What about believing in ancient wisdom? Or put another way, accepting the wisdom that has stood the test of time, still applies. There are things that are immutable truths for all ages.

To be clear, I'm talking about wisdom, not a set of rules or stories associated with any religion.

That raises the question what wisdom am I referring too? The answer to that can only be acquired by looking for it and deciding its validity oneself.

Dear Jayb,

Just a tiny correction:

<<Moses was a descendent of Joseph whose family became the Pharaohs. Ba-al literally means "Son of God">>

Moses was a descendent of Levy - Joseph's brother.
According to recent archaeological research, only the tribe of Levy left Egypt in the exodus. The other tribes, descendants of Jacob, lived in Kna'an (now Israel, for it was Jacob's other name) and never left for Egypt in the first place.

Ba-al literally means "owner"/"husband".

The golden rule was introduced to the Jews by Rabbi Hillel ("the elder" because he lived more than 100 years) which some say was Jesus' mentor. I have no idea whether Hillel got it from another source or discovered it himself.

Hippie said, "what about believing in ancient wisdom?". The problem with that is 2 words you used, "believing" and "wisdom". One person's belief can easily be another person's heresy, in other words belief without empirical proof is mere "belief". Also, one person's declared ancient "wisdom" can easily be another person's declared ancient ignorance.

People often use the word "wisdom" as a substitute for words like philosophy, belief, religion etc (when they greatly approve of the philosophy, belief, religion etc).

Yuyutsu: Ba-al literally means "owner"/"husband".

My understanding of Ancient languages after some studies of different ones. Ba/Ben = Son. Al/El = God. E.g. Al-l'ah = Great/One/Only God. Just saying, that's my understanding from Larousse's "World of Mythology" & a few other Books.

Yuyutsu: Moses was a descendent of Levy - Joseph's brother.

Yes, I had to look that one up again. Moses's full name. Ra-moses. God of the river. (found in the Bull rushes by one of the many Daughters of the Pharaoh. (convenient eh, for a child out of wedlock) Still that's what happened to Mary after Augustus raped her. Then her betrothed (Antipater) got his head chopped off by his father (Herod.) Ain't history wonderful?

Now back to the subject. Looking for the meaning of life is what started all the Worlds problems in the first place.

I don't believe there is a "Meaning to life." It just is. That's it.

No Gods, Deities. Everything around us is just a big fractal. It doesn't matter which way you go up, down, sideways, it's all the same, just bigger or smaller versions. It all comes & goes in Micro Seconds or Trillions of years to the Nth.

What humans do has nothing to do with it. We are just part of the Sauce Bottle. Sometimes we're the tomato in the sauce, sometimes the silicon in the bottle.

Dear Conservativehippie,

I think you may find this recent Pew research interesting.
http://www.pewforum.org/2014/07/16/how-religious-groups-view-one-another/pf_14-07-16_interreligiousrelations_all/

It is a table showing the different religious groups' ratings of each other taken from respondents in the US.

I'm afraid it isn't good news for the likes of our runner since his lot, the white evangelists who are so stridently pro-Israel, give Jews their highest ranking (69) while in return Jews give them the lowest (34), even behind Muslims (35) and way behind what they give atheists (55).

My take on it is the more demonstrably irrational a religious group the more those of the Jewish faith distance themselves. That is evidenced quite succinctly here on OLO posters with the stark differences between runner and Yuyutsu. Yuyutsu's logical approach to many questions can be a little disconcerting but the fundamentalist, creationist, biblical literalist rantings of runner are deemed irrational by most of us.

It should be noted that Buddhists are given the highest ranking from both Jews and Atheists.

I think the conflict you feel you observe on OLO is primarily between the two groups who give each other their lowest rankings White Evangelists rank Atheists at 25 and Atheists return the favour with a ranking of 28.

Perhaps others may have a different perspective on the figures.

May May

I wish you didn't always feel to need to argue your points based on your definitions of things.

You say >One person's belief can easily be another person's heresy, in other words belief without empirical proof is mere "belief". Also, one person's declared ancient "wisdom" can easily be another person's declared ancient ignorance. <

That's a negative possibility but there is also the chance one person's wisdom could help someone else from making a big mistake. A wise person might advise another not to stand too close to the edge of the cliff, in the knowledge the ground beneath is unstable.

From the dictionary: Wisdom (sophia) is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight with good intentions. Also - disposition to perform the action with the highest degree of adequacy under any given circumstance.

Now what's wrong with that kind of wisdom... yeah, I see it coming - good intentions. But there is in fact Good, especially coming from a place of knowledge, experience and understanding.

You are a tough nut to find a common ground with. Using your logic, how can you believe what you are saying is correct when it requires the belief you are correct... how do you know with 100% certainty that you are correct?