Last week, we heard that Green Day: Rock Band would not be the only title in the franchise this year. Now we know why: Harmonix aren’t making it, and are presumably busy with some other project.

They’ve given the work of developing the title to fellow Cambridge, Massachusetts studio Demiurge Studios, known for porting Mass Effect to PC. Other Demiurge works include the Rock Band track packs and creating the arena mode in Borderlands.

Other details about the title are still mainly a mystery, but two things are clear: the release date is currently sometime this year, and “American Idiot” is a playable track.

[The Spoony Blog via Eurogamer]

Charles Fort (the famous cataloger of all thing inexplicable) asked us to consider the possibility that there is a God, and that he might be insane.

It is a basic tenet of modern orthodox Christianity (as well as Islam and Judaism) that praise is due to God on account of his creation of the world. There were ancient Christians, however, who took precisely the opposite view. To them, Creation seemed not to make any sense. They looked around them and saw a world rife with disease, predation, and inequity. They felt that a God who was worthy of worship would never had created such a world. They could not reconcile the idea of creation by a benevolent God with the manifest cruelty and wastefulness of nature. Therefore, they reasoned that if there is a benevolent God he must not be the one who created the world. Called Gnostics, they sought to transcend mundane reality and escape the Creator God, for whom they frequently used the Platonic term Demiurge (or craftsman).

For the Gnostic Christians, it was the teaching of Jesus that mattered, not his death. They felt that his true and original words contained the means to achieve transcendence. To the Gnostics, the death of Jesus represented not a plan and means of salvation, but the inevitable result of attempting to defy the Archons, or rulers of Creation. Some Gnostics went to far as to state that Christ was the image of an idea without a body, neatly sidestepping the impossibility of finding any historical records of a flesh and blood Jesus.

Unconcerned with establishing a powerful Church at the expense of their Truth, the Gnostics lost the battle to define Christianity for the future. The idea that a flawed Creation denotes a flawed Creator was ultimately too much for most people to accept. Modern Christians often find the message of the Gnostics strange at best, blasphemous at worst. Yet once they were as strong and vital a part of the Christian movement as the Catholic and Orthodox churches that survived.

So, what if there is a Creator, and he is insane?

Avec flocons de neige j’ai abordé un processus téléonomique simple, celui de l’addition de molécules d’eau à un cristal en formation, pour montrer que l’histoire de chaque flocon, même de chaque branche d’un flocon, joue un rôle important dans la structure finale que l’on obtient. Ceci est vrai aussi pour les formes à six branches, qui semblent être les seules qui ont eu l’attention de notre ami Staune.

Il est probable que l’explication aurait été plus élégante si on parlait de brisures de symétries, mais je laisserai le soin aux professionnels calés de vous entretenir de ça.
Après avoir très brièvement évoqué un système très contraint qui ne se prive pas de pouvoir donner un gros, très gros paquet de formes différentes, j’aimerais passer au point de vue de Michael Denton au sujet des formes platoniques.

Les protéines se trouvent à l’extrémité de la chaîne de transmission d’information décrite par le dogme central de la biologie moléculaire. Nous avons vu, par l’exemple, combien la forme d’une protéine est influencée par la séquence génique qui code pour elle, au point où même une mutation synonyme puisse l’affecter et combien cette modification de la forme peut-être sensible aux conditions environnementales.

J’aurais bien sûr pu choisir d’autres exemples de changements de forme d’une même protéine, mais j’en avais marre des classiques, comme les changements conformationnels de l’hémoglobine, je cherchais quelque chose de plus sexy (et j’ai été gâté). Mais comme c’est dans les vieux pots qu’on fait la bonne soupe et que j’ai envie de faire couler le sang, je reviens vers mes cours de licence pour poser une question intéressante : quelle est la forme de l’hémoglobine ? Je ne parle pas des formes de l’hémoglobine que l’analyse biochimique banale nous révèle, ni des formes transitionnelles entre les différents états en fonction du pH ambiant et de la saturation du milieu en O₂, je parle de la forme platonicienne que Denton, et à sa suite Staune, perçoit dans les protéines.

Le papier de Denton & Marshall dans Nature, est une lettre publiée dans Concepts : Laws of form revisited [lien pdf direct]. Comme vous pouvez avoir sous les yeux le pdf dans une autre fenêtre, je vais continuer en ne citant que quelques extraits.

Commençons par préciser l’évidence (sachant qu’il y a des jeans gens qui ne la voient pas obligatoirement) : le matérialiste athée réductionniste fondamentaliste, que je suis, considère que tout ce qui est naturel est naturel. Je dis ça dans le sens que je n’évoquerais pas un esprit surnaturel quelconque pour expliquer un phénomène naturel.

Je suis donc naturellement d’accord avec les auteurs quand ils disent que :

However, recent advances in protein chemistry suggest that at least one set of biological forms — the basic protein folds — is determined by physical laws similar to those giving rise to crystals and atoms.

Qu’est-ce qui pourrait déterminer les formes de quoi que ce soit à part les lois naturelles ? IMO, rien. Là où la divergence prend racine est juste la phrase suivante :

They give every appearance of being invariant platonic forms of precisely the type that the pre-darwinian biologists were seeking.

Franchement, je n’ai aucune envie de discuter ce que les biologistes pré-darwiniens cherchaient, parce que je pense que l’on peut trouver tout et le reste suivant le milieu culturel des uns et des autres. Par contre j’aimerais bien signaler en passant que les formes platoniques sont sur le mode créationniste, qui suppose une entité surnaturelle, le démiurge, qui les a pensées. Est-ce que les auteurs sont en train de prônes l’existence du démiurge de Platon ? Ils ne le disent pas, mais connaissant par ailleurs Denton je peux bien penser que oui.

Protein folds, the basic constructional units of proteins, each consist of a folded chain of between 80 and 200 amino acids.

Chers amis, mon cul. L’unité constitutive des protéines est l’aminoacide, il n’y a pas à chier. Et il y en a 20(+2) qui rentrent dans la composition de la majorité des protéines. Les protéines sont des polymères moléculaires produits par addition successive d’aminoacides lors de la traduction des ARNm, résidu par résidu, sur la base de l’information portée par cet autre polymère qu’est l’ARNm.

Après l’histoire se complique. Les protéines adoptent plusieurs conformations, sont coupées, les chiralités des aminoacides peuvent être changées, leurs chaînes latérales sont modifiées par des additions diverses, allant de la phosphorylation (plutôt simple), via l’addition de lipides, à l’addition de longues chaînes d’osides. Leur conformations changent en fonction du pH, de l’interaction avec d’autres protéines, des lipides, des acides nucléiques, l’eau, les ions, etc.
Elles n’ont pas une forme.

On peut certes classer certaines formes générales des domaines protéiques en se permettant certaines approximations. Ca permet d’avoir une description approximative d’une protéine. Mais personne (?) n’est dupe au point d’imaginer qu’une hélice alpha, par exemple, reste forcement une hélice alpha dans n’importe quel compartiment cellulaire, dans n’importe quelles conditions de température, force ionique ou pression (! tiens pour faire plaisir aux mécanosensibles, salut VF). Je parle bien d’une hélice alpha particulière, pas des hélices alpha en général. Une des formes que les auteurs revendiquent comme ayant l’apparence des formes platoniques. Bien sûr les helice/sheet transitions sont monnaie courante. Non pas seulement elles le sont, mais il y en a une marrante , que j’aime bien, où l’on a un intermédiaire évolutionnaire entre le sauvage qui est en β-sheet et le double mutant switch Arc qui est en hélice α : le mutant Arc-N11L passe son temps à passer d’une forme à l’autre à l’échelle de la milliseconde. Un équilibre dynamique entre les deux, dont les deux populations sont déterminées par le pH, les solvants, la température et la liaison avec leur ligand [doi:10.1038/81985]. Comme je disais plus haut, forme mon cul !

