Does religion have practical value?

A lot of ancient literature tells the same sort of stories. There are several themes which recur everywhere which describe things which are not part of our experience: the most major of these are large-scale catastrophes such as the flood and two or three other similar events you read about in antique literature, and an antique paradigm for the use of the human brain and mind which was totally different from what we experience today.

The later item included systems for communicating with the spirit world such as prophecy and oracles, as well as several other kinds of things including whatever the "witch of Endor" was doing, and including electrostatic devices such as the "ark of the covenant" and the pyramids.

The word "pyramid" is a Greek word, the base part of which is the same "pyr" we see in 'pyrotechnics' and 'pyromaniac'. I.e. "Fire". The pyramids oritginally had smooth facing stones and golden tips which glowed permanently in the stronger antique electrostatic fields and this somehow or other facilitated communication with the spirit world.

Likewise the ark of the covenant was a primitive capacitor, or Leydon bottle, featuring an electric arc between the arms (cherubim) which is what was meant by the passages claiming that God dwells between the arms of the ark, or the story of the one guy touching the thing while it was being transported on a wagon and being instantly killed.

Now, these people were NOT a bunch of stupid rednecks worshiping an electrical spark; the static electricity was being used somehow or other to communicate with the spirit world.

The closest thing there is to these ancient religious practices in our present world is what is called EVP, or Electronic Voice Phenomena such as was shown in the recent film "White Noise". The best info site for that sort of thing is

http://www.aaevp.com

As was the case with the antique practices, static electricity is involved.

wow... this is complete crap. what "antique electrostatic field" are you talking about?

USAFHokie80 wrote:

wow... this is complete crap. what "antique electrostatic field" are you talking about?

Sorry, you're one swine I'm not casting any more pearls in front of.

pyramid.
1552 (earlier in L. form piramis, 1398), from Fr. pyramide (O.Fr. piramide, 12c.), from L. pyramides, pl. of pyramis "one of the pyramids of Egypt," from Gk. pyramis (pl. pyramides), apparently an alteration of Egyptian pimar "pyramid."

"Man, with all these atheists, evolosers, and pinko communists around here we got some ugly people walkin an drivin around, but that Oink Johnson takes the prize!!!

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What does the name pyramid actually mean?
And does the name have anything to do with the purpose?

* 1 year ago

Additional Details

1 year ago
OoOOooh, sorry all wrong. The word pyramid comes from the prefix pyr meaning "fire" and mid meaning "middle" which combine to make "fire in the middle."

The Great Pyramid, fashioned with a gold capstone, would call down that lightning from the sky and make the green electric fire, or St. Elmo's, in the center. You guys were close, though.

French pyramide ← Old French piramide ← Latin pyramis ← Greek πυραμίς, possibly from a corruption of an Ancient Egyptian phrase or expression (a tentative suggestion: pri-n-mr, "go to the pyramid?", maybe a question asked of ancient Greek tourists), OR from Ancient Egyptian Pir E Mit, "Division of Ten" or "Division of Number" or "Division of Perfection".

The Ancient Egyptian word for pyramid is mr.

Translations
ancient construction (1)

* Bosnian: piramida f.
* Danish: pyramide c.
* Dutch: pyramide f.
* Esperanto: piramido
* Finnish: pyramidi
* French: pyramide f.
* German: Pyramide f.
* Greek: πυραμίς (piraˈmis) f., πυραμίδα (piraˈmiða) f.
* Hebrew: פירמידה (he) (piramída) f.

Fire in the Middle (1978)

It is likely that few now remember the fad in the late 1970s which touted the powers of pyramidal shapes with proportions mimicking those of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Such constructions were thought to promote long life, restore sharpness in razor blades, and act as a panacea for any ailment. This documentary, apparently designed to sell pyramid-power products, prefigures the later trend of television "infomercials" which were created with a similar intent. The majority of the film is devoted to interviews, recaps of history, and various sorts of investigations. Only towards the end does it become more sales-oriented. Among those appearing are some notables from the Stanford Research Institute and a gaggle of representatives of various cults and groups from California. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Albert,
AFAIK the Greek word puramis (puramiV) designated a conical, pointed bread.
A situation similar to obelisk, from obeliskoV, "roasting spit".

JD

Albert,
I provided the parallel example of obeliskos, an example of Greek mockery, so maybe pyramis was a similar case.
Could you elaborate on your translation of the Greek word as "fire in the middle" ? pur, "fire", is obvious, but -amiV ?

JD

Janine (66.26.43.93)

JD:
Could not the observation,"Fire in the middle", have come from a centered gold or metal pyramidion glinting in the sun?

Albert (62.194.202.5)

Maybe. It seems that in early times the pyramid was covered with polished stones. The thing must have been a 'blazing sun' in the desert then.
This could also be the 'fire' in the middle of the desert (well, near the nile..). Or the top was glinting...

jd degreef (80.236.134.227)

Albert,
I'd still prefer to see whether the "fire in the middle" etymology is correct before starting to speculate !

JD

Albert (62.194.202.5)

Yes, I guess you're correct.. But where can one find out where the word 'pyramid' first appeared?

