Xurtio

I think Humanism is pretty much how atheist's fill in the gaping chasm of nihilism. We accept nihilism, meaning/purpose isn't objective... but that shouldn't undermine subjective meaning and purpose - especially a collective sense of meaning shared between peoples.

__________________
H̓̇̅̉yͤ͏mͬ͂ͧn͑̽̽̌ͪ̑͐͟o̴͊̈́͑̇m͛͌̓ͦ̑aͫ̽ͤ̇n̅̎͐̒ͫ͐c̆ͯͫ̋ ̔̃́eͯ͒rͬͬ̄҉

The Batlord

Unfortunately, humanism doesn't quite demand its adherents to find meaning in the same way as religion. Religion might be coercive in that sense, but if it works, it works. No way I could make use of religious coercion in that way though, as I'd first have to actually believe in the concept.

__________________

Lord Larehip

People should read it but with the understanding that they are reading celestial tales.

For instance, theologians have puzzled over the following verse from Genesis 3:15:

"And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."

This is god speaking but to whom is he speaking? He isn't speaking to Eve and he isn't speaking to the snake nor to Adam--who then? And what it even mean?

Well, if you understand that you are reading star lore, it's easy to figure out:



Ophiuchus is known as the serpent-slayer. His heel touches the ecliptic and he was a zodiacal constellation before there was Libra.

Notice he battles the serpent and his heel steps on Scorpio's head. Scorpio and the serpent are equivalent--the evil Dark Giant that seeks to extinguish the sun (the dark hours outnumber the day hours as the sun enters Scorpio's constellation). The woman is Virgo, the heavenly virgin. The sun leaves Virgo and enters Scorpio whom, according to Revelation 12:6, crouches at her feet waiting to devour the child (sun) as soon as she delivers it (remember there was no Libra then, the scales were then part of Scorpio's claws).

So there is enmity between the woman and the serpent. And god is telling Scorpio that he will "bruise" or sting the heel of Ophiuchus, so you can he see that Ophiuchus is another Orion who was also stung on the heel by the scorpion.

Today, Ophiuchus is often called the 13th zodiac sign--a twilight area where secret things happen.

Only idiots hung up on history can't make sense of the passage. As soon as I read it, I knew what it meant and I am no theologian. What's their excuse. What a waste of an occupation and education.

Carpe Mortem

I don't believe in any higher power because I'm fully committed to mankind's, Earth's, and overall life's irrelevance. It just doesn't make sense, in all of existence, for anything here on this tiny blue dot to be important in any way whatsoever.

That's a load off my shoulders. Feels good to not matter.

__________________

Neapolitan

But one verse back, it is written the Lord says to the serpent.


Then Lord said to the serpent "And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed;.." "he [the woman's offspring] will bruise [or crush] your [the serpent's] head,..."

What makes you that God wasn't talking to the snake?

__________________

Frownland

But that's not what they said in Zeitgeist!

__________________

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

John Wilkes Booth

the serpent was gangster as **** tbh

Lord Larehip

You're reading something that isn't there. God never says the seed is the "he" crushes the serpent's head. In fact, what has confounded theologians is that the word "seed" (zera) as used in the passage is meant in a general sense and actually means "posterity" or "all future generations." It cannot even be translated as a specific offspring. So the "he" cannot be the woman's seed. Other bible translations use "it" and "they." The Hebrew doesn't connote a gender assignation at all.

Going back one verse doesn't help because God condemns the serpent to eat dust and serpents don't eat dust. He also sentences it to crawl on its belly which means it must have had legs before. And for God to tell the snake that he is cursed above all livestock and wild animals tells us what? God is talking to an ordinary snake!! Does that make sense? God's plan was confounded by an ordinary snake?? But the snake talked and so it must have been a type of demon yet if the snake represented a demonic force, does a demonic force have offspring?? So it had to be something flesh-and-blood and yet that means it was an ordinary snake.

So how can this be made sense of? As star lore. The snake spoken of is the one Ophiuchus grapples with. But the head being bruised or crushed belongs to the scorpion. And the "he" is Ophiuchus. The enmity is that eternal struggle between the light and the dark that occurs in that part of the zodiac and it will be that way for posterity, for all future generations.

Lord Larehip

Here is more celestial lore to contemplate:

http://www.musicbanter.com/current-e...py-easter.html

John Wilkes Booth

i always interpreted 'eating dust' as being related to 'crawling on its belly.' i.e. not to be taken as literally eating dust for sustenance.

as for the snake talking - i don't know exactly what the correct explanation is for that but from what i've read there's actually no evidence in the text itself to support the idea that the snake was anything other than a snake. the idea that it was satan seems to have been a later christian interpretation. perhaps when the jewish text in question was written it was just a moral fable. fables very often do assign human traits to animals.

another interesting interpretation i've heard for the snake talking is that it has more to do with adam and eve prior to the fall than it has to do with the snake itself. i.e. before the fall, man was in perfect harmony with nature and could speak to animals. after the fall, god put enmity between mankind and the rest of the natural world. this has parallels with the story of enkidu in the epic of gilgamesh, who went through a similar transition after his encounter with the harlot that introduced him to the wonders of civilization, thereby depriving him of his harmonious relationship with the natural world.