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The Book of Kells, now digitized and available online

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Re: The Book of Kells, now digitized and available online

#82
post #13

The book of Kells is gorgeous and well worth a visit. If you are in Dublin and enjoy this sort of thing, _please_ also take the very short walk over to the Chester Beatty Library ( https://chesterbeatty.ie/ ) as well. It's free and has an absolutely fantastic collection of ancient and sacred manuscripts. I was lucky enough to live across the street from it for several years and it remains one of my favourite museums…

Chester Beatty is a gem. I went into it not expecting much from "museum of books". But it's also in a way a museum of world's religions, which are tightly connected to writing and books. As an atheist who has low opinion on value of religion because of all the deaths they were and still are responsible for, it reminded me of their positive role in history. When you see all those ancient religious books you begin to q…

If you like libraries like this, and you're ever in the area, I can highly recommend the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany.

Crazy amount of incredibly rare books and manuscripts that you can actually look at. For many you will need to wear gloves and may have someone hovering over you, but it's worth it. Some absolutely mind blowing material in that library!

Re: The Book of Kells, now digitized and available online

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of logic is that? Exactly the opposite could be said as well and still hold true.

If you mean by "the opposite" that everybody believes the same thing, then theoretically yes. However, that is very unlikely and I assume there will always be people with different views/opinions. The more you put people into "separate boxes", the more you segregate them. And I agree with the previous reply that religion is one of those things that puts you in a specific box.

I think they mean that people in large groups segregate themselves into smaller ones, by whatever characteristics available. If they had the same religion they’d be separated into orthodox and progressive versions of it, or people who had come off well out of the last great flood vs people who got screwed by it. And then they’d create a religion as explanation for the flood and why it was from god/the devil.

Re: The Book of Kells, now digitized and available online

#84

The book of Kells is gorgeous and well worth a visit. If you are in Dublin and enjoy this sort of thing, _please_ also take the very short walk over to the Chester Beatty Library ( https://chesterbeatty.ie/ ) as well. It's free and has an absolutely fantastic collection of ancient and sacred manuscripts. I was lucky enough to live across the street from it for several years and it remains one of my favourite museums…

I saw it in person few months ago, and well......it's weird. The quality of the caligraphy and drawings is such that when you see it in person...it's completely underwhelming. It just looks like a very high quality print - which obviously speaks volumes about the quality of penmanship of something that is so crazy old. But the presentation room where the pages were shown magnified and the library afterwards were(to m…

I did have pretty much exactly that reaction to the Mona Lisa, yes.

Re: The Book of Kells, now digitized and available online

#85
post #72
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that religion causes more deaths than non-religion is absurd in the 21st history (hitler, Stalin, mao) and is a myth when you take in full world history. An index of all known wars in history indicated 93% of wars were not religious. https://apholt.com/2023/01/03/the-myth-of-religion-as-the-ca...

Never said that religion was responsible for all or even most wars. But you can't deny it plays negative role in many wars. It wouldn't have to be for theological reasons, since it seems the article would only count these cases as religious wars. Religion is often used to segregate humans into opposing tribes, where without religion they could be a single nation, or even same ethnicity.

It's a multiplier. The strength of faith it brings will unite people in single mindedness, for good or bad ends.

Re: The Book of Kells, now digitized and available online

#86
post #72
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that religion causes more deaths than non-religion is absurd in the 21st history (hitler, Stalin, mao) and is a myth when you take in full world history. An index of all known wars in history indicated 93% of wars were not religious. https://apholt.com/2023/01/03/the-myth-of-religion-as-the-ca...

Never said that religion was responsible for all or even most wars. But you can't deny it plays negative role in many wars. It wouldn't have to be for theological reasons, since it seems the article would only count these cases as religious wars. Religion is often used to segregate humans into opposing tribes, where without religion they could be a single nation, or even same ethnicity.

Religion as taught in schools or many (most?) churches is indeed mostly indoctrination. I've gone the full spectrum, from practicing Christian with a real fear of God as I was taught since I was a kid until 13 then atheist until 25 then slowly getting back my faith by learning a lot about it from different sources.

Now I say I'm as sure that "God" exists as I am of gravity. Too many synchronicities have happened to me for it to just be coincidence. However I still believe that church is mostly a corrupt institution with very few exceptions.

I know Jordan Peterson is a polarizing figure but his biblical lectures are very good and seem like they were created by a different person than he currently presents himself. I'd also recommend Ram Dass and especially Alan watts talks about Christianity

Re: The Book of Kells, now digitized and available online

#87
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can't copyright a scan Why not? It's derivative but it's still work.

it's a statement of fact, so we can just leave it at that. but the explanation as I understand it and I'm not a lawyer, is that scan or a facsimile is a mechanism of reproduction, and the act of reproduction doesn't give you copyright. work, derivative work, original work, demonstration of originality have all precise definitions, but in laymen terms which is also my understanding, your derivative work has to be crea…

So, if you scan it but add some clever upscaling mechanism, dynamic color curves, hyperspectral data, texture capture detailing the 3D surface, and use all that through some perceptual integration to give you a better reproduction than just a mechanical scan, you might be entitled to not have your case thrown out of court immediately.

Re: The Book of Kells, now digitized and available online

#88

The book of Kells is gorgeous and well worth a visit. If you are in Dublin and enjoy this sort of thing, _please_ also take the very short walk over to the Chester Beatty Library ( https://chesterbeatty.ie/ ) as well. It's free and has an absolutely fantastic collection of ancient and sacred manuscripts. I was lucky enough to live across the street from it for several years and it remains one of my favourite museums…

Speaking of things that are gorgeous and well worth a visit I can also strongly recommend Iona - one of the places where the Book of Kells may have been produced.

A bit out of the way and the weather isn't always perfect but on a nice day I think Iona is one of the most beautiful places in the world - and that's before considering it's remarkable history and religious significance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona

Re: The Book of Kells, now digitized and available online

#89
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are counting stone circles, it seems unfair not to count 5000 year old mounds in the US.

The Drombeg stone circle is like stone henge’s grandfather.

Dromberg looks great and Stonehenge is definitely far too crowded with tourists[0] but with respect to age Dromberg is considered to be 3000 years old [1] versus Stone henge being 5000 years old [2]

I will resist the temptation to joke about time travelling aliens

0 - Why do the tourists have so many Disney shirts, hats, and backpacks???

1 - https://www.tuatha.ie/drombeg-stone-circle/

2 - https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/...

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