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Covenant of Special Favor

Posted in agnoticism, Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, culture, faith, history, humanity, random, religion, thoughts with tags , , , , , , , , on July 23, 2010 by chouck017894

…or Promises Not Kept

At Mount Sinai, Moses allegedly received directly from God the list of Laws under which the Israelites were to forever abide.  But when Moses trudged down the mountain to the Israelite camp with the stone tablets of  Law he found the Israelites had fashioned a golden calf idol to lavish their attention upon.  In anger Moses hurled the tablets of Law at the dejected Israelites and the Laws became rubble.  There was no backup technology in those days so Moses had to camber back up the mountain again to get a second batch of commandments that spelled out the rules by which the Israelites could make themselves worthy of receiving God’s conditional love.  This set of stone tablets survived and were then lugged around in an ark for years and served as the Israelites’ battle standard during their weary wanderings, for there had been no map included with the commandments.

The rest of the Old Testament pivots upon the alleged covenant that Yahweh is said to have established with the Israelites at Sinai.  For some never explained reason Yahweh pledged to make  the Israelites—out  of all the people on the planet—his chosen ones and bestowed special favors upon them.  Yahweh’s promises included a peaceful and affluent homeland.  Oddly, that land was already occupied!  But all  they had to do to receive the “Promised Land” was to indulge in a bit of genocide to show their worthiness of the gift.  According to the priest written “history,” the Israelites thus received their “inheritance” by cleansing the land with Canaanite blood as Yahweh cheered them on. 

Once the Israelites were in possession of the coveted land, the Israelites had every expectation, according to their understanding of the Sinai contract, to live peacefully in their enclosed, uncontaminated region.  But even Moses apparently neglected to note the fine print clauses attached to the Sinai Covenant.  The inherited land was not as peaceful as anticipated.  After years of guidance under assorted Judges, the Philistine armies routed the Israelite tribal levies in battle and took the Ark of the Covenant as booty.  The priests and “prophets” came to the conclusion that the reason for their problem was because Yahweh had expected them to set up their inherited land as a kingdom.  Sure enough, the “prophet” Samuel avowed that indeed such was the wish of Yahweh, and the Lord’s selection was Saul to be first king of Israel.  Saul proved to have been the Lord’s spur of the moment decision, for it proved to be a not-so-omniscient choice; and even as Saul continued to reign, God was directing the “prophet” Samuel to select the youngest son of Jesse (of the Benjamin tribe), David, to be groomed for king.  The timeframe for David is traditionally placed as 1040?-973 BCE.

So how did the Lord show his favor for David?  In a combat situation with a Philistine giant named Goliath.  Priest “history” asserts  that the youth David, who was too young to serve in the military but brought supplies, was the only one connected to Saul’s defence forces who was brave enough to meet Goliath in one-on-one combat.  The priest authors noted that David shouted, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with javelins; but I come to you in the name of the Lord.”   And the Lord made certain that the single small stone from David’s slingshot struck the most vulnerable spot on Goliath’s helmeted skull.  Later on, however, the Lord did nothing to assist all those in dire need who joined with David when he became the renegade leader of fugitives and soldiers.  After Saul’s death some 23 years later, traditionally placed about 1013 BCE, David was allegedly anointed king of Israel. 

The “word of the Lord,” according to the minor “prophet” Nathan, was relayed to David with another glorious covenant promise (1 Kings 7:12-16); that the house, the kingdom and the throne of David “…shall be established for ever.”  The only restrictive clause in this covenant was that if the king did wrong in the Lord’s sight, then the king, not the people, would be punished; even so, God would not take the kingdom away from David as he had done with Saul.  This sounds like an unconditional promise—the house of David was to continue for ever.

Genuine history seems not to have followed the Lord’s plan: the kingdom of the Israelites was conquered and completely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE, never to be resurrected as a monarchy ruled over by a descendant of David.  (Incidentally, something time-altering occurred in 587 BCE that forced every nation on Earth to begin recalculating its chronology.  It was not because David’s kingdom fell.)  Today, of course, there is the nation of Israel, but it is not under the rule of a descendant of David; it functions loosely as a democracy.  This means that the greatest covenants that God extended to the Israelites were sacred promises that was not kept.

That fact does not seem to register with the army of Bible thumpers who choose to cherry pick verses out of scriptures that will inflate their egos.  Ignoring the unfulfilled promises of the covenants that were avowed to have been extended to the Israelites allows them the privilege of accepting the present day democratic nation of Israel as the fulfillment of God’s promises.  The reason  for their self-inflicted blindness is that it allows them to indulge in spiritual lust over the New Testament book of Revelation and the alleged  “prophecy” of Armageddon—the promised first step to Christian domination of Earth.

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Scripture’s Contrived History

Posted in Atheist, belief, Bible, culture, faith, history, random, religion, thoughts with tags , , , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2010 by chouck017894

According to scriptural accounts a Jewish kingdom of Israel was welded in the land of Canaan by David, and his kingdom is portrayed as having prospered as a great unified kingdom under David’s son, Solomon.  That account was long accepted as a given truth by biblical scholars until the science of archaeology showed conclusively that the claimed powerful kingdom said to have been ruled from Jerusalem could not have existed as portrayed in the priest-writings.  No hard archaeological evidence has ever been found to support the priest compiled story, but has revealed instead that Jerusalem was simply a modest, economically borderline village in the era when David, Solomon and Rehoboam (son of Solomon) are claimed to have ruled. 

