Paul argued rather matter-of-factly that spirits have bodies, that is they are localized and contained in some sort of shell.
peacefulpete
JoinedPosts by peacefulpete
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47
What does God eat ?
by stan livedeath inbeans ?
( human beans ).
to those of you that believe in god: do you all believe the same thing ?.
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Are Atheists Hypocritical in Celebrating Christmas?
by Sea Breeze inrichard dawkins revealed that he celebrates christmas on radio four's today programme.. here is is quoted as saying: .
'i am perfectly happy on christmas day to say merry christmas to everybody,' dawkins said.
'i might sing christmas carols - once i was privileged to be invited to kings college, cambridge, for their christmas carols and loved it.
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peacefulpete
If a person honestly looks at the claims that Jesus made, there are only three conclusions that a person can logically come to. He was the world's greatest Liar, Lunatic, or Lord.
Jesus never wrote a book. Jesus never made any claims about himself.
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Female Angels
by peacefulpete infor some reason i never noticed this before: .
5 then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “look up and see what this is that is coming out.” 6 i said, “what is it?” he said, “this is a basket[b] coming out.” and he said, “this is their iniquity[c] in all the land.” 7 then a leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket!
[d] 8 and he said, “this is wickedness.” so he thrust her back into the basket,[e] and pressed the leaden weight down on its mouth.
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peacefulpete
Broader acceptance of a goddess (female spirit) was retained as late as Ezekiel and Jeremiah, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Perhaps it's surprising because it escaped the editing process of the sages of the 3rd-1rst c BCE. -
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Female Angels
by peacefulpete infor some reason i never noticed this before: .
5 then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “look up and see what this is that is coming out.” 6 i said, “what is it?” he said, “this is a basket[b] coming out.” and he said, “this is their iniquity[c] in all the land.” 7 then a leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket!
[d] 8 and he said, “this is wickedness.” so he thrust her back into the basket,[e] and pressed the leaden weight down on its mouth.
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peacefulpete
For some reason I never noticed this before:
5 Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what this is that is coming out.” 6 I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is a basket[b] coming out.” And he said, “This is their iniquity[c] in all the land.” 7 Then a leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket![d] 8 And he said, “This is Wickedness.” So he thrust her back into the basket,[e] and pressed the leaden weight down on its mouth. 9 Then I looked up and saw two women coming forward. The wind was in their wings; they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket[f] between earth and sky. 10 Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they taking the basket?”[g] 11 He said to me, “To the land of Shinar, to build a house for it; and when this is prepared, they will set the basket[h] down there on its base.”
It's hard not see that Zechariah imagined female spirits. To my knowledge he is the only one in the OT canon. Many commentators dismiss this description as 'symbolic'. Well of course the description is no more or less vivid than that of the description of spirit messengers as "man". So why female? Did someone pick up something interesting in Babylon?
An interesting note in the Babylonian Talmud (Gittin 68a) mentions in passing that the words in Ecc 2:8 (3rd c BCE) the Quoheleth is said to have Male and Female (singers) yet the word is apparently a Babylonian loan word that means male and female demons.
It is written: “I got myself sharim and sharot, and human pleasures, shidda and shiddot” (Ecclesiastes 2:8). The Gemara explains: “Sharim and sharot”: These are types of musical instruments. “And human pleasures”: These are pools and bathhouses. “Shidda and shiddot”:
Here, in Babylonia, they interpreted these words in the following manner: Male demons [shidda] and female demons [shiddetin].
The Gemara asks: Why was it necessary for Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, to have male demons and female demons? The Gemara answers: As it is written with regard to the building of the Temple: “For the house, when it was being built, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was being built” (I Kings 6:7). Solomon said to the sages: How shall I make it so that the stone will be precisely cut without using iron? They said to him: There is a creature called a shamir that can cut the stones, which Moses brought and used to cut the stones of the ephod.
