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| With the world of pop culture and unobtrusive pop physcology wrapped in many religions and denominations, what religions stand out. So what is your religion? Is there one that rules over the others? Is there an ultimate religion that we all must follow or face the eternal realm of hell? What do the different religions offer over one another? Is there a heaven or hell? What happens to the ignorant? What is the basis and history of major religions? All burning issues of which I offer opinions for! |
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| Christianity Bible is derived from the Greek word meaning "books." The word "Holy" was used to desiginate some of these books, so over time it evolved to become the "Holy Bible." Many of the books of the Bible come from several religions, including the Samaritans who only reconized the first 5 books of the BIble. Over the centuries many of the book have been reconized or omitted depending on the times. The protestant canon took shape by rejecting a number of books and parts of books that had for centuries been part of the old Testament in Greek Septugaint and in the Latin Vulgate, and had wide acceptance among the Roman Catholic Church. In response to the Protestant Reformation, at the Council of Trent (1546) the Catholic church accepted the Apocrypha. All together with the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Apocrypha the Catholic Church accepts a total of 73 books. The Anglican Church acceptes only the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament but also accepts segments of the Aprocyraphal writtings in the lectionary and liturgy. The Greek Orthodox church accepts all of the books of the Roman Catholics plus Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151, and 3 Maccabees. The Ethiopic church has the most books and accepts 81 books into thier cannon. But for the most part, most of us are used to either the Catholic Bible or the Protestant Bible which only accepts 66 books. Creation- The biblical accounts of the creation story have their roots in Near Eastern mythology, in which the diety's victory over chaos is the establishment as a supreme king. The premier source of the mythology of Genesis is probably Canaanite Mythology. Many references reflect this background, therefor leading to the conclusion that the creation story in Genesis is not to be taken as a scientific answer to the creation of the universe. These are religious statements to show God's greatness over other mythological figures which transformed to express Israel's distinctive faith. The two concept of the creation of the world and the creation of humanity were intially expressed as two independent elements. The 6th century BCE writter P, first expressed the two together in a seven day annual festival feast. The concept of God molding man from dust is an idea found in many other cultures. Adam and Eve- Adam- Adam in Hebrew means "human kind." Adam also means "ruddy" or "earth." The narrative of the Yahwist in Genesis 2.7 neither disprove nor suggest Adam's origin by evolution, a question that simply just did not arise at the time. God's image is in "the man" in Genesis 1.26, as "the man" in turn is in Seth. Eve interpreted means "the mother of all living." The word "Eve"in Aramaic also can be interpreted for the word "serpent." Although the actual linguistics are uncertain, Eve relates to mother nature as a whole and may not have been a specific person, but instead the bearer of life and mother nature. Paul feared that the Corinthian Christians would be led astray from Christ as Eve was deceived by the serpent. In 1 Timothy 2.13-15, Eve's deception by the serpent and also her creation subsequent to the man are cited as reasons that women must keep silent in church and hold no authority over men. Early Chrisians theologians contrasted Eve's sinfulnness with the perfection of the "new Eve," Mary the mother of Jesus. Noah & the flood- The Babylonian and Hebrew stories share so much that a connection between them can hardly be denied. Surviviing copies of the Babylonian story come from the seventeenth and seventh centuries BCE. (the Epic of Atrahasis and the Epic of Gilgamesh,) Both stories have a hero warned by his god to build a great ship and to load it with his family and selected animals in order to escape the coming flood. Once all others have perished, the ship grounds on a mountain in Armenia, a sacrifice pleases the god, and a divine oath follows never to send another flood. The later Babylonian version describes the hero releasing birds to seek vegetation, or the "olive branch". The Babylonian account even show names of kings from the beginning of the human race onward, interrupted by the flood. Genesis 5 and 11 have similar lists with slight modifications in the interest of Israel's interest. It can almost been seen as conclusive evidence that the Hebrew version depends greatly on the Babylonian version which was written centuries previously. Also cultures all over the world record similar situations in the same time table of great waters rising and having to retreat to higher ground. Including the people in India and China. To give some respect though to the story marine particles have been found on mountains all over the world dating back to the same period in time, indicating that at some point the world was under great amounts of water. Although the word "world" on Hebrew also has other meanings such as "country" or "region." So when the Hebrew version says the whole "world " experienced a flood it does not neccisarly mean the "whole world." Oh yes and the "Ark" which they think they have found on Mt. Arafat in Turkey is completly inconclusive. The U.S. has even sent over spy satelites when the snow levels were the lowest and it showed nothing. The satelites name was SR 17 (Secret Reconisance 17), I believe. They whole report for the evidence of the "Ark" being seen