Religiosanity

In celebration of St. Francis Day (October 4th) Pastor Andrew talks about the effects monotheism and "just me and God" theology have on the environment, and calls for the return to a more animistic approach to faith.

Does number of adherents prove anything? Does popularity correlate with religious, spiritual or any truth?

Deep in the monotheism is this insecurity and need for validation through numbers.

There are religion (often tribal) which keep people out and then there are religions which try to pull people in (almost by any means) It is a distinction between mission oriented and mystery oriented religions.

Discussion about multiplicity and evolution of Creation stories in the Ancient Near East as well as in the Bible - from the Theogony through Hellenistic bureaucratic speculations of Gnostic provenience. And with our Big Bang theory, are we still explaining our newest technology to explain the bigining of the universe?

In this episode, Pastor Andrew talks about Semitic goddess Anat and her multiple roles as a warrior goddess as well as goddess of love. Some of the portions of these texts speak about divine lovemaking.

Pastor Andrew Stehlik breaks down Donald Trump's insane statement "I am the chosen one" and the equally insane and just plain idiotic claim some evangelicals have that relates Trump with King Cyrus, and he lays out the differences between the tolerant society of ancient Persia and the evangelical/Trumpian idea of America.

Pastor Andrew Stehlik talks about the effects of monotheism on society, and how the roots of those effects still permeate our faith today.

There are even some malevolent gods in the Hebrew bible! Pastor Andrew talks about some of the places where these gods, such as Reshef, have been translated out of the text.

#Asherah #Goddess, #GreatLady, #QueenofHeaven, #MotherofGods, these are all titles for Asherah, the wife of the god El.

Pastor Andrew talks about her characteristics and what remnants of her divine persona were carried into the #HebrewBible. Which leads to a conversation about the #genderofGod and divine #androgyny.

#Ugarit #Ugaritic #ANE #Semitic #Polytheism #Monotheism

In this episode, Pastor Andrew examines the sometimes confusing textual DNA of the Semitic god "El" and how he relates to biblical God, Elohim, Eloah and Allah. We continue observing the process of "monotheisation" of West Semitic religion.

The god #Baal (#Baʻal) had his name stripped from the religion of the #HebrewBible, but not many of his characteristics. They remain. In this episode Pastor Andrew talks about how multiple Gods can be detected in the roots of monotheistic religion and how understanding this and #ANE #AncientNearEast #Religion in general can make for a richer approach to life and #faith. And studying these ancient texts is a way to touch the roots of our culture and humanity and to celebrate it.