Archaeology has revealed that the territory north of Jerusalem in the claimed timeframe was considerably more populated and flourishing economically than the region around Jerusalem.  However, in biblical myth the northern territory is claimed to have broken away from the alleged unified kingdom under Solomon’s son (c. 931-913 BCE), and developed as the kingdom of Israel.  Both territorial areas did worship YHWH among other gods, spoke dialects of Hebrew, and wrote in the same script, but the southern territory (Judah) became more developed much later than the northern; it had remained sparse due to its more rugged terrain.  The bond of blood kinship of the northern and southern territories was openly acknowledged, but they had become politically divided.  Until the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians (c. 734 BCE), the little “kingdom” of Judah languished in the shadow of Israel.  The fall of Israel was a blessing for the priests based in the village of Jerusalem who had long lusted to impose their method of religious observance upon all Hebrew people and wished to make the temple in Jerusalem the holiest place of their faith. 

Josiah, son and successor of Judah’s King Amon, came to the throne at the age of eight (c. 639 BCE), and was tutored by priests during his youth.  Because of this background Josiah soon reestablished the worship of Yahweh/Jehovah.  And it was during Josiah’s reign, apparently by divine providence, that a book of law was allegedly discovered by the high-priest Hilkiah when workmen were repairing the temple (as recorded in II Kings 22).  Josiah was inspired by the miraculously produced writing which has ever since been accepted as the book of Deuteronomy, supposedly the work of Moses.  Deuteronomy only recapitulated the law already recorded in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, but the framework in which the laws are set is notably (suspiciously) different from that of the other codes.  Notable in Deuteronomy is the contention that the Exodus version of the Covenant with Yahweh/God at Sinai was not made on the basis of the Decalogue; instead it is implied that only ten laws (Commandments) were given to the people at Sinai, with the rest delivered to Moses alone, and promulgated later at the Jordan.  This conveniently allowed enormous leeway for the high-priest Hilkiah to restructure and reform religious practice that gave greater prominence to themes of God’s sovereignty, justice, mercy and love rather than to outward observances of ritual and ceremonial emphasis.  In the discovered sermon of Moses it reads, “For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your Elohim; it is you that Yahweh our Elohim has chosen to be his very own people out of all the peoples of the earth.”  This happily aligned priestly ambitions with that of Josiah’s inherited  dominion, and just happened to inspire a narrow national outlook.

With Israel reduced to secondary power and refugees fleeing south into Judah, the priests devoted to YHWH moved to expand, and they established shrines and sanctuaries at Dan and Bethel.  And as refugees poured in from the north the Yahweh priests in Jerusalem quickly embarked on a prodigious propaganda campaign of rewriting history and codifying material that now makes up the early books of the Old Testament.  Additional books were compiled to promote the impression that the little kingdom of Judah had been divinely ordained.  To account for the alleged split in the united kingdom into rival kingdoms, the blame for it was given with the myth of Solomon having his heart turned from YHWH by his foreign wives.  Sadly, for trusting believers, over one hundred years of intensive archaeology investigation have never been able to confirm David or Solomon as historical persons.

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What Marked Jerusalem as Holy

Posted in agnoticism, Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, faith, history, prehistory, random, religion, thoughts with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 1, 2010 by chouck017894

What was it about the location that became Jerusalem that inflamed Yahweh priests with the obsession that a temple must be built upon one certain mount in Judaea?  Even before the priests of Yahweh arrived at the mount, the site had been regarded as sacred by inhabitants of the region.  The earliest known name for the site was Ur-Shalem (or Yeru-Shalem), and from as far back as can be traced the hub area of Ur-Shalem encompassed three particular mounts.  The most ancient names of the mounts seem to point to some singular association that is yet to be discovered.  The southernmost mount had the name of “Mount of the Signal” in antiquity; the northernmost peak is said to have been known as “Mount of the Observers.”  The central mount, however, seems to have been central in more ways than one, for it bore the name “Mount of Directing.”  This is the mount which is claimed to have been seen by Abraham from a distance; he is alleged to have  witnessed a heavy cloud over this mount in which the glory of god was seen.  The word Ur translates roughly as fire or light, but the word Shalem is remarkably similar to the Hebrew shalom, the greeting or farewell meaning peace.  Jerusalem has thus been said, rather ironically considering its history of discord, to mean light and peace.  Another speculation is that shalem means something like the perfect place.

Curiously the barren mountain site that would become Jerusalem lacked the basic needs for a center of religious or political pursuits.  There was neither water nor food sources near the site, nor even any trade or military routes anywhere near.  One might be inclined to call it a god-forsaken place!  Around c. 2000-1800 BCE there was little in the region but small sparsely inhabited highland areas.  When the Yahweh priests arrived they were already determined that one particular spot there was marked out as a center that god favored.  What was the supposed special indicator that the place was blessed by heaven?  It was a massive artificially cut rock.  The priests were divinely certain that despite the stone’s antiquity it had all been fashioned just for them.

The sacred rock was  known in Hebrew as Eben Sheti-yah, and translates as the “Stone from which the world was woven.”  This reference seems to hold an intricate relationship to the more ancient names for the three mounts mentioned earlier upon which Jerusalem evolved.  The sacred rock can be deduced as once having served as a kind of platform that was put in place atop artificially cut massive stone blocks—in pre-diluvial times.  The sacred rock at the Jerusalem location has a startling similarity in age and structure to the more massive stone platform located at Baalbeck, in today’s Lebanon.  This sacred rock, therefore, existed for millennia before c 1000 BCE—which is the timeframe when David is alleged to have captured the sparse area (today’s Mount Zion) from the Jebusites (an early tribal league).

