The Gospel of Thomas

ThatOwlWoman said:
Ditto. The material world is beautiful, mysterious, amazing, incredible. To acknowledge this, and our intimate belonging to the web of life, is to worship the creator of it, if you believe that there is one.
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I do not mind the religious premise that there is another, higher plane of existence where we really belong -- The heavenly kingdom of the Abrahamic religions, the nirvana of Buddhism, Brahman of Hinduism.

But I cannot say the material world is corrupt.
Of course, my life has been blessed. I never had to live through the Gulag or the Nazi death camps.
 
Phantasmal said:
There is no evidence of a worldwide flood; floods, as always, are regional, but to ancient people, who did not know of other lands, it was the “whole world”.
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Fossilized clam beds on mountaintops in America isn't something to question for you?

Let's talk about supposedly extinct Trilobytes, I know right where to find some, they're a type of horseshoe crab.

They're pretty ugly, look like a roly-poly with a shell.

Will I post on the internet where they are? Hell no! Some atheist whackjob might go and kill them all.
 
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Cypress said:
I do not mind the religious premise that there is another, higher plane of existence where we really belong -- The heavenly kingdom of the Abrahamic religions, the nirvana of Buddhism, Brahman of Hinduism.

But I cannot say the material world is corrupt.
Of course, my life has been blessed. I never had to live through the Gulag or the Nazi death camps.
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That reminds me of something I've pondered off and on. Do certain religious beliefs -- and religions -- have more appeal to the poor and downtrodden? Both Islam and Christianity, for instance, promise "wealth" in the next life. Both seem to have great appeal to those who suffer much in this world.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Which is the importance of continuing education.

Let's be honest, most HS students graduate living upon Mount Stupid on the Dunning-Kruger curve.

College teaches them they don't know everything and need to keep learning. Graduate school teaches them where and how to find the answers.

FWIW, I've been accused of a lot of things including being a Know-it-all. One of the most interesting comments was "Is he smart or just really good at looking things up on the Internet?"

It's mostly the latter. No human can possibly know everything, but educated people are quick to find the answers because they know the answer exists or where to look to verify it.

Ignorant people have little to no idea of the answer exists and certainly don't know where to look or they wouldn't be ignorant. :)
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I just keep my mouth shut on topics I lack knowledge about, that way it looks like I am never at a loss for words. :)
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
That reminds me of something I've pondered off and on. Do certain religious beliefs -- and religions -- have more appeal to the poor and downtrodden? Both Islam and Christianity, for instance, promise "wealth" in the next life. Both seem to have great appeal to those who suffer much in this world.
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I think it's true to some extent.

Solzhenitsyn found his faith in the Gulag.

Gospel of Luke makes pretty clear Jesus was associating himself with the disadvantaged and the poor.

But I think even many affluent people look for meaning in life, and for some religion provides it
 
Matt Dillon said:
Fossilized clams on mountaintops in America isn't something to question for you?
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No, not a bit. Those were laid down eons past when that mountain was the bottom of a sea. My dad and I used to fossil hunt and often found them embedded in shale deposits in the hills outside of the St. Louis area. That area was once covered by a shallow inland sea, 300-500 MYA.

https://sites.wustl.edu/monh/geology-of-missouri/

ETA: I see you added more to your post that I replied to, before your addition. You said:
"Let's talk about supposedly extinct Trilobytes, I know right where to find some, they're a type of horseshoe crab.

They're pretty ugly, look like a roly-poly with a shell.

Will I post on the internet where they are? Hell no! Some atheist whackjob might go and kill them all."
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Have you ever had a fossilized nautilus? They're beautiful, and incredibly ancient as well. I've got a couple I got from Ebay. We still have living nautilus in our seas.

Why would anyone, atheist or whackjob or not, kill them?
 
Matt Dillon said:
Fossilized clam beds on mountaintops in America isn't something to question for you?

Let's talk about supposedly extinct Trilobytes, I know right where to find some, they're a type of horseshoe crab.

They're pretty ugly, look like a roly-poly with a shell.

Will I post on the internet where they are? Hell no! Some atheist whackjob might go and kill them all.
Click to expand...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/evidence-for-a-flood-102813115/

may not have covered Mt Everest but at that point in time no one had so much as seen it,
 
Matt Dillon said:
Fossilized clam beds on mountaintops in America isn't something to question for you?

