The Point

We did kind of lose track of the point, didn't we. It was probably my fault, I went off on a tangent and forgot where the centerline was. I think you said that monotheism paved the way for science, and I said that it may have been the other way around. You pointed out that was unlikely since monotheism preceded science by a few thousand years. Of course you're right about that, but it got me to thinking that something like the Western mind might have paved the way for both of them. The more I think about it, I'm not so sure there is a clear cut distinction between the Western mind and the Eastern mind. Well, maybe there is now, but both cultures probably had a common ancestor way back in the ages lost to memory. I read once in National Geographic that the Indo-European language group probably didn't originate in either India or Europe but rather somewhere in between, possibly in Central Asia where the Stan countries are today. I don't think they know this for sure, it's just a theory. Then there are the Chinese and other Oriental cultures which originated somewhere else because their languages are nothing like ours. Funny, what we call "Western civilization" is supposed to have started in Mesopotamia, which is now part of what we call the "Middle East". No wonder a guy gets confused!

Truth be known, all the major civilizations were influenced by contact with other civilizations. Some of the evidence for that may be found in the Old Testament. A good example is that story about gods or angels interbreeding with mortals. For it is written: "When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose........The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of  God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown." (Genesis, chapter 6, verses 1,2, and 4 -  R.S.V) The King James Version translates "Nephilim" as "giants", so there you go. This passage is sometimes called "the second creation story", and has been an embarrassment to theologians for centuries. It is out of context with the text that precedes and follows it, so it must have been stuck in there by somebody, but I don't think anyone knows who for sure. Other mythologies commonly feature gods and mortals interbreeding, but I think this is the only example of it in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

I wasn't aware that the gangsters of the 1920s got their inspiration from the movies, I thought it was the other way around. I have long believed that the hoodlum/motorcycle gang culture of the 50s was inspired by all those dreadful Hell's Angels movies, but maybe it went both ways. I understand that there really was a motorcycle gang called "Hell's Angels" that formed shortly after World War II, and that they once trashed the town of Bakersfield, California. From there, a legend was born and became ingrained in contemporary mythology. What are the movies, if not contemporary mythology?

I looked up Prometheus last weekend and decided that I don't want to be like him when I grow up. First he betrayed his Titan heritage and crossed over to Zeus' camp. Then he betrayed Zeus and got chained to a rock for his efforts. Years later, Hercules comes to his rescue. I didn't look up Hercules, but I seem to remember he wasn't even a god, or maybe he was only a half god. So, if Prometheus, who was all god, couldn't rescue himself from that rock, how was Hercules able to pull it off? By some accounts, Prometheus was a friend of the human race, and may have had something to do with their creation, which may explain why we often find ourselves in unpleasant situations brought on by our own actions.