Why I am a member here even though I am a Christian

[Keith&Co.]

Are you the author or did you just do a takeoff of it based on religion?

I did a few spin-offs, showed them to the original author, who approved, as long as i removed the ones that were straight copies off his list.

I also have a list of things Ensign Skippy can no longer do on the USS Enterprise.

Cool. I now have new reading material. Thanks.

Sure.

As for my email addresses - I do have to have one with a professional name for my job. Deponent sayeth not regarding all the rest......

Professional? Feh.

I work as a corporate instructor for a military contractor. My cubicle still looks like a mall kiosk for ThinkGeek.

 

[Ruth Harris]

Apparently, then, belief of this type must be part of your ontology, and so you can come to a choice. I was not such a proactive searcher, but rather just a curious observer, and remain a curious observer to this day. There are no religions that base themselves on being curious and making observations so I will likely remain nonreligious.

Are you baptized? Are you familiar with henotheism?

I have done a little study on metaphysics too and you may be right about it being part of my being. Perhaps this is where the Calvinists came up with the "chosen before the foundations of the world" concept.

Yes, I was baptized (by immersion, as was mandated by the Baptists. Still think they overemphasize this). I vaguely remember seeing henotheism mentioned in my study of Judaism; are we talking about the same thing here? Many gods, only one worthy of worship?

Ruth

 

[Ruth Harris]

Okay, I just finished the Skippy and the pulpit list. My sides hurt from laughing so hard I do have to say that some of the things on that list sounded strangely..... familiar. Did you get any of that from real life?

I also have a list of things Ensign Skippy can no longer do on the USS Enterprise.

Oh please, PLEASE can you post that?

And my son and I both have spent a fair amount of time and money with ThinkGeek. Good stuff, at least until they were bought by GameStop. Seems to have gone downhill some since then. But I guess that was to be expected.

Thanks for the entertainment!

Ruth

 

[DrZoidberg]

Ready to test your faith?

I'm actually in the mood for this. Do you know of any Christian site I could go to to give them an opportunity to convert me? I'm up for anything. Any religion really. But why not Christianity.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Apparently, then, belief of this type must be part of your ontology, and so you can come to a choice. I was not such a proactive searcher, but rather just a curious observer, and remain a curious observer to this day. There are no religions that base themselves on being curious and making observations so I will likely remain nonreligious.

Are you baptized? Are you familiar with henotheism?

I have done a little study on metaphysics too and you may be right about it being part of my being. Perhaps this is where the Calvinists came up with the "chosen before the foundations of the world" concept.

Yes, I was baptized (by immersion, as was mandated by the Baptists. Still think they overemphasize this). I vaguely remember seeing henotheism mentioned in my study of Judaism; are we talking about the same thing here? Many gods, only one worthy of worship?

Ruth

All the known gods would be worthy of veneration but there would be a preferred deity. The Athenians and their worship of Athena is a classic example.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Okay, I just finished the Skippy and the pulpit list. My sides hurt from laughing so hard I do have to say that some of the things on that list sounded strangely..... familiar. Did you get any of that from real life?

A couple.
When you make a suggestion at most workplaces to ensure a project gets off to a good start with a burnt offering, people laugh or they laugh uneasily.

In my office, they start moving to the parking lot, enthusiastic and energized.

Oh please, PLEASE can you post that?

Check your private messages for links to all my trek humor (as opposed to the straight-up Trek porn...)

 

[Ruth Harris]

Ready to test your faith?

I'm actually in the mood for this. Do you know of any Christian site I could go to to give them an opportunity to convert me? I'm up for anything. Any religion really. But why not Christianity.

Don't have a clue. I haven't participated on religious message boards since Rev. Joshua's closed down. Of course, there is always the Rapture Ready board http://rr-bb.com/forum.php (Had to hunt up this link since it has been next to forever since I worked up my courage enough to look there)

Wanna take bets on how long it takes for them to ban you? Or maybe they won't even let you register if you tell them you are an atheist; that seems to be a favored position with a lot of fundamentalist sites.

Ruth

 

[Ruth Harris]

I have done a little study on metaphysics too and you may be right about it being part of my being. Perhaps this is where the Calvinists came up with the "chosen before the foundations of the world" concept.

Yes, I was baptized (by immersion, as was mandated by the Baptists. Still think they overemphasize this). I vaguely remember seeing henotheism mentioned in my study of Judaism; are we talking about the same thing here? Many gods, only one worthy of worship?

