Archive for sacred texts

Sacred Uncertainties

Posted in Astronomy, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, enlightenment, faith, Hebrew scripture, random, religion, scriptures, Social, theology with tags , , , , , , , on January 1, 2015 by chouck017894

For the majority of persons of the western world today who have been indoctrinated into the Christian faith systems, few are aware that there is yet to be found any original copies of any of the books which are honored as the New Testament. There are age-old copies, to be sure, but they are just that–copies. Usually of copies. And the Hebrew Scriptures, so proudly declared to be meticulously accurate reproduction of god-dictated word, many uncertainties happen to linger there which necessitate footnotes (as in the New Revised Standard Version). In fact various passages are integrated where translators were uncertain what the original text really was (as, for example, in 1 and 2 Samuel). This presents a tragic predicament for world cultures because of the many uncertainties which continue to hover over and cloud all man-written “sacred” texts (including the Quran). Despite their glaring faults the questionable texts have been used as models upon which were fashioned each culture’s morals, ethics and spiritual trust. Thus it is sacred uncertainties which have served as foundations for three by-th-book faith systems which routinely reflect their holiness in constant murderous conflicts.

Basic beliefs, most of which originated in Bronze Age tribal cultures, were heavily colored by fears and superstition. In addition the words which have been handed down through century after century have been altered–sometimes accidentally, more often deliberately–by the countless interpreters and translators who put their own spin on the declared meaning in those copied words. Predictably the declared meaning said to be god-relayed in those man-written texts was always interpreted from the events of the interpreter’s timeframe. The fundamental philosophy which brought about all the age-old written “holy” words conveniently allowed for such self-defensive flexibility and manipulative license. And it is precisely this philosophical elasticity which stimulates the addictive fascination for what is revered as holy word. It provides anxious seekers with ego gratification–which is commonly praised and promoted as spiritual fulfillment. Unfortunately, the stories in extreme antiquity were knowingly penned to illustrate cosmological and/or life-purpose points. Regrettably these were often indirectly, and more often intentionally, colored by later scribes personal likes, dislikes, envy and jealousies, which consequently provoked irrelevant posturing and theatrics rather than radiating any genuine spiritual enlightenment.

The faithful who cling unquestioningly to sacred texts (Hebrew Scriptures, New Testament or Quran, as examples) like to believe that those compositions which have been accepted as revealed and sacred, contain no mistakes, no textural booboos, no additions, and no faulty assessments. But every such textural “holy” work was produced by human hands, and even the most faithful humans fall far short in cosmic awareness to serve as infallible spokesmen for the perfection and broad diversity which is the creative and sustaining power which is the all-enfolding Source.

The discovery in 1947 of a number of parchment scrolls which contained Hebrew and Aramaic scriptural texts and liturgical writings of an ascetic community which dated from c. 250 BCE to about 70 CE are known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The intensive research on these scrolls brought to light the startling fact that those texts, which are around a thousand years older than any previously known “old texts,” contained a stockpile of significant differences from the Hebrew Scriptures which are today considered to have always been rigidly inviolable. Time and circumstances since the era of the Scroll’s authorship brought with them alterations that resulted in textural content which became more or less standardized only around 1000 CE. Thus the western world today has become victim to what may be termed sacred shell games.

Genuine history is routinely forgotten in what has become accepted as holy word. For example, the OT book of Esther was rewritten from an older version which some scholars have said had been composed by some Roman author. Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph(c. 50-132 BCE) was one of the most eminent teachers of his timeframe, and he headed the school at Jaffa–and it was he who rewrote the text known as Esther. And the Jewish code known as the Mishnah was developed by him partly on the basis of his own teachings. In the original Roman account of the Esther tale there was a character named Haman (or Aman or Hamin) who vowed to kill all Jews. (Some scholars say that Haman was modeled upon a Roman aristocrat, Arius Piso.) The Jewish holiday feast of Purim was established ostensibly to celebrate the deliverance of the Jews from that threatened massacre by Haman. The rewritten book of Esther and the association of Haman with Roman aristocracy (Piso) therefore served as a covert reminder to all Jews of the alleged conspiracy of the Romans to destroy the Jews.

Once a faith system has compiled its self-serving literary collection and stamped it as “canon” (an ecclesiastical code or laws), that man-written anthology is advertised and marketed as containing all knowledge and information which is ever necessary for a believer to attain godly protection, salvation or entrance into Paradise. Thus have sacred theatrics and devised by-the-book directions been set in place as the edifying mechanism over mankind’s social and spiritual evolution (or lack thereof).

Today, contented that the faith systems which we have been taught as holding divine knowledge and which supposedly extends privileged access into a higher and exclusive domain, we are kept uninformed of how and from what that belief slowly and haphazardly evolved. Every man-contrived faith system has been built upon the awe and wonder that our ancient ancestors had felt for the celestial panorama which was then unmarred by the light and air pollution we humans produce today. In our self-enveloped bubble of technology we have been led away from the ancients’ awareness and veneration of the universal phenomenon, and those observations and practices became intentionally modified and disguised. Why? Because the”Pagan” sources from which those holy words were “revealed” had openly respected such things as solstice periods, time of equinoxes, phases of the moon, constellation grouping of stars, and their associated cycles with nature. These and other such natural observable facts played calculated influences in every man-contrived by-the-book faith system which dominate societies today, and those natural wonders are camouflaged and smothered under priest-invented “histories” and theatrical performances.

Man, it’s almost enough to drive an atheist to attempt a prayer! Lord, rest your hand upon the heads of your earnest seekers, and your other hand over the mouths of the self-possessed proselytizers.

