Reasonable Doubt About "Adaption Theory"

Why didnt Jesus give us any NEW information before we discovered it ourselves? Using the History of Science this article demonstrates a reasonable doubt about the idea that Jesus adapted his teaching to suit humans. While I don't think there is actually a theory called "Adaption Theory", there should be to encapsulate this idea that the ancients were not sophisticated enough to handle the truth. All of the characters in the bible had contemporaries in science. This article lists the more famous ones, briefly describes what they did and provides a link to more information about them. I rushed to get this out in support of Johns article The Accomodation Theory of the Bible.

Did you ever wonder why there is no mention of any of the Ice Ages in the Bible? They took so much time to detail the parameters of the ark but didn't spend a word on "there was time when the world was frozen, and the melting ice caused the flood!". It would not have made it any more true, but it would have made it more plausible and hard to deny.

Did you ever wonder why a God on Earth wouldn't allot some time to write anything down?

Pythagoras, not a prophet, just a sinner, is reportedly to have said "numbers are the essence of things" at least 500 years before Jesus and a thousand years before Mohammad. This appears to be true since many discoveries about nature occurred through mathematics. If Jesus had given us a clue about the concept of Zero (discovered by Ptolemy about 130 ad, then rediscovered between 598 - 876) we may have been able to develop more quickly in terms of technology and intellect. Many medical, charitable, evangelical (etc..) organizations greatly benefit from technology enabled by mathematics that use zero. Jesus could have busted many incorrectly held beliefs that could have been empirically verified through the ages.

Jesus could have given us Ptolemies Tables before Ptolemy (140ce) or got the jump on Dioscorides (50ce) and wrote a little something about pharmacology. Jesus could have told us that the world is not flat and that the stars are not rooted in a dome over the earth. Eratosthenes (240 bc) proved the world was not flat and Tyco Brahe (1577) proved there were no domes around the earth. If these had come from divine revelation from a prophet, just think how much this fact would support a belief in Jesus.

Instead Zero came from the Hindus and Algebra came from the Muslims (generally speaking) and Jesus apparently erroneously predicted his return before all his apostles died (Mt. 16:28).

Jesus could have told us about the earths water cycle, precipitation, how to build better materials, how to improve sanitation, how to handle infections better, how to do agriculture better, that God doesn't live in the clouds, etc. Jesus should have come as the engineer/leader/politician type anticipated by the Jews. He could have changed the face of politics forever.

Jesus could have told us about the Fibonacci series in Nature, Quantum Mechanics (1900), the Chaos theory (1903) that there is energy stored in matter (1905), Jesus could have told us that randomness in a closed system, much like what can be demonstrated by running a 'chaos theory' program on a computer, is common in nature. Jesus could have told us about Evolution (1859).

Jesus could have prevented or corrected the errors in the old testament regarding the flat earth and the domed sky, or the fact that anything with wings (Lev.11:23), that is not mythical, does not have four legs or the Pi is not three, or all the other ones listed here at this site. Even Jesus philosophy of reciprocity or "the golden rule" first appeared in "The tale of the Eloquent Peasant" between 1670 - 1640s BC, a good four hundred years before it was attributed to Moses.

I know that scripture are not history or science treatise, but heck, even Dan Brown gets facts about the world he lives in correct and scientists make predictions that get verified all the time and they are just a human.

Here's a list of People that added new information to the world that were, more or less, contemporaries of Moses, Jesus and Mohammad

- BCE 3000 Astronomy Egyptians, Babylonians and Chinese
- BCE 530 Pythagorus - Pythagorean theorem
- BCE 350 Aristotle - Started biological classifications for animals, founded western philosophy.
- BCE 320 Theophrastus - Started botanical science
- BCE 300 Euclid - "Father of Geometry"
- BCE 260 Archimedes - Inventor and discoverer of Priciples of Density and Buonancy.
- BCE 240 Eratosthenes - Proved the world was round, first to calculate the size of it.
- BCE 134 Hipparchus - Developed accurate models of motion for sun and moon
- CE 50 Dioscorides - Wrote the first five books that started Pharmacology
- CE 140 Ptolemy - Discovered methods to model the solar system and map the Earth.
- CE 180 Galen - Set the standard for Modern medicine
- CE 876 Brahmagupta - Discovered Zero, the most important discovery in mathematics.

Why doesn't God give his religious leaders or scientists verifiable revelations?

There's no time like the present! Here's a list of past and present from Wikipedia but I'm sure you know some more that I missed.

- List of Christian Thinkers in Science
- List of Muslim Scientists

As far as I know, not one of them has said "God gave me a revelation when I was praying one day. It had nothing to do with dedicating a large portion of my life to research. Here's the proof, you can verify it for yourselves."

The Identity Crisis of Deconversion

This is a tribute to some very brave commenters. Wrestling with God is one of the hardest things you will ever do. I don't care if you keep your faith or not. It doesn't matter to me. What does matter to me and actually gets me choked up is the situation you find yourself in now. I remember what it was like and it was a very sad time for me.

