Febble

Well, no, but it's not exactly "overcast with the stretched, pallid shadow of the Galilean", and it's very interesting.

Soul Invictus

I'm a bit confused by this. Is there something about the facts that you don't understand?

Peter Kirby

Sure there is. Some movies do well, some do great, and some do poorly at the box office. I don't understand all the factors that go into that.

Likewise, some religious movements catch on, some convert millions, and some die out when they've hardly begun. I don't understand all the factors that go into that either.

It's not that I don't understand what the statement of facts says; it's that I don't understand why these particulars are facts and not some other state of affairs, in the way I do understand why it's a fact that the seasons change and day turns into night and into day again.

And if we never wondered why day became night and night day, science would never have begun.

Chili

That is exactly right Peter but if you consider that the light of common day is an illusion because the night follows the day it is easy to see why science is needed to light up or life one lucifer at the time.

Let me add that in Revelation 22:5 "the night shall be no more" . . . because "the [celestial] sea is no longer" since Rev. 21:1.

spin

Maaa fella Mercans, wi-uth Gaad aan our saad, we will faat aginst the evil in this wuruld, we shall staap at nuthin to caanquer sin and steal its praaperty. If sinners have it they shouldn't. It is therefur legally ours... blah, blah, blah...

Aa believe that it was Gaad's will that aa killed that evil doctor who was committing atrocities on them poor wimmin, killin' them babies. Those poor yerng thi-ungs had a duty to bring erp them children, even in po-verty, even without a father, even in dis-grace. Wi-uth just a little faith, Gaad would have provaaded... blah, blah, blah...

We don't want homo-sexuals, or les-bians, or any pre-vert in our god-fearing town. If they are gonna act aginst Gaad's commandments they don't deserve to have a jaab here. They should go somewhere else and spread their filth... blah, blah, blah...

This evolution is an outrage aginst Gaad. We want it out of our schools as soon as paassible. We want to teach our children about creation. They are humans, not animals... blah, blah, blah...

Aa don't want maa children listening to that infernal noise. Aa don't want my children watching those pornographic films. Aa say we censur anythi-ung and everythi-ung that needs... blah, blah, blah...

How can you stop the self-righteous war? How can women truly have ownership of their own bodies? How can a person have a conscience? How can people be free to be who they want? how can science function? How can you have art?

It could be the story of the blue elephant god for all we care, if that were the dominant religious nuttery of our society which did such damage to society.

Think about it a bit more...

It's rather boring to me. I'd rather be talking about those more historical things. I'm much more interested in how people conceived of the world and confronted it, before they had science. Christianity is an aspect of this, but it is too much artifice.

Before proceeding I'd suggest that you rent a few seasons of Monk. Hell, why not all of them?

Better?

There are just so many interesting areas of history available for study. The biggest problem is though that only a few people know about them and so it is hard to find a community interested in furthering the study of anything but the most basic, the most mundane. People know pseudo-history because that is what is all around them. They know about Nero fiddling while Rome burnt. They know about Moses the prince of Egypt. They know how Herod massacred innocent children. However, who is interested in why the Romans gave up a republic to become an empire? Who is interested in why the Greeks couldn't get their acts together and form a powerful state which could combine the resources of all the parts instead of warring amongst themselves? Who is interested in why the Mitanni suddenly sought a treaty with Egypt after a century of conflict? Who is interested in why Assyria was able to develop enough resources to gain control of the fertile crescent? Hey, ya know, there are so many interesting questions about ancient history, the answers could take up all of your time and then some. The problem is finding a community of like-minded people interested in pursuing them. (And I've watched internet groups form on many topics, only to collapse through lack of interest.)


spin

Peter Kirby

Spin: I love you. You're so right. Is there a way out of the morass?

The only reason I'm in biblical studies is for the community. Full stop.

Chris Weimer

There are many forums of interested Romano/Graeco-philes.

Perhaps you're just not looking in the right place.

Roger Pearse

Sounds like a waste of valuable drinking time to me. Why bother? How will it ever matter to anyone? It's just not interesting of itself, surely?

But since you say that you are...<evil grin>... I hope that you realise that you have just volunteered to join my band of those people willing to translate Eusebius Adversus Marcellum. It's a small band, as most people get dead bored dead quickly.

Heh heh heh.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

Chris Weimer

You have a very valid point about it cutting into my valuable drinking time...but drinking in itself isn't a boon to my success, while certainly a majority of my studies will be pertinent to me (I intend on teaching, amice). Besides, a book worth $50 will last a lot longer than a shot worth $5.

And yes, they're very interesting topics of themselves. I personally find history and all aspects of antiquity fascinating.

I thought we already discussed this? Sure I'll help translate...until I get bored.

Send me an email.

Clouseau

How about poetry, not history. This is from Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum.

'But the majestic river floated on,
Out of the mist and hum of that low land,
Into the frosty starlight, and there mov’d,
Rejoicing, through the hush’d Chorasmian waste,
Under the solitary moon;—he flow’d
Right for the polar star, past Orgunjé,
Brimming, and bright, and large; then sands begin
To hem his watery march, and dam his streams,
And split his currents; that for many a league
The shorn and parcell’d Oxus strains along
Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles—
Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had
In his high mountain-cradle in Pamere,
A foil’d circuitous wanderer—till at last
The long’d-for dash of waves is heard, and wide
His luminous home of waters open, bright
And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bath’d stars
Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea.'