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Divine Fingerprints
By William C. Carlotti, Torrington
Jeff Messenger "admit(s) to the doubting Thomas within (himself)" and asserts that "While the marvels of the universe inspire awe and wonder, they do very little to define the nature of God—if there is a God." And so he "started to look for possible divine fingerprints wherever (he) could." His quest led him to study "comparative religion, Christian apologetics, biblical archeology, prophetic fulfillments, the paranormal, the near-death experience, and the unexplained in general." [Lunch with the Warrens, September 14]
The problem with Mr. Messenger's resume is that it is the resume of someone who has confined himself to a myopic view of the world. The unexplained for Mr. Messenger are such things as the casting out of demons, paranormal apparitions, the existence of spirits, the parting of waters, a burning bush, a scorched mountain top, walking on water, stopping the sun and more. Such unexplained mundane matters as gravity, light, magnetism, and the growth of an oak tree from an acorn, or the twisted helix of DNA that grows into humans are matters to "inspire awe and wonder" but are unqualified, according to Mr. Messenger, as "divine fingerprints." Perhaps we are better off leaving Mr. Messenger with his revolving internal debate about what the bible of the Israelites tells him.
The truth of the matter is that whenever the biblical zealots get involved with an examination of the world that we are and that we live in, we end up with the suppression of inquiry, the persecution of reason, the condemnation of logic, and the torture, murder and execution of those who exercise these aspects of the faculties that we are born with.
A classic example of such biblical zealotry is the flat earth topography espoused by the Christian monk Cosmos Indicopleustes in his book entitled Topographia Christiana. At first glance it might appear curious to the modern reader that there should be anything about topography that would require special Christian interpretation. But if we review the creationism of the current biblical zealots in their opposition to evolution, we can begin to understand how someone might decide on a "Christian" topography. Cosmos’ book, in the guise of topography was, in fact, a biblical polemic against the Ptolemaic (Egyptian) verification by astronomical observations that the earth was round.
According to Cosmos, "The earth is flat. The inhabited portion has the shape of a rectangle whose length is double its width … In the north is a conical shaped mountain around which the sun and the moon revolve." Cosmos asserted this flat earth thesis based on Revelation 1:7, where Christ returns so "every eye shall see him"—an impossibility if the earth was round. The flat earth notion is supported, according to Cosmos, by Revelation 7:1 and its "four angels standing on the four corners of the earth"; Isaiah 11:12, where the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah are gathered together from "the four corners of the earth"; Jeremiah 17:19, where the Gentiles come "from the ends of the earth"; and Acts 13:47, where salvation is ordained for Gentiles "unto the ends of the earth." Without going into all the details, Cosmos constructed a universe, replete with drawings (which also showed spaces for heaven, the living and the dead) that looked something like a modern country mailbox, with the curved upper portion designed according to Job 37:18, where the sky "is strong as a molten looking glass."
The twelve volumes of this biblical conundrum were published in 547, a few years before the meeting of the Fifth Ecumenical Council. The Council forged ahead to establish this view of the universe for hundreds of years, and the view was still being pushed by biblical zealots in opposition to Columbus as he sought support for his sail west to reach the east.
The worst of this doctrine is reflected in the opposition to Copernicus' independent discovery of the Egyptian's empirically established double motion of the earth, which had been stated as a doctrine by the Greek Aristarchus about 300 BC. When Copernicus stated the doctrine that the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun, the biblical zealots pointed to Joshua 10:12,13—where the god of the bible invented by the Israelites halted the sun and the moon to give Joshua the time necessary to complete the genocidal slaughter of the Amorites. It was the wisdom of Copernicus in delaying the publication of his doctrine until just prior to his death that probably saved him from the fate of Amorites.
When Galileo's astronomical observations (assumedly independent of any knowledge of Egyptian observations) empirically confirmed Copernicus' doctrine, the biblical zealots in the form of the Inquisition threatened him with torture until he recanted—earning him a sentence of two years in prison. For nearly two hundred years the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books condemned all writings that affirmed the doctrine of the double motion of the earth. For generations the major branches of the Protestant church—Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican—denounced the Copernican doctrine as being contrary to scripture, which is probably why John Donne and William Shakespeare wisely joined in the denunciation.
In keeping with my continuing attempt to help Mr. Messenger define the nature of the god of the bible invented by the Israelites, the following from Isaiah 13:9,15-18 contains this message from the god of bible: "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate … Every one that is found shall be thrust through … Their children shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes … and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them … Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children."
The more that we read of the pronouncements of the god of the bible invented by the Israelites, the more it appears that we are reading a voice with the mentality of a murdering sociopath.
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