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
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