Religious Stories

[trekkiebaggio]

st.barthgirl wrote:

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Cool that you wrote a play! Which Nativity Story did you write about? There are Conflicting stories in the New Testament: Even the Synoptic Gospels don't agree...

and what of the Apocrypha?

Matthew 2:11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
In a house.
Luke 2:7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
In a manger. There was no room in the inn.

I took bits and pieces that I liked and meshed them together, adding a bit of poetic license here and there of course . The bit I found most interesting, possibly because I hadn't really been made aware of it before, was how Mary's cousin was also blessed with a child.

[st.barthgirl]

That is captivating imagery, Strange Quark...

for some strange reason, it reminds me of an anecdote i heard as a child: My best friend had moved to the NorthEast from the Deep South, and maybe there's a little je ne sais quoi in the Southern Drawl i hear when i recall the retelling; or the idea of white-washed, sun-soaked Southern porches and fecund orchards and Grandmothers in Aprons making lemonade...

My friend, at an age younger than 6, had asked , " Grandma, How do you know God is Real?"

Her Grandmother didn't skip a beat. She took hold of a Fresh apple, and a Knife, and sliced it through the middle {halfway between the stem and the sepal}. Exposing the inside of both Halves, she replied to Jennifer, "Well then. Who put the Star inside of this Apple?"

[FlyingLemons]

One of my favorite books from the Tanakh is Ecclesiastes. It's a very poetic book where the author muses about the meaning of life and death, and at the end of it comes out with the conclusion that there isn't much of a meaning to life besides enjoying what you have and believing in God. It's the origin of many commonly used phrases in the English language (e.g. "nothing new under the sun") and is a beautiful book to read.

The Song of Solomon is beautiful too, and one verse, ani l'dodi, v'dodi li (I am my beloved's, and he is mine) has special significance for me and many others because it's used as the "I do" by Jewish women such as my wife in non-Orthodox wedding ceremonies (in Orthodox practice only the man speaks). Leviticus is a bit of a bore for me, to be honest, as it's just a set of laws.

I have to say I've never read that much of the Christian New Testament because I just find in many cases it makes me viscerally angry. I recently tried reading it again as I went along to a "Jewish perspective on the New Testament" reading group at my synagogue and I only went along to one class as after reading the Gospel of Matthew I came to the conclusion that I found the narrative in that book incredibly spiteful towards Jews and that the overall portrayal of Jews and Judaism throughout the NT was highly negative. I suppose it's the same kind of feeling many non-Jews may have when reading the Christian Old Testament.

[thestrangequark]

st.barthgirl wrote:

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That is captivating imagery, Strange Quark...

for some strange reason, it reminds me of an anecdote i heard as a child: My best friend had moved to the NorthEast from the Deep South, and maybe there's a little je ne sais quoi in the Southern Drawl i hear when i recall the retelling; or the idea of white-washed, sun-soaked Southern porches and fecund orchards and Grandmothers in Aprons making lemonade...

My friend, at an age younger than 6, had asked , " Grandma, How do you know God is Real?"

Her Grandmother didn't skip a beat. She took hold of a Fresh apple, and a Knife, and sliced it through the middle {halfway between the stem and the sepal}. Exposing the inside of both Halves, she replied to Jennifer, "Well then. Who put the Star inside of this Apple?"

It's a nice story -- also with great imagery the way you tell it. A terrible argument for the existence of god, though!

[sonak]

good thread topic. If you accept much of the OT stories a neat mythology, it goes a lot better than trying awkwardly to make it sound like genuine history or the "word of God."

The Samson and Delilah story is good, David vs. Goliath is good., the whole story of Exodus, etc.

[st.barthgirl]

"it's a nice story -- also with great imagery the way you tell it."

thanks, Strange Quark...

"A terrible argument for the existence of god, though"

perhaps... but maybe the idea that god has such a refined sense of Interior Design points to her being a woman, or for him having Faahhhhhhbulous taste... ?!?!?

[teya]

The Haudenosaunee Prayer of Thanksgiving, done in virtual beadwork by Tuscarora artist Melanie Printup Hope.

http://www.artinjun.ca/printup_hope/

[thestrangequark]

st.barthgirl wrote:

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"it's a nice story -- also with great imagery the way you tell it."

thanks, Strange Quark...

"A terrible argument for the existence of god, though"

perhaps... but maybe the idea that god has such a refined sense of Interior Design points to her being a woman, or for him having Faahhhhhhbulous taste... ?!?!?

Well...to be fair, I don't think there are any good arguments for the existence of god -- at least the one you related has a quality of sweetness to it!

