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New Testament – human`s creation Writing It is important to understand what was the NT in the past when it was created, and finally consciously identifying its composition what it is nowadays and what is it`s role. Undoubtedly it`s a text written in such a way to perform certain function. It`s after all human`s creation. To do this one has to be aware that contemporary attitude to the written word and knowledge, is totally different from the one ages before. ‘For an ancient man fitness and courage meant power, knowledge was a power of a warlock.’ (2) pp. 155. In ancient times, writing and reading skills weren`t popular. The books were hand rewritten, consequently were expensive and unique. That`s why they were treated as valuable and the attitude was transferred on the content, author and owner, sometimes totally unjustified.. It is rightful to describe such an attitude as pious/religious. Such an attitude influenced/determined the reception, especially of those without writing and reading skills. Surely many of them couldn`t/weren`t able (weren`t brave enough) to present a critical attitude, when faced with the “holy” book and its promoters. It is commonly known that first Christians originated mainly from the poor. Nowadays the written word has gained other meaning. Written texts are commonly available, writing and reading skills are common. We live in countries where written texts are available and reading skills are something normal. Written texts are omnipresent. Even washing powders have user`s manual written on the boxes. The text has gained an informative role, and consequently it`s function is to convey a piece of information about the world. On the other hand, we demand the information to be true. Therefore, one can distinguish true and false. That`s what all of us are taught at school. We`ve been raised by school, there we got used to the fact that obligatory readings explain the complexity of the world. Mathematic, physics, historic books, studying foreign languages, learning biology, geography - everything makes us more familiar with the phenomena of the surrounding world. When we analyze the texts we become wiser. We become wiser because the texts convey true information about the world. We get used to the fact that the knowledge that we get from the texts is true. If we find a false information about the world (like in case of social science, where the economy of capitalism was mistaken with the economy of socialism) we feel cheated and are disgusted with the wickedness of counterfeiters/liars. History falsification has become a punishable act. Such a situation takes place for instance when people say about German concentration camps – it`s called Holocaust denial. Not only scientific texts should be coherent and present reliable description of the world. We look for it in journals and reports of various organizations as well. A false financial statement is the reason for accusing sb of fraud (that`s what happened in the USA recently ). A false report of any event is denied by us because it`s tendentious. Nowadays also hiding facts has become unacceptable, like in case the Kursk submarine or the gas used in the Moscow theatre. People know that clear, public information is good for them and reversely its hiding is harmful. However, this is the knowledge of contemporary people, and as you can see it`s not obvious for everyone yet. Having at disposal all the means that were not available for our ancestors, let`s get an insightful look at the NT. Let`s analyze it from the contemporary point of view with regard to out contemporary needs The text as the class of sentences. Mathematical logic. Using the mathematical language and mathematical concepts every text , regardless of the content, can be represented as a set of sentence a, b, c etc.. The ‘a’ sentence precedes sentence ‘b which consequently precedes sentence ‘c’ etc. In other words: sentence ‘b’ follows sentence ‘a’, sentence ‘c’ follows sentence ‘b’ etc. It`s written as : a->b, b->c ... etc. and is called material implication or consequence
Picture 1 shows a set of sentences where implication describes the order. In other words this type of relation is a set of all pairs (a,b)(b,c). Once the place of any two sentences is changed the relation is changed as well We colloquially say that „one thing is a result of another preceding thing” We also say that one event implies another, one statement implies another one. In the statements mentioned above, we include not only implication but cause and effect relation. The definition of implication says about reading the symbolic recording as : ‘if a ….than b’(3) p.20. We colloquially say that sentences compose logical sequence, when implication is uninterrupted in all the sentences and we do not observe any senseless statement. Lack of coherence is observed when T -> F it means when the true sentence ‘T’ precedes the false sentence ‘F’. In this case the letters T and F stands for logical value of two successive sentences of the text. ‘Implication is considered as false when its antecedent is true and consequent is false’(3) s.20. It is worth adding that the author clearly distinguishes between mathematical language sentences and colloquial language sentences, wher he doesn`t expect a clear value – either true or false. Falsity of the sentence and falsity of the text Having briefly analyzed the notion of implication, let`s try to analyze it from the perspective of logic, still comparing it with the notions from everyday language. What does it mean : ‘Implication is considered to be false’? What happens to the whole text when falsity is observed in the sequence of few sentences. Let`s remind that implication is made of all the pairs of sentences (a,b), (b,c), (c,d) .... (5) p.11 Once they are presented in that way together, we describe the order of the sentences in the whole text, in other words we determine the implication of all the sentences in the whole text. The next picture presents the sequence of sentences and their corresponding logical value.
