COMMENCE NERDSHIP...NOW!
Some personal revelations, so feel free to skip entirely. I just need a place to write it down:
This is when it happened:
That a god should put up with adversity, I could understand. The gods of Hinduism face their fair share of thieves, bullies, kidnappers and usurpers. What is the Ramayana but the account of one long, bad day for Rama? Adversity, yes. Reversals of fortune, yes. Treachery, yes. But humiliation? Death? I couldn't imagine Lord Krishna consenting to be stripped naked, whipped, mocked, dragged through the streets and, to top it off, crucified--and at the hands of mere humans, to boot. . . . [D]ivinity should not be blighted by death. It's wrong. . . . It was wrong of this Christian God to let His avatar die. That is tantamount to letting a part of Himself die. For if the Son is to die, it cannot be fake. If God on the Cross is God shamming a human tragedy, it turns the Passion of Christ into the Farce of Christ. . . . The Son must have the taste of death forever in His mouth. The Trinity must be tainted by it; there must be a certain stench at the right hand of God the Father. The horror must be real. Why would God wish that upon Himself? Why not leave death to the mortals? Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect?
Love. That was Father Martin's answer.
That is when I realized that, as I wrote on a scrap piece of paper, "religion is people's personal epiphanies and realizations recorded for their own purpose, or for others' immediate purpose, or for all." It is morals. Religious texts are the most powerful pieces of literature. They are so ancient. They explain everything because they seek to explain. They teach us morals that we otherwise would trek through life seeking ourselves.
In this instance: humility. The willingness to die for others, to show them what who you are and what they should be.
Furthermore, the point is that God was proud of Christ for this. I suppose if He did exist, why else would He have put us here than to teach us something (or other), and Christ's lesson learned and taught to others, the stench of death didn't matter, because beside it was pride.
However, I can understand doing this in any instance except in that which means death. What does this mean? Desperation to make mankind understand such principles (martyrdom)? Death is such an extreme, yet Jesus's story teaches such a powerful lesson. I'm not 100% sure it's gotten through to everyone, but then not all martyrs' messages do.
I have intent to read the Bible I have, and to get my hands on other religious texts, e.g. the Qur'an, and others. I also have this intense hunger for World History all over again, but more in depth, and greater study of Europe pre-1400s, Australia, and Mesoamerica. I've been trying to trudge my way through Virgil's Aeneid, which I translated in-class in Latin III (two years ago), so I should be good in terms of understanding, and plus I just want to, as I have Homer's Iliad at my back. Nota bene: it is not a book to read when you have little time, nor when you will be easily distracted. Have the internet or some other helpful reference at hand for unknown terms, places, people, etc.
On a negative note, but regarding something that will not go away: my back hurts terribly. :(
P.S. And since I'm researching religions and histories ATM, and because I was reflecting on the multiple faiths of Pi Patel in Life of Pi, could someone possibly remind me who the ruler was -- I believe he was from an Islamic land and conquered (part[s] of?) India -- who tried to combine Islam and Hinduism into one religion? I CANNOT REMEMBER. D:
This is when it happened:
That a god should put up with adversity, I could understand. The gods of Hinduism face their fair share of thieves, bullies, kidnappers and usurpers. What is the Ramayana but the account of one long, bad day for Rama? Adversity, yes. Reversals of fortune, yes. Treachery, yes. But humiliation? Death? I couldn't imagine Lord Krishna consenting to be stripped naked, whipped, mocked, dragged through the streets and, to top it off, crucified--and at the hands of mere humans, to boot. . . . [D]ivinity should not be blighted by death. It's wrong. . . . It was wrong of this Christian God to let His avatar die. That is tantamount to letting a part of Himself die. For if the Son is to die, it cannot be fake. If God on the Cross is God shamming a human tragedy, it turns the Passion of Christ into the Farce of Christ. . . . The Son must have the taste of death forever in His mouth. The Trinity must be tainted by it; there must be a certain stench at the right hand of God the Father. The horror must be real. Why would God wish that upon Himself? Why not leave death to the mortals? Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect?
Love. That was Father Martin's answer.
That is when I realized that, as I wrote on a scrap piece of paper, "religion is people's personal epiphanies and realizations recorded for their own purpose, or for others' immediate purpose, or for all." It is morals. Religious texts are the most powerful pieces of literature. They are so ancient. They explain everything because they seek to explain. They teach us morals that we otherwise would trek through life seeking ourselves.
In this instance: humility. The willingness to die for others, to show them what who you are and what they should be.
Furthermore, the point is that God was proud of Christ for this. I suppose if He did exist, why else would He have put us here than to teach us something (or other), and Christ's lesson learned and taught to others, the stench of death didn't matter, because beside it was pride.
However, I can understand doing this in any instance except in that which means death. What does this mean? Desperation to make mankind understand such principles (martyrdom)? Death is such an extreme, yet Jesus's story teaches such a powerful lesson. I'm not 100% sure it's gotten through to everyone, but then not all martyrs' messages do.
I have intent to read the Bible I have, and to get my hands on other religious texts, e.g. the Qur'an, and others. I also have this intense hunger for World History all over again, but more in depth, and greater study of Europe pre-1400s, Australia, and Mesoamerica. I've been trying to trudge my way through Virgil's Aeneid, which I translated in-class in Latin III (two years ago), so I should be good in terms of understanding, and plus I just want to, as I have Homer's Iliad at my back. Nota bene: it is not a book to read when you have little time, nor when you will be easily distracted. Have the internet or some other helpful reference at hand for unknown terms, places, people, etc.
On a negative note, but regarding something that will not go away: my back hurts terribly. :(
P.S. And since I'm researching religions and histories ATM, and because I was reflecting on the multiple faiths of Pi Patel in Life of Pi, could someone possibly remind me who the ruler was -- I believe he was from an Islamic land and conquered (part[s] of?) India -- who tried to combine Islam and Hinduism into one religion? I CANNOT REMEMBER. D: