by TWilliam » Fri 14 Sep 2007, 02:51:42
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Rambo', 'T')he bible is a croc of shit.
Not per se, Rambo. What it is, is what today might be termed
historical fiction. Just as modern writers can take events from history and use them as a backdrop for otherwise fictional events, so too did the many biblical authors take real events, locations, people, etc., and weave them into mythological tapestries to help them better understand and relate to their world.
Remember, the peoples of those times did not have concepts like "market forces", "global weather patterns", "pathogen-induced disease" and such. To them, supernatural "gods" (eventually coalescing into the idea of "One God") were the best they could come up with to explain the otherwise mysterious vicissitudes of life. And since humans are pretty much the same everywhere (on this world at least), and since we all have similar environmental experiences (same Sun in the sky, same seasonal variations, etc.), it stands to reason that the stories made up by various cultures will embody certain common themes - which the first part of Zeitgeist illustrates. While the producer(s)
have oversimplified a bit, the film is essentially correct in it's depiction of the roots of religious thought. Scholars nitpick over some of the details, but are pretty much in agreement about the broad outlines presented.
"It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, because Kansas? Is goin' bye-bye... "