For me, jesus is in the image of the periodic table. To me, the PT is like a still picture. "I and the father are one", some 17 fields and 4 forces (so far). Its a representation of a series of events. But hey, I have to remember that I and my group are the only real "hole-ly" ones so everybody else comes up short.
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Jesus Christ, Made In Our Likeness
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bilby
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The Periodic Table isn't just a picture, it's a map.
It describes a real territory, and it was originally useful as an aid to explorers seeking to fill in the unknowns, and is now a guide to the ways in which atomic electron shells interact, and why. It provides the starting point for more detailed explorations of such things as isotopes, radioactivity, and the other three forces, though it directly addresses none of these in any detail (The relative atomic masses that formed an important part of its development are aggregate masses, for example, and only hint at the array of stable isotopes found in nature).
If you think that the periodic table is like a still picture, then you have understood neither its origins, nor its current and past uses. In its earliest form, it showed the areas that were known, and directed us to the unknown areas still to be mapped. Since then it has been used to guide more detailed analysis of its interesting features (Why is Technetium 'missing'? Why does the table get wider and wider the further you go up in Atomic number? What happens at the end, and how far can we extend the table? Is there an 'island of stability' beyond the known heaviest elements? Where does Hydrogen fit, and why? ...). Each question leads to more discoveries, and more and better questions that are tied back to real world phenomena that, before the Periodic Table, were mysterious - but many of which are now understood.
Jesus is just gossipy hearsay. A set of stories about alleged acts of an alleged individual. It's about as useful for understanding reality as watching The Days of Our Lives or The Bold and the Beautiful. And any questions raised are never going to be definitively answered, as everyone involved is long dead.
Jarhyn
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Another unfortunate aspect of religion is in fact a theme of Dune, though to be fair I didn't really catch this the first couple times I read/watched Dune because it was buried in my disgust of being forced to read another excessively "chosen-one Blueblood hero" story, though to my defense I was young and hadn't been introduced to "hero isn't heroic" themes yet so I wasn't primed to catch it:
For some time, a variety of interests have attempted to commandeer and engineer fulfillment of a prophecy for political gain.
These are attempting to create a kind of "Jesus" in their own likeness: greedy, wealthy, without shame, and unrepentantly criminal. It seems almost like an engineered effort to release biblical scale plagues on the world through selective messaging about science and vaccination, an effort to release biblical scale wars, and rumors of wars, ahead of events that will, unfortunately, comport with Revelation.
Some wish to usurp the position of God as it exists "over" religion with themselves. In some respects the religious dogma exists for the sake of someone to step into it, as was the case in Dune.
We must be careful with people who would step into the position left behind after a prophet or a position of prophecy.
In some respects, I do wish there was a god of this world, but what I want is not the arbiter of what is. Instead, what is is arbitrated by the laws of physics, and the available subjects of observation. And what I see happening within physics is a slow turn of society by human actors towards unheard-of levels of suffering for the sake of gaining temporary control over the fires as the world burns because those with the power to response and just didn't want to listen to the reasoning as to why they should.
Hopefully we can pull it out of the fire on our own... I have my doubts, though.
For some time, a variety of interests have attempted to commandeer and engineer fulfillment of a prophecy for political gain.
These are attempting to create a kind of "Jesus" in their own likeness: greedy, wealthy, without shame, and unrepentantly criminal. It seems almost like an engineered effort to release biblical scale plagues on the world through selective messaging about science and vaccination, an effort to release biblical scale wars, and rumors of wars, ahead of events that will, unfortunately, comport with Revelation.
Some wish to usurp the position of God as it exists "over" religion with themselves. In some respects the religious dogma exists for the sake of someone to step into it, as was the case in Dune.
We must be careful with people who would step into the position left behind after a prophet or a position of prophecy.
In some respects, I do wish there was a god of this world, but what I want is not the arbiter of what is. Instead, what is is arbitrated by the laws of physics, and the available subjects of observation. And what I see happening within physics is a slow turn of society by human actors towards unheard-of levels of suffering for the sake of gaining temporary control over the fires as the world burns because those with the power to response and just didn't want to listen to the reasoning as to why they should.
Hopefully we can pull it out of the fire on our own... I have my doubts, though.