I have a similar story to you. I was the adult bible study teacher, led the singing every sunday, usually sang the lead in the Christmas Cantata, was the 'goto guy' and a pillar of the community, etc. But in the process of my deconversion, I had no one to talk to. No one wanted to hear it. Those that did said to pray about it. But how can they understand that praying doesn't fix it? Praying is part of the problem. They said during and afterwards that I wasn't working hard enough, or doing it right, but just have faith. In the speed of a thought, I went from being a good guy to a bad guy. When I wasn't a Christian anymore I became an Atheist. I went from being morally sound to immoral. I lost a part of myself. It was like losing a spouse or child or parent. I lost my Identity. And I lost the kind of friendships that I used to have. For me, everything changed. I had a library full of christian appologetics and commentaries, I had invested so much time in the church and studying the bible. I was forever going to be a different person. I miss the fellowship, and I guess that is one of main reasons I joined DC, to talk about it and share my experiences with people like you. Now I dabble in reasoning and philosophy. I don't want to get fooled again.
Take care and good luck.
lee

Holy Spirit and the Analogy of the Flame

This article compares the Holy Spirit to a flame and attempts to weaken the claims found in the bible about the Holy Spirit. The flame informs in a way that the Holy Spirit does not.

If we say that
- God is real,
- the Holy Spirit is God,
- the Holy Spirit lives in every christian and that
- the requirements for the indwelling of the spirit are that the person must necessarily profess faith in Jesus Christ and
- the Holy Spirit gives guidance and understanding,
All Christians should understand the same thing. There should be no major disagreement. If we say that God loving Christians wouldn't think of disobeying God intentionally then in theological matters that they don't have any personal preference but state a belief anyway we can assume that they must have gotten guidance from somewhere. Lets say its the Holy Spirit since they should meet the criteria and Lord knows this influence wouldn't come from their geographical area or culture or any other persuasive factors. An example of Christians like this would be my Grandparents or Aunts and Uncles, parents, etc.

Peoples thoughts, attitudes and behavior can be manipulated by stimulating or changing parts of the brain, and it can be shown through fMRI how the brain reacts during thought processes. Behavior and attitudes can be manipulated and monitored through physical means. It can be inferred that if the Holy Spirit exists and has the ability to influence, then it has the ability to manipulate physical properties in the brain as well. If we say that the Holy Spirit is real and is able to influence, not force, then someday we should be able to see this effect in brain monitoring techniques. I would think that some force could be measured as it exerts influence in the brain. Using nano-technology, we can now break the blood brain barrier and research groups are trying to develop tiny sensors able to better monitor the brain from the inside. Recently, in animal research, scientists have mapped a memory, and documented the expanding web-like participation of neurons as an animal learned. In one human case, researchers were able to predict what a person was thinking (within the protocol) with about 80% reliability. I would like to see Christians investigate the hypothesis that the Holy Spirit may be able to be measured in the Lab. However, in my opinion, it's not likely that it would be distinguishable from natural processes and would generate more of that "can't test God" talk the way prayer studies do.

But failing that, if we stipulate that the Holy Spirit is real then maybe we can compare it to a flame. Since it appeared as a flame at Pentecost, it seems appropriate. If we think about a flame, we can safely assume that equally dispersed about the world is the belief that if we put our hand in it we will get burned. We can also safely assume that we all know enough about the properties of a flame to work with it. So if we were to tell someone something obvious about it such as "If you put your hand in the flame you will get burned" they will probably not argue with us. And if we tell them that paper exposed to a flame doesn't burn they would justifiably disagree. You could try this in China, Israel, Saudi Arabia, India and Italy and the results would all be the same. The reason is that it is a real phenomena and people have unmistakable experience with it. They can choose to deny it but the evidence will contradict them in the eyes of any rational person. The flame informs.

Now if we think about the Holy Spirit, and consider it real, and able to manipulate physical properties, then not only should we be able to measure it but we should find that God loving Christians of the sort that wouldn't think of disobeying God, should not have any theological disagreements between themselves and any other denomination which arguably would have thier own God loving Christians of the sort that wouldn't think of disobeying God either. But try this, do a google search for 'salvation AND baptism' and try to figure out if you need to be baptized or not to get into heaven. Since Salvation is what Christianity is all about, I would think it would be obvious how it happens.

The flame informs in a way that the Holy Spirit doesn't. A person can keep their hand in a flame, or not. It's their choice. They can use it wisely or foolishly, its their choice. Most of the time they behave in the manner which minimizes the risk of harm to themselves and others because they know through experience what it entails. They learn things about the flame by dealing with it. We can assume that if there really were a Holy Spirit that was distinguishable to them, Christians would all have been informed about the same things and chosen not to disregard its guidance.

For more of this sort of heresy, see my other Holy Spirit articles.

Introduction To Hindu Scriptures

This article presents information relating to the similarities between two human personifications of God, Lord Krishna and Lord Jesus but it will not discuss or speculate on the historicity of either.

Background: What are the Hindu Scriptures?
There are enough Hindu Scriptures to fill up a library, but the following represent some of the most widely used.

