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Hi, radarmark. I have an observation from moral philosophy for you. Plus two "thought experiments." My best recollection from college days is that, in arguing "moral philosophy," there are two major positions (plus innumerable variations). 1. Descriptive Morality. Every culture has its own...

Hi, radarmark. Thank you for your comments. I am largely in agreement with your view of classical liberalism. It is one of the few ideologies I, myself, would enthusiastically admit ascribing to. So your initial comment . . . I do not quite agree. --radarmark This confuses me. Are...

Hi again, Thomas. There is no reciprocity in monotheism . . . --Jane-Q. There was no reciprocity in the ancient world, full stop. --Thomas. I know it is hip to be cynical. But come on! Cynicism is not the same thing as realism. Do some more reading. Look at the facts. Primitive...

Hi, Thomas. Monotheism was a new kind of psychic-technology. It invented a new kind of individuality, which started a new ball rolling. --Jane-Q. Christian monotheism laid the foundations for what we conceive as 'the person' today. --Thomas. Thanks for re-stating in plain English what...

Hi, Dream. Like you, I have become rather enamored of the Hebrew Bible, of late. But for rather different reasons, no doubt. Particularly when I listen to the voices in the text, instead of the content. Witty, sneaky, profane. Passionate. Sly. Sometimes hard as nails. The content is...

Hi, wil. "Law of Retribution" versus "forgiveness." You've seen this old movie: We are at an Opera House. One man waits for another at the bottom of the stairs. The man takes out his gloves, slaps the other man across the cheek. "I demand satisfaction." It ends in the foggy dawn...

Hi again, Dream. Wage a war of peace. I like that! (But isn't this a particularly "Christian" way of interpreting ancient Jewish scripture?) Building monotheism was hard, exhausting work. Kind of like "waging war." This is what the priests and scribes who authored the "final cut" of the...

Hi, Dream. I've been looking for more on "inheritance rights." Turns out that amongst Semitic peoples of the Middle East, inheritance rights are much more "flexible" than at other places around the Mediterranean. (Check out Dale F. Eickelman's The Middle East: An Anthropological Approach...

The Garden of Eden . . . An allegory. Or a real place? An allegory. Certainly. But look at what archeologists tell us. The garden is connected to a house and the whole complex has a wall around it. House servants tend to the Lord's needs, cleaning and dressing their Lord in the...

Hi, moonbeam. I'm Jane. Now, what serpents were like before they became the creatures we know as snakes . . . ? Here's a clue: Remember the fire-snakes which attacked the Israelites as they wandered in the desert after escaping Egypt? And Yahweh said to Moses, "Make a poisonous...

Hi, Dream. The LORD prefers to choose a ruler who has a good heart instead of someone who has the right genes. This lesson was quite novel for its time and flew in the face of contemporary wisdom . . . --Dream Yeah. Does seem fairly novel, doesn't it? Anthropologists tell us that there...

Hi, seattlegal. I'm Jane. . . . My question: Do you focus mainly on the flash, the char, or the actual burning process, and why? Here's a thought . . . When there is division, there is something which is not divided. --Zhuangzi, Chapter 2. Way back in our hunter-gatherer animistic...

Exile. Howdy. My name is Jane. The human sacrifice was prevalent among the Jews. Yahweh instructs Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but ultimately stops him. This could mark the end of the human sacrifice among the Jews, but then I thought to myself: That's exactly what Jesus was, a ritual...

Summer of 2002, wil. Yes. Thessalonians to Romans . . . 1 Thessalonians (51 CE). Philippians (52-54 CE). Philemon (52-54 CE). 1 Corinthians (53-54 CE). Galatians (55 CE). 2 Corinthians (55-56 CE). Romans (55-58 CE). Reason I remember, is that it was a miserable summer, looking out...

Hi again, wil. Howard Cossell voice . . . In this corner . . . Paul . . . In the other corner the contender . . . JESUS!! "Paul was the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus." ~ Thomas Jefferson . . . It is pretty easy, isn't it, to see Jesus simply as a great moral teacher...

Hi, wil. You are correct about "an eye for an eye," regarding how this legal concept evolved. Setting an upper limit upon punishment. The key to ancient law though, in and of itself, is "fairness." (Scales of justice.) That has not evolved. Turn the clock back four or five millennia ...

Hi, Victor. I'm Jane. Has it ever occurred to you that in our Christian doctrine it is always the victim who bears the weight of the sin and not the perpetrator? --Victor. Yes. Constantly. For most people in my line of work, this is always emotionally in the back our minds. Liberal...

Hi, greeters. I'm Jane. poi dietro ai sensi vedi che la ragione ha corte l'ali --Dante Alighieri, Paradiso 2:56-57 I look at the world analytically. But there are some things I cannot logically explain. Mom wakes up. Dad is asleep, beside her. But someone is in the bedroom. It is...