Cobra and the Mongoose

[Cassia]

As an illustration of our own species' propensity for spiritual bullshit we can start with a few actual facts:
-Cobras have evolved to become venomous and it serves them well.
-Mongoose are small mammals that have evolved a resistance to cobra venom and will occasionally kill venomous snakes.

Five minutes of looking at Wiki pages yields...

In ancient Mesopotamia, mongooses were sacred to the deity Ningilin, who was conflated with Ningirima, a deity of magic who was invoked for protection against serpents. According to a Babylonian popular saying, when a mouse fled from a mongoose into a serpent's hole, it announced, "I bring you greetings from the snake-charmer!"

According to Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, Egyptians venerated native mongooses (Herpestes ichneumon) for their ability to handle venomous snakes and for their occasional diet of crocodile eggs.

The Buddhist god of wealth Vaiśravaṇa, or Dzambala for Tibetans, is frequently depicted holding a mongoose that is spitting jewels from its mouth. The Hindu god of wealth, Kubera (being the son of Vishrava ("Fame"), Kubera is also called Vaisravana), is often portrayed holding a mongoose in his left hand, hence the sight of a mongoose is considered lucky by some.

A ritual in Myanmar involves a king cobra and a female snake charmer. The charmer is a priestess who is usually tattooed with three pictograms and kisses the snake on the top of its head at the end of the ritual.

Members of the Pakokku clan tattoo themselves with ink mixed with cobra venom on their upper bodies in a weekly inoculation that potentially might protect them from the snake, though no scientific evidence supports this.

Cobra stones or pearls are believed by tantrikas to develop from the cobra's hood.

The Indian cobra has its own place in Hindu mythology as a powerful deity. The Hindu god Shiva is often depicted with a cobra called Vasuki, coiled around his neck, symbolizing his mastery over "maya" or the world-illusion. Vishnu is usually portrayed as reclining on the coiled body of Adishesha, the Preeminent Serpent, a giant snake deity with multiple cobra heads. Cobras are also worshipped during the Hindu festival of Nag Panchami and Naagula Chavithi.

I often wonder, will it ever end, or is this propensity to conceive and believe bullshit just part of us?

[SGOS]

I think it's genetic baggage that comes with our mental development.  Mental ability gives us an evolutionary advantage of reason to be sure, but it also gives us the ability to imagine, create, manipulate, and bullshit.  Evolution didn't say, "I will evolve to give humans a Vulcanlike ability to reason."  It just evolved, and along with it came a bunch of other more useless abilities to bullshit others as well as ourselves.

Evolution doesn't plan outcomes or naturally drift toward a state of perfection.  It just has to work towards survival, BUT IT DOES NOT NEED TO WORK PERFECTLY!  So it also produces the human appendix, spinal problems that don't lend themselves to standing upright, tonsils, wisdom teeth, and psychosis.  It might even be said that our ability to deceive and manipulate ourselves and others are evolutionary advantages that are useful to survival.

[Baruch]

Vulcan envy is so 60s.  By the 90s it was Data envy.  Go Borg yourselves ;-(

There are villages in india that have cobra festivals, where they capture them in a jar, bring them to the village for a day, worship them, then put them back in their jar and take them home again.  Another Indian village they just handle them as pets all the time.



Cobras are definitely one of the most beautiful snakes.  So do some people have so much White privilege that they can't accept "barbarous" tribes?  Of course this also happened in early Christianity perhaps, and still happens with rattlers in worship in Arkansas.  A lot of Christianity is derivative of India.



I don't approve of wild animals as pets, and snakes are wild animals ;-)  Unfortunately, actual snake charmers damage the snake by removing their fangs ;-(  US soldiers in Thailand during the war, would see strange things, including snake charming of dangerous snakes.  One person told me, they hit something at night, while driving a jeep in the bush.  It reached out and hit the windshield which was up.  Good thing, or it would have landed in his lap and angry.  They figured later it was an 18 foot long cobra.  While watching a show in town, a snake charmer was dancing with his snake partner, and the snake bit him on the hand.  Since "face" is important, the snake charmer continued his dance in spite of the bite. Hope he got to the hospital later that day for antivenin.

