I like your explanation of degrees and I imagine eptness would follow the usual sort of Bell chart distribution in any population. The fewer of us are naturally ept while the rest of us appear in a sliding scale of less ability.
It is the absolute minority who are truly ‘ept’. The rest of us rely on the ability to identify and satisfy the demands of eptness determined by our ability to adapt to social conventions to achieve an “acquired eptness” if you like or more cynically, a “pretend eptness”. In any of its forms ‘eptness’ is a valuable skill no doubt. If you have followed me this far you might agree that it partially explains why sociopaths and some psychopaths tend to do well in hierarchical organisations that reward achievement, such people tend to possess chameleonic talents to blend in and take over.
I wasn’t born “ept” but while I could, in spurts, be as charming as a prince if I tried, it was not something i could not sustain for very long. More than once I told people exactly what I thought of their ideas and their personalities, which if any of you were wondering, explains, partially, why I was never appointed to a CEO anywhere. Too feral too.
The first page, since it is entirely at odds with objective facts. Hell, you needn’t even finish the page, just a few verses are sufficient to reveal it is erroneous nonsense.
Genesis 1, like oodles of other passages of the Bible – they are at the same time considered literally true and an allegory/parable/fable.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.”
And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
I have seen three main modes of interpreting passages like these:
- They are the literal thruth.
- They are meant as allegories/parables.
- They are the literal truth or allegories/parables, depending on whose head they bash their bible on.
Which mode is being selected depends on the passage and what they want it to mean, whether they want to talk about it or not, and the degree of embarassment they feel over the passage (e.g. the ones promoting slavery, those of extreme misogyny, etc.)
Edit: Oh, and the same goes for the relevance of each passage: it’s either eternally true and relevant, or it’s no longer relevant because society has changed, or it depends on who the bible bashers talk to.
I was diagnosed with Asperger’s, and the name and definition was changed later to “high functioning autism,” as Asperger’s is now considered an outdated term.
My family and I are estranged over my autism. This is because if I’m intelligent enough to multiply large numbers in my head, become a published writer, and speak Spanish . . . then I’m smart enough to know how to “not be autistic,” so I choose to have Asperger’s . . . and so on.
Have you experienced similar conflicts with work or school?
As I’ve probably said before, if a deity existed that had limitless knowledge to create a message, and limitless power to communicate it.Then the notion that the closest it could get to over 13 billion years is six fucking days, is beyond absurd.
Which makes me remember the quote attributed to Voltaire…
“If you can convince people to believe in absurditues, then you can make them commit atrocities.”
Or as it is explained here
“the person who has been led into absurdity of belief is led to be unjust not in some incidental, random, or trivial way, but because he or she falls under a kind of external “command” or domination that results in a “demand to do wrong to that God‐given sense of justice in your heart,” from which follow “crimes.””
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth
Right from the first sentence there is an unsupported assertion that has been now proven incorrect.
Presupposition: In the branch of linguistics known as pragmatics, a presupposition or PSP is an implicit assumption about the world or background belief relating to an utterance whose truth is taken for granted in discourse.
From Wiki
My wife has worked a lot with those suffering from autism. For most, it is assumed because they have behavior problems, they are considered mentally unstable (thus dangerous) and/or mentally deficient.
Yes, all three.
I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 65. I only knew I was different and that most people didn’t like me. I tried to fix myself for decades. I found that if I concentrated I could fake being normal for short periods.
I was ‘a loner’ at school and in the army.
Work was difficult, although I managed to hold down a job for over 30 years. I did best working alone.
Today my three siblings don’t like being around me for more than a hour or so. I rarely see them, although I’m in daily contact with one sister by email.
I’m brighter than most people I meet, (not here though) but I think you’re brighter. I mention this because at 8 my father taught me I was stupid and useless, this was reinforced until I left home at 18. Over decades people I should have believed told me I was very bright. I simply didn’t believe them. I thought I was simply good at ‘faking it’ . I was 65 before I finally had proper a IQ test. I was stunned by the result.
Of course knowing a couple of truths about myself hasn’t made me any more likeable or less misanthropic.
The problem with the creation myth of Genesis is that it is plagiarised from the much earlier Babylonian Enuma Elish which is the superior bit of storytelling.
