Thursday, February 15, 2007
|
THEY'RE ALL CRAZY - I SWEAR
or why I ain't religious
I recently read End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount, by Gershom Gorenberg. Wow, this was eye opening.
I had previously considered Rapture driven uptoian theroy to be a uniquely Anglo-Evangelical Christian thing. This book made me realzied that the shared religio-DNA of Jew, Christians, and Muslims has, at its core, a prophetic message. In a nut shell; the Messia (Jew), Christ (Christians), or Hidden Imam (Shia), was lost in the haze of ancient history. With this loss came corruption and the humanity went astray. Only the return of these religious figures will make humanity be made perfect again. (A rather typicl
The stories are remarkably similar. But I must admit the Hidden Iman takes the cake for me. Maybe it's just that I didn't grow up arround this narrative so that it seems trite. But for the Shia (think Iranian or Southern Iraqi Muslims), the Hidden Imam was a seven year old boy who claimed he was the next Iman. He then went to the basement of a mosque in Sammara and never came out. But he still lives, sort of (maybe only in spirit). And when he returns there will be perfect justice, perfect spirituality, and the end of history. See the following web page for further details.
Sheeh...
Great Pumpkin any one?
.
or why I ain't religious
I recently read End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount, by Gershom Gorenberg. Wow, this was eye opening.
I had previously considered Rapture driven uptoian theroy to be a uniquely Anglo-Evangelical Christian thing. This book made me realzied that the shared religio-DNA of Jew, Christians, and Muslims has, at its core, a prophetic message. In a nut shell; the Messia (Jew), Christ (Christians), or Hidden Imam (Shia), was lost in the haze of ancient history. With this loss came corruption and the humanity went astray. Only the return of these religious figures will make humanity be made perfect again. (A rather typicl
The stories are remarkably similar. But I must admit the Hidden Iman takes the cake for me. Maybe it's just that I didn't grow up arround this narrative so that it seems trite. But for the Shia (think Iranian or Southern Iraqi Muslims), the Hidden Imam was a seven year old boy who claimed he was the next Iman. He then went to the basement of a mosque in Sammara and never came out. But he still lives, sort of (maybe only in spirit). And when he returns there will be perfect justice, perfect spirituality, and the end of history. See the following web page for further details.
Sheeh...
Great Pumpkin any one?
.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
|
DAM! Google's taking over everything!
Ok, so I've been an extremely bad blogger. It has been so long since I've blogged I'm quite sure I've lost the three people who read this laborious thing.
So, I stumbled across a blogthings test. Whala ---here's the result:
I disagree with the outcome. Giving me a young woman's elfin face bumps my happiness up +2 points.
Finding out Google now owns Blogger... -10 points.
Boo hoo.
But overall, the notion that "I'm happy" is hogwash. Emotional states are not constant. Simplistic Elle-inspired tests like this that make me want to puke. I can't help but suspect that they encourage self conscious people to wonder what is wrong with themselves if thier score is "low".
Ok, so I've been an extremely bad blogger. It has been so long since I've blogged I'm quite sure I've lost the three people who read this laborious thing.
So, I stumbled across a blogthings test. Whala ---here's the result:
| You Are 88% Happy |
 It's unlikely that you know anyone happier than you. You know how to be happy, no matter what life throws at you. |
I disagree with the outcome. Giving me a young woman's elfin face bumps my happiness up +2 points.
Finding out Google now owns Blogger... -10 points.
Boo hoo.
But overall, the notion that "I'm happy" is hogwash. Emotional states are not constant. Simplistic Elle-inspired tests like this that make me want to puke. I can't help but suspect that they encourage self conscious people to wonder what is wrong with themselves if thier score is "low".
