The General Religion, Mythology, and Theology Thread

These points aren't specifically atheist. Just a-yawehist.

And the reason they keep coming up is because there are gaping logical holes in the story, like eve managing to sin before sin was invented.

edited 22nd Mar '14 7:22:57 AM by Elfive

Ok, a huge population of the world follows an Abrahamic religion (not sure about the numbers though). That means that a huge amount of people believe this story. Atheists, such as myself, believe that the story does not make sense or does not account for the so-called "fallen" nature of the world because of these "atheist talking points". Basically, these are obstacles to believing in the Abrahamic faiths. The story is obviously important to Christians in particular, because it paves the way for Jesus dying on the cross later on.

And most importantly—according to members of each faith—one needs to be a part of one of these faiths in order to be "saved". THAT'S why it's important to talk about these things when you're an atheist and you're surrounded by people who think you're going to suffer something awful after you die if you don't believe this stuff.

edited 22nd Mar '14 7:26:03 AM by DigaagWaRiz

Well, I'm going to leave the thread for now, because I'm bored. Someone let me know if they want to talk about mythology or something.

Well, there's no way to "win" on this thread. Nobody seems to be interested in anything outside Christianity in General — not even discussing particular denominations in any detail.

I think it's time for another Abrahamic Moratorium.

It's just that I feel whenever someone explicitly talks about Greek or Roman or Norse or Egyptian mythology and supernatural things as things those cultures made up but talk about Christian mythology as stuff that actually happened, I feel like I have to raise my voice. It's simply a consequence of me living in America.

Oh, we can talk about mythology. I often try to make some up in my head on bus rides. Although, I tend to focus more on people than the supernatural aspects. Preachers of my own beliefs. In fact, I think I'll write an original mythological tale in the form of a holy book simply because that style of writing is so cool. I am a decent artist, so maybe I'll learn Flash and even animate something. Don't expect anything soon though.

edited 22nd Mar '14 7:33:56 AM by DigaagWaRiz

x4 And a huge number of Abrahamic believers don't believe it actually happened, they see it as metaphor.

Hey, how many of you think Jesus could've actually been a doctor or some kind of science guy who just impressed everyone else a lot/got so carried up he started making his own legend/actually thought his scientifical knowledge was magic?

But it's not as fun to make fun of those people. This is why it's great for there to be people like Ken Ham. I personally don't see the value in the story as a metaphor anyway (you know, as a symbol for our relationship with God or what have you), but that's just me.

Still more plausible than what the Bible would have us believe.

edited 22nd Mar '14 12:05:32 PM by DigaagWaRiz

Take it all as a metaphor and you just end up a really overzealous fandom.

You can argue night and day about what a holy book symbolizes but if it ain't true in the sense that "That oven is hot, don't touch it or you'll get burned" is true, then I don't really care.

Who wants to talk about Angels?

Angels are fun to talk about.

I've always thought the structure presented in Exalted for them, whereby they are actually the souls of even greater beings, was quite an interesting idea. Does that show up anywhere in actual mythology?

ARE THEY REAL? I DON'T CARE IF THEY AREN'T REAL! Wow, I'm so out of it right now that I'm strawmanning myself. Ok, let's talk about angels. EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE PROBABLY AS REAL AS CENTAURS. Ok, now I'm done. Seriously.

Are angels supposed to be like people with wings? I don't know how they're different but the only thing I can think of is that they have wings...behind their arms. I guess people back then didn't realize that wings were divergent evolutionary paths along with arms.

Not just people. Four headed lion things, wheels of eyeballs, large blue octahedrons that shoot death lasers, you name it.

Wings are a common feature for some reason though.

See Our Angels Are Different. Some are forms of Eldritch Abomination.

There's one that sounds like it's a gyroscope made of eyes. Oh, and it's on fire.

Wheels within wheels within wheels.

That are all on fire.

Lots of angels were on fire.

Maybe heaven is really cold and they need to stay warm.

Actually if you do the maths heaven is canonically hotter than hell.◊

Which explains why all the angels are on fire.

edited 22nd Mar '14 5:08:11 PM by Elfive

Now you know why a third of them went with Lucy.

...Actually: maybe that's why hell is full of fire... Loads of ex-angels.

I don't know why should you be so hostile towards a discussion of Centaurs. Or any other creature from Classical myths, for that matter.

A fun game is to imagine what various mythological hybrid creatures would look like with their components reversed.

Angles would end up as some sort of bird with two human arms sticking out of their back.

Here's the description of the Cherubim: "Each of them had four faces and four wings, with straight feet with a sole like the sole of a calf's foot, and "hands of a man" under their wings. Each had four faces: The face of a man, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle." They're also the only type of angel that is specifically identified as being alive.

I don't think you could really reverse that around.

And of course most people think they're little naked babies with wings now.

edited 23rd Mar '14 8:03:33 AM by Zendervai

I was talking about the "winged humanoid" angels, not the "half the animal kingdom stuffed in a blender" angels. Reversal only works with two components anyway.

Although actually when you think about it even a cherubim is still pretty normal looking. They're just a bunch of things stapled together. Hardly unknowable or transcendent at all, really.