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Looks like pretty basic fundamentalist Christianity to me, albeit fairly well balanced for a change. I spent some time going through their commentary on Wicca, and--for the most part--they don't misrepresent, lie, or fall for the old fallacies like the one about how Wiccans worship Satan. I...

Sadly, the human animal appears to think naturally in terms of "us" and "them." Us are the good guys, the ones who think, look, and act like us. Them are the strangers, the outsiders, the unknown--and therefor dangerous. Religion is one of the basic definers of human groupings, which include...

[sigh] Apologies. I have a JPEG, have tried cutrting and pasting, have tried importing . . . can't figure it out, technoincompetent that I am. Can you help? Great shot, Brian. Good to know what you look like!

Insanity (and, by extension, addictive behavior) has been very broadly defined as normal behavior taken to extremes, or to an extent where they interfere with yuour normal life. I would say you're fine unless and until you begin preferring the Internet to sleep, eating, brushing your teeth and...

The material posted above on Nebuchadnezzar dates from the Neo-Babylonian period, 6th or 7th century BCE. Do a search on the Ishtar Gate and you’ll likely find photos of the Sirrush. Regarding sea monster traditions in the area—the closest I know of is the Tiamat myth, which describes the...

Hey, Brian! Thanks so much for your kind words and good wishes, and thanks to all on Comparative-Religion for their good thoughts and energy. As for Seige . . . well, I just found out this morning she's managed to book a flight to come up here to Maine and visit me in September. I'll just...

Here’s some added fuel for the speculation. In about 600 B.C., Nebbuchadnezzar had bas reliefs fashioned for the brickwork on the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. They show three species of animals, large numbers of each in each brick row. The rows alternate between depictions of lions, the rimi, and...

Greetings all, My apologies for being so long absent. It's been a rough month or two--with a terrible deadline on the current book, and, most recently, my wife suffering a manic episode (probably related to her stroke from 7 months ago) that landed her in the hospital twice. It's been . . ...

Namaste, Vajradhara! You know, folks, this is one of the brilliantly splendid aspects of this board--the chance to rub electrons with followers of other spiritual traditions and beliefs. No matter what your own belief-set might be, it is my opinion that bumping up against others can ONLY widen...

ADE! My gosh! How ARE you? Hey, everyone! Meet Ade, a delightful and keenly intelligent young woman I met through Siege a couple of years ago when I lived in their neck of the woods in Pennsylvania. So great to hear from you again! Welcome to the board! --Bill

I feel this touches on one of the key problems of Biblical fundamentalism. Fundamentalists believe that the Bible is an unambiguious message from God to Man, one needing no interpretation. Unfortunately, those verses concerning Christ's divinity all can be interpreted in different ways. "He who...

This idea has actually been around for quite a while, long before this guy published it. I have a source somewhere around here--still not unpacked so I can't find it right off--that pointed out that at Midsummer's sunrise, all the tourists are looking at the sun rising over the heelstone outside...

Yes he is, Arch. Good catch. Early on, he was "Herne the Hunter," and recognized either as a stag or as a man with stag's antlers. Later, when people got all civilized and started domesticating animals, he evolved into a man with a ram's horns; the Celto-Romans knew him as Cernunnos. This figure...

I'm almost afraid to ask! :cwm24:

Excellent! Um . . . "pink sausage-fighting?" I know our British cousins have some peculiar ideas about sport, but . . . pink sausage fighting? Could you elucidate, please, for the sake of a curious and unenlightened colonial?

And that is essentially what's happening, I think. The pendulum is swinging back the other way, seeking balance. It will return. We see here also a revisiting of the Romantic period of the late 1700s/early 1800s, when Europe was captivated by images of the "noble savage"--at the same time the...

Wow, Brian! Thanks! I'd never heard that about the Basques! Wonderful! Too bad the article doesn;t also address the Picts who, by popular belief, inhabited Brotain before the Celts got there, and were forced out to the fringes of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Some see stories of the "wee...

I would link that with the ongoing speculation about the rise of Homo sapiens. Currently in vogue is the "Out of Africa" theory, which postulates that Homo sapiens arose from Homo erectus in Africa and then migrated all over the world. However, there is still much to support the notion that Homo...

Sorry. "unknowing," not "unknown!" My singers flipped.

Cool idea, and one I'd not heard before. My reading has convinced me that Constantine was highly opportunistic, as any good politician must be! :) Back in my super-Christian days, I frequently pointed out that Constantine was the worst thing that could have happened to the Christian church . . ...