The life of Seneca the Younger overlapped the life of Jesus. Seneca was corresponding with Lucilius, another philosopher in Israel. They were discussing Jesus's philosophy.
On the subject of the Holy Spirit, Seneca agreed with Lucilius and wrote that a spirit resided within all of us. On the subject of religion Seneca wrote, "Religion is believed by the common people, not believed by the wise and considered useful by rulers.".
When I discovered that quote it was like finding a puzzle piece that completed a puzzle I've been working on my entire life. I have transcended religion and am the better for it.
They lived in Palestine and Canaan is another name for Palestine. Whether one is older than the other or Palestine came from a tribal group, as did Israel and Judah, or Canaan came from a tribal group we do not know. I doubt it is a strong topic for study.
All I do know is that Egyptologists transcribed references to Palestine and Palestinians more than 5000 years ago. They also made a note, carved in stone, when a tribe called Judah rocked up in Palestine 3000 years ago and set up camp.
One theory is that the name Palestine comes from the ancient god Pales, who was picked up by the Romans, as was the way of it in ancient times. One way to bring believers into your new religion was to collect their deities and make them yours. The Christians did the same thing and no doubt Jews, Muslims, Hindus.
We can go back thousands of years and see how Christianity stole from other religions, and that the gods of the old can become the devils of the new.
The Catholic Church became clearest example when they included Paganism, showing that political marketing for power is more important to them than religion itself. That manipulation for power exists strongly today.
The Israeli government harks on about Palestine never existing but its obviously been a culture reference for a long time. More importantly, calling people who call themselves Palestinians anything else wouldn't matter because they clearly exist, and have been struggling for freedom for a century. Semantics cannot kill realism.
I think collecting gods, goddesses etc., by all religions was practicality and perhaps even sometimes, appreciation. I am not sure it was done purely to gain power but logic decrees that including some of the local gods would improve your chances.
And perhaps also spiritual instinct was at work. All major religious structures, regardless of religion, are built on top of others, indicating that people had a sense about the place in spiritual terms. Many in the UK for example, were built on cross points of Ley Lines.
Ta. Interesting story. At least "Seneca the Younger" will never be a swear word. Doesn;t roll off the tongue as quickly as that other fellow. Appreciate the quote because its nice knowing that common sense has always existed. The downside is that the masses, despite education and living longer, haven't figured it out in 2000 years.
All true. I agree with every word and could amplify almost each paragraph having studied history for most of my life, except for one small detail that you may have overlooked - that there is a baby in the midst of all of that bathwater, a baby that makes all the difference and changes the entire complexion of the picture, in much the same way that we might look at a close-up of a photograph and get one impression of what's going on and then pull back to see a bigger picture and come to an entirely different conclusion about what it is that we are seeing.
That would be great but unlikely at this point...we will have to sift through it carefully ourselves or else find ourselves singing the 'Mother's Lament':
Which Law do you think is at work in our world today? Progress towards a Utopian future? Or Entropy and a falling away from First principles?
Oswald Spangler would say that the Decline of the West is part of an inevitable process which culminates in Tyranny and the attempt to force it's degenerate values on as much of the world as possible before it self-destructs entirely.
This, he would argue is the road that all Empires travel down. The only difference now is that we verge on a worldwide Empire which threatens to drag the whole world into the pit along with us.
There is a force that transcends and is more powerful than entropy and that is the Grace of God.
Entropy is the natural order. When God so wills the natural order is overcome for He does whatsoever He pleases.
You can just as well say that the world is in the condition it's in because of a lack of Faith, a lack of Prayer and Repentance.
We have lost touch with what it means to Pray, what Repentance consists of and what real Faith really looks like. But what is lost can be regained.
What? You don't believe in God? There is no God? Well, I can totally understand why you would believe that and think that way. ‘Religion’ has suffered from Entropy as much, of not moreso than anything else.
Nevertheless, I can't help but feel that we might be missing something of significance, something extremely beneficial and of inestimable value and, I can't help but find your lack of Faith disturbing…
We live, we die, become something else's energy. Entropy and evolution.
It's too easy to choose a God and hate everyone else's but it should be noted that they feel the same and that it's quite possible that you will, one day, try kill them, or they you. Prison gangs have figured that out. Outside, too many intellectualise, contorting hate into words like forgiveness.
I enjoyed your Darth Vader link. In context of your comment, it was God saying, "Believe (or I will hurt you)."
God is looking for belief mixed with understanding. Otherwise, He allows the natural consequences of our mistaken ideas and beliefs to come upon us for pedagogical reasons, in the hope that the suffering we are causing ourselves will wake us up from our self-created nightmares and sober us up from our drunkenness.
Is it unpleasant? Yes! Can we cut across to a Blessed and Miraculous Life? Perhaps.
I just smiled at the thought that the average American wouldn't understand our conversations. By now, one or both of us would have been called a racist-homophobic-anti-semitic-commie.
Hmmm...A bit sweeping in your generalization of people of faith. I prefer to say I'm a follower of Christ. Then there are Christians, Zionist Christians...tending to be mostly Evangelicals, and 100 more in between. I imagine it's the same for Jews and Muslims. The Zionist Evangelicals are a bit deranged and give true followers of Christ a bad name. Kind of like Zionists are giving Judaism a bad rap. True followers of Christ are the "unseen" who do follow his example living our lives in humility striving to do good works and not bringing attention or glory to ourselves. I see the daily example of the Faith of the Palestinian people and I am humbled. I make an effort to read & translate their comments. That they endure such savagery but have unfathomable courage and always attribute it to GOD beginning and ending every comment in praise of him makes me weep.
Imagine there being Trump Evangelicals, Trump White Supremacists, Trump Conservatives, Trump Capitalists... Would they all be for the glory of Trump or using him as a conduit for for their own selfishness? But this is minor in context. My article was about something else.
I do not agree that this is a religious war. I think this is a colonial war, waged by Zionists seeking power and they are exploiting religious extremism rather then religion being the cause of the war.
The life of Seneca the Younger overlapped the life of Jesus. Seneca was corresponding with Lucilius, another philosopher in Israel. They were discussing Jesus's philosophy.
On the subject of the Holy Spirit, Seneca agreed with Lucilius and wrote that a spirit resided within all of us. On the subject of religion Seneca wrote, "Religion is believed by the common people, not believed by the wise and considered useful by rulers.".
When I discovered that quote it was like finding a puzzle piece that completed a puzzle I've been working on my entire life. I have transcended religion and am the better for it.
You wrote a great post, Mike.
Israel did not exist during the time Seneca was alive and Lucilius lived in Campania, a region of Italy.
Great quote by Seneca though.
Damn! I got bad information.
Israelites lived in Canaan.
They lived in Palestine and Canaan is another name for Palestine. Whether one is older than the other or Palestine came from a tribal group, as did Israel and Judah, or Canaan came from a tribal group we do not know. I doubt it is a strong topic for study.
All I do know is that Egyptologists transcribed references to Palestine and Palestinians more than 5000 years ago. They also made a note, carved in stone, when a tribe called Judah rocked up in Palestine 3000 years ago and set up camp.
One theory is that the name Palestine comes from the ancient god Pales, who was picked up by the Romans, as was the way of it in ancient times. One way to bring believers into your new religion was to collect their deities and make them yours. The Christians did the same thing and no doubt Jews, Muslims, Hindus.
We can go back thousands of years and see how Christianity stole from other religions, and that the gods of the old can become the devils of the new.
The Catholic Church became clearest example when they included Paganism, showing that political marketing for power is more important to them than religion itself. That manipulation for power exists strongly today.
The Israeli government harks on about Palestine never existing but its obviously been a culture reference for a long time. More importantly, calling people who call themselves Palestinians anything else wouldn't matter because they clearly exist, and have been struggling for freedom for a century. Semantics cannot kill realism.
I think collecting gods, goddesses etc., by all religions was practicality and perhaps even sometimes, appreciation. I am not sure it was done purely to gain power but logic decrees that including some of the local gods would improve your chances.
And perhaps also spiritual instinct was at work. All major religious structures, regardless of religion, are built on top of others, indicating that people had a sense about the place in spiritual terms. Many in the UK for example, were built on cross points of Ley Lines.
They could inspire us to collect clever people of sanity. That'd be a nice 'religion'.
Ta. Interesting story. At least "Seneca the Younger" will never be a swear word. Doesn;t roll off the tongue as quickly as that other fellow. Appreciate the quote because its nice knowing that common sense has always existed. The downside is that the masses, despite education and living longer, haven't figured it out in 2000 years.
All true. I agree with every word and could amplify almost each paragraph having studied history for most of my life, except for one small detail that you may have overlooked - that there is a baby in the midst of all of that bathwater, a baby that makes all the difference and changes the entire complexion of the picture, in much the same way that we might look at a close-up of a photograph and get one impression of what's going on and then pull back to see a bigger picture and come to an entirely different conclusion about what it is that we are seeing.
