My educational background is hard science, Geology/Geophysics and I've had a life long interest in Archeology. My point was that some catastrophic event occured that involved lots of water and great widespread distruction in and around the Mediterranean. There are recorded myths in several cultures in the area that speak of a great flood. Thera blew it's top 3600 years ago and the Minoan culture disappeared soon after. That being said I feel that dismissing the entire Judeo-Christian mythos based on the improbability of a Great Flood be reconsidered. At the very least the Bible is a wonderful historical compilation. Have any of you read Herodotus? They both are recorded histories and are extremely interesting from that point.
Old vs New Testiment. It is a common observation that in the old Testiment there was a Warrior God who rained down destruction on all opposition. Just the kind of thing that a nomadic culture might adopt. The new Testiment is a Divine, loving Father. God is Love. There is no reconciling the two. The Bible is a collection of stories handed down over millenia. No writer of the New Testiment ever met Jesus in the flesh. All of what is written there was written decades, if not centuries after his death. The First Council of Nicea in 325 AD was the first attempt to structure it all into a piece. Stuff was excluded and other stuff added. Reading stuff like this is a real eye opener sometimes http://www.thenazareneway.com/council_of_nicaea_nicea_325.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism Bill Find what makes your heart sing…and do it! ________________________________ From: Mel <gunnar19632...@yahoo.com.au> To: "Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com" <Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Mon, August 6, 2012 2:57:14 AM Subject: Re: [Zen] Re: Chan and zen If one will get into this, it may be best to take up basic archaeology at the very least. It's practically impossible to form logical opinions or conclusions without the ability to read scientific data, and I'm the first to confess to such lacking Mel ________________________________ From: William Rintala <brint...@bellsouth.net> To: Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, 6 August 2012 3:29 AM Subject: Re: [Zen] Re: Chan and zen The flood may actually have happened. Several of the cultures around the Mediteranean talk of it. Think Gilgamesh and the disappearance of Atlantis. It's hypothesized that the the explosion of the island of Santorini. The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption (sometimes called the Thera eruption), occurred some 3600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km (68 mi) to the south, through a gigantic tsunami. The theory holds that the Thera eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis.[3] Bill (not Bill!) Find what makes your heart sing…and do it! ________________________________ From: mike brown <uerusub...@yahoo.co.uk> To: "Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com" <Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Fri, August 3, 2012 8:16:35 PM Subject: Re: [Zen] Re: Chan and zen Bill!, That's an interesting idea. It sounds like something Joesph Campbell would say. Maybe our splitting from God represents the beginning of dualism and the desire for the search back to the One again? Interesting. Just as I'm sure people were awakened to Buddha Nature before Guatama, so to many of the stories in the Bible predate the first writing of the first scrolls. The Flood springs to mind. Still doesn't make the stories true tho. Mike ________________________________ From: Bill! <billsm...@hhs1963.org> To: Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, 4 August 2012, 2:01 Subject: [Zen] Re: Chan and zen Mike, I believe the story in the Bible of the 'Garden of Eden' is a mythologized description of what mankind's life was like before he became too dependent upon and attached to his rational mind (dualism - Knowledge of Good and Evil). Before that he lived at one with God - in the Garden of Eden. ...Bill! --- In Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com, mike brown <uerusuboyo@...> wrote: > > Merle, > > It's a nice sentiment to try to do that, isn't it? I guess the problem is is >that we collect too much dust in our eyes as we acquire more of what the world >teaches us. I do have a vague memory/feeling tho, of playing in my parent's >garden and it being what the Garden of Eden must be like. I would've been less >surprised to come across the Cheshire Cat than I would if I'd come across the >tabby next door. > > Mike > > >
