Week 3: Notes (Black Athena, Social Brain, Boyer Ch. 2, Cohn 3-5)

The Black Athena:

-Parthenon being rebuilt  

-Athens is described as the most civilized society that ever existed

-“For the People” – Image of Greece true to history? How is image of creators from Athens and Greece able to showcase racism and anti-Semitism? (1987)

-Did they rewrite history books?

-Scholars don’t care or want to focus on racism and anti-Semitism.

- The search for roots is the search for identity, and everything is mixed.

-Hardly evidence to support this claim that they were racist.

-Uses hieroglyphics and Herodotus and says its lies

-Relies on myth.

-IndoEuropean undiscovered language- classics and researches undercover texts from that time, they began to see we all have Egyptian roots

-No quote from the author of the book.

-Acroteri proves that author is lying about sources.

-Mixed with what?

-African/European genes. African are dominant, European are receptive

-Images show black Egyptians on throne.

-Cultural creativity of mixture is the modern belief system.

Human Quest: The Social Brain

-People are interested in other people.

-UTOPIA failed because people couldn’t get along.

-Social brain didn’t evolve to live in utopian, urban world, it evolved to live in a world of nature.

-Animals and humans are different, human transformed world animals just lie in it and it’s all because our brain has the ability to make connections.

-Our brains show we are interested in actions of others.

-We cannot go back to hunter/gatherer.

-Terry can’t recognize mother or famous people or even HERSELF.

-Face recognition is everything and it starts when were infants.

-Baby Boot Camp-voice, face, eyes.

-Joint attention- the way we look at things showcases inner monologue and changes in reaction

-Understanding other minds doesn’t develop until children are about 4

-Gossiping.

-Facial expressions showcase inner monologue and showcase emotions.

-Charlie and the 4 sweets.

-Autism social breakdown of mind and do not read behavior based on others thought.

-William syndrome children (opposite of autism)

-Birds have wings, we have a module for social thought.

Boyer Ch. 2:

-Exploring the idea of supernatural concepts.

-The questions are of intuition.

-Good/Bad concepts are perhaps not based on the idea of what is familiar to us.

-Maybe this is why religion is comforting to most people?

-We feel that one list is “bad” and another is “better” but how do we know?

-We have intuitions about which ones are good because they are built according to particular mental recipes.

-If we understand what these recipes are, what ingredients are put together and how they are processed, we will understand why some types of concepts are found in so many religious traditions are why others are not.

-Is religion just strangeness?

-Zygoon chart.

-Ebony Trees chart.

(examples of how we link together rational thoughts)

-Is it all just supernatural? Such notions crop up in convos all over the world. But it is different in the West than the East.

-The precise effects defined and described by intention.

-the idea of Theological correctness.

-The main idea: are Religious myths just silly tales?

-Believe what you want to believe, evidence or not.

Cohn Ch. 3

-Vedic Indians.

-Indo-Aryans vs. Iranians.

-“Land of 7 Rivers”

-Rig Veda history was written around 600 BC for the use of a sacrificial cult, content was largely based on widespread popular beliefs

-Religion, hymns, culture.

-Indra- supreme lord.

Cohn Ch. 4:

-Zoroastrians

-There are only OPINIONS on when this was achieved… not actual fact?

-Took place in what is believed to be Western Afghanistan./Kazakstan.

-Sacred Scriptures.

-Dogs were loved/wolves evil- DOGS DECODED!

-Sacrificed.

-Believed in a future prophet and savior.

Cohn Ch. 5:

-Cosmic war: conviction that a mighty power that is spiritual is locked with another power that is set on destroying life and changing the world into a rather chaotic one.

-The Avesta tells of a lesser god, Tishtrya, who fights and defeats a chaotic monster. He does not care about the Iranian people.

-Zoroaster has a tradition and includes the idea of a divine warrior in the form of a future savior…

(THIS IS A PATTERN WE ARE TENDING TO SEE)

-Apocalyptic faith.