Re: RI January 2025

Paul S Person wrote:

Don wrote:
>
<snippo, I'm not sure what this was actually about>
>

Simon Magus appears in THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. He created the Gnostic
demiurge. Simon Magus' darkly evil god arguably acts as a bookend to
this story's merely dark god.

>
Per <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/demiurge>, the
Demiurge was a Platonic or a Gnostic subordinate deity. Since Plotinus
devotes an entire lecture to attacking the Gostics as misunderstanding
Platonism, I suggest that Plato invented the concept and Simon Magus
and stole it.
>
Incidentally, the volume in the collection named /Great Books of the
Western World/ devoted to Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Kepler has an essay
between Ptolemy and Copernicus which points out that, if you use the
figures given in Plato's /Timeus/, the ratios of the wanderer's
distances from the Central Fire are similar to those of the planets'
mean distances from the Sun. Suggesting that Plato had a heliocentric
view of the World.
>
As to Simon Magus, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Magus> notes
that the Early Fathers did attribute Gnosticism to him but modern
scholars are divided on whether he actually was a Gnostic or was
merely regarded as one by the Church Fathers. All of whom, since Simon
Magus and Peter the Apostle were contemporaries, were writing a
century or two after he died.
>

CITY OF GOD by St Augustine addresses Christian sanctuary. When
Christian barbarians sacked Hippo they gave quarter by designating
Christian churches as sanctuaries.

>
Huh. I thought the idea was that Christians live in the Church, the
City of God, and Pagans live in the World, the City of Man.

The Catholic Church militant also lives in the world.

Thank you for your contribution to this thread.

In regards to the points you snipped due to uncertainty; movies apply
Freudian Free Association and other psychoanalytics. [1] 5GW is a thing.
    Whig history's another thing. It posits a glorious present where
things keep getting better all the time. Tomorrow will be better than
ever.

Note.

[1] <https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueFilm/comments/t0o4n5/why_do_film_theorists_and_critics_seem_to_like/>

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's  )\._.,--....,'``.     https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /,   _.. \   _\  (`._ ,.    Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'    Make 1984 fiction again.