The Vedas
The Vedas are a collection of four texts written in Sanskrit (from the Indo-European language family)  that represent the earliest set of Hindu Scripture and are considered to be divinely revealed.  Their earliest origin so far has been traced back to the people that occupied the steppes of Central Asia.  They are referred to as Aryans or Indo-Aryans.  Aryans migrated into the Indus Valley from the steppes of central asia in the second millenium BCE, bringing  with them the Veda, an oral tradition of knowledge primarily concerned with ritual.  The Veda is thought to have existed as oral tradition from 2300 BCE to 1200 BCe before it was finally written down. The Aryan culture intermingled with the culture of the Indus valley to produce the Hindu tradition, and the Veda emerged as Hinduism most sacred authority.

The vedas are organized into four volumes called Samhitas, and each is concerned with a particular aspect or ritual.
- The Rigveda is the oldest and most important. It contains over a thousand hymns of praise to Gods and Goddesses called Mantras and they are used in rituals.
- Yajurveda which gives instructions for sacrifices
- Samaveda contains melodies, the songs had to be just right to be effective
- Atharvaveda spells and incantations for healing rituals

The Upanishads
The Upanishads were composed in the Axial Age between 800 - 400 BCE.  They are considered to be divinely revealed knowledge and the authors are unknown.  They were intended to be "A Path of Wisdom" to try to escape the cycle of reincarnation, Bagavad Gita. They require renunciation of worldly attachments and introspection.


The Baghavad Gita
The Baghavad Gita is the most popular and it represents a comprehensive overview of Hindu Religion.  It is commonly referred to as "The Gita".  It is the text of a conversation between Krishna (the God Vishnu in human form) and a soldier called Arjuna shortly before the start of the Kurukshetra war.  It is considered by Hindus to be a practical guide to life.

Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata Purana is known to have existed before 500 BCE. is so important that it is sometimes called "the Fifth Veda". It is notable for its emphasis on the practice of devoted worship (bhakti), for redefining dharma and for the depth of its description of God in human form. The Bhagavata and the Bhagavad Gita are used by the Hindu faith group called the Vaishnavas to demonstrate Vishnus authority over the other forms of God.

Lesser scripture but important for the text the follows
the Kalki Purana is believed to have existed before the 1500's and was derived from the earlier 18 major Puranas which were in existence prior to 500 BCE.

Dharma-Sastras
written about the first century CE, or about time of Jesus. It covers the topic of Dharama. It clarified what Dharma was and how it applied to each Caste in the Hindu Social Heirarchy.

Shared Mythic Elements
Arguments can be found that claim that Horus, Mithra and Krishna are all the same myth modified for the audience, applied to Jesus, and/or that in the missing eighteen years of Jesus story that he actually lived and studied in Tibet during his eighteen years that are unaccounted for and taught modified concepts from the Vedas. Here is a link to two videos from a passionate British Hindu detailing the evidence to support the Krishna, Jesus, Tibet relationship.

This Video does not seem to be scholarly or authoritative, but it does give a good introduction to the concept of syncretism with regard to the inclusion of aspects of Hinduism into Christianity. Below the link is my summary of the video.

From YouTube: Jesus, Krishna and India: Part 1. Similarities between Krishna and Christ.



<>
These are only two videos made by one evangelist, but there are many variations of this tale that are hundreds of years old. The key here is that they all claim to be the truth, and they all claim to have evidence, so then it all boils down to the evidence and I think we can all agree that in all cases the evidence is circumstantial and largely unverifiable. Yet that doesn't stop them from promoting and endorsing this view to be taken up by others. The analog is the Christian Evangelist.

JESUS, THE REST OF THE STORY (SO THEY SAY)
There are claims that Jesus was taken to India and studied there during the missing 18 years of his life. During the new testament he was referred to as teacher, or the Hindu equivalent, Guru. There are also claims that he survived crucifixion and returned to India where he continued his teaching and where he finally died.

Here is a link to the previous article outlining some similarities between Hindu Folklore and Christian Folklore
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WISDOM LITERATURE OF THE NEAR EAST
The Link between Biblical cultures and East Asia is undeniable.
MAGI FROM THE EAST from The Church of God Daily Bible Study
"Magi, from the Greek word pronounced magoi, originated as a religious class from Babylon or Persia."
Babylon was in modern day Iraq, Persia is now Iran, has a border with Pakistan, and Pakistan is where the Indus River is, the origin of the Ancient Vedic Civilization and where India gets its ENGLISH name.

babylonian captivity

====
WORD
matt 16:16 "you are the christ, the son of the living god"

The words Krishna and Christ are similar in many different languages. They all seem to have the same root.

Greek "KRISTOS", used to translate into hebrew "meshiac"
Sanskrit equivalent is "Krista" which is a variant of "Krishna"
a Bengali word for Krishna is Kristo

==
BIRTH
massacre of the innocents
Matthew 2:16 (New American Standard Bible)
16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi.

