January
THE PLANET IN A PEBBLE
“THE EVOLUTION OF HOMO SAPIENS”
It’s not what you KNOW that counts; it’s what you DO with it.
CREATION STORY OF “MAN”
In the beginning was
the why and wherefore
The SUMERIANS
[Mesopotamia]
5000-BCE
The full-length, wonderful creation story of HOW the gods in the firmament created a replica of themselves: MAN (LULLU), who would toil, grow food for them to eat on earth is at New&Noteworthy 2017: History begins at Sumer—when the gods had to toil for food. LIVING MAN was created from dust of the ground and the flesh (spirit) and blood of a sacrificed god. Living Man was: a memorial to the slain god and his spirit.
The HEBREWS
550-BCE
The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the “breath of life” and the man became a LIVING BEING. [Gen. 2:7].
By the sweat of your brow you will EAT YOUR FOOD until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. [Gen. 3:19]
[I have inscribed on my stele my precious words: In order to give justice . . . ]
KING HAMMURABI – 1792-1750 BCE
JUDAISM became a religion (their version) of REVEALED LAW adapted from the stone- stele of LAWS issued by famous King Hammurabi of Mesopotamia. After Moses and the Israelites fled Egypt, rituals and laws for daily life, TEN COMMANDMENTS, were given on two stone tablets to Moses by their God. Exodus 20 & Deuteronomy 14—You shall have no other gods before/besides me.
EXODUS 13:19—MOSES took the Hebrews, the twelve tribes of Israel, as well as “the bones of Joseph” out of Egypt—to take them to the Promised Land by command of their God.
EXODUS 23:31—I will establish your borders: from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines [Mediterranean] and from the desert to the River [Euphrates]. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you.
Tehrah, grandson Lot, son Abram and wife Sarai set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to CANAAN, but when they came to Haran they settled there. [Gen. 11:31] I am the Lord who brought you out of UR OF THE CHALDEANS to give you the land to take possession of [Gen. 15:7]: establishing Abraham and Lot in the Iron Age.
MIRACLES:
the bread and butter of the Jewish God.
Starting with Exodus 7—Aaron’s staff becomes a snake; numerous plagues:
frogs, gnats, flies, boils, hail, locusts, and so on.
But the greatest miracle was that:
Moses lived in the late Bronze Age [circa 1200-bce] and
Abraham and Lot lived in the Iron Age [circa 700-bce]
587 BCE: the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed by the Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar. 2 Kings 24:14—He carried into exile all Jerusalem. Jeremiah 52:30—there were 4,600 people in all. Jeremiah 27—Judah to serve Nebuchadnezzar.
Psalm 137—By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered ZION.
538 BCE: Babylon fell to Cyrus the Persian [Isaiah: 45] and the Jewish people were allowed to return to Jerusalem. According to the Torah, Isaiah lived in the 8th century-bce. He predicted (clairvoyance?) the fall of Babylon by Cyrus!
Is man’s future on Earth at stake?
DOUBTING “RESURRECTION” WOULD MEAN
DOUBTING THE NOTION OF AN AFTERLIFE
EINSTEIN:
We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking
if mankind is to survive
In a country once known as the Holy Land (Christian Crusaders) two countries were “founded” after the Second World War: ISRAEL and PALESTINE. This decision created a war that is still “ongoing”.
WHY?
Exodus 20:
You shall have no other gods before (besides) me . . .
The god of Jacob (Israel) proclaims this land as
“HEBREW TERRITORY”
on a scroll written in the IRON AGE.
Isaiah 26:19
Your dead will live; their bodies will rise
JERUSALEM
The Promise of an Afterlife
THE THIRST FOR ETERNITY
THE SOUL: THE KNOT OF THE UNIVERSE
Stars in the firmament
Belief that a dead king becomes a star and the star a SOUL
In the beginning was superstition:
the belief in spirits everywhere
For our ancestors everyday was a battle to be overcome as everywhere danger lurked. They feared being eaten by animals once they were dead. Somehow, they assumed that animals had superior powers caused by spirits: invisible evil things. Eventually they endowed these spirits with something special: a soul. The soul’s home was inside the body.
THE SEARCH FOR
THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
THE BELIEF IN PERMANENCE:
from the beginning “I” (the human being) exist and continues when “I” die.