Quid des formes platoniques de Denton & Marshall ?

Ce sont du même genre de constructions intellectuelle approximatives que l’on utilise pour classer les cristaux de neige. Chacun ses critères sans que personne ne se leurre comme la compagnie proche de l’Intelligent Designer qui voit derrière sa classification la main du démiurge de Platon. Cette compagnie ayant une fâcheuse tendance à oublier ce qui la contredit, ou à rephraser les choses comme ça l’arrange :

Protein folds, the basic constructional units of proteins […]

Je ne vais pas aller plus loin dans l’analyse du délire (oui, j’ai bien choisi le terme délire) de Denton. Parce qu’il est suffisamment déconnecté de la réalité pour qu’il ne vaille pas gâcher plus d’électrons.
Bien sûr, s’il y a des questions spécifiques j’essaierai d’y répondre. D’autant plus que maintenant j’ai en prêt un exemplaire du TNBI

1 * Mez Drago : jdr entre le High Fantasy et la Fantasy mythique (conte), dans lequel 3 espèces profondément différentes vont se trouver des points communs lors du réveil des Drago’s. C’est un jdr qui se concentrera en particulier sur les secrets du monde. Cinq tomes sont envisagés :
- Mez Drago – le livre de base (Pj/Mj);
- Guerre Céleste;
- Nouvelles Alliances;
- Les Secrets Oubliés;
- Les Maîtres du Feu.

2 * Le second jdr produit par Bardaf! est ” Surgery Room “. Jdr contemporain (*) dans lequel les rôlistes incarnent des étudiants en médecine rêvant de pratiquer des opérations chirurgicales. Surgery Room va sans doute attirer un certain public habitué aux séries américaines hospitalières. Mais le public se veut large, et les termes médicaux seront expliqués simplement aux néophytes, y-compris le Mj. Le système tournera autour de 3 grands pôles: les compétences/connaissances médicales, le relationnel (patients, collègues, autres) et la mentalité du pj (détermination, peur, etc.).
* Si jamais on arrive au bout et que Surgery Room plait, on pourrait envisager la création de suppléments pour jouer à différentes époques, ou lieux reculés (style MSF).

3 * De nouveau un jeu dans un univers scientifique… sauf qu’on y ajoute un peu de fantasy animalière : il s’agit de ” Moreau Lab. “
Dans ce jdr atypique, vous incarnerez des animaux-cobayes échappés d’un laboratoire. Dorénavant vous êtes dotés de talents spéciaux qui font de vous des animaux uniques. On vous a humanisé, et votre destin est désormais entre vos mains. Ce jdr pourrait trouver sa place pour concourir au Demiurge 2009 si la thématique est en adéquation. Un jdr qui pourrait se montrer fun, un style de super héros/mutants mais animaux à la base.

Sous l’impulsion d’Erik, Bardaf! developpe ces 3 jdr. Si l’espoir fait vivre, l’un d’entre eux pourrait sortir au printemps 2010.

PC – Keyboard / Mouse – 2008 (2007 for Xbox 360)
Developer: BioWare (Demiurge for PC port)
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios (EA for PC)
Playtime: 15 hours
Paid: $38AU from Harvey Norman (Australian retailer)

Metacritic: 91 (Xbox 360), 89 (PC).
Sales: Several million. At least 1.6 million on 360.

I’ve been putting off reviewing Mass Effect for a couple of weeks now, for a couple of reasons: firstly, I wanted to let it percolate in my mind for a while; secondly, because I know I’m a little raw here, and in my opinion this game deserves better verbalization than I’ve been pushing so far. For the lazy, six words can save you from reading through the following paragraphs: This is a really good game.

Mass Effect is the successful sci-fi action role-playing-game from BioWare, which combines third-person combat with classic RPG dynamics (dialogue trees, skills, leveling) in an epic galaxy full of quests and stories.  An informal summary be to say that you get experience points for shooting aliens, and it is great. You play as Commander Shepard, a human soldier on a mission which soon evolves into a manhunt. Both combat and diplomacy are necessary for the completion of this major mission and the many optional side-quests. Set in 2183, the Human Alliance is just one of a number of memorable races in the Milky Way, which is governed by the Citadel Council.  The game looks extremely good, particularly the characters. The level of visual customization options for the main character is impressive.

Before the game itself begins, the player selects the name, appearance, gender, class, and back-story of their Shepard. These decisions (well, besides the name and looks) all have some effect on the game eventually. It took me at least 15 minutes to make my character, mainly because it took me ages to choose a good name. (Playing as a woman, it didn’t quite seem right to just use Andrew. Natalie, since you asked.) Three basic factors separate the classes – skill with weapons, technology, and biotics, which are loosely comparable to Force powers from Star Wars. Each class has access to a set of Talents, which are upgraded upon leveling up. Most classes can only use certain weapon types, of which there are four; pistols, shotguns, sniper rifles, and assault rifles. A morality system tracks Shepard’s decisions throughout the game, awarding Paragon points for “good” actions, and Renegade points for “evil” options. As opposed to previous BioWare games, you don’t LOSE points at any time, meaning you could feasibly end up being extremely good AND extremely bad. Characters react differently to Shepard depending on their past choices, and high points on either side unlock new options in conversations.

The major storyline itself is actually quite short for an RPG, but is absolutely top-notch. Shepard and your party will visit and explore multiple worlds, often requiring politics and diplomacy with the inhabitants. One of Mass Effect’s most famous innovations is the conversation system, where a wheel appears from which players select the general feel of their response. It feels perfectly natural and efficient. Dialogue is fully voiced with A-grade voice acting; a result of hiring many talented and experienced voice actors. Different alien races have different accents and eccentricities of speech. Conversations include both humour and emotional depth. A codex of non-essential information is maintained and updated as you explore the galaxy, and is immense in scope. There is a great deal of canon here which will no doubt be expanded on and used in sequels and spin-offs. The first time you see the galaxy map reveals the number of systems and planets to explore; while not every planet can actually be visited, they all have fairly elaborate descriptions. There’s a lot of value here which not every player is going to experience – I know I missed out on a lot, unfortunately. I spent an entire half-hour session just talking to my crew, and found it thoroughly enjoyable. (And I got XP!) Another good two and a half hours went to exploring the Citadel – the enormous center of the government as well as a social hub – and performing some side quests for people. These side quests are just as well-done as the main missions, with equally good dialogue, and enough variety to keep the player interested. There are some tough decisions to be made later in the game, and it seems as though every play-through would be unique to the player.

