Triangulating Cain

January 13th, 2013   by   Andrew

This is a response to Sabio’s conversation on his post “Pre-Adamites“.

I thought this was too long to just leave on his site as a comment. Since it’s his conversation (and I’m not too active on this site these days), I’d prefer any further comments to be written on his site.

 

Re: The Mark of Cain

Interpretations abound. That’s literature. Genesis stories are particularly difficult because they are so tight and short. You can do anything you want with them. Here’s my fun with it (sorry this is long, but I hope it’s worth it to someone).

The last time you were so mad you yelled at someone, what did your face look like? Cain was so enraged, and so certain about being wronged, he killed his brother to prove he was right.

When you are deeply angry, do people want to look at you? People naturally don’t even want to be around angry people, let alone angry people that are always right. Some angry people feel so certain about how wrong the world is, they have to prove and argue and even willfully, violently demonstrate just how right they are.

Anger disfigures your face.

Let’s look at wikipedia – ” “mark” in Gen. 4:15 is ‘owth, which could mean a sign, an omen, a warning, or a remembrance. In the Torah, the same word is used to describe the stars as signs or omens.”

God (as a character in a story) marks Cain so that no one else will kill him, supposedly. It could also be a prediction – no one’s going to kill Cain, and maybe that’s because Cain is willing to quickly escalate his side of revenge to the point of taking life. He might even go further.

It could also be just a sign to others – don’t do what this guy did; it’ll get us nowhere. And don’t mess with him; it’s not worth it.

In Genesis it doesn’t explicitly say God was thinking about Cain’s best interests, or protecting Cain. He could very well have been thinking about everyone else that would have to deal with this dangerous individual.

When God finds what Cain has done, he first predicts Cain’s fate:

“When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

Cain immediately casts himself as the victim in all this. He blames everything else but himself, and fears his vulnerability:

“My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.”

God can’t believe his anthropomorphic ears. Are you kidding me? When you feel wronged, your wrath is not proportionate to what you think has been done against you. Anyone that kills you won’t just equally be killed, which is bad enough. Your line will want to destroy their whole family!

“Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.”

It does not say here the source of the vengeance. It does not say by My anthropomorphic hand. Let’s not put words into God’s anthropomorphic mouth.

Only after this does God “put a mark on Cain so that no one who came upon him would kill him.”

Cain’s anger and (self-)loathing made it almost impossible for anyone to be around him long enough to even want to talk to him, let alone kill him.

They would get the hell away from him as fast as possible. Haven’t you known people like this? Haven’t you avoided people like this?

One of Cain’s descendants is Tubal-Cain, a smith of bronze and iron. Tools. Weapons. Cain’s motivation to hurt others when he doesn’t get his way, and his descendant’s knack for war, create a dangerous cycle of willful and asymmetrical (unequal) revenge.  That leads to society-ending consequences. Even in a semi-nomadic society before legal systems and ‘governing authorities’.

One of Cain’s descendants is Lamech. Lamech tells his wives quite openly:

“I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-seven fold.”

It’s now out of control. Lamech is even more wilful, more vengeful and more dangerous than Cain. Someone slaps him and he wipes out their village!

Some might say God ‘marks’ Cain to stop the cycle of revenge immediately. The forgiveness angle, maybe. I think it’s better to look at this as a prediction. Cain’s attitude and motivation ‘mark’ him. No magic needed.

Cain, supposedly, becomes both city-builder and cast-out wanderer. He just can’t get relationships with work and with other people right. Why’s that?

Well, look back at his sacrifice to God (as a character in a story). Cain puts in a half-ass effort to collect some twigs and berries. And this is to his God, supposedly.

Abel gives the best he had, and he was glad to do it. When measured beside his brother, Cain blames his brother for his own half-ass efforts, and takes out his hurt on his brother. How’s that for a sacrifice, God?

Well, it’s still a pretty bad sacrifice and doesn’t get him anything he really wants.

The signs are in the stars for Cain, supposedly. But he hasn’t set his sights on them. He can only blame them for being so far out of reach. Surprising really, since it’s all written right in the expression on his face.

