On 2003-06-16 14:51:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Okay. Not that I'm provoking a religious discussion but Scripture says that in the "last days" the seasons will be all mixed up. Personally, I believe the freaky weather is a "sign of the times," but that's just me and my two cents. No need to attack, I simply think differently and wanted to contribute to the conversation. :grin: "
Nah, I think that rant was just an indictment against the Julian calendar. Although I'm not a professing Christian, I have always been a big fan of anyone who will call liars and thieves liars and thieves and kick them out of a temple by force (or any other way). Christ was real big on thumbing his nose at authority and encouraging others to do the same.
I don't know how the CC fundies have gotten it so mixed up in the mean time, but the whole reason why the Zealots hated Jesus was because he called himself Christ or "The Anointed One". It was that he had the audacity to put forth that you don't need a rabbi to anoint you. The annointing oil, including the essential ingredient Khana Bass or "Sweet Cane", comes from God and all God's children are entitled--even required--to partake.
In fact, Jesus made a short career of making the establishment look stupid. That's why the Romans didn't care for him any more than the Zealots.
Just one of many complaints against the Roman Empire at the time was that they criminalized the use of traditional calendars in favor of the Julian calendar. This may seem like a little thing, but it's not. You want to bust up and subjugate a culture? Take away their holy days and rites. That's one effect of changing the calendar. Another was that it became difficult to function in the agrarian societies.
"When do we plant the corn, Dad?"
"On the third full moon of... shhhh! they'll hear. On the Roman calendar, it'll be June 15th this year and a little earlier than that next year.... but, for real, it's the third full moon of ..."
In those days, that Dad could go to prison (where there were no services or civil right... or food, for that matter) just for telling his son practical info that works. It's easy to imagine a hot-headed radical rebel like Jesus preaching about how fucked up that is and saying something to the effect of "why, in another thousand years or so, we'll be having winter in July, for Christ's sake! and by that time, surely the empire will be in some deep shit.", only to be misquoted as prophesying catastrophic weather far off in the future.
Just my two pieces of silver :wink:
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