Combat feels pretty good, a combination of ranged firearm use, hacking of synthetic enemies, and use of biotic skills. Skills and the use of medi-gel to heal your party members regenerate after a while, allowing you to use them again. (A limited supply of medi-gel keeps combat challenging.) Weapons have infinite ammunition, but fire is limited by repeated shots causing the weapon to overheat. I actually tried to reload my guns (it’s an automatic reflex) a few times by hitting R, which resulted in me wasting a grenade – which, by the way, takes ages to detonate. If a party member takes too much damage and ‘dies’, they will either come back to life after the combat situation finishes or Shepard uses a particular skill to revive them. Fighting biotic enemies makes things interesting, as they can, for example, lift characters into the air, rendering them helpless.

I mentioned exploration of planets earlier – the Normandy, your spaceship, can warp from star system to system with just a few clicks of the map. A moon-buggy-esque vehicle named the Mako is used to traverse and explore select planets and for combat. I found this to be a lot of fun, particularly since thrusters allow the Mako to jump incoming projectiles. One quest involved me going to our Moon and driving around. Look into space, and there’s Earth. Fantastic.

The inventory system takes some getting used to, as you have to manage the equipment of all party members. An inventory limit of 150 items is manageable easily enough, as any item can be converted into something called omni-gel. One frustration stemmed from the fact that items dropped by fallen opponents don’t enter the inventory until you choose to view the inventory – meaning that if you’re at 149 items, and have picked up 10 more from enemies, you have to drop 9, and the messages warning you about this cover up part of the menu which lets you deal with it. It took me quite a while to learn to equip my items with upgrades, which are totally worthwhile. These upgrades include different ammunition types and add-ons for weapons, which help characters pack a real punch in combat.

I did experience some technical issues initially, and came across a couple of bugs. In the beginning, I found that the background audio on the Normandy was absolutely deafening and drowned out the dialogue, as well as sounds popping in. Turning off hardware audio fixed this, although it caused other sound glitches (guns not always sounding off, etc) which were fixed with a quick Google.  A more widespread issue is the “Feros elevator glitch”, caused by saving near a particular elevator and resulting in my save loading at a point from which I couldn’t continue due to infinite loading. Thankfully, I only lost 50 minutes of progress. If the game wasn’t so good, perhaps I would have been more upset about having to repeat that section; in any case, replaying only took about half the time thanks to being able to skip through dialogue. I discovered a more amusing bug where using a particular monkey (such a strange phrase) repeatedly could result in infinite Paragon points being granted. A frequent complaint about the game involves the “masking” of load times through extremely long elevators. Warp travel exists, yet elevators are still ever so slow.

There’s a lot of replay value here, with both the ability to start a New Game+ (play again with your character’s stats as they were at the end of the previous run) and the ability to play as another class, or spend time with side-quests, or make different decisions. I found the results of my game to be satisfying, and came out of it thinking about little other than how good it was for a few days. The Mass Effect universe is solid and has a great deal of potential. The controversy about the possibility of sex scenes that surrounded (and unfortunately still seems to surround) the game is absolutely ridiculous. A message to parents: if you are worried that your child is going to be corrupted by a brief, tasteful sex scene reached after establishing an optional relationship with a character, perhaps you could watch them play and ask why they are making the decisions they made. If you haven’t played Mass Effect yet, go buy it – you’ll be able to find it cheap somewhere, and it is an excellent experience.

I love stuff like this. A chilly, murky, and elemental experiemental motion design video from Lithuanian artist Tadas Svilainis. Feels like an animated dream…

I apologize for my absence, I have been out of the country the past few weeks. I shall try to be more regular in my production as it seems we have now grown in readership.

Last section we gave some different interpretations of the Holy Word as it has been handed down to us in the Book of Genesis. Creation’s beginnings were explained therein, and we were fortunate enough to have a look at the new Literal Translation and what it has to say regarding the actual words used. While theologians today argue about real and intended meanings, past metaphors, and esoteric versus exoteric interpretation of the Genetic account of Creation that is still our present subject here, we found out somewhat wisely that these well-meaning folks may in fact be dealing with the entirely wrong words, with which they have nevertheless justified their doctrines.

But the continuing Creation story as found in the Bible is not quite over yet. One could say, with some certainty, that Creation continues on until this the present day, that “God’s Creation” properly spoken about would be, more properly stated, an idea in the mind of the Maker. This idea’s “coming to be”, or blossoming, like the lotus, is an important point to remember as we discuss further the Creation as found in Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch.

In the short run, however, meaning as in the Creation “proper,” and so when God was done placing his immediate Hand in the progress of the elaboration of his Idea of Creation (an excellent book by Arthur Koestler, by the way…), we find with some careful reading that this Creation Proper was not completed until AFTER the Flood, the famous flood which recurs, as we shall see later, in accounts of history from around the world, since ancient times. It seems to me that life on Earth before the Flood was a type of experiment, a sort of chaos while everything essential and the ordering thereof was being set first into place. With the flood, we find God pronouncing that he will never again so completely destroy (one could say, “cleanse”…) the inhabitants of this planet.

We learn, from when the early days of the world are discussed in Genesis, that there were “Giants  in those days.”  Whether these are the same as the “sons of God” who came down to Earth and mated with the daughters of Men is then a significant question, because then in the old days, before the Flood, there would be stated firmly that there was some “mingling” going on between different levels of human or human-like creatures. The Complete Word Study Old Testament (AMG Publishers, 1994) states that there are three theories to account for these “Sons of God”:

The first theory is that the “sons of God” are fallen angels and the “daughters of men” are mortals. . . The second theory [is that]…The “sons of God” are reckoned to be the godly line of Seth, while the “daughters of men” are the line of Cain. . . The last theory is one that is gaining popularity among conservatives. Recent archaeological evidence has suggested that the phrase “sons of God” was sometimes used to describe kings. . . (p. 17)

So the first possibility is that angels mated with the humans, the children of Adam and Eve—perhaps also with Adam and Eve. Fallen or not, this assumes that there was pre-existent to Man a whole other greater race of beings while like us, are far different from us. The second theory takes “Sons of God” to mean those of the line of Seth (Eve’s third child), while “daughters of Men” in takes to mean those of the lieneage of the ostracized Cain, slayer of his brother Abel. Finally, and based on archaeological evidence (and, one should say, written evidence…), ‘Sons of God” is taken to mean those of the Holy Lineage, perhaps Kingly or Pharaonic lineage.

Because of the problems involved in accepting the first possibility, we should for our present discussion dispense with it straightaway. It is inconceivable that only male angels exists so far as angels go, and also inconceivable that there are no allusions to “Daughters of God.” The second option is more believable, but since this “sons of God phrase recurs in the New Testament, we should be mindful that technically all of Cain’s, as well as Seth’s lines were, or should have been, destroyed in the flood:

According to St. Ephraim, the line of Cain ceased to be productive, and rather than bearing male offspring, it produced only female offspring. The line of Seth, on the other hand, continued to produce robust males who, though they were “the righteous people of God,” were at any rate “stirred to a frenzy” over the women in the line of Cain (source).

If this is deemed true, who then would be the post-flood era “sons of God” as the phrase is still being used today? And as for the third possibility, that may be true, but then we would have to reread the whole Bible as just another history, something written by the victors, the King usually being divine by royal decree rather than divine grace.

Three is always a good number for possibilities, but smells suspiciously clean; let us see if we cannot find another option. First the relevant passage in Genesis 6:14:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them that the sons of God (benei ha-elohim) saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. There were giants (ha-nephilim) in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God (benei ha-elohim) came unto the daughters of men, they bore children to them, the same became mighty men (ha-gibborim) which were of old, men of renown.

