The Book of Judges. and Gideon the Humanist.

[Gideon2037]

To me the Book of Judges reads like service records.

"Gideon was a judge for so many years, protected the 12 tribes from the Midianites, and left a bunch of children.."

Almost every entry in the book of Judges reads in a similar fashion. Now we obviously can't prove or disprove certain spiritual scenes, such as with Gideon gets a visit from a holy spirit who instructs him and so on. But we can verify that the wars/ battle actually took place.

Point being that if we can appreciate the verifiable history within the book of judges then we really should be celebrating the history of these male and some female Judges. I mean to me the Judges are essentially Jedi. The Last Jedi being Samson the strongest man in the world.

I wonder why there are no movies on these heroes and leaders?

Thoughts?

Are there any Judges that stand out to you in any way?

I am a humanist above all things, and to me the story of the Judge Gideon pleads the case for said philosophy.
This is why Gideon is my preferred moniker. and how I am able to separate his name from "the gideons" and their quest to distribute the good book in hotels nation wide.

Maybe it was God that gave us the gift of the human spirit? Maybe the beauty in humanity is God. Maybe the holy spirit brought us out of the caves?

Anyone have a similar inspirations? Questions or interesting thoughts about the Book of Judges?

[Morpheus]

Not sure how you are relating humanism with these personages who are called Judges.

Humanism disregards and rejects the "supernatural", doesn't it?

[Gideon2037]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

Not sure how you are relating humanism with these personages who are called Judges.

Humanism disregards and rejects the "supernatural", doesn't it?

Well first off let me admit to something that we're all guilty of to one degree or another, cherry picking. Although the freedom to interpret stories in our own way, mostly based on how we personally relate to the story, is a practice that seems to have been accepted through the ages.

As for the definition of humanism, it's primary philosophy does exist within the boundaries of science and logic. But as our knowledge expands so do those boundaries no?
Maybe someday we will learn that God and by extension the Holy spirit was or is a being that sought to create and aid mankind.

Or if you look at the story of Gideon as we do many myths. You could suggests, that they use the fantastic to explain the over all moral of the story.
The moral being something you can explain with science.

But ok the story. The Holy Spirit comes to Gideon and from this point on I see examples of what separates us from the animals including our primal forms and those men who do not exhibit the evolved, compassionate and intellectual traits that make us uniquely human.

The Holy Spirit calls Gideon a "man of valor"(example #1). And gives Gideon instructions from God. Gideon is skeptical and asks for proof (ex #2 skeptical/intellect)
After he is convinced by the "sheep skin dew trick" he begins to follow the will of God. This eventually leads Gideon to gather 30 or 50 thousand men from all 12 tribes to fight against the Midianites who are terrorizing tribes with barbaric warfare. There are something like 10 thousand of them.

He is then instructed to 1st send home all the men who are afraid (ex#3 Valor), and most of the men leave. Then to send home all of the men who lap water from the stream like animals, instead of cupping the water to their mouths (ex#4 human ingenuity)

This leaves him with 300 men. Then (ex#5) using these human traits, they trick the Midianites into thinking that they are surrounded and doomed so they run in fear (ex#6) as they lack valor and intellect compared to Gideon and his 300 men.

One of the primary objectives Gideon has, beyond defeating the hoards, was to draw people back to their lord, which, man being created in the lords image, may very well mean to draw people back to the tenets of Humanity/Humanism.

Also it seems the men who were sent home are judged in the same way the Midianites are judged as being barbaric and not decent Humans. This to me suggests that any man or woman from ALL races and religions can be a proud examples of the type of Human that separates us from other creatures in the Universe and makes us special.

Again these are just my theories. And I'm quite sure that I stand alone as a Humanists when it comes to my "expanding the boundaries" logic. But hey, we are all free to interpret our perceptions of reality, no?

Also I don't know why I am not getting notified for responses in my threads, i set it that way.

and again I wonder if anyone else is inspired by the some of the other stories of the judges?