Archive for August, 2014

Desert Reality and Divine Delusions

Posted in Atheist, belief, faith, random, religion with tags , , , , , , on August 23, 2014 by chouck017894

The prophet Mohammad was probably born c 560 CE; this is the most likely date out of eight dates that have been given in various accounts of his life. In the days of his boyhood there was no central authority to weld nomadic tribes with any social consciousness. Rather, each tribe existed as a single and separate entity that was in constant competition with other tribes for the essentials of life. Under such conditions personal retaliation was the only “law” that they understood when loss was experienced due to another tribe or person. “Justice” was therefore understood as imposing an extortion of payment; in other words, indulgence in vendetta. That is a feature which still erupts from the background of Islam, for that tribal retaliation mindset remains the heart and soul of Muslim conduct with all whom they choose to judge to be “infidels.” The natural outcome of the vendetta mindset was a state of perpetual warlike conditions among the tribes, for each retaliation necessitated in turn the opponents’ retaliation. Such ongoing irrational indignities were brought to a standstill among the tribes only during the mutually agreed upon times of religious observances at Mecca. Mohammad, however, grandiosely claimed to be counseled by Allah and thus chose not to respect such rationality. (The recognition of Allah was derived from an earlier tribal designation al-Lah, meaning High God in a pantheon of earlier Arab gods.)

The Arabs up to the general timeframe of Mohammad’s youth had long observed a custom of addressing the planet Venus as al-Uzza, meaning “The Mighty One,” and it was by that name that Mohammad had worshipped it as a youth. The Sabeans (Sabaeans), the ancient inhabitants of the kingdom of Saba (Sheba), regarded the Moon as the visible symbol of their principal deity. The birth festival associated with this deity occurred in the tenth month by Arab reckoning (which equals the 24th of December in western cultures), with the birth of the “Lord Moon” being celebrated on that night. This provides the reason for the emblem of Islam being the crescent new Moon and a single star. The true relationship of Earth circling the sun occurring at that time of year was not recognized as important for they regarded the sun as feminine.

During his merchant travels Mohammad had plenty of opportunity to listen to Jewish and Christian merchants speak of their faiths. Gradually Mohammad apparently grew to understand that his youthful adoration of al-Uzza (Venus), as one of three bannat al-Lab, or “Daughters of God,” had been focused upon the symbol of past celestial turmoil. The other two “Daughters of God” were known as al-Lat, “the goddess,” and Manat, “the Fateful One.” These three deities were of especial importance to the Arabs of the Hejaz in the time of Mohammad’s youth. (Within Hejaz in NW Arabia are Mecca and Medina, the holy places of Islam.) Influenced by Jewish and Christian tales Mohammad apparently concluded that those revered stones could not rightfully represent the Sustainer out of which the legendary events had occurred.

The implied kinship, “Daughters of God,” and also the reference to the three “sisters” as bannat al-dabr, meaning “daughters of fate,” seemed to hint of past tribulations and woe for Earth.* Further indication that these “daughters” were linked to past Venus-Earth turmoil is the fact that the three deities had been represented with large standing stones, not as comprehensible feminine forms. Thus in the Quran (53:19-26) the question is raised in regard to having formerly worshipped al Uzza, al-Lat, and Manat, calling them “…nothing but empty names which you have invented–you and your forefathers–for which God has bestowed no warrant from on high.” Nonetheless, a meteorite stone, which probably hurtled to Earth during one of the encounters with the planet-sized comet which had disturbed the orbits of both Earth and Mars became the cornerstone of the Muslim shrine Kaaba.

The association of al Uzza, al-Lat and Manat in Arabic culture is thus far older than Mohammad. The legends and folklore among the Arab tribes concerning past celestial terrors associated with Venus would naturally color Mohammad’s interpretation of a divine being. This background of star-associated legends gives added dimension to the romanticized picturing of Mohammad meditating under the crescent moon — and perhaps concentrating on the planet Venus.