It is interesting to compare this passage from the King James Version with others, just to see the amount of textual disagreements. Children’s Bibles routinely leave out this passage. But much MORE interesting is the amount of light textual evidence from other sources reveals about this important passage. For example, from the Book of Enoch and Dead Sea Scrolls:

It happened that when in those days the sons of men increased, pretty and attractive daughters were born to them. The Watchers, sons of the sky, saw them and lusted for them and said to each other: Let’s go and pick out women from among the daughters of men and sire for ourselves sons. However, Shemihazah, who was their chief, said to them: I am afraid you do not want to carry out this deed and I alone will be guilty of great sin. They replied and all said to him: We all take an oath and all swear under oath to each other not to go back on this venture until we have performed this deed. And these are the names of their leaders: Samlazaz, their leader, Araklba, Rameel, Kokablel, Tamlel, Ramlel, Danel, Ezeqeel, Baraqijal, Asael, Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaqlel, Samsapeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel. They and their chiefs all took for themselves women, choosing from among all, and they began to penetrate them and be defiled by them and teach them sorcery, incantations, and the cutting of roots and to explain herbs. They became pregnant by them and gave birth to giants, some three thousand cubits tall, who were born upon the earth in keeping with their infancy and grew at a rate of their growth and consumed the work of all the sons of men, without the men being able to supply them.

Or in another version:

1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.2 And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3 and beget us children.’ And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear ye will not 4 indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ And they all answered him and said:‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations 5 not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’ Then sware they all together and bound themselves 6 by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn 7 and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And these are the names of their leaders: Samlazaz, their leader, Araklba, Rameel, Kokablel, Tamlel, Ramlel, Danel, Ezeqeel, Baraqijal, 8 Asael, Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaqlel, Samsapeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel. These are their chiefs of tens.

People became increasingly depraved through the black arts taught them. Raphael, Michael, Sariel, and Gabriel see this and report to God:

And to Gabriel the Lord said: Go to the bastards and the sons of whoring and exterminate the sons of the Watchers from among the sons of men; involving them in a war of attrition for there will not be long days for them. Absolutely no request in their favor will be granted to their fathers; for they hope to live an everlasting life or that each one of them will live five hundred years. And to Michael the Lord said: Go, Michael, and tell Shemihazah and all his friends who coupled with women to be defiled by them in their uncleanness that their sons will expire and they will see the extermination of their loved one; chain them up for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth until the great day of their judgment. . .

In the Genesis Apocryphon found as part of the Dead Scrolls, “Lamech becomes suspicious of his wife, for reasons now lost, that his own son Noah is the product of such a supernatural union” (ibid.):

Then I, Lamech, was frightened and turned to Bitenosh, my wife, and said: . . . Swear to me by the Most High, by the Great Lord, by the King of the Universe, . . . the sons of heaven, that you will in truth let me know everything, if . . . you will in truth and without lies let me know whether this . . . Swear to me by the King of all the Universe that you are speaking to me frankly and without lies. . . Then Bitenosh, my bride, spoke to me very harshly. She wept . . . and said: Oh my brother and lord! Remember my pleasure . . . the time of love, the gasping of my breath in my breast. I shall tell you everything accurately. . . I swear to you by the Great Holy One, by the King of the heavens . . . that this seed comes from you, that this pregnancy comes from you, that the planting of this fruit comes from you, and not from any foreigner or watcher or son of heaven. . . Then I, Lamech, ran to my father, Methuselah, and told him everything, so that he would go and ask Enoch, his father, and would know everything for certain from him, since he (Enoch) is liked and well liked. . .” (This having been done, Enoch responds:) “Go tell Lamech, your son. . .(see here for a different version of the text).

These Apocrypha are usually not considered canonical literature, which means not accepted by most people who use the Bible. Still, the elucidation it throws on this subject of the “sons of God” and/or Nephilim and Giants. At the very least, these supposedly 300 BC or so texts were very much aware of the Genesis account.

Our solution must somehow reconcile “Sons of God” with “Daughters of Men”. In Genesis 26: “God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth’.”

One wonders who God is talking to.  This passage lends itself quite readily to an interpretation of the Sons of God, meaning human and so God-like beings actually existing prior to Human Creation. In fact it may be established, by what we have learned thus far, that God was not alone when he created the World. At the very least, he needed workers and, one could say, Watchers, to make sure his plan is executed properly. These Sons of God can be imagined as having been given some freedom to act alone, that is, without immediate direction from God himself, as utensils for God’s plan.

Titans, as the Greeks called such pre-Zeus types, who, we remember, were known as “giants”, were intermediate beings in the Chain of Humanity. The parents of elemental unions like the Earth (Gaea or Ge) and Sky (Uranus or Ouranos), they were not quite Giants like their parents the Sea or Nature, but huge by human standards nonetheless. They would dwarf even the Pantheon of New Greek Gods, led first of all by that relentless Chronos, or Time, which, or whom, once threatened to consume everything, and almost did.

I bring up now some Greek mythology in order to make more palatable the suggestion that while the Torah might be the Hebrew Bible, there are some big questions as to the authorship of these earliest texts, notably Moses apparently writes about his own death, in Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Pentateuch, later the Septuagint, although he is credited as the book’s author.  My suggestion is that the first five books of the Bible known by these names is not a single story, handed down by God, as it is often relayed to be. It was, upon its inception, an idea based on numerous combined tales of Creation existing prior to the inception. Through each translation, Aramaic to Hebrew, Hebrew to Aramaic, Greek to Aramaic, Aramic to Hebrew, Greek to Hebrew, etc., there were added aspects of the host’s culture.

This is why, I think, there seems to be two Creation stories in Genesis, and a lot of misunderstanding about how to reconcile Sons of God and Daughters of Men, and Giants, or nephilim, in the old days. I am convinced that if its other, perhaps Sumerian or Egyptian elements were recovered more completely–since anathema to the Christian and Jewish interpretation, rejecting as they have all the apocrypha and several important and apparently genuine texts–we would find also Sons of Men and Daughters of God.

Next time, we get to the real Origin of Man according to the Bible, and that is, the Flood, and more importantly the three sons of Noah, whom I think we shall see must be, in the proper use of the term, Sons of Men.

The ancient Greek word means “craftsman” or “artisan.”  Plato, in the Timaeus, uses the word for the maker of the universe.  Plato says of this maker that he is unreservedly good and so desired that the world should be as good as possible.  The reason why the world is not better than it is is that the demiurge had to work on pre-existing chaotic matter.  Thus, the demiurge is not an omnipotent creator.

Early Christian philosophers were quick to claim that the demiurge represented pagan philosophy’s anticipation of the God of revealed religion.