was on one lone old man who said he say it. You can believe dozens have since tried to find it too, and even former American astronauts have tried and failed. Now the mountain is closed to visitors because of political unrest, but the evidence is nill and the stories are wishy washy at best. Was the world under water at some point? Probably, but not the whole world. Much of the world may have been covered at one point in time, and the marine particles suggest that, however it probably was not the story we envision our religious text books. Some even say that that was how the Grand Canyon was formed, said to say but the leading geologists say that the Grand Canyon at one point was a sea, not a drainage ditch. But who really knows? If we all drank as much as Noah did and passed out naked in tents too, why might think the we are the savor of the world as well. Okay enough on pretty little rainbows, next topic. Abraham- He is the ealiest figure to be correlated, to a limited extent, within world history. His movements from certain cities like Haran toward Chaldean or Ur, then to east to Canaan and Egypt correlate along migratory and commercial routes of that time. However the story of Abraham is a good story of failth, it is still too early in time to have any factual evidence to back it up though. We also must remember that even during his time, there were cultures and nations in other parts of the world that were already going and growing on their own. Many decendents of the middle east can be linked back to Abraham, but other cultures of the world had no correlation with Abraham. Moses- His name meant to "to draw out" or in Egyptian "to draw out." When Moses grew up he killed an Egyptian who he saw beating a Hebrew, and when word got out, he fled the country to save his life. Taking refuge in Midian, he married Zipporah, the daughter of Midianite. While in Midian, his daughter bore him two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. Moses later returned to Egypt with the help of Aaron, to lead the Hebrews out of the land of the oppressed. Moses left with the Hebrews and was later chased by the Army of the Pharoh. The army was said to be drowned in the Red Sea, however I have never seen any evidence to prove this claim. Beyond that when Moses was on the mountain, Aaron allowed the construction of a golden calf which was destroyed by the first set of commandments. Moses later dies before entering the promise land, and for the most part was a respected leader. In fact Freud even had an infatuation with Moses, but what about the story as a whole. The theme of the threatened child who eventually becomes a great figure, for example, was employed from Mesopotamia to Rome and appears in the stories about Sargon the Great, Hercales, Oedipus, Romulus and Remus, Cyrus, and Jesus. Second, Israel's theology located the gibing of the Law and the fomation of the national life ouside the land it occupied and thus considered the wilderness period as its constitutional time. Hence, laws and institutions from diverse times and conditions are located in this era. Third, the duplications on the tets and the frequent lack of cohesion in the narratives and of consistancy in details indidcate that the materaial is composite and multilayered. Fourth, the lack of external frames of referecnce makes it impossible to connect any of t he events depicted about Moses with the history of other cultures. The Egyptian Pharaoh of the oppression, for example, goes unnamed and no contemparary nonbiblical sources mention Moses. Finally, Moses is depicteded as the archetype of several offices. Throughout he is representative not only of the good leader but also of the ideal judge and legal administrator, intercessor, cult founder, and prophet. In all of these he excelled an thus served as the standard by which others where judged. Although there are a lot of refrences within the BIble about Moses and his "law," it may be up for debate the legitiamcy of the "Moses story" in general. David- The Bible is pretty much the only mention of David, so there is not much conflicting evidence. Job- The hero of the book "Job" originally was a character in folklore. The biblical book of Job is from the Uz, most likely from northern Arabia. I think Job is an ineresting story, for a couple of reasons. One is the point that a supposive great man of strong faith is suddenly the middle crisis battle ground for the ego's of the two world forces. Goodnees verses evil. Why would God allow Satan to to "have his way" with Job? A man of good faith standing and strong family values. Now I know what your thinking, it was a test of his religious steadfastness towads God that was going to prevail in the end. I see the story two ways. The moral of the story is that Job was of strong faith and end the end the failth wins over evil,. The second being a man being caught between an ego battle of Satan and God himself. Which I find to be completly uncharacteristic. Satan goes to great lenths to make Job's life a living hell, by killing his family and giving him a demoralizing skin disease. Although in the end Job's faith wins and his family is once again united, it does not make a compelling argument for convincing someone to converte to Christianity. A god that will allow horrific suffering to you for being a strong believer, just so he can prove a point to Satan. It seems to uncharacteristic of God, along with the folklore and legend history of the story, virually render it as just that. The moral of the story makes sense for people already part of the faith to be strong through all times, but I don't agree with the concepts of it. History- Hebrew Bible- Greek Bible- Jesus & his life- Early Christianity- Catholic Church- Black Plague & the Church- Catholic Church & the Crusades- Middle Ages & Church- Calvalnists & Christianity- Christianity in the USA- Modern Church- Future of Religion- |
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