It is said that Mohammad, during his youth, had traveled widely with his tradesman uncle, and he continued to travel widely after he had become a prosperous merchant himself. This traveling merchant connection has led some scholars to speculate that his wide-ranging journeys provided abundant opportunity to hear the religious claims of both the Jews and Christians. The theory is that the stories that he heard from members of each faith as they read from their holy books inspired him, and this, they say, is evident in the use of biblical characters in his later dictations. The muddle of these recited tales must have seemed bewildering to the prophet. Somewhere amid all this, possibly as he meditated upon the planet Venus under a crescent new moon while on Mount Hira, Mohammad is claimed to have had a “vision.”

Islam’s origins, even though well within the framework of verifiable history, is strangely imprecise. Islam’s traditions of a desert prophet passing along angelic revelations to a ragtag band of followers, although colorful and inspiring, is rejected by main scholars. The underlying reason is the historically verifiable rapid politcal success of the movement, which indicates that something much more secular was at work than patient heaven customarily sponsors. An omniscient Creator would find it creatively impractical to promote the self-contradictory term “holy war” as a devotional duty: worldly conquest can hardly be an obsession for an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Creator.

Mohammad died unexpectedly in 632. Strangely, the prophet had provided no instruction as to who was to carry on his holy work, for he left no male heir to continue the prophetic lineage. This lack of foresight regarding future leadership naturally resulted in confusion and uncertainty concerning Allah’s desires on how the Arab people were to conduct themselves. That question of entitlement over who was intended to represent Mohammad’s spiritual vision is still violently contested between the Sunni and Shia to this day in continuous tribal-style conflicts.

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A Creator’s Demand For Diversity

Posted in Atheist, belief, Christianity, culture, faith, Hebrew scripture, history, politics, random, scriptures, sex, sex taboos, Social, theology, thoughts with tags , , , , , on August 9, 2014 by chouck017894

Man is such an egotistical animal that he believes that he can ignore Nature’s subtle warnings. Perhaps that is because our revered ego-driven, man-written “holy books” happen to assure us that man was given dominion over all life forms on this little planet. Unfortuanately, those ego driven priest authors happened to also believe that this little Earth, which they perceived to be flat, was the center of all Creation. Well, that ain’t exactly an in-depth assessment, and human ego is pretty much a whore.

This admittedly crude appraisal of human egotism and arrogance (and its attendant greed) was goosed by recent reports concerning the dilemma of some ordinary fish. Seem that man’s self-interest has seeped into various streams and rivers (in the Susquehanna, Delaware and Ohio river basins in the United States), which has resulted in turning some fish species into what is delicately termed intersex fish. Gasp! Some of them damn male fish were actually found to be carrying eggs! Well, let’s not start pounding the pulpit just yet. Something very basic is shown here; something which illustrates that everything which exists in Creation is composed of interchangeable polar elements and thus nothing is ever exclusively representative of one energy pole or its opposite.

As for the dilemma of the river fish population referred to, their altered sexual identity reflects the natural interchangeable aspects within the energy pool of all life. The home waters of the fish happen to have been blessed with hormones and hormone-mimicking chemicals which were compounded by man’s arrogance and greed. The waste waters that man dumps into the streams carry estrogenic chemicals (used in agriculture and released in animal wastes), and the internal organs of the fish which regulate the release of hormones are being redirected in the fish bodies.

Those ancient and much revered priest myth makers apparently were never informed by God about hormones or chromosomes or DNA, nor was it revealed to them how the chemistry of the brain actually determines a person’s physical-mental-sexual makeup. Unfortunately even today, two to three thousand years after “revealed word” was set down as sacredly unchallengeable, the blindly faithful ascribe to principles drafted by those unenlightened men and completely ignore what modern science research has truly revealed. For example, research shows that the effects of sex chromosomes and chemical sex hormones do not have an undeviating manner of lining up in accordance to one narrow general anatomical structure as the hateful religious prejudices love to pretend.

