(October 11, 2021 at 9:58 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote:(October 11, 2021 at 7:57 pm)Ferrocyanide Wrote: ==Yes, it is the classical view that when there is a weather problem or disease problem, that the gods are angry.
They seem to think that all natural disasters are caused by gods.
I think this notion is at the very heart of all religions. It might be 50,000 y old. Ancient man didn’t understand weather, they didn’t see the cause for disease and so, they presumed that some personality was upset and was trying to harm them. I think they figured that if the priest tries to communicate with him, or give a gift, that the personality would give them peace.
Conversely, I think when something good happens, the believer ends up believing that the personality gave him good luck (blessing).
Negotiating with death. Tell you what mr volcano, if i give you one super pretty girl, will you leave the rest of us alone? Ogg may have shuffled off the mortal coil, but I'm going to bury him with wealth so that he doesn't have to be poor in the next life.
Now, If I could just get an audience with Mars to discuss how many rams will be needed to see me through raiding my neighbors village without any friendly casualties....
I think it makes alot of sense for our religious ideations to be about life and death - and that does seem to be how it started out. After all, that's when we come into each others view (and our own)..and go out. It's a pretty big deal for us.
Yes and giving the pretty girl means that you must kill her otherwise you aren’t really giving if she is still in your village.
It is funny how in the jewish religion, the god likes the smell of cooked meat. So, I guess you have to kill a cow or goat or something and also cook it.
But then, there is this funny part in the tanakh about if you find a dead man somewhere in the fields.
Deuteronomy 21:1 KING JAMES VERSION
If [one] be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, [and] it be not known who hath slain him: Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which [are] round about him that is slain: And it shall be, [that] the city [which is] next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, [and] which hath not drawn in the yoke; And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley: And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be [tried: ] And all the elders of that city, [that are] next unto the slain [man,] shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley: And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, either have our eyes seen [it. ] Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt thou put away the [guilt of] innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do [that which is] right in the sight of the LORD.
^^^^^Translation:
If a guy is killed and his body is found outside the city, in the fields somewhere and if it isn’t known who killed him, this is what you must do. Your elders and judges have to come. They will measure the distance between the city and the body. The elders from the closest city have to perform this ritual. Get a heifer that has not worked and has not worn a yoke. Take the heifer to a valley. Cut off his head. The priests will wash their hands (with water or the blood of the heifer) and they will say “Our hands have not shed this blood, either have our eyes seen [it. ] Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge.”
These are the words of a people who are afraid of an invisible force, an invisible personality: the jewish god. They are worried that the jewish god will make the weather worst or will bring disease to their people if they don’t tell the jewish god that they had nothing to do with the murder.
