30 Phil, Chapter 1: The Great Flood Myths. An examination of the Great Flood myths, comparing the flood stories in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible. Discovered in 1853, the Epic of Gilgamesh’s flood story was lost for millennia and it predates the earliest written version of the biblical story by at least 400 years […]
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When publicly discussing spirituality, distinguish thought of the material world, what we directly experience, from the spiritual interpretations beyond it. Organize each spiritual idea into agnostic, nontheistic, and theistic.
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30 Phil, Chapter 25, Spinoza, Touchstone 65: Monism. Monism says the universe is composed of a single substance. An infinite reality that underpins all existence. There is only the Material World, no other realms.
Zoroastrian texts like the Bundahishn describe a cosmology with a timeline involving a 12,000-year long struggle between good and evil. In 2024, we are nearly 3,000 years into the ealiest known history of this religion. If the “Time of Humanity” is 3,000 years, then Earth was created about 7000 BCE and we are close to
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The Maya Long Count calendar is often associated with a creation date, which corresponds to August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. This represents the start of the current cycle of creation according to Mayan mythology.
3114 BCE: Mayan Earth Creation Date Read More »
231 Generations Ago Estimating the date of Earth’s creation according to Judaic tradition involves delving into the Hebrew Bible and rabbinical interpretations. A significant historical calculation places the creation at 3761 BCE, marking the beginning of the Hebrew calendar. This date is derived from the Seder Olam Rabbah, a 2nd-century CE chronology that counts the
3761 BCE, Judaic Earth Creation Date Read More »
82 Generations Ago 30 Phil, Chapter 12: Philo and Abrahamic Philosophy Philo of Alexandria, was born in the dynamic environment before the split of Judaism and Christianity. He was born around the year 20 BCE and became an important Jewish leader delving into the enigmatic world of Hellenistic Jewish religion. Pictured: Portrait from 1500s. He
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Life is full of hard choices. In situational ethics, clear-cut right and wrong tend to give way to reducing harm or choosing the lesser of two evils.
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The legendary story of Noah’s flood occurred in the year 2348 BCE if you believe Ussher’s biblical timeline he made up in 1654. However, this flood myth is clearly based on the Sumerian flood story documented in the Epoch of Gilgamesh circa 2100 BCE. The Epoch of Gilgamesh is regarded as one of the earliest
Hinduism, one of the world’s oldest religions, emerged around 1100 BCE, several centuries after the Indus Valley Civilization collapsed. Hinduism has no known roots in the IVC, but it’s a topic to follow as we uncover clues. There was a several century gap from the collapse of the IVC to the rise of the early
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In the ninth year of the reign of Akhenaten, he declared the traditional supreme God Aten to be the only God of Egypt with himself as the sole communicator to Aten, kind of like an early Pope. This early attempt at monotheism failed after about 20 years and Egypt returned to their traditional polytheistic religion.
Oldest Known Monotheistic Religion: Atenism Read More »
The Rigveda, Sanskrit for “praise knowledge”, is a collection of sacred texts of Hinduism first written down between 1700 and 1100 BCE. The sounds and texts of Rigveda have been orally transmitted since at least circa 2000 BCE. It discusses cosmology, praises deities, and covers philosophical questions including… 1.164.34: “What is the ultimate limit of
Rigveda Samhita, Veda Book 1 of 4 Read More »
By 76,000 BCE our cognitive ability meets emotional intelligence. Is this when we started believing in one story?
Earliest Known Prepared Burial, “Mtoto” Read More »
240 Generations Ago Interpreting the date God created the Earth by reading and interpreting the Bible is very difficult. You can put dates on events, time between events, etc. then convert it to the modern Julian calendar. One popular interpretation is Sunday, October 23, 4004 BCE. Generating this date, and similar, rely on the Ussher
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360 Generations Ago Earliest known permanent settlement in the Africa/Middle East zone. Jericho, located in the West Bank, Palestinian Territories, stands as one of the earliest known permanent settlements in the Africa/Middle East zone, with continuous habitation dating back to at least the 9th millennium BCE. Situated near an oasis in the Jordan Valley, Jericho’s
Bartholomew Legate was the last man burned at the stake in Smithfield where Roger Williams grew up. Just like Roger’s father, Bartholomew was in the clothing industry and may have interacted with Roger’s father at his shop. Either way, Roger Williams was about ten years old when Bartholomew was burned at the stake for simply
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Granted African American men the right to vote, but not Native Americans nor women, by declaring that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
The Great Quaker Debates occurred in 1672 on Aug 9, 10, 12, and 17 of August. Although Roger Williams welcomed those with differing opinions, he relished in the opportunity to present his viewpoint. Famously, in 1672 at the age of about 69 or 70, he rowed alone, all night from Providence to Newport to debate
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In 1644, Williams published The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution. Historians consider it his most famous work. He wrote Bloudy after arriving in London in midsummer 1643. It was on sale by July 15, 1644. It is a fierce attack on religious and political intolerance in both Old England and New. He advocated for free thought and belief because
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Let go of labels that shrink people. Roger Williams saw that calling Native Americans “heathens” was not just a word; it was a habit of mind that made harm easier.
Book: Christenings make not Christians Read More »