Tradition says that the sacred rock was cube-like, with its corners precisely facing the four directions of the compass.  In addition, it is said that two tube-like funnels had been bored out of the rock, and these connected to a subterranean tunnel.  How these feats could have been accomplished in prehistory times, or the purpose they served is unknown.  Tradition has it also that the construction plans for the temple that was erected later had been provided directly by an unnamed source which holy myth, of course, credits to “the Lord.”

We should also note that ancient names of the valleys in the area carried special implication as well.  For example, Isaiah spoke of one of them as the Valley of Hizzayon, which loosely translates as Valley of Vision.  Ugaritic texts tell of divine healers in a valley they called Valley of Repha’im (the healers).  Legends from prehistory times also tell of a subterranean region in “the Valley of Hinnom,” where the entrance could be discerned by a column of smoke that rose between two palm trees. 

Archeological research has shown that the biblical accounts of Canaan-Israel-Judah history are far from reliable.  A brief example: the character of Saul (c. 1025-1005 BCE), the alleged first king of Israel, was supposedly installed by the eleventh century BCE judge and “prophet” Samuel.  This places it in the Iron Age I period.  Nothing has ever been unearthed in archeological digs that even suggests that a prosperous united monarchy existed then.  And no archeological evidence has ever been found of David’s alleged kingdom, and no indication of the conquests attributed to David have been unearthed either.  In fact, evidence reveals that settlements in the Jerusalem region in this Iron Age I timeframe experienced no interruption of Canaanite culture.  Likewise, in regard to David’s alleged son Solomon (time setting c. 970-931 BCE), nothing has ever been brought to light of any monumental architecture in Jerusalem, Megiddo or Hazor in this timeframe as has been attributed to Solomon. 

The holy truth is that precious little reliable priestly accounting of Israel or Judah surfaces until around 800 BCE.  Even then much of the priest-written “history” has been freely embroidered upon.  It is wise to remember that Jews are never mentioned until the Maccabees (Hasmonaeans), a Jewish dynasty of “patriots,” high priests and kings of the 2nd and 1st century BCE who sought to rouse the Jews against their Seleucid ruler.

  •  See related posts, The David Saga, parts 1 and 2; and  Solomon’s Majesty, August 2009.

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Examples for Bible-based Government

Posted in agnoticism, Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, faith, Government, history, humanity, life, politics, random, religion, thoughts with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2010 by chouck017894

By biblical clues it was once determined that the murder of Abel by his brother Cain occurred in 3875 BCE.  Interestingly, the first year of the Jewish calendar was set as beginning in 3760 BCE—or 115 years later.  The brief and incomplete list that follows here, taken from “Holy Bible” stories, make it clear that the respect for life was not an especially high priority among God’s favorites.

The Deluge, whipped up by none other than God himself with the sole intention of obliterating the human species, supposedly occurred in 2348 BCE.  Oddly, part of the Lord’s instruction to Noah (who escaped being done in) was that Noah and his progeny must, among other listed immoral acts, refrain from committing homicide—the shameless counseling of do as I say, not as I do.  Scanning over the following brief highlights from biblical tales, remember that the definition of murder is the unconscionable killing of a human being.

 In the time of Abraham (c. 1860 BCE), the alleged progenitor of the Hebrews, the Lord asked Abe to sacrifice his son Isaac.  Abe said okay, but then the Lord said that it was only a test and provided a ram for slaughter.  Why the all-knowing creator would have to test Abraham in this cruel manner is never explained.  What this tale does reveal is that any tradition about not killing handed down from the time of Noah 488 years before was not taken seriously.

By the most commonly accepted calculations, Moses did not receive any commandment against homicide until 1491 BCE—or 369 years after Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of his son, and 2384 years after Abel’s death.  It might be said that the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” given to Moses was a case of too little too late.  Even with this commandment as counsel, good old Joshua, the God-favored successor to Moses, is proudly presented as freely indulging himself in holocaustic slaughter of countless Canaanites.

Then there is the tale of Jephthah, a blustery Israelite who was called upon by the Israelite elders to head off a threatened Ammonite attack around 1143 BCE.  Jephthah, positive of God’s favor, swore that if he won in battle then whatsoever cometh forth out of the doors of my house to meet me…” he would offer it  up for a burnt offering to God (II Judges).  Well, Jephthah won the battle.  His “honor” supposedly demanded the ritual murder of his daughter, for in joy to see his safe return she had rushed out to greet him.  God is portrayed as knowing all, so was it Jephthah’s fault or God’s divine indifference that Jeph had to murder his own daughter by fire?  Even God seems to have ignored his own edict handed down to Moses only 348 years earlier, for he did nothing to save the girl.

412 years after the Commandment Thou shalt not kill had been handed down, King Saul of Israel indulged himself in a swift war of extermination against the Amalekites in 1079 BCE in which, the boast goes, every man, woman babe and child were “utterly destroyed.”  This was bad enough, but then King Saul’s pitiless “prophet,” Samuel, is recorded as having savagely chopped the captured and defenseless Amalekites King Agag into mincemeat with a sword.  Samuel also contributed  to Israel’s gory glory by then promoting David (1040?-973? BCE) for the throne.  And ultimately, 23 years later after the slaughter of Agag, David did succeed Saul as King of Israel.

David is  presented in Holy Scripture as a master of deceit, mendacity and bloodshed, and followed the traditional pattern of killing everyone among a conquered people, including women, babes and children.  He even had people killed “lest they should tell on us” (1 Samuel 27:11).  David’s list of slaughters and atrocities are too many to present here, but his open disregard for the sixth commandment makes it questionable as to why God could ever have considered him a worthy founder of a royal dynasty or to be the protector of the Holy Ark of the Covenant.  David is commonly excused under the pretext that he displayed unfailing devotion to Jehovah!

