The Ark of the Covenant - a sign that the Creator found us...

[Anonymousecoview]

The Ark of the Covenant is a gift to the Hebrews and humanity that helped us get closer to the Creator. Why did the Creator want it made? Who did he make it for? When? Where might it be today? Come and see and share your insights and information...

http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=14271

[dimbear]

1. If it happens to be about to slip and fall, just let it hit the ground.

A strange lesson from the book.

[Anonymousecoview]

3. Yes, he tried to catch it :)

Read on - it talks about that...

[dimbear]

5. I'm mostly concerned with how fair that part of the story seems to folks.

I'm a real helpful type of guy, and it doesn't seem like square dealing to me. It's the sort of thing I would be likely to do.

[Anonymousecoview]

6. I see your point. Was Uriah? his name

I think it was Uriah. He tried to keep it from falling and lost his life.
From the perspective of natural life, it seems unfair. But if you were the Creator, and you knew there was an eternal way of settling things, not just in this life and the next, maybe.... maybe there is a way of seeing peace between the Creator and Uriah.

[Act_of_Reparation]

19. It was Uzzah...

...and you attempt to rationalize abject cruelty is, frankly, sickening.

[Anonymousecoview]

25. Therefore the Hebrew Bible is about a sickening God?

Most people would object, and I'm sure the Creator would too

[Anonymousecoview]

30. but when the Creator acts....

Humanity is often left looking for meaning. It stands to reason that the actions of an Eternal Higher Power are often beyond the scope of our immediate understanding. Eternally we come to know what is eternal

[Phillip McCleod]

33. i'm sure the creator is delighted to torment his supposed creations.

how is my certainty that the Creator is a sick twisted and evil fucker any less legitimate than your baseless belief that the Creator has the best interests of humanity in mind?

shall we take your word for it?

indeed, many of your posts have a quasi-messianic quality about them. either you're selling something or what you're giving away isn't worth the price.

[Anonymousecoview]

42. Take 2 Billion peoples word for it....

I like how you describe my belief " that the Creator has the best interests of humanity in mind".
I have 2 children, and I want them to inherit the paradise of earth that I grew up with. However, it will take a Shift, a Great Turning of humanities dominant world-view.
I'm no Messiah. Human beings have a tendency to care for what they can reach out and touch. We have yet to develop a truly global instinct. But I believe we are capable of it. When I google searched Plastic Ocean Soup at the request of David Suzuki, my heart broke for our dire circumstances. As individuals growing up in it, we did not start the fire, but we can put it out...

[Act_of_Reparation]

37. Yes, it is.

I couldn't care less what "most" people think, nor do I concern myself with the opinions of a fictional character.

[Anonymousecoview]

43. I like your title - Act of Reparation...

It is essentially the good Red Road that humanity now has the opportunity to now turn down towards. If we do not face this crossroads with such care, our children and grandchildren will suffer greater losses than they already have...

[Act_of_Reparation]

47. It may disappoint you to learn...

...the Act of Reparation is the penance for the sin of blasphemy, as prescribed by the Catholic church. Obviously, the handle is meant to be ironic.

[Anonymousecoview]

48. Nice touch

[2ndAmForComputers]

40. Why, YES, yes it is, and a growing number of people does NOT object to this conclusion.

Deal with it.

[Thats my opinion]

50. It's a story! nt

[grantcart]

2. Well

I am sorry but I never thought I would find such a primitive post at DU.

The Ark of the Covenant and the entire Exodus mythology was written, as most ancient sacred Old and New Testament scripture was written, during the Babylonian captivity when the Priestly class was allowed by the Babylonian captors to edit an ancient history.

These captives sought to create a narrative that would give meaning to their present existential reality and went back and crafted a narrative from dozens of oral traditions in a way that would make their present situation, and their crises of being captives and abandoned meaningful.

You can learn of the Babylonian Captivity here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_captivity

You can learn of the authorship and other analysis of Exodus here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Exodus#Authorship

According to current thinking, a first draft (the Yahwist) was probably written in the 6th century BCE during the Babylonian exile; this was supplemented and completed as a post-Exilic final edition (the Priestly source) at the very end of the 6th century or during the 5th century,[9] and further adjustments and minor revisions continued down to the end of the 4th century.[10]

[edit] Genre and sources

The book of Exodus is not historical narrative in any modern sense.[11] Modern history writing requires the critical evaluation of sources, and does not accept God as a cause of events.[12] But in Exodus, everything is presented as the work of God, who appears frequently in person, and the historical setting is only very hazily sketched.[13] The purpose of the book is not to record what really happened, but to reflect the historical experience of the exile community in Babylon and later Jerusalem, facing foreign captivity and the need to come to terms with their understanding of God.[14]

