Lutherean Silliness

Martin Luther

Martin Luther is without a doubt one of the most important persons in the history of the Western Civilization and would rightly belong in any top ten list of the most important Religious figures in history however this doesn't mean he is not one of the silliest men in History.

Freeing the Mind

Part I

The emergence of Religious Toleration in the West



Book Cover

 

One of the most important features of our modern Western societies is religious tolerance. In fact it is such an intrinsic / organic feature of our societies that it gives the appearance of always being so. Well that is not the case at all.

Barnum was an Optomist
 

Glycon Coin

In the second century C. E. there lived in the Roman Empire a man named Alexander from the city of Abonoteichus on the Black Sea in modern day Turkey who was a wonder worker who established in the city of Abonoteichus a new Oracle that could answer questions and foretell the future. Of course Alexander was a fraud and so was his Oracle.

Revenge Fantasy

The Left Behind Books Part I

The Background – Hating America

First Book of the Left Behind series

Almost 20 years ago Tim LaHaye and his writer Jerry B. Jenkins started putting out one of the most successful publishing successes of the 1990’s and early 2000’s. This was of course the Left Behind series of books which sold in the millions upon millions and helped to make Tim LaHaye a major player in the Evangelical movement in America. What is of interest in this series of books is that they are a revenge fantasy of murderous wish fulfilment.1

Contours

Of Tyranny

Henry VIII

Henry VIII has been one of the most studied of English monarchs; a man who was indeed larger than life. In popular lore he is one of the best known of English rulers. Certainly he has been filmed multiple times. From the film The Private Life of Henry VIII, to Anne of a Thousand Days, to A Man for All Seasons and The Other Boleyn Girl there is an army of film portrayals of Henry VIII.1

“Freedom” Under a Tyranny

Isaiah Berlin

One of the most important attributes of tyranny and living under a tyranny is that intelligent people are forced to “trim their sails” in order to survive. Thus they are forced to compromise their intellect in order to stay both safe and alive. The corollary  that goes with that is that the holders of power can dictate what is “reasonable” and “rational” and their holding of power over people enables them to enforce their views against the will and intellect of others.

Sistine Chapel

The ceiling Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo  are among the greatest works of art ever conceived of by anyone. Here are some pictures of the Frescoes.

Plan of Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel

History Making

History’s (Non) Meaning

The Origins of Historicism

A Note

The Juggernaut

One of the most pernicious of Man’s near infinite catalogue of delusions is the pernicious notion that “History” has a meaning. That this idea is nonsense that should be allowed to float away on its own vacuous emptiness is rather obvious but the notion has had and will continue to have a truly pernicious effect on human beings, given its effects on how human’s behave.

Oh My Goddess!*

The Great Mother of Teotihuacan

A Note

Near Mexico City is the great ruin of the city of Teotihuacan, which was a major metropolitan centre from c. 0-650 C.E. The city with its quite impressive architecture and its two huge pyramids, one called the pyramid of the Sun, the other the Pyramid of the Moon, has been the object of much speculation and an enormous amount of spade work over the years. One of the perennial questions has been the nature of its chief God. Well it appears we have an answer its chief God was a Goddess.

The Great Peace

The Taiping Rebellion

A Note

Taiping Imperial Seal

In the mid-19^th century China was convulsed by a series of rebellions that almost overthrew the Qing, called by foreigners the Manchu, Dynasty. The most serious of these challenges to Qing rule was the Taping Rebellion that lasted more than 15 years before the last embers were snuffed out. (1850-1866).1

True Faith

The French Wars of Religion

Part 1 - Origins

Jean Calvin

Little known today, at least among the non-residents of France are the repeated series of French Religious Wars that erupted in the last half of the 16^th century and paralyzed France politically and morally from c. 1560 to 1595 C.E.

Henry VIII’s

First “Divorce”

Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon

When Henry VIII decided that he needed to get a "divorce" from his wife Catherine of Aragon so he could marry his mistress Anne Boleyn he, at least at the beginning, did not intend to cause profound changes in English society and church he simply wanted to “divorce” Catherine so he could marry another women so that he could have more, preferably male children.

Coercion

Works

Book Cover

One of the most telling of popular myths regarding history is that history shows that force, coercion etc., do not work. Sadly this is simply not the case all too frequently violence does in fact work and work quite well in ”solving” problems. And this idea is allied with the notion that somehow success “proves” that the idea etc., was right.

Heretic Pharaoh

A Note

The Aton 

One of the most controversial historical figures is that of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, a Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty who reigned c. 1353-1336 B.C.E.1 The reasons for the controversy are rather obvious, the Pharaoh’s attempted religious changes and to put it bluntly the rather grotesque physique indicated by the art work of his reign. 

Original Sin Redux

The Killer Ape Theory

Part 1

Scene from 2001 A Space Odyssey

One of the most delicious of intellectual pleasures for Puritans is wallowing in their own sinfulness. We have had in the past thinkers like St, Augustine, who was merely the father so to speak, of generation after generation of people who wallowed in their sinfulness. The sort who constantly dwelled on their own wickedness over and over again; enjoying the narcissistic and prurient pleasure of heaping coals on their heads and luxuriating in the contemplation of their utterly wicked sinfulness.

A Geography lesson

The Book of Mormon’s Lands
 

In a previous posting I discussed The Book of Mormon and how the “history” in it is almost certainly fiction and that the archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence does not in the slightest support as history The Book of Mormon.1
 

Especially damning was the vast array of anachronisms in The Book of Mormon. Including, horses, wheat, oxen, elephants, iron weapons / tools, chariots etc. All of which did not exist in the Americas in the period supposedly covered by the Book of Mormon.2
 

Here I will look at an interesting feature of The Book of Mormon its geography and specifically the work of one Vernal Holley (1924-2000)3, with his efforts to identify the geographical locations in the Book of Mormon. 

Moral Cretinism Part IX

The ban passages, Genocide and Himmler.



William Lane Craig



The following is, in full, a blog posting by the so-called Theologian William Lane Craig in response to two questions concerning the infamous ban passages from the Old-Testament. The terrible passages that talk about how God ordered the Israelites to kill everyone and in some cases “all that breathed” in the towns they took and that they exterminated the Canaanites from the land with fire and sword.

Why?

Blank

There is an old joke / urban legend that circulates among students and faculty in North American Universities and it goes as follows.

Noel

Nativity Scene

Perhaps one of the most evocative of modern Christmas Carols is Chris de Burgh’s A Spaceman Came Travelling, from his strongly Religiously flavored album Spanish Train.

So for this time of year let this lovely piece fill your mind, while we wait another year for a touch of the divine.

Remembering

9/11

Ground Zero

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the attacks in New York City and in Washington D.C. that killed c. 3,000 people.1 This event has had and will continue to have a large and significant effect on life, politics and culture in our world. Here I will simply talk about my own recollections about and thoughts concerning 9/11.