General Religion, Mythology, and occult talk

Justice4243

But D&D Tiamat has nothing in common with the entity she shares her name with?

The Babylonian Tiamat resembles a dragon by some descriptions, but not exactly what you'd call a standard western depiction. She also only had one head.

She was considered Chaos personified, as D&D Tiamat is considered the "Queen of Chaos", but this isn't exactly the same thing as in D&D.

Justice4243

Also, I really should meditate more...any type really.

I've also had the urge to break out the I'Ching and Tarot cards. Guess my inner mystic is getting restless. 

Justice4243

Tarot cards came out, it was a pretty decent reading. Which, I suppose translated to a pretty decent day...

Justice4243

http://books.google.com/books/about/African_Mythology.html?id=aU9EsIJtnmwC

"Mboom: The Kuba people of central Africa told the story of
the creator god Mboom, who had nine children. He gave each of these nine
children the name “Woot”. Each child created a different part of the world.
Death came into the world when Woot, the god of sharp blades, killed his
brother Woot, the god of thorns, after a fierce argument."

I wonder if the argument was over "Who dad actually called," or "Who was the stabbiest." 

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/w/woot.html

Woot

by Micha F. Lindemans

A supernatural being of the Kuba. He is the son of the sky-god Mbomba and the earth-mother and lives among mankind. His sister and wife is Mweel. Woot named all the animals and the plants.

The nine sons of Woot � who are also called Woot � helped their father in different aspects of creation, clearing the land and planting. The two youngest sons invented the idea of pointed things and the skill of sharpening. When the inventor of pointed things wounds the sharpener, evil and death were introduced into the world. Another son slept with Mweel and was subsequently banished. Woot put a curse on the village so that all the women living there became barren as a result. Eventually he relented and lifted the curse.

Damnit, African myth! Why you gotta be built by tribes with slightly contradictory stories?!

Obā-san

He gave each of these nine
children the name “Woot”. Each child created a different part of the world.
Death came into the world when Woot, the god of sharp blades, killed his
brother Woot, the god of thorns, after a fierce argument."

What i get out of this is that 2/9ths of the world are thorns and sharp blades.


So I guess this is the part of Africa I Wanna Be The Guy was set in?

Justice4243

Considering just how hellacious jungles can get, that actually doesn't seem that far-fetched of an assessment.

Justice4243

"YOUR Ta'i Chi has two colors? That's nice, our Taeguek has THREE. The extra color is for humanity, but it's cool how you can be so blasé about people."

Ace Rimmer

Whats the best way to describe atheism because someone I know believes its a religion.

Obā-san

Give up on the person, there is no hope.

Justice4243

Give up on the person, there is no hope.

I've seen this discussion happen enough times. Eventully someone breaks out etymology and they start discussing specific interpretations of words to make their point stick.

I don't think it's worth the ensuing headaches. 

So...

"yesquote". 

Ace Rimmer

Justice42 said:

I've seen this discussion happen enough times. Eventully some one breaks out etymology and they start discussing specific interpretations of words to make their point stick.

I don't think it's worth the ensuing headaches. 

So...

"yesquote".

The thing is, the person claims to be an atheist but has sucked up to YEC's so yeah, I am going to give up on him.

Ace Rimmer

This is what he said:

"Atheists are most definitely not secular. A secular person would not favor ANY belief system above another."

Yeah, I'm done.

Justice4243

I WARNED YOU 

ABOUT ETYMOLOGY 

BRO!!!!!

I TOLD YOU DOG!

Corporal Forsythe

Yep, that's pretty much a one-way trip to a slapfight over semantics. 

Ace Rimmer

Justice42 said:

I WARNED YOU 

ABOUT ETYMOLOGY 

BRO!!!!!

I TOLD YOU DOG!

But but I wanted to try to engage him with reason :( but hes acting like a stereotypical YEC.

Justice4243

Revelation 13:4

New International Version (NIV)

⁴ 

People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like^(A) the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

...One number late.



Damn you NINJAS!

Justice4243

I suppose one could be an atheist and a YEC, but they would have to believe in some form of last thursdayism.

Ulg...Space Devil and now "last thursdayism", somehow I've resurrected one of my least favorite OTC memories onto a thread in reverse.

Ace Rimmer

[Serious Question]

How can you believe that a creator created the universe and not believe in a god?

Unless you believe that Futurama episode I guess

Obā-san

You could have an all powerful, supremely incompetent being.

Justice4243

I think that Futurama episode did imply there was a God, just that a Satellite collided with him, or something.

Kinda like an entertaining version of the first Star Trek movie.

BURN!

Anyhow, you can believe a sufficiently advanced alien species created the universe, though I'm not sure how much religions really believe anything like that.

Many religious teach that the universe was formed out of nothingness, or a sort of primordial chaos. Though, usually some sort of creator figure is involved.

Some sects of Buddhism hold that this universe is just a subset of several higher universes. Though, I'm not sure how they account for those universes being created. I think they belief there is that the whole system is cyclical and has basically never not existed.

Justice4243

"Gnostic myth recounts that Sophia (Greek, literally meaning "wisdom"), the Demiurge's mother and a partial aspect of the divine Pleroma or "Fullness", desired to create something apart from the divine totality, and without the receipt of divine assent. In this abortive act of separate creation, she gave birth to the monstrous Demiurge and, being ashamed of her deed, she wrapped him in a cloud and created a throne for him within it. The Demiurge, isolated, did not behold his mother, nor anyone else, and thus concluded that only he himself existed, being ignorant of the superior levels of reality that were his birthplace."

Nice going, ASS!

Ace Rimmer

I think that Futurama episode did imply there was a God, just that a Satellite collided with him, or something.