Although mythical elements are not so prominent in Exodus as in Genesis, the echoes of ancient legends are crucial to understanding the book's origins and purpose: for example, the story of the infant Moses's salvation from the Nile has its basis in an earlier legend of king Sargon, while the story of the parting of the Red Sea trades on Mesopotamian creation mythology. Similarly, the Covenant Code (the law code in Exodus 20:22-23:33) has notable similarities in both content and structure with the Laws of Hammurabi. These influences serve to reinforce the conclusion that the Book of Exodus originated in the exiled Jewish community of 6th-century Babylon, but not all the sources are Mesopotamian: the story of Moses's flight to Midian following the murder of the Egyptian overseer may draw on the Egyptian Tale of Sinuhe.[15]

[Anonymousecoview]

4. Your sourcing of parallels between Exodus and

other Mesopotamian/Egyptian sources is very interesting... Any further sources would be enlightening

[grantcart]

7. Any further sources . . .

How about all of basic advanced scholarship on the Pentateuch going back 130 years




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis


Goes all the way back to the 1880s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellhausen

[Anonymousecoview]

11. thank you - I'm looking forward to becoming more familiar...

With this research

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Not "... and New...", though

for obvious dating reasons. The rest is well worth pointing out, though.

[Anonymousecoview]

13. Please share more....

about the dates issues

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. It will shock you to discover that the New Testament was not written BC

and so it was not written during the Bablyonian captivity.

[Anonymousecoview]

16. No shock

The dialogue between a candidate for the Messiah (2 Billion believers) and a woman at the foot of Mount Gerizim, a triple recorded location of the Ark of the Covenant makes it all come together....

[Phillip McCleod]

34. in your imagination only..

even the true believers won't touch this woo-woo wingnuttery with a ten foot staff of ra.

[Anonymousecoview]

44. He - He, maybe your right

Indigenous world-view looks at dreams, imagination, creativity, visions, as the new reality needed to overcome any crisis we may currently face...

[grantcart]

18. lol

Sometimes my computer edits out entire phrases or paragraphs when the cursor highlights an entire line and I am not even aware of it.

Here is how it should have appeared:

The Ark of the Covenant and the entire Exodus mythology was written, as most ancient sacred Old and New Testament scripture was, written during times of crises in order to find meaning in their present circumstances. The Pentateuch was put together largely during the Babylonian captivity when the Priestly class was allowed by the Babylonian captors to edit an ancient history.

[Thats my opinion]

51. Good,

but solid scholarly research doesn't get very far with people who just want to use everything as a blast on all religion.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. The Shield of Achilles - a sign that the gods do take sides in team sports.

The Shield of Achilles is the shield that Achilles uses in his fight with Hector, famously described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478–608 of Homer's Iliad.
In the poem, Achilles has lost his armour after lending it to his companion Patroclus. Patroclus has been killed in battle by Hector and his weapons taken as spoils. Achilles' mother, the goddess Thetis asks the god Hephaestus to provide replacement armor for her son.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shield_of_Achilles

[Anonymousecoview]

14. The Shield in Wikipedia depicts the historic

Setting of the gods in the stars, and the life of people on earth... it is a remarkable visualization of the setting...

[edhopper]

9. They already found it

its here:

[img][/img]

[Anonymousecoview]

12. Yes, the Indiana Jones solution

The biggest warehouse in the whole wide world.

[backscatter712]

20. Well, they have to be very careful with the Ark.

Otherwise...

[edhopper]

22. That only happens

if you don't shut your eyes.

Though I would say "It's beautiful!"

[Anonymousecoview]

27. Exactly

ouch... but there is more to the story of the dying priest at the Ark if you'll read more on the Ark site above...

[edhopper]

39. Yoyu do realize

I was talking about a movie? Though it has as much to do with reality as the story in the Bible.

[trotsky]

17. "a sign that the Creator found us"

Oh, had he misplaced us? Did we slip down in between his couch cushions?

Helpful hint: you'll probably find a much more receptive audience for your creative stories in the following groups.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1220

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1222

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1264

[Anonymousecoview]

26. Thanks

I'll let you know how it goes
What I mean by the Creator found us, is that the Creator seeks us out like sheep. A true shepherd will find them all....

[Phillip McCleod]

35. no the creator does not seek us out like sheep.

first there would have to *be* a creator.. and then we'd have to be like sheep.. basically you just throw a mishmash of religious myths into your psychic blender and spit out inane and somewhat annoying nonsense at everyone, then attach smileys.

you're absolutely wrong about the ark. about the hopi prophecies. absolutely completely wrong about easter island. indeed, your every post is an insult even to believers.

truly, your posts deserve little more that the ridicule they have received.

