4 replies to this topic

[Arpa]

The burning bush is a much favored shrub in my neighborhood. Its leaves turn bright red in the fall;
http://www.pbase.com.../image/35116536
This is knee slappingly hilarious, hence the reason for posting here under Humor.
This is a joke. But sadly the joke is on us. For the longest time they have been telling us that there was no Moses, there was no Abraham, there was no David, yet we, the butts of the joke insist .
03/05/2008 12:41 AM ID: 69048

Moses Was Hallucinating on Mt. Sinai: Study
A researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem claims in a recent study that mind-altering substances were regularly used during religious rites from biblical times performed by Israelites. Professor Benny Shanon said of Moses on Mt. Sinai:
"It was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics."
Shanon, who admits using ayahuasca, an Amazonian religious drug, has effects akin to acacia tree bark mentioned by the Bible. He said the "burning bush" was likely a hallucination. "The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a classic phenomenon."
Source: breitbart.com http://www.breitbart...;show_article=1

Edited by Arpa, 05 March 2008 - 05:15 PM.

[Zara]

"...a recent study that mind-altering substances were regularly used during religious rites from biblical times performed by Israelites..."

the Ju's were high



That's actually a nice photo though.

[nairi]

Strange that no one came up with this centuries ago.. So what about the vision of Gabriel giving orders to write the Quran? Can we also ascribe it to substance use, or rather, abuse?

[Arpa]

Strange that no one came up with this centuries ago.. So what about the vision of Gabriel giving orders to write the Quran? Can we also ascribe it to substance use, or rather, abuse?

Not unlike Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon??
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Ergotism. Note highlights Salem Witchunt and … who is Matossian?
http://www.botany.ha...T135/LECT12.HTM
A segment;
"Ergotism and Witchcraft
In victims where convulsive ergotism has occurred, during the Dark Ages, what can the uninfected people around them be thinking? It has recently been postulated that such victims of ergotism were often thought to be witches. In talking about witches and witchcraft, just how would one go about deciding that someone is a witch? One thing to keep in mind is that these incidents that we will be talking about happened centuries ago. So, you may think the criteria kind of silly when you hear them. If you saw someone with the symptoms of ergotism, and you didn't know about ergotism, you may guess that the individual having a muscle spasm, tremors and writhing had some type of physical problem, such as epilepsy, or maybe even be on drugs, especially if they were hallucinating. Most people wouldn't think that witchcraft was involved. However, you now know that even during the last century the cause of diseases was still not known. Even today, there are people that not only believe in witchcraft, but even practice witchcraft. It seems that people have always been willing to believe in fanciful explanation for a given phenomenon rather than an a simple one. So when there were large number of people that came down with the symptoms of ergotism, it was concluded that they must have been the victims of witchcraft. It was especially true for convulsive ergotism since some people would claim to hear the devil speaking to them and were thought to be possessed. Matossian (1988) linked the occurrence of ergotism with periods where there were high incidents of people persecuted for being witches. Emphasis was placed on the Salem Witch Trial, in Massachusetts, in 1692, where there was a sudden rise in the number of people accused of being witches, but earlier examples were taken from Europe, as well.
How did Matossian arrive at the conclusion that the bewitched individuals were victims of ergotism rather than something else? There are many symptoms that are attributed to ergotism and while together they may be rather unique, there are other diseases, or physical afflictions that may also have some of these symptoms. However, Matossian did not rely on just one indicator (the symptoms) to determine that ergotism was responsible for witchcraft hysteria, but looked at several other parameters as well. She looked at where these incidents occurred, the temperature, rainfall, the crops grown in that area and who was affected.
In looking at the geography of where witch trials occurred in Europe, Matossian found that a large proportion of the trials were concentrated in the alpine regions of France and central Europe where Rye was usually grown as the staple. Also, it was in these areas that the best source of "primary" records were kept. In Swabia, in southwestern Germany, they even kept annual records as to the number of trials. Other records such as the price of Rye would give an indicator as to how much Rye was available in a given year and more contemporary research compiling the widths of annual rings of trees in given localities gave an indication as to approximately what the spring and summer temperature may have been. For example, in years where there were a large number of witch trials, there were usually high Rye prices, indicating that it was a poor growing year for Rye and people may not be as selective in what they consumed. Trials were also more common during years when the spring and summer months were usually cooler, and even more so if the climate was colder and wetter than the norm. Cooler temperatures would be more favorable for ergot formation on Rye and even more Ergot would form if the rainfall was greater.
How did the witch hunt begin? Once victims of ergotism began exhibiting symptoms of alkaloid poisoning of Ergot, people began to look for the "witch or witches" that caused this sickness and misery to occur. In Salem, Massachusetts, the witch hunt began, on January 20, 1692 when three pre-teen girls began began to exhibit symptoms of what Matossian interpreted as convulsive ergotism. This would, of course, have been interpreted as acts of strange behavior on the part of the people of Salem. They began blasphemous screaming, had convulsive seizures, were in a trance-like states. They were taken immediately to a doctor, but after about a month, since a physical answer to for the behaviors of the girls could not be found, the doctor concluded that the girls had been bewitched. Soon other girls were found to "contract" this disease. Even though people were ignorant as to the cause of disease, they knew that disease was commonly contagious and that everybody that came in contact with people with disease often got it as well. However, since ergotism was not a disease, it didn't have the same characteristics as other diseases previously encountered. If this were a typical disease, more people would have showed these symptoms, but it seemed restricted to the girls at this time. It appeared that a "selective force" was causing ergotism. In order to determine who had bewitched them, a witch cake was baked with the infected girls urine. Consumption of such a cake would reveal to the girls who had bewitched them. After consuming the cake, pressure was placed on the girls to reveal the names of the witches, which they did. They named three women: Tituba, Reverend Samuel Parris' Carib Indian slave, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. The Reverend Samuel Parris was the minister in the town of Salem. Of the three women, Tituba was the only one to confess to being a witch. The two Sarahs maintained their innocence throughout. Sarah Good would be hanged for witchcraft and Sarah Osborne would die in prison. During her confession, Tituba testified that there was a conspiracy led by witches that was occurring in Salem and from there the witch hunt was on. Soon more people came forward to tell stories of how they were somehow harmed by witches and of the visions that they had seen. This led to accusing more people of witchcraft. As the end of the year neared, 20 people accused of being witches were executed. Who would be the most likely people, in a community, to be blamed?"
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It gets even more hilarious. See next

