[lit-ideas] Re: Roman Superstitions
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 23 May 2014 17:20:02 +0100 (BST)
That old testament God was clearly a bluff-calling capricious sadist among
other things, as Dylan put it - "God to say to Abraham 'Kill me a son'/Abe said
'Man! You must be puttin' me on?'/God said 'No'/Abe said 'What?!'/God said 'You
can do what you want Abe, but...The next time you see me comin' you better
run'/....Abe said 'Where d'ya want this killin' done?'/God said 'Out on Highway
61'.
This is no accident:
http://www.godstenlaws.com/ten-commandments/
Much narcissistic kow-towing is demanded, including to parents, before we get
to "Thou shalt not kill". Not killing is, by numerical order, less important
than not swearing using the Lord's name.
This is one madman of a God. Unless He's more of a merry prankster - which is
the other interpretation of the Abe/Issac story, a la Leonard Cohen. OTOH, at
no point did God stop any auto-de-fe by booming out that the killers were
taking the Bible much too seriously.
Donal
London
TC
On Friday, 23 May 2014, 15:44, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The story of Abraham and Isaac in the Bible obviously deals with the issue of
human sacrifice (possibly because it had been practiced in earlier times). When
Abraham is made to believe that God expects a human sacrifice, he is prepared
to sacrifice Isaac. We are not supposed to conclude that Abraham is acting
irrationally at this point. It is only God's mercy in not demanding the
sacrifice that makes it unnecessary.
O.K.
On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 4:31 PM, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hm... I am not sure that 'irrational' and 'superstitious' are exact synonyms.
If the Aztecs believed in gods that demand human sacrifices, then their
practices might be said to have been rational, in relation to their beliefs.
But we may still think that these beliefs were superstitious.
>
>
>O.K.
>
>
>
>On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 2:57 PM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx for DMARC
><dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>Were the Aztecs superstitious? (by Roman standards, that is).
>>
>>In a message dated 5/23/2014 7:51:24 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>>
>>donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>>Next, having lectured everyone who has ever used a phrase like "irrational
>>superstition" that they are guilty of otiosity, we will be told that the
>>Bible's "It rained for forty days and forty nights" is otiose.
>>
>>Indeed. The problem however is Aramaic in nature.
>>
>>It may be that in Geary's idiolect, 'That was a fine day' DOES NOT entail,
>>"and night too".
>>
>>Similarly, Cole Porter's song, "Night and day" is possibly otiose, but
>>surely "Day" does not scan.
>>
>>McEvoy:
>>
>>
>>>having lectured everyone who has ever used a phrase like "irrational
>>superstition" that they are guilty of otiosity
>>
>>This may amount to Moore's paradox.
>>
>>"It is raining but I don't believe".
>>
>>It may do to look for examples of first-person 'superstition' ascriptions:
>>
>>"I know it is superstitious, but I do believe that p."
>>
>>"I am superstitious when I think that p, but I can't say I'm ashamed of
>>that."
>>
>>I.e. it would seem the ideal Kantian rational 'ego' of apperception would
>>deny superstition _in principle_. Walter O. does, too.
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>Speranza
>>
>>
>>>It rained for forty days and forty nights.
>>
>>versus
>>
>>>It rained for forty days (nights included).
>>
>>If the 'implicature' is that the rain never stopped, then, the utterer
>>indeed does not need to be more informative than is required.
>>
>>Note, however:
>>
>>It rained for forty days and forty nights, but not successively.
>>
>>--- REFERENCES:
>>------ Biblical accounts of the divine flood, and the new film with R.
>>Crowe ("We thought of having a voice over repeating the Aramaic lines, "It
>>rained for forty days and forty nights" but we found it otiose -- given the
>>digital imagery we were displaying.").
>>
>>
>>
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>
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