# "Holy Books" the keys to long-forgotten knowledge? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 14, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710 "2011-03-14T22:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/41 "2011-03-15T00:08:42Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Read some real science books. I like things by Timothy Ferris, but there are lots of others. And Carl Sagan. I wish I’d read _The Demon Haunted World_ when I was 19. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/42 "2011-03-15T00:10:12Z")
> [@humanafterall](#): > > I have had time to read the Bible, easiest by far of all religious texts to read and understand . . . Don’t say that until you have read the [_Principia Discordia._](http://www.principiadiscordia.com/book/1.php) ---
**Author:** ![humanafterall](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/humanafterall/32/19654_2.png) [@humanafterall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humanafterall)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/43 "2011-03-15T00:16:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Don’t say that until you have read the [_Principia Discordia._](http://www.principiadiscordia.com/book/1.php) it’s words are as strange to me as the Necronomicon. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/44 "2011-03-15T00:23:08Z")
> [@humanafterall](#): > > …an admission of being a real naive 19 year old, who after reading a few articles on Wikipedia, thinks he’s an expert on a subject, goes and smarts off, and gets caught. Welcome to the SDMB! This is actually a great place for you. You have admitted that you don’t know everything–that is Step One. Stick around and learn! ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/45 "2011-03-15T00:25:00Z")
> [@humanafterall](#): > > The world will not physically end, but perhaps the world as we see and know it will end, giving way to a new era to humanity. Not the Second Coming of Jesus, but the Second Coming of Man. Do you think so? Do youthink we really could have been great people once, long ago? I may argue a point or 2, but basically you got it right. We were much better off back then, and that will be restored. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/46 "2011-03-15T00:25:15Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > Welcome to the SDMB! This is actually a great place for you. You have admitted that you don’t know everything–that is Step One. Step Two is learning to fake it. I can help you there, Potter. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/47 "2011-03-15T00:35:59Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > I may argue a point or 2, but basically you got it right. We were much better off back then, and that will be restored. There’s no question we were better off back then. Well, except perhaps for the near universal subsistence level poverty, illiteracy, slavery, superstition based healthcare, treating women as legal property, extremely high infant mortality rate, magical blessings sought with animal sacrifice, extreme xenophobia, death penalty for non-compliance with arbitrary laws, being almost completely at the mercy of every kind of disease and wild animal, backbreaking labor for not enough food, and the occasional famine and genocide. [QUOTE=Inner Stickler] That’s a pretty mouthy response to someone who is correct. [/quote] You got a pretty mouth too… ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/48 "2011-03-15T01:03:50Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > There’s no question we were better off back then. Well, except perhaps for the near universal subsistence level poverty, illiteracy, slavery, superstition based healthcare, treating women as legal property, extremely high infant mortality rate, magical blessings sought with animal sacrifice, extreme xenophobia, death penalty for non-compliance with arbitrary laws, being almost completely at the mercy of every kind of disease and wild animal, backbreaking labor for not enough food, and the occasional famine and genocide. But don’t you see? _We were closer to God!_ Tells you all you need to know about God in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![humanafterall](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/humanafterall/32/19654_2.png) [@humanafterall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humanafterall)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/49 "2011-03-15T02:12:31Z")
It contains a lot of excellent classic Lit. Authors. C.S. Lewis, William Golding, Jules Verne, Daniel DeFoe, Ernest Hemingway,Kenneth Grahme, Lyyne Ried Banks, and of course Avi. That’s just a few of them. I proudly add Clive Cussler to the list, along with Tom Clancy. Impressive, no? ---
**Author:** ![humanafterall](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/humanafterall/32/19654_2.png) [@humanafterall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humanafterall)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/50 "2011-03-15T02:16:43Z")
Since my choice of literature came into question, this thread post gives you a small peek into the contents of my bookshelf. [Mod note: merged OP from separate thread into this thread.] ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/51 "2011-03-15T02:20:17Z")
> [@humanafterall](#): > > Since my choice of literature came into question, this thread post gives you a small peek into the contents of my bookshelf. It doesn’t need a separate thread. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/52 "2011-03-15T03:19:58Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > You got a pretty mouth too… You’ve never even seen my mouth. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/53 "2011-03-15T04:25:47Z")
I actually agree with parts of the OP, but I see the Garden of Eden myth as relating to mankind’s transition from primitive _non-civilization_ to early agricultural civilization, rather than from a great civilization to a lesser civilization. I think it is very interesting that we have this myth persisting in modern religion that might have originated when people were having their second doubts about this whole “civilization” thing, because being anti-civilization is such an unpopular position today. I don’t doubt that primitive people had lots of knowledge that is basically lost today, the average domesticated person has very little knowledge of how to survive in the wild. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/54 "2011-03-15T14:23:06Z")
> [@heathen\_earthling](#): > > I actually agree with parts of the OP, but I see the Garden of Eden myth as relating to mankind’s transition from primitive _non-civilization_ to early agricultural civilization, rather than from a great civilization to a lesser civilization. . FWIW I used to view the A&E ‘society’ as a lesser one and today’s one as a greater, with the nagging question why God would want to restore us to that level. But through my life’s journey I have come to conclude that the Garden of Eden was far advanced beyond anything we have imagined. Technology that can blow Star Trek away, medical science that can totally restore anything if needed. But in this garden we would not be the ones discovering it, but the discoveries would be given to us or we would be carefully lead to discover them. We would be as children without worry or care about our needs because all of them would be met. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/55 "2011-03-15T14:50:55Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > But in this garden we would not be the ones discovering it, but the discoveries would be given to us or we would be carefully lead to discover them. We would be as children without worry or care about our needs because all of them would be met. Well, that sounds pretty horrible. Count me out. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/56 "2011-03-15T17:05:09Z")
> [@humanafterall](#): > > Alright! I’ve had enough! I yield. I happen to be a Dan Brown fan, and had read The Lost Symbol, and since a lot of the ideas, cultures, and place that appear in the novel are real, I decided to check them out. Places like the Institute of Noetic Science, The Smithsonian, CERN, The Library of Congress, and all those places. You’ve caught me. Are you happy? Well, I’m never happy to find one more person suckered in by Dan Brown’s variety of fiction, interspersed with references, (many inaccurate or invented) to lesser known events or groups, then luring in the rubes with claims that (_wink, wink, nudge, nudge_) “some of this stuff is real.” If you enjoy his style of writing, that’s fine, but he is just one more knock-off of Irving Wallace who wrote the same sort of stuff but with less pretension that he was revealing any “truths.” ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710/57 "2011-03-16T04:51:56Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > > [@Sampiro](#): > > > > You got a pretty mouth too… > > You’ve never even seen my mouth. Yes he has. He’s been stalking you. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-books-the-keys-to-long-forgotten-knowledge/574710.md?page=2)