Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Thursday = Thor's day

sivers.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 196 posts

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#51

Post by huherto »

xelipe wrote: post #20
huherto wrote: post #7

Interesting. Knowing a little bit of English/Spanish you can guess the origin of most of the days of the week. * Sunday/Domingo - Sun/? * Monday/Lunes - Moon/Luna * Tuesday/Martes - ?/Mars * Wednesday/Miercoles - ?/Mercurio * Thursday/Jueves - Thor/Jupiter * Friday/Viernes - ?/Venus * Saturday/Sabado - Saturn/?

You beat me to it... I was going to mention that in Spanish, the weekdays are named after Roman gods from Latin. If you find this amazing, then you will be surprised that the month of July is named after Julius Caesar. But what I find truly amazing is that Caesar Salad is named after a guy from Tijuana!!!

ah yeah, the names of the months. September - Siete, October - Ocho, November - Nueve, December - Diez. They would match if it weren't for July and August.

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#52

Post by VictorHo »

qeorge wrote: post #3

I love that we're living in a time where it's so easy to learn. Well put, Derek. Me too.

I agree with that statement, but it does pain me that this was his big takeaway. There is no decision that is more life-impacting than belief/disbelief in a God. To see someone so quickly silenced/swayed by such simple rhetoric really illustrates how many important subjects are not getting nearly as much thought as they deserve.

We will spend months stressing about a job or a start-up, which might affect our lives for the subsequent year or two or three, and no more than a few hours here and there really digging into what evidence exists to support an atheist or religious perspective. It's a cycle that sadly continues - 200 years ago everyone was Christian so people defaulted to it. Now, the trendy thing for "intellectuals" is atheism, and so many jump in without a thought (this continues to hold for both sides, as exemplified in the article).

When deciding which direction to take with a start-up we do hours and hours of customer interviews, site visits, market research, brainstorming, reading, and even self-reflection. The same, and more, should be done for religion (e.g., check out a church, speak in a truly unbiased fashion with ardent believers and non-believers alike, grab 20 minutes of a pastors time who has probably dedicated his life to talking to people like us, etc).

There is no topic that gets less thought relative to its importance.

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#53

Post by tokipin »

Alex3917 wrote: post #19

"You and I are almost identical in our beliefs! If history has named, say, 520 gods, you don't believe in 519 of them, I don't believe in 520 of them." This argument comes from Dawkins book The God Delusion. It's clever, but also kind of dumb. Trying to discredit contemporary religion based on what people believed 2,500 years ago is like trying to discredit science based on alchemy.

i haven't ready any of dawkin's books, but it seems to me the "point" of this argument isn't a logical one. the point is to express to theists the kind of "feel" that atheists have regarding religions, namely that any specific religion is just another religion

for a theist, it may be hard to imagine not believing in their particular god. but it's easy for them to imagine not believing in those countless other gods

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#54

Post by stavrianos »

infinite8s wrote: post #27
xelipe wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You beat me to it... I was going to mention that in Spanish, the weekdays are named after Roman gods from Latin. If you find this amazing, then you will be surprised that the month of July is named after Julius Caesar. But what I find truly amazing is that Caesar Salad is named after a guy from Tijuana!!!

And August for Emperor Augustus, January for the roman god Janus (who was actually Zeus), etc

actually, Jupiter is Zeus. I don't think Janus has a counterpart.

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#55

Post by ido »

hugh3 wrote: post #24
huherto wrote: post #7

Interesting. Knowing a little bit of English/Spanish you can guess the origin of most of the days of the week. * Sunday/Domingo - Sun/? * Monday/Lunes - Moon/Luna * Tuesday/Martes - ?/Mars * Wednesday/Miercoles - ?/Mercurio * Thursday/Jueves - Thor/Jupiter * Friday/Viernes - ?/Venus * Saturday/Sabado - Saturn/?

What's really interesting is that Portugese is one of the few European languages which doesn't follow this pattern, since at some point someone decided it was heretical to name days after those silly Pagan gods. So they have: * Domingo – Sunday * Segunda-feira – Monday * Terça-feira – Tuesday * Quarta-feira – Wednesday * Quinta-feira – Thursday * Sexta-feira – Friday * Sábado – Saturday Domingo is the Day of the Lord…

    Sabado is based on sabbath
All of them except Domingo are also exactly the same in Hebrew ("first-day", "second-day", "third-day", etc).

