EarthGirl

"And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And Jehovah said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do: and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do. 7 Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So Jehovah scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because Jehovah did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did Jehovah scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."

And of course there will be many reasons (according to Judeo-Christians) as to why this story is good. I have been told that I don't understand the "true" meaning of it. Never mind the fact that in this story, the whole world is working together, harmoniously--w/one common language.

But of course, this is the old testament. God was in a bad mood for the majority of that time. Then, he shifted gears, some how changed his mood and basicly told everyone, that we don't have to be afraid of "him". From now on, we could think of him as a loving God, a God who was merciful.

Hmmmm. I wonder if there will be a third testament--any time soon?????

Volker.Doormann

I think the point is, that it does not help them, who are without love who are without merci. These attributes, which have no time and no location, as well as truth, have only a meaning, if they are realized by each individual himself. This idea of a remote god in time or space next to the self, is a hoax.

A third testament? To enlighten the own soul, escaped from the darkness of Christianity? I think, there are some great testaments next the dark Christianity and the late Judaism in BCE. One of them is from about 500 BCE and was written by Lao=Tse. Lao=Tse (‘The old wise man’) born as Li=Öri, 604 BCE in K'hüjen, in the Chinese province Honan. Loa=Tse had a mystic experience of an evening with a meditation to the sunset. From then on, he was another internally. To Confucius he has said: “Your way is the way of the bustle. My way is the way of the notdoing, with which nothing remains undone: The way of the silence, from which the right moved being originates from." A student of Lao=Tse, Jin=Hi, asked him for a representation of the way to the perfection before his physical dying. In the loneliness, Lao=Tse wrote nine times nine sayings down in a short time, the Tao=Te=King. The last saying (81) goes:

'Truthful words are not beautiful.
Beautiful words are not truthful.
Good men do not argue.
Those who argue are not good.
Those who know are not learned.
The learned do not know.

The sage never tries to store things up.
The more he does for others, the more he has.
The more he gives to others, the greater his abundance.
The Tao of heaven is pointed but does no harm.
The Tao of the sage is work without effort.'

All 81 sayings are readable on URL www.iging.com/laotse/LaotseE.htm

BTW. Most of the claims in the OT and NT are still political; an exception are the myths in the Pentateuch, which are encoded great tales (parables) and no history events, same with the Jesus parables, like they are stated - misunderstood by most people - in the Gospel of Thomas.

Most of that claims from the prophets of the OT are disinformation and crime, to hide the true past of the Jewish history. Not a good source for seekers of truth.

Volker

SignOfTheCross

What exactly is your objection EarthGirl?

Should I conclude atheism is no good on the account most atheists prior to the 20th century believed the universe was eternal? I think not, neither should you.

Peace,
SOTC

Kilgore Trout

Atheism is not a "religion" that follows a book that people say is inspired by a perfect god. If you admit that chistianity has myths in it akin to what every other primitive religion has, then what's the difference? This perfect god let them make up myths about him? Why should anyone think this religion is real when it does exaclty the same thing as all the religions you say are false?

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, its probably a duck.

NZAmoeba

Well, this shows the typical struggle between dogmatic religion and progressive science... those goat hearders from 2000 years ago sure were insightfull... 8o

Doctor X

They were insightful because the aliens taught them to build pyramids. . . .

--J. "Pretty Colors, Dude!" D.