15th February 2009, 10:31 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Digitaldigging
To the various 'druid' posters. . .
Will you be pressing for the reburial of the Barbary ape skull found at Navan in Ireland? The leg bone of heidelbergensis at Boxgrove? The possible neanderthalensis remains at Pontnewydd?
Or can I assume that by 'ancestor' you refer only to sapiens sapiens, and not to the wider ape family?
I am not familiar with the Irish ancestors, that is apart from the appalling destruction of the Tara Vally Burial sites in the name of "progress"! And as far as I'm aware, as i do not speak for the initiating committee directly, It will be considered on a case by case basis, depending on whether there was reverence placed on the burial of the individual,
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Digitaldigging
When you speak of beliefs being respected are you talking about mine or yours? I'm afraid they're incompatable, so one of us is going to have to be disrespected.
I don't believe in reincarnation or the spirit - I believe in recycling of materials and energy - what use would a second hand human consciousness be to a tree or a nematode? Nature doesn't work like that.
Re-incarnation is, like most mainstream religion, merely a mechanism for elevating mankind above the system of things - dungeons and dragons by any other name. My first stop to see if any philosophy merits further consideration is to look at the chaps at the top - if the main one is wearing a silly hat, then it's just another gang.
And before anyone accuses me of living in a barren, dry universe of my own making, I think this is a wonderful place, full of magic, without having to invoke some special position for myself. If you want to see something mysterious and wonderful,look to yeast. It can change sugar into alcohol. Now that's magic.
As I have said above we are all entitled to our opinions however righteous they may be! unless you have the science to categorically dismiss the existence of "spirit" and afterlife, I would not be so dismissive to the infinite number of people who DO believe in it in one form or another throughout the world.
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Digitaldigging
As for re-burial, how about laying off the Neolithic/Bronze age for a moment, and inquiring after the Alder Hay remains - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1136723.stm
You stand a much better chance of locating remains and finding out the spiritual beliefs of the deceased here. Once you've built up a bit of credibility perhaps then you can start working back?
We do not want or need to find out the spiritual beliefs of the person through what evidence they have left, many of us are naturally attuned to them through intuitive instinct, like certain animals intuitively know the exact place and direction to migrate to for example, which has for many been lost and suppressed through indoctrination and oppression of our native forms of spirituality, through shamanic trance and vision we are able to attune ourselves once more with the ancestors from whatever period they may be from.