@pettytalk said
I see that living in the shed with Herman's goat has done you some good. A very impressive listing of who is who in the world of the spirit of true philosophy. Let us add Pythagoras to the list, and it will get us closer to the essence of the spirit of the Holy Ghost.
When the body is shed, only the spirit remains. Or if we want to scare the children, it's a ghost of a ...[text shortened]... he handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVSxWCosMM0
Pythagoras didn't fit nearly as well into the Christian scheme of things as Plato did. For two reasons, I suspect.
First, he maintained that there is intelligible order in the cosmos, permeating all phenomena, which he called
Harmonia. It is nothing to do with any deity, it is utterly dis-personal, can be apprehended by reason alone, and is especially manifest in mathematical proportions (for example in musical chords). There isn't any 'nether world' for Pythagoras -- there is just this world, mathematically ordered. Plato, on the other hand, postulated a 'nether world' of perfect Forms, and it was easy for early Christian theologians to interpret this 'nether world' as the abode of God and his angels.
Second, Pythagoras mostly likely held Orphic ideas about the afterlife, whereby the psyche migrated to other beings (not necessarily humans). He reportedly recognized a former friend in the body of a dog, and a river was heard to speak to him (Christians would have denounced such things as necromancy, demonology, or witchcraft). That doesn't quite fit in with the Christian scheme of things, whereby the soul lives only once and is promoted/demoted to the 'nether world' forever.
And yes, Herman's goat is very well-read in classics.