Born in counter-intuitive places,
Bagavata Canto 10, 1:65-66 - Krishna in a prison cell
Luke 2:7 - Jesus in a stable

==
SHEPHERD
- John 10:11, "I am the Good Shepherd",
- Krishna depicted as a herder, two of his titles are "finder of cows" and "protector of cows"
Asiatic mythology: a detailed description and explanation of the mythologies, By J. Hackin, et al

===
TEACHINGS
BHAGAVAD GITA

"The Bhagavad Gita, usually considered part of the sixth book of the Mahabharata (dating from about 400 or 300 B.C.), is a central text of Hinduism, a philosphical dialog between the god Krishna and the warrior Arjuna."
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/index.htm#gita
----------
ALPHA AND OMEGA
- Revelation 1:8 "I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending saith the lord, 'which is, and which was, and which is to come, the almighty'"

- Bhagavad gita, 10:20: "I am the supersoul, O Arjuna, seated in teh heart of all living entities, I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings"

KINGDOM OF GOD
luke 4:43 told people to gout and preach the kingdom of god
mark 1:15 "the kingdome of god is at hand"

Video index: 3:58
- bag gita 2:72 "That [living free from desires] is the way of the spiritual and godly life if one is thus situated even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God."

--------
MAT 8:22 "Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead"

Video Index: 4:27
- bag 2:11 "While speaking learned words, you are mourning for that which is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead"

----------
rom 2:11 "for there is no partiality with god", or NIV "god does not show favortism"
bag 9:29 "I envy no-one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all"


---------
Video Index: 5:03
- Matt 5:44 Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you"

BAG 12:18 "One who is equal to friends and enemies; who is equipoised in honor and dishonor such a person is very dear to me"

----

Video Index: 5:33
- John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me"

BAG 10:8 "I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from me"

------------------------
RIDER ON A WHITE HORSE
Revelation 6:2) "And I saw, and behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering and to conquer"

v6:49
rev 19:11-13, 15-16) "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew but he himself...and his name is called The Word of God...and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations...and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS"

Kalki Purana:
Hindus believe that in when the world is intolerably wicked, Vishnu will come to earth in the tenth and final Great Incarnation as a human (avatar) riding a white horse named Kalki.
v8:13
- history of oral traditions and the danger of uttering the scriptures improperly
- hindus weren't concerned with chronological time so it wasn't common to keep track of times and dates of origin
The purana were mentioned as the "fifth" veda in Chandogya Upanishad (500 BCE) but the first written versions only go back to the Gupta Period from ~300-500 CE.

If the written version were preserved intact when they were written, then we have a record of a myth that existed in 500 BCE turning up in a new testament document from ~ 100 CE.

Brief Introduction To The Upanisads

This is the second article in a series of Brief Introductions to Hindu Scriptures. As with other ancient religious texts, these are generally considered to be divinely revealed. Divinely revealed information has all the problems identified by Information and Data Quality Dimensions, the most obvious are the Intrinsic dimensions of Accuracy, Believability, Objectivity and Reputation. Hinduism is the oldest religion and the Upanishads are generally considered "commentaries" on The Vedas.

The Upanishads
The Upanishads (or Upanisads, as I understand it, the "s" is spoken as an "sh") were composed between the Axial Age between 800 BCE and 1800 CE.  They were originally composed as oral tradition, then over time were written down.  They are considered to be divinely revealed knowledge and the authors are unknown.  They were intended to be "A Path of Wisdom" to try to escape the cycle of reincarnation. They require renunciation of worldly attachments and introspection.


Bagavad Gita

Request for Comments on Christian Inter-denominational Criticisms

[Rev. 20091121] If you would like to contribute, please add links to Christians criticizing other Christian denominations in the comments section. I'd like to populate the sidebar on the right with them. I'm going to take a break from posting anything for a couple of days to hopefully collect more comments and to work on some more content. To see whats in the works, you always can click on the "Quirp articles in draft" in the sidebar.
Thanks in Advance.

Faulty Analogy of Gods as Shepherds and "The Problem of Victimization"

Theists use a shepherd analogy to describe the relationship between Gods (i.e. Jesus and Krishna) and us. However, a simple seconds reflection or a trip to your local animal shelter should reveal the flaw in that analogy.  Theists who follow a loving, caring characteristically good god have spent thousands of years trying to resolve the Problem of Evil.  I say, why worry about the WHOLE problem of evil? Good problem solving techniques break complicated problems down into little pieces, so they should just pick a small piece and start there. Lets start with "The Problem Of Victimization".


Typically a culture that is nomadic will be pastoral.  Typically a culture that is settled will be agrarian. Their Gods reflect their culture.  That in itself is worthy of an article, but I'll just stick to the point. 

What is that Shepherds do? 
They protect the flock don't they?
They care for the flock don't they?
They run off predators. Predators are usually not the same type of animal as the herd, and are usually more vicious. 
Above all, Shepherds protect their investment.

The predators for humans are the same as for other types of animals, but humans have weapons on their side.

So that's one difference right there. But what about vicious, harmful or sickly animals in the herd? Well the Shepherd takes some action to perpetuate the health and welfare of the majority of the herd.  They separate the healthy majority from the vicious, harmful or sickly minority. They protect their investment.

Now go to the local animal shelter, or even (to a small degree) the local pet shop, the same principles apply there. 

