I know and appreciate that, when covering a topic so huge, it is necessary to generalize and oversimplify. So I'm not busting your chops on that point. I would however submit that every culture that has become less brutal and less savage has one thing in common; an encounter with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
With respect, not if the things cited happened before he was embodied. The Ten Commandments for example [certainly a good thing] are estimated at around 1500 BCE. Abraham and Issac was probably 500 years before that, and that's also when that other monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism started. They were - and are - dedicated to bringing forth light and the final defeat of evil.
That big picture is why I'd be a terrible academic. [and why I write fiction as well. It helps with the world building.] This was a flash of insight that I put into words and am delving into more deeply now. The realization felt really good and I needed it. We have so much negativity around us.
Now I would take your statement "With respect, not if the things cited happened before he was embodied" and say that I agree with you. Mostly.
I would say that mankind left the tower of Babel (Gen 11) better informed that we might suspect, and with full knowledge that Jesus was coming eventually. I do a whole thing on this. Anyway as time passes and such as that, the various cultures and tribes lost that knowledge and made up things in its place. Sometimes those things they made up were poor echoes of things they knew collectively from before.
I think there is a direct inverse relationship between the faithfulness to that echo in whatever they made up, and the level of savagery and brutality in their civilization.
And yes, my comment is also full of generalizations and oversimplifications. What can ya do?
I know and appreciate that, when covering a topic so huge, it is necessary to generalize and oversimplify. So I'm not busting your chops on that point. I would however submit that every culture that has become less brutal and less savage has one thing in common; an encounter with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
With respect, not if the things cited happened before he was embodied. The Ten Commandments for example [certainly a good thing] are estimated at around 1500 BCE. Abraham and Issac was probably 500 years before that, and that's also when that other monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism started. They were - and are - dedicated to bringing forth light and the final defeat of evil.
That is certainly part of the equation.
And it's a big equation.
That big picture is why I'd be a terrible academic. [and why I write fiction as well. It helps with the world building.] This was a flash of insight that I put into words and am delving into more deeply now. The realization felt really good and I needed it. We have so much negativity around us.
I completely understand.
Now I would take your statement "With respect, not if the things cited happened before he was embodied" and say that I agree with you. Mostly.
I would say that mankind left the tower of Babel (Gen 11) better informed that we might suspect, and with full knowledge that Jesus was coming eventually. I do a whole thing on this. Anyway as time passes and such as that, the various cultures and tribes lost that knowledge and made up things in its place. Sometimes those things they made up were poor echoes of things they knew collectively from before.
I think there is a direct inverse relationship between the faithfulness to that echo in whatever they made up, and the level of savagery and brutality in their civilization.
And yes, my comment is also full of generalizations and oversimplifications. What can ya do?