jonolan on Asian Beauty: “That's good. More of us – and, by that, I mean all of us – need to do so. I…” Mar 28, 13:04
The Fall Of Man
Most people think that they know what happened in the Garden of Eden and why the Fall of Man happened. Consider though that most people have only heard the tale from the Christians’ bible and then only in modern, translated form. What really caused the Fall of Man might have been a bit different from the mainstream report.
Oh yeah! If one considers ancient Jewish texts, especially the Kabbalah, then Adam was first paired with Lilith, not Eve. Also, Lilith, some time after divorcing herself from Adam, became the 1st Consort of Sama’el, who according to some works was the one who tempted Eve, not the Serpent, who was merely Sama’els mount.
So really, that part of Genesis that depicts the Fall of Man may just be a sanitized description of family drama surrounding a pair of Ex’s and their jealous new spouses. 😆
Tags: Adam & Eve | Bible | Christianity | Divorce | Genesis | Humor | Judaism | Kabbalah | Marriage | Religion
NY Now Composting People
‘Tis odd but true; New York, thanks to actions by the state’s legislature and NY’s Governor, Kathy Hochul – most likely as a sop to the climatards and/or due to getting kickbacks from Recompose – has legalized the composting of human remains, euphemized as natural organic reduction, terramation, and/or recomposition. This makes New York the 6th Democrat-controlled state, following Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and California, to allow the controversial practice.
To my mind and irrespective of the reasons Democrats had for putting for and then passing this into law, in so long as it is a truly voluntary choice – i.e., the Dems don’t “regulate” and tax burials and cremations to the point that they’re no longer valid choices for most people – I not only don’t mind this, I like it. I have a normal American man’s love of family and have always been an avid gardener. Having my composted remains added to my family’s gardens suits me quite, quite well. Christian groups, especially Catholics hold a quite different opinion though, one which makes no historical or Biblical sense to me at all.
This Is About As Biblical As One Can Get
Despite what certain Catholic across the country have proclaimed, composting the remains of a dead person is about as biblical as it gets.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
— Genesis 3:19 (KJV)
That makes it pretty clear to me, and that is in English. If we move to a closer source, Classical Hebrew, “dust” in Genesis is aphar adamah (dust of the soil), which would be the soil and the soil alone, whereas the beasts were created from the ha’eres (the land as a whole). So, Man was created from the fertile soil and shall eventually, after a life of labor wresting sustenance from that soil, return to it. Amen.
Snarky Sidenote: Yes, to my fellow linguistic enthusiasts! Adam’s name was “Dirt.” 😆
This is the basis for why Talmudic law forbids both cremation and embalming the dead. We are soil and we must be returned to it and become it again.
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As for the Catholics odd-seeming over-veneration of corpses? It creeps me out a bit – relics! 😮 – but it’s their thing andt they’re welcome to it. It is, however, a false argument in this cases. Buried in the ground, buried at sea, cremated, or composted – he 1st three all being allowed by Church doctrine – intrinsically carry with them any veneration or sanctification of a person’s mortal remains. But, nor do they carry and intrinsic profanation of those remains.
Frankly speaking, I find it closer to spirit of Catholic teachings to have a tree growing from one’s composted remains or to have the value left in one’s flesh feeding the garden that helps sustain one’s family than to have one’s meat chemically treated so that it both can’t rot for ages and would poison the ground (adamah) it was “returned” to if the vault it was placed in failed; or one’s ashes consigned to a columbarium and swiftly forgotten; or buried at sea and just as swiftly forgotten and more unreachable.
And hey! Those Catholic clergy and their Church have a lot of properties with a lot of green space. There’s nothing to say that their faithful couldn’t bequeath their no longer needed, composted dead flesh to bring life to them. 😉
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“You don’t have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily.”
A Canticle For Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller (1959)
Tags: America | Bible | Catholics | Composting | Death | Dying | Funeral Rights | Natural Organic Reduction | New York | Religion | Terramation
Biblical Proportions
Seek Thou One Of Biblical Proportions And Cleave Unto Her
I’m very much not any form of Christian, despite having extensively studied their holy works and related texts in various languages, including the original ones in some, mostly New Testament cases. Still, the Bible does hold a lot of wisdom in it, much of which is either directly applicably to today or can be extrapolated to fit with today’s world (If, in many cases, one gets past both accidental and deliberate mistranslations).
A perfect case in point being the entirety of Proverbs, especially Proverbs 5, and most especially Proverbs 5:19:
Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
— Proverbs 5:19 KJV
See? This is why, despite being truly theologically, cosmologically, and ontologically opposed to the basic premises underlying Christians’ faith – a single, omniscient, omnipotent God who both made Creation and is Benevolent, I have a respect and fondness for the Bible, especially the Old Testament. The Bible, again especially the Old Testament, sets forth a lot of ways for people to live “rightly” and fairly well, and in those chapters, it includes nuggets of applicable wisdom on how to do so instead of just saying go forth and do this or go forth and don’t do this.
The entirety of Proverbs 5 can be summed up as an admonition to young men to not be promiscuous manwhores, dawgs, or players, but, instead, to find a good woman and stay with her. Then, in verse 19, it gives practical advice on what sort of woman to choose so that a man can better and more easily abide by the stricture. 😉
Carry on, be thee wayward or steadfast,
— jonolan, DTh, DD, MLang
Tags: Babes | Beauty | Bible | Curvy Girls | Curvy Women | Dating | Humor | Marriage | Relationships | Religion | Sex | Society | Softbodies | Women
A Little Angel!
And, as so often babies are described as being cherubic in appearance, here’s the Christians’ Bible’s description of the Cherubim:
(10) And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel. (11) When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went. (12) And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had. (13) As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O wheel. (14) And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
— Ezekiel 10-14 (KJV)
Perhaps it would be better and less horrifying to biblical scholars to say that she looked like a little Putto. 🙂
And yes, girl child or not, please do call them Putto-esque, even though the word technically means boy toddler. Given the gender suffixes in Italian, it’s probably best not to use the female form. 😆
Tags: Angels | Babies | Bible | Cherubs | Christianity | Humor | Language & Idiom | Parenting | Putti | Religion | Society
