Monday, January 28, 2013

EU and Religion: Pope Urges Followers to Use Social Networks as Portals of Truth

Who would have thought that social networking in the Europe Union and the world would get a plug from Vatican City. The Holy See is getting into social networking as Pope Benedict has proclaimed via Reuters:

Go forth and Tweet! Pope sees web networks as portals of truth.

Our comment as a non-denominational creation of the Almighty is ....

Amen, Benedict!

Modern religions can probably be traced back to earliest prehistoric times, when ancient man viewed the heavens and pondered his existence. Then, as now, man's search for himself and his reason for living predominates in life.

In this spirit, we are about to embark on a number of postings about the Earthworks nearest to Stonehenge, which we have deciphered as astronomy, and which reflect sophisticated -- for their era -- attempts in archaic Britain to understand the world. It is astronomy as the progenitor of modern religions.

And it is law.

As we have previously written:

"As the great Sir Bertrand Russell, "British philosopher, logician, essayist, and social critic " wrote ... in Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits, Simon and Schuster, Clarion Books, New York, 1948:

"Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences, and the contemplation of the heavens, with their periodic regularities, gave men their first conceptions of natural law."
Russell further opined that the legacy of astronomy in our "way of life" carries down to the present day, writing:
Although we are taught the Copernican astronomy in our textbooks, it has not yet penetrated to our religion or our morals....

How far has the American outlook on life and the world influenced Europe, and how far is it likely to do so? And first of all: What is the distinctively American outlook? And what, in comparison, is the distinctively European outlook?

Traditionally, the European outlook may be said to be derived from astronomy. When Abraham watched his flocks by night, he observed the stars in their courses: they moved with a majestic regularity utterly remote from human control.

When the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, He said: 'Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?' The reply was in the negative. Even more relevant is the question: 'Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? [emphasis added]
On to Stonehenge and inter alia to the Pleiades. See the next postings.