Next we have Elijah, c. 910 BCE, who had the Phenician prophets of Baal put to death to prevent them from muscling in on his hold on the official religion of Israel.  The myth goes that after the murder of the Baal priests, rain and dew which God had jealously withheld for three years finally returned.  Besides murdering the priests of  Baal, Elijah also caused the destruction of two companies of fifty innocent messengers that had been sent to him by King Ahaziah of Israel.  There was eager anticipation that this “holy man” was to return to Earth, and this was later incorporated into Christian myth as the spiritual fulfillment in John the Baptist.

The successor of Elijah was Elisha, c. 896 BCE, another typically short-tempered and irascible Israelite “prophet,” who displayed his disregard for the sixth commandment with 42 unruly children on the road to Bethel.  The young delinquents allegedly teased him about his bald head.  In angry retaliation, holy Elisha is said to have cursed the children in the name of the Lord and immediately two bears appeared and ripped the children to shreds.  The weak excuse for this god-assisted murder of  forty-two children is that the “prophet” was weary and agitated from his fifteen mile hike from Jericho.  Elisha was not weary, however, when he hatched the conspiracy to seize the throne of Israel and elevate Jehu, the last son of Joram, as king.

Jehu, allegedly appointed by God and anointed by murderous Elisha as king of Israel (c. 843? BCE), lost little time in setting out to exterminate his predecessor King Ahab’s seventy children as well as the priests of Baal.  How the murder of the priests was accomplished is a mystery, for Elijah had supposedly already done all that.  But true to form, here is what chapter 10, verse 30 of 2 Kings says: And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is  right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.  Thus  blessed by the Lord, Jehu, without an ounce of scruple, later ordered two or three eunuchs to throw his wife Jezebel out a window to her death.

This  brief and far from complete list of God-favored characters from “the good book” have been offered as spiritual inspiration for countless generations.  Do they really exemplify the most exalted way of attracting peace, love, justice, mercy or intelligence that is so yearned for in the world?  Are these really examples that an advanced nation should follow?

 

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Bible-Based Examples for Governing

Posted in agnoticism, Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, culture, faith, freethought, history, humanity, life, logic, politics, random, religion, thoughts, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 28, 2009 by chouck017894

By biblical clues it was once determined that the murder of Abel by his brother Cain had occurred in 3875 BCE.  Interestingly, the first year of the Jewish calendar is set as beginning in 3760 BCE—a mere 115 years later.  The brief and incomplete list that follows here, taken from  “holy Bible” stories, make it dishearteningly clear that the respect for life was not especially a high priority of too many biblical characters.  Perhaps this was inspired by god’s indifference.

The Deluge, whipped up by god himself with the sole intention of obliterating the human species, supposedly occurred in 2348 BCE—1,527 years after Abel was slain.  Oddly, part of the Lord’s instruction to Noah after unleashing the killing deed upon the Earth was the admonishment that Noah and his progeny must, among other listed immoral acts, refrain from committing homicide.  A case of do as I say, not as I do.  As you scan over these brief highlights from biblical tales, remember that the definition of murder is the unconscionable killing of a human being.  Of course there had been no code of law established in Eden; an embarrassing oversight for an all-knowing Creator.

In the time of Abraham, the alleged progenitor of the Israelites, the Lord is said to have saved Abraham’s son Isaac from being sacrificed by Abraham in 1860 BCE.  Obviously any tradition handed down from the time of Noah 488 years earlier did not include the admonishment to refrain from taking another person’s life.

By the most commonly accepted calculations, Moses did not receive any announcement against homicide until c. 1491 BCE—or 369 years after Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of his son, and 2384 years after Abel’s untimely demise.  It might be said that the commandment “thou shalt not kill” was a case of too little too late.  Even with this commandment as counsel, good old Joshua, the god-favored successor to Moses, is portrayed as happily indulging himself in holocaustic slaughter of countless Canaanites.

Then there is the tale of Jephthah, a blustery Israelite who was called upon by the Israelite elders to head off a threatened Ammonite attack in 1143 BCE.  Jephthah swore that if he won in battle then “…whatsoever cometh forth out of the doors of my house to meet me…” I will then offer it up for a burnt offering (2 Judges).  Well, Jephthah won the battle.  His “honor” supposedly demanded the ritual murder of his daughter, for in her joy to see his safe return his daughter had rushed out to meet him.  Was it Jephthah’s fault or god’s indifference that caused the girl to be burned to death?  Even god seems to have ignored his own edict not to kill that he had handed down only 348 years before, for he did nothing to save the girl.

412 years after the commandment not to kill had been handed down, King Saul of Israel is said to have indulged himself in a swift war of extermination against the Amalekites in 1079 BCE in which, the boast goes, every man, woman, babe, and child were “utterly destroyed.”  This was poor press for the children of god, but was made even worse by King Saul’s pitiless “prophet,” Samuel, depicted as having savagely chopped the captured and defenseless Amalekite King Agag into mincemeat with a sword.  Samuel also contributed to Israel’s gory glory by then promoting David (1040-973? BCE) for the throne.  And ultimately, 23 years after Saul’s slaughter of Agag, David is said to have succeeded Saul as King of Israel.

David was a master of deceit, mendacity, and bloodshed, and he followed the traditional pattern of killing everyone among a conquered people, including women, babes, and children..  He even had people killed “…lest they should tell on us…” (1 Samuel 27:11).  David’s list of slaughters and atrocities are too many to present here, but his open disregard for the sixth commandment makes it questionable why god could ever have considered him a worthy founder of a royal dynasty or to be the protector of the Ark of the Covenant.  David is commonly excused under the pretext that he displayed unfailing devotion to Jehovah.  Say What? 

Elijah, c. 910 BCE, had the Phenician prophets of Baal put to death to prevent them from muscling in on his hold on the official religion in Israel.  The myth goes that after the slaughter of Baal priests, rain and dew which god had grudgingly withheld for three years finally fell.  Besides destroying the priests of Baal, Elijah also caused the destruction of two companies of fifty innocent messengers c. 852 BCE who had been sent to him by King Ahaziah of Israel.  The eager anticipation of this “holy” man’s return to Earth became incorporated in Christian myth as spiritually fulfilled in John the Baptist.

Elisha, c. 896 BCE, another typically short-tempered and irascible Israelite “prophet,” displayed his disregard for the sixth commandment in his encounter with 42 unruly children on the road to Bethel.  The young delinquents allegedly teased him about his bald head.  In angry retaliation, holy Elisha is said to have cursed the children in the name of the lord and immediately two bears appeared and ripped the children to pieces.  The weak excuse for the god-assisted murder of 42 children is that the “prophet’ was weary and agitated from his fifteen mile hike from Jericho.  Elisha was not weary, however, when he hatched the conspiracy to seize the throne of Israel and elevate Jehu, the last son of Joram, as king.

Jehu, appointed by god and anointed by the “prophet” Elisha as king of Israel (c. 843? BCE), lost little time in setting out to exterminate his predecessor King Ahab’s seventy children as well as the priests of Baal.  (Hadn’t Elijah done away with Baal priests already?)  But true to form, here is what 2 Kings 10:30 says:  And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.  Thus blessed by god for his killing, Jehu, without an ounce of scruple, later ordered two or three eunuchs to throw his wife Jezebel out of a window to fall to her death. 

This brief and incomplete list of biblical characters from “the good book” have been offered as spiritual inspiration for countless generations.  Do these bloody tales really exemplify the most exalted way of attracting peace, justice, love, and mercy that is so yearned for in the world?  Do the citizens of the United States really aspire to use these “Bible based” or “Faith Based” examples as our principles of a just government?

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Solomon’s Majesty

Posted in Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, faith, life, prehistory, religion with tags , , , , , , on August 4, 2009 by chouck017894

In The David Saga it was pointed out that the “history” storyline of the character of David followed advanced pre-Hebrew teachings of energy formation into matter.  Part of those ancient lessons on cosmology had to do with the luminous stage of material development—which brings us to the scriptural character of Solomon.

Since David was used allegorically to represent the earlier stages of energy involvement toward matter, it is a natural continuation that the development of the luminous stage of matter would be incorporated into the concocted “history” of Israel.  The continuation of matter development thus became the “son” of David, so the character of Solomon personifies the sun-stage in cosmic development.  This is teasingly hinted in the name Solomon, for it is derived from combining three unrelated cultural addresses to the sun: Sol from the Roman word for sun (“Sol Invictus, unconquerable sun:” remember, these books were edited in early Roman times), Om (or aum) from the Hindu mantra characterizing supreme power, and On the Chaldean-Egyptian address to the sun. 

Once the meaning in the name is known, all the many questions raised regarding this fabled king of Israel begin to provide sensible answers.  The sun, being the provisional energy constituent for Earth life, explains his alleged unparalled wisdom.  Light has always symbolized wisdom, and it also clarifies the alleged enormous wealth Solomon possessed.  His legenday “mines,” therefore, is reference to the sun itself.  His reign is claimed to have been marked by prosperity, prestige, grandiose building projects, and cultural transformation.  The world can sustain life only through benefits of the sun, so of course the world renown claimed for Solomon is understandable—even though such a king  is confirmed nowhere in genuine history.

There is a curious connection of Solomon’s wealth to verses in Revelation.  1 Kings 10:14 relates: “Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold.”  Strange is it not that the 666 talents of gold  pop up in Revelation 13:16 as “…the number of a man, and his number is six hundred threescore and six”?

Scripture tells us (1 Kings 11:1 and 3), “But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hitties. 3) And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.”  Obviously a  mortal man could not have long performed such sexual indulgences, so the copious amount and variety of women claimed to have been serviced by him refers to the indiscriminate warmth of the sun.  The great shame of the Deuteronomic judgment that was consequently passed upon him by the priest-authors thus deviously vilified and slandered all women—for it is claimed that his indulgences allegedly infuriated god to “…raise up Hadad the Edomite, Rezon of Damascus,” and especially Jeroboam against him.  This leads us to touch briefly on the Song of Solomon that so embarrasses the uninformed experts on religious meaning.  The “Song” is actually a celebration of the creative action of primordial energies becoming involved (or enamored) with the potentiality of matter that is to form from their union.

The fabulous temple of Solomon, the “temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” clearly admits that such a structure never existed on this planet.  Solomon, personification of the Sun,  is its builder and is said to have labored for seven years on its construction (1 Kings 6:38), an echo of the seven “days” of Creation.  So of course “…there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was building…” (1 Kings 5:7).

On the other hand, Solomon is said to have spent thirteen years constructing his own house.  Did he consider that to be more important than the construction in which to honor the Source?  No.  Again it has to do with the ancient pre-Hebrew lessons that taught a scientific understanding of Creation principles: the “temple” represents only one half of the cosmic house, and from the initiation of energy toward matter on through the evolution of life into refined energy conditions accounts for the other half of the cosmic house—hence 13 years.

Strangely, there is mention in 1 Kings 11:41 of a text called “the Book of Acts of Solomon,” but it seems that nothing is known of it.  Perhaps, just perhaps that lost book might have indicated why all that glory seems to have simply burned out  following his son Rehoboam’s elevation to the throne of Judah.

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The David Saga — Part Two

Posted in Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, faith, random, religion with tags , , on August 2, 2009 by chouck017894

An important clue to all biblical myths is hidden in the alleged chronology of the characters.  David, for example, is claimed to be removed from the patriarch Jacob by nearly 1000 years.  Even encyclopedias present this myth as fact, but the chronology is not verifiable by any references other than scriptural fiction.  This “knowledge” is distributed despite biblical myths contradicting themselves in matters of chronology.

From the start the timetable presented in Scripture implies an enormous period of  time that continues through the books of Exodus, Joshua, Judges, and up to Samuel.  The stories insinuate that 700 to 1000 years separated Jacob from David.  In the later book of Ruth, however, it is stated that David was the tenth generation from a little-known character Pharez, but Pharez happened to be a contemporary of Jacob.  Ten generations do not account for 700 to 1000 years except mythologically.

All the important features about the David myth found in 1 and 2 Samuel are structured upon pre-Hebrew teachings regarding the development of energy into matter form.  The unsubstantiated character of David was fabricated by priest-writers to personify the prephysical energy stages of matter development.  This accounts for all the deceitful character traits and treacherous deeds credited to David but which were overlooked and actually blessed by a curiously apathetic god, for the prephysical energy involvements are amoral in their creative involvement.

The character of David, as mentioned, was inaugurated out of pre-Hebrew teachings concerning Creation, cosmology, biological life, and man’s interrelationship with it all.  In shaping a “history” for the rabble interlopers of Canaan, priest-authors devoted to Yahweh adapted the ancient teachings into a bogus “history” by personifying as their  forebears the primordial energies that involve to manifest as matter.  For example, the “Israelites” personify elementary particles; the “enslavement” in Egypt allegorizes primal energies held by attraction to amass, and the “wilderness” refers to the various prephysical energy planes through which creative action takes place.  David, in this version, personifies the will of life (known in the ancient teachings as the Life Principle) that becomes the nucleus of biological life.

The two books of Samuel (written by priests of Yahweh in Jerusalem c. 850 BCE) give David’s circuitous path to the throne in abundant detail, masking with its pseudo-chronological presentation the movement of the Life Principle through the prephysical energy planes.  This is illustrated early-on with David confronting the “giant” Goliath, a name derived from the Hebrew word golyath.  “Giants” in all ancient myths commonly personify the boundless primordial energy planes through which matter develops.  When David is brought in to confront the “giant,” the Israelite forces (representing elementary particles) are said to have stood immobile for the typical forty days (the four primordial energy planes through which matter is initiated as taught in the older teachings).  David volunteers to confront Goliath.  The assertion that an army of men would simply stand aside and place the fate of their nation in the hands of a boy not old enough  for military service is ludicrous.  But we are expected to believe that the ill-matched contestants met for battle in the valley of Elah in the Shephelah, and David brought down Goliath with a single shot from his slingshot.

The characterization of David never progresses out of this personification of primordial energy movements, which accounts for all his less than moral carryings-on while being blessed by the Lord (creative law).  Thus “blessed” David allegedly initiated sweeping wars and expansion, which emulates primal energy movements toward matter definition (as the pre-Hebrew creation lessons had taught).

David’s death is said to have resulted from falling down a flight of stairs on a Sabbath (7th day), in his 70th year, all of which are symbolic of the descent of creative energy into the seventh energy plane that is physical matter.  And what did David allegedly say on his deathbed?  He is depicted as gushing primal vile against a Benjamite that had cursed him “in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but came down to meet me at Jordan (symbol of life’s flow), and I sware to him by the Lord (creative law) not to slay him with the sword.” (1 Kings 2:8).  David’s last vindictive instruction to his son Solomon was “…hold him (the Benjamite) not (to be) guiltless…” and that Solomon would “knowest what to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood.” (1 Kings 2:8)  In other words, the last of the primordial energies must be put down in order for energy to amass into matter–as was taught in the pre-Hebrew lessons.

All this may be distressing to devout believers in scriptural “history,” yet truth-seeking biblical researchers and historians have concluded that the descriptions of the history of Israel are no more than elaborate, skillful ideological constructs fantasized by priest-authors.  The truth is that no mention of either David or Solomon has ever been found in any contemporary Mesopotamian or Egyptian texts—a bizarre omission if both these characters were such power figures that would have been assessed as a threat.

Furthermore, archaeological finds in the regions of the alleged David/Solomon era have not supported the biblical “testimony” of such persons as Saul (c. 1025-1005 BCE), David (c. 1005-970 BCE), or Solomon (c. 970- 931 BCE).  No evidence has ever been  found, for example, of David’s conquests or of the empire he allegedly launched.  Indeed, arachaeology digs have shown that Canaanite culture had continued uninterrupted in that region with an Iron Age 1 settlement system in that time-frame.  And no sign has ever been found of any monumental architecture or even an important city in Jerusalem c. 970-931 BCE that the story of Solomon implies.

It is wise to remember that very little in biblical stories are what they seem.

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The David Saga — Part One

Posted in Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, faith, random, religion with tags , , , , on August 1, 2009 by chouck017894

The mythic tale of David, penned by the priests of Yahweh in the eighth century BCE, presented a pivotal character that has cast heavy influence over Jewish, Christian, and even Islam interpretation.  The name can be traced back through pre-Hebrew variations including Dod and Dodo which was the masculine form of Dido, the Phoenician goddess whose name meant, “the beloved one.”  She was also the consort of the Babylonian sun god Tammuz, “the beloved son.”

