Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 00:22:24 EST
Subject: Re: Publications on War, Genocide and Terrorism


In a message dated 3/4/2004 10:42:28 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
libraryofsocialscience-AT-earthlink.net writes:


> 
> "But why does God, at least a patriarchal deity, require a blood sacrifice?
> The answer lays hidden in Yahweh's "covenant with creation." He not only
> promises Noah "never again to destroy every living thing as I have done" but
> He also gives to humans all the beasts of the earth, every bird of the air
> and all the fish of the sea. "Every moving thing that lives shall be food
> for you. I have given you all things, even the green herbs

Compare to the analysis in Jack Miles's God: A Biography. Miles, a former 
Jesuit with a background in philosophy, archaeology, and Near Eastern languages, 
examines the literary character of God throughout the Tanakh and into the 
Christian New Testament. 

Particularly amusing is Miles' explication of the multiple "Gods" who 
combined to form the Judeo-Christian deity. Rather than presume a monolithic God, and 
then draw inferences from that constructed monolith, Miles argues for the 
syncretic nature of God. 

Two of the main characters in Genesis are "God," who gives humanity dominion 
over the entire earth, and "The Lord God" who confines humans to a small 
garden with a trap-and-punishment at the center of it. "The Lord God" kills 
everyone but Noah and his crew; "God" follows up on this with the promise implied by 
the rainbow.

Other religious texts reveal their syncretic roots -- the Bhagavad-Gita, for 
example, shows traces of both Aryan monism and Sankhya dualism, and combines 
them without any pretense of consistency or philosophical cohesion. Not 
surprising that the same layering of defunct gods into God would occur in the ancient 
Near East.

Such an argument immediately undercuts any attempt to speculate about the 
"God" of texts as a single entity, and draw conclusions from that assumption. In 
the view of Miles and his exponents, God is a work in progress, a syncretic 
assembly drawn from water and fire deities, with an evolving personality. (As an 
aside, it's worth browsing Miles book to see how long it took "God" to evolve 
from a men-only preference and finally begin talking to women.) 

It will be interesting to see if Dr. Lopez-Reyes deals with these objections.

Eric

    



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