(Lloyd P. Gerson, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, 183)

Although one might think that the opposite of gnosis would be agnosis, or ignorance, the Way Gnostic finds its opposite in the quality of porosis, a term meaning hardness of heart, dullness, lacking in mental acuity. We find this term used in scripture in a number of places. In Mark’s Gospel, Chapter 3, for instance, Jesus is challenged in the synagogue by those present for desiring to heal the withered hand of a man on the Sabbath (emphasis mine in all following examples):

And he asked them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or to do evil? To save life, or to kill?” But they wouldn’t answer him. And when he’d looked around in anger at them, distressed at the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch forth your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was made as whole as the other.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul uses the term once again while delivering advice on Christian living to those people:

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

In the Gnostic literature, we find the same phrase used in the text Authoritative Teaching, this time to describe those Servants of the Archons who assail the soul:

But these – the ones who are ignorant – do not seek after God. Nor do they inquire about their dwelling-place, which exists in rest, but they go about in bestiality. They are more wicked than the pagans, because first of all they do not inquire about God, for their hardness of heart draws them down to make them their cruelty. Furthermore, if they find someone else who asks about his salvation, their hardness of heart sets to work upon that man. And if he does not stop asking, they kill him by their cruelty, thinking that they have done a good thing for themselves.

Indeed they are sons of the devil! For even pagans give charity, and they know that God who is in the heavens exists, the Father of the universe, exalted over their idols, which they worship. But they have not heard the word, that they should inquire about his ways. Thus the senseless man hears the call, but he is ignorant of the place to which he has been called. And he did not ask during the preaching, “Where is the temple into which I should go and worship my hope?”

On account of his senselessness, then, he is worse than a pagan, for the pagans know the way to go to their stone temple, which will perish, and they worship their idol, while their hearts are set on it because it is their hope. But to this senseless man the word has been preached, teaching him, “Seek and inquire about the ways you should go, since there is nothing else that is as good as this thing.” The result is that the substance of hardness of heart strikes a blow upon his mind, along with the force of ignorance and the demon of error. They do not allow his mind to rise up, because he was wearying himself in seeking that he might learn about his hope.

In the Secret Book of John, this quality is given to those who do not participate in the Gnostic story:

And thus the whole creation became enslaved forever, from the foundation of the world until now. And they took women and begot children out of the darkness according to the likeness of their spirit. And they closed their hearts, and they hardened themselves through the hardness of the counterfeit spirit until now.

According to our Way, Gnosis = Awakening (Word + Wisdom). As such, we may define Porosis as Unconsciousness (Willful Ignorance + Willful Selfishness).

Unconsciousness is, of course, the natural state of an individual trapped in the World of Forms. It is the unawakened state, the state prior to epiphany or theophany or enlightenment or samadhi or what have you.

Willful Ignorance occurs when one has been presented with the Word, but for whatever reason chooses not just to ignore it, but to oppose it. Obviously those who have never been exposed to the Word cannot be charged with being Willfully Ignorant, which is one of the essential reasons that Ignorance itself cannot be the opposite of gnosis. We find Willful Ignorance in the character of the Demiurge, who, presented with the revelation that he is not the True God, nonetheless carries on as though he is.

Willful Selfishness is, of course, the quality of willfully placing one’s self-satisfaction or pride at a place of supreme importance. We find Willful Selfishness in the character of Pistis Sophia, who, by desiring to create without first returning to the Limitless Light, brings the World of Forms into being.

As Gnosis is the earmark of the Pleromic Worldview, so Porosis describes the state of the individual most firmly involved in the Kenomic Worldview. Neither of these states are static; there is no perfected Gnosis within the World of Forms, nor is there a perfected Porosis. Gnosis is something to be cultivated and typically manifests as a temporary state; Porosis also manifests as a temporary state brought about by the intersection of the three qualities of which it consists. Porosis is as drastic as gnosis, but in the other direction.

Although we may decide to use the word “Gnostic” to refer to ourselves, it is doubtful that one would willingly take the label “Porostic.” It is primarily designed as a tool to help the rational Way Gnostic to avoid falling into such a state. With the definition of this quality in mind, we can ask ourselves, am I being Willfully Ignorant or Selfish? Am I acting as a Pleromic individual, or as someone inside of the Kenoma? We can attempt to avoid Porosis within ourselves, but we must always hesitate before using this tool to evaluate others.

The days are getting longer as Winter wanes Spring is nearer now.

I think I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I’m reading Metzger’s take on the development of the canon of the New Testament.  Thursday morning 29 January, during a seemingly interminable wait to see a bone and joint specialist about the shoulder that’s been tormenting me the past eight or so months,  I read these words (italics mine):

Valentinus’ system is an elaborate theogonic and cosmogonic epic.  It describes in three acts the creation, the fall, and the redemption; first in heaven, then on earth.  The spiritual world or ‘pleroma’ comprises thirty ‘aeons’ forming a succession of pairs (syzygies).  The visible world owes its origin to the fall of Sophia (‘wisdom’), whose offspring, the Demiurge, is identified with the God of the Old Testament.  Human beings belong to one of three classes, the spiritual people (pneumatikoi, or true Gnostics), those who merely possesses (sic) (psychikoi, or ordinary, unenlightened church members), and the rest of humankind, who are made up solely of matter (hylikoi) and are given over to eternal perdition.

Valentinus derived his teachings from his own fertile imagination, from Oriental and Greek speculations (including Pythagorean elements), and from Christian ideas…

(Metzger 80, 81)

My point in going on like this is not to interest the reader in the dead-end teachings of the so-called “Christian” gnostics.  Rather, I was surprised to find that my own functional worldview, unflattering as it is to admit the fact of it, (that bit I’ve italicized) is like unto that of an early Christian Era gnostic heretic.

Metzger, Bruce M.. The Canon of the New Testament: Its origin, Development, and Significance. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

]]> http://wormgearzine.com/2009/01/25/banished-from-inferno-%e2%80%93-st-mcd/ Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:08:37 +0000 martyworm http://wormgearzine.com/2009/01/25/banished-from-inferno-%e2%80%93-st-mcd/

Featuring Robber (Machetazo), Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, Demiurg, Edge of Sanity), and Phlegeton (Wormed, Human Mincer), Banished From Inferno specializes in deep and churning death metal by way of cavernous vocals and a strong knack for mid-paced riffage. Old school minded to the core and all about crushing in the pocket rhythmically, BFI lets the might and catchy movement within their compositions empower their attack, rather than catering to the technical tricks and unwarranted speed that has laid waste to the heart and soul of the modern death metal movement. Structurally, the songs all work perfectly as the band focuses on sensible flow and subtle dynamics in tempo and riff crafting. My initial problem with this MCD was the pacing/placement of the songs at the beginning. This slab starts off with a mournful and brief instrumental that quickly fades into silence. I thought the disc stopped actually, before an eruption of thunder from an off in the distance storm finally unsettles what seems like a solid minute of silence. From there, it’s into the bands rendition of “Into the Crypts of Rays” by Celtic Frost. I’m not opposed to this cover at all… it just seems like a very awkward place for it to be on this release. Rather than give the listener a solid demonstration of what the band has to offer right up front, it’s like they tested the waters first with a band that is clearly one of their influences. Such a decision/crutch really wasn’t necessary since the body of their material possesses the writing skill and penetratingly dense sound to keep fans of bands like Kaamos and the like completely satisfied. The closing track, “The Solemn Bleakness” is perfect to leave off on in preparing the listener for the impending full-length, for it’s evil groove and simplistic, though painfully effective/memorable harmony over the top digs craters in my musical memory, leaving me humming the hook hours afterwards. Old sounding and evil generally always works for me and Banished From Inferno takes tasteful brutality to new depths of well written and colorful antiquity. A 23 minute eruption of Swedish influenced death metal, mastered by Dan Swano for that unending guitar wall of beefiness. –Marty

IBEX MOON RECORDS

As the preceding summary has done only little to clarify the dating process for us scientific laymen, before going on to non-radioactive dating methods we should say more about radiocarbon dating and C14 in particular. My preliminary evaluation of the method and process is that it is good for dating specimens from about 5,000 years ago to the present, just under the half-life of C14. This half-life too needs more explanation.

