All-In [29823]

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Jan 17, 2022, 7:11 PM

Religious Pron – Why you think what you think: (1of3) Mystery

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Sainte-Chappelle Chapel; the high point of European Gothic Architecture and a symphony of light though stained glass

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The exquisite Blue Mosque of Istanbul; beauty equal to any Western house of worship

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The magnificent tomb of Zoroaster, namesake of Zoroastrianism; unsurpassed craftsmanship by the human hand

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Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem (model); the ancient focal point for the entire Jewish nation and a symbol of national rebirth

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Thorncrown Chapel; a glittering diamond in the remote backwoods of rural America

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The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the rustic and austere beauty of eastern Poland

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I’ve been posting some military history stuff in the lounge for a while now, but what I find most interesting about history, even beyond the tactics and technology of conflict, is the human side of it all– how people get along, or not, and why. That’s what makes politics interesting too – what brings people together or pushes them apart, and why? Are they personal issues that have a direct impact on your life, ideological issues based on high theory and hypotheticals, tribal issues stoked by a clan dynamic, or some mix of all of the above?

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There are political rallies, and then there are political rallies. Nuremburg, 1936. The Cathedral of Lights. Spotlights, that is.

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Beliefs and allegiances are powerful stuff. Early Constantinople was half burned to the ground during the Nika Riots by people who pulled for either the Blue or the Green Chariot team. Thirty thousand people killed over which color is better: Blue, or Green?

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Where is Judah Ben Hur when you really need him?

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That was it all it took to drive some folk to catastrophic division and violence. The center and apex of Western progress, intellect, and civilization, almost razed to the ground over sports. See some of today’s soccer matches for the occasional small fry version of the same. Small differences can sometimes grow into uncontrollable monsters when perspective is lost. Like in this great Twilight Zone episode.

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Anything with Claude Akins in it is an automatic classic. Let’s hear it for the young Sheriff Lobo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPOoEQ2vx7w
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At one time in early Antioch (the one in Syria, not Kershaw County) it was said that you couldn’t even buy a loaf of bread at the market without two dozen people asking you if you thought Jesus was fully or only partially divine. And they were waiting with sticks and clubs for your answer.

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Might want to have that loaf of bread delivered to your house instead

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So political and religious history is fertile and interesting ground for finding out what people think, and have thought, and the passion that drives those thoughts. That’s what these posts will be about, and why I titled this 3-part introduction “Why you think what you think.” Because whether you realize it or not, the concepts and ideas you hold dear, whatever they are, have a history, and most likely a pretty damm interesting one.

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Think about it…

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Every person I have ever met has at least some questions about existence. If there is someone out there who understands everything about the universe and has no questions or sees no mysteries around them at all, I’d love to have a chat with them, because I have a lot of questions and they could really help me out.

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Got it all figured out?

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Consider how a spider builds a web. Even “learning” to adjust in a weightless space environment, or completing their web-building mission in a drug-induced state.

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These spiders are high

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fAS2Nv6Zy8
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These spiders are higher, about 250 miles up, in the International Space Station

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM8k9sUAS8E
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Now to my knowledge, no spider goes to web-building school. Maybe it has a knowledge or intellect I can’t comprehend. I only have 5 senses, and so far I have found they are woefully insufficient to answer all the questions I have about the universe.

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X-Rays (and all electro-magnetic radiation for that matter) have been around since the Big Bang, but we didn’t know about them until 1895 when Wilhelm Rontgen invented a device, beyond the abilities of our basic senses, to detect them. All those waves just zipping around us all the time, while we were completely oblivious. So what else is out there that we haven’t detected yet, hidden beyond the curtain of our physical and mental limitations?

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A seed might sit dormant in the ground for 30,000 or more years. It’s not alive. And it never will be. It could sit there for eternity and never be alive. Until a few drops of water start the cycle. Even without light, hidden in the ground, life begins in that seed from basic H20. Here it is. An arctic flower from Siberia buried by a squirrel almost 32,000 years ago, according to carbon-14 dating. It germinated exactly as any other plant planted today, and is carrying out its life cycle, till it dies forever.

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From nothing for 30 millennia, to a short life, to eternal death for ever after. That cycle will never again occur in that particular plant. Where did that life come from? Where did it go?

A football team in the midstate of S.C. only has a 590-570 lifetime record. Barely over .500 after a century of play. How could it be so bad for so long? So many players. So many coaches. And yet, no greatness to be found other than a 1969 ACC championship with a lousy 7-4 record over equally horrible teams. Another of the universe’s great mysteries. So, so many mysteries.

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So how do we handle the unknown, and perhaps, the unknowable? How to we try to explain all that we see and experience? That’s where we’ll continue in part 2 with Religious Pron – Why you think what you think: Faith

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The Jewish Torah, the first 5 books of the Old Testament

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Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, recovered from the hidden caves at Qumran in Israel

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The oldest English thanslation of the Bible, the Tyndale Bible, from 1526, on display at Oxford University

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Sacred Hindu Vedas in Sanskrit

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Part of a gorgeously illuminated Koran from the 1500’s

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Mrs. Fordt took a European vacation with her family about 5 years before we met, and to hear those guys talk about it at the dinner table it was about 10 times more epic than Chevy Chase's movie.

No lie, it would make a better move...stuff like peeing off a cliff at night in pitch black, only to find it was a thousand foot drop the next day in the light, bags of luggage being thrown off moving trains, taking a 2-lane winding road up the side of a snowy mountain when a brand new 6 lane highway had just been built beside it for the Olympics, but wasn't on the paper maps yet, confusing 2 towns with the same name on the train, mistakenly breaking into someone's room and almost climbing into bed with them while they slept, stumbling into a "fantastic steak" house only to out find it was a wh-re house they were all eating at, getting kicked out of the Vatican, getting run out of a restaurant by a homeless man because they took his bench/bed...on and on and on.

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Great work as always

Re: Great work as always

Good read sir. One line though….

Re: Good read sir. One line though….

The blue mosque doesn’t even have shiplap.***

Re: The blue mosque doesn’t even have shiplap.***

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sounds like I-85.***

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Wow - Well done!

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