Tag Archives: Catholic Church

Roots of ‘Easter’ Myth Adapted For New Testament

18 Sunday Mar 2018

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This time of year Christians focus on the narrative of Jesus Christ and his life, death, and resurrection. It is detailed in the New Testament from the viewpoints of multiple authors. For a Christian, the ‘Easter’ story of hu’s* death and resurrection is the foundation of the deification of Jesus. The reality is that the Bible is a collection of stories, most of which predate Judaism and Christianity.

[ADVISORY:  The following information may be disturbing to Christians and other faiths that believe in the divinity of the Bible/Tora. This information is based on historical data that is available to the public and is not intended to dissuade anyone from hu’s faith or beliefs.]

Origins of the Easter Story

Those who believe in the divinity of the Bible accept that the stories are original; however, there is a clear connection between the myths of the previous cultures. These myths developed over centuries with each culture making revisions while keeping the root of the myth.

The Easter myth is a good example of this process. The roots of the myth can be traced back through the Roman and Greek cultures; however, the beginnings of the story go back to at least the Phrygian culture. They lived in what is now the southern Balkans in Europe.

Mother of the Gods of Phrygia

The Mother Mary aspect of the Easter story would seem to be a version of the Phrygian myth of Cybele (a.k.a.; Kybele.) Cybele was known as the Mother of the Gods. Very little is known about the nature of the goddess Cybele, except that she is the only known goddess of that culture.

Androgynous God of the Greeks

The Greeks adapted Cybele into their mythology but changed the narrative. In the Greek version, Zeus impregnates the Mother God, Gaia who bore the diety, Agdistis. This diety had both male and female organs and the other gods feared this dual-gendered diety. The mythology is that a god tricked Agdistis while hu* slept and tied a rope to hu’s penis. When hu awoke the rope pulled the penis off as Agdistis stood up. It gets worse.

Now a woman, she became Cybele. [NOTE:  Some say that Cybele and Agdistis were separate beings.] Hu’s blood from the castration fell to the ground. On that spot, an almond tree grew and later an almond fell into the lap of Nana. That almond impregnated Nana and she bore Attis, a beautiful boy. Nana abandoned Attis who was found among some reeds, (possibly the root of the Moses myth,) and raised by foster parents.

When Attis became a man, Cybele was infatuated with hu. Attis was to wed the daughter of a King, but at the wedding, Cybele appeared to them and drove Attis and the King mad with love for her. They both castrated themselves, (I said it would get worse,) and Attis died. Cybele could not bear the loss of Attis and hu asked Zeus to keep hu’s body from decomposing.

Roman Easter Celebration

The Romans kept much of the Greek version of the myth. They transformed the Cybele and Attis story into a multi-day Spring celebration. The Roman calendar began each year in March. Spring was celebrated based on the Moon phases near the Vernal equinox. The first day of March was the marked by the New Moon. The ides of March fell on the Full Moon and the celebration consisted of the following observances. [NOTE:  The following has been copied, with editing, directly from a Wikipedia page.] 

Ides of March (Full Moon)

Canna intrat (“The Reed enters”), marking the birth of Attis and his exposure in the reeds along the Phrygian river Sangarius.

Ides of March + 7 days (First Half Moon)

Arbor intrat (“The Tree enters”), commemorating the death of Attis under a pine tree. The dendrophores (“tree bearers”) cut down a tree, suspended from it an image of Attis, and carried it to the temple with lamentations. A three-day period of mourning followed.

Ides of March + 8 days

The tree was laid to rest at the temple of the Magna Mater (the Great Mother.)

Ides of March + 9 days

Sanguem or Dies Sanguinis (“Day of Blood”), a frenzy of mourning when the devotees whipped themselves to sprinkle the altars and effigy of Attis with hu’s own blood; some performed the self-castration of the Galli. The “sacred night” followed, with Attis placed in his ritual tomb.

Ides of March + 10 days

(Vernal equinox on the Roman calendar): Hilaria (“Rejoicing”), when Attis was reborn.

Ides of March +11 days

Requietio (“Day of Rest”).

Ides of March + 12 days

Lavatio (“Washing”), Cybele’s sacred stone was taken in procession from the Palatine temple to the Porta Capena and down the Appian Way to the stream called Almo, a tributary of the Tiber. There the stone and sacred iron implements were bathed “in the Phrygian manner” by a red-robed priest. The quindecimviri attended. The return trip was made by torchlight, with much rejoicing. 