The presented sequence of sentences (Pict.2)does not include sentences with false logic value (no false sentences) consequently implication is not false as well. Formally, the whole text is a true description, Nevertheless, true does not mean “discerning”. In everyday life we consider a text as true when it vividly describes the reality. Such a description may be vague, it doesn’t extend our knowledge of the world but still remains true. Falisity of the relation and falsity of the text Relation – it is the class/set of all pairs is false when in the sequence of sentences w observe the relation T -> F -> T. See picture 3. Precisely, we consider T -> F as false, what means that when any false information appears in the text there is no use to continue reading it, even if other (subsequent) sentences are true! In other words, if a text begins with true statement, one can always say : What I`ve read is true. When subsequent statements are true as well, one can say : What I`ve read so far is true. However, when any false statement appears in a text, one cannot say that and since all of us are interested in true statements we can`t continue reading the text. It`s useless to continue reading other parts. Such an approach to implication in my opinion is similar to logic approach (some thoughts concerning the differences between understanding implication from the perspective of logic and everyday language could be found in (7) p. 11) 
Once false relation is observed the whole text is to be regarded as false, such a situation obliges us to reject it due to safety reasons. Why safety reasons? – because when we believe false messages we may wander. It`s like trying to move on the terrain where are false and true road signs and we do not care which to choose. As far as the text is concerned, when one sentence is not a consequence of the preceding sentence and conclusion is far from the preceding content we put it aside. Everybody that is looking for the sense in messages, either spoken or written and do not perceive faith as something obligatory will give up. It is unnecessary to mention the limited precision of the language. What is false for one could be true to somebody else (most important here are authors reservations about monsemanticity of sentences uttered in everyday language pp. 20-) In everyday language monosemanticity is not very common – it`s a feature of the discourse, which is descriptive and because of lots of comparisons is ambiguous. Having in mind the above mentioned. Let`s get an insight into the New Testament.
New Testament – Gospel of Matthew This gospel starts with the genealogy of Joseph. The Gospel According to St. Matthew – at first it is unnecessary to explain the word „saint” – in Old Polish it meant “powerful” and powerful meant “don`t touch him”, “be afraid of him” what could be understood as well as “untouchable”. The similar meaning of this word is presented in (6) p.537. What is more, similar explanation could be found in (2) p.159 ( we`ll see in a while whether it is justified to call Mathew and his text like that – we don`t know anything about Matthew at the beginning. What is more it is probably a collective work. )
THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST (1) This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. ... (16) and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. ... (18) Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
Available online at: http://biblia.apologetyka.com/search This extract starts with the Genesis. At the very beginning we`ll not analyze whether it is really true. In terms of logic , the text is construed correctly. It`s a sequence of names of alleged fathers and sons. It`s impossible to check whether they really existed and were fathers and sons. We`ll focus on something else, what significantly undermines the logic of the text and consequently undermines the whole genesis as well. The Genesis takes half of the page and finally we get the information that Joseph is not the father of Jesus because: “before they came together, she was found to be pregnant”. Before she met Joseph ‘she was pregnant’. The second information contradicts that Joseph is the father of Jesus – the statement is the result of putting them in one family tree. Consequently if we agreed that the first statement is true, the second – contradictory must be false. If we consider the second statement to be true than the first one appears must be false. They are contradictory. The author(1) states :’From the first ages of Christianity, some Biblicists suffered from logical awkwardness’ p. 227. ’From the perspective of previously described mathematical language, the statement ‘logical awkwardness’ is read as false consequence. The sentence ‘before they came together, she was found to be pregnant’ is not a logical consequence of the preceding sequence of sentences . See picture 4.