THE AFTERLIFE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
In ancient Egypt people worshiped animal gods. God Anubis had a jackal-head, Horus an eagle-head, and goddess Hathor had a cow-head. They believed that after death the soul continued life and left for ANOTHER WORLD. The blue lotus flower symbolized rebirth because it was the oldest known plant: the child of prehistoric water. The priesthood built mortuaries to commemorate ETERNAL LIFE. God Nefertem was overseer of the soul’s passage to their end station. At a holy shrine at Abydos, a royal cemetery, a month-long festival was celebrated: the Death and Resurrection of Osiris, god of the dead, the “judge” who welcomed souls.
The pyramids in Egypt were built to testify that pharaoh’s rebirth was secured and he would join the gods in the firmament.
CIRCA 750 BCE
It was the Iron Age in the Near/Middle East where great changes happened: invasions from the north and east. These peoples brought with them new ideas and new customs, thereby competing with existing religions; the worship of gods changed. Cultures that were once isolated from each other now met and mingled. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras of Samos [570—490-bce] was the teacher of Socrates who, in turn, was Plato’s teacher and whose disciple was Aristotle, mentor to Alexander the Great. In a way, it was the era of a revolution of the minds.
The most profound change was the introduction by Zarathustra of AHURA MAZDA, god of the Persian King Cyrus the Great. Cyrus supplanted the Chaldean Babylonian rulers [538 bce] and established an empire stretching from the Caspian Sea in the north, to Kazakhstan in the east, to the Arabian Peninsula, to Egypt, and to the west to Anatolia (Turkey) until reaching Greece. His battles with Athens are memorable: they are historic! PERSEPOLIS (southern Iran) became the ceremonial seat of the Persian kings.
Zarathustra lived circa 800-bce
Emblem: Fravahar the bird-man
The followers of Prophet ZARATHUSTRA are known as
PARSEES or ZOROASTRIANS:
THOSE WHO DO GOOD
Righteousness: Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds
This religion introduced a battle between god Ahura Mazda (LIGHT) and his nemesis Angra Mainyu/Ahriman (DARKNESS): the struggle between good and bad. The concept of free choice was important. Seven archangels, (Isaiah 6:23-seraphims) messengers, guardians to mankind, praised Ahura Mazda. People who fought on the side of good could hope that after death their soul would enter the ABODE OF LIGHT. They would cross a bridge guarded by two dogs and sprout wings like birds and fly to heaven: LIVING FOREVER. Those who had done evil would drop into an abyss: hell.
The “idea” of good and evil, and heaven and hell, became a source for other religions. Priests, known as MAGI, were stargazers: astronomy flourished. Divination: they predicted events to come. Good luck charms were sold to ward off the evil eye. Spells were created for melting a lover’s heart.
Magic and Miracles—the handmaidens of SUPERSTITION.
FIRE: symbol of ETERNAL LIGHT
TO BE CONTINUED
Email your feedback about the story to the author at rosecamelia@verizon.net.
Febuary
The largest Buddhist stupa in the Western world was dedicated on October 4th, 2003 in Benalmadina, Costa del Sol, Spain.
DIOGENES OF LYCIA
[2ND century ce]
Not least for those who are called foreigners, for they are not foreigners. For, while the various segments of the EARTH give different people a different country, the whole compass of this world gives all people a single country, the entire EARTH, and a single home.
350—BCE
EMPIRE of ALEXANDER the GREAT of MACEDON
Alexander’s empire included Afghanistan and northern India. The religious thoughts of the conquered peoples, HINDUISM and BUDDHISM, were brought to the west by Greek soldiers returning home.
The practice of dying through MEDITATION
Buddhists believe in the soul’s reincarnations until it reaches eternal enlightenment:
free from earthly attachments, free from suffering, the soul is at PEACE: NIRVANA.
OBLIVION
[WHEN YOU CEASE TO DREAM YOU CEASE TO LIVE]
Lord of the dance: Shiva
Shiva is the deity who destroys the cosmos
so that it can be renewed again.
The endless cycles of TIME
Hindus believe that the (free) soul—ATMAN—is neither born nor dies. Atman is a force, the flame of life: the creative principle. Reincarnation of the soul into an animal, plant or person depended on how one behaved on earth. This religion developed, divided, into a caste system for reasons of “purity”. A “fire” cult (cremation), it accepts statues of deities from other faiths.
63—bce:
Romans under Pompey enter Jerusalem. Judea becomes a Roman province.
In Rome, the Greek deities received new names: Hermes became Mercury. People flocked to Rome and continued worshiping their own gods.
35—ce:
Jesus of Nazareth crucified at Jerusalem [INRI]= Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews
70—ce:
Destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
135—ce:
Jerusalem destroyed; rebuilt as Aelia Capitolina.
AN AFTRLIFE:
WHEN DEATH
BECOMES
THE CENTER OF THOUGHT
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Whoever acknowledges me before men,
I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.
