Individualism and Idealism

My latest at the Partial Observer.

It discusses how people get their moral bearings - from idealism and authority, or individual values and experience. What I do not discuss is the "6th" level, what God's role is in all this. My guess is that people's spirituality are of the same kind - God "in" you or God "above" you. Of course, most people tend to mix the two, but I suspect that people orient one way as opposed to the other.

A Contarian Spirit

My latest at the Partial Observer was provoked by a re-reading of the Genesis account. "God" appears in Chapter 1, but then in Young's Literal Translation, "Jehovah God" comes onto the scene in Chapter 2. In popular translations, "Jehovah" is replaced by "The LORD."

To help in this exercise, wherever "God" appears, read "Smith." And wherever "the LORD" appears, read "Bob."

What will you discover? That "Smith,: whoever or whatever he/they are (Smith speaks in first person plural, like saying "our" instead of "my") created the heavens and the earth, the plants and animals. And created man, male and female, in Smith's image, and that Smith - as Young's Literal Translation puts it - "ceased" work on the seventh day.

But then, beginning with 2:4, we are introduced to "Bob Smith." This "Bob Smith" also somehow created the heavens and the earth - or at least some portion of which, and created a man named Adam, and from Adam a woman named Eve. This Bob Smith, who later on usually just goes by Bob, seems to be a physical person, walking around, talking with Adam and his descendants. We learn in Genesis 5 that Smith named man Man, but it is unclear if Bob Smith, or Adam himself, named Adam.

Bob deals with Cain, but it doesn't say that Enoch walked with Bob; Enoch walked with Smith. The sons of Smith mated with the daughters of men, but it is Bob that places a limit on man's age. Smith saw the wickedness on the earth, but Bob is the one who repents of making man. One striking piece of information: Smith commands Noah to bring one pair of every sort of animal onto the ark, but Bob wants seven pairs of each kind of bird and "clean" beast. Bob shuts the ark. Smith ends the flood. Smith tells Noah to leave the ark with his family and animals and multiply the earth, but Noah builds an altar to Bob, and apparently makes animal sacrifices of clean animals and birds from the surplus pairs that Bob, not Smith, commanded.

Bob resolves to no more curse the ground for man's sake; Smith sends the rainbow.

And unless I am mistaken, Bob, not Smith, is the chief character in the rest of the Old Testament. It is not to be doubted that Bob is a Smith, or "part" of whatever it is Smith is; it is by no means clear that the opposite is true. "Bob" and "Smith" (that is, "the LORD" and "God") may be interchangeable names, but it is far from obvious. The Town Car is a Lincoln, but not every Lincoln is a Town Car. I can be called James or Jim, and I am also Wilson, but not every Wilson is James.

Perhaps translation and conceptual problems lead to confusion. The LORD (Jehovah) in the OT, "Lord" (Jesus) in the NT. Is Jesus Jehovah? Is he the same guy, the same LORD God who hung out with Abraham, Moses, Job, etc? Or is he the son of the LORD God? Is the "Father" the LORD God, or is the "Father" just plain God, of Genesis 1?

This is something I'd like to investigate sometime.

The Science of the Paranormal etc.

Much of my blogging of late has been at Independent Country, obsessing about medical marijuana and Peter McWilliams, and have not ventured much into strictly religious themes of late.

One thing I forgot to post here was to note the appearence of "Why Jesus" by Everett Wilson at the Partial Observer.

Also, Jonathan Wilson introduces a new series at the PO, A Mystic Reads Rand.

Finally, as a Coast to Coast AM listener, last night I come upon an interesting conversation between host Art Bell and Dr. Claude Swanson on the science of the paranormal. It points in a direction that I personally have speculated on, and which weeknight Coast to Coast host George Noory often speculates on - paranormal and "supernatural" events come from other dimensions. These graphics help explain some of it, and the page for Swanson's book Synchronized Universe explains some more.