Furthermore, anatomist research shows that there are naturally considerable variations in the human brain–in its shape, thalamus, structure of the cerebrum, etc.–which are extremely variable and are as individual as fingerprints. This means that mental and/or sensory properties connected with brain structure may freely align within vastly different ranges, and thus no two persons will ever be exactly the same–including “identical” twins. So, as far as religious approval of racial or sexual expression goes, one size was never intended to fit all. To the horror of religious extremists, that almighty power which is diverse and variable in its workings (shall we say “democratic”), and which is personified as “God,” did not use a cookie cutter technique to fashion every person’s racial, physical or sexual category in life. Those old power-hungry priest-authors were obsessed with ensuring a continuing and expanding herd of followers to provide the priests’ private livelihood, so tolerance of diversity and variety was not lucrative for them. Instead of trying to understand that variety and diversity are the underpinnings of all Creation, they chose to spew endless reams of hatred from their pulpits. Stated in biblical terms, their ignorance runneth over.

Religious fanatics should awaken to the fact that there is a flexible holy code used in the production of all life–the code of the hormonal and chromosomal chemical “design” which decrees great necessity for diversity and variety in human physical, mental and emotional expression. This seems to be problematic only for those who choose to work themselves into melodramatic clamoring over anyone perceived to be too different from themselves due to their taught ego-titillating beliefs. Certainly the endless assortments of life forms which may be observed throughout the entire universe shows that the Creative Principle, commonly personified as “God” for manipulative reasons, holds no grudge or spite over “his” diverse and variable handiwork.

Within these God-allowable differences there is purposely left open the allowance–the tolerance–for all expressions of life and love. The hormone and chromosome chemicals control the total development of the body, brain and intelligence. And these continue to do so in a wide range of ways throughout the duration of each person’s lifetime. Therefore, for political and/or religious factions to pretend that “the Creator” expects only one narrow expression of life or love to be striven for by every individual is not true spiritual understanding, and it is not moral instruction. In fact, such an unyielding stance against life’s intended variety and diversity within Creation amounts to outright sacrilege.

As noted in earlier posts, sexual allusions are intertwined throughout the whole framework of Judeo-Christian scriptures to this day. Words such as sacrament, testament, and seminary, we have seen, are directly traceable to sexual implications. Despite their sly sexual allusions, the old scheming priest-authors and “prophets” who fathered these cults knew precious little regarding the holy secrets of sexual energy, and that ignorance proved to be blissful for them for it allowed them to practice all forms of intolerance in their drive to gain profits and control.

Perhaps the thousands of different man-invented faith systems (over 4000 have been recorded) would do well to remember what research science has also had revealed to researchers through intense study. The brain contributes only two percent of a person’s weight, but it needs and uses twenty percent of the body’s energy. But as religious fanatics and political extemists consistently prove, very little brain is needed for the body to function and bring distress upon everyone around them.

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Pagan Source of Savior-God Myths

Posted in Atheist, belief, culture, faith, humanity, meaning of life, prehistory, random, religion with tags on August 1, 2014 by chouck017894

Teachings from prehistory times, as noted numerous times in these postings, once actually taught scientific principles in regard to how creative energies manifest as matter and life. As noted, these ancient lessons were presented using the panoramic stellar universe itself to illustrate the lessons, and this practice was the origin of identifying select groups of stars (constellation) with names which suggested some imaginary figure that was outlined with those stars. Unlike faith system teaching methods of today, that manner of instruction encouraged an active imagination and a questioning mind.

Even into Roman Empire times there were those among the aristocrats and the literati who still had access to fragments of those teaching which were regarded as ancient even then. Virgil, the Roman poet (70-19 BCE), for example, knew of those ancient teachings, and his mysterious work Cumaean Prophecy, or pastoral poems completed in 37 BCE, drew upon that knowledge. For example, a line within this literary work has puzzled scholars for generations, and some imaginative Christians have even suggested that it foretold the birth of Jesus. The line from Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue of the Cumaean Prophecy reads: “Now a new race descends from the celestial realm…” Some inventive scholars today have even dared to suggest that this indicates that unethical extraterrestrials had imposed physical and mental alterations upon an unwary Jewish female. Virgil’s famous Ecolugue did happen to celebrate the birth of a child who was destined to usher in a new Golden Age. But that portrayal was inspired from the four ancient lessons that were once given with constellation Cancer, and those lessons taught how creative energies involve as energy-substance, which was referred to in those lessons as astral matter.

