Alive Share Campfire Igniting

[Aianawa]

It just occurred to me that the 'Urantia Book' might have had the Archontics as its inspirational source. And, of course, the 'Archons' are sourced from Gnosticism. So there is an ostensible connection.

"This source of all being is an Aeon, in which an inner being dwells, known as Ennoea ("thought, intent", Greek ἔννοια), Charis ("grace", Greek χάρις), or Sige ("silence", Greek σιγή). The split perfect being conceives the second Aeon, Nous ("mind", Greek Νους), within itself. Along with male Nous comes female Aeon Aletheia ("truth", Greek Αληθεια). These are the primary roots of Aeons. Complex hierarchies of Aeons are thus produced, sometimes to the number of thirty. These Aeons belong to a purely ideal, noumenal, intelligible, or supersensible world; they are immaterial, they are hypostatic ideas. Together with the source from which they emanate, they form Pleroma ("region of light", Greek πλήρωμα). The lowest regions of Pleroma are closest to darkness—that is, the physical world.

The transition from immaterial to material, from noumenal to sensible, is created by a flaw, passion, or sin in an Aeon. According to Basilides, it is a flaw in the last sonship; according to others the sin of the Great Archon, or Aeon-Creator, of the Universe; according to others it is the passion of the female Aeon Sophia, who emanates without her partner Aeon, resulting in the Demiurge (Greek Δημιουργός), a creature that should never have been. This creature does not belong to Pleroma, and the One emanates two savior Aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit, to save humanity from the Demiurge. Christ then took a human form (Jesus), to teach humanity how to achieve Gnosis. The ultimate end of all Gnosis is μετάνοια metanoia, or repentance—undoing the sin of material existence and returning to Pleroma."

- wiki -

Changes of 'God centric' thought seems to me to a be a natural consequence of spiritual evolution with perhaps the closest concept existing at the point of origin of cultural spiritual thought. Gender is a reflection of socio-cultural prevailing attitudes I would think. So a change from female to male spiritual orientation probably 'just happened'. I, personally, try to not think of God as gendered because utlimately, it is silly to do such a thing with a creative force that transcends the very concept of gender.

My point is that the spiritual emphasis should be on 'Bythos' from the gnostic perspective at least. Just my thoughts, no judgment intended at all, as I only have impressions to comment upon.

For Whatever Its Worth: Some scientific thought suggests that gender differentiation was the result of disease....

Disease ?, how

[Aragorn]

"[...] The ultimate end of all Gnosis is μετάνοια metanoia, or repentance—undoing the sin of material existence and returning to Pleroma."

- wiki -

In my opinion, that's a very Manichean view, i.e. "all of material existence is a sin."

[...] Gender is a reflection of socio-cultural prevailing attitudes I would think. [...]

The concept of gender itself isn't. It's an expression of the Yin/Yang dynamic.

The attribution of a gender to "the godhead" on the other hand is a double logical fallacy, because it is based both upon anthropomorphism and upon the concept of a celestial royalty figure. Not all religions are monotheistic, and most of the pantheistic religions are anthropomorphic — e.g. the ancient Greek and the ancient Romans had lots of human-like deities, who only really differed from humans in the power they possessed and in that they were immortal.

Several of the monotheistic religions describe "the godhead" as a male, but there are some lesser-known religions which consider "God" to be a female. The societies where these religions were created did indeed have an impact on this gender attribution.

Anecdotally, most male guitarists consider their guitars to be female, and then they give them female names. For instance, BB King's legendary Gibson ES-345 was named "Lucille", and as a parody on that, Bill Cosby — whom most will probably not know as a musician but rather just as an actor (and as a sex offender) — had his own Gibson guitar branded as "Camille".

The same kind of people also consider cars to be female, and will sometimes also name them as such. Ships are also generally considered to be female. In fact, it is considered somewhat of an insult by many naval captains to refer to a ship or a boat as an "it". This attribution of vehicles and other inanimate objects with the female gender is a leftover from a strongly male-dominated culture — as what still exists in the Arab world today — where women were considered inferior, and as "things" which needed to be tamed and subdued. It can therefore quite appropriately be described as male chauvinism.

Now, I myself am quite obviously a male and I'm also exclusively heterosexual, but I consider both my car and my guitars to be male, because I see them as extensions of myself. Likewise, in feudal Japan, a samurai's sword was considered sacred, as it was believed to contain part of the soul of the sword smith, as well as part of the soul (and honor) of the warrior who wielded the weapon.

I, personally, try to not think of God as gendered because utlimately, it is silly to do such a thing with a creative force that transcends the very concept of gender. [...]

What people think of as "God" (with an uppercase initial) is actually nothing other than the consciousness that flows through all of us — and through everything else, even though we may not always recognize something as being conscious — and consciousness is simply awareness plus thought. Consciousness has no personality or gender. It's a mere processor of information.

