Brill He who saw the abyss

An extraordinary journey through the stories of our thinking
2. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-3-7543-9283-6
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 326 Seiten

The Bible as the foundation of the Christian faith, Greek philosophy as the basis of thought, the Age of Enlightenment as the basis of scientific knowledge - the three pillars of today's view of the world. That philosophy began with the ancient Greeks is just as invented as the myth of the Sea Peoples, who ushered in the end of the Bronze Age. Nor does the story of the Flood originate from the Bible. The Age of Enlightenment not only destroyed a medieval view of the world, but at the same time created new myths that are rarely questioned even today.With a good portion of irony, the stories are scrutinised and filleted. Where they come from and since when they have been told holds the one or other surprise. We accompany the first archaeologists to Nineveh and take part in a Greek symposium with Herodotus. We meet Rousseau in Annecy and learn what 'Haute Cousine' and 'Guillotine' have in common. We attend Hegel's lectures in Berlin and accompany Wallace to Borneo. From Noah to Kant, from Uruk to Ulm, from Cinderella to flying orangutans, the stories are so numerous that one or two souvenirs are likely to remain from this journey through time.

Stefan Brill (1967) is a political scientist, economist and holds a PhD on philosophy. He was living in Central America, Europe and Asia, but now prefers to spend his time at his home in the sunny south, hoping not to lose too much money on the stock market again.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brill, Stefan

