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To: Alamo-Girl
To the contrary, I assert that the natural is part of what you would consider "supernatural" and indeed, the natural declares that God exists. For instance, that there was a beginning, that the universe is intelligible at all, the unreasonable effectiveness of math, the existence of information in the universe, that order has arisen out of chaos (the void), willfulness, autonomy, semiosis and so on.

Supernatural Of or pertaining to existence outside the natural world; not attributable to natural forces.

None of what you list above is a phenomenon.

What you are speaking to is causation. Where you have looked you have found physical causation. Science depends on physical causation to understand nature, so that is not surprising.

Forget science. I know of no phenomenon that cannot be attributed to causation by elements of the natural world. The natural world is a closed system, in as far as I can detect.

In sum, chapters 89 and 90 of Enoch are a review or preview (prophesy) of Jewish history - at about 90:9, the 'great horn' is described which is interpreted to mean Judas Maccabi (first few years of the reign of King Herod the Great 37 B.C.)

Judas Maccabeus died in 161 B.C.E.. If the 'prophesy' refers to him, it's consistent with the carbon dating of the m/s, and is hardly a prophesy.

638 posted on 12/13/2005 11:23:54 AM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: Right Wing Professor; betty boop; cornelis; hosepipe
Thank you for your reply!

The prophesy about Judas Maccabi in Enoch 90 takes the "great horn" (reign) to its end. The end of the Maccabees is in the early reign of King Herod the Great: Antigonus was defeated by Herod with the aid of the Romans, and beheaded at Antioch in 37 B.C. The chapter continues to the Messiah and on to the Messianic Kingdom, end of days and final judgment.

Enoch contains many references to Christ. Throughout Enoch, Jesus Christ is called "the Elect One". Luke 9:35 which was translated "And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, 'This is my beloved Son: hear him." actually uses the Greek phrase ho eklelegmenos - IOW, "This is my Son, the Elect One: hear him."

Some scholars believe that Enoch was disfavored by the Jews after the crucifixion because of such references, i.e. they wanted to deny Christ was the Elect One. Later Christian scholars disfavored Enoch because of its discussion of angels and demons. So it fell into obscurity for nearly two millennia. And nowadays, some new agers have picked up Enoch as well as some Jewish mysticism as a basis for their "religion". Jeepers!

As a reminder to Lurkers, the link at post 621 was to a pre-Dead Sea Scroll era translation, 1882. Only one of the five sections did not have fragments found at Qumran. The best translation since (known to me) is in Charlesworth's collection.

The natural world is a closed system, in as far as I can detect.

Indeed. But nature cannot be a closed system - particularly a geometric one - without a beginning, a cause which cannot be a physical cause but must exist and be singular and therefore transcendent to the natural or closed system or geometry.

As a side point, we cannot say something is random in the system without knowing what the system "is" - which we do not yet know.

Existence exists. God exists. Without that context, we are just blind men trying to describe an elephant.

673 posted on 12/13/2005 12:19:33 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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