Kudos! Excellent! Bravo! They say all the goddesses are one goddess and I do believe all the old gods are one. They don't go away, perpetually reborn, dying and rising. I opened my copy of "Who Was Hiram Abiff" after reading your piece and saw in my handwriting: "Orpheus, Dionysus, Attis, Adonis, Tammuz, Melcarth". The Irish I believe, called him Lugh. Those up North, Odin. The masons call him Hiram Abiff. Each mason becomes Abiff! It's the new religion of man. The gods of old have suffered a sea-change, full fathom five. Scientism, the new religion of Man. And it requires sacrifice for Man, the would-be god.
The most dangerous idea in the New Testament is "the kingdom of God is within you." God(s) represent that transcendent thing we need to understand/control. Polytheism represents a literal marketplace of belief where people can focus (and be managed) on one thing or another. Monotheism represents a monopoly on transcendent belief management, a roll-up, like private equity coming in and buying up all the hobby stores. Temples were also banks/meat-markets. (Think of all those OT sacrifices as BBQs). When Christians stopped bringing sacrifices, pagans got hungry. So, if you roll up all the belief management into one, and then (here's the kicker), take away external guidance and point it inward with personal responsibility, you take control away from those external forces. Thats what makes Jesus lessons dangerous, an existential threat.
Kudos! Excellent! Bravo! They say all the goddesses are one goddess and I do believe all the old gods are one. They don't go away, perpetually reborn, dying and rising. I opened my copy of "Who Was Hiram Abiff" after reading your piece and saw in my handwriting: "Orpheus, Dionysus, Attis, Adonis, Tammuz, Melcarth". The Irish I believe, called him Lugh. Those up North, Odin. The masons call him Hiram Abiff. Each mason becomes Abiff! It's the new religion of man. The gods of old have suffered a sea-change, full fathom five. Scientism, the new religion of Man. And it requires sacrifice for Man, the would-be god.
The most dangerous idea in the New Testament is "the kingdom of God is within you." God(s) represent that transcendent thing we need to understand/control. Polytheism represents a literal marketplace of belief where people can focus (and be managed) on one thing or another. Monotheism represents a monopoly on transcendent belief management, a roll-up, like private equity coming in and buying up all the hobby stores. Temples were also banks/meat-markets. (Think of all those OT sacrifices as BBQs). When Christians stopped bringing sacrifices, pagans got hungry. So, if you roll up all the belief management into one, and then (here's the kicker), take away external guidance and point it inward with personal responsibility, you take control away from those external forces. Thats what makes Jesus lessons dangerous, an existential threat.
Our rulers in plain sight, but un-recognized.