they did not.

Today, we have 'theories' to provide consistent explanations for what we are able to observe in nature, supplemented and validated by the additional information that we are able to extract from nature by means of our technology, our disciplined methods and our intellectual tools (mathematics, logic). Most of our theories are incomplete, so we continue to work on them... because we know that they are incomplete.

Back then, they did not have disciplined methods, and they did not have the technology to extract answers from nature. The only information they had access to was what they could see with their own eyeballs. There was no technological knowledge base or scientific context in which to interpret their observations, so they had to appeal to their imaginations... and the 'supernatural'... in order to make sense out of what they saw. Actually, what they really achieved was deluding themselves into thinking that they knew the truth. Amazingly, over time, this delusion has become codified, institutionalized, and incorporated... complete with franchises.

Basically, Genesis can be thought of as a 'theory', concocted by people who were constrained by lack of technology, methodology and intellectual tools... but they sure weren't constrained by lack of imagination.

Today, we try to interpret Genesis in the context of what we know to be true of the universe... galaxies, stars, planets, moons, gravity, orbits, inclination of the earth's axis, planetary rotation, etc. They problem is that Genesis can't be interpreted in terms of those things, because Genesis was written by men, based on oral traditions, and those men did not know about those things. They could only write about what they could see and what they could guess about the reasons that lay behind what they saw. In any event, it provided them with a mechanism to quell the innate anxiety that comes with fretting about how and why they came to be here.

They guessed wrong.

So... I think that the cosmological aspects of Genesis require a literal interpretation... no metaphors... no allegory... no hidden meaning. The key, though, is in understanding that the literal interpretation does not lead to a description of the way things ARE... it leads to a description of the way they THOUGHT things are. It leads to a naive description of reality, concocted by people who were doing the best they could with what they had.

It is absolutely appalling, though, to realize that hundreds of millions of people, TODAY, including participants in this forum, BELIEVE that this ignorant bovine excrement is actually TRUE.

2006-08-29 20:15:48 · 27 answers · asked by superdave 1 in Religion & Spirituality

Is there anybody here that share the same year as me!

2006-08-29 20:15:45 · 18 answers · asked by MYPHARRELL 3 in Polls & Surveys

2006-08-29 20:15:44 · 10 answers · asked by Wasiq 1 in Other - Hardware

I got married July 2005 and we moved to a movile home. My parents-in-law back then they used to live in Florida with other daugther that they have over there. But now they moved to our city and they came to my house to live. At first they said that they were going to stay mean while they could find a job, They found it right away and they haven't move!!!! I throw rocks(literly speaking) to the conversations and nothing. My husban already talked with them and they said: ok. But nothing. What else should I do?

2006-08-29 20:15:38 · 12 answers · asked by Aridana D 1 in Family

would there be hope?

2006-08-29 20:15:35 · 9 answers · asked by TRIXY 2 in Infectious Diseases

His ex-girlfriend although in another country always updates him of her work status every now & then & sending him financial support, although he is open to me & told me they're separated. What do you think of this situation & what should I do?

2006-08-29 20:15:31 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Other - Family & Relationships

I'm starting a gang in a videogame online, and I need various ranks for my forum users in the community. I need about 10 of them... things like 'thug, or 'kingpin...

2006-08-29 20:15:30 · 2 answers · asked by aaron.lattin 2 in Other - Society & Culture

What is the best home-made exfoliator for body and is it effective?

2006-08-29 20:15:14 · 6 answers · asked by roxanne 1 in Skin & Body

A place to chill out, talk with friends and have a drink. Preferably jazz Jazz, Brazil and Soul. No pseudo-classy please, like Campbell Apartment, it really s*cks.

2006-08-29 20:14:56 · 10 answers · asked by bananebio 4 in New York City

2006-08-29 20:14:56 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Singles & Dating

i saw one last year, it was in a caravan i was staying in. I scooped it out but it was really quick and somehow kept flying back in the caravan again, obviously after the light as it was dark outside,after about 6 attempts of evicting it i think it got the message and went. It was an amazing moth though, the skull on its back was amazing. I have also heard that moths follow the moon, why is this??

2006-08-29 20:14:53 · 2 answers · asked by dancing darlings 3 in Zoology

2006-08-29 20:14:26 · 11 answers · asked by richard the monkey 2 in Other - Food & Drink

1. federalism chime 2. federalism hemic
3. chamfered simile 4. chamfered limes i
5. chamfered miles i 6. chamfered slime i
7. chamfered smile i 8. chamfered lime is
9. chamfered mile is 10. chamfered mile si
11. chamfered lime si 12. chamfered elms i i
13. chamfered semi li 14. chamfered mil i es
15. chamfered elm is i 16. chamfered elm si i
17. chamfered em li is 18. chamfered me li is
19. chamfered me li si 20. chamfered em li si
21. fieldmice harems 22. fieldmice masher
23. fieldmice harm es 24. fieldmice rash em
25. fieldmice rash me 26. fieldmice hers am
27. fieldmice hers ma 28. fieldmice she arm
29. fieldmice she mar 30. fieldmice she ram
31. fieldmice sh mare 32. fieldmice sh ream
33. fieldmice eh arms 34. fieldmice he arms
35. fieldmice he mars 36. fieldmice he rams
37. fieldmice eh mars 38. fieldmice eh rams
39. facsimile herd em 40. facsimile herd me