Leseproben

A walk in the park
Welcome to the famous city of Göttingen. Let's take a seat on one of the benches near by and let us enjoy a moment of silence in the warming summer sun. We are still quite undisturbed, as the new century has only just begun. The nineteenth, to remind you. Just around the corner comes a young student named Georg Grotefend, arguing with his fatherly friend Fiorillo about what has just happened in the world outside. It was the Age of Enlightenment, and people were well aware of it. For those who were not, a certain Immanuel Kant, who was known all over the place already, was blaring out from Königsberg to his listeners that they should switch on their brains for a change and free themselves from their 'self-incurred immaturity', as he called it. 'Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity', he said.
'Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's mind without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-incurred if it is not caused by lack of understanding, but by lack of determination and courage to use one's mind without being guided by another.
Sapere Aude! Have the courage to use your own mind is therefore the motto of the enlightenment'. Slowly, people began to realise why the world was the way it was. Mankind began after the Deluge, and wisdom came with the Greeks. That's how it was written, that's how it was told, and that's how it had to be. However, the world was changing rapidly. Before Georg was born, there was order. In France, the king carried his head on his shoulders and sat firmly on the throne. Louis XVI was France, France was great, and Paris was the centre of the world. Now, chaos had broken out. The king was found below the guillotine and his head in the basket in front of it. Together with his head the whole old order seemed to have fallen. Everywhere in the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations, the 'Reich', there was talk of 'citizens', of a 'nation', and of 'freedom and equality' that had come with the revolution. Many were waiting for Napoleon, who had just returned from Egypt. In the salons and at the universities there was no other topic than the French Revolution, and many wished that the Frenchman would finally come, and with him the long desired change. Georg had some serious difficulties with this kind of thinking. His sovereign was George III, King of England and Ireland, and German 'Kurfürst', the Duke and Prince-elector of Brunswick-Lunenburg. Which nation should one belong to? England used to be a dwarf, but now it was rapidly developing into a world power. George III owned colonies all over the world, from America to India. Steam engines fogged entire cities and drove the 'industrial revolution'. The economy was the hot topic on the island and new factories mushroomed everywhere. There was a huge rumble in Europe at the moment. Georg Grotefend tried to escape from all these new developments. He was interested in ancient history, a rather new topic at his University. Over the past few weeks, he had been searching through the archives of the library and found some old travel reports from the Orient. In the reports were drawings of ancient ruins, and on these ruins was an ancient script that no one had yet been able to decipher. Well, to be honest, no one was really interested in it, and no one could only imagine, that these few lines held the key to an extraordinary treasure. Absolutely no one could have foreseen that these ancient characters of a long forgotten language would soon contribute to the collapse of an entire world view. How these reports with its ancient inscriptions came into the possession of his University is again a story of coincidences. Coitus Interruptus in Arabia Some forty years ago, the above mentioned Professor Michaelis had managed to set up the first really scientific research expedition to Arabia. Actually, it was failed expedition, and the professor had not taken any further notice of the results. Now, Georg had rediscovered the report of that journey in the dusty realms of the university library. When initiating the expedition, the old professor wanted to check what was true about the stories in the Bible. He had no doubt about the Holy Scriptures, not at all. One was living in the age of enlightenment, the age of reason, and no one of sound mind doubted the Scriptures of God, the creation and the deluge. There was absolutely no reason to do so. Michaelis was rather looking for scientific evidence for the authenticity of the Bible. So, what could be more obvious than sending someone to Arabia to check the informations set out in the Scriptures? Like many of his colleagues, the professor believed that Arabia had not changed very much since biblical times. So he sat down, picked up his Bible and wrote down all the questions that seemed to be of importance. There were questions about the climate, the cities and landscapes, about the animals that were living, and the plants that could be found there. Specifically, he was interested in where the Red Sea got its colour from, whether there were flying snakes, how the manna was prepared, or whether the Arabs, like the Hottentots, lined up their oxen with their horns close together for protection against wild animals. The ideas about the Orient were, to put it mildly, still somewhat simple-minded, if not gawkish. Most likely, the professor had never left northern Europe and drew his knowledge mainly from the bible. Many of his colleagues were no different. Michaelis summarised all these important questions in a book, 'Questions for the Society of Wise Men', a veritable cabinet of delicacies. The professor asked whether toothaches were less frequent in Arabia, and what this had to do with warm coffee. Or whether 'uncircumcised' men were more often plagued by carbuncles in the warm climate of Arabia than 'circumcised' men, and what the whole thing had to do with skin colour. Of course, he was also interested in the different types of emasculation, especially whether the 'testicles were squeezed out or the rut was cut off'. Michaelis knew his Bible by heart, and there it says that: 'He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the Lord' (Deut. 23.1). He was also interested in ancient customs and was wondering, whether the despised sister-in-law was still allowed to pull off her brother-in-laws shoe and spit him in the face calling him 'the man that had his sandal pulled off'. What seems to us rather odd today was a perfectly understandable and normal question for that time. You only need to know the biblical story of Judah and Tamar, which goes as follows: Tamer had married Judah's eldest son Ger, and both seem to have lived happily together. However, they had not yet produced a male offspring when Ger suddenly suddenly died. Without a son, however, the widow was left without inheritance, so her father-in-law sent his second son Onan to take care of the matter. The two tried their very best, but whenever the time came, Onan preferred to drop the semen on the floor, says to the Bible. This first 'coitus interruptus' in worlds literature did not please the Lord at all, and so Onan had to die, too. Interestingly, however, 'onanism' today is synonymous with 'masturbation', with which the biblical Onan had nothing whatsoever to do. The 'coitus interruptus' on the other hand, to which Onan ultimately fell victim, is still considered the only permissible method of contraception in many Christian religious circles. Actually, a completely upside down interpretation of the words of the Bible, but that's the way it is with many religions. But let's go back to the story. Tamer was still without an heir and waiting for son number three to finally produce a male offspring with her. Little Shelah, that was his name, was obviously not yet ready for such experiences, and so Papa Judah soon forgot to fulfil his obligation. Obviously, Tamer was less enthusiastic about this and figured out a plan on how to get what she deserved. So she disguised herself as a prostitute by putting on a headscarf - it seems to have been that easy in those days – and this heavily masqueraded, she sat down outside the city waiting for her father-in-law. He actually came along, did not recognize her, of course, booked her for one night, paid, got her pregnant, and left satisfied the next morning. That's the way, Tamer finally got her heir, so it is written in the Bible, and that's how it had to be (Genesis 38). So far so good, but there is still the matter of the 'shoe-thing', and of course, it is also part of the Bible stories. If the brother refuses to go to bed with his sister-in-law, which may well occur in real life, then: 'his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot, and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, The house of him that had his sandal pulled off.' (Deut. 25:9-10). Wonderfully absurd things are written in the Scriptures, but let us return to our story. Equipped with a whole catalogue of such unintentionally weird questions, the expedition set out by ship from Copenhagen on 4 January 1761. It consisted of six former students from Göttingen University, among them a certain Carsten Niebuhr. The notes of this gentlemen tell us of a total fiasco of the expedition right from the beginning. Soon after the departure they were hit by strong winter storms, the...