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First of all, the Greek religion was not based on or closely related to this at all. In fact the story of the Maccabees is about a war between them circa 150 BC. The Greeks viewed the Hebrews and the Baalites as mindless uncultured barbarians who ate their children or who would if God told them to, a tradition they viewed as alien to their humanistic ethos which also justified the imperialism of Alexander and his successors during this period which only brought culture to these benighted folk. Yeah hey, I got sent to a church school where we were taught how great all this was, how the Israelites had a contest one time with this other tribe where each sacrificed a bunch of cattle, but God only responded (with lightning?) to the Israelites giving them the signal to wipe out their opponents. Yeah and of course the one good thing that was supposedly superior to those hedonistic pagans and their multiple gods, was the monotheism of the Christians and the Jews, implying one ruler or monarchy-or the Roman emperor, is a better form of existence say than rule by council or Senate of deities. The first time I ever heard the word reactionary was in this religion class in 7th grade circa 1965 which the Anglican priest explained was what those bad communists called good god fearing people. To the extent that he referred to himself as one, he was telling the truth. Brings to mind that scene in Midnight Express, where the prisoners in the Turkish prison are forced to push a mill gear around for no purpose while chanting, Left Bad, Right Good! I was intrigued when I was in the Middle East and actually a temple to Baal from circa 200 BC partially intact, a domed structure in the sophisticated Hellenic style. Hey, from what I learned in school I expected some kind of wretched hovel. Then again the Phoenecians and the Carthaginians were supposedly into this tradition. Crucifixion was one their contributions to Roman culture. When the Romans finally wiped them out in a major act of genocide, they justified this in part on the basis of the child sacrifice they were supposedly into and the Nazis, through the likes of Julius Streicher in Der Sturmer, talked about this as well as it related to the Jews. In our 50s US world in church school, however, Abraham-as depicted by Charlton Heston-was praised for willing to sacrifice his son. Oh sure, God would never have made him do it, but Abraham mindless (call it "faith") willingness to obey such a command from a rightful ruler was considered most praiseworthy and part of what the Free World and the American Way were all about. Bakunin has an excellent screed railing against all this: God and the State. On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 2:48 PM, Tristan Sloughter <tristan.slough...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I was starting to look around for books on the creation of the Abraham myth > and the religions based on it -- like how the Greek and Canaanite religions > influenced the myths and how the Torah was pieced together by the various > authors. As well as on the Eastern religion creations, since those I know > the least about. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
