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Book Updated and Video Done!

I am happy to say that the seventh—and hopefully final—version of Laughing At The Devil is done! And a video titled “Our Forgotten History: Science’s Religious Roots & Religion’s Scientific Studies” is also complete!

The previous iterations allowed me to go to the heart of our forgotten past, and illuminate how the Samson story astronomy untangles the lies our priests have told us for the past twenty-five hundred years.

I hope it helps us better understand our history, and build a better future!

Common Questions

As I answer questions about “The Creation of God” video in various places, I will copy the answers here, to save typing in the future. Of course, all the answers are in Laughing At The Devil, if you would like to dive to the bottom of the pool.

How do you know that the sexagesimal system came into being because of observations of Jupiter and Saturn?

This is a good question because Wikipedia currently says the system came into being through a mishmash of ‘five’ and ‘twelve.’ The problem is our intellects have gotten too excited thinking intellectual thoughts, and forgotten the humble roots our intellects grew out of. Those incorrect intellectual thoughts are reflected in the current Wikipedia article.

But there are several clues that point out the real ‘humble roots.’

The major fact indicating the sexagesimal system came from celestial observations is that to the Babylonians, Anu was represented by the number 60. Anu was their god of the sky. That is a pretty direct way of saying the number was found there.

In addition, the first use of the sexagesimal system occurred around 3200 BC. Quoting from my book,

“The French Assyriologist and Sumerologist F. Thureau-Dangin wrote about clay tablets using this system discovered in layer IV of the Uruk ruins in ancient Sumeria, dating them from 3300 to 3100 BC. The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative says the most prominent area in Uruk at that time was a precinct called the “House of Heaven.” In other words, the priests watching the sky were the active investigators of those times.”

I said the sexagesimal system comes from humble roots, and this is reflected in another quote by F. Thureau-Dangin:

…[In Sumeria] the unit of 60 has been incorporated in a system of numeration which was still in the process of formation, which had already the unit of 10, but had not yet, had never had the unit of 100. The new unit seems to have found its entrance into usage prior to the rise of the academic speculation, which intervened later, not in order to change the base, but in order to coordinate the system.

This, by itself, pretty much demolishes the idea that the sexagesimal system came about because of advanced intellectual thinking. Back then people were not sitting around pondering the advantages that combining a base 5 number system with a base 12 number system would have.

Another item indicating the sexagesimal system came into existence from observations of Saturn is that the Sumerian word for ‘sixty’ (as well as ‘one’) was geš. Back then their language was syllabic, where each syllable represented a distinct concept. (For more on this, see The Sumerian Lexicon.) The word for Saturn was ‘gena’, which incorporated the same ‘ge’. ‘gena’ also meant ‘constant, regular’, reflecting the regularity/constancy of the celestial pattern by its use in geš, as well as the regularity of Saturn’s own orbit.

And the last clue indicating the sexagesimal system came from observing the Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions is that ‘sixty’ was counted in ‘three twenties,’ directly reflecting the twenty-year/sixty-year Jupiter/Saturn conjunction sequence.

The Samson astronomy proves the priests were well aware of the sixty-year Jupiter/Saturn conjunction cycle 3,500 years ago, which leaves me with no doubt that the priests noticed this pattern around 3200 BC. Because it was ‘given to them by their god,’ so to speak, they revered the number, and because of that they used it. It was only through using it that they found out just how beneficial ‘sixty’ was! It still reverberates in our own times, on our watches, and in our angular measurement systems. But its original discovery has been hidden by the centuries, and the cleverness of our intellects!

Do you have any other proof that the Samson story was really derived from sixty-year astronomic observations, over the course of 440 years?

In addition to the thirty-three astronomic correlations in the story that mirror the celestial events step-by-step, our ancestors themselves linked Samson to ‘sixty.’ The Babylonian Talmud contains:

It has been taught: R. Simeon the Pious [about 100 AD] said: The width between Samson’s shoulders was sixty cubits, as it is said: And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders; and there is a tradition that the gates of Gaza were not less than sixty cubits [in width]…

In addition, Wikipedia currently states:

In the Talmudic period, some seem to have denied that Samson was a historical figure, regarding him instead as a purely mythological personage. This was viewed as heretical by the rabbis of the Talmud, and they attempted to refute this.

This indicates the most knowledgeable priests two-thousand years ago probably still knew about Samson’s astronomic backbone, and kept the knowledge alive with the ‘obtuse’ sixty reference. Of course, even if they did, ignorance prevailed at a later date, as is reflected by our current ignorance of the Samson astronomy, and the roots of the sexagesimal system.

The Creation of God

I am happy to say “The Creation of God” video is complete! This video outlines Israel’s early history, and the astronomic investigations of the Near-Eastern priests that came before them. Doing so opens up a greater understanding of those times, and sets up a framework to understand the astronomy that the early Israelite priests created the biblical Samson story from! Enjoy!

Relevant Or Irrelevant

I’m happy to say the 6th edition of Laughing at the Devil is complete, and available! This version presents the greater historic picture our scholars have discovered about our early Israelites, when their priests were watching the events recorded in the biblical Samson story.

A few weeks before completion I was privileged to share my work with the Relevant Or Irrelevant radio show. It was a great experience, and I had a lot of fun! Here is the radio program:

And here is the extra interview portion they only make available online:

The Biblical Samson: An Intellectual Journey

As I grew up I had to think deeply about religion and what I believed, because of Mom and Grandma’s blackmail. They both implied they would only fully love me if I returned to their faith. At one point Mom even said if I didn’t give the $10,000 the courts ultimately awarded each of us back to the cult, she would disinherit me. I kept it, and bought a computer.

I felt like the black sheep of my family, just because I couldn’t lie and say something I didn’t believe in. And yet I loved both of them. The situation sucked, so I did the best I could and held on to superficial relationships without depth. Continue reading “The Biblical Samson: An Intellectual Journey”

Growing Up

When Dad first got us back from the cult (as I wrote about in the previous entry), I believed he was Satan’s son. Mom, Grandma, and the cult members were convincing in their indoctrination, which made interactions with him awkward.

As Francie mentioned in her blog, the cult said Mom could live with Dad as ‘brother and sister’ in order to be near us, and keep us indoctrinated. During that time Mom and Grandma gave us scapulars and other items to keep us on the path to salvation. We hid some of those around Dad, in order to try to miraculously convert him. Of course he found them, leading to fights, as did Mom’s insistence on praying with us and taking us to cult outings. Continue reading “Growing Up”

My Cult Experience

When I was a child my mom ran away with my sisters and me, and took us to a fundamentalist Catholic cult. My aunt Francie was there before us, and published some of her adventures online. Her writing is clear and poignant, after overlooking the use of Comic Sans. In Trouble A-Plenty With A Mix of Fun, she brings me into the story.

Those were interesting times.

Before then, I believe my childhood was normal. Lackadaisical days down at the creek, watching the water-skeeters skit, bobbing along without a care until my rocks sent them scurrying. Continue reading “My Cult Experience”

An Overview

If this is your first time here, Welcome! I’m David, and the following blog entries shine a new light on our religious and scientific history three thousand years ago. You will understand the basis of today’s thinking much better after reading them! The best order to follow is:

My Cult Experience – An overview of what happened when my mom ran away with my sisters and me to a fundamentalist Catholic cult.

Growing Up – Shares the changes that occurred after my cult experience.

The Samson Story: An Intellectual Journey – Illuminates the groundbreaking discoveries I’ve made about the biblical Samson tale that shine a new light on our ancestors’ quest to understand God.

I hope you enjoy the journey!

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