Consequently since the relation applies to the whole text, we treat the whole text as false. If one episode of the Net Testament appears to be false then all the other, since are a part of the whole(a part of the whole relation) NT are false. We should stop here. Any falsification in the text disqualifies it. We`ve already explained that it`s dangerous to disregard falsity. Not logicall text that describes the world has to be rejected due to safety reasons. I dwell on it because I want to show that our intuition, if not disturbed, tells us to reject such a text because of logic and sense of danger. There are disturbances of various kind. These are: environmental pressure, obligations, fear of rejection. All such things make us turn a blind eye on logic and accept the falsity/falsehood. Therefore, mathematical language is compatible with our undisturbed intuition. The case of NT needs to be deeply analyzed because of its long history. If it is really false, the question is : Is it false by mistake or deliberately forged? And if so, than why somebody made it false and why the author was considered to be saint – powerful? to be continued 29-10-2011 A riddle It is worth to mention now the book „Homo Ludens” written by Huizingi, where the author describes the role of riddles in ancient cultures. He points out that ancient cultures were characterized by omnipresent rivalry between people. One of the common forms of rivalry was the riddle, present in religious cult (2) pp. 155, 158, religious texts, social life and the beginnings of philosophy p. 168. The author gives lots of examples and mentions religious disputes from the 16th century p. 165. He permanently notices that the riddle presents its agonizing character, it means its power to defeat the opponent. On page 161, the authors writes that answer to the riddle is like a solution, sudden release from the bondage that was put by the asker on the respondent. Therefore, as Huizingi points out the real solution immediately overpowers the asker. Pay attention to the vocabulary – ‘bondage that was put by the asker on the respondent’ and ‘the real solution immediately overpowers the asker’. Two individuals were fighting without swords, they used riddles/quizzes instead. The one that couldn`t find the answer to the riddle was defeated/beaten. In everyday language used in Poland the word ''pokonać kogoś'' (to defeat) means to defeat/beat and conquer. One can be also beaten in the sense of mind, what results in doubt, sadness or submission. In such a fight/battle, the winner gains the sense of superiority and the loser/defeated starts being submissive. Let`s call it the riddle combat – it is an example of gaining superiority by one mind over another one.
It is unnecessary to underline that this is the description of a special kind of battle/combat (riddle combat). Participation in such a battle equals mutual hostility of the participants and readiness to defeat/overpower (gotowość do pokonania) the opponent. The Polish word “pokonanie” originated from the word “konanie” (what means slow dying - agony). Therefore “pokonanie” is actually overpowering somebody at least to some degree. Riddles have always been ambiguous but at least the authors had to know the answers. According to the author, each question actually has just one answer (2) p.161. Perspicacity of the opponents mind was relentlessly tested since just a negligible trace usually led to the solution. The winner gained power and was considered to have stronger mind.
Probably all of us know the taste of disappointment when sb. conceals something important from us. We are powerless because of our unawareness. The word ‘powerless’ fully describes the act of depriving us of power. The one that had the secret knowledge had power over other people that didn`t have this knowledge and couldn`t reach for it although desired it. It`s a situation called : I know but I will not tell. We feel how strong such an attitude is. It must be a battle. Let`s imagine the situation when the battle remains undeclared. We meet a warrior in apparently every day situation and he starts talking in riddles (in an ambiguous way). From our point of view it`s an ordinary conversation or an interesting story. Just a negligible trace leads to the solution (understanding) of such an utterance and the perspicacity of our mind is being relentlessly tested. Only the asker knows the answer. We don`t strain our mind because we don`t know that we`re taking part in the battle/combat. Our opponent is satisfied because he gained superiority. In this particular situation, superiority means the fact of disinformation. Such a situation might be described as : ‘You think that you already know’. We feel how powerful such an attitude is. For sure it`s a battle/combat. The opponent goes away puffed up with pride and we remain with our unawareness. It`s important to remember that victory causes the relation of superiority and inferiority which leads to victim`s submission. This relation lasts for 11 days and then disappears. Having in mind the above mentioned let`s get back to the NT.
New Testament continuation.
