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Old November 11th 11, 10:10 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
oriel36[_2_]
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Default Timekeeping in Genesis

The contemporary mind has a difficult time with these mathematical
facets of certain Judaeo-Christian works and many others which
preceded them for you make sense of them in the same way you do all
artwork and music .The outwardly religious are no more likely to get
it than the non- believer yet there is always a few people where these
works find resonance.

http://books.google.ie/books?id=c4e8...page&q&f=false

It is not a matter whether the chronology in Genesis was modified
from earlier texts,the fact is that a number of things stand out.Of
the 10 Patriarchs from Adam to Noah,one stands out in terms of the
lifespan - Enoch's 365 year spell hints at the underlying structure
along with the break in the formula "then he died"

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__P7.HTM

The structure of the Genesis chronology is incredibly intricate in the
way it weaves an artificial chronology and in context of the later
works in Christianity is only surpassed by the Rosetta stone of the
genealogical structure in Matthew and another work,I have found that
these mathematical masterpieces protect the texts and stop the surface
narrative from ruining the ageless messages that these works contain
and especially that love conquers all where the great life encompasses
an individual life as long as we let it in.

The creative (and the recklessly imaginative like Newton) are drawn to
these things in a way the common mind would find hard to comprehend so
the audience for this stuff is always going to be very small even if
there is a lot of activity around guessing what numbers represent and
so on.The mathematical facets are geometrical in nature even if the
false conclusions center on gematria yet at no time have I found these
encrusted mathematical jewels in the texts to affect what is
written,they certainly make a person feel a sense of pride in their
faith by making it fuller or deeper in details and in a funny sort of
way it is more mysterious in how these things play out than any hidden
secret.How do you get anyone to appreciate the beauty in art or poetry
if they can't see it or music if they can't hear it likewise if
readers imagine Genesis to be a childish work then that is all they
are going to get,those who look a little closer will certainly find
something different.

There is nothing casual about these things and even if they are
impenetrable for those who cannot get into the flow of faith for
whatever reasons,they come with a sense of responsibility and are
almost private in nature.In some ways they can only be described in an
oblique way which makes astronomy a breeze as that involves spacial
awareness whereas the chronological structure of Genesis is more like
describing artwork in motion,you see it at a glance and then spot what
is going on-

"They are scarcely seen; they are felt rather than seen; there is the
greatest difficulty in making them felt by those who do not of
themselves perceive them. These principles are so fine and so numerous
that a very delicate and very clear sense is needed to perceive them,
and to judge rightly and justly when they are perceived, without for
the most part being able to demonstrate them in order as in
mathematics, because the principles are not known to us in the same
way, and because it would be an endless matter to undertake it. We
must see the matter at once, at one glance, and not by a process of
reasoning, at least to a certain degree. And thus it is rare that
mathematicians are intuitive and that men of intuition are
mathematicians, because mathematicians wish to treat matters of
intuition mathematically and make themselves ridiculous, wishing to
begin with definitions and then with axioms, which is not the way to
proceed in this kind of reasoning. Not that the mind does not do so,
but it does it tacitly, naturally, and without technical rules; for
the expression of it is beyond all men, and only a few can feel it."
Blaise Pascal

Before people make a casual conclusion about Genesis or any other work
of the Bible,they would do well to remember that we bring to these
things our own prejudices and strengths and far from criticizing those
who simply see nothing in Christ or Christianity or something childish
or worse,they are simply expressing the standard by which they judge
all things including scientific affairs.It is therefore not defending
Genesis for its doesn't need defending as the religious can actually
appreciate Genesis more with the availability of information today and
those facets which would have appeared less radiant a few centuries
ago now stand out clearly as mathematical masterpieces woven around a
surface narrative.