Tag Archive for 'China'

The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 17

Published by davinci on November 8, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 16 is here.)

The myths about David and Solomon, and in particular the latter, would continue to evolve after the Biblical accounts were set down in writing. Already in the Bible, Solomon was wealthier and wiser than all the other kings on Earth, and he was so wealthy that he made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem (1 Kings 10:14–29, 2 Chron. 9:13–28). His wisdom was greater than that of everyone in the East (I’m sure the inhabitants of India and China would’ve begged to differ, had they even heard of him or the remote and insignificant minor stretch of land that he ruled)… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 2
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 12
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16

Published by davinci on November 8, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 15 is here.)

I have studied the world’s religions much more thoroughly than the average religious believer, and probably more than many devout ones. There are, of course, religious clergy and academic specialists who have much more in-depth knowledge of a specific religion, or some particular aspect of religion in general, than I do. But I think that I have as broad a knowledge of world religions as almost anyone. I’ve studied the scriptures and foundational texts of the major world religions (and many minor ones), and read authors ranging from popular apologists to the philosophically inclined from each of them, from every period since the foundation of the religion until now. In addition, I’ve also undertaken a pretty thorough study of history, so I have a sense of how religions have developed and interacted with one another that most believers do not have.

Religious believers will sometimes tell me that, if I only studied their scriptures more, or read certain books or talked to certain scholars, I would find that the evidence supports their religion… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, part 1
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 17
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 19
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11

Published by davinci on November 3, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 10 is here.)

Where different religions come into contact, the resulting belief system inevitably contains a mixture of the features of both. It would be extremely difficult (if not impossible) to explain this if the supernatural beings as described by either side had a basis in reality, but it is exactly what you would expect if all of them existed only as ideas in the minds of their believers.

I have already mentioned how Judaic angels took the bodily forms of Greco-Roman gods when the Greeks and Romans converted to an offshoot of Judaism, and how the jinn of Arabic folklore were absent from the Abrahamic religions until the Arabs assimilated Jews and Christians into their midst… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 5
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 2
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, part 1
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 2

Published by davinci on October 23, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 1 is here.)

This lack of corroborating evidence for an event for which there ought to have been plenty of evidence, within the very book (or rather, collection of books) in which it is recorded, is bad enough. But the problem only gets much, much worse, the further away one moves from the immediate geographic area of a religion’s influence. The religious expressions and observations of people in the border regions between two religions become fuzzy and blended, and can be molded to accommodate either side. In the heartland of one religion, however, no trace of any evidence supporting another can be found… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 12
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 5
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18
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Little known facts about Hong Kong’s sovereignty

Published by davinci on September 12, 2009 in personal and social issues. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

This post was inspired by the paragraph about the former flag of Hong Kong in yesterday’s post on the flags of the world.

Hong Kong island was actually ceded in perpetuity by the government of Qing China to the British crown in 1842 in the Treaty of Nanking… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

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  1. Childhood in Hong Kong and Whitby
  2. Quotations from Lily Wong
  3. 162 Flags of the World
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