The Jesus-movement spread a new message. Apostles, messengers of Jesus, taught that Jesus was LOVE: he was the morning star and the evening star. [Venus] ‘For this reason the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil’. [1 John 3:8] The followers, poor people, needed hope; their lives were hard, hell on earth.
The apostle Peter told the followers: ‘for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls’. [1 Peter 1:9]
The Christian message was that the hereafter was the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Jewish priesthood rejected Jesus as the Messiah. This rejection became a blessing to the world. Instead of worshiping the Roman god Mars, we today explore the heavens and have landed on Mars!
325—CE
CHRISTIANITY declared the STATE RELIGION
At the Council of Nicaea (near Istanbul) Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official, ruling religion. He summoned Christian leaders at Nicaea to discuss doctrines. Arianism was heatedly debated: God is unique! The Son cannot be God. The Son is a creature, he had a beginning. He is finite. He’s inferior to the Father!
So, in 382 at the Council of Rome the doctrine of the Trinity was settled: the Holy Spirit declared equal in essence or substance to the Son and the Father. The three are one essence but distinct from one another, equal in eternity and power.
Pope Damasus approved the books of the New Testament Bible.
Jerome went to Jerusalem to translate the Greek Septuagint Bible into Latin, known as the Vulgate.
529--CE
Plato’s ACADEMY in ATHENS CLOSED
[founded in 387—bce]
The development of a religious melting pot, pagan influence, was discouraged by Emperor Justinian.
[This decision was the start of the MIDDLE AGES in the west. The Academy’s philosophers/professors fled to Persia: the east. They revered Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle and continued teaching their wisdom: thereby influencing “new-upcoming” prophets.
These new-begotten prophets founded new religions: Resurrection gave way to reincarnation. Some of these “cocktail” religions have survived until today. The Yazidi of Iraq believe in reincarnation; their emblem is a peacock. The Alawites of Syria and the Alevis of Turkey (Shi’a rooted) believe in reincarnation; unlike orthodox Islam. The Druze of Lebanon, their religion is fascinating; though its origin is Shi’a, they accept the Hindu idea that the soul (Atman) is neither born nor dies. Babies must be born in Lebanon because reincarnation happens through/via them.
I was curious to know what Plato had to say about “the” SOUL. So I read his famous book The Republic—better understood today as State or Society.
Homer was revered and quoted. On Death: no longer do the sinews hold the bones and the flesh. When first the spirit has abandoned the white bones and the soul flies off (flutters) like a dream . . .
Plato believed that from the beginning of time the soul existed. The question was: for what reason—why—it entered the body? And: how was it possible that it had “some pre-existent knowledge”? Well, the soul must have had a “pre-existent life”!
It was the Iron Age when Plato wrote this. He thought that pre-existent knowledge had somehow to do with “inherited memory”: it was in the bones. If spirit was in the bones, then the soul was in the flesh; blood, circulating in the body, was soul. That’s why in those days it was so important for a man to be buried by his children; no offspring, he no longer had his soul. [the Drama of MEDEA; bloodline terminated--DNA]
The immortality of the soul in the afterlife is revealed in The Myth of Er. The free soul of the living (non-physical mode of existence) continued as the soul of the dead but had to pursue an afterlife.
PLATO: “Music heals”
Music is a moral law.
It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination,
and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.
Music is balm to the soul.
GALEN of Pergamon [Physician]
[129-ce—216-ce]
The immortal soul is in the empty spaces of the head
VICTOR HUGO [1802—1885]
The soul has illusions as the bird has wings: it is supported by them.
THOMAS HOBBES [1588—1679]
Soul is a delusion
SIGMUND FREUD [1856—1939]
Illusions command themselves to us because they save us pain—and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. So, accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a ‘bit’ of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.
Today in America, we worship in Christian churches, synagogues, Mormon temples, mosques, Meeting Houses: Quakers & Baha’i, Sikh temples, Buddhist stupa, Zoroastrian temple (Chicago), and the many esoteric religions founded since the 16th century with their places of worship.
What they all have in common is the belief that
we, earthlings, are created
FOR A SPECIAL PURPOSE:
the miracle of resurrection
or
rebirth through reincarnation
I have a body but I am not my body.
I have feelings but I am not my feelings. There is in me a state of feeling.
I have a mind but I am not that mind.
The body, the feelings and the mind are
instruments of experiences, perceptions and actions.
The I is simple, unchanging, constant and self-conscious
through the instrumentality of the breath-of-life
COMING UP: ANGEL TALK
Email your feedback about the story to the author at rosecamelia@verizon.net.