[Captrek]

st.barthgirl wrote:

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Fico Ventilatory on the MonoAnthropic Cycle, Please? Read it, have heard similar...

I don’t know who or what Fico Ventilatory is, and I don’t know what “it” you have read. The concept of the monoanthropic cycle is original with me.

how does this theory account for changes in Population? Can souls be Split, or merge?

Here’s the idea. The paradoxes of time travel disappear as long as knowledge is not taken back to the past. When you die, your soul can conceivably reincarnate as your own mother or father, so one soul is all we need. It experiences in turn the life of everyone who has ever lived or ever will, then starts over. It does have the disturbing implication that when you are born with Hitler’s genes and experience what he experienced, you’ll do the same things he did.

if it's anthropic- do we only reincarnate as Humans, and does Sentience Matter? only Homo Sapiens- or could we reincarnate as Neandertals or Homo Erectus or Floresiensis or Denisovan or Any in the Human Family Tree?

Interesting questions. Since the cycle isn’t a testable hypothesis but merely an idea for philosophical exploration, use whatever works for you. I think it makes sense to apply it to any entity with conscious subjective experience, including animals, intelligent machines, and extraterrestrials.

Do we have any Choice in the Matter?

Probably not.

My friend, at an age younger than 6, had asked , " Grandma, How do you know God is Real?"

Her Grandmother didn't skip a beat. She took hold of a Fresh apple, and a Knife, and sliced it through the middle {halfway between the stem and the sepal}. Exposing the inside of both Halves, she replied to Jennifer, "Well then. Who put the Star inside of this Apple?”

What did Jennifer think of that answer?

maybe the idea that god has such a refined sense of Interior Design points to her being a woman, or for him having Faahhhhhhbulous taste... ?!?!?

That might explain why, in all these millennia, He has only sired one child.

[Gryffindorian]

thestrangequark wrote:

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I am no expert in Hinduism, and I know there is at least one person here who can speak with more knowledge and authority than I (so please correct me if I get anything wrong), but there is a bit of imagery from a story about Krishna that has always stuck with me. My friend, Sonia, who is Hindu, told me the story, and one scene always stood out. Apparently, Krishna was a trouble-maker as a child, and would often sneak away and eat all the butter. One day, he lied to his mother about eating the butter, and so she took him by the chin and opened his mouth, but when she looked inside, she saw the universe. That was when she knew he was a god.

It’s just a really cool image and idea: that the universe would exist inside a god.

^ This was mentioned in the movie The Life of Pi, which I saw last week and enjoyed. The main character, Piscine Molitor, was a little boy whose family owned a zoo in French-controlled India. He was raised as a Hindu but also became curious in Christianity and Islam and was practicing all three religions at the same time. Pi's mom related the story of Krishna to him and his brother. The movie was very interesting as it talked about faith and one boy's belief in God.

[thestrangequark]

^Never saw the movie, but I read the book a couple of years ago. I don't recall if that Krishna story was in the book. I liked some aspects of the book, but overall I was a bit disappointed in it. That's just me, though.

[Drago-Kazov]

EmoBorg wrote:

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The Jews were persecuted because they kept on rejecting false religions and false prophets. From the ancient Egyptians, Romans, Christians and Muslims, have tried to impose their version of god or gods on the Jews and the Jews rejected those attempts and suffered enormous persecutions as a result. The Jews did not stray from their God. They kept the covenant with their God since the days of Moses.

According to the bible, not history.

[Miss Chicken]

That story is definitely in Life of Pi. It says that Krishna has been wrongly accused by other children of eating dirt. He denies it and his foster mother says "Tut, tut, open your mouth". He does and she sees the whole complete entire timeless Universe.

I loved the book and I can't wait to see the movie which opens in Australia on New Year's Day.

[scotpens]

st.barthgirl wrote:

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. . . but maybe the idea that god has such a refined sense of Interior Design points to her being a woman, or for him having Faahhhhhhbulous taste... ?!?!?

I've linked to this New Yorker piece before, but for those who haven't read it, here it is again.

captrek wrote:

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. . .I also really like The Prince of Egypt, a surprisingly intelligent and mature adaptation of the story of the Exodus. It particularly impresses me with the bold creative decision to make Pharaoh a sympathetic character.

The 1970s TV miniseries Moses the Lawgiver, starring Burt Lancaster, was also a fairly intelligent dramatization of the story of Moses and the Exodus, taking a historic and anthropological approach to the material and downplaying the supernatural aspects. (I'm tempted to say it wasn't run of De Mille, but that would be too easy. )

[thestrangequark]

Does Jesus Christ Superstar count? Because I love that story!