God, I suck.

 

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Sources:

Genesis 4 - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+4&version=NIV

Mark of Cain - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_and_mark_of_Cain

Some ideas from J. Peterson’s discussions of Genesis

- Redemption talk - http://ww3.tvo.org/video/185862/jordan-peterson-redemption-and-psychology-christianity

- the nature of evil – http://ww3.tvo.org/video/163167/big-ideas-jordan-peterson

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Santa, The Easter Bunny, Gods – Critical Thinking and Mythological Ritual

April 15th, 2012   by   Andrew

Part of the series God: From Magic to Motivation

This is an unfinished post. It contains one of the most important videos I may have ever posted (part of a Joseph Campbell interview). I think I’m trying to say Santa and the Easter Bunny may be understood as attempts to correct some of the inconsistencies surrounding our use of ‘beliefs’ (whatever assistance ‘beliefs’ may have given to our rapid flourishing and this 10 000-year-old thought-experiment).

Dale McGowan of The Meming of Life  has a great story about how his youngest child figured out “the truth” about Santa. His youngest daughter loved Santa. But this winter, she got bit by the bug – she just had to know. She kept asking questions, kept testing and probing to see how certain inconsistent things weren’t adding up. Dale McGowan refers to it as reaching a tipping point between the desire to believe and the desire to know.

His response to his daughter’s momentary disappointment with reality was to praise her process of thinking and reinforce the feeling of pride for figuring things out for herself.

The tradition of Christmas may be a little different next year, but it looks like even his youngest daughter wants to still participate in the holiday fun. In McGowan’s words, “all the fun, all the family stuff, the presents, the yummy food, the lights and music and doing nice things for other people — we still get to have ALL of that. But now you know where it all really comes from.”

By allowing our children to participate in the Santa myth and find their own way out of it through skeptical inquiry, we give them a priceless opportunity to see a mass cultural illusion first from the inside, then from the outside.

Joseph Campbell explains a similar but more confrontational ritual that came about partly from our long years of mythological consciousness:

The young person becomes a responsible member of the community by facing up to the greatest fear and the possibility of loss, and then adopting the constructed masks themselves.

My niece has figured out “the truth” about the Easter Bunny. She is reluctant to say anything out loud, but this year she was insistent about asking her mom if she could “help with the eggs.” Her desire is not to run to her younger brother and tell him. He is still quite young and would not likely understand. Instead, she wants to take part in the ritual, but with the added responsibility and duties of the adults.

Something often shared amongst ministers is the serious joke: “No one should get through seminary believing in God.” It’s a comment about how the simple, or in Campbell’s words, infantile understanding of the world can’t survive direct and bare exposure to the frightening reality and complexity of “the truth.” And in fighting with that Mask of God in that academic environment, they are supposedly becoming worthy of the masks themselves, responsible enough to wear a constructed mask and bring their congregations to that wrestling match with God.

Here’s my question – kids come to understand “the truth” about Santa and the Easter Bunny realtively early. Often enough the reaction is to adopt or participate in the adult’s side of the ritual. And often enough, the family tradition adapts to fit the new situation, the now-shared information. Entrance to seminary or college usually takes place in the late teens or in full adulthood. But isn’t it really the same ritual, just dressed up in a different aesthetic?

And if that’s the case, then what does this mean for “belief”?

The most important thing in all these traditions seems to be the moment the mask comes off. Could this ritual not be adopted once again? Or is it?

What do you think?

Final word from Dale McGowan this time:

“I wouldn’t have mythed it for the world.”

 

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A Brief History of Motivation, and Possibly, God

February 2nd, 2012   by   Andrew

Part of the series God: from Magic to Motivation

The word motivation appeared in written form in 1873, the same year Winchester made a rifle that was later given the nickname “The Gun that Won the West.” There was also a financial panic in that year followed by a depression. Banks failed, then businesses. People were under the illusion that things were fine until they had to face how fragile reality can be.

