Did Zeus Exist? (NYTimes article)
Kind of doubt I'll get many takers on this but NYTimes has a good article on Zeus and whether he existed or not.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/did-zeus-exist/?hp
It sounds crazy, but what he discusses is why fairly intelligent greeks at the time, who demanded quite a bit of evidence, still considered the greek gods to be real, etc.
I'd not seen this type of discussion before. Of course, I've never met a person who thought Zeus was real either.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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Denise said:
Kind of doubt I'll get many takers on this but NYTimes has a good article on Zeus and whether he existed or not.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/did-zeus-exist/?hp
It sounds crazy, but what he discusses is why fairly intelligent greeks at the time, who demanded quite a bit of evidence, still considered the greek gods to be real, etc.
I'd not seen this type of discussion before. Of course, I've never met a person who thought Zeus was real either.
In Latin you get Jupiter < Zeus Pater < Proto-European. It simply means Father God. I would recommend reading Guthrie The Greeks and their Gods (I think this is the book). In spite of the fact that I'm 38, it's been 50 years since I read that, but I found it quite interesting at the time.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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Wow Denise! This is really starting to make a lot of sense to me now. The author is a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. The most famous football player from ND last season was Manti Te'o. Both have tried to convince the public that their nonexistent friends were real. [:P]
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alabama24 said:
Wow Denise! This is really starting to make a lot of sense to me now. The author is a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. The most famous football player from ND last season was Manti Te'o. Both have tried to convince the public that their nonexistent friends were real.
Excuse my dear friend's football analogy. It is that time of year. More folks in South believe in "Bear" than in Zeus, and we think Mount Olympus is a fraternity in Tuscaloosa. Of course, personally, I consider Bama football to be a false religion, and Ole Miss football to be a mythical religion, and Mississippi State Football to be an absolute miracle.
"In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church," John Wesley0 -
alabama24 said:
Both have tried to convince the public that their nonexistent friends were real.
Now, Alabama, do you REALLY want to argue that divinity does not exist (atheism) is a better position than agnostic (I don't or can't know)? Unfortunately, my Logos is lacking appropriate resources:
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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alabama24 said:
Wow Denise! This is really starting to make a lot of sense to me now.
Whaaat? [:S]
EDIT: Sorry, I forgot something ... [:^)]
SECOND EDIT: MJ ... Whaaat? [:S]
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Steve said:
SECOND EDIT: MJ ... Whaaat?
I read the article as a solid critique of atheism using Zeus as a specific case but intending that the reader extend the argument to Yahweh. Maybe its a Catholic thing.[;)]
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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MJ. Smith said:Steve said:
SECOND EDIT: MJ ... Whaaat?
I read the article as a solid critique of atheism using Zeus as a specific case but intending that the reader extend the argument to Yahweh. Maybe its a Catholic thing.
And I think you are absolutely correct. That is how I take it. It certainly makes the case for Theism.
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Michael Childs said:MJ. Smith said:Steve said:
SECOND EDIT: MJ ... Whaaat?
I read the article as a solid critique of atheism using Zeus as a specific case but intending that the reader extend the argument to Yahweh. Maybe its a Catholic thing.
And I think you are absolutely correct. That is how I take it. It certainly makes the case for Theism.
I completely concur with that.
“To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.” ~Chesterton
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MJ. Smith said:
I read the article as a solid critique of atheism
I read the article as an argument for agnosticism over and above atheism. We can't know that Zeus does exist, but we can't know that he doesn't either.
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Michael Childs said:
Excuse my dear friend's football analogy. It is that time of year. More folks in South believe in "Bear" than in Zeus, and we think Mount Olympus is a fraternity in Tuscaloosa. Of course, personally, I consider Bama football to be a false religion, and Ole Miss football to be a mythical religion, and Mississippi State Football to be an absolute miracle.
Wooooo! Pig! Sooie! Razorbacks!
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Gabe Martini said:Michael Childs said:
Excuse my dear friend's football analogy. It is that time of year. More folks in South believe in "Bear" than in Zeus, and we think Mount Olympus is a fraternity in Tuscaloosa. Of course, personally, I consider Bama football to be a false religion, and Ole Miss football to be a mythical religion, and Mississippi State Football to be an absolute miracle.
Wooooo! Pig! Sooie! Razorbacks!
Why would Southerners like the Chicago Bears so much? [6]
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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