None of the core elements of Judaism derive from Egyptian religion. (People keep trying to connect monotheism centered on Yahweh with Akhenaten's monotheism centered on the Aten, but the idea doesn't make a lot of sense when you look at it closely.)
I was not even thinking of Atenism when I wrote that. The Ten Commandments are like a slimmed-down ripoff of the Negative Confessions of Ma'at.
And then of course, the gradual evolution of Hebrew religion from polytheism -> henotheism -> monotheism is very evident in the Biblical text. So while there does not seem (at present) to be a direct descent from Atenism, a similar process took place for the Israelite creators of monotheism as it did in ancient Egypt. It's not clear who invented Atenism either, or whether it survived or changed to something else.
Alpha and Omegus, I think your pointing out the negative confessions of Ma'at a good and interesting clarification. But I am not actually surprised that there were rules of conduct and moral thought well developed before Moses. Of course Judaism and Christianity grew out of the soil of previous and surrounding cultures. Of course there was no pure link back to Adam, that is a farfetched myth held by few.
It seems that all cultures and religions have had to develop there moral ideas through experience and thought. That would be true of Catholics Protestants, Calvinists, Lutherans, Mormons and Atheists. It is a bit of a problem for each. Having a sure authority making rulings would simplify things but perhaps also allow thoughtful reflection to grow lazy dull and less aware.
I think a particular negative in Calvinist thought may in part result from desiring a complete moral rule book so the Torah is latched onto. The effort has the danger of shortcircuiting real moral reflection and human understanding allowing for moral corruption to take root in the disguise of moral reform.
The Ten Commandments are like a slimmed-down ripoff of the Negative Confessions of Ma'at.
Not really. People make this comparison because the Negative Confession's list format makes it seem vaguely similar to the Ten Commandments. But three of the commandments ("have no other gods before me", "make no graven image", and "honor the Sabbath") are completely alien to Egyptian culture; "honor thy father and mother" doesn't have a parallel in the Negative Confession; and ancient cultures pretty universally condemned murder, theft, and adultery because they made other people's lives worse.
I noticed that there was a new, gossip-intensive post on SeN that is apparently a sequel in this anti-Calvinist series of posts. I commend the Proprietor for his honesty: we’ve always known that he was two-faced when it came to complaining about criticism of his own church while simultaneously claiming that he always regards other faiths with respect. But he has always tried to conceal this fact.
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
We had a pleasant conversation about many things, not all of them doctrinal or even religious. But then our talk turned to the salvation of the unevangelized, those who never in their lifetimes heard the name of Jesus. He responded that, without accepting Jesus as Savior in this mortal life, salvation was impossible.
I asked about the fate of, say, a peasant in eighth-century China who in his lifetime never traveled more than more than fifty miles from his native village, and who never came within five hundred miles (or much more!) of a Christian. Or, given their view of the Book of Mormon, what about a Plains Indian in the Pre-Columbian New World? Well, came the answer, they’re damned. And this was all part of the sovereign design of God, predestined before the foundation of the world. I suggested that, while God seemed to favor Scots Presbyterians and the Dutch Reformed, he appeared to have given the Chinese an obviously raw deal. The wife, who had been largely silent during this part of the conversation, suggested that “maybe God hates the Chinese.” I looked to see if there was even the slightest trace of humor or irony in what she said. There wasn’t.
"Great power connected with ambition, luxury and flattery, will as readily produce a Caesar, Caligula, Nero and Domitian in America, as the same causes did in the Roman Empire." ~Cato, New York Journal
None of these claims are true, of course, since Christianity is just a mishmash of neo-Platonism with badly misinterpreted Judaism, which itself is a fusion of Egyptian religion and Canaanite paganism.
I get what you are saying here, but increasingly I think that the “just” is needlessly dismissive. After all, all culture springs from a variety of influences. Do we need to preface every description of a culture with “just”? Where would this stop?
"Great power connected with ambition, luxury and flattery, will as readily produce a Caesar, Caligula, Nero and Domitian in America, as the same causes did in the Roman Empire." ~Cato, New York Journal
Suppose we give a chatbot a bunch of old Neo-Platonic texts, and the Old Testament plus the Talmud, and ask it to merge them after garbling the Jewish parts. I bet the bot will do that job many times, each time differently, without producing anything that seems much like Christianity. Even insofar as Christianity is a mishmash of Neo-Platonism and garbled Judaism, it's one particular mish out of many possible mashes.
How important are the particular choices it made in the mashing? That's a subjective issue, I reckon. If you don't see them as at all important, then maybe "it's a mishmash of Neo-Platonism and garbled Judaism" is the only headline you need. I'd be surprised, though, if any of those A.I.-generated mishmashes will have what it would have taken to become a major world religion. History isn't a replicable experiment but I think the most plausible conclusion is that Christianity probably has some secret sauce with its burger and bun.
Suppose we give a chatbot a bunch of old Neo-Platonic texts, and the Old Testament plus the Talmud, and ask it to merge them after garbling the Jewish parts. I bet the bot will do that job many times, each time differently, without producing anything that seems much like Christianity. Even insofar as Christianity is a mishmash of Neo-Platonism and garbled Judaism, it's one particular mish out of many possible mashes.
How important are the particular choices it made in the mashing? That's a subjective issue, I reckon. If you don't see them as at all important, then maybe "it's a mishmash of Neo-Platonism and garbled Judaism" is the only headline you need. I'd be surprised, though, if any of those A.I.-generated mishmashes will have what it would have taken to become a major world religion. History isn't a replicable experiment but I think the most plausible conclusion is that Christianity probably has some secret sauce with its burger and bun.
I’d go with “contingent events and circumstances” rather than “secret sauce,” but agreed otherwise.
he/him When I go to sea, don’t fear for me. Fear for the storm.
Jessica Best, Fear for the Storm. From The Strange Case of the Starship Iris.
None of these claims are true, of course, since Christianity is just a mishmash of neo-Platonism with badly misinterpreted Judaism, which itself is a fusion of Egyptian religion and Canaanite paganism.
I get what you are saying here, but increasingly I think that the “just” is needlessly dismissive. After all, all culture springs from a variety of influences. Do we need to preface every description of a culture with “just”? Where would this stop?
I’m guessing the use of “just” is similar to how it might be used in a conversation between a creationist and a biologist. In response to a claim by the creationist about how miraculous it is that a creature fits so perfectly into the environment, the biologist might well reply “no, that’s just evolution.” That doesn’t imply that evolution is not important.
he/him When I go to sea, don’t fear for me. Fear for the storm.
Jessica Best, Fear for the Storm. From The Strange Case of the Starship Iris.
