/lit/ - Literature

Any history book that covers the Renaissance through present day. You’ll note that all the major mile markers, the body count and blood loss gets larger and larger.

That's a fantastic recc. I must admit I prefer

What about narratives showing how corruption spreads gradually through a society, of major types, and at multiple levels of? Like the Star Wars prequels, but with more Tolstoyan detail.

>>22573731
>buddhist ruins in indonesia or somewhere being comparable to human sacrifice to baal in carthage
dumb christkek

>>22573754
Oops
I must admit I prefer bronze and ancient age aesthetics.

>>22573731
What’s fundamentally wrong with idol worship? Biblical references will be mocked (capcha: 2YKJV)

>>22573841
dont care about tranny contrarianism. fuck off and be boring somewhere else :)

>>22573869
So nothing then, eh? Figures

>>22573731
Lord of Spirits podcast is good, start with the oldest episodes. They have transcripts if you don’t listen to podcasts. They talk about OT and some apocrypha as well as other NE religions. It talks in depth about idolatrous practices, why the Israelites completely wiped out some cities but not others, etc.

>>22574155
Ooh! Very enticing, thanks anon!

>>22574217
After I posted I realized you might just want something lurid to read like some old Solomon Kane or something (just reread some recently, pulp treatment of what you are asking about), hope you like the podcast anyway.
One of their repeated points is that sexual immorality is basically a corollary of idolatry. You might like the episode where they finally talk about giants.
The idolatry they talk about is old school use of graven images to house a hypostasis of a false god, but from the fathers onward there are also lots of takes on money, worship of self, etc. being forms of idolatry. There are some de Sade threads floating around today showing how that type of idolatry leads to/justifies a lot of degeneracy.

>>22573763
Nothing to do with the sort

>>22574293
>The idolatry they talk about is old school use of graven images to house a hypostasis of a false god, but from the fathers onward there are also lots of takes on money, worship of self, etc. being forms of idolatry.
To clarify I'm interested in all kinds. But the graven images leading to degeneracy would be my starting point. I've read the bible several times, idk if there's commentary specifically for what I'm talking but, but the podcast you posted is just what I'm seeking.

How do I get into idol worship? Where do I start? Are there any books I should read? What gods do I worship?

>>22573841
>What’s fundamentally wrong with idol worship?
christians have invented an elaborate cope that non-christians who use idols for worship in fact worship the idols themselves. They do this because it reinforces the primacy of YHWH (man outside universe > object inside universe) and, relatedly, because the idea of worshipping an object is retarded on its face (anyone can just go up and smash it, something iconoclastic abrahmics did thousands of years ago, and continue to do intermittently now, because it's not actually alive, let alone a powerful deity).
Of course, the whole cope falls apart due to the fact that idols are obviously just meant to be conduits for worship of deities that also exist without the universe.

>>22574371
You should also listen to that podcast, you don’t have to fill out a captcha claiming to be Christian to access it. Who knows, you may be worshipping idols already!

>>22574388
The understanding in the ancient near east was that you could house a hypostasis of a god inside a graven image and maintain a symbiotic relationship with it. This was understood both among the Israelites and their neighbors. So not just “ha, those retards are worshipping a wooden block.”
This full context was still known at the time of second temple judaism.
The full culture around this got lost as Christianity spread from east to west. In the west there was still an understanding that pagan gods are false and created. There is also the concept that something that isn’t a graven image, or a created being standing behind it, can still take primacy in your life and steer you away from God and into unhealthy behavior.
Icon veneration provides a similar model. It’s a symbol and you venerate what stands behind the symbol.
Not all Abrahamists are so painfully literal, and some even realize that not all pagans are so painfully literal either.

>>22574388
Well, to be fair, Christians didn't invent it, they just got it from Judaism.

>>22574503
No, it literally is that simple, the Torah is quite clear on this: Gentiles are retards and named their children things like "rock" and "tree". When Rock and Tree died, we stupid Gentiles thought that Rock and Tree were just random rocks and random trees and these could be worshiped. Gentiles need to be controlled by Jews in order to keep us from going astray. It's for our own good.

>>22574503
>This was understood
indeed, as an EGYPTIAN, Moses would have been familiar with pagan religion

>>22574773
As would Abraham when called out of Ur.

>>22573731
The Old Testament

>>22575153
I said I've read the bible several times, but it doesn't really have the scene detail I'd really like. Unless some people wrote novel versions of Abe, Moses against the nations, and the successors of Solomon.

>>22573731
I'm sure there's a Goosebumps book about something like this but it's all blended together by now

>>22575216
See, I still think your fishing for some Sax Rohmer or something. Late 19th/early 20th adventure where oriental cultists are the bad guys.
I never read Shardik, I just had a friend in high school who thought the name was hilarious. That might be paganish fantasy? Is there some lurid Aztec historical fiction?

>>22575259
Aaaaaaaa you’re stupid phone

>>22573731
This is exactly what you’re looking for.

>>22574388
Pseud detected

>>22573731
Moby Dick, but with the headcanon revised ending that Ishmael dies too and that Melville convulsed blood and bile from his aids lesions dying immediately after writing the final page.

Did you see this thread?
>>>22572492

>>22575437
I read that already though, and while it excels in decadence, it doesn't have the decay I'm tonally seeking.