Replies

Where to start...

The Prometheus story is distorted to fit with your Lewis-inspired noble savage utopianism.

(As far as the myth goes, importantly 'Prometheus' means forethought, and the myth is more honestly taken, not as fodder for Lewis primitivism, as much as artful commentary on the nature of a key capacity which distinguishes humans from animals. As far as reality goes, humans invented technology, from fire to computers, on their own, quite in line with the laws of nature (and thus, nature's God). If you use religion to set up a dichotomy between Good and Technology, you are really advocating an authoritarian return to primitivism; if you mean to do that, at least be overt about it (even the relevant faction of the left is more honest about this than you are here). As far as your insinuations about people striving for absolute power over others - that is not striving for God-like power (God is, if anything, notably hands-off), but animal-like power. That's how chimps act. Don't elevate totalitarianism to divine levels when it is really the most cheap, blunt, animalistic social dynamic in existence.)

You regurgitate a factually incorrect picture of black-and-whie opposition between the ancient Hebrews and the entire rest of ancient mankind. Most every social group of the time thought that it was the best and most favored. One tribe happened to write it down. Not every tribe engaged in cannibalism and the other dark things to which you allude (although most in the area of the Hebrews did engage in human sacrifice, IIRC). Around the world, people had moral codes... some worse, some better than those of the Hebrews (ancient Egyptians, like ancient Hebrews, did not engage in cannibalism or human sacrifice, but further, they allowed women to own land (for example); and yes, both groups allowed the immoral institution of slavery). What you present on this topic is not an argument or evidence, but simply inherited ancient bigotry.

You confuse evolution with communism (which clearly does not work to allow life or human happiness to flourish, very non-mystical sorts of standards, for reasons that could be made clear with reality-based economic analysis; no mysticism needed), and you confuse it, apparently out of ignorance, with the belief that nothing of import differentiates humans with animals. (Sane monists are just as capable as dualists of noticing the fact that humans and animals are importantly different; monists just tend to be honest about what makes them notice the difference; dualists tend to revert to mysticism and dogma).

You confuse evolution with the idea that families should be disarmed to make them easy prey to criminals? You, who believe in a character who *demands* you turn the other cheek when attacked? You, who believe in a character who demands that you abandon family to follow him?

I suppose I should find this disjointed repetition of false connections satisfying, in a way. Non-pacifist Christians are like moderate Muslims. Life's only hope is that they continue to ignore the actual demands of that in which they claim to believe (cf. Tolstoy's "The Kingdom of God is Within You"), and continue instead, in ignorant defiance of their supposedly-favored text, to follow their inner moral compasses. This particular cognitive dissonance seems to be what keeps the bulk of Conservatives pro-gun and pro-military, and thus keeps us all from takeover from violent Islamofascists and the like... but I'm wary of what the latent wickedness might again spawn, as it has spawned socialism and communism and Nazism before it (ideologies as out of joint with reality as only spin-offs of mysticism can be... go trace the real roots of communism an Nazism; you'll find Hegel and other German mystics inspired by and working in the intellectual framework of... guess what?).

[As far as the myth goes, importantly 'Prometheus' means forethought, and the myth is more honestly taken, not as fodder for Lewis primitivism, as much as artful commentary on the nature of a key capacity which distinguishes humans from animals.]

This has something in common with the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. God forbids them from eating the apple but they partake anyway. They are now tainted with sin and God evicts them from paradise.

If one regards the apple as a metaphor for higher knowledge (which is lacking in mere animals) then when humanity acquires its superior intellect it now has the ability to determine right from wrong and good from evil (the ability to recognize sin).
The authors of both the Prometheus story and the Adam and Eve story are telling us that knowledge comes with a price, and that price is the responsibility to use knowledge wisely.