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Author Topic:   Creation lines in the Hindu Rig Veda plus Zoroastrian texts teach evolution(?).
LamarkNewAge
Member (Idle past 738 days)
Posts: 2236
Joined: 12-22-2015


Message 1 of 7 (787360)
07-10-2016 11:38 AM


quote:
Then was neither non-existence nor existence: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
Death was not then, nor was there anything immortal: no sign was there, the Day’s and Night’s divider.
Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and formless: by the great power of Warmth was born that One.
translation from Origins of the universe - Religion and science - GCSE Religious Studies Revision - BBC Bitesize
Phat raised the issue of eastern religions like Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and their ancestor sources possibly having something to do with Biblical creation ideas.
The Hindu Rig Veda is interesting because it is of an undisputed pre-1000 BCE date.
Historians seem to see the Indian subcontinent beliefs/texts as being fairly far removed from the Middle East, for reasons I can't understand.
There seems to be a sluggishness among historians in recognizing the contributions India made to the Biblical belief system. It is a clear bias IMO. (perhaps the dearth of written records in the archaeological record might have something to do with it, plus the inability to read/decipher so much of what has been discovered)
I won't have much to say on this topic (honestly), but any thoughts?
EDIT
I found something interesting.
A Zoroastrian scientific text from around 900 C.E.
http://www.avesta.org/denkard/dk4.html#v46
See book 4 verse 46
Here is the quote
quote:
46. How is existence brought about? Just as one substance is evolved out of another according to its own laws and in the finite time (fixed for it.)
Here is the Iranica article on this text
D‘NKARD — Encyclopaedia Iranica
quote:
DNKARD (lit., Acts of the religion), written in Pahlavi, is a summary of 10th-century knowledge of the Mazdean religion; the editor, durbd mdn, entitled the final version The Dnkard of one thousand chapters.
....
Book IV is the shortest, presented as a selection of sentences from the ʾn-nma, a text dealing with customs, arts, and sciences. ...the function of created beings is defined, which provides an occasion for speculations on time, fate, and action, that is, on determination and free will, on music, and on the more abstract concepts of metaphysics. De Menasce thinks that this mixture of metaphysics and history resulted from dislocations occasioned by condensation of a more detailed work, such that the original can no longer be reconstructed.
Interesting and I wish we have more documents (for sure).
Edited by LamarkNewAge, : No reason given.
Edited by LamarkNewAge, : No reason given.

Replies to this message:
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Message 2 of 7 (787362)
07-11-2016 7:04 AM


Thread Copied from Proposed New Topics Forum

  
LamarkNewAge
Member (Idle past 738 days)
Posts: 2236
Joined: 12-22-2015


Message 3 of 7 (787412)
07-12-2016 6:56 PM


Listen to this translation of the Rig Veda creation.
This City Journal article is spirited with all sorts of good info and strange happenings.
The Indian Century?: Education, entrepreneurialism, and democratic institutions bode well for the country’s futurebut profound challenges remain. | City Journal
In it is these paragraphs
quote:
After all, India and the West have some deep cultural affinities. Remember these lines? In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. That’s the opening of Genesis, King James version. Now consider this:
"Nor Aught nor Nought existed; yon bright sky Was not, nor heaven’s broad roof outstretched above. What covered all? What sheltered? What concealed? Was it the water’s fathomless abyss?
There was not deathyet there was nought immortal, There was no confine betwixt day and night;
Who knows the secret? Who proclaimed it here, Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang?"
The 29th hymn of the tenth mandalaknown as the creation hymnfrom the Rigveda is a masterpiece of the English language. I’ve been told that this is because it is a masterpiece in the original Sanskrit. I wish I knew enough Sanskrit to be sure.Perhaps we just share an Anglophone heritage. But who knows?
I wish we all knew enough about India. We seem to have gotten much from the land and the people.
Lets hope that the economic growth happening, in what will be the world's largest nation in 10 or so years, will result in a worldwide awakening that hopefully can lead to some serious archaeological digs (funding and funding alone will bring it about) and textual research.
India will be about 18% of the world's population by around 2030. There are already 3.6 million people (as of May 2013) from India in this country, and it seems poised to be close to 4.5-5 million by 2020 (I think).
I have a strange feeling that Christians will learn a lot more about their religion from a revived India than they ever have been taught by their preachers. Light will come from the East just like the Magi (mistranslated "wise men" and popularly thought to be "THREE wise men" due to the 3 presents these - if correctly translated - "ZOROASTRIAN PRIESTS" brought) did 2000 years ago (Matthew 2), and Jesus valued light over darkness just as the Zoroastrian texts instructed.