So now, lets take the "Shepherds Principle" and apply it to Gods.  
Do Gods take some action to perpetuate the health and welfare of the rest of the human herd?  Do they separate the healthy majority from the vicious, harmful or sickly minority?
No they don't.
They let human children be abducted, raped and killed many times each day.

That means as shepherds they are intentionally permitting predation within the herd, are negligent or simply aren't there.

Using the principle of Occams razor to cross-check the "Shepherds Principle",
the simplest solution is that Gods really aren't there to act as shepherds.

So then, if they aren't there to act as shepherds, what is it they do?
Curioser, and curioser!

Scope, Definition, Equivocation and Semantic Drift

When talking with the Theists, they often misuse the word heart. They say things like "Know in your heart". I recommend not tolerating that type of thing and point out to them that hearts pump blood and can't know anything. By tolerating a loose use of terms, it promotes "entropy" in the meaning of the word, allowing the meaning to shift, thereby permitting equivocation to take place, thereby permitting an illicit type of confirmation and commitment or acceptance of its appropriateness, thereby propagating inaccurate information.


In the course of a conversation, do not lose track of the scope and definition of a word. In the case that it is being used incorrectly to make a point, draw attention to its improper usage.Do not implicitly commit to any ideas that you do not intend to, and that includes any discussions of Adam and Eve. Don't forget that a huge base of established knowledge and technology that depends on that established knowledge unequivocally show that scriptural descriptions of Human Origins are false. Yes, I know that it falsifies the top four religions in the world, but that is an indicator that we need to reassess our culture, values, principles and beliefs to fit with what we know.

Ancient Penguin DNA Raises Doubts About Accuracy of Genetic Dating Techniques

This ScienceDaily article demonstrates the strengths of the Scientific Method compared to other ways of acquiring knowledge. Reasonable people agree that reassessing knowledge with new information is necessary and is a good thing.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2009)

Penguins that died 44,000 years ago in Antarctica have provided extraordinary frozen DNA samples that challenge the accuracy of traditional genetic aging measurements, and suggest those approaches have been routinely underestimating the age of many specimens by 200 to 600 percent.

Summary
A certain method of genetic dating techniques is used as a standard. There was evidence to suggest that it was flawed. New information and evidence has been discovered to support previous evidence suggesting that the method was flawed. Now the method is being reassessed with regard to the new evidence. It also necessitates reassessing any conclusions that were made using that technique.

Reassessing Knowledge With New Information is a Good Thing
The benefit is that reassessing conclusions in light of new information get us closer to a better understanding of our world and to making better decisions.

Beyond Mesopotamia: A New View Of The Dawn Of Civilization

[Rev. 20091117] ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2007)

"For decades, school children have learned that human civilizationemerged about 5000 years ago along the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia,along the Nile, and along the Indus River. But archaeologists working in a broad arc from the Russian steppesthrough Iran and onto the Arabian Peninsula are finding evidence that acomplex network of cities may have thrived across the region in roughlythe same era, suggesting a dramatic new view of the emergence of humancivilization."

This is significant because up to this point, Euro-centric, Biblical archeology and (to a small degree) Nazi propaganda have skewed the view of civilizations origins and minimized the contribution of non-near eastern and non-semitic speaking cultures.

Mesopotamian Sandwich
Mesopotamia (Iraq), being regarded as "The Cradle of Civilization" and the proposed location of "the Garden of Eden", was sandwiched in the middle of Afro-Asiatic and Indo-European language families, each with their own culture and belief systems. 1600 BC or the Late Bronze age is an important date both for Anatolia (Turkey) and the Harrapan Civilization (Pakistan) [to the north west and south east of Mesopotamia (Iraq)] because those areas cultures show a marked change around that time probably as a result of Indo-European language speaking migrations from the area north of the Black and Caspian Seas and additionally Egypt experienced the immigration of the Hyksos semitic speaking people from the north.

He With the Most Toys Wins
That period is about the time the use of the spoked wheel chariot spread from Central Asia. There is a correlation between technology and human migrations around that time. It has been shown that there was a robust network of commerce between the Egyptians, the Harrapans (Pakistani) and the Anatolians (Turks) prior to that time putting the Levant/Fertile Crescent (Syria, Israel, Jordan, Iraq) in the middle and putting the modern day areas of Saudia Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Greece, the Persain Gulf, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea at the edges. The obvious inference is that cultures to the north were looking for raw materials to improve their situations, some of which would have been used for weapons to help them acquire more material.

My God! No, My God!
Areas of modern day Greece, Turkey, Palestine, and Pakistan all had a similar type of War/Storm God after that time. In my view, one of them probably evolved into the beloved Yahweh of the Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which correlates to the story of Abraham coming from Ur in Mesopotamia (traditional sources have it being Northern Mesopotamia corresponding to Edessa in Southeastern Turkey, and academic sources have it being in southern Mesopotamia close to the Persian Gulf) between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE as recorded in the Tanakh/Old Testament.

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme
There should be no doubt about how important the Near East was to the development of Agriculture and Civilization, but since it was so important, it made a good place to get raw material for those less fortunate to the north either by trade or force. See "The Kurgan Hypothesis" for more information.