No, the one from Series 7 in which Farnsworth accidentally creates a race of robots.

Justice4243

Ah, gotcha, I need to watch the new ones still.

I'm not sure why I haven't gotten around to it. I've heard nothing but good things about them.

Ace Rimmer

But yeah, its annoying when people say atheism is a religion.

I'm aware that some religions do have atheism incorporated in it but thats different

Justice4243

Atheism on itself certainly doesn't fit the criteria of a full religion. 

Imipolex G

So I think I'll drop this here just because it kind of amused me

Justice4243

Heh. It Amuses me, too..

Reminds me of something out of Moore's run of Swamp Thing.

Justice4243

It's Ramadan. People should maybe give Friday a "Happy Ramadan"...or something.

Ace Rimmer

I have a question about Ramadan actually.

Is the fasting time actually from dawn to dusk or is it set hours?

Obā-san

feasting time

A little typo makes a big difference.

Ace Rimmer

FrictionalMinnesota said:

feasting time

A little typo makes a big difference.

Blah blah tiredness blah blah

Justice4243

It's actually from dawn to dusk, though Friday isn't really fasting. 

It tends to work better in the Middle East where you actually sleep during the hottest portion of the day and not awake and starving for 12 hours strait. 

Ace Rimmer

Justice42 said:

It's actually from dawn to dusk, though Friday isn't really fasting. 

Yeah, that is understandable.

Justice4243

She used to do it when she lived in England, but it helped that the entire family did it and her mom would basically plan meals accordingly. 

It's a bit harder here where Friday would basically just have to fend for herself and be awake SUPER early to eat, then try to nap to before Lain wakes up and starts her on her merry journey of starvation for the day. 

Ace Rimmer

Btw,  Did Jefferson own an Koran?

Justice4243

Yes.

But it seems he owned a lot of books from around the world.

Ace Rimmer

Cool.

Also, how do you feel about Christian Atheism?

Justice4243

I haven't dwelt on the topic much, honestly. Though, Jesus's teachings certainly make for good behavior to emulate regardless if one believes he was divine or not. 

Justice4243

Interestingly enough, I'm listening to a radio show that's talking about religion or lack-there-of religion in Portland.

One of the guys on the program did state that he wants to expose and create a relationship with Jesus Christ above anything else.

Other than that...program is kinda dull. Non of the participants are really doing more than making very vague observations. 

Justice4243

Aaaaand...we're on to talking about race in Portland a self-hating white guy who hit one of the people being interviewed because she was black.

*sigh* Shit like this is why you now have a 12 PM time slot instead of an 8 AM one, Think Out Loud. 

Ace Rimmer

One of the
guys on the program did state that he wants to expose and create a
relationship with Jesus Christ above anything else.

Jesus the man or Jesus the son of God?

Justice4243

I wasn't quite sure, but I sort of got the impression he didn't really care either way. I doubt the guys is a Christian atheist, but he himself sounded sort of OK with the idea as long as Jesus was somehow involved. 

I would have been interested to hear more, but the program was more about Portland youth and religion and they only devoted 30 minutes to it, so it wasn't really enough to to determine anything worth while. 

Corporal Forsythe

He's not going to win any popularity if he goes with all of Christ's teachings instead of the rosy sweet ones everyone tosses around

Justice4243

Honestly, it almost felt more like he had distilled the teachings into their most concentrated form and just wanted people to focus on that.

He went on record saying he wasn't concerned with crime rates going down or any of the other warm fuzzies that may or may not have anything to do with religion. I think he just wishes more people had Jesus in their life. 

Ace Rimmer

Corporal Forsythe said:

He's not going to win any popularity if he goes with all of Christ's teachings instead of the rosy sweet ones everyone tosses around

I know, the poor have to BOOTSTRAP themselves up amrite? :p

Justice4243

They might post an archive at some point, but here's the page the page of the radio program:

http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/youth-and-religion/

The comment section seems to be a mixed bag of interesting thoughts and:

Corporal Forsythe

Zombie Reagan said:

Corporal Forsythe said:

He's not going to win any popularity if he goes with all of Christ's teachings instead of the rosy sweet ones everyone tosses around

I know, the poor have to BOOTSTRAP themselves up amrite? :p

No, I'm talking about the ones where immoral folks are kicked out of the congregation until they clean up their act. This was especially a problem when Christianity moved up into Asia Minor and into Greece, people liked the idea Christ and all but they weren't prepared to give up all the fun they had worshipping Aphrodite

And as for the poor, Jesus said how the kingdom of Heaven is theirs but it would be easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle (reference to a very thin, small gate in Jerusalem where Camels wouldn't fit through) than for a rich man to get into heaven

Ace Rimmer

And as for the poor, Jesus said how the kingdom of Heaven is theirs but
it would be easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle
(reference to a very thin, small gate in Jerusalem where Camels wouldn't
fit through) than for a rich man to get into heaven

No, its supposed to be literal.

Obā-san

Zombie Reagan said:

And as for the poor, Jesus said how the kingdom of Heaven is theirs but
it would be easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle
(reference to a very thin, small gate in Jerusalem where Camels wouldn't
fit through) than for a rich man to get into heaven

No, its supposed to be literal.

....But either way it means exactly the same thing.

Corporal Forsythe

No, its supposed to be literal.

The "eye of a needle" has been interpreted as a gate in Jerusalem, which opened after the main gate was closed at night. A camel could only pass through this smaller gate if it was stooped and had its baggage removed. This story has been put forth since at least the 15th century, and possibly as far back as the 9th century. However, there is no evidence for the existence of such a gate.

I stand corrected