Albert

Christian Koussiounelos
New member
Username: cck97

Just to set the record straight:

The ancient Egyptian term for pyramid is "mer". The English word pyramid comes from the Greek "pyramid", plural "pyramides", a word of doubtful etymology that was thought to have been derived from the ancient Egyptian "per-em-us", a term used in a mathematical papyrus to denote the vertical height of a pyramid. A purely Greek word "pyramis" means "wheaten cake", and a vague resemblance in shape may have prompted early Greeks to use it as a facetious designation of the
celebrated Egyptian monuments.

So the origin of the term is not entirely clear (as is true of most such ancient words and concepts). Even so, it definitely appears that the Egyptian pyramids were the first to bear this name, and the geometric concept of a pyramid must have been named after these particular examples of a right square pyramid.

The meaning of the word pyramid is "fire in the middle," derived from the Latin pyra (Greek pur ), meaning fire or light. What is this fire in the middle and how is it created?

In a recent PAX Cable Television Network Special that featured Christopher Dunn, the narrator stated that the origin of the word "pyramid" was unknown. Both academic Egyptologists and I would agree this statement is incorrect, but I would strongly disagree with most Egyptologists on the true origin of the word.

The word pyramid is derived from the Greek words PYRAMIS and PYRAMIDOS. The meaning of the word Pryamis is obscure and may relate to the shape of a pyramid. The word Pyramidos has been translated as "Fire In The Middle". This meaning is very interesting and I will return to it later.

Well known American Egyptologist Mark Lehner has stated that the ancient Khemitian term for pyramid was something he calls MR.Pyramid. Lehner bases this on his translation of MR as "Place of Ascension" following his belief that pyramids were tombs for kings and where the dead king's souls "ascended". But MR, usually written as Mer, is commonly translated as beloved, as in Meriamen (Beloved of Amen, The Hidden) or Meritaten (Beloved of Aten, The Wiser). Our indigenous sources tell us Mer meant "beloved" and had nothing to do with pyramid.

My Indigenous Wisdom Keeper teacher, Abd'El Hakim Awyan, states unequivocally that the ancient Khemitians used the term PR.NTR, Per-Neter, for pyramid. Per means "house" and Neter we have discussed in the previous article. Neter has been translated by Egyptologists as "God" or "Goddess" but we reject this mistranslation. In alignment with the indigenous tradition, we use the interpretation "House of Nature, House of Energy" for Per-Neter. The temple was Per-Ba (House of the Soul) and the tomb was Per-Ka (House of the Physical Projection) according to the indigenous tradition.

With this understanding of Per-Neter as House of Nature, I state categorically that no one was ever intended to be buried in a pyramid in its original intent! Even Mark Lehner has admitted that no evidence of an original burial in any of the major Khemitian pyramids has ever been found. Also no inscriptions or reliefs either depicting or stating that any king was ever buried in a pyramid have ever been found.

One of the main purposes of the Great Per-Neter was to generate, transform, and transmit energy. The Indigenous Wisdom Keepers of Egypt have provided us a concrete paradigm to support the power plant theory of Christopher Dunn. Although Egyptologists base their pyramid-as-tomb theories on the writings of Greek historians such as Herodotus, the Greek word Pyramidos is closer to the true meaning. Indeed, if we support Dunn's ideas that the energy reactions in the Great Pyramid took place in the so-called Queen's and King's Chambers, then certainly it was Fire In The Middle.

The main structure in La Venta is a volcano-shaped pyramid over 110 feet tall.

One of the earliest pyramids known in Mesoamerica, the Great Pyramid is 110 ft (33 m) high and contains an estimated 100,000 cubic meters of earth fill. The current conical shape of the pyramid was once thought to represent nearby volcanoes or mountains, but recent work by Rebecca Gonzalez-Lauck has shown that the pyramid was in fact a rectangular pyramid with stepped sides and inset corners, and the current shape is most likely due to 2500 years of erosion.

Another important archaeological site on Cerro de la Estrella is the Aztec New Fire temple. Cerro de la Estrella was known as "Huixachtepetl" ("hill of the huisache") in Aztec times. In the Aztec calendrical renewal ceremony known as the "New fire ceremony" priests observed the heavens from this temple every 52 years to determine if the world would be destroyed by the gods or saved for another 52 years. If the world was not to be destroyed, priests carried out a sacrifice and lit a new fire which was then carried to all towns in the Aztec Empire.

The apex of the Pyramid coincides exactly with the notch on the upper part of the mountain, which lines up exactly with the Avenue. Because of this it seems that the pan-Mesoamerican belief that pyramids represent sacred mountains may have been an important factor in the planning of the ancient city.

This question is primarily aimed at atheists and other critics of religion, but I welcome the input of anyone who has something to share.

Here goes:
Does religion have any practical value?

My motivation for asking this question is that I've noticed that in most debates over religion we discuss and argue wether or not god is real, what is true, and which religion- if any, is the right one.

Lets try and not turn this into a debate on wether or not god is real. For instance, I am pretty sure that most of us agree that the ten commandments are good values to uphold. For the record, I realize that they are not exclusively christian, and that all religions have them in one form or other.