Motive is a bit older. It was part of Middle-English in the 1300s for that which moves a person to behave a certain way.

The Latin word motivus is usually cited as the most likely source, and it dates back even further. It generally is used to mean the same thing – what makes you do something or makes you move.

Technically speaking, the word God that we use today in the west never appeared in the original religious texts, of course. It’s an English word with roots in other languages, and in ancient ways of thinking.

According to some sources, the roots of our word God, and the words used in the ancient texts, could be from the Sanskrit hu or hamu, which meant to call upon, or to invoke,  to implore. In other words, inspire action.

The word might have had some help from the ancient Persian Khoda, or possibly the Hindu khooda, which meant God. Khoda may be from the older Ahura, or Ahura Mazda, meaning Wise/Great Lord.

Some sources suggest the word Elohim may have come from something with the original meaning of power. I’m going to cherry pick with this next one, but YHWH might have a subtle enough nuance to it to mean something like an action that intimately reveals the nature of the one who is doing the acting.

Roughly then, we are talking about what has power over you, the “thing” that makes you do something, the action that reveals intention.

This isn’t very thorough research. I don’t know Sanskrit or any ancient language. I haven’t found anything yet in the ancient languages that comes closer to our present-day definition and use of motivation. Three hours of playing around with a search engine and cross-checking a few different sources. Maybe I found what I was looking for, a common problem in religion, language, research and information.

I wonder what our world would be like if Elohim and YHWH weren’t translated into Dios or Jove, but instead Motivus. Would the world be any different now?

I have so much to learn.

If motivus (what makes you act) could be the more common understanding for what we mean by a god (what has implications for your behaviour), maybe we could strip our ideas of (most of) the supernatural elements usually associated with the word. We could strip the assumption of authority that we give to our motivations. We could face up to, wrestle with, and even manage what really motivates us collectively and individually.

A fellow blogger uses the title Questionable Motives for his site. He is driven by gnu atheism and the desire to change people’s minds before we take the world over a brink from which we can’t return.

Samir Selmanovic has referred to religions as “God-management systems” (two posts where I use this phrase and comment). I’ve heard some people refer to their religion as a “movement” rather than a belief-system. Maybe it’s time to question what moves us, and practice personal motivation management. It might have helped avoid the international economic collapse of just a few years ago.

Instead of giving motives any authority, shouldn’t we constantly, consciously question motives – both our own and those of other people?

What do you think?

What's my motivation?

- – -

I’d like to dig a little more and see if the hu in Sanskrit is related somehow to the hu in Ahura.

Sources and further links:

Dictionary.com

a brief etymology of the word God, and summaries from several sources.

a slightly more thorough etymology from a more evangelical site (citing the further source the Catholic Encyclopedia, like the above site).

A fun English/Sanskrit translator

Some notes on the Hebrew and some other notes too

Wiki for Elohim

Wiki for YHWH

A look at motivation in psychological terms

some more fun motivation posters on guns

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God: From Magic to Motivation

January 8th, 2012   by   Andrew

I have a new series of posts in mind.

Nassim Taleb gave some advice to a friend. I am borrowing that advice. He recommended reading Karen Armstrong’s A History of God. (I am also borrowing the actual book; my parents had a copy. Thanks again.)

She understands that religion is mostly an emotional-aesthetic commitment and one that is shared with other people; it becomes a collective commitment. It is not about belief, but about trust. It is not a desire to be fooled by randomness by seeing false patterns (or, as she explains in her Great Transformation, it ceased to be so at some point in the sixth century BC). I am ashamed to say that I was initially reluctant to start reading it because she was not an academic/dropped out of an academic program –not realizing that it is precisely because she is not an academic that there is no single fake bone in her work. I felt guilty and silly at my neglect: the book had been staring at me since 1994. And there is this nagging feeling: How many other people have I ignored based on the same idiotic criterion? (source, #81)

From the jacket of her book:

Any particular idea of God must – if it is to survive – work for the people who develop it. Ideas of God change when they cease to be effective. The concept of a personal God who behaves like a larger version of ourselves was suited to mankind at a certain stage but no longer works for an increasing number of people. Understanding the ever-changing ideas of God in the past and their relevance and usefulness in their time is a way to begin the search for a new concept for the twenty-first century. Such a development is virtually inevitable, because it is a natural aspect of our humanity to seek a symbol for the ineffable reality that is universally perceived.

