[MD] Intellect in the Bible?

[John Carl]

RMP: 'But if one studies the early books of the Bible or if one studies the
sayings of primitive tribes today, the intellectual level is conspicuously
absent. The world is ruled by Gods who follow social and biological patterns
and nothing else.' (Letter to Paul Turner)


Sorry, RMP, wrong.  But that's understandable because after all, you never
claimed to be much of a student of the bible.

When we say "bible", we mean a collection of books started by Moses.  Since
Moses started them, we ought to consider his work as sufficient to
understand the rest of what followed.  Besides, if I can establish the
Intellectuality of Moses to satisfaction, I can certainly establish that old
Greeky Paul.

Let's just start with the first thing - the fruit of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil.  Isn't that as poetical a description of man's
intellectual burden you've ever read?  I mean I'm sure nobody is naive
enough on this forum to take Moses's little story as literally true,
therefore the only possible explanation is that it has some sort of
mythopoetic meaning and the only one that makes sense to me is objectivism.
 It's virtually the one division between us and apes - they have biology, we
have biology.  They have social groups, we have social groups.  We have
intellect.... ooops..  something different about man.  SO to my mind,  if
you write a story ABOUT man's fall from primitive grace through the adoption
of Objectivism, in a form that people remember and pass on for thousands of
years - that's as intellectual as it gets if you ask me.  You're not only
"talking about", you're talking about "talking about".

Second, let's look at his encounter with this burning bush metaphor.  Naming
a god "yahwey" - a refutation of being part of objective reality, is very
intellectually significant.  Maybe the people he was describing were not
intellectually oriented (few people are)  but Moses's commentary upon those
people certainly was.

And I still disagree vehemently  that emotions are biological.

John the anarchistic