Reasonable people keep venomous creatures outside ... and in some places a pet mongoose/meer cat is handy.

[Cassia]

I think it's genetic baggage that comes with our mental development.  Mental ability gives us an evolutionary advantage of reason to be sure, but it also gives us the ability to imagine, create, manipulate, and bullshit.  Evolution didn't say, "I will evolve to give humans a Vulcanlike ability to reason."  It just evolved, and along with it came a bunch of other more useless abilities to bullshit others as well as ourselves.

Evolution doesn't plan outcomes or naturally drift toward a state of perfection.  It just has to work towards survival, BUT IT DOES NOT NEED TO WORK PERFECTLY!  So it also produces the human appendix, spinal problems that don't lend themselves to standing upright, tonsils, wisdom teeth, and psychosis.  It might even be said that our ability to deceive and manipulate ourselves and others are evolutionary advantages that are useful to survival.

This baggage may well prove to be an evolutionary mistake. Mass delusion in the face of the facts will bring the apocalypse that all those idiots are praying for. It's perfect.

[Baruch]

This baggage may well prove to be an evolutionary mistake. Mass delusion in the face of the facts will bring the apocalypse that all those idiots are praying for. It's perfect.

Apocalypse = dystopia brought about by virtue signaling liberals ;-)  So who is your messiah?  Without a messiah, you can't have a utopia.

[Cassia]

I notice a very consistent format for Wiki articles dealing with the natural sciences. The facts are laid out fairly well (the more references, the better) and then you get to the "In Popular Culture" section. That's where most of the bullshit usually lives, LOL.

I am all for imagination, fiction, intrigue, supposition, and wonder and take it as just that. I do not accept anything as knowledge unless I see a very healthy set of evidence and examine expert consensus.

A wonder such as the "largeness" of the universe is impossible for me to even comprehend. I have seen some graphics that zoom in to the smallest things we know of... and then slowly zooms out into the space between galaxies showing objects all along the way. So cool. I think that helps somewhat. I showed that video to some coworkers from India years ago. The must have been Hindus; they responded by showing me an obviously photoshopped image of some giant god bones.  Well, that works in nicely with their cobra gods. LOL.

[Baruch]

It is harder to BS the STEM.  But the Marxists are hard at work, wanting to convert all college departments to true Lysenkoism.  Don't believe your lying eyes ;-)

As for the rest of Wiki, Wiki like Facebook and Google, are CIA originated operations.  Amazon is a big CIA operation too, CIA uses the spare computer farm at Amazon for their classified work.  A certain Amazon founder also controls the Washington Post and is a rabid NWO guy.

This is why Wiki articles are not satisfactory for homework in HS or college.  You can start there, but you can't stop there.  General search thru Bing etc and intelligent curation required.  For technical work I use Wiki, Bing, YouTube college level lectures etc.

[SGOS]

This baggage may well prove to be an evolutionary mistake. Mass delusion in the face of the facts will bring the apocalypse that all those idiots are praying for. It's perfect.

The baggage may well be a mistake.  Man evolved in an environment that is different than today.  That advantage with it's baggage, may not serve us as well today in a changing environment.  Intelligence is just an anomaly, as any evolutionary trait is.  Millions of years from now, I expect life to still be here.  Whether it's still intelligent, is not something I would bet on.

[Baruch]

The baggage may well be a mistake.  Man evolved in an environment that is different than today.  That advantage with it's baggage, may not serve us as well today in a changing environment.  Intelligence is just an anomaly, as any evolutionary trait is.  Millions of years from now, I expect life to still be here.  Whether it's still intelligent, is not something I would bet on.

Hopefully under Chinese/Gates eugenics, mankind will be re-coded to match what the CCP needs.