Since we've gotten told to stop talking generally about religion twice in the Homosexuality and Religion thread and were told that, if we want to talk generally about religion, we need to make a new thread, I have made a new thread.
Full disclosure: I am an agnostic atheist and anti-theist, but I'm very interested in theology and religion.
Mod Edit: All right, there are a couple of ground rules here:
- This is not a thread for mindless bashing of religion or of atheism/agnosticism etc. All view points are welcome here. Let's have a civil debate.
- Religion is a volatile subject. Please don't post here if you can't manage a civil discussion with viewpoints you disagree with. There will be no tolerance for people who can't keep the tone light hearted.
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edited 9th Feb '14 1:01:31 PM by Madrugada
Prometheus would think his situation was gross. Or Hercules having to reroute a river to clean up horseshit. Osiris alone is a Eli Roth film with a happy ending.
People got a lot of bias when dealing with myths and religious material. It's easy to make the 'barbaric hordes' sound so much more blood thirsty and heartless than you.
What was that about mutilating a woman because your husband said she was cute(Hera)? Or people who beat you fairly in contests just because you are jealous (Apollo and Athena)?
At least none of the Norse ate their own children.
edited 9th Nov '15 7:20:25 AM by Gabrael
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - AszurNot to mention: Osiris being dismembered and spread all over the place like william wallace. The process of mummification. Or looking after children by surrounding them in a ring of fire and scorpions.
There is also the whole hippopotamus/crocodile/lion beast that ate hearts, and then there is also how much egyptians had perfected poisons and death by overworking in the desert
edited 9th Nov '15 7:26:56 AM by Aszur
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
The process and ritual of mummification was one of the most fascinating aspects to me as a child. Interesting as hell. And I think I had crush on Nefertina from the Mummies Alive! cartoon.
As opposed to religious studies class which focused largely on the Christian (Lutheran) side of things, Egyptian mythology was far more attractive. And made more sense to me.
Si Vis Pacem, Para PerkeleThey were having you take theology, not religious studies then.
That's actually a good way to help fact check if it's a reliable source or not. Not the only way, but it can help.
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - AszurHey, I went to an Opus Dei college.
I know how weirdos can be. Thankfully since before I joined high school I had a healthy (Read: obsession) with mythology of all sorts brought forth by books and vidjagamez, and you know, no matter how you put it, kneeling and sitting and praying and chanting and singing is never going to look as cool the images the greek minotaurs, the egyptian anubis, or the norse vikings and valkyries could ever summon.
I mean, I was a teen. What am I going to choose. Cherubs, or badass flesh eating scarabs? A guy getting a lucky shot with a pebble against a giant, or hordes of mace and axe swinging berserkers against fire and ice giants? Being eaten by a giant whale, or being eaten by your father, disguised as a rock, raised in orgies by nymphs and eventually making a bloody coup that chops off the testicles of the old gods?
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes![]()
In our schools it's simply called "religion" or "religious studies". Basically, you are taught whatever your religion is, if possible. If you had no religion or a teacher was not a available for your specific religion you took "ethics". The actual consistency of these can vary from teacher to teacher. High school is where you get the bigger picture. Or at least you should.
"Theology" as a subject is exclusively university material.
edited 9th Nov '15 7:49:16 AM by TerminusEst
Si Vis Pacem, Para PerkeleI also had Religion Class at my primary school, but it was mostly about flanderized and child friendly biblical stories with a lot of cut and paste art, the classes themselves were almost like a recess where the kids would listen tales and be creative with in-class assignments.
Inter arma enim silent legesReligious education here is only for Muslim students (which is its own can of worms due to Islamists/ultraconservatives writing the syllabus and teaching the classes these days). What I did sit through was Moral Education and Civics classes, which was basically "don't cross the Moral Event Horizon" in a secular manner. There are Christianity classes for high school students, but finding those outside former/current Catholic schools or Borneo is a rare occurrence.
I did have to go for Classics classes (Confucianism classes, basically) in middle school. It didn't appeal to me at all. I certainly was glad that I didn't have to study that in high school. Funnily enough my distaste for Confucianism or how its principles are applied in society didn't manifest until much later.
edited 10th Nov '15 5:18:18 AM by Krieger22
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiotWhen I had religious study, I actually learned about Christianity (Catholicism, chiefly, as it was a Catholic school) but also about Voodoo, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and some other Christian denominations (mostly how they differ from Catholicism). It was pretty good. It wasn't very in-depth, but it was fascinating for a young child to see all these faiths and their different beliefs, even if in a very basic way.
The teacher, despite being a former Priest, was actually very non-biased.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."My school(s) had a secular-ish form of religious education. "Here's a few different religions. These are their main tenets and traditions." There was a very heavy focus on Christianity, at least to begin with, but generally speaking it was all relatively fair and unbiased (not accounting for the occasional bad teacher of course).
During my younger years I was forced to partake in some kind of "Christian education for children" where biblical stories were presented more or less as historical facts, but this was organized by the local church. I still have my old "Bible for kids" that they gave me, which is just absolutely hilarious in how it tries to tip-toe around all the violence and whatnot, and fails completely.
Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.Confucianism is all about society working because everyone knows their place, not that everyone has a place.
So if you break the rules and get out of your prescribed spot, you're not only endangering society, you're morally defaulting as well.
Unless you are a well born man, your spot sucks in his system.
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur![]()
Any spot sucks if it's not who you are naturally. Being forced to be what you're not is a sucky thing itself, though obviously how far your spot is from who you are naturally effects the level of suck and some spots have more or less room for variation within them.
edited 10th Nov '15 10:44:28 AM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

Egyptian mythology is dry, stoic, and imperial.
Norse mythology is weird, confusing, and a little bit gross. Thor has two talking resurrecting goats that he kills and eats every day and Loki is chained to a stone slab with the entrails of his sons.
And it all responds to their geo political structure. The Greeks and Romans had cultured city states and a tradition in playrights that was better conserved and kept through the ages, hence changing our perception of them. I mean, the Japanese and the Persians and plenty of others had theatres, puppets, plays, stories. But the Romans inherited (Read: stole) from the greeks this culture and went on to become one of the largest and most influencing empires of the modern world.
Egypt is defined by always being imperialistic, with city states (and their respective deities) quarreling over power (reflected in the Upper Nile vs Lower Nile conflict that is represented in the Horus vs Set myth), and a clear winner that formalized the process.
Norse mythology, as mentioned above, was translated by other people, and it was as visceral and driven by sheer necessity as the peoples from whom it comes. I mean. Remember these are the people who eat rotten sharks, kill a seal, stuff it with dead birds, let it rot under a rock, and then come back next year and eat it.
So yeah, the myths and stuff tells us as much of the geopolitical situations as it does about the thoughts spiritual and religious of that era and place.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes