h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I do know that when I'm depressed which may last for weeks or months I'll have periods when I'm happy. That doesn't mean I enjoy the times I'm down. At least I don't think I'm enjoying it

ok fair enuff .... perhaps someone will.... by the way I love your name, Blackberry Cat, makes me visualise sorta like Beatrix potter kittens munching blackberries and having stains around their mouths....

You most likely mean the colour right?

Anyway off now, ta ra for now!

Ta very much, yours is good too
Blackberry Cats are something to do with evil in folklore .
Google it sometime.
Ta Ta

fanks and yeh off to google

I do, it makes sense to me, because there's a big streak of that kind of masochistic misery-gutsing in my family... (Kinda like Marvin the Paranoid Android!)

Well I asked that..umm that posting earlier, cos I know that I enjoy a good sad melody that makes me feel wistful and melancholic and well.....err...if that were the case..then maybe some people perhaps enjoy sadness in that sort of sense...

Oh..I don't know... slightly drunken rambles here.....I'd better toddle off..ta ra for now...

~waves~

Aah yes now I know what you mean
After all I've got lotsa Leonard Cohen cds
Guilty as charged

<>

Yes. Human nature is generally not benificial to the individual so much as to the gene pool. Thus it needs to be avoided in the cases where it is wrong.

Lemon,

And how do you decide the cases in which it is wrong? You seem to not want to be human at all.

az

Heathen Sceptic

some of these, like you own experiences, end up in emotional attachment of one kind or another, but, unless everyone who posts to these hundreds of groups are all lying, very, very many don't.

I have no dispute with this. Although I believe it is possible to approach things differently I acknowledge that most don't.

My assertion would be that most people are so confused about what they want/dont want, what might be the best way of getting it, and the extraodinary opportunities to be 'sold' or 'sell' things or lifestyles that they could well do without that they are unwilling or unable to risk open honest communication.

I think that the influence of the 'Me first' culture is responsible of a good deal of the confusion and self damaging choices many people seem to make (and later report regretting) the eagerness to be first in line for whatever is on offer seems to bypass the capacity to think through choices before hand.

Morning, az. We've had our differences in the past, but here is a remark of yours I absolutely agree with. I too would love to know what, in Lem's view, makes something right or wrong. For me, the only standard is species specific and therefore very much to do with human interests.

On the other hand (you knew it had to come!) I think Lem is trying to be superhuman. Conventional monotheists will do this by invoking the help of God who has made them in His own image - but with freewill. Perhaps they will invoke 'original sin' in order to argue that His creation has gone wrong!

Lem, what story do you tell about these things? On what do you, a human, base your ideas about how human nature could be improved?

toxx

Most girlfriends I have been attached to have wanted Valentines cards from me.

What is the point of that?

Please dont answer I sort of understand the most popular reasons wht Im talking about is at a deeper level. How does depriving a squirell of its home to provide paper to print a soppy message on have to do with anything *real*.

"Civilisation" has given us many conventions and manias ( manium? ) that at an animalistic level do not make sense, but some how grease the motion of society. That is not to say that someof these things to do not have undesirable cosequnc a religion that binds one group together can set them to war with another. An ideology that placates some people feels repressive and leads to revolution in the eyes of some. A convention about flowers and chocolates can make life dreamy for some or miserable for other when I forget its Valentines day.

The Ideal for governments and manufaturers would be a one size fits all world, but the world isnt like that. Some people would like to be normal and not have to face up to the giddying diversity that is out there even to the point that they would submerge their own uniquness just for a quite life.

I cant say i dont understand these people I have been there, but I dont want to go back again. Sure I dont raise the roof over every little point but somethings are too important to be lost to homoginisation.

However as Heathen has pointed out a new brand of consumerism is emerging, or becoming more popular suddenly it may have been around for years, whereby people no longer care what they do or what they have as long as they get to do it in the vanguard or have it in a shinnier better packaged way than their immediate neighbours. No longer is it enough to *keep up with the Jonses*. Now it is more like exceed the Jonses or *emulate the Beckhams*.

one love

Aaaarrrrgh - Biblical studies. Where's the ? Lots of it...

Oh I acknowledge my error on Matthew, I muddled up agendas about when the gospels were written down with who's stories were supposed to be being told. The 80 CE+ date for Matthew confuses things in my mind a bit, as he was undoubtbly literate (Tax collector customs officer etc) and there are some who belive it was written earlier eg The Jesus Papyrus at Magdelene college. So any way I got that wrong, I however am highly concerned that the gospels we have today are not representitive of what was actually written by the 'eye witnesses'

The general acceptance of Mark as a close associate of Peters was somthing I had heard before but had not encountered written down. I will have to check my references again but I have read that he may well have been an enthusiastic pupil of Lukes.

Tarsus is I belive in modern day Turkey which I have always been led to belive was a very Hellenised part of the mediteranian, the original name Saul may have represented a Helenised Family's attempts to keep a link with their ethnic roots. e.g. Today their are many 'Europeanised' asian peoples who give their children traditional asian names.

Pauls nobility was a bit of a leap on my part, BUT, he was in the service of the priesthood when he set out on the road to Damascus, so it could be argued he was in with the crowd so to speak.

It has been argued by Eisenman that Stevens Martyrdom may not have happened and that it may well have been an early attempt on the life of James, re written by the Roman Church later to distance Paul (Who the roman church had come to revere) from the final Martydom of James.

My difficulty with the NT is the very things that a lot of scolars appear to use to verify it's authenticity, a lot of the versions agree almost completely, the number of copies made in the 4th century, 30,000 are reputed to still exist. This bears all the hallmarks of a pogrom against alternative texts, the elimination of Gnostic texts may well have been a part of this.

Argumnent between Hellenised Jews and Arameic Jews, is an idea I have recently become more enamoured of. Based on the premise that Christianity grew out of the collision of Hellenic, Judaic, Roman and possibly asian ideas in the two centuries either side of year 1 CE. The NT phrase (And Qumran) which lends some weight to this is Zeal for the Law. argument follows.

The Selucid's were clearly Hellenic and the Pharasiees appeared to have been strongly alligned with them. James in acts is critical of the laxity of the priest's of the temple in regard to the law. James was also described as Reichious and in his NT letter encourages adhearence to the Law.

Hellenic peoples seem to have been able to accomodate roman rule, later during the revolt of 66 CE Josephus seemed quite happy to switch sides depending on who was winning. Those Zealous for the Law however held out to the bitter end, e.g. Masada, Jerusalem ect...

I feel that the evidence points to Hellenic Jews being identified with the Herodian dynasty, This dynasty whilst keen to be seen as supporting Judaeism was sufficiently Roman, as to have it's children educated in Rome, e.g. Aggrippa, and had it's own agenda to appropriate the Messiah role, (As kings you might expect this) Aggriippa himself went to the extremes of this. Given the ethnic animosity we have seen in the 20th century I feel it is highly likely that such ethnic combativeness was rife in first century Judea.

The fact that James and Paul were on either side of an argument about the Law (I am inclined not to accept that this was limited to whether the uncircumsised could be allowed to join) and that subsequent texts of the New Testament were written in greek indicates that Greek side of the argument won.

The historical context of the rebbellion suggests that this could be as a result of the Hellenic Jews being more able to accommodate rule by Rome, another indication that they were at odds with Aramaic Jews who were unable to accommodate roman rule and unwilling to see the law diluted. James and the Zealots being examples of this.

The more I read and learn of first century Judea the more I become convinced that Paul was in fact attempting to dilute a Zealot agenda, tone it down seperate it from violent resistance. He may have been doing this in the service of rome, but I ame more inclined to believe it was in the service of the Herodian Dynasty and it's accolites.

Paul spends far too much time in his letters defending himself against the accusation of being a liar and his dissappearance from history when he is taken to rome, I find very odd. I cannot help but imagine that he ended up retiring to a nice villa somewhere, much the same as another Jewish historian Josephus, who also seemed to switch sides with the wind.

I know there is a lot of speculation in the above, I am only just begginning to see a historical picture which makes sense to me after 20 odd years of interest, my difficulty has always been that there are not many non-Christians who are interested in the area, and the Christians who are have tended to buy the absolute truth of the biblical account line. I hope your aaarrrg, doesnt mean you never want to talk about it again, as I am quite enjoying myself

Isn't film making another form of art that is impressionistic and flavoured by events surrounding and influenced by personal opinions and those opinions of the ones whom you respect?

Yes (In my opinion)

Matholwch - Resident Druid of this Parish /|\.


The NT certainly claims the crowd called for the release of Bar Abbas my doubts abou this come from a tradition strong in my family from when I was a child rather than a known historical source, that the crowd was divided on the issue, given Pilate was by all accounts not happy with his post as governor he may not have paid as close attention as he might, but this is only as I have said a tradition I am aware of.

As a carpenter Jesus would have probably have been well off, carpenters were impartant craftsmen in the world of the first century, particularly in context of a fishing community like Capernaum, have you ever seen a poor shipbuilder.

There is dispute about the 'Forensic Evidence' if water issued from his side then he was quite definately dead if it didn't then the question is more open.

Alan M6791

+ 'Q'

Blackberry Cat

If you're getting depressed during the winter months you may well have Seasonal Affective Disorder (the aptly acronymed SAD) which is caused by lack of sunlight. Drugs are not a sensible route to deal with this. I think there are special lamps you can get that mimic sunlight, but I could be wrong about that.

I have a tendency to depression that manifests mainly in reduced energy and motivation, but isn't accompanied by any noticeable feelings of being miserable.

Noggin

I really must get into the habit of reading all the posts before composing a reply.

The Mythological status of JC ect..

I am inclined to believe that JC was born did live and was crucified, behind all the different narratives there is the sense that something important happened.

I think it was all however much more linked to the socio-economic and political context of what was going on at the time rather than a grand design of god.

I also think that the Dead sea scrolls provide a great deal more enlightenment about this than has heretofore been assumed. If it is accepted that these are not the documents of an odd little sect in the desert but the rescued works of Jerusalem from 66-70 CE, then a comparison with Christian texts we belive to have been written at roughly the same time or shortly after, raises very interesting questions. Particularly about Lies, the wicked priest and the Teacher or Reichousness (I wish I could spell theat flaming word, even my spell checker can't work it out.)

Hi, Noggin. You're certainly right about the light therapy for SAD. It's always worth checking with the GP, if only to get the stuff you need cheaper or free (not always guaranteed!).

I'm a chronic depressive using Seroxat. That does fix the negative affective state (doom and gloom) but not really conation (energy and motivation, if you like) and even cognition - which tends to appear as less concentration.

toxx

The Teacher of Righteousness, SD. The Teacher of Reichousness was somebody quite different.

I'm fairly openminded about whether JC really existed, or whether he's some sort of composite figure. The clues we have are simply not conclusive one way or the other.

Do you have any grounds for the claim that Paul and David are mythical, Alji?

The flood is probably one of those cases of a highly mythologised account based on some actual event - possibly whatever laid down the flood layer at Ur.

Noggin