The name can be traced through such variations as Hadad, Dada, Adad, Dido, Dod, Dodo, to David.  Hada or Dada are abbreviated forms of Abd-Hadad which were more current in the northern nations, while in the south Dada was confounded with the Semite word which Assyrians wrote as Dadu, meaning “dear little child.”  The Israelites of the northern Babylonian kingdom worshipped a deity Dod or Dodo, adoring the supreme god under that name as well as under the name Yahweh.  Sometimes Dod was regarded as being at the side of Yahweh–just as Christians regard Christ to be at the side of God.  Thus in the book of Isaiah, Jerusalem is described (by the priest-authors writing there) as the tower of the vineyard the Lord planted in Israel and calls him Dod-i, meaning “my beloved.”  From this was derived the name David of whom it is claimed in 1 Samuel 18:16, “…all of Israel and Judah loved him.”

The story of David parallels all the symbolic, mythic characters in the early scriptural tales, and the similarities between Adam, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samson, et al, are not acciental.  David, for example, is said to have tended flocks (of Jethro); as in the Moses story the Lord speaks to David during his shepherding duties; as in the Samson tale, David slays four lions (thus outdoing Samson who slew only one), etc.  In other words, all these common events are the same cosmological references told allegorically.

It is not uncommon for readers of holy word to come away thinking that if David was an actual historical person, what a monster he must have been—a murderer, thief, bandit, adulterer, voyeur, deceiver, blackmailer, lecher, a slayer of monumental proportions—certainly no person to emulate.  Nonetheless, holy word says that the Lord found him worthy to build a temple, protect the Ark of the Covenant, and pass on a “royal line”!  It defies moral sensibility and logic.  It makes sense only by recognizing that David is but another character that symbolizes the primordial and prephysical stages where energy moves toward defined mass, i.e. matteras once taught in pre-Hebrew cosmology lessons.  It is not chronology of a Near-East theocratic kingdom.

The priest-authors were a superstitious lot, and the acts attributed to David by them reflect those superstitions of the time (rather than any godly enlightenment).  The practice of taking penis trophies of slain enemies, for example, was simply accepted as routine in those barbaric times—it was thought that severing the genitals prevented their enemies from reproducing in the next world.  Thus David, the beloved of God, is depicted as enthusiastically taking two hundred penis trophies of slain enemies—although King Saul had requested only one hundred. 

Later authors of scriptural truth or Gospelwere careful to depict Jesus as descended through the “royal line” of David.  In Matthew 1:1-16, the most Jewish of all N.T. books, Jesus’ genealogy is traced from Abraham through David.   The rather obvious intention was to present Jesus as being  from royal lineage.

  • Footnote: Past events would have contributed to the construction of a “history” for Israel ala priest-style.  In the time period in which David is alleged to have lived, the planet Mars was regarded as the bringer of war and pestilence.  Also in that time frame there had been seen a comet that was spoken of in oral lore as appearing as a man with a sword—1 Chronicles; 2 Samuel 24.
  • Bible literalism is a exercise presented as “history.”  The debris of priest-conjured “history” is placed in actual historic context by two Israeli archaeologists, Finkelstein and Silberman, in their revealing book The Bible Unearthed.

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Time Honored Holy Examples

Posted in Atheism, Atheist, Bible, culture, random, religion, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 11, 2009 by chouck017894

By biblical clues it was once determined that the murder of Abel by his brother Cain happened in 3875 BCE.  Interestingly, the first year of the Jewish calendar is set as beginning in 3760–a mere 115 years later.  The brief and incomplete list that now follows, taken from “holy Bible” stories, make it distressingly clear that the respect for life was not especially a high priority of too many biblical characters.  Perhaps this was inspired by god’s divine indifference.

The Deluge, whipped up by god himself with the sole intention of obliterating the human species, supposedly occurred in 2348 BCE.  Oddly, part of the Lord’s instruction to Noah after unleashing the killing deed was the admonishment that Noah and his progeny must, among other listed immoral acts, refrain from committing homicide.  A case of do as I say, not as I do.  So as you scan over these brief highlights taken from biblical tales, remember that the definition of murder is the unconscionable killing of a human being.

In the  time Abraham, the alleged progenitor of the Hebrews, the Lord allegedly saved Isaac, Abraham’s son, from being sacrificed to the Lord by Abraham in 1860 BCE.  Obviously any tradition handed down from the time of Noah 488 years earlier had not included the admonishment to refrain from taking another person’s life.

By the most commonly  accepted calculations, Moses did not receive any announcement against homicide until 1491 BCE—or 369 years after Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of his son, and 2384 years after Abel’s untimely demise.  It might be said that the commandment “thou shalt not kill” was a case of too little too late.  Even with this commandment as counsel, good old Joshua (from which the name Jesus was derived), the god-favored successor to Moses, indulged himself in holocaustic slaughter of countless Canaanites.

Then there is the tale of Jephthah, a blustery Israelite who was called upon by the Israelite elders to head off a threatened Ammonite attack in 1143 BCE.  He swore that if he won in battle then whatsoever cometh forth out of the doors  of  my house to meet me…” I will offer it up for a burnt offering (II Judges).  Well, Jephthah won, apparently with god’s help.  His “honor” supposedly demanded the ritual murder of his daughter, for in her joy to see his return, she had rushed out to meet him.  Was it Jephthah’s fault or god’s indifference that caused the girl to be burned to death?  Even god seemed to ignore his own edict handed down only 348 years before, for he did nothing to save the girl.