Edited by Arpa, 06 March 2008 - 06:22 AM.

[Arpa]

As promised. It gets even more hilarious.
A segment from below.
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http://www.haaretz.c...ges/959229.html
“Israel's Declaration of Independence states that the Jewish people arose in the Land of Israel and was exiled from its homeland. Every Israeli schoolchild is taught that this happened during the period of Roman rule, in 70 CE. The nation remained loyal to its land, to which it began to return after two millennia of exile. Wrong, says the historian Shlomo Zand, in one of the most fascinating and challenging books published here in a long time. There never was a Jewish people, only a Jewish religion, and the exile also never happened - hence there was no return. Zand rejects most of the stories of national-identity formation in the Bible, including the exodus from Egypt and, most satisfactorily, the horrors of the conquest under Joshua. It's all fiction and myth that served as an excuse for the establishment of the State of Israel, he asserts.

According to Zand, the Romans did not generally exile whole nations, and most of the Jews were permitted to remain in the country. The number of those exiled was at most tens of thousands. When the country was conquered by the Arabs, many of the Jews converted to Islam and were assimilated among the conquerors. It follows that the progenitors of the Palestinian Arabs were Jews. Zand did not invent this thesis; 30 years before the Declaration of Independence, it was espoused by David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and others.

If the majority of the Jews were not exiled, how is it that so many of them reached almost every country on earth? Zand says they emigrated of their own volition or, if they were among those exiled to Babylon, remained there because they chose to. Contrary to conventional belief, the Jewish religion tried to induce members of other faiths to become Jews, which explains how there came to be millions of Jews in the world. As the Book of Esther, for example, notes, "And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them."“