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#56

Post by Alex3917 »

roc wrote: post #43
Alex3917 wrote: post #19

"You and I are almost identical in our beliefs! If history has named, say, 520 gods, you don't believe in 519 of them, I don't believe in 520 of them." This argument comes from Dawkins book The God Delusion. It's clever, but also kind of dumb. Trying to discredit contemporary religion based on what people believed 2,500 years ago is like trying to discredit science based on alchemy.

Are you suggesting there's a difference in the procedural, moral and/or intellectual rigor of religion 2500 years ago, as compared to today, on a scale similar to the differences between alchemy and science? or astronomy and astrology? I can't say I see differences of that magnitude. In fact, I don't see many significant differences at all . (E.g. whereas most modern religions are far less bloodthirsty than some hist…

Absolutely. Modern day religious scholars are doing things like giving people psilocybin in double blind studies to elicit primary religious experiments. (And they found that they were able to create primary religious experiences in roughly 70% of the participants.) Saying that these academic papers that are being published in the top journals in the country are the intellectual equivalent of Catholicism is ridiculous.

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#57

Post by [deleted] »

Alex3917 wrote: post #39
hugh3 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the God of existing Abrahamic religions the same dude that the ancient Hebrews were worshipping 2,500 years ago?

Yeah, but if you look at the etymology of 'religion' it just means to tie back. In other words, to reunite people with some original source of all things. My point is that if you want a contemporary account of god, ask the people working on the Hubble telescope or the folks from csp.org, not some random sect whose beliefs haven't changed in 2,500 years. To give another example, if I wanted to debunk astrology then I'…

[deleted]

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#58

Post by stavrianos »

hugh3 wrote: post #36
mkramlich wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope I believe Linus Torvalds exists even though I don't expect to have lunch with him. I have higher standards for gods. Unlike most of the planet. Unfortunately.

It still seems a little unfair. If Thor flew across the sky right now, brought thunderstorms to the desert, Mjolnir-ed the Space Needle, appeared on television shaking hands with Conan O'Brien, and rebuffed your lunch invitation on the grounds that he has a thumb-wrestling appointment with Quetzalcoatl, you still wouldn't believe in him?

a good deal of that might constitute stronger evidence than attending a lunch date, and therefore validate belief. Lunch makes a good testing bar, above which other proofs may pass.

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#59

Post by VictorHo »

roqetman wrote: post #35
Alex3917 wrote: post #19

"You and I are almost identical in our beliefs! If history has named, say, 520 gods, you don't believe in 519 of them, I don't believe in 520 of them." This argument comes from Dawkins book The God Delusion. It's clever, but also kind of dumb. Trying to discredit contemporary religion based on what people believed 2,500 years ago is like trying to discredit science based on alchemy.

That would imply that the current view of god(s) is more advanced (in a provable way) that the old view of them. To an atheist, this is nitpicking.

Many major religions are monotheistic by definition. The entire premise is that only 1 true god exists.

Saying we "agree on 519 of 520 and disagree on 1" is a non-statement. The first person's belief in that 1 by definition precludes his belief in the other 519.

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#60

Post by ErrantX »

VictorHo wrote: post #52
qeorge wrote: post #3

I love that we're living in a time where it's so easy to learn. Well put, Derek. Me too.

I agree with that statement, but it does pain me that this was his big takeaway. There is no decision that is more life-impacting than belief/disbelief in a God. To see someone so quickly silenced/swayed by such simple rhetoric really illustrates how many important subjects are not getting nearly as much thought as they deserve. We will spend months stressing about a job or a start-up, which might affect our lives fo…

There is no decision that is more life-impacting than belief/disbelief in a God.

Disagreed (and I can find you multiple believers/non-believers who will agree with me).

In many ways it's irrelevant - your life choice to make whichever way you choose (with in depth research or knee jerk reaction). There are lots of other diverting things to spend your time on.

It's a cycle that sadly continues - 200 years ago everyone was Christian so people defaulted to it. Now, the trendy thing for "intellectuals" is atheism, and so many jump in without a thought

I feel that's a bit disingenuous - 200 years ago to hold a different religious belief was risking your life.

grab 20 minutes of a pastors time who has probably dedicated his life to talking to people like us

Oh. man no. Religious organisations are designed to self propagate. A pastor is essentially a salesman for the religion. Hear what he/she has to say but treat it with a large dose of salt.

Ultimately religious belief is (or should be) an individual thing.

Post reply on HN