The news article is an oldie but a goodie. Check out the list of similar articles in the Side bar of ScienceDaily's website.

Learn To Be Psychic In Ten Easy Lessons

From Skeptic Magazines website you can download the document for fun, games, sabotaging "psychic readings" and future reference.
Excerpt from the documents introduction follows below.

Psychic readings and fortunetelling are an ancient art—acombination of acting and psychological manipulation.
....
With only 24 hours to master palm readings, tarot cardreadings, astrological readings, and even talking to thedead, [Michael] Shermer had no problem convincing subjectsthat he had never met that he was psychic. The factthat he could perform reasonably well with only one dayof preparation shows just how vulnerable people are tothese very effective psychological manipulations.

When I was kid, I loved to play with "Magic Tricks" though the tricks were easy to understand and learn, the props were hard to master and expensive. Mental Magic doesn't require any physical dexterity, its cheap and just as easy to understand and learn. I own "Practical Mental Magic" by Theodore Annemann. Here is link to other similar books from Amazon. One of the books is not about mentalism but about acting. The term "cold reading" is a term used both to describe the "psychic" reading and as a term actors use to for when they read a script without rehearsal as in an audition. Those not familiar with the difference might get them confused.

How Do Theists Know That God Communicates With Them?

Recently I had a discussion with a religious friend and asked him what I consider to be a key defining question. I've tried to record the dialog here as accurately as I can, but obviously the following is not a transcript. During the course of the conversation the "relationship" topic came up.  Knowing that communication is an important part of a relationship I asked him "Does God talk to you?".

Does God talk to you?
He said "Yes".
I said "When?".
He said "Right now."
I said "Well, what's he saying?"
And he said "He wants you to know he loves you and he wants you to come back..." yada, yada, yada.

So I said "Harvey, my six foot rabbit friend standing here next to me says he doesn't believe you".
He laughed. So then I said "God, did you really say that?". Of course there was no answer.  Then I said to my friend, "That is exactly what I would expect to happen if he wasn't really there. You don't believe in Harvey, and if you ask him a question, he won't answer.  Either he's ignoring you, or he's not really there. You decide. But seriously though, how do you know the difference between the thoughts that normally occur to you and the ones that you think come from God?".
He said he didn't know, but he could tell the difference. 

What is the difference?
I told him that I thought he was just making stuff up, and that he didn't really know what was auto-generated by his brain and what came from God.  My point was that if there is no demarcation, no point of delineation then it should all be assumed to be auto-generated.  The reason why, and to draw a loose analogy, is that until a schizophrenic learns what schizophrenia is, they are quite certain they are interacting with voices and persons that are auto-generated by their brain.  And to a lesser degree, I know people that hear things that aren't there, I know I do, and I know that when I was in a band, under certain conditions I could hear a bass line that I would "copy" and use in our original songs. 

No one could hear the notes but me. That wasn't supernatural, I am sensitive to frequencies in a way that others aren't and I am quite sure that a spectrum analyzer would be able to detect them. Now that I'm older, when I'm in a noisy industrial environment, I can hear "beats", "partial melodies", "phones ringing", "voices", you name it. If it kicks off that portion of my brain that recognizes a sound, whether its the real sound or not, I hear it.

The Difference is Easy to See in Most Other Cases. It Can be Cross-checked.
This problem of differentiating between what is auto-generated and what is perceived is easy in all other cases.  When I communicate with people, I see it, or hear it.  It comes in through my eyes, ears etc. I know how I perceived it. The source of the information is known, and it is usually of a sort that is generally independently verifiable. It can be cross checked.  I don't have to resort to special pleading to get someone to believe that I have perceived the communication.  If I tell you that my friend told me something in the course of our dialog and if you knew who it was, you could ask him.  When I told my band mates that I heard the notes, then immediately played them, the possibility that hearing the notes might be supernatural never occurred to them.  We all understood feedback, resonance and harmonics so that was adequate to explain the way I could come up with the perfect bass line after listening to the song for a minute.  If it was from some spirit, let them take the bass out of my hands and show me like any other person would. A spirit appearing before my eyes and giving me a bass lesson would be incontrovertible evidence to me.

Not So With Gods.  
As I pointed out to my friend, if I ask God if he really said that to my friend, I don't get an answer, and other religious people are just as certain as he is that they have a relationship with their Gods, and when I ask those Gods to talk to me, they don't either. 

Special Pleading and Disconfirmation Bias
If God exists, and he talks to my friend, then my friend should be just as willing to accept that any other God exists, or that Harvey exists on the same grounds.  If not, then he's committing the fallacy of special pleading to support what he already believes and ignoring disconfirming evidence aka Disonfirmation Bias.

Special Pleading

Special Pleading from Wikipedia

...Essentially, this involves someone attempting to cite something as an exemption to a generally accepted rule, principle, etc. without justifying the exemption.

Theist Equivocation Of "Grace" Used in Combination With The Strategy of Minimization In Dialog.

Equivocate, from Dictionary.com

–verb (used without object), -cat⋅ed, -cat⋅ing.
to use ambiguous or unclear expressions, usually to avoid commitment or in order to mislead; prevaricate or hedge: When asked directly for his position on disarmament, the candidate only equivocated.