The gender polarity comes from what we call the soul, i.e. the "programming" of each individual spirit — "spirit" being the term I use in this context for an individuated being, whether this being exists in a material or non-corporeal form. The soul is the immutable aspect of the being, but the being's personality as a whole is not immutable, as it is influenced by all of the being's experiences, whether they be physical, social, psychological or metaphysical.

"God" does not have a personality, and therefore also has no rules which it imposes upon its creation, nor does it demand worship. If it demands worship, then it is a parasite, not a god.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwgtr05pmPM

For Whatever Its Worth: Some scientific thought suggests that gender differentiation was the result of disease....

Up until still very recently — i.e. a few weeks ago — medical science believed that a person's consciousness and soul would merely be side-effects of neurological activity. By consequence, if the tissue which connects the two brain hemispheres were to be severed, then this would split the person. Or at least, such was the accepted theory.

But so only a few weeks ago, a study was published in which people whose brain hemispheres had been fully severed had been subjected to a number of neurological tests, and they still functioned as a whole person when one of the brain hemispheres was exposed to stimuli which are normally said to only be processed by the other brain hemisphere, and in both directions.

Scientism is as much a religion as any other, and by focusing only on the material aspects of existence, scientists are missing out on all of the important stuff. It is no different from the narrow-minded scientific view of blaming the phenomenon of climate change on the statistically observed increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, while the percentage of carbon dioxide is much smaller than that of other so-called greenhouse gases, and in particular methane and water vapor.

Furthermore, blaming climate change on human activity is equally ridiculous when just about every celestial body of our solar system is exhibiting temperature and climate variations, and when the sun — the primary energy source in the solar system — is observed to be behaving "unpredictably", with solar storms occurring when there shouldn't be any, and vice versa.

Anyway, I just felt that I had to throw that out there.

[Aianawa]

Why, just why lol

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmGsQkLb4yg


There are a number of these sorts of videos on tube. 3 hours of a fire. It all seems okay and innocent, but it is a darn fake fire! A gas one, burning fake logs for 3 hours. On --- off, job done. :-(

[Dreamtimer]

This one has wood and crackling.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fYL_qiDYf0

[Aianawa]

Oh yes, much improved and warmer

[Emil El Zapato]

Disease ?, how

This is not a joke:
One amoeba has an itch and the other amoeba scratches it.

"Asexuality, it isn't just for amoeba anymore"

[Fred Steeves]

Anecdotally, most male guitarists consider their guitars to be female, and then they give them female names. For instance, BB King's legendary Gibson ES-345 was named "Lucille",

Huh, interesting. Makes me wonder if that might have been Robert Kirkman's inspiration in naming Negan's barbed wire wrapped baseball bat "Lucille".

[Emil El Zapato]

Hey Fred,

I've been watching that....Gawd, that is an evil s.o.b. I'm anxiously awaiting his demise. I can't imagine an end equal to his actions.

NAP

[Fred Steeves]

You'll be waiting for a while. He's still alive and well in the original comic, which is several seasons ahead of the t.v. version.

[Emil El Zapato]

thanks for the spoiler alert... I didn't even know there was a comic book origin...

[enjoy being]

That's better DT, it must be looped rather than gas fed fireproof logs, I think I found a fade in and out spot.

Still totally frustrating hearing it roar with so much air on it and that the log never even moves let alone disintegrates. It is like some sort of sensory deprivation tool. I bet if you forced played that to someone while they wore an orange jumpsuit they would eventually start to show signs of duress rather than extreme relaxation.

[Emil El Zapato]

My brother has one of those...I had to ask him if it was real...it wasn't.

[Aianawa]

Real fire will be great in the campfire circle

[Dreamtimer]

The idea that gender resulted from disease doesn't make sense to me. Sexual reproduction has the best results in terms of strong and lasting organisms because of the genetic diversity involved.

Asexual reproduction does not provide new gene combinations which means disease can more easily target itself to the organism which cannot so easily adapt. Sexual reproduction allows for adaptation and much greater resistance to both disease and environmental pressure.

[Emil El Zapato]

lol...I agree. It ain't my theory. Seriously though, there are so many angles to evolution it isn't by necessity a contradiction. Assults on the immune system provide the impetus for health hardiness, Natural genetic mutation which can be devasting also can propel wondrous adaptation, and so forth. In fact, as Aragorn and Modwiz have suggested it might have been the adaptation mechanism 'required' to manifest the feminine and masculine characteristics of creation.

Personally, I think the masculine/feminine dichotomy is a by-product of things just occurring. From a deeply metaphysical perspective there is only one or so they say and duality most assuredly is a by-product of dissolution of the spirit.