Originally posted by inimalistNo.
how is a book about modern mainstream media, from the period of 9-11 to Katrina (which is included in the subtitle of the book), relevant to what I posted above?EDIT: I'm assuming you mean this book http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Story-Ever-Sold-Decline/dp/159420098X
The book is actually called "The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold" I never heard of that other book.
Originally posted by lord xyz
No.The book is actually called "The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold" I never heard of that other book.
lol
well, I looked at a couple of reviews. Most of it is the same "Jesus is not real" stuff that is as old as dirt.
It mentions that the Jesus fish is a sign of the age of Pisces? lol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthys
like, if I read Moby Dick, there is no doubt, if I went looking for it, that I could find parallels to, say, modern ideas of connectionist neuroscience. This does not mean that the story has anything to do with it, but instead shows how powerful the pattern detecting parts of our brains are.
Confirmation bias is still the best explanation
I'm not going to read the book, but feel free to bring up any points you find particularly relevant, and I'll address them as best I can. I'm certainly open to new ideas....
The Book talks about many other messiahs before Jesus like Mithra, Dionisus, Horus, Buddha etc. and asks, where all the attributes came from. The fact that it is all astrological representation, based on ancient stories, and that it correlates with many others is enough to say, yeah, the Bible is based on Astrology.
Confirmation bias could be applied to anything, really. The theory of evolution or the theory of gravity for example.
Interestingly, your article mentions the astrological theory.
Fish in the Gospels
Fish are mentioned and given symbolic meaning several times in the Gospels. Several of Jesus' twelve disciples were fishermen. He commissions them with the words "I will make you fishers of men."
At the feeding of the five thousand, a boy is brought to Jesus with "five small loaves and two fishes". The question is asked, "But what are they, among so many?" Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish to feed the multitude.
In Matthew 13:47-50, Jesus compares God's decision on who will go to heaven or to hell ("the fiery furnace"😉 at the end of this world to fishers sorting out their catch, keeping the good fish and throwing the bad fish away.
In the John 21:11, it is related that the disciples fished all night but caught nothing. Jesus instructed them to cast the nets on the other side of the boat, and they drew in 153 fish. It has been observed that, like many other numbers given in the Bible, this number is associated with a mystic property, in this case the vertical ratio of the shape known as the vesica piscis.[3]
A less commonly cited use of fish in Christ's life may be found in the words of Matthew 17:24-27, in which, upon being asked if his Teacher does not pay the temple (two-drachma) tax, Simon Peter answers, "Yes." Christ tells Peter to go to the water and cast a line. He says that a coin sufficient for the tax will be found in the fish's mouth. Peter does as told and finds the coin.
Originally posted by lord xyz
Okay, but how can this not be independantly verified?
To verify that the bible represents various modern interpretations of astrology?
there are lots of issues that keep poping into my mind. The most important would be something like determining the frequency of use of certain words in ancient hebrew.
i don't know... for something to be verified, there would have to be some methodology for determining these things. It appears that all you have done is looked through the bible for things that support your claim. Any group of researchers could do this, I guess, and if they were equally motivated to read the same thing into it, sure it could be verified. The problem is that this is not reliant on prediction.
So, like based on all this crazy criteria (like, themes X culture X word frequency analysis) you might be able to come up with a statistical model that predicts how, by chance, one might expect to find various potentially astrological themes throughout the bible.
I assume that has never been done, I can't imagine how it could be or who would have the effort, but from that control data, you could try to find statistically significant trends in the pattern of usage of astrological themes...
I hope this makes sense? Its about the necessity of being able to predict things from what is found, and not finding things to try and explain what has already happened? dig?
how often, by chance, given the culture of the time and the theme of the passage, would one expect, in ancient hebrew, to come across reference to things that are congruent with modern astrology?
How then does the bible differ systematically from this?
For instance, wouldn't it be much stranger if you couldn't find such references? If in all the words printed in each of the books you couldn't find some reference to something that is even passingly related to modern astronomy?
EDIT: Has previous work addressed these issues?
www.truthbeknown.com is a good webiste for info etc.
It probably can't be proven as of yet, but not all things were proven before they were believed.
you are free to believe about the bible whatever you like. The most logical explanation for the apparent ties to modern astrology in the bible still remains confirmation bias.
lol
and that site? You want me to believe info on a site where an author is trying to sell me their books? also, there is lots of stuff there, mind linking an article or whatever specifically about this astrology stuff so I can go over the specific claims?
http://www.geocities.com/astrologyages/
Shows the passing of ages Taurus to Aquarius and what the sky looked like in those years.
I've read a bunch of the stuff
Jung says outright there is no way to test or know for sure what he is talking about. Jung also had theories that universal archetypes were shared in a collective subconscious, so I'd say there is a lot of chance of confirmation bias there (lol, like Freud maybe)
The stuff that talks about astrological ages in the past is also really telling. None of them mentions stars, and they assume Plato has knowledge of 8 planets? (impossible)
my opinion remains unchanged, though thanks, I'm honestly not just trying to shit all over what you think
Originally posted by Grand-Moff-GavThe ages can be verified.
So, you think the Bible is based on Astrology because someone has made up some "ages" and said look they fit in with what the Bible says about animals...
Jesus' assumed birth date is the beginning of the age of Pisces. Religions all over the world reflect the astrological ages.
Mithra, The Sphynx, Minos, are all linked from astrotheology.