The ancient lessons utilizing constellations as illustration taught a scientific explanation of energy developmental processes which involve/evolve as Creation. Out of these self-generating energies (out of the quantum or virginal void) there is created the energy-identities which progressively assume matter form. Thus Virgil’s referential line states that such an identiy “…descends from the celestial realm.” It is at this point of energy development which is amassing as a matter form that the responsibility for refinement of those creative energies is taken up by each primal matter form. The evolutionary potential is within each energy form which involves with self-aware consciousness, and this is the factor that can, and eventually will, usher in the “new Golden Age.” All this is mentioned here to show the influence which ancient star lore contributed to the rise of all the “savior” gods of vairous faith systems such as Mithras (Persian), Tammuz (Babylonian), Attis (Phrygian), Odin (Norse), Krishna (Hindu), Indra (Hindu), Jesus (Christian), and many others.

Other story features that always accompany the savior myths of those various faith systems were also presented in Virgil’s Eclogues, for they all portray “divine” beings entering, or passing over, into the matter plane from the same primordial conditions which had been taught with the four Cancer constellation lessons. In those prehistory times astronomical (celestial) lore was always a passion of shepherds for the simple reason that they spent so many long nights beneath the celestial canopy, and so it is valid that shepherds always served as the heralding elements in the many myths that tell of guiding stars, angels and savior myths. The features in all these various savior birth myths were therefore constructed on pastoral conventions, and because of this the myths focused on shepherds, their good-natured banter, love songs, dirges, and singing matches.

One of the galactic clusters (constellation) within the Cancer grouping of stars which were known to the ancients is today listed in astronomy texts by the name Praesepe, from the Latin prae, meaning “before,” and sepire, meaning “to fence” (fence in), and this came to be misleadingly translated into “manger.” It is because there are so many small clustered stars in this celestial location that this group was known in ancient times as the Manger. From this we acquired the story feature that Jesus was born in a manger. Two nearby stars are also associated with the “manger,” which serve to mark the “eye” of the Crab, symbol of the Cancer grouping. Curiously, these two stars are also known among astronmy buffs as the donkeys. This came from the ancient reference to these stars as the Celestial Asses, which were later known as the Ascelli Asses. In prehistory times the lessons given with these celestial asses symbolized the involvement of primal energies upon which self-aware consciousness is carried–or passes over–into this limited energy plane as a visible matter life form.

All faith system myths concerning savior births are based upon those prehistory cosmology/creation lessons which used star patterns in each group as outline for imaginary figures for illustration. As an example, the ancient Egyptian mythmakers fashioned the red-haired, ass-eared god Set, brother and opponent of Osiris (who symbolized self-renewing vitality) upon this star lesson. Roman myths tell of Bacchus, god of grape growing, and Vulcan, god of fire, riding upon an ass to their destiny. Orphic myth tells of Dionysus, god of wine and fertility, riding to his matter-fate upon an ass. Indeed, all prehistory Pagan cultures had stories of gods, demigods, heroes or saviors in which they were portrayed as riding upon an ass to meet their matter-destiny. Not so coincidently, Jesus is also pictured as riding into Jerusalem upon an ass on his way to his higher transformation.

Other star groups that were used in association with the ancient lessons concerning energy involving as matter (as with the Cancer groupings) were the constellations we know as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, better known to us as the Great and Small Dippers. In those prehisotry lessons these two constellations were known as the Greater Sheepfold and the Lesser Sheepfold—a fold referred to a pen or enclosure in which young sheep were confined to await their release into the pastures of life.

So the Pagans were not exactly the dunces as organized faith systems chose to systematically malign them. No, those Pagans who are reoutinely looked down upon were not Jews or Christians or Muslims. But they were exceptionally and genuinely spiritual, and recognized that the spirit of Creation was active not only within themselves but within every defined thing within the visible universe. They, not us, had the benefit of the unknown sages who had taught our ancestors, with use of star patterns, the scientific encoding of the Life Principle which is within all life forms. And drawing upon the twelve major constellations and their neighboring constellations as illustrations (forty-eight in all) the entire spectrum of Creation and humankind’s higher potential had been more scientifically explained to them. How unlike today’s by-the-book faith systems which choose to obsess over minor differences.

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