Coming back to the NT, let`s have look at (1) p. 226,where the author ponders over the gospel according to St. Matthew 1:1-18 and points out that : “ The only explanation for great inconsistency in such an important matter is the fact that Evangelists` probably got lost in their relations” It was an ironical opinion of the author - Kosidowski (I believe not naivety), it`s impossible to forget about inconsistency/contradiction of 18 verses written down on one page. Every student in secondary school will get a negative mark for it. And what if they didn`t forget? And what if everything that Kosidowski describes as inconsistency is their ambition? We want the knowledge about the world to be organized, true and therefore we do not suspect any individual of contrary ambition. And now we`re back again to the problem of our perception of world and written or spoken messages. We expect they are coherent, consistent and once we find out they aren`t we think it`s by mistake. A mistake not falsification. Consequently, we have to revise the story about the riddle combat. The solution is where inconsistency (noncoherence) could be find only by a curious mind. Such inconsistency or ambiguity(which is more obvious) constitute that negligible trace which has to be left (by the asker) otherwise we can`t speak about the riddle. Falsification does not leave any trace. Counterfeiters, liars want to hide the crime therefore they obliterate the traces. Somebody who is talking in riddles leaves some traces(hints) at the same time is playing with the opponent`s weak mind and is satisfied because of the sense of superiority. That`s what distinguishes him or her from a liar.
From the very beginning, the author of such a text knows that readers will form two groups. The first group will consist of curious minds – they will reject the text because of its incoherence. It`s not a big loss for the author since he wants to reach not to individuals but to people at large. The second group will be people that will not reject the text. Their curiosity will push them further : What`s going to be then? These people are the author`s prize/prey. They didn`t stop they didn`t expect the text to be logical, they accepted noticeable falsehood as something true(‘Verily, I say unto you NT’), they showed the weakness of their minds.
The prize
How could it be that they are his prize? He didn`t declare the battle (they`re even unaware that the battle took place) and somehow he defeated them. They think that they know, since they have been misled. The forger/counterfeiter has friends and among them he is filled with victory. The forger undoubtedly has friends. If he was alone, he wouldn`t win, unable to obtain the disclosure of the victory, such as was when the battle declaration was disclosed. Then he was fighting alone. Now when they are the team the victory disclosure is not necessary. The battle is noiseless. The one with a weak mind is immersed in pseudoknowledge. Friends usually are filled with victory among themselves – exalted group.
Victory
What is a victory? It is a kind of extolling and gaining the respect among defeated (but only among them). Undoubtedly, it`s not a real respect since it`s a result of bad, unlawful trick. The described mental predominance lasts for 11 days and then the act of misleading has to be periodically repeated. That`s the reason why the NT is regularly read and participation in certain acts is demanded. That`s the only way to keep somebody being submissive.
Principles Now let`s have a look at the Principles There is no such freedom that allows the man to consider the contact with other to be a fight between two machines, two systems, and act in a way such a freedom existed.
Somewhere above us, where the wisdom lives, our behavior, attitude towards other people and thoughts are recorded. We don`t have to worry about the judgment. We have to remember about the logic of all the messages. Let`s expect them to be consistent and coherent and we`ll avoid the wicked tricks. We have to do it, otherwise we`ll blame ourselves for naivety. Naivety is not a crime but may result in certain losses. End Reading NT is like walking along the road full of traps. Authors` minds strained during writing because they wanted to create an ambiguous text full of riddles, mysteries. It`s a saint book, therefore dangerous (2)p.159. One can try to walk along this road but only being aware that will have to face with lots of traps. Surely, there are nicer activities that lead to glory – “reputation is better than best perfumes” Ekl 7.1. NT itself, appears to be a relic of the past because of its structure that was deliberately created to catch sb in a logic trap. Before it was created it was a sign of backwardness. Trying to catch sb in any trap is the worst solution for one`s existential problems. It`s like devastation of a potential valuable cooperation with another human.
Literatur: 1/ Zenon Kosidowski. Opowieści Ewangelistów. Iskry W-wa 1980 wyd. 2 2/ Johan Huizinga.Homo Ludens - zabawa jako źródło kultury. Czytelnik W-wa 1985 3/ Kazimierz Kuratowski, Andrzej Mostowski. Teoria Mnogości. PWN W-wa 1978 4/ Zenon Klemensiewicz. Historia języka polskiego. PWN W-wa 1985 T1 5/ Zdzisław Opial. Algebra wyższa. PWN w-wa 1976 wyd.9 6/ Aleksander Brueckner. Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego. Wiedza Powszechna W-wa 1974 7/ A.Mostowski. Logika Matematyczna. Monografie Matematyczne Warszawa-Wrocław 1948
Postscriptum We want democracy, because we value democracy. Democracy helps to clarity of thought. NT confusing. Let's free the people from the NT.
Wrocław Poland 2002-2011 |
