How Italian Renaissance Art spawned a lengthy diatribe
I just got back from my mini-jaunt to the PMA. I am doing my visual analysis on Fra Angelico's "Funeral of the Virgin". Pelta gave us several different choices for what we had to do our visual anlysis on. I have to read a chapter for Italian Renaissance Art too. I was most happy to find out that I have almost completely forgotten all of the components of the Christian Bible, aside from the gospels. I did begin to twitch a bit when she asked us to name them. I guess its not referred to as the Old Testament and New Testament anymore. Who knew that bible references had gotten PC? It's now the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible.
I don't know why I am having this resurgence of animosity towards the Catholic Church again. Not that it ever stopped, it has just been more pronounced lately. I think it may be due to my fear of having to get married in a church, which I would be cool with ONLY IF I could do it in Chartes, Notre-Dame or Westminster Abbey. The reality of that happening is negative to one minus this that and the other thing.
I just don't understand religion at all anymore. What is the point of being holy if you have to kill people over whose religion is right or wrong? I just don't believe that any religion is truly right or truly wrong. Religion should not be a public commodity, bought and sold to the highest bidder. Why can't we believe what we want? Why do belief systems have to conform with whatever religion that you happen to be? So what if I want to mix some buddhist and hindu beliefs with my christianity on the rocks. Does it have to be consumed straight up with no options?
The way I see religion is as a big circle, a bicycle wheel if you will. at the center of the circle is "god" if you will, "god" is an immatieral force that we have no way of understanding or even comprehending. God is not human, male or female. god just is. mans desparate attempt to understand and humanize god has profoundly altered the shape of history. God does not hate homosexuals -- man does. God does not hate Americans -- man does. God does not care who lives on the holy land -man does and so on and so forth. Radiating from the center of this spirtual wheel is the interpretations of every single religion from Animism to Zoarastrianism. Every religion shares some sense of commonality and none is superior to another.
The ancient religions were polytheistic and nature oriented. Man was powerless in the face of nature and its gods and goddesses. The rise of the Piscean Age, an age of Christian mythology, brought about Mans equality to "god". "Man is made in the image and likeness of god" So for nearly 2000 years, Christians killed Muslims who killed Jews and so on and so forth. Christian missionaries infiltrated new lands and converted the tribal ancestors to the obvious "correct" mode of worship. Oddly enough, most Christian holidays were based on the same cycle of the pagan holidays. Enough of that for now.
The name of religion is another way in which man catergorizes and labels everything in order to understand it and determine whether it is like his or herself or different. After thousands of years, is that all we are capable of -- accepting what is like us and destroying what is different?
I guess what I find funny in a sense, is that Christians believe that Christ was the "son of god" , but yet shun the ideas of the holiness of Allah or Buddha or any mythologized being that was human of a spiritual descent. I am not an expert on every religion of the world by far. I have general enough knowlegdge to formulate my own ideas. I can obviously see where my views are iconoclastic at best and heretical at worst.
If there has to be religion, it should be personal, not institutional. Faith and spirituality should be based on your life experiences, not some one elses. It should not be force-fed. It should not be a pre-packaged commodity.
I have thought long and hard about reigion, probably moreso than most people, since renouncing my faith at 15 and trying to find a place where I fit in. While I have been at odds with Christianity for over a decade now and quite vocal about it at best. I do not hold it against anyone for their beliefs. I'm not going to kill or main Christians because I don't agree with their teachings and philosophy. Enough said. Rainy days always make me philosophic and introspective.
I don't know why I am having this resurgence of animosity towards the Catholic Church again. Not that it ever stopped, it has just been more pronounced lately. I think it may be due to my fear of having to get married in a church, which I would be cool with ONLY IF I could do it in Chartes, Notre-Dame or Westminster Abbey. The reality of that happening is negative to one minus this that and the other thing.
I just don't understand religion at all anymore. What is the point of being holy if you have to kill people over whose religion is right or wrong? I just don't believe that any religion is truly right or truly wrong. Religion should not be a public commodity, bought and sold to the highest bidder. Why can't we believe what we want? Why do belief systems have to conform with whatever religion that you happen to be? So what if I want to mix some buddhist and hindu beliefs with my christianity on the rocks. Does it have to be consumed straight up with no options?
The way I see religion is as a big circle, a bicycle wheel if you will. at the center of the circle is "god" if you will, "god" is an immatieral force that we have no way of understanding or even comprehending. God is not human, male or female. god just is. mans desparate attempt to understand and humanize god has profoundly altered the shape of history. God does not hate homosexuals -- man does. God does not hate Americans -- man does. God does not care who lives on the holy land -man does and so on and so forth. Radiating from the center of this spirtual wheel is the interpretations of every single religion from Animism to Zoarastrianism. Every religion shares some sense of commonality and none is superior to another.
The ancient religions were polytheistic and nature oriented. Man was powerless in the face of nature and its gods and goddesses. The rise of the Piscean Age, an age of Christian mythology, brought about Mans equality to "god". "Man is made in the image and likeness of god" So for nearly 2000 years, Christians killed Muslims who killed Jews and so on and so forth. Christian missionaries infiltrated new lands and converted the tribal ancestors to the obvious "correct" mode of worship. Oddly enough, most Christian holidays were based on the same cycle of the pagan holidays. Enough of that for now.
The name of religion is another way in which man catergorizes and labels everything in order to understand it and determine whether it is like his or herself or different. After thousands of years, is that all we are capable of -- accepting what is like us and destroying what is different?
I guess what I find funny in a sense, is that Christians believe that Christ was the "son of god" , but yet shun the ideas of the holiness of Allah or Buddha or any mythologized being that was human of a spiritual descent. I am not an expert on every religion of the world by far. I have general enough knowlegdge to formulate my own ideas. I can obviously see where my views are iconoclastic at best and heretical at worst.
