Blatant advertizing

[Erasmus]

Anyone interested in a different take on religion might consider the Aeon Byte Radio Show whether they believe what it has to say or not. At least what it has to say for itself is somewhat different from the average church! The way to bring the menu up is to click on the linked quavers second from the right. I assume that Jehovah (or Ialdabaoth) is not to be taken literally, but rather as symbolic of the way he is described in the Old Testament and believed in by people with an altogether too obsessive interest in Hell.

[beth]

May 11, 2010 18:46:23 GMT -5 Erasmus said:

Anyone interested in a different take on religion might consider the Aeon Byte Radio Show whether they believe what it has to say or not. At least what it has to say for itself is somewhat different from the average church! The way to bring the menu up is to click on the linked quavers second from the right. I assume that Jehovah (or Ialdabaoth) is not to be taken literally, but rather as symbolic of the way he is described in the Old Testament and believed in by people with an altogether too obsessive interest in Hell.

Thanks Erasmus. What a great site - really! I know people who are going to love this site.

He leans a little heavy on Gnosticism, but has a little of everything.

The articles are free, the radio shows in the archive are pay - not expensive, but one would need to have a personal interest in the subject to send him money, I'd think.

[Erasmus]

He is openly pushing the Gnostic line, but I think that if there is to be religion for the future, that is the way to go, because it (and similar Oriental beliefs) do not conflict with science. The world we experience is not the 'real' world and probably we have no way of understanding what is 'really' there directly. 'We' may speak unidimensional strings vibrating in eleven dimensions but just what is one of them when it's at home? Is it any crazier symbology than The Pleroma and Aions and Arkhons?

Not so much Gnosticism but the similar Jewish Qabbalah (which can be related to Gnostic myth) influenced David Bohm's theory of a Multiverse of probabilities where in effect everything that can happen does happen but 'we' experience only the most probable for our particular situation, though there might be other 'we' experiencing a different reality that this 'we' knows nothing about. Modern science is hierarchical and so are these systems. The material world differs radically from the molecular world and that from the atomic which is not the quantum and so on.

Parallels can be found and other parallels can be drawn with levels of understanding objects, the relations between them, the impetus behind the relations and assorted analysis into ever more rarified terms that group 'things' into all experiences of a Unity beyond intellectual knowledge but perhaps not beyond intuitive experience: the ultimate Peace that passeth all understanding, where there is No Differentiation (Sanskrit Nirvarna) or Eternal Bliss which has been related (in Europe notably by the Cathars) to its material reflection being the transcendence beyond self of orgasm (probably no coincidence that the Cathars had female clergy!)

That's a neat way of squaring the circle of potential omniscience with free will. Omniscience knows what can (and will and must) happen in all probabilities, while free will chooses the realities it experiences.

I think we have a problem because the Dark Ages blur our view of the period before them. St. Paul actually said Distorted in a [bronze] mirror (he and readers would have known Plato's cave analogy) but we do see the past as through darkened glass of generations taking their symbolism literally and worshiping it. Their language personifies and externalizes. Ours does not, so texts that were difficult even in the original become utterly obscure to us.

Does Jehovah-Ialdabaoth-Samael exist? A meaningless question really because it all depends on the meaning of exist. Square roots of negative numbers - in fact numbers themselves - do not exist other than as symbols, yet they are vital to us. abstractions exist but not 'externally' in the quasi-materialistic way that Plato seems to suggest. I feel that the Gnostic God exists but as symbol of a level of understanding, not as an 'entity'. So too does 'Jehovah', though again as symbol of the forces of materiality and ego-projection of ancient despots - God told me to smite the heathen (or to murder prostitutes or abortionists or infidel)

[Wonder Woman]

Thanks, Erasmus ~ read a bit and will continue to read. Am always interested in this stuff, differing views and takes on religion. Anyway, I've bookmarked it to read at my leisure.

[fretslider]

I prefer "Well, that about wraps it up for God", a philosophical work by Oolon Colluphid which completed his series, “Where God Went Wrong”, “Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes” and “Who is This God Person Anyway?”

[Erasmus]

You might, but there's some quite intelligent people out there who do believe in what they call their 'God'. Who knows, some of them just might be able to follow that stuff and think twice that their God is Their 'god' and nobody else's. Like the Gospel of Phillip says "The deity made Man and Mn makes deities - better then for gods to worship Man than for Man to worship gods".

[fretslider]

May 12, 2010 21:14:40 GMT -5 Erasmus said:

You migt, but there's some quite intelligent people out there who do believe ni what they call thei r'God'. Who knows, some of them just might be able to follow that stuff and think twice that their God is Their 'god' Like the Gospel of Phillip says "The deity mde Man and Mn makes deities - better then for gods to worship Man than for Man to worship gods".

There are some intelligent people out there who get hooked on brown sugar, so?