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It’s All Her Fault

Posted in Atheist, belief, Bible, biological traits, Hebrew scripture, life, nature, random, religion, scriptures, sex, sex taboos with tags , , , , , on July 11, 2013 by chouck017894

The three faith systems of western cultures were all structured by male authors upon a not-too-subtle animosity toward the active bearing principle within Creation energies. This is a rather nonsensical attitude since that bearing principle is critical for life multiplication. It is also rather cowardly rhetoric for male “shepherds of the faith” to apply the “put the blame on woman” argument in an attempt to absolve themselves from all the error and sin in the world. Such rationale and finger-pointing fails to camouflage the fact that it is the man-is-supreme propaganda in sacred texts which has accounted for the bulk of mankind’s wars and atrocities. Certainly feminine curiosity or wiles or motherly patience have not inflicted such continuing despair and grief upon the world scene as has the male-is-supreme view of holiness.

The “holy books” of the three western faith systems—the Torah, New Testament and Quran—inelegantly place the alleged curse of man’s “fall” and “original sin” upon the slender shoulders of the feminine sex with the astonishing alibi of a talking serpent! Well, guzzling too much holy wine can certainly inspire guys to invent excuses. At any rate, the feminine pole of Creative energy–characteristically defined as negative–has been made to carry the emotional baggage of man’s loose cannon theories while women still manage to somehow keep life’s foundation functioning with some degree of stability.

These three western culture’s faith systems, all of which are rigorously “run by the book,” allow women only partial redemption for their supposed degraded position: they are intended, so say their “revealed” holy words, only to marry and bear their boastful “providers” with offspring (preferably male). It is as though these three interrelated man-superior faith systems regard the responsibilities and chores of the household and child rearing to almost compensate for the feminine genders’ responsibility for man’s “fall from grace.”

The imagined second attempt by the Creator (as in Genesis 2:21-22) at initiating human production, according to the priest-authors assertions, was declared to have involved the surgical removal of some part of Adam’s anatomy. Apparently by that phase of the Lord’s craftsmanship he had run out of creative “let there be” words to recite. What this hackneyed version of human life production reveals, unintentionally so, is that it is polar exchange which generates any and all matter-life and inanimate matter. The generative system that the Creator allegedly set up for continuance (propagation) of any life species was a built-in feature which specifies that every manifested material thing automatically carries polar opposites within themselves. There are no exceptions to this “go forth and multiply” law of Creation.

That the male authors of “holy word” were obsessed with their own genitals is clearly evident with the character of Aaron (whose name means to conceive) in the book of Exodus (chapter 28). The fascination with their physical equipment, ranked by them as being prime paraphernalia, is spelled out in that particular chapter of Exodus with the instructions for the curious sacred garments that are to be worn for generating their faith system. To assess the true meaning of all the improbable tales remember that euphuisms are employed repeatedly throughout all scriptural texts. Holy garments that are to be worn by the self-appointed priests included a breastplate, ephod, two onyx stones and pouches of gold: so is it coincidence that the word “sacred,” derived from the Hebrew word sacre, happens to mean phallus? (Details are given in Sex in Sacred Disguise, March 2009 post.) In that “garment” metaphor of what God’s representatives are to wear, the feminine aspect is something that is entered into or put on, like “golden rings.” We will leave any metaphoric explanation to your analysis as to what “holy oil” actually represents in this “holy” account.

What this sacred language style reveals to us is that the sacred texts of the western cultures do not intelligently consider the Creator’s law of genetic purity, but prefer instead to idolize sexual role-playing. If human life was originally a condition of hermaphrodism–i.e. two polar aspects in one energy form, as holy word asserts–then the division of that singular form had to keep some aspect from each energy pole within both separated parts if creative purpose was to be active within the separated parts. This means, as a consequence, that no man is ever one hundred percent male, and no woman is ever one hundred percent female. For example, men still retain nipples, and women possess a clitoris which is erectile tissue. That’s just the outer odds and ends of physical personifications; there are more inside.

Because sacred texts do not deal honestly with sexual polarity the practice became established for fussing over all kinds of sexual misunderstandings, and these are grossly and needlessly exhibited in social problems to this day. The genderless Life Principle (personified as God), as reflected in Nature itself, cares nothing about sexual chastity: its only concern is genentic purity, meaning that the only limitation that the Life Principle (God) placed upon sexual relationships was in regard to propagation, which declared that each life species must create only after its own kind. Sacred texts which refuse to honestly admit the inherent variations of sexual polarity prefer to labor over the creation aspects of sexual activity (and used for priestly exploitation use), but adamantly deny the equally inherent re-creational aspect of sexual expression.

The Life Principle delights in producing many diverse forms of life expressions, and in the priest composed scriptural tales this variety and diversity of Creation activity is personified as the numerous Levites, the successors of Aaron. It is, therefore, ironic and hypocritical to make use of such scriptural characters and the alleged situations in which they were presented for condemnation of sexual attraction, for such characters as Aaron and the Levites, etc., are metaphors for sexual (generative) energy! If doubtful, just remember the exotic details of the “garments” that these characters were required to wear when ministering in the “holy place.” To keep holy mystery alive the breastplate, ephod, onyx stones and pouches of gold are kept concealed from public view under glitzy attire. Such modesty aside, the next time you see some pompous Bishop strutting around in his elaborate costume and balancing that phallic-styled miter upon his head, try not to snicker. Just remember, these guys are still avoiding truth and responsibility.

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