Let's talk about supposedly extinct Trilobytes, I know right where to find some, they're a type of horseshoe crab.

They're pretty ugly, look like a roly-poly with a shell.

Will I post on the internet where they are? Hell no! Some atheist whackjob might go and kill them all.
Click to expand...

Those are marine fossils, preserved in ocean sediments, which have been uplifted into mountain ranges by tectonic forces acting over millions of years
 
Cypress said:
I think it's true to some extent.

Solzhenitsyn found his faith in the Gulag.

Gospel of Luke makes pretty clear Jesus was associating himself with the disadvantaged and the poor.

But I think even many affluent people look for meaning in life, and for some religion provides it
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People whether wealthy or poor have questions and seek answers.

Both Christianity and Islam are fast-growing faiths that have spread around the world. There are still millions of Hindus and Buddhists, of course, but for whatever reason they seem to be mostly confined to the regions of their birth. Why is that, do you think? IMO it's because Christianity and Islam appeal to the poor, who are promised a heavenly reward after this life, since obviously they aren't getting much in this one.
 
Phantasmal said:
I went back and reread the Gospels after reading Pagels’ book. “The keys to the kingdom”, talking in parable, “many are called, but few are chosen”, all Gnostic teachings.
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I haven't read any of her works, but she looks really interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Pagels#Academic_work

Like Democrats and Republicans trying to shape the American narrative today, the early Christians fought just as nastily to shape the Christian narrative. That fight continues today with the Prosperity Christians driving the final nail into Jesus's words. <--irony.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
People whether wealthy or poor have questions and seek answers.

Both Christianity and Islam are fast-growing faiths that have spread around the world. There are still millions of Hindus and Buddhists, of course, but for whatever reason they seem to be mostly confined to the regions of their birth. Why is that, do you think? IMO it's because Christianity and Islam appeal to the poor, who are promised a heavenly reward after this life, since obviously they aren't getting much in this one.
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Buddhism teaches similar ideas. Let's not forget there are major divisions in Buddhism too which vary greatly in both their dogma and their beliefs: Theravada, Tibetan and Zen.

I think the major difference is that Buddhism is more personal and introspective whereas both Christianity and Islam push proselytizing...by force if necessary. LOL

BTW, I love to say "Can't you read the fucking sign!!!" LOL

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The more interesting threads that I read like this, the more that I think about donuts.:cof1:

Not one donut in the house, but I have some leftover Italian bakery Christmas pastry.
Be right back to Google "trilobytes." I am paying attention.
 
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ThatOwlWoman said:
No, not a bit. Those were laid down eons past when that mountain was the bottom of a sea. My dad and I used to fossil hunt and often found them embedded in shale deposits in the hills outside of the St. Louis area. That area was once covered by a shallow inland sea, 300-500 MYA.

https://sites.wustl.edu/monh/geology-of-missouri/

ETA: I see you added more to your post that I replied to, before your addition. You said:

Have you ever had a fossilized nautilus? They're beautiful, and incredibly ancient as well. I've got a couple I got from Ebay. We still have living nautilus in our seas.

Why would anyone, atheist or whackjob or not, kill them?
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Their existence is contradictory to the theory of evolution.
 
Cypress said:
Those are marine fossils, preserved in ocean sediments, which have been uplifted into mountain ranges by tectonic forces acting over millions of years
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In NW NC? That's a long ways inland and a lot of elevated land in between there and the sea.
 
Matt Dillon said:
In NW NC? That's a long ways inland and a lot of elevated land in between there and the sea.
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Those mountains in NC also used to be at the bottom of the sea. Like Cypress said, plate tectonics.

"Younger sedimentary rocks in the Great Smokies were formed 450 to 540 million years ago. These rocks were formed when what is now the Appalachian region was a shallow marine continental margin. Sediments deposited here formed limestone rocks and fossils can be found among them. Fossils here include worm burrows and shells of tiny crustaceans."

https://www.usgs.gov/geology-and-ecology-of-national-parks/great-smoky-mountains-national-park
 
Matt Dillon said:
In NW NC? That's a long ways inland and a lot of elevated land in between there and the sea.
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You assume the way North America looks now, is the way it looked 200 million years ago. The alluvial coast of North Carolina did not exist 200 million years ago, and what we think of today as North America was periodically covered in shallow seas. Hudson Bay is a modern example of a shallow arm of the sea inundating part of the North American continent
 
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