Solomon said to them: Where is it found? They said to him: Bring a male demon and a female demon and torment them together. It is possible that they know where, and due to the suffering they will reveal the place to you. Solomon brought a male demon and a female demon and tormented them together, and they said: We do not know where to find the shamir. Perhaps Ashmedai, king of the demons, knows.OK, a pretty fanciful tale but might it retain some angelology of the post-Babylonian period? Perhaps for a short while some Jews recognized male and female angels/demons. Certainly, as we enter the CE era we find both Jews and Christians adopting this concept in some quarters so it is probably not unrealistic to hypothesize that some held this view earlier.
So in short, it appears possible that Zechariah included female spirits in his divine cosmology.
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Are Atheists Hypocritical in Celebrating Christmas?
by Sea Breeze inrichard dawkins revealed that he celebrates christmas on radio four's today programme.. here is is quoted as saying: .
'i am perfectly happy on christmas day to say merry christmas to everybody,' dawkins said.
'i might sing christmas carols - once i was privileged to be invited to kings college, cambridge, for their christmas carols and loved it.
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peacefulpete
Pioneer....I also very much enjoy Gregorian chants. There is nothing hypocritical about appreciating the beauty of trained voices. I also enjoyed our recent time at the Louvre. The art of Christians (or Egyptians, Buddhists, Muslims etc.) is still art. Humanists have a much easier time with this than Fundamentalists (of any brand). Believers far too often take what is beautiful and declare it ugly.
It's not hard to see why the Romans thought of Christians as "haters of humankind".
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Are Atheists Hypocritical in Celebrating Christmas?
by Sea Breeze inrichard dawkins revealed that he celebrates christmas on radio four's today programme.. here is is quoted as saying: .
'i am perfectly happy on christmas day to say merry christmas to everybody,' dawkins said.
'i might sing christmas carols - once i was privileged to be invited to kings college, cambridge, for their christmas carols and loved it.
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peacefulpete
Humanists embrace humanity.
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Theory on the GB "new light" pushing back the final judgment.
by Jofi_Wofo ini know there are several threads already on this "new light", but i didn't see one that covered this particular angle.. since the gb seem to have an ulterior motive for everything they do, well beyond their publicly stated reasons, i began to wonder why they would be concerned with pushing back the closing of the window of jesus' judgement.
this is especially puzzling because the doctrine of the start of great tribulation being the final cutoff was one that the gb seemed to especially revel in for so long.
they could hang it over everyone's heads as a looming threat.
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peacefulpete
I've pondered just I'd have done if I had risen the ranks and became GB. I always had issues with some of the harsher aspects of the religion and had definite opinions about some interpretations. I have to believe these guys at the top are the same. It's a subtle unspoken desire to improve things, but not enough to recognize the bigger picture.
The machine is now in charge, even the guys charge have to conform and concede.
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New Study: Mars Once Was Completely Covered in Oceans
by Sea Breeze in"the new study indicates that the oceans that covered the entire planet in water were at least 300 metres deep.
they may have been up to one kilometre deep.".
yet, some secularists say they are sure that the earth was never completely flooded with water above the tops of mountains as described in genesis.
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peacefulpete
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe says the earth was blown up by an alien superior race. Why doubt it when exploding planets and stars have been observed by scientists. You must have an ulterior motive for doubting!
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Were we really meant to live forever?
by Leathercrop inour capacity for adaptation (there's an official term somewhere) is apparently very vast.
meaning that whatever is a novelty always becomes old news and apparently it happens very quickly.
human beings in fact have to put a lot of effort into not discarding valuable things and relationships because of our overwhelming tendency to become incredibly used to it and just plain bored with them.
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peacefulpete
A lot of us realize that not existing before we were born was no problem at all. So why should it be different after we're gone.
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New Study: Mars Once Was Completely Covered in Oceans
by Sea Breeze in"the new study indicates that the oceans that covered the entire planet in water were at least 300 metres deep.
they may have been up to one kilometre deep.".
yet, some secularists say they are sure that the earth was never completely flooded with water above the tops of mountains as described in genesis.
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peacefulpete
If Noah lived on Mars 4 billion years ago, I'd believe the flood stories were possible. I had a joke about Uranus but my better nature deleted it.