[geeks] Goodbye, I guess

[Hicheal Morton]

Dan Brown's book, "The DaVinci Code", proposes a religion based on the old
Greek (and later, Roman) gods.  When Alexander the Great went to India he
carried the old Greek religion.  Centuries later, the easterners returned it
as Gnosticism.  Gnocticism splintered and Dan Brown proposes one version of
Gnostic.  (A basic tenet of Gnoticism is that the "supreme" God is all
spirit and abhors material.  Followed through all the emanations, it is
apparent that the "supreme" God hates "Jehovah"-God who created the earth
and by extension, all of us creatures--people, dogs, dolpins, rats, bugs,
plants, metals, minerals, etc., etc.)  Niether the Gnostic's "supreme" God
nor their "Jehovah"-god the God of the Old and New Testaments--just have the
same names to confuse the uninitiated.  (Please pardon the joke that
"uninitiated" implies--I thought it was funny and couldn't help it.)

The myth that a divergence existed between the teaching of Paul (Pauline is
the adjective) and James (the pastor of the Jerusalem Church) is believed by
some but has no historical foundation.  The first Christian martyr, Stephen,
was a Jew who was stoned to dead in Jerusalem.  If one compares Stephen's
"sermon" with Paul's writings, one will find that they are the same message,
points, methology.

Quite surprising, the apostle Paul was a Jew.  A pharisee (believed in an
after-life and a resurrection, a more literal interpretation of the Old
Testament than the Sadducees) trained under Gamaliel (sp?) and a member of
the Sanhedrin (the national ruling body).  His Jewish name was Saul and he
was a Benjamite.

Paul and James were theological buddies by the way.  Quite interesting.





On 8/30/07, Geoffrey S. Mendelson <gsm at mendelson.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Aug 30, 2007 at 04:14:00PM +0000, wa2egp at att.net wrote:
>
> > What I should have said was that it was closer than it was to
> > Hinduism, Buddism and Taoism. (please excuse my spelling) That's all. Of
> > course theory and practice can be futher apart than your dolphin
> > example. (Although I wish I had the mental processing for sound that
> > dolphins have.)
>
> I'm not really sure how close it is. Dan Brown's book "The DaVinci Code"
> is based upon the difference between the Jerusalem Church and Pauline
> Christianty, but IMHO that's like saying "Stranger in a Strange Land"
> is based upon Apollo 11.
>
> As for processing sound in your brain, judging by your callsign, you could
> at least at one time, if not now, copy Morse code which puts you far above
> the average human. :-)
>
> Geoff.
> --
> Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
> IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
> Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/
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