[trotsky]

38. Pretty lousy shepherd to have lost his sheep in the first place.

Good luck in the more appropriate groups/forums. You won't find as many skeptical minds and difficult questions there.

[Anonymousecoview]

46. Overnight it had these results...

64 views from spirituality
44 views from interfaith
33 views from the final one....

[mr blur]

21. Does this belong here?

You seem to presume that everyone here will accept that this Ark of yours is real. You might want to post this somewhere where people of your faith hang out.

[Anonymousecoview]

28. Thanks for the Advice man

Peace out -
Have you made the Rainbow Warrior Pledge?

[edhopper]

23. nd the question arises

Since Moses did not exist and there was no exodus from Egypt....What is in the Ark?

[backscatter712]

24. An awesome face-melting MacGuffin for action-archaeology cinema! n/t

[Anonymousecoview]

29. You little devil you

I believe Moses exists...

[EvolveOrConvolve]

31. "Exists" or "existed"?

There's a difference between the two.

[Anonymousecoview]

32. The night might grandfather died...

I woke up from my sleep and sensed his presence at my bedroom door. Moments later my 6 month old daughter laughed. He had not yet been able to see her before he died.
In the morning I called my mother and asked her what time he died. She said, "Who told you?" As she was one of the few who knew. He came to our house to visit his granddaughter.
This same proud hard working man appeared to my aunties in their dreams. He lost his thumb in a farming accident. In one dream he held up his thumb and smiled, "I got my thumb back!"
For two weeks everyone in the family could feel his presence in our homes. We could not stop speaking of how young and vibrant his energy was in paradise, which came into our lives for those precious two weeks.
Moses ... he exists...

[Phillip McCleod]

36. seriously?!?

do you realize how insulting you're being? across the board you're acting like some sort of messiah figure with the ability to interpret mysteries using completely made up and irrelevant misinformation.

at least normal religious believers have thousands of years of nonsensical tradition to use as a crutch. you're just making it up as you go along and expecting people to take you seriously?

i for one do not take you seriously, at all. you're posts are jokes.. so bad it's almost embarrassing to read them.

please, i beg you, educate yourself before seeking to educate others.

[edhopper]

41. Wow

random events interpreted post hoc through your religious filter.
No better proof than that!

How can the absence a single historical record outside of a religious script, written over a thousand years after the supposed events, in a country that happened to have the same story as one of it's prime myths, compete with a feeling that "something is there"?

[Anonymousecoview]

45. This is just the beginning

Barnabas Joseph was the Father of Jesus, who was the leader of the Essene community at Qumran, the official high priest of Israel at the time of Christ. Therefore, his conversion brought about the official embrace of the Messiah by Israel at the time of his appearance on earth.
And the way I deciphered the Easter Island tablets, was to use the book the Shepherd of Hermes, written by the early Essene Christians who traveled designed the Easter Island script using the Hebrew meaning of the names of the original 24 priests of the Temple of Jerusalem from the book of 1 Chronicles.
But no, I'm not as sure about UFOs, although I do lean toward belief in Sasquatch

[edhopper]

49. Your doing satire

Right?

[trotsky]

52. Poe's Law

We may never know.

[grantcart]

53. Nope

He actually got some Academic unit to accept it as a recent Master Thesis and he got Amazon to list it

http://www.scribd.com/doc/127636924/Finding-Turtle-Island

He is pimping it around DU: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12311867

He believes that he has found a mystical answer to solve the worlds' environmental problems based on ancient prophesy and indigenous people's myth stories.

But at the end he wonders, "Have you taken the Pledge of the Rainbow Warriors?"

[Anonymousecoview]

54. I just want Indigenous Wisdom to have a voice...

I grew up in a mixed culture community (1/3rd Cree Nation, 1/3rd Metis, 1/3rd of European origin). My family origin is a blend of all three, mostly European and part Metis...
Unfortunately I learned ignorance and learned of a sad divide between these nationalities and cultures. My ignorance, though not willful, was a participation in this divide. After high school I took a University course in Nation Studies with a Metis professor. He and his wife taught us by their example of the pride in his culture. He educated me to move away from Ignorance of Indigenous World-view, to understand the just cause that all people(s) have a voice. Moving away from this ignorance lead me to act, so I wrote an article in the daily paper exposing our ignorance of First Nations history in Canada.

Have you taken the Pledge of the Rainbow Warriors?

[grantcart]

55. I am going to be very direct.

Giving a bunch of mumbo jumbo word salad nonsense may impress some of your friends but you will find that you will get the kind of brutal, honest and stinging critique your posts here have been getting in several forums.