Ruth

All the known gods would be worthy of veneration but there would be a preferred deity. The Athenians and their worship of Athena is a classic example.

I do remember something like that. Probably in my review of polytheism. But what stuck in my mind more than that was the fact that early Judaism acknowledged the existence of multiple gods. They just thought that YHWH was the only one worthy of worship.

Ruth

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

All the known gods would be worthy of veneration but there would be a preferred deity. The Athenians and their worship of Athena is a classic example.

I do remember something like that. Probably in my review of polytheism. But what stuck in my mind more than that was the fact that early Judaism acknowledged the existence of multiple gods. They just thought that YHWH was the only one worthy of worship.

Ruth

Attributable to cultural selection. Yahweh was a man god, not an earth mother, a good fit for a patriarchal society.

 

[none]

Ready to test your faith?

I am still not sure why you are asking this - why is it necessary for my faith to be tested in whatever manner you think is appropriate? You have to know that I would consider it a waste of time. I am not trying to be offensive here; I just want to know what benefit you think this will have for either of us.

Ruth

I am not asking for you to let me test your faith.
You didn't understand the word atheist, and have yet to understand I am asking you to test your faith.
it would benefit you to know what you believe is valid and true.
People that know what they believe is valid and true have an advantage to those that do not know if their faith is true.
You can make wise decisions based on correct information
Are you ready to test your faith?

 

[Sarpedon]

Yes, the tendency towards monotheism was going on everywhere in the Mediterranean world during that era. Multiple gods were simply combined into ever more powerful, Voltron-like deities, and eventually one, all powerful god emerged.

The Egyptians were the pioneers of this, with many composite gods throughout their history, as the Pharaohs attempted to combine deities worshipped in different parts of the country into a unified, state sponsered religion. Early versions included Amun-Ra and Isis-Hathor. The real action came with the ascension of Akhenaten as Pharaoh, and his introduction of the world's first Monotheist religion: that of the Aten, or Ra-Horus, the universal sun-god. All other Egyptian religions were suppressed during his reign. However, this proved too radical for the Egyptians, and when he died (or was overthrown, it is unclear) the Aten religion was suppressed, and polytheism resumed. The story isn't over though. When the Greeks and the Romans conquered Egypt, they seized upon the tradition of combining gods, and engaged in it themselves, not just in Egypt, but throughout their empires. So you start to see deities like Serapis (Osiris, Apis, and Hades), Baal-Jupiter, Isis-Aphrodite etc etc. The final composite deity to compete with Christianity was that of Sol Invictus, or the Unconqurable Sun, another solar deity, combining Apollo, Ra, Horus, and any number of other solar deities.

Judaism of course was also heavily influenced by the dualistic Zoroastrian faith, and can be seen as a composite of Canaanite religion and Zoroastrianism, with the tendency towards monotheism driven by ambitious kings wishing to cement their power in the same manner of the Pharoahs. When Christianity came along, it seemed perfectly natural to combine Judaism with the philosophy of Socrates, the holy family of Horus, some of the life stories of heroes such as Hercules and Adonis, and a death and resurrection story akin to that of Orpheus, Dionysus, and any number of minor mythical figures.

The more you look at them in context, the less remarkable Christianity and Judaism appear.

 

[Ruth Harris]

Wow. Really nicely summarized, Sarpedon. You were able to cover a great deal of history in a succinct and very readable way. I wish I had your talent.

Ruth

 

[J842P]

I do remember something like that. Probably in my review of polytheism. But what stuck in my mind more than that was the fact that early Judaism acknowledged the existence of multiple gods. They just thought that YHWH was the only one worthy of worship.

Ruth

Attributable to cultural selection. Yahweh was a man god, not an earth mother, a good fit for a patriarchal society.

I believe there is some evidence that Yahweh originally had a female counterpart. Historically my understanding is that the trend was typical Canaanite polytheism during the tribal bronze-age, which evolved to worshipping Yahweh as a warrior-diety/ national-god by the early iron age, coinciding with the rise of the Kingdom's of Israel and Judeah. It wasn't until the Babylonian captivity that we see a change to a more radical monotheism - why did God allow us to be conquered? We didn't worship him hard enough! Rabbinic Judaism - the form we would recognize today - didn't develop for almost another 1000 years, and largely as a result of friction between the Jews and Rome, culminating in yet another sacked Temple and diaspora.