Not only did the Jews borrow and elaborate on an established story, but because the Jewish kingdom of David was later divided between Judah and Israel, two separate versions of the same adopted story were independently developed and later fused in an unsophisticated fashion after the return from the Babylonian exile to produce a united rendering of the shared and purloined Hebrew mythology and culture.
Biblical theists can argue that it could well have been their god’s will that the Babylonians were to produce the first draft of the creation myth for the Jews to enlarge upon and to make even more profound by having two versions. Spoookeee or what?.
But it also just looks like the Jews took the essential creation and redressed it as an explanation for days of the week, a very important part of Jewish culture both for practical and liturgical reasons.
Enuma Elish is the better story, its way more consistent and exciting. It’d make one of those block buster movies with sumptuous use of computer graphics. I am picturing Chris Hemsworth as Marduk and Queen Latifah as Tiamat (preferably a host of actresses, ten or more, should play the character who is after all an elemental force of chaos…would be interesting if the role won an academy award for all of them.
Haven’t heard of it, so don’t know exactly what it says… Until I have done so, I’m unable to accept there is a causal link between the Babylonian epic and The book Of Genesis . I’m also hesitant to accept that the Noah myth was lifted from the Epic of Gilgamesh.
No problem.
Here is an informative link on the subject which includes a history and a summary of the story, a commentary on the direct link between Enuma and Genesis. There is also a youtube video (but it comes without subtitles so I do not know what they are specifically saying about either in it) and it includes an English translation of the epic poem in full, except for those parts where the original clay tablets were damaged.
As regards Noah and his Flood story the very earliest versions, begin with the Summerian equivalent of Ziusudra mentioned on tablets dating back to about 2800 BC.
By the 1700s BC, the Akkadians refer to their flood hero as Atrahasis (very wise one) in the epic poem of the same name which includes a creation story (which tells of the mixing of clay and the blood of a defeated rival god to create humans) and a flood story in which Enlil (god of earth) and Enki (god of the freshwater seas) end up plotting to kill off mankind who have overpopulated the earth and become violent and nasty. Enlil helps Atrahasis build his boat and survive Enkis murderous flood with his family and flocks.
From the Atrahasis the Babylonians borrow the flood hero, rename him Utnapishtum and feature him in an upgrade version of the already established Gilgamesh story in which he has been given eternal life for having saved mankind and the animals. Gilgamesh seeks out Utnapishtum for advice on finding the sole surviving branch from the tree of life that the serpent and Lilith have stolen from the equivalent Babylonian garden of Eden. The branch confers eternal life to the holder, which is the holy grail for all of Gilgamesh’s actions, he seeks eternal life. Utnapushtim takes Gilgamesh in his boat to a deep part of the sea, where the branch (from the tree of life) can be found. Gilgamesh dives deep into the sea and retrieves the branch, but as I recall he apparently loses it again,(that damn wily snake), and is again thwarted to live a mortal life.
So by the time the Jews are crafting their creation and flood stories they have the benefit of several centuries of cultural genius to draw on. They just gave the flood hero a new name and changed a few of the details.
It’s not a stretch to say the Biblical account is an adaption of older stories. It is a widely accepted view. The civilizations, kingdoms and tribes and clans of the Mesopotamian area and the entire Fertile Cresent from Iran to Egypt supported a reasonably free flow of trade and people moving from one area to another. Even Abraham moved from the Summerian cities in the southern end of the Tigris Euphrates valley to Harran in Turkey and then to Egypt and then to the land God promised him. And with them, all went the stories and myths and legends picked up along the way. To my mind, it would be utterly impossible for such adaptions and adoptions not to have happened and for that, I support the idea that the stories of Genesis are by no means original, which makes a nonsense of fundamentalist Christians insisting they are based on unquestionable history.
Some sources also suggest that the Books of Job and Esther are not Jewish in origin, merely added and enlarged because they served to examine and answer some universal questions regarding the worship of gods.
I wouldn’t call myself socially inept–more like asocial. And misanthropy doesn’t describe me either. Misanthropy is dislike or hatred for humankind–with me it’s more like not having a need for humankind–is there a word for that? As long as I had access to food and supplies and the Internet, I could easily live on a desert island.
Yup, that’s it. Although I quite like some people, I have no use for human beings as a species. The planet will be fa better off once we go extinct.(imo)
It’s my understanding that today the term autism spectrum disorder is used instead of Asperger’s is because there is broad range of symptoms and severity.