Whoa.... What an interesting thread I have stumbled upon!
I was doing a search for water purification and kinda landed on this thread instead! hmmm... must have been that word "purification." :o)
Though I usually shy away from getting into lengthy, heavy duty religious discussions, I found some of the comments by Sam Ferguson a bit interesting. There are undoubtedly strong cross cultural and cross continental parallels with respect to religious "myth." For
example the story of Creation in the bible was undoubtedly a re-telling of the Creation Epic owing to a Sumerian writer, and probably handed down to him (woman weren't allowed to be scribes) through the oral tradition many times over by his hunter gatherer fore-fathers and
ancestors.
Abraham's father was a priest/astronomer in the Sumerian city of Ur, and Abraham was no doubtedly influenced by his fathers (Babylonian) traditions. These traditions and "heavenly secrets" (tower of babel was an observatory designed to peer into the heavens) originated in many scholars opinions in ancient Sumeria, which was the first civilization with astronomy and mathmatics, and writing, libraries, university's etc. etc., and of course a sophisticated (though mythological/astrological) attempt at religion. It appears that the interest in astronomy coincided with the beginnings of agriculture and that the ancients read meanings into fertility and sacrifice based on Mother Earth and Father Sky phenomenons that they based their religious practices on. These influences also seeped into Hebrew traditions even though the God of Abraham was a "traveling" God that moved about with them according to their pastoralist lifestyle.
It is interesting to note that throughout time, man has attributed cataclysmic events and even the birth of Jesus to "signs" in the heavens. For example, superstition regarding Halleys comet was aligned with the fact that many cataclysmic events (outbreak of the Black death -- bubonic plaque, revolt of the Seminole indians against white settlers in Florida in the year 1835, Turkish seige of Belgrade in 1456 etc.) either preceded or coincided with a "great comet" which was later determined to none other than Halleys comet.
There leaves little room for doubt that we as "thinking man" (humans) have looked to the heavens for "signs" of God's wrath, and these signs are (in my opinion) just coincidental occurances of phenomenon and processes left over from the big bang. It is frightening to note that many needless deaths and wars occurred in the name of priest/astronomers that ventured into their temples and attributed the shifting and postitioning of the stars and the sun and the moon, and comets, as cause for wars, or signs and warnings of "god's wrath."
In 1902 L.W. King's works "The seven Tablets of Creation" he demonstrated that tablet fragments (found in the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal's library in Ninevah) adding up to seven, were most likely representative of the seven days of creation as told in the Genesis account. Six tablets were devoted to the creation, and the seventh tablet (day-- or period of time) was devoted to "the lord" -- "Marduk" in the Babylonian version.
This, in many scholars opinions, strongly parallels the seven days of
creation version in the bible. Except that on the seventh day a different "God" rested other than Marduk. The findings in Ashurbanipal's library recorded a tale of creation that in some parts match word for word the creation tale in Genesis. "The Chaldean Genesis" was strong and convincing evidence that there in fact existed an Akkadian text of Genesis written in Old Babylonian dialect and preceding the biblical text by at least a thousand
years. I still like that saying that Sabbath was made for man, -- man wasn't made for the Sabbath. Kinda gives me justification for venturing into God's country and appreciating natures beauty on days that I don't want to sit on a hard bench and sing praises over and over until I am blue in the face. :o)
The Sumerians also formulated the system of mathmatics utilizing the "six" system ( six times six = thirty-six with a zero added makes 360 = circle), and came up with the significance in the number "12" that governed many of their efforts in organizing and understanding their world, and the heavens. Being the first settled agriculturists (Mesopotamia was the cradle of "civilization), they increasingly became knowledable about the sun's equinoxes and solstices to capitolize on their farming and agriculture, and built a sophisticated mthyology/religion/astronomy based on their observations (and speculations/myths) with respect to the heavens that Sumerian "priest/astronomers" (Abraham's father)
meticulously studied and pondered. Their "temple rituals" were for the most part all aligned with fertility (agricultural) motifs.
Further, the significance in the number "12" for the twelve deciples, the 12 months etc. etc., no doubtedly originated in ancient Sumeria, as their system of six was a basis of math owing to our present dozen doughnuts, etc.
I could go on and on with examples of stories from every part of the globe that parallel many of the stories in the bible,--the flood story, the apple and the tree of
knowledge, the tree of life (immortality), the Cain and Abel story, and many others. But suffice to say that many stories in the bible (old testament especially) are hardly original and are in many cases a retelling of stories handed down from father to son in the oral tradition, and maybe getting a little bit shuffled, edited and condensed or expanded upon here and there in the process.
It is important to note that these people were sojourning more than previously realized and this accounts for the similarities and parallels in the various myths cross culturally and cross continentally. Many of the parallels between Greek and Middle Eastern myth (the notions of warring Gods, demi Gods, etc.) were no doubtedly influenced by the traveling and mingling that these ancients engaged in.
And interestingly.... there seems to be some dancing around the ideology of there being "one" God even in Genesis, where the words "we" and "us" are used when God is "talking." Also, Adam can be translated as "the Adam" and can also be translated as Adam
meaning "many." Has anyone wondered why Adam and Eve's son was able to travel into the land of (Nod-- I think) and marry a wife, if Adam and Eve were the "first" created people? Many of the translations are tricky. For example, "wind" can be translated as the spirit of the lord owing to God's omnipotence (blowing over the four corners of the earth etc.) and "world" can be translated into specific "place" in some instances, with implications for the flood story, the creation story etc.
I have to agree with Sam Ferguson in that I also beleive that one shouldn't get so indoctrinated in a particular religious ideology that there is no room for scholarly perspective, and that a universal ideology of humanitarian decency, and accountability to a higher "self" is a decent approach to religion for those who are uncomfortable within the confines of a particular organized religion. No disrespect intended to those who choose this, of course.
I could go on as I said, but there are some truths in Sam's Fergusons
commentary that simply can't be ignored. This is, of course being said with absolutely no disrespect to anyone religious or otherwise. I personally think Goodness and "God" and true "monotheism" can mean "one in purpose" -- that purpose being peace, love, honesty, humanitarianism and basic decency etc., and that there have been many influential and non tyrannical spiritual leaders with messages of wisdom for love and peace. Leaning towards humanitarianism (most would not argue that Jesus, Allah, Buddah, Mohammed, etc. were humanitarians) is a universal vehicle for crossing cultural, intellectual, and political boundaries. And to reiterate, I also think the notion of there being a "higher self" as a person's personal "religion" (sounds kinda Jungian,) is also acceptable if that higher self is aligned with a purpose of good common sense, love, compassion, humanitarianism, honestly, and good character.
All the best,
Cindy
P.S. For the record, I do believe in God, not because of what I have been taught or "told," but because of what I have felt. |