The term “half-life” was coined in the early 1900s to describe the time it takes for, in our case here, an atomic element or its isotope, to decay. While the term should be used specifically for those rates of decay which are constant, the term has also been used to describe decay rates which are known to vary. This process is not is as simple as it may appear because there can be many half-lives, in just about every case much more than two. Here is a rough illustration of the process:

As you can see, it takes much more than 2X5700= 11,400 years for the decay to be completed. This is a strange use of mathematics, even somewhat paradoxical, but in any case highly irregular as basis for so important a scientific theory.

I am, in fact, reminded of one of Zeno of Elea’s most famous paradoxes. As you will recall this one was about the possibilities of an arrow hitting its target. Zeno accepted only one premise in forming the riddle, it being that for any distance to be traveled, a half-way point, a mid-point, must be traversed. How then, wondered Zeno, could that arrow ever hit its target?

As with most ancient ideas, Zeno’s paradoxes have been taken to task time and again by more modern minds of various merit. Still, I think it fair to say, the riddle remains at the very least a problem of mathematics, space, and time. The parallel I wish to make is with the understanding of the usage of the term “half-life” to describe the decay of atomic particles. If we accept the way this “half-life” works, it seems that the atom will, according to Zeno, never totally decay. Yet we know the arrow will indeed hit its target, in my opinion because the velocity of the arrow can no longer overcome a midpoint, to be found somewhere in the target, a fact evidenced by various arrowhead’s being buried to various depths in their targets.

Now two things need be born in mind before we compare Zeno’s arrow to the decay of an atom. These are the laws of the Conservation of Matter and the Conservation of Energy:

The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can change its form.

The Law of the Conservation of Matter and Energy states that the quantity of matter and energy available in the universe is a fixed amount and never any more or less.

An atom is a small particle but we know it is not the tiniest. We possibly have not yet discovered the atoms talked about by Democritus, or Lucretius. But what we have discovered are protons, neutrons, and electrons, and further quarks, and photons. We have, I think I can say confidently,  in physics and chemistry thus reduced matter to nothing less than light itself, the only perceivable structure of the photon.

Now if the Laws of the Conservation of Matter and Energy are correct (and in a CLOSED system, like mathematics, they are), then an atomic particle—and understand this to mean any atomic particle—or at least part of it, never decomposes. If this also is true, all matter is always in a constant state of change, the same stuff constantly reanimated.

Consequently, anything that was once alive, that once contained carbon, will no matter its age still contain some amount of carbon, or at the very least, some nuclear particles that were once part of carbon. At the same time, we must assume that if that once-living thing was in or on the earth, that it would come into contact with something else which is also carboniferous, or which at one time was part of the essence–the atomic nucleus–of carbon. Merely being exposed to the air, for instance. The questions to ask are, still, what are the real atoms Democritus sought? What is the basic building block of matter?

But again back to Zeno, we know from observation that the arrow hits the target, and hypothesized that this is because its energy became overcome by inertia and resistance, the latter found to a denser degree in the target. Were that arrow fast enough, say the speed of a bullet, it would go right through even the midpoints found there, but still eventually succumb to gravity.

Heisenberg developed what has become known as the Uncertainty Principle. He believed that the only way to measure a system on the subatomic level is to interfere with that system. To even observe a particle, we have to slam into or bounce another particle off of it, our very measuring alters it, like my blood pressure when I go to the doctor. On an atomic level the procedure greatly disturbs, in a very unnatural way, the very motion of the particle we are trying to observe. I quote at length this source:

“Albert Einstein was not happy with the uncertainty principle, and he challenged Niels Bohr with a famous thought experiment: we fill a box with a radioactive material which randomly emits radiation. The box has a shutter, which is opened and immediately thereafter shut by a clock at a precise time, thereby allowing some radiation to escape. So the time is already known with precision. We still want to measure the conjugate variable energy precisely. Einstein proposed doing this by weighing the box before and after. The equivalence between mass and energy from special relativity, and again by special relativity, its measurement of time will be different from ours, leading to some unavoidable margin of error. In fact, a detailed analysis shows that the imprecision is correctly given by Heisenberg’s relation. It will allow you to determine precisely how much energy left the box. Bohr countered as follows: should energy leave, then the now lighter box will rise slightly on the scale. That changes the position of the clock…

…the widely but not universally accepted Copenhagen deterministic interpretation holds that [...] on an elementary level, the physical universe does not exist in a form—but rather as a collection of probabilities, or potentials. For example, the pattern (probability distribution) produced by millions of photons passing through a diffraction slit can be calculated using quantum mechanics, but the exact path of each photon cannot be predicted by any known method…

It is this interpretation that Einstein was questioning when he said “I cannot believe that God would choose to play dice with the universe.” Bohr, who was one of the authors of the Copenhagen interpretation responded, “Einstein, don’t tell God what to do.”

Einstein was convinced that this interpretation was in error. His reasoning was that all previously known probability distributions arose from deterministic events. The distribution of a flipped coin or a rolled dice can be described with a probability distribution (50% heads, 50% tails). But this does not mean that their physical motions are unpredictable. Ordinary mechanics can be used to calculate exactly how each coin will land, if the forces acting on it are known. And the heads/tails distribution will still line up with the probability distribution (given random initial forces).

Einstein assumed that there are similar in quantum mechanics which underlie the observed probabilities.

Determinism versus chance, or determinism versus possibility, or probability? Einstein and Bohr apparently both believed in a Creator, their only difference being whether or not this Creator’s methods may be deduced. The question is whether 1) there is an intrinsic pattern to things which may be discovered, or whether 2) chance, or I would rather say, possibility, is also part of that pattern.

This debate is a classic but can be solved in the same manner as with how we try to account for Zeno’s midpoint-seeking arrow. Let us dare to settle this debate between Bohr and Einstein, using their own assumptions. God plays with loaded dice. Some things, by order, must be random, for the sake of variety. The possibilities, though, while likely not discoverable, are controlled. Hence we have the repetition and contrast possible in music, the variations of and within species.

On the matter of atomic particles and half-lifes, then, once we interfere with the natural process we can no longer be certain about things like their speed or their size or position, the things we are trying to discover. As has been re-affirmed in testing with quarks and photons, and much more shocking when witnessed, the very act of observation seems to change the natural order. Some argue they have never been seen at all. We have evidence that the ultimate particles in fact can be in two places at once. And with the decomposition of subatomic particles, as with Zeno’s arrow, we can be sure of the relative speed or the plotted position, but never both at once.

There are also half-lives which are not constant, which vary depending on conditions, for example as to how long it takes water, a molecule or conglomeration of elements (here in the ratio of 2 atoms of Hydrogen combined with one atom of Oxygen, or H2O), to evaporate. The time it takes to evaporate also has a half-life, albeit one that cannot be reduced to a constant measurement. The only way to get a measurement is to try to control the conditions of evaporation, and doing so hearkens, even strengthens Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.