Ides of March + 13 days

Initium Caiani, sometimes interpreted as initiations into the mysteries of the Magna Mater (the Great Mother) and Attis at the Gaianum, near the Phrygianum sanctuary at the Vatican Hill.

Easter of the New Testament a Developing Story

The Christian story of Easter is a story that began centuries before the myths were written into the New Testament. The Virgin Mother, the Mother of God, the death and resurrection of Jesus are all part of the myth of Cybele and Attis. The reason that Easter is a floating holiday traces back to the original Roman calendar that was based on the phases of the Moon.

(*’Hu’s’ is a neutral pronoun replacement meaning his/hers. ‘Hu’ is a neutral pronoun replacement for him/her or he/she.)

Saint Patrick Wasn’t Irish and Other Facts?

17 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by in Ethics, History, Public Image, Religion, Reno, St. Patrick's Day

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Saint Patrick. The grand man of the Irish! Green beer, green clover, green Puritan-style hats, green beer, wearing green…did I mention green? All the great Irish traditions as we celebrate the anniversary of his death on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day. Except, he wasn’t Irish.

Chicago takes the green of St. Patrick’s Day to a new level.

The Real Saint Patrick

Patrick lived sometime during the 5th century (400-499 A.D.) in Roman Britain and his father was a deacon in the Catholic Church and was a decurion of Rome, (member of the City Senate.) His grandfather was a Catholic priest, but Patrick was not a believer in the church at first.

When Patrick was sixteen he reports that he was captured by Irish pirates and taken to Ireland where he was made a slave. It is during his enslavement that his religious beliefs grew. After six years he said God told him that a ship awaited him. He escaped and traveled 200 miles to a port and convinced a captain to take him back to England.

Once back, he claims that he and the crew of the ship wandered for 28 days. Then desperate for food, he encouraged the group to have faith and they then came upon wild boar and the group feasted. He eventually returned to his family and studied the Bible and the Church’s teachings.

Patrick the Profiteer?

Patrick then returned to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity. In his writings, he defends himself against accusations made against him for apparently receiving money and gifts for religious favors (baptism, ordainment, etc.) He doesn’t specify what the accusations were, but he does deny receiving money or gifts.

As a Christian and a foreigner, he wasn’t well received by the wealthy and powerful of Ireland. He was apparently successful in converting some of the sons and daughters of significant Irish families, which likely added to his poor reputation among the royalty of Ireland.

Legends of St. Patrick

The Clover

Over a thousand years after his death, (appeared in a writing of 1726,) Patrick was said to have used the three-leaf clover to represent the Holy Trinity during his teachings. There is no earlier written evidence of this and it is unlikely the story is true.

Snakes, I Hate Snakes

The story that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland is false. They were flown out in modern times. Maybe you saw the movie, Snakes On A Plane.

The Truth Doesn’t Matter As Long As There Is Beer

Historians even question St. Patricks own writings. Some don’t buy his kidnapping story. Some suggest that he was a con man that used religion to make money. All that doesn’t matter today because Patrick is our excuse to drink beer. Cheers to you St. Paddy!

Popes That Damned Women, Choice, and Humanity

21 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in 1968, Aging, Ethics, Generational, History, Politics, Privacy, Public Image, Public Relations, Relationships, Religion, Respect, Technology, US History, Women

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Pope Pius XI in 1930 and Pope Paul VI in 1968 had opportunities to extract the Catholic Church from the debate on birth control options for women. Both Popes had religious councils that suggested women using contraception should be allowed under some circumstances. Both Popes rejected those opinions and strictly forbade women having medical options in preventing pregnancy. 

Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ordained 1920

Pope Paul VI as a new Catholic priest

By Brescia Photo – Instituto Paolo VI, Public Domain, Link

1930 – The Church Takes A Stand

In 1930, the Anglican Communion (the alliance of Churches associated with the Church of England) held their seventh conference known as the Lambeth Conference. This Conference, held once each decade, brought together representatives of the Anglican Churches around the world to discuss religious issues.

At the 7th Lambeth Conference the representatives, by a 193 to 67 (47 abstentions,) passed Resolution 15 that would allow certain methods of contraception provided it was, “…done in the light of the same Christian principles.”

The Catholic Church was not affected by this Resolution; however, Pope Pius XI felt he had to respond to the Conference’s Resolution with his own proclamation on New Year’s Eve the same year. For the first time in Church history, the Pope insisted that the only justifiable reason for sexual relations was for procreation. He said that anytime, “…the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature..” 

