It’s a mystery 28 May 2010 Since the earliest times in recorded Graecoroman history, there have been mystery cults. Every cultic practice for a god had secret rituals and spaces, and there were a number of mystery religions, known as the Eleusinian mysteries, that developed that we know little about. In an excellent review of a new book by Hugh Bowden, it is suggested that actually there were no secret doctrines, just rituals and objects. These mystery religions developed later into the Gnostic traditions (a Gnostic is “one who knows”, gnosis), eventually ending up as Rosicrucian, Masonic, and various other modern mystery religions and cults. It has been said to me by a friend that he thinks that the Phaedo is a presentation of the esoteric (inner circle) teachings in exoteric (outer circle) form of Pythagorean cultic teachings. It may be this is true, but given Bowden’s thesis, I wonder if it is supportable. Clearly the Pythagoreans had doctrines, as well as rituals and sacred objects, and even more clearly they had extensive esoteric mathematical doctrines. It would be good to see how he treats them. Coincidentally, Scientific American has a piece in which Michelangelo and da Vinci are supposed to have encoded secret teaching about the brain in the Sistine Chapel, which I wonder might be a case of pareidolia on the part of two neurobiologists. History Religion History
History A contrary view on Heidegger 28 Nov 2009 At sp!ked review of books to balance out the previous one. Worth a read. Read More
Evolution Quotemining in the 19thC 23 Jul 2009 Dispersal of Darwin again has an excellent piece of the history of evolution: he traces the quotemining by the theologians in the 1880s of John Tyndal, a known Darwinian of the day, to “show” that evolution is unproven and speculation. It seems that the dishonesty is unchanging. Read More
Politics Catholic Blame Game 18 Apr 2010 Here, courtesy of Jason Brown, is a site that lists the latest scapegoat that the Catholic Church blames, instead of itself. So far they have blamed: Gays The Jews Pornography Television The Internet Pope John Paul II Victims of child rape Stay tuned for further exciting rationalisations and excuses! Read More
Looks like a trilobite to me. I’m sure, because I carefully compared it to all known images of trilobites.