I think this new concept of God doesn’t need to rely on superstition or on the supernatural. I don’t even think this symbol, however we point at it, needs to be given agency or authority. And if we do it right, I think we will be able to test it.

It’s actually an old concept, something we’ve been wrestling with since we’ve become conscious of our motivations.

Here are some ideas and titles I’m working on:

God: From Magic to Motivation

My Recent Empathy Fail

Stigma and Introspection

A Brief History of God, and Possibly, Motivation – a look at words and meaning

Religion as (Cultural) Redundancy, and all the more important because of it!
Part 1 – Multiple Conservatives, the Dangers of Optimizing
Part 2 – Separating Church and State, Separating Hero and Nanny

Burqa, Panentheism, Responsibility – an examination of what has implications for our behaviour

Can we Do without Religon? – a look at a Jared Diamond talk

The Myth of Violence - TED talk with Steven Pinker

Wikipedia Shuts Down their English Site, and Vain Denials of the New Reality

Karen Armstrongs Elusive, Stubborn Meme – Three ideas from the book A History of God

Obfuscation

Implications, Relationships, Symbolism

Marvin the Android (from the HHGtotheG), and Being Smart Enough to Pick your Programming

Myth as Reinforcing Critical Thinking – Inspired by Dale McGowan’s family and Santa Claus

William Lane Craig Confirms My God

Science as an Emotional-Aesthetic Commitment
Part 1 – Rationalism as Religion – first thoughts
Par 2 – The Tenets of Rationalism: At First Glimpse
Part 3 – The Narrative Fallacy Revisited 

Skepticism and Associated Learning – a look at how we manage Patternicity

The Myth of Growth – The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function

Ultimate Complexity and Cultural Regeneration – I’ve been Reading Shantaram

Texting, the Literal Written Word, RElationships, “Pron”

Efficient Signalling
Part 1 – Shantaram and Indian Head Wiggles
Part 2 – Signalling as Expressing Motivation, and the Role of Story

The Deadau5 lesson on Religion’s Future

A New Ataraxia  - the inner peace from the skeptical suspension of belief and disbelief, or, not filling holes with ideas just to say the holes are filled.

What do you think?

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(Note: I think I’m developing a potentially unhealthy bro-crush for Nassim Taleb. I want to write a song based on his ideas. Do you know the song “Synchronicity” by The Police? I want to find a karaoke version and put over-top of it a tongue-in-cheek ditty called “Platonicity”  or maybe “Patternicity”… any ideas or help with lines would be appreciated…)

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Hesitation Part 3: Futilitarianism

November 10th, 2011   by   Andrew

Part 3 of Chapter 19 of the series Myths & Dragons

I started to question the idea of heaven when I was a teenager. I couldn’t figure out God’s need to reward or punish human beings. It wasn’t so much about proving the existence or non-existence of places like heaven or hell for me, or locating them on some cosmological, metaphysical map. I just strongly believed my motivation shouldn’t be influenced by personal reward, even if eternity was at stake. I got it into my head somehow that if I was to do something, or if I was to be a good person, it had to be for reasons other than getting personally rewarded for it in the end. Someone or something else should benefit from my actions, not me. It should be right, rather than just have a good pay-off.

So, I put aside my boarding pass to paradise (or got off the commuter lane to the City of God…  or jumped ship before the iceberg jubilee…  or threw away my invitation to the naked emperor’s throne room…)

It probably wasn’t that hard to sacrifice since it seemed highly unlikely there was a real heaven anyway. But still, shrugging off a major motivating factor like eternity can play with a teenager’s head. (Apparently, teenagers have some strange wiring when it comes to long-term planning and risk-taking anyway.)

