Re: OT:Thanksgiving

On Dec 22, 5:18 am, "HeyBub" <hey...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Pete Dashwood wrote:

William of Ockham can rest easy; Big Bang is an efficient theory that
fits the observable facts very well.

Dunno.

Dilbert: "You see, Ratbert, originally the universe would fit in a
thimble..."
Ratbert: "What would a thimble be doing there?"
Dilbert: "Well, there wasn't one..."
Ratbert: "It didn't take long to find the flaw in THAT theory."

Also Ockham's Razor has been found to be reversed in religious studies.
Research has shown, for example, that when confronted with two
transcriptions of Biblical text, the MORE COMPLICATED one is likely to be
the correct rendition.

Where 'correct' means 'fits my dogma'.

'Religious Studies' are about supporting pre-conceived ideas and
particular dogmas. Each of the thousands of different cults would
choose a different rendition and insist that theirs were
'correct' (which is why they are separate cults in the first place).

Of course it is also why there are different transcriptions too. The
transcribers 'improved' it based on their own ideas, or the ones they
were indoctrinated with. Do that for a few centuries after stuff had
been handed down by word of mouth for a few more, then have groups
'selecting' and revising and you have no more than myths and legends
that may be based on stories about real people who have been deified.

To take a simple example: Nicolas, Bishop of Myra, did good deeds and
was beatified. Stories were told about him, and stuff made up. The
reindeer and sleigh were added in Victorian times, the current image
comes from a Coka Cola ad in the 1930s. Today (well maybe not so much
in the last 30 years) children argue about whether it is better to
post a letter or put it in the fire to go up the chimney.

Parents indoctrinate their children with this sort of nonsense because
it is a social control. "Be good because Santa can see you, it is all
written down in his book by the elves."

This is just a training ground for religion. Children don't appreciate
the length of 'lifetime', so there is a reward/punishment system
within the timescale they can understand, that of a year.

Jehovah was a local warlord that took in as subjects a bunch of
emigrants from Egypt (allegedly). He gave them some land as long as
they remained his subjects and supplied his army with 'offerings' of
sons as soldiers and food as taxes.

Just like the later Nicolas, he was deified and could do everything
and anything. It is easy to see how this happens by studying how the
Rastafarians deified Ras Tafari in much the same way (did I mention
that my grandfather was present a lion cape by Ras Tafari in 1922 ?).

If 20th century people can create a deity and a mythology around a man
who is demonstrably flesh and blood in just a couple of decades, then
think how how whacked out stories can get in a few centuries. (Note
the first writing of the Torah was around 800BC so it had several
hundred years of exageration and myth making. Plus stuff added in from
all the other religions around the area that had been based on their
own warlords, ancestors, tribal chiefs and mytholgised heroes.

'Religious Studies' may as well be looking for clues in 'Alice in
Wonderland'.



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