Clivedurdle

Long time ago in Bethlehem - screech of needle on record - nope, start again - probably over a thousand years and longer before people were trading and fighting and capturing prisoners and slaves and swapping stories over campfires - like one thousand and one nights.

Some of these stories were about gods - who is the chief god a child asked one evening.

Probably more than once. Hierarchy was probably invented several times and huge debates had about for example should we have a king - Kings is about this. Not far away other peoples were having similar arguments - one is recorded in the name of a long distance race.

People learned wondrous games like sitting in volcanic fumes and getting high on anointing oils that included cannabis, and watching entrails from dead bulls and how dying humans writhed.

Much much later on a particular group who had recorded or possibly invented a history of sitting by the Rivers of Babylon and having the most powerful king no one had ever heard of, were conquered by a Western Empire.

Well they had decided to live in a place where they were basically playing Frogger with empires over centuries!

Someone who has been named Paul was getting sick of this and also suffering from bi polar disorder, invents a Yahweh Saviour Annointer to act as a superman and sort out this mess - personal and political.

Someone else takes the basic idea a stage further and using clear rhetorical and playwright skills puts some flesh on this saviour - remember these people are skilled at inventing characters and telling stories - God, Adam, Eve, Noah, Solomon, Moses, Abraham, why not one more? This time they use an Anti - Augustus figure as one of the roots.

With a process of Chinese whispers an invented character in a story is assumed - much later on - probably only in the nineteenth century - to be real. Before that everyone is quite clear he is fully god fully man fully spirit and therefore by definition mythical.

http://members.tripod.com/~CARIART/FLASHGORDON.html

Clivedurdle

Many years ago I studied a bit of anthropology. There was a case study of I think the Arunta and the effects of the introduction of steel axes - their society collapsed.

Newton - every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

The three body problem - things get very complicated very quickly.

Societies always have choices when run over by a juggernaut or an axe. Submission, resistance, integration. There will be a myriad other variations.

So these tribal people are continuous road kill. Some adapt, evolve, pick up ideas of the conquerors - like one god from the Persians. They are very good story tellers, some learn to read and write and get formal educations in the highest echelons of the empires - they invent a character - Moses - that reflects this.

Much later after many more co-evolutionary arms races and set backs - how come the Chosen people are getting rolled over all the time? Where is a new David against the Philistines? - they invent a godman.

What would happen if basic concepts from ecology like energy flow were used in religious studies?

Why is not xianity a fascinating case study of what happens when tribal peoples meet empires? It might help sort out all sorts of current issues.