Not long after, God went too. If God was so ineffable (and don’t even try to ‘eff’ God with words or idols), then maybe I should try to find a better reason to do what’s right than “Someone is watching you, ” or “He wants it that way.”

It all just didn’t seem like it was worthy of my time.

I’m not that altruistic, really. Apparently altruism isn’t as transparent or selfless as we might wish, anyway.  I admit I’m not that interested in having it all figured out, either.  I’m just playing that same game as everyone else (I don’t know if being judgmental or hypocritical are avoidable in life, really). When it comes to worldviews,  My God has to make sense to me or fit with my reality. Otherwise, I won’t dance for it (or get on board).

I never did find a good reason to do what’s right that stood up to any serious scrutiny.

My teenage brain didn’t see all the consequences of that decision to examine and dismantle those protective, cultural walls surrounding me. Not only have I doubted the existence of gods, but I’ve doubted a good number of my own motivations for doing anything. I once believed in charity, but I’ve become very hesitant and even critical about the work of some social organizations and social programs. Good attempts at heartfelt giving might go a long way, but I no longer think they pave the road to a culture of responsibility (a running theme of this series). I can appreciate the intention of social charities, but I’m finding the effectiveness and direction are often highly questionable.

Hesitation has reared its hydra-like heads once again.

By finding fault with the god of my teenage years, finding that god not worthy of worship, I started a long process of undermining my motivations for pretty much everything.

Of what value is the effort if you even doubt your own ability to evaluate the outcomes?

Imagine my surprise when I took up teaching, and came under the influence of a good old classic Behaviorist. I worked for a man with a mission – to save the education system from itself. His philosophy was based on four pillars — precision teaching ( a measurement tool), direct instruction (a style of teaching grounded simply on model-lead-test) and behavior-mod (one of the more effective and sometimes controversial ways to get someone to change, and it’s based on reward and punishment). The last, and often the biggest pillar of his philosophy, was independent practice (get to work and stay disciplined). Despite being armed with what some academic and administrative circles would call old-fashioned weapons, my old boss pushes forward.

I’m still inspired by his drive and motivation.

Imagine my further surprise to learn that gods can be dissected as the cultural embodiment of that which gives rise to motivation for behaviour.

Gods don’t have to be supernatural deities, or creators of worlds. They don’t have to be real. They are often enough made by humans beings. But they always have implications for behaviour.

In some ways, I’ve put God (if there is one) in a precarious position. Through hesitation, I’ve come to a place where I don’t know what God could offer me!

If given personal gain or something of personal value, I’d find it unworthy of worship, undercutting the motivation for altruistic and selfish behaviour. And even if given proof of a deity’s existence, that alone would still be insufficient to be worthy of worship.

A simpler way of putting this is, “I got lazy.” I’ve put myself in a precarious place of trying to find anything worth doing, anything that can stand to scrutiny, anything worth the effort. And I find myself sorely lacking. I didn’t do as much of the independent practice as I could have. And yet I am still drawn back to reward and punishment. And I’m still drawn back to eff with my God.

A futile attitude? There may be a way out. There might be a way to change.

For a god to be worthy of worship, does it need to exist? And must I understand it by the things I already know?

I don’t think it’s a necessary condition. Existence, or what’s real, may not even be relevant. I’m not even sure if I have to believe that it exists.

It might actually be more important that I believe it’s worth changing things for.

This leaves me with one worthy, but highly troubling, possibility. What if my God isn’t anything I’ve ever experienced or thought of before? What if my God isn’t something I already understand?

Even if the use of the word ‘god’ in this sense may annoy people or seem at odds with accepted definitions, I mean this quite literally.  I’m talking about that which has implications for my behaviour.

I’ve thought of creator gods, and supernatural beings and gods of sacred books all before. I’ve thought of ideologies and sciences and currencies and culturally accepted beliefs before. I’ve studied psychological theories and enlightenments and spiritual awakenings.

They haven ‘t convinced me. They don’t seem worthy.

But that might be because I need to do a little more work.

If my God isn’t anything I’ve ever experienced or thought of before, then what remains?