Pope Pius XI reaction to the Lambeth Conference was obviously his belief of the moral superiority of the Catholic Church, but 38 years later Pope Paul VI was not attempting to respond to actions of other churches. Instead, he was squelching his own committee that had been called to review the teachings of the Church.

Birth Control Guided Away From Vatican II

The Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) was convened in October 1962 and ended in December 1966. It was established to assess the role of the Church in modern life. The decisions of the Council resulted in many changes to the Church doctrine, but women’s use of contraceptives was not one of the issues discussed. 

Some in the Church wanted to bring the issue of contraception methods into the discussions during Vatican II, but instead, Pope John XXIII established a commission in 1963, that reported directly to him. The task of the commission was to study questions of birth control and population. Pope John XXIII died later that year and Pope Paul VI continued the commission to its completion in 1966.

The commission, by a 64 to 5 vote determined that the use of medical contraceptives was an extension of the method of monitoring a woman’s fertility cycle and was not inherently evil. Information about the report was leaked to the media prior to publication and Catholics around the world began to believe the Church was about to liberalize the teachings regarding the use of birth control.

A Handful of Men Kill Women’s Choice

Despite the findings of the study, a minority report by four priests vehemently opposed the decision. They stated that if the Church’s position was reversed, it would mean the declarations of Pope Pius XI and other church leaders of the past would be seen as false teachings.

Pope Paul VI chose to follow the minority report and rejected the commission’s findings. He reaffirmed the Church’s position that women should not be able to prevent a pregnancy with contraceptives.

Why Did Pope Paul VI Reject the Findings?

The four most likely factors contributing to Pope Paul VI’s rejection are as follows:

  1. The Catholic Church has been consistent in discouraging the idea that worshipers have a personal relationship with God. The Church has preferred that personal choices should be made using the Church to guide them.
  2. A historical perspective in the Church that women are subservient to men and not worthy of positions of religious leadership; therefore, a woman’s choice to want to avoid pregnancy is irrelevant.
  3. Pregnancy is an act of God, not of humans.
  4. Pope Paul VI was not a woman, never married, and rumored to be gay.

It is unlikely that any Pope will ever reconsider the issue of birth control. Note that when Pope Paul VI made his declaration in 1968, the population of the world was 3.5 billion people. The world population is now 7.6 billion. 

12 Days in 1968

06 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by in 1968, Aging, Arts, Crime, Crisis Management, Education, Ethics, Generational, Government, Health, Higher Education, History, Honor, Panama, Photography, Politics, Pride, Print Media, Public Image, Public Relations, racism, Relationships, Religion, Respect, Science, Space, Technology, The Tipping Point, Traditional Media, Universities, US History, Women

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May 1968 – Student injured in France in clash with police

1968. Fifty years ago our country was in chaos. Only five years had passed since President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. The man who became President, Lyndon B. Johnson, had accomplished amazing milestones in civil rights, protections for the elderly (Medicare and Medicaid) and had expanded programs in public broadcasting and the arts, but the country was torn apart by the war in Vietnam, and he had increased the number of U.S. troops in the war to over half a million.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was still recovering from the  fire in January of the previous year that killed three astronauts as they sat helplessly in the command module on the launch pad, and the Apollo program had yet to launch a manned mission with only two years left to honor President Kennedy’s goal.

At the start of the year, everything in the world seemed to be collapsing. The year would test our society’s threshold of endurance. These are twelve days that defined 1968. (Source:  Wikipedia – 1968)

Captured crew of the USS Pueblo giving the finger to North Korea

  • January 23
    • North Korea seized the USS Pueblo, creating an international incident that remained in the news for most of 1968. North Korea claimed the ship was spying on their country and violated its territorial waters. Its mission was to observe and gather intelligence and at the time of capture, the crew attempted to destroy classified information on the Pueblo, but only succeeded in destroying a small amount of the documents and equipment. One crewmember was killed by North Korean fire in the attempt to capture the boat. The crew was tortured and starved during the eleven months of imprisonment. They were released just before Christmas 1968. The USS Pueblo is still held in North Korea and is still a commissioned ship of the United States Navy.
  • February 13
    • Civil rights disturbances occur at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This would be one of many protests, sit-ins, and riots, in the United States, England, France, Germany, and other countries over civil rights, the Vietnam war, and other social issues. Many of those involved in the year of civil disobedience would be injured or killed in clashes with law enforcement.
    • The Florida Education Association (FEA) initiates a mass resignation of teachers to protest state funding of education. This is, in effect, the first statewide teachers’ strike in the United States.
    • NET televises the very first episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
    •  
  • March 16
    • Vietnam War – My Lai Massacre: American troops kill scores of civilians. The story will first become public in November 1969 and will help undermine public support for the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.
    • President Lyndon B. Johnson, the incumbent, narrowly won the first Democratic primary to a minor candidate on March 11, and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy entered the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. President Johnson would end his campaign two weeks after Kennedy makes his announcement.
    •  
  • April 4
    • Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities, lasting for several days afterward.
    • A shootout between Black Panthers and Oakland police results in several arrests and deaths, including 16-year-old Panther Bobby Hutton.
    • A double explosion in downtown Richmond, Indiana kills 41 and injures 150.
  • May 17
    • The Catonsville Nine enter the Selective Service offices in Catonsville, Maryland, take dozens of selective service draft records, and burn them with napalm as a protest against the Vietnam War.
    •  
  • June 5
    • U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Sirhan Sirhan is arrested. Kennedy dies from his injuries the next day.