A Christian rejoinder at Debunking Christianity
Over at Debunking Christianity, I was making a comparison between the behavior of God and an irresponsible father in the myth of Adam and Eve like so

Twilight Z. Clown wrote: "He's the kind of dad that leaves matches laying around and tells the kid not to play with them, knowing full well they're going to play with them, and he's going to have to punish them."

As I write this I'd add "and critically injure themselves" if I could do it over again.

And my Christian counterpart answered as follows

Keep in mind that the OT writings are without the benefit of Jesus's example of spiritual salvation - so while God's grace allows a well loved enemy to infect the world with danger, God knowing this provides for salvation, not punishment. It is we who are drawn to the temptation to punish and condemn that which we do not love. Link

I ended with something like the following.
"Grace enough to let a well loved enemy infect the world with danger? That's incoherent".

It is incoherent because in this sense "Grace" is either a pardon for some previous act, or in its broadest sense, it is the freely given love of God. But if we go with the most general form, in the theologcial sense, we come up against the defintion of "Love".  Not to mention that fact that she totally ignored the bad consequences of disobeying god in an attempt to minimize the scope of the problem.

So in the sense that the Christian was using it, what we have is
"Gods freely given love permits a well loved enemy to infect the world with danger."

But what about the well loved non-enemies that are the victims of the well loved enemy? Then this must be an equivocation of Love because if I were to forgive a molesting relative and to extend my Grace to permit them to keep molesting my child, is that love or Grace?

No, its a blatant INCOHERENT equivocation, and it is a common strategy used by religious people in combination with "minimization" to try to answer for how a loving God could permit the continuance of unrestricted victimization that goes on in the world.

Now I came back and asked her what she meant by Grace, and she only used it as an example of why I don't understand. It was an evasive speech act. She was avoiding defining in what sense she was using the word.

Below is the complete definition of "Grace" from Dictionary.com. Its not authoritative of course, but its enough to see that the way religious people use the word "Grace" is incoherent.

Grace

–noun
1. elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action.

2. a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment.

3. favor or good will.

4. a manifestation of favor, esp. by a superior: It was only through the dean's grace that I wasn't expelled from school.

5. mercy; clemency; pardon: an act of grace.

6. favor shown in granting a delay or temporary immunity.

7. an allowance of time after a debt or bill has become payable granted to the debtor before suit can be brought against him or her or a penalty applied: The life insurance premium is due today, but we have 31 days' grace before the policy lapses. Compare grace period.

8. Theology.
a. the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God.

b. the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them.

c. a virtue or excellence of divine origin: the Christian graces.

d. Also called state of grace. the condition of being in God's favor or one of the elect.


9. moral strength: the grace to perform a duty.

10. a short prayer before or after a meal, in which a blessing is asked and thanks are given.

11. (usually initial capital letter) a formal title used in addressing or mentioning a duke, duchess, or archbishop, and formerly also a sovereign (usually prec. by your, his, etc.).

12. Graces, Classical Mythology. the goddesses of beauty, daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, worshiped in Greece as the Charities and in Rome as the Gratiae.

13. Music. grace note.

–verb (used with object)
14. to lend or add grace to; adorn: Many fine paintings graced the rooms of the house.

15. to favor or honor: to grace an occasion with one's presence.
—Idioms
16. fall from grace,
a. Theology. to relapse into sin or disfavor.

b. to lose favor; be discredited: He fell from grace when the boss found out he had lied.


17. have the grace to, to be so kind as to: Would you have the grace to help, please?

18. in someone's good (or bad) graces, regarded with favor (or disfavor) by someone: It is a wonder that I have managed to stay in her good graces this long.

19. with bad grace, reluctantly; grudgingly: He apologized, but did so with bad grace. Also, with a bad grace.

20. with good grace, willingly; ungrudgingly: She took on the extra work with good grace.

Resources

Yay, I'm under attack by Faith Based Thinkers! I'm somebody now!

Link to Faith Based thinking commenter
"you really need to add comment moderation to your blasphemy…"

"Please don't throw me in that briar patch!"
I'm going to feature you over in the sidebar. I'm even going to give a label for quick reference.
Please feel free to try your best to bring the blog down. You only make my case for me and drive my ranking up!
You silly person, you'll probably be the only one commenting.
*:O)
GOATS ON FIRE! YEE HAH!
And away we go!
thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thomas Jefferson Performed Data Cleansing On The Gospels

In 1804 Thomas Jefferson, one of The United States "Founding Fathers" published "The Life And Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" (online text). Today it is commonly known as the "Jefferson Bible". It was his attempt to preserve the teachings and philosophy of Jesus without the supernatural aspects and the parts that he perceived as misunderstandings and mistakes of the Gospel authors. This is one example of Data Cleansing of scripture, and remarkably, it was carried out by one of the most esteemed men in History.  It seems that Thomas Jefferson would agree that "once you get the God out of Wisdom Literature, it can be enjoyed by everyone".

Once You "Get The God Out", Wisdom Literature Can Be Enjoyed By Everyone.