You say that you want Indigenous Wisdom to have a voice and yet you are posting really juvenile sentimental primary level Sunday School nonsense that has nothing to do with Native Americans.

There are many contributors here that give voice to Native American wisdom here, but they don't have to invent cheesy dream sequences to do so.

For example H20 Man frequently (although less so now because of health questions) would share from his personal experience, like this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5425316&mesg_id=5425316

If you really want to give voice on a subject you should make more of an attempt to have some idea of the scholarship on the subject.

Here is something that you can add to your background on Native American contributions to American History:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/grantcart/178

[Anonymousecoview]

56. Inspiring

Thanks for these sources:
General Parker is one of those bridge builders...
I am inspired by the quote:
"The battle of the 21st century will be to save this planet."
--Bill Yellowtail, Crow.
Al Gore said we have the technology, what we need is the motivation to restore the earth...
Motivation, inspiration, vision, dreams, spirituality, freedom

These are all words hard to understand for a scientific world who have made an artificial world for all to adhere to...
My posts are about dreams... Indigenous world-view speaks of dreams as an tool we can use to face current reality as full of crisis as it may be - the dream become the new reality we begin to act upon.
My actions to publish a newspaper article to support knowledge of a First Nations struggle in my community was a beginning.
Later I taught in a junior high school with First Nations students comprising of 25% of the population. I realized the aboriginal director needed support so we became personal friends and I initiated the Youth for Peace Aboriginal Art Contest. For three years we ran the contest which honored students from grades 4-12 for their ability to portray peace from a First Nations perspective. We discovered how 100s of young people from over a dozen ethnic backgrounds could portray peace through the world-view of another. It taught us adults as much if not more than the youth. The project reached a pinnacle when a young grade 8 girl presented the 'Blue Wolf' and requested that she just wanted aboriginal art to have a voice. The personal resilience of this girl would inspire anyone. In spite of circumstances presented by extreme forms of poverty, here parents were granted special permission to attend her awards ceremony. Hugging in a circle they wept tears of joy. Others shed tears as well. Her uncle whom she was living with told me, "She is going to make it." People came up and said, "Can I buy her work?"
My teaching profession afforded me the opportunity to design and add First Nations units to my course work. Later I enjoyed three years teaching at an adult upgrading program of the Blackfoot Nation. The elders taught me how to perfect the skill of making lesson plans designed with a sensitivity to personal history and culture. It was through this opportunity I completed my First Nations, Metis and Inuit Masters program. I've had dreams and one vision of the work I have been instructed to do, and I have a freedom given to me by no one but the Creator to fulfill it.
I've found people of the west struggle to view world-views holistically, we instead compartmentalize our beliefs and values to the exclusion of everyone else. Not once have I questioned the beliefs, views or posts of another on this sight. And I will certainly not follow anyone from forum to forum in order to discredit their opinions. Perhaps you have not - but I appreciate those who have who enable my to self-critic my work....

[grantcart]

57. For clarity

I haven't followed you from forum to forum you posted in forums I subscribe to.


As to "people of the west" and the rest of your mumbled word salad . .


I have spent most of my adult life in Asia, fluent in Asian languages, my family is all mixed ethnically.

Ethnic diversity should be an inspiration to higher academic standards and not an excuse to post nonsense like:

The Ark of the Covenant is a gift to the Hebrews and humanity that helped us get closer to the Creator. Why did the Creator want it made? Who did he make it for? When? Where might it be today? Come and see and share your insights and information...

You attempt to co-opt Jewish symbols without understanding that Jewish scholarship moved from this romantic jibberish decades ago.

[Anonymousecoview]

58. Yes, I clarified that in the last post also

But others have...
My 'mumbled word salad' is about listening to the needs of Indigenous peoples in my circles and offering bridges between the cultures in order that their spirit, voices and identities might have the freedom to flourish....

Romantic as it may be - it is an aspect of the human identity and is called for if when a holistic approach is needed to restore our ecosystems.

It is the call of William Wallace in Braveheart, there is a time and a place for it...

If you do not believe the Ark of the Covenant had or has any value, you are entitled to your opinion. My apology if I sounded like my back was up negating your right to your own views and values...

Peace and enlightenment on your journey

[grantcart]

59. H20 MAN's posts are about listening to the needs and teachings of indigenous peoples.

Quoting you

My posts are about dreams

You make liberal use of your dreams which become central to your interpretations of everything from Hebraic Exodus to Essene Christian writings to some holistic integrated Indigenous world integrating myth.

That's the source of the word salad.

[Anonymousecoview]

60. There are big dreams and little dreams

tells the African sage
little dreams are for the one who has them,
Big Dreams are to share with everyone.

It is a pretty big dream to believe in a Higher Power who is capable of motivating us to restore the earth....