412 years after the commandment not to kill had been handed down, King Saul of Israel indulged himself in a swift war of extermination against the Amalekites in 1079 BCE in which, the boast goes, every man, woman, babe and child were “utterly destroyed.”  This was bad enough, but then Saul’s pitiless “prophet” Samuel is recorded as having savagely chopped the captured and defenseless Amalekite King Agag into mincemeat with a sword.  Samuel also contributed to Israel’s gory glory by then promoting David (1040?-973? BCE) for the throne.  And ultimately, twenty-three years later after the slaughter of Agag, David did allegedly succeed Saul as King of Israel.

David was a master of deceit, mendacity and bloodshed, and followed the traditional pattern of killing everyone among a conquered people, including women, babes, and children.  He even had people killed “lest they should tell on us” (1 Samuel 27:11).   David’s list of slaughters and atrocities are too many to present here, but his open disregard for the sixth commandment make it questionable why god could ever have considered him worthy of a royal dynasty or to be the protector of the Ark of the Covenant.  David is commonly excused under the pretext that he displayed unfailing devotion to Jehovah.  Say what?

Elijah, c. 910 BCE, had the Phenician prophets of Baal put to death to prevent them from muscling in on his hold on the official religion of Israel.  The myth goes that after the slaughter of Baal priests, rain and dew which god had withheld for three years finally fell again.  Besides destroying the priests of Baal, Elijah also caused the destruction of two companies of fifty innocent messengers c. 825 BCE sent to him by King Ahaziah of Israel.  The eager anticipation of this “holy” man’s return to earth was later incorporated into Christian myth as the spiritual fulfillment in John the Baptist.

Elisha, c. 896 BCE, was another short-tempered and irascible Israelite “prophet” who showed his disregard for the sixth commandment in his encounter with 42 unruly children on the road to Bethel.  The young delinquents allegedly teased him about his bald head.  In angry retaliation holy Elisha is said to have cursed the children in the name of the lord and immediately two bears appeared and ripped the children to pieces. The weak excuse for the god-assisted murder of 42 children is that the “prophet” was weary and agitated from his fifteen mile hike from Jericho.  Elisha was not weary, however, when he hatched the conspiracy to seize the throne of Israel and elevate Jehu, the last son of Joram, as king.

Jehu, appointed by god and anointed by Elisha as king of Israel (c. 843? BCE), lost little time in setting out to exterminate his predecessor King Ahab’s seventy children as well as the priests of Baal.  (How the priests had to be exterminated is a mystery, for Elijah had supposedly done all that before.)  But true to form, here is what chapter10, verse 30 of 2 Kings says:  And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in  executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.  Thus blessed by the Lord, Jehu, without an ounce of scruple, later ordered two or three eunuchs to throw his wife Jezebel out of a window to her death.

This brief and incomplete list of biblical characters from the “good book” have been offered as spiritual inspiration for countless generations.  Do they really exemplify the most exalted way of attracting peace, justice, love and mercy that is so yearned for in the world?

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Hanky-Panky in the Promised Land

Posted in agnoticism, Atheist, Bible, culture, freethought, history, nontheism, prehistory, random, religion, sex taboos with tags , , , , , , , , , on April 17, 2009 by chouck017894

As the stories in the Bible have been passed down from the editing pens of priest-authors, the deliberate misinformation that was incorporated as “holy word” has well served them as the core of a mind control system that is held in regard as religion. We have also seen in previous web postings that modern archaeological and anthropological finds have proven that a heady amount of revered “holy” accounts simply do not jibe with evidence that has been systematically unearthed and studied. The conquering of the “Promised Land” known as Canaan, it is shown, did not occur through an invasion of war as the “holy book” stories imply.

This means that all the blood and guts of Joshua’s holocaustic indugences was simply priestly abuse of facts–probably fabricated in the hope of intimidating the more powerful neighbor-nations around them.

The priest-authors were often sloppy about characterization and plotlines, and certainly would have made lousy generals. But taking of Canaan–supposedly promised to them by god, of course–was made into an epic with a cast of thousands. Moses and Aaron are portrayed as leading the Israelites out of Egypt under god’s promise that “…you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation.” Exodus 19:6. Curiously, the Creator of all things seems always to have to rely on the bestial side of his favorites to accomplish anything of merit among humans.

There are a number of things that are rather sidestepped in the epic of “capturing” Canaan for god–and his priests. After the invasion was set, Moses appointed twelve men to advance and reconnoiter the land to be occupied. Among those men selected were Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, a member of the tribe of Judah. Much is made over Joshua’s bloodlust as a heroic obsession which propelled him into virtual savior status among Jews. (So admired was he that even the name Jesus is derived from the name Joshua.) But of Josua’s buddy, Caleb, there are some tolerable references but a sparse storyline.

Part of the priest-authors’ downplay of Caleb rests in the name itself, which is Keleb in Hebrew, and means “dog.” Although Caleb had been admitted into the tribe of Judah, the later account says that Caleb “…again separated himself from god, while remaining faithful to the q’deshim” (or “holy ones”). The part that is brushed aside with this statement is that Caleb adopted Canaanite religious customs, the q’deshim cult in particular, according to Deuteronomy.

Genuine history shows that early Hebrews had sacred prostitutes in their temples–a common custom in Babylonian, Assyrian and other neighboring cultures of the time. Female prostitutes were known as q’deshah–and the male equivalents were the q’deshim, who were known as dog-priests for the positions they assumed for their service. That Caleb was an acknowledged member of the tribe of Judah is consistent with the legend that Judah himself was an unashamed user of temple prostitutes.

Apparently in that historic age the Lord had not yet gotten all his prejudices sorted out, for a personal favorite of his, David, came from the tribe of Judah (and he had loved Johathan), and David had used Caleb’s territory, Hebron, as his capital until he supposedly captured Jerusalem.

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