Maybe the greatest gift of a god isn’t its existence.

And it is our responsibility to be sure we are motivated by the most worthwhile things.

What do you think?

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Hesitation, Part 1: Witness

November 7th, 2011   by   Andrew

Part 1 of Chapter 19 of the series Myths and Dragons

Witness

Someone I know through my parents had a personal experience with God recently, and has turned evangelical. He spoke at a local church a few months ago about what brought him to his new revelations. I can’t remember the last regular church service I’ve been to, but this felt like a real opportunity to see faith in action. It might be a good story. I have been trying to keep an open mind about the existence of a god since starting this site. It’s hard to keep an open mind, though. Hesitation creeps in.

Five big personal experiences changed this man’s life. I’m probably overstepping my bounds by using his experiences in my writing, but I experienced a lot of hesitation while listening to his story. Should I talk to him about it? What’s maybe the best or most sensitive way to approach this?

He was a corrections officer, and a good one too. He could control the prisoners and restore order in emotionally-charged situations. One night he arrived at work to find part of the prison on fire. A riot had just begun. He was assigned to a vulnerable spot and was given tough orders. “You’ll be alone here most of the night. Keep your gun out. If a prisoner comes at you, shoot for the center of mass. Don’t let anyone through.” Dead or alive, the prisoners were going to stay in.

So he prepared himself to take the life of someone else for the duty of his job.

He made it through the night without having to kill anyone but that experience wouldn’t let him go. He was prepared to end someone’s life, and something about that just seemed plain wrong to him. He didn’t know how to get over that.

In less than two years after this event, he nearly lost his life on three separate occasions- twice involving vehicles and once involving the forces of nature. He really got to thinking after all that.

He started searching for something. World religions. Insightful thoughts. Whatever he could get his hands on. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he was definitely on the search. His wife came from a Wesleyan background and one night her family asked if they could pray over him. He said, “OK.”

That was the fifth experience.  Something changed. He described it by saying, “A darkness had left my body.”

He felt once again the safety and comfort he knew when he was a child. And that feeling comes back to him from time to time, even though he admits he has moments of darkness still. He’s found his God, he has committed himself to his Jesus, and he holds that “every word of the Bible is true, from Genesis to Revelation.” He’s now filled with a love that lets him know everything is going to be OK.

I practically grew up in a Christian church and somehow got to my teen years without understanding of the idea of being a witness. It was completely foreign to me. It may be that I just wasn’t paying attention, or that I’m just plain thick-headed and ignorant, but it never seemed important. I’ve never had a personal experience that shook me to my foundations and made me think, “Now I know for certain…” either.

This might explain why church just wasn’t cutting it for me in those teen years. Or now, for that matter. I mean, I didn’t experience things religiously, and I certainly didn’t seem to belong in groups that swore to be witnesses.

My religious experiences just didn’t work that way. (See this post, where I try to explain one of my few religious experiences.)

Hesitation has proven to be a dual-natured dragon in my life. Hesitation has probably stopped me from getting into a lot of life-threatening situations. It’s also stopped me from going places where courage is needed. As a result, I’ve explored things rather meekly. In a sense, hesitation has stopped me from believing anything, and it stopped me from believing that anything could be changed, or was worth the effort.

I’ve come to realize how dangerous that attitude can be.

I don’t want to judge the man’s experiences. Any judgment immediately brings with it the hypocrite label.  Just look at how much flack ‘God’ gets for all the judgments ‘he’ is given credit for. More than this though, judgment stops the story.

But… I keep thinking about this new witness.

In each of his experiences, he had to face his vulnerability and what he thought he understood to be his identity. His vulnerability and identity were then comforted. The crisis of his threatened life, and his threatened identity, was solved by what Jesus did for him, and he now wants to share that story with the world. In religious terms, I don’t know what cross this man is willing to burden himself with for others at this point, or what dragons he is willing to face.

But, he’s sure he’s on a much better path now.

Maybe that’s just how his God works.

Maybe I better not say anything.

Continued with Part 2: What the Rain Tells Me

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