2006-08-29 20:14:21 · 1 answers · asked by ~♥vaginamonologue♥~ 4 in Words & Wordplay

2006-08-29 20:14:11 · 6 answers · asked by lkyalvin 3 in Movies

Is it just me, or does it seem like people are just having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that we are just a species of animal. Why don't we want to realize that we are just something that evolved on this planet at some time in the earth's history that cannot be historically accounted for in any of the world's religious doctrines. They all say things that have been proven wrong by today's technology. I think our world can start to move in the right direction if we can all just get out of the dark ages and give up our supernatural imaginations. After all, sooner or later, some big rock is just going to crash into the earth and wipe out mankind anyway. Then maybe someday, someone will be digging up our bones along with the dinosaurs' and wonder why these animals weren't recorded in their crazy religious text.
Food for thought.

2006-08-29 20:14:08 · 15 answers · asked by jkippol 1 in Religion & Spirituality

2006-08-29 20:14:05 · 11 answers · asked by roselyn w 1 in Diet & Fitness

2006-08-29 20:13:58 · 24 answers · asked by Alok 1 in Friends

2006-08-29 20:13:49 · 27 answers · asked by chapped lips 5 in Polls & Surveys

Just wondering whom you appreciate the most and when was the last time you told them that?

2006-08-29 20:13:47 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Family

WHAT IS THE TRANSLATION OF THIS ISLAMIC WORDS IN ENGLISH PLZ
ELSALAMO ALIKOM =عليكم السلام
WA ALECOM ELSALAM=و عليكم السلام
ALIIH EL SALAM=علية السلام
SALA ALLAH ALIIH WA SALIM=صلى الله علية و سلم
INSHAA ALLAH=ان شاء اللة
RADIA ALLAH ANHO =رضى الله عنة

THANKS FOR U ALL BROTHERS

2006-08-29 20:13:41 · 7 answers · asked by why? 2 in Religion & Spirituality

If you put a woman on a pedestal and try to protect her from the rat race, you're a male chauvinist. If you stay home and do the housework, you're a pansy.

If you work too hard, there is never any time for her. If you don't work enough, you're a good-for-nothing bum.

If she has a boring repetitive job with low pay, this is exploitation. If you have a boring repetitive job with low pay, you should get off your *** and find something better.

If you get a promotion ahead of her, that is favoritism. If she gets a job ahead of you, it's equal opportunity.

If you mention how nice she looks, it's sexual harassment. If you keep quiet, it's male indifference.

If you cry, you're a wimp. If you don't, you're an insensitive bastard.

If you make a decision without consulting her, you're a chauvinist. If she makes a decision without consulting you, she's a liberated woman.

If you ask her to do something she doesn't enjoy, that's domination. If she asks you, it's a favor.

If you appreciate the female form and frilly underwear, you're a pervert. If you don't, you're a f-a-g.

If you like a woman to shave her legs and keep in shape, you're a sexist pig. If you don't, you're unromantic.

If you try to keep yourself in shape, you're vain. If you don't, you're a slob.

If you buy her flowers, you're after something. If you don't, you're not thoughtful.
I
f you're proud of your achievements, you're up on yourself. If you don't, you're not ambitious.

If you're totally beat after a hard day, you don't give a damn about other people's needs. If she's totally beat after a hard day, she's tired.

If you want it too often, you're oversexed. If you don't, there must be "someone else".

2006-08-29 20:13:40 · 25 answers · asked by Dew Drop 3 in Jokes & Riddles

2006-08-29 20:13:29 · 2 answers · asked by ostwaldeep 1 in Higher Education (University +)

2006-08-29 20:13:26 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Standards & Testing

If its a wave the graviton is not a particle that moves at the speed of light does it?

2006-08-29 20:13:20 · 5 answers · asked by goring 6 in Physics

2006-08-29 20:13:19 · 4 answers · asked by randollers 3 in Honda

i am going for my honeymoon and i dont want to have too much luggage with me

2006-08-29 20:13:15 · 16 answers · asked by jinxeds 2 in Orlando

I just pooped. ( yes i know what a scientific word). And it was greenish. Whats wrong??

2006-08-29 20:13:15 · 5 answers · asked by Arthur 2 in Men's Health

2006-08-29 20:13:14 · 8 answers · asked by 4d@m_$av4g3 4 in Chemistry

Take this quiz.
http://www.quizilla.com/users/HotCrashingTears/quizzes/~.~Are%20you%20innocent%20or%20evil~.~/

This is what I got.
You are tottaly evil ahhhh someone run and hide! Ok so you may not be satinistic but you are on the darker side you like normal things you arent a holy goddess ok...(hides anywayz)

2006-08-29 20:13:13 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Polls & Surveys

i am a post graduate in public admin from chennai uty.i would like to work as a lecturer in a college in bangalore

2006-08-29 20:13:09 · 1 answers · asked by Jaishree C 1 in Teaching