Transcribed from Journal
Brown, late 2012.
The
explanation for the Mayan Long Count:
20
days
18
times 20 days = 360 days, one Mayan Year.
20
times that,
and
20 more times that = 144,000 days, one b’aktun, if I recall.
A
number of astronomical phenomena converge at a point in the past, roughly 3100
BC; the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic of the sun and bla de bla de
bla. The significance and reverence the Mayans gave to astronomical things led
them to peg the date as the date of creation. Close, but no cigar. Anyway,
since the Mayans liked multiples of 20 (and may have used a ‘base-20’ numbering
system, whereas ours is base-10), they invented a longer calendar for keeping
accurate track of dates over long periods of time. This was called the Long
Count. It lasted 144,000 days, as shown above. The 13th round of
that reckoning came to a close today (or started. I can’t recall). When you
understand what the Long Count is, you realize it’s just a a calendar and not a
prophecy of any sort. There’s no coincidence that the b’aktun came to a close
on the Winter Solstice, either. The
solstice is directly tied to earth’s orbit and is one of the smaller,
shorter cycles that made a circuit and converged today. The Mayans may have attributed religious beliefs to the
conclusion of b’aktuns, because they, like many other cultures, had tied their
religious beliefs to astronomical phenomena—attributed religious significance
to conspicuous mathematical relationships in nature. In this way, they were
very much like the Pythagoreans (Protagoreans?), who, though mathematically
astute (supposedly), maintained many strange rules and basically worshiped the
number 10 because 1+2+3+4 = 10 OMIGOSHITSMAGICK! Something like that.
So
the astounding irony of all this is that the guys who made fairly noteworthy
mathematical, astronomical, and engineering discoveries in earth’s past
basically wasted their potential by directing all their energy into the
babbling nonsense of false religion and foolish, vain spirituality. Much like
how the Egyptian pyramids were built to serve as the tomb for one man! At least the Great Wall of
China had a practical application. Stonehenge and Göbekli-Tepe were large stone
structures for religious ritual/festival. If you think about it, the huge Roman
temples are the same thing: huge concrete engineering feats, massive building
expenditures, all to build houses for idols built by man’s hands. What. A.
Waste. To be honest, huge Catholic Cathedrals and “evangelical” mega-churches
also fall into this category. There seems to be something innate in Man, that
he has a tendency to try to erect extravagant structures to impress weak-minded
people into becoming followers, and really, to impress himself, also—and
convince himself that his false deity must be right, because “look how cool
this is!” It’s the age-old “dick-measuring” shtick. It’s the short man
overcompensating with a big/expensive car. (Contemporarily, they even call it
“short man syndrome.”) When you have nothing truly impressive or remarkable to
be confident in, you try to hide that fact by outwardly making a show for others,
lest they see you for who you really are, and you be ashamed.
 | ||
| Flickr image |
If
this is true for individual men, why would this not be true for religions as
well? After all, religions are made by men, and their following is made up of
men. It’s the same insecurity, played out in equally sinful ways, on a much
larger scale, compounding the effect….which is what makes it so atrocious. To
borrow a phrase I heard in Halo 2, spoken by the Gravemind, “I am a monument to
all your sins.” This is what all those construction marvels are. Chichen Itza.
The Great Pyramid. The Temple of Jupiter. St. Peter’s Basilica. Notre Dame.
Angkor Wat. Taj Mahal. Vertsailles. The Masjid Al-Haram, “Dome of the Rock.”
Easter Island. Stonehenge. The Mahabodhi. The Kashi Vishwanath. The Church of the Nativity. The
Forbidden Palace. The Sistine Chapel. The Hagia Sophia. The Vatican. The Mormon
Temple. The Ka’aba. These variations on the Tower of Babel all have one thing
in common: they were either built for ONE MAN (“idolatry of self-worship”) or
they were built for the worship of a false deity (idolatry by other means).
They are the rotten fruit of thousands and millions of individual sins,
compiled and amplified, manifest in enormous man-made structures which echo
Babel, both in its form, scope, and intent: Man-made beacons of idolatry for
the glorification of man and idol. No wonder God is so furious with idols and
idol worship throughout the Old Testament: “behold, you are nothing, and your
works are less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.” (Isaiah 41:24) Good grief,
I am angered, exasperated and frustrated by this myself! How much more so the
Holy God of the universe, who has no
tolerance for sin as I do?
I’m
pleased to think that my growing hatred for idolatry is indicative of the Holy
Spirit changing and growing me spiritually, giving me new, godly desires.
Consider that the often-called “beautiful” Islamic art and architecture (the
art, mostly) is a direct result of the cultural—which because of Mohammed
became religious—aversion to depicting images of people, particularly their faces. I can’t
look at the decorative binding on a Qur’an or the superstructure of a Mosque
and think “that’s beautiful.” It’s vile to me. It’s filth. It provokes a
visceral reaction. They are emblems of evil, flagrant symbols of defiance
against the God who gave them the freedom to choose to be defiant. Every
“allahu ackbar!” is a rebellion against the Creator. Don’t tell me it just
means “God is great.” I know that. I’m not stupid. I’m also not naïve. No one
who ever said “allahu ackbar” had in mind the Suffering Servant, our
Kinsman-Redeemer, the Son of God and our Messiah, Jesus Christ. It makes me
physically ill to hear evil glorified. I can’t listen without wincing or
grimacing. It antagonizes my soul.
I
pray that this is a sign that I’m being remade into the image of Christ. That
this is not human anger, but God-given, Spirit-breathed. That I would not hate
the people, who desperately need God as do I. That my zeal would not hinder my
goal of evangelism, but that it would goad it on, and that my recognition of
the hopeless situations the idolaters are in would teach me compassion,
gentleness, patience and love.
There
is much to be angry about. But there is a wrong time, a wrong place, a wrong
target toward which to be, a wrong way, and a wrong reason to be angry.
And
the same goes for all of God’s attributes which are reflected in us. We are to
love. But many of us do not know the difference between love, pity, and liking.
And we do not express it the right way, or we are motivated to be kind and
gentle for the wrong reasons or in the wrong circumstance, and this is not true
love. More can be said on this topic. I’ve run the gamut. And look, now there’s
only 3 pages left after this one! Not that that is why I was writing. This
entry, as with all of my reflective, analytical entries, was straight from the
heart (as the saying goes).
Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces, And cast away Their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.” Psalm 2:1-6
~
Rak Chazak
No comments:
Post a Comment