Pope Paul VI: The man who brought the Church into couple’s beds

  •  July 25
  • August 20
    • The Prague Spring of political liberalization ends, as 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops, 6,500 tanks, and 800 planes invade Czechoslovakia. It is dated as the biggest operation in Europe since WWII ended.
  • September 6
  • October 11
    • Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live television broadcast from orbit and testing the lunar module docking maneuver. The United States is back in space for the first time since the Apollo 1 disaster.
    • In Panama, a military coup d’état, led by Col. Boris Martinez and Col. Omar Torrijos, overthrows the democratically elected (but highly controversial) government of President Arnulfo Arias. Within a year, Torrijos ousts Martinez and takes charge as de facto Head of Government in Panama.
  •  
  • November 5

  • View of Earth from Apollo 8 as it orbited the Moon

  • December 24
    • Apollo program: U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William A. Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and planet Earth as a whole. Anders photographs Earthrise.

School Vouchers Are About Religion and Racism, Not Choice

15 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in About Reno, Aging, College, Education, Ethics, Generational, Government, Higher Education, History, Honor, Politics, racism, Religion, Science, Taxes, Universities, US History, Women

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School vouchers are a campaign to steal money from the public school system and give it to parents to spend on private religious schools. It is born out of ignorance and racism in an attempt to take our country back to segregated schools. Schools consisting of well-financed white religious-based schools, and poorly funded minority public schools.

Nevada’s Illegal School Voucher Bill

In May of 2015, the Nevada conservatives won a major victory with a bill that stole money from the public school system and gave it to parents to use for alternate education, including school operated by religious organizations. The following month Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, whose children had attended a Catholic school, signed the bill into law, even though it clearly violated the Nevada Constitution that forbids taxpayer funding for a church-operated school. 

The Klan Doesn’t Support Education for All

Fortunately, the Nevada Supreme Court stepped in and nullified the law, ending conservative’s attempt to steal money meant to offer education for all, and redistribute it to those in favor of education for a privileged few. 

Public School Evolution

Public schools were established in the early and mid-17th century to overcome the problems created by parent-based education. (SEE:  The Atlantic October 2017 on Public Schools) Parent-based education limited the advancement of future generations to the ignorance of their mother and father, who were both working full-time to maintain needs of the entire family. 

Unfortunately, the early public schools primarily served white males. Over the next two hundred years public schools were refined to; 1) become compulsory, 2) include female students, 3) promote women as teachers, 4) expand curriculum, and 5) ultimately require education regardless of race.

The Protestant Conflict

Ironically, most early public schools were influenced, if not run, by Protestants. Their beliefs included the idea that children should have a broad-based education. The problem arose when a flood of Catholic immigrants created a conflict in the public education of children. When public schools became battlegrounds of differing church doctrines, it caused pointless disruption of the goal of education for all. Ultimately, the issue was indirectly resolved by President Ulysses Grant and Congressman James Blaine.

President Grant called for an amendment to the United States Constitution to forever separate church and state interests in education and forbidding public money to be spent on private schools. Congressman Blaine sponsored a bill to do exactly that and it passed in the House of Representatives. The Senate; however, failed to pass it by a two-thirds majority and the bill died.

However, individual States passed amendments to their Constitutions and eventually all but ten States adopted Blaine-type laws. 

A Return to Past Mistakes

The post-Blaine Amendments environment have been an era of astonishing success in elevating the education of United States citizens. In 1950, only 34% of adults in this country graduated from high school. By 2010, the number of high school graduates increased to 90%. The miracle is that the increase in high school graduates occurred during the same period when the nation’s population doubled. 