  
LamarkNewAge
Member (Idle past 738 days)
Posts: 2236
Joined: 12-22-2015


Message 4 of 7 (787629)
07-19-2016 6:17 PM


Sumerian texts soon to be discovered?
Is there finally going to be renewed excavations (after so long)?
quote:
Sumerian city of Lagash slowly emerging from desert sands
What distinguishes the site from many others is that it extends over a large area, some 15 square miles. The city of Lagash was the political capital of the Lagash city-state. The site is considered an archaeological treasure in the Middle East.
Amer Abdul Razzaq, director of the archaeology department of Dhi Qar province and lecturer in the faculty of archaeology at Baghdad University, told Al-Monitor, Lagash is one the most important Sumerian cities in the Shinar plain in Iraq, where the first Sumerian cities emerged more than 4,000 years ago. Lagash was the most important one founded by King Ur in 1900 B.C., with its temples and palaces.
He added, The excavation works have revealed valuable artistic, literary, cultural and religious relics, most important, the mud paintings with cuneiform writings by the thinker and writer Dudu and other relics highlighting the beginning of writing and the invention of the pottery wheel and schools.
Abdul Razzaq further explained, Only 5% of the city had been excavated, as work came to a halt because of the Iraq-Iran War [1980-1988]. The last archaeological mission had been in the 1980s. At the moment, there is a French mission working in the religious center of Lagash, Girsu. Indeed, a French archaeological mission resumed excavations at the site Nov. 5, 2015. In 2013, French Ambassador Deni Gauer visited Lagash and promised that his government would support further work at the location.
Sumerian city of Lagash slowly emerging from desert sands - Al-Monitor: Independent, trusted coverage of the Middle East
This king lead a renaissance in Sumerian texts (even conducted archaeology to find older texts!) 4000 years ago.
Want to learn more from the past?
"Let the King of Lagash deal with him" (I remember the Pink Panther movie and the fictional country Lugash)
Something cool could be coming. Check out this convention.
http://www.newsworks.org/...-gather-in-philly-with-a-mission
The cuneiform scholars are buzzing again. Something is in the air for some good discoveries over the next decade.
What does this have to do with India and Iran?
Well, Elamite (in Iran) texts from 5000 years ago can't be deciphered for one and early Indus scripts (in modern day Pakistan, which was historically "India") from 5000 years ago exist too. Can't be read.
The second issue is that the ancient Sumerians could very well have come from India over 5000 years ago, but not too long before.
The third issue is that there were trade relations, to some extent, with India (for sure).
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...ry-woolley-archaeology
I predict something fruitful coming from Mesopotamia, and it might even touch on ancient Indian issues.

  
Dredge
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Posts: 2850
From: Australia
Joined: 09-06-2016


Message 5 of 7 (810241)
05-26-2017 12:14 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by LamarkNewAge
07-10-2016 11:38 AM


LamarkNewAge writes:
the contributions India made to the Biblical belief system
How do you know it wasn't the other way around - ie, the contributions the Bible made to the Indian belief system?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by LamarkNewAge, posted 07-10-2016 11:38 AM LamarkNewAge has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 6 by RAZD, posted 05-26-2017 6:13 AM Dredge has not replied
 Message 7 by LamarkNewAge, posted 05-27-2017 3:52 PM Dredge has not replied

  
RAZD
Member (Idle past 1405 days)
Posts: 20714
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Message 6 of 7 (810255)
05-26-2017 6:13 AM
Reply to: Message 5 by Dredge
05-26-2017 12:14 AM


because the egg came before the chicken.
Enjoy

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This message is a reply to:
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LamarkNewAge
Member (Idle past 738 days)
Posts: 2236
Joined: 12-22-2015


Message 7 of 7 (810302)
05-27-2017 3:52 PM
Reply to: Message 5 by Dredge
05-26-2017 12:14 AM


"How do you know it wasn't the other way around ...?
The concept of heaven and hell with the multiple levels is perhaps the strongest clue.
Hindu texts had concepts, that later were prominent in apocalyptic Judaism and Christianity, that were in the oldest Hindu texts from the start.
Consider the Yama Yima issue and the Hellhound.
Consider the multiple levels of hell
Consider the multiple heavens.
Historians say that the hellhound was a common Indo European concept, but I think the Hindus had it first then ( perhaps through the Hurrians ) took it to Greece.
Regardless, the concept ( from multiple points of entry ) made it into Judaism and especially the Book of Enoch.
Greek concepts (from India, Iran, Hurrians, etc. originally ), Iranian concepts, direct Hindu concepts made their way into 2nd Temple Judaism.
I don't see the initial Israelite beliefs having many later features such as the multiple heavens and multiple levels of hell. Infact not much evidence of the concept in a singular stage.
(just to clarify, the hellhound isn't in biblical beliefs, but the hound went to Greece along with all the other features of hell, plus hell itself, which the oldest Hindu texts have )
Edited by LamarkNewAge, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
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