This in mind, radiocarbon dating has been called everything from a sham (many creationists) to “a radioactive revolution” (Renfrew, early 1970s), to something without which we would be “still floundering in a sea of imprecisions sometimes bred of inspired guesswork but more often than not imaginative speculation” (Desmond Clark, late 1970s possibly early 1980s). Indeed, wondering whether or not we have actually progressed beyond this sea of guesswork, imaginative speculation and imprecision— especially considering that the actual scientists using today’s methods cite what came before as being such mere speculation— is the point of our inquiry.

Three principal isotopes of Carbon occur naturally, as we have said before. C12 and C13 are both stable isotopes, but C14 is radioactive and unstable. By definition it is always in a transient state. The numbers in fact show quite clearly how comparatively rare C14 is. In our current environment and given our present atmosphere, assuming 100% be the volume of all Carbon in the universe (let’s say…), then almost 99% of Carbon found (the most consistent estimate is right near 98.9 percent) would be C12, and another (again, median estimate) 1.1% would be C13. This leaves (nothing, actually, but they say…) somewhere in the neighborhood only 0.0000000001% as actual unstable C14. Whether the reason it gets radioactive, as we already stated, is due to unnatural conditions, or naturally via cosmic ray effects upon particles, which may or may not be an accurate assumption, has not yet even entered into the debate.

One could ask, for instance, why certain carboniferous atoms become agitated, or made unstable, while others have not, and more than one theory has been put forth that man’s meddling with atomic detonations and even massive TNT explosions has been a contributing cause of these anomalies. The upshot is that by all scientific estimates only one single C14 atom can be found from among over one trillion Carbon isotopes found. Reliable source or origins and age, or freaks of nature? We must decide.

But what about the actual numbers? Compare the table (white chart) above with the numbers we just mentioned, and not to mention that most sources use 5,730 as the “correct” number for the half-life. The table tabulates using the figure of one C14 atom for every 100,000,000, or one hundred million (10 to the 8th power). Sources here , here, and here say that it should be one C14 atom for every 1,000,000,000,000 or one for every one trillion (ten to the 12th power) C12 atoms, alone.

And what about the other isotopes? What about the 1-2 percent variance scientists recognize but treat as insignificant? Where are the REST of the numbers, as in the standard figures as found here, “98.89% C12, 1.11% C13″ would give us 100% already, before adding the “0.0000000001% C14″, and still not accounting for the other stable carbon isotope C13.

Rather than rip our hair out let’s do more to understand the science. This elusive and rare C14, according to the science, when formed is rapidly oxidized to 14C02, a type of carbon dioxide, whereby it enters the food chain because, well, Carbon is found in every living thing, and everywhere. Quickly it goes from mineral to gas in the atmosphere, something which has been measured many times, ironically by measuring radioactive carbon from nuclear blasts and bomb testings. Given these unnatural testing conditions, can we thereby make the claim that even this ratio, this small ratio of radioactive carbon to stable carbon, is accurate?

Again, Carbon14 breaks down, or decays, according to these experiments, and under questionable assumptions and conditions, eventually to Nitrogen14, a gas, and one extra electron. When Carbon14 content is used to date an object, that object need only contain Carbon. So were I to eat an ear of corn that grew in a plot containing one thousand year old Carbon, I would ingest and so contain that Carbon.

It is important to remember here then that it is never the object itself that is dated, rather only the Carbon it contains. We have already mentioned that still adjustments have to be made, the formulas changed, because dating of more recent objects has showed that even for things only 3,000 years old, even accepting the premises of this method, still inaccuracies were found in dating things just as old as ancient Egypt.

Because of such discrepancies this method has of late been “cross-checked” with other, more conventional dating methods, such as written history, as for example the Egyptian chronology. On this more will come later, as the very dates being used for calibration could be way off, courtesy of one Manetho, whose dating of Egyptian history has come into dire question, but which is still accepted as authoritative.

Varve Analysis

Another dating method used is Varve Analysis, which has been named different things and has seen variations in method, but will be treated as one here. The method was pioneered by the Swedish geologist Gerard de Geer 1in 1878. “He observed what he believed to be regular patterns of glacial deposits in lake. He tracked and dated the complete 3,600-year glacial retreat in southern Scandinavia. This sequence was then tied to river estuary varves (caused by rhythmic annual flooding) spanning about 7,500 years up to AD 700″ (Farlex Encyclopedia and Dictionary). Here is the definition of what constitutes a varve:

“In geology, a pair of thin sedimentary beds, one coarse and one fine, representing a cycle of thaw followed by an interval of freezing, in lakes of glacial regions. Each couplet thus constitutes the sedimentary record of a year, and by counting varves in glacial lakes a record of absolute time elapsed can be determined. Summer and winter layers often are distinguished also by color, with lighter layers representing summer deposition, and darker layers being the result of dark clay settling from water while the lake is frozen” (ibid.).

The argument is that years can be counted based on the alternate freezing/thawing of layers of deposits. Similar to tree ring dating, another phenomenon also used for C14 calibration and an alternative dating method which will not be discussed further here, this method assumes a consistent  un-disrupted, un-aggravated, and un-stunted pattern of growth, or accumulation.

But this method too has other limitations. We can only dig so far down, witness so many layers of development. Going deeper into the past, say before 1,000 AD, becomes extremely difficult for obvious reasons. As for the tree rings, trees older than 5,000 years are very rare, and how they come to determine the age is not often offered. See an example, in this case for what is claimed to be the world’s oldest living tree, in Sweden (not not USA anymore…), here.

Seemingly only geologists use this method anymore, and only for corroboration with other evidence. At best its use is limited, at worst, as questionable as the age of Methusalah.

Stratometric dating

I want to just briefly mention what I will call Stratometric dating. In short, these methods of dating want to claim that what is deepest is oldest, what is more to the surface, younger. So if we imagine a 12-tier dig, and assume definite layers, and artifact X is found in tier 3, while artifact Y is found in tier 7, it is presumed that artifact Y is older.

Prima facie I have no real problem with this assumption, however its conclusions must always be qualified for several reasons. First, it is not obvious nor clear that what is below is older. Earth climactic changes, earthquakes, erosion, and the like natural occurrences could alter a strata. Second, this dating is not absolute. So if we go as deep as we can and find our artifact in tier 12, the deepest possible, what would we have found? Nothing we know is older, how do we thereby determine its age?

So while this method, I think, is useful, I do not think it too important to our research quite yet. it may come in handy later, though…

DNA

The Human Genome Project is a government institution that only studies the human genome. It assumptions are many and its presumptions more. Its value per dollar spent is also debatable. I offer these prejudices up front because the prospect of the reliability of DNA, and our understanding of it, to date the age of man, is as you will see a lot of conjecture. DNA use for dating the or determing the Origin of Man is a perfect example of science being no different than myth. That many scientists use the disclaimer that these things are “just theories,” they nevertheless influence truth and society, and in this particular case they exhaust Federal funds in doing so.

Having said my piece let’s try to understand how this DNA dating works before we justify the rant. I downloaded a nifty package from the HGP website I cited above to help me understand, you can download it yourself here.

Essentially, DNA can be used to trace a line of descent. It’s harvest and analysis is not as accurate, even for things like personal identification, as proponents would have you believe. Its extraction itself, when it is “washed clean” for instance, is a mega-story.