Despite this success, conservatives have made public education their target (SEE:  Slate.com November 2016 on Trump Gutting Public Schools) for three reasons. First, conservatives don’t believe in paying taxes, especially when the money doesn’t directly help them, nor their families.

Second, conservatives believe that public-funded secular, unbiased education is biased because it doesn’t promote their personal egocentric and/or religious beliefs.

Third, conservatives are overwhelmingly white, and the idea of paying for the education of another race is repugnant to many of them. They advance the ideas that education is wasted on minorities. It is noteworthy that white people demanded that schools be segregated in the south. When the courts ruled that schools must be desegregated, white people began characterizing public education as failures. That was the beginning of the push for alternative school choices.

Confronting Truth: The Difference Between Science and Religion

27 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by in Education, Ethics, History, Passionate People, Religion, Respect, Science, Space, Technology, Universities

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There is a primary difference between science and religion. Religion discourages the confrontation of the ‘truth’ as it is presented by the leaders of the church. When I say discourage, I mean up to and including the murder of those who challenge the church’s version of the truth.

Science, not only accepts a challenge to the current truth, it is the fundamental architecture of all scientific endeavors to challenge the truth. Scientists accept that our current knowledge is incomplete, and that research, observation, and experimentation will replace the current truth of the universe around us.

A good example of this is our understanding of Earth and its relationship to other bodies in space. The religious doctrine stated that Earth was the center of the universe. Religious sources have claimed that holy text have told them the Earth is the center of the universe, and that was a truth which could not be challenged.

However, the concept of an Earth-centered (geocentric) universe had been challenged in the third century BCE by Greek astronomer and mathematician, Aristarchus of Samos, who theorized a Sun-centered (heliocentric) universe. Unfortunately, his idea lacked supportive evidence and was largely ignored.

Galileo was a victim of the Church, not of science

Over 1,700 years later, others began using observations that indicated that the geocentric model didn’t work as well as the heliocentric model. In January of 1610, Galileo Galilei used a telescope to discover three of Jupiter’s four largest moons, and observed that they orbited Jupiter. He then theorized that the Earth may also orbit the Sun, rather than the Sun orbiting the Earth.

This challenged the belief that dated back to Aristotle that all objects orbited the Earth, a concept that was adopted by both Islam and Christian churches. Galileo’s findings contradicted a fundamental truth of the church. For that crime, Galileo was subject to a Roman Inquisition, and ultimately, arrested and imprisoned.

While it is true that Galileo’s theories were not readily accepted, even by other astronomers of his time, he began a process of challenging truth, and using observation to determine truth. For this, Galileo is known as the father of the scientific method.

Some might think that their religion has outgrown this absolute interpretation of doctrine, and accepts scientific proof. To some degree, most Christian churches, when faced with overwhelming proof will either reluctantly accept the science, or become mute on the subject.

However, in the case of Galileo, the Catholic Church has attempted to use revisionism to explain its position on the geocentric/heliocentric debate. In 2004, the Catholic Church published a revised history of its role in the matter of Galileo. In a blog article on Catholic.com, the Church implies:

  1. that it was his fellow scientists, not the Church that disputed Galileo’s findings,
  2. that it was Galileo’s fault for promoting his theories that challenged Church doctrine,
  3. that Galileo failed to prove his position,
  4. that Galileo’s findings were not 100% correct, and 
  5. that Galileo did not suffer any real consequence for his research and findings.

All five of these points are twisted interpretations of what we know to be fact.

  • Galileo was persecuted by the Church, not his fellow scientists. Arrested by the Church, not this fellow scientists, and sentenced by the Church, not his fellow scientists. Yes, his findings were not widely accepted by other astronomers, but as Galileo was the first to observe Jupiter’s moons and their orbits, he would have been alone in promoting the observations.
  • Galileo had his observations, and while there would need to be more observations and the development of better technology to confirm his observations and conclusions, he had every right to promote the concept, even if it disputed the truth of the Church.
  • Galileo observed and hypothesized, but he wasn’t 100% correct. The Catholic Church suggests that because he wasn’t 100% correct that they were right in persecuting him for his theories. They were not, and the idea that the church was waiting for better evidence is a lie.
  • Galileo faced an Inquisition, and was sentenced. Whether he was tortured is not relevant to the Church’s role in trying to silence those who challenge the teachings of their doctrine.

Science seeks truth, but scientists know that all truth is subject to the gathering of more data, which may disprove the known truth and replace it with a new concept. The church believes that all truth comes from God, and it is not subject to revision, even if the truth of the Church is wrong.