It would be easier if you spilled the bathwater...
That would be great but unlikely at this point...we will have to sift through it carefully ourselves or else find ourselves singing the 'Mother's Lament':
https://youtu.be/sYIg61FTi5s?feature=shared
Progress or Entropy?
Which Law do you think is at work in our world today? Progress towards a Utopian future? Or Entropy and a falling away from First principles?
Oswald Spangler would say that the Decline of the West is part of an inevitable process which culminates in Tyranny and the attempt to force it's degenerate values on as much of the world as possible before it self-destructs entirely.
This, he would argue is the road that all Empires travel down. The only difference now is that we verge on a worldwide Empire which threatens to drag the whole world into the pit along with us.
There is a force that transcends and is more powerful than entropy and that is the Grace of God.
Entropy is the natural order. When God so wills the natural order is overcome for He does whatsoever He pleases.
You can just as well say that the world is in the condition it's in because of a lack of Faith, a lack of Prayer and Repentance.
We have lost touch with what it means to Pray, what Repentance consists of and what real Faith really looks like. But what is lost can be regained.
What? You don't believe in God? There is no God? Well, I can totally understand why you would believe that and think that way. ‘Religion’ has suffered from Entropy as much, of not moreso than anything else.
Nevertheless, I can't help but feel that we might be missing something of significance, something extremely beneficial and of inestimable value and, I can't help but find your lack of Faith disturbing…
youtu.be/YnNSnJbjdws
We live, we die, become something else's energy. Entropy and evolution.
It's too easy to choose a God and hate everyone else's but it should be noted that they feel the same and that it's quite possible that you will, one day, try kill them, or they you. Prison gangs have figured that out. Outside, too many intellectualise, contorting hate into words like forgiveness.
I enjoyed your Darth Vader link. In context of your comment, it was God saying, "Believe (or I will hurt you)."
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Mc7rtXvdP6EPfgUQ6
I love art illusion.
https://mikehampton.substack.com/p/god-politicians-and-pastors
"Believe (or I will hurt you)
There is a grain of truth there ...
God is looking for belief mixed with understanding. Otherwise, He allows the natural consequences of our mistaken ideas and beliefs to come upon us for pedagogical reasons, in the hope that the suffering we are causing ourselves will wake us up from our self-created nightmares and sober us up from our drunkenness.
Is it unpleasant? Yes! Can we cut across to a Blessed and Miraculous Life? Perhaps.
Spengler
"...if you’re reading this, you may be different like me."
Well, reading and understanding are two different things. I've read it OK but understood little of it.
I may be different, like you, but if I would need to understand this like you, because I don't, I'm afraid I'm probably not.
Well, you could think of it as a joke that unfortunately kills. It's the height of absurdity.
OK, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with something, does it?
Disagreeable people should remain in character.
I just smiled at the thought that the average American wouldn't understand our conversations. By now, one or both of us would have been called a racist-homophobic-anti-semitic-commie.
Are they still like that?
Well, I suppose you'd have to give them credit for being so determined (to remain willfully ignorant).
Or pigheaded.
Just doing their best to also remain in character.
Biden admirably did that yesterday, saying that the USA is the thread keeping the world together. I'd love to see the quilt he knits next Winter.
Hmmm...A bit sweeping in your generalization of people of faith. I prefer to say I'm a follower of Christ. Then there are Christians, Zionist Christians...tending to be mostly Evangelicals, and 100 more in between. I imagine it's the same for Jews and Muslims. The Zionist Evangelicals are a bit deranged and give true followers of Christ a bad name. Kind of like Zionists are giving Judaism a bad rap. True followers of Christ are the "unseen" who do follow his example living our lives in humility striving to do good works and not bringing attention or glory to ourselves. I see the daily example of the Faith of the Palestinian people and I am humbled. I make an effort to read & translate their comments. That they endure such savagery but have unfathomable courage and always attribute it to GOD beginning and ending every comment in praise of him makes me weep.
Imagine there being Trump Evangelicals, Trump White Supremacists, Trump Conservatives, Trump Capitalists... Would they all be for the glory of Trump or using him as a conduit for for their own selfishness? But this is minor in context. My article was about something else.
I know but I was looking at what was beyond the article. I tend to do that sometimes. I'll try not to do that.
I do not agree that this is a religious war. I think this is a colonial war, waged by Zionists seeking power and they are exploiting religious extremism rather then religion being the cause of the war.
It is always exploitation, but many of the followers believe it is religious.
true