Because I want to both move on to other topics, and have come to the conclusion that we will eventually end up with the problem of determining the age of the Promordial Eve by other means already discussed, I’ll end this drudgery, but surely return to the topic later, if necessitated by that dissent I know and love.

To sum up, the whole half-life way of dating seems at first glass ill-suited to the task. Rather than the current set-up, why not just determine how long it takes these rare elemental anomalies to break down, using conventional years? The whole assumption of a “half-life” is an artist’s conception of the second order, as there is nothing beautiful, efficient, moving, or even of an advance to culture in it. If something stabilizes, or mutates, or changes, at a constant rate, science ought state that rate clearly so we can see how consistent, indeed constant it is. For Zeno, all you need is a yardstick, your reason, and your eyes. For the conception of the half-life, you need a whole system of justification, a specifically designed for the purpose microscopic yardstick, you need to put your reason on hold and accept the periods of halves, and you must go beyond what you see with your eyes.

And they say Zeno presents the paradox.

et pas platonique

C’est Andrew Sibley qui s’y colle à Uncommon Descent, où il manie la métaphore à vous en couper le souffle. Mort de rire.

Ah ! avec des métaphores qu’est-ce qu’on ne pourrait pas faire, paraît qu’on arriverait même à prendre les néoplatonicien au sérieux

Why does the Kabbalah Tree of Life look as it does,
and has it always looked that way?

In the Rosicrusian Cross I had a picture of the Kabbalah Sephirots as they are placed today:

Kabbalah Sephirots as they are placed today.

It’s usually thought that it has looked like this since the day man was created many planetary cycles (aeons) ago. But, as God emanates down through his creations, his emanations three aspects (Son, Mother, and Father), ascends up through the Sephirots leading their creations up, and the placements of the Sephirots changes therefore on the pillars, after which aspect occupies a given Sephira. That is, Sephirots with the Mother aspect are placed on the Left Pillar, Sephirots with the Son aspect are placed on the Middle Pillar, and Sephirots with the Father aspect are placed on the Right Pillar.

A complicated example, which also explains the background for Daat:

Binah, Chokmah, and Kether are placed the way they are because Binah contains The Mother, the Creator of Man (Thrones.) The Creator has to be just above the Abyss, as she is above any of our spiritual bodies. The Mother should have been in Chokmah which is a feminine Sephira, and  Binah should have contained the Son, and Kether should have contained The Father aspect.

While The Mother is in Binah, The Son is hidden in one of the other Sephirots, so there is missing a Son-Sephira below Kether, where Binah in reality should have been placed, and where the knowledgeable have placed an imaginary Sephira called Daat instead, symbolizing the hidden Son.

Short after the time of Christ (The Second Adam) with Elohim, The Father or Osiris, The Mother or Shekinah/Sophia/Isis, and The Son or Horus/Anthropos:

Microcosm, Lower Part of Tree of Life

We come from here to the Kabbalah of today by shifting the Æon’s one up, the Mother/Elohim moved from Tiphareth to Geburah, thereby Geburah was placed in the Left Pillar and Tiphareth moved from the Left Pillar to the Center Pillar, as the Son moved into Tiphareth, and so forth.

It is interesting to see the Heavenly, and Earthly triangles with the emanation of the Son as Man. These two triangles overlaid makes the Hexagram:

The Elements

YHVE are the letters for the Sephirots in the Third Hierarchy, Microcosm. Yod is Air, Heh is Fire, Vav is Water, and the last Heh is Earth. After the emanation of the Son, that is, today, the Elements has moved according to the Pillars. If we use the YHVE letters, Yod is fire, Heh is Water, Vav is Air, and the second Heh is still Earth. The reason are that the Right Pillar is Fire, the Left Pillar is Water, and the Center Pillar is Air, and Malkuth is always Earth.

Emanation of the new Æon

Franz Hartmann about the emanation from WHAT IS TRUE CHRISTIANITY?

It is claimed that at the beginning of certain historical periods — when old religious truths are about to be forgotten, and the idolatry of form assumes the place of true religion — some great spirit (planetary) appears upon the earth, incarnated into a human form, and by his word and example impresses the old truths forcibly upon a number of receptive minds, to communicate to others, and thus lay the foundation of a new religious system, embodying old truths in a new form.

It is believed that the man Jesus of Nazareth was the mortal form in which such a spirit was embodied; the latter being no less than what I believe every planetary spirit to be — an emanation from the Universal Logos or Word.

Literature

The Demiurge or Demiurgos and the AEon’s or Eon’s are described in

Gnostic Doctrines and Supersensible Influences in Europe

A Depth of Beginning, Notes on Kabbalah by Colin Low.

Emanation and Ascent in Hermetic Kabbalah

This document consists of slides and notes for a public talk presented at the Spirit of Peace. Colin Low.

4 atiyah

I weave threads of glistening midnight
into a robe of dreams
tied off by a sash of northern lights
my hair is silvered with moondust
my beard a tropical mountain rainforest
embroidering my new moon face
I am black as intergalactic space
&    celestial as any star

my tribe is human —
in hues of every shade of night
           om dusk to dawn
           noble and strong

our history is immeasurably long —
we have a number for millions of years
our expressions are evocative
yet simple
balancing and blending our hearts and minds —
we aspire to the divine

our women are leaders
                     warriors
&                  nurturers too
but then, so are our men
we each are whole
we each know our role
&        live lives of harmony

we are not easily recognized
by those who read exteriors
when we choose to be revealed
                      to have our presence sensed as real
it is by forces felt, but unseen
      by spirits stirring in between
we transcend dimensions

demiurge
titans of old
wisdom walking the world…

for those who fear what they don’t understand
we are the gleam of legend
but, for now, I am seen as an ordinary man
or less, if that is what’s needed

by time and wind and war
the tribe now is scattered
many have lost the vision
                forgotten turtle island
&             abandoned the wisdom of our ways

but the coming days are the hardest yet
and when you put pressure on the black
glistening diamonds is what you get
when their memories come rushing back
&     their eyes are cleared of the haze
all the tribe will gather…

..and legends will live again

 
by

jamal
ali

© 19 july 1995

Dans la mythologie égyptienne, le démiurge est une entité créatrice issue du Noun. Il vient à la vie en prenant conscience de son existence. Par le verbe et la pensée, il crée toutes choses. Selon les théologies, il est Ptah, Rê-Atoum, Amon ou Thot à Hermopolis.

Par extension, le démiurge désigne en littérature le dieu créateur dans diverses cosmogonies.
Démiurge : divinité créatrice et organisatrice du monde. Nom donné par Platon (La Timée) au Dieu organisateur qui créa le monde à partir de la matière préexistante. Dans le gnosticisme, c’est une divinité têtue, irascible et ignorante, émanée du vrai Dieu, et la cause du mal par sa création désastreuse qui mêla la matière à l’étincelle divine.

Ten comic-book characters who have met God. For me the list begins and ends with Animal Man:

I saw into another world and it was worse than this one. It was like I glimpsed Heaven and…and it wasn’t Paradise. It was more like Hell.

What if God, or whoever it is, created us to be better than himself? What if God’s reality…Heaven, if you like…what if it’s so bad that he had to imagine us to help make his life bearble?

What if we’re characters and not people?

-Grant Morrison, Animal Man, Issue 19

Elsewhere in religious news, Cynical-C trots out that old atheist saw, the list of gods that Christians and atheists don’t believe in.