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The dots were just to mark the syllable characters: the syllable an. was written with the same "star" cuneiform symbol that was also used to write the word for "god" (whether pronounced dingir in Sumerian or ilu in Akkadian) or as a "determiner" preceding the name of a god ("determiners" helped...

The phrase is actually "freedom of expression", not "communism". In general, anyone is free to express any ideas that they like. "IP" does not exist except insofar as the government creates restrictions on the general freedom to co-opt any ideas you like. The government has constitutional...

Ah! Time for me to interrupt with some linguistics nerdiness... The letter qoph is a uvular, not a velar (the uvula is further back in the mouth than the velum, almost toward the tonsils). In English if we contrast the starting sounds of king vs. queen or keen vs. cool, we can hear that the...

And so have I. Some get these inspirations more intensely than others; in my case a blazing circle of light would take over my vision, and a commanding voice would speak enigmatic words to me; I do not believe that this was very different in kind from Paul's experience. You think that certain...

Ruth, can we try to start over here? Brian locked the other as it was just turning into exchanges of anger. When I say I have no opinion about whether the "Reform Baha'i" or "Orthodox Baha'i" or "Free Baha'i" or whatever other group does or doesn't have a more faithful interpretation than the...

A friend of mine once said, "You never break old habits, really; what you do is form new habits, which don't leave you the time to fall into the old." Don't want to go to those stores anymore? Then start doing something else with your spare time: doesn't matter what, anything that you find...

Yes, I read that. I was expressing surprise that a king of that city was mentioned as early as 21st century BC (that is, just before 2000) which is centuries before I thought. It means that if the Indo-European etymology is correct (and the Wiki article notes that the Assyrians themselves...

Precisely the point. You are callous and insensitive to the pain and suffering of people who are under actual threat of imprisonment and/or death when you trivialize their persecution by playing victim and claiming that you are suffering just the same when someone calls you words that you don't...

I do not see anyone in the world supporting your peculiar notion. There is no incentive to do so. The wave of the future seems to be rather in the opposite direction, of de-criminalizing "intellectual piracy" and simply allowing anyone to copy anything they can get ahold of. Certainly China...

I didn't "agree" with you on anything: I'm an outsider who has no dog in this fight and could hardly care (if you do not read the other boards and do not know where I stand: I utterly reject the notion of "prophets" or "scriptures", considering it a blasphemous idolatry to call any human's...

You are mistaken. The Anglo-American law invented the law of patents and copyrights with the rationale that, if inventors and authors were given exclusive rights for a limited time, this would create incentive for the creation of more ideas which would then be in the public domain. There is no...

What does ehyeh asher ehyeh mean, then?

Well, except for the whole imprisonment-and-threats-of-execution part...

An old chestnut is "Where did Cain get his wife?" Answer: she was the daughter of Lilith and Steve!

Minor correction: the plural of Aramaic Ashtart, Hebrew Asherah is Ashtaroth "goddesses". I confused -oth, suffix for feminine plural, with -eth, which is "constructive case"; both suffixes replace the -t or -ah of feminine singular nominative, constructive case also involving some vowel...

Well, it is frequently hard to tell whether the name of a people, of the place they live, and of their patron deity started out referring to the people, place, or god. The center of worship of Usire "Osiris" was an Egyptian city called Busire "the place of Usire"-- but wait, does that mean "the...

This is one case where I do think the direction of borrowing FROM Iran TO the Semites looks like the best explanation. I have only seen the name as Ushas, without that -tara suffix; however, a similar suffix occurs on Eostre, Germanic goddess of dawn / spring / east (compare Greek Eos without...

No, I think Jesus was saying, IF you can handle being faithful, then get married; don't if you can't. Paul is the only saying being single is actually better: that I consider Paul's own peculiar psychological problem.