Religious Stories

[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]

How many times did this happened in the OT:

Israel was occupied because they turned away from God. Then a chosen one liberated them. Then they turned away from God again, you know the drill.

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]

. . . 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.

. . .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!

 

[Gryffindorian]

^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.

There wasn't anything particularly special about the story itself, but the film was very well done, imho. On the other hand, I liked the element of.faith/religion and a young man's struggle to survive in the middle of the ocean.

 

[thestrangequark]

^That is why I was disappointed. I was expecting something deep and meaningful, but I got a book about believing in god. I don't believe in god, and I never have. Not that aspects of the book were not meaningful or enjoyable to me, allegorically, and I certainly appreciated the technical aspects and worth as a piece of literature -- but I don't find any worth in faith.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I am an atheist but I no problem with the novel explaining why Pi believed what he did.

 

[thestrangequark]

^Oh, I had no problem with it. It is just that it was not the experience I expected -- hence disappointment.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I didn't know much about the book before I read it as I selected it out of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die so I didn't know what to expect, in the end I was pleasantly surprise by how much I enjoyed the novel.

 

[JarodRussell]

What's clear is that the Old Testament God was wrathful and vindictive, while the one Jesus tells us about in the New Testament is more like a loving father figure.

The most fascinating interpretation of that is that God never fully understood his own creations until he actually became human and underwent the whole cycle of birth, life and death (and a very painful death at that). Ever since then, he has never bothered us humans again.



But the real life answer is that Jesus and his followers simply had a different understanding of their frumpy religion that had always been based on aggression and fear.