Generally speaking, Wisdom Literature (<- that Wikipedia entry needs revision) are texts written intended to accumulate knowledge used to teach. Unfortunately Wisdom Literature is usually associated with local deities. The fact that it has been associated with a local deity, isolates it to a culture and makes it generally inaccessible to anyone not open to information associated with another culture or deity. Some examples of Wisdom Literature are easily found in the Scripture of most religions. To my disappointment, I've heard and seen people whom I respect very much, whom I consider to be intelligent, and who consider themselves "free thinkers", categorically discredit and disregard ideas contained in religious scripture as "Woo Woo" and irrelevant. An example of a religious concept that is relevant and adds value to civilization even without the God is Yoga and Meditation.   Once you get the God out of  Wisdom Literature, Wisdom can be enjoyed by everyone.

Brief Introduction To The Vedas

[Revised 20091103] This is the first article in a series of Brief Introductions to Hindu Scriptures. As with other ancient religious texts, these are generally considered to be divinely revealed. Divinely revealed information has all the problems identified by Information and Data Quality Dimensions, the most obvious are the Intrinsic dimensions of Accuracy, Believability, Objectivity and Reputation.  Hinduism is the oldest religion and the Vedas are its foundation.

I recommend browsing the articles embedded links and resources at the end for a better understanding of the material.

The Vedas are a collection of texts written in Sanskrit from the Indo-European language family of which most Western Languages are a member of.  The Vedas represent the earliest set of Hindu Scripture and are considered to be divinely revealed.  Their earliest origin so far has been traced back to the people that occupied the steppes of Central Asia. Those people are referred to as Aryans or Indo-Aryans.

Aryans migrated into the Indus Valley (modern Pakistan) in South Asia from the steppes of Central Asia in the second millennium BCE, bringing with them the Veda, an oral tradition of knowledge primarily concerned with ritual.  The Veda is thought to have existed as oral tradition from 2300 BCE to 1200 BCe before it was finally written down. The Aryan culture intermingled with the culture of the Indus valley to produce the Hindu tradition, and the Veda became Hinduisms most sacred authority.

The Veda is not structured using any organizational scheme a modern person would recognize and do not present any ordered theology.  The texts, at times, are inconsistent with each other.  However, the Veda is organized into four volumes called Samhitas, and each is concerned with a particular aspect or ritual.

•  The Rigveda (description; text online) is the oldest and most important. It contains over a thousand hymns of praise to Gods and Goddesses called Mantras and they are used in rituals. It discusses the Cosmic Order or Holy Law called Rita. A similar concept to Rita is the Greek concept of Logos, which appeared sometime between 500 - 400 BCE and which appears in the Gospel of John between 100 and 200 CE incarnated as Jesus. The English words Rite, Ritual, and Right are all derived from the same root as Rita.  Rita is concerned with order, harmony and morality. The Rigveda Hymn Of Creation (one of many cosmogonies it contains) has similar elements to Genesis.
  
•  Yajurveda gives instructions for sacrifices
•  Samaveda contains melodies, the songs had to be just right to be effective. The concept of sound, language and spoken word was very important to Hindus.  In the later Hindu Scriptures known as the Upanishads, Hindu cosmogeny has the sound of the Universe being created as AUM, and AUM is also regarded by some as being one of the names of God as well as a symbol for God. This importance of sound and word is similar to the universe being spoken into existence in the book of Genesis.
• Atharvaveda contains spells and incantations for healing rituals 

The Vedas were maintained and studied by the Brahmins (Priestly class) and were intended to be hidden from the rest of the population because their information was considered to be dangerous if not handled properly.

As mentioned above, the Vedas contain many conflicting cosmogonies, but generally the Veda says that reality is composed of three parts and was created by "That One" who ordained Rita. It says that 33 additional Gods or Devas were created that inhabit those parts and that they are not omniscient or omnipotent and that they are subject to Rita. The full pantheon of Gods expanded to the thousands. Hinduism is known as a "Henotheistic" religion which permits the worship of one God and the recognition of others.

The most referenced God in the Vedas is Indra. Indra was a God of Battle that brought success in War, similar to the Hebrew concept of Yahweh in the first five books of the Bible known as the Torah or Pentateuch. One of his other duties was as a God of Weather, similar to the Hittite God of Asia Minor in the Second Millenium BCE, and Marduke of Mesopotamia.  Indra slayed a Dragon of the waters, similar to Mardukes victory over Tiamat and similar to what Yahweh says about himself in the Book of Job. Leviathan, the Dragon of the waters, also makes an appearance in Psalms and Isaiah.

The second most referenced God is Agni. He was a God of Fire. This kind of fire worship has a parallel in Zoroastrianism, with burning as a symbol of purity, and in the Old Testament practice of burnt offerings.

Another Deva, Rudra, was known as "The Howler", he had no friends, he lived in the wild and was responsible for giving diseases to humans and healing them. He dressed in animal skins and had matted hair, an image similar to the biblical description of John the Baptist.  Rudra is believed to be a prototype of the God Shiva. 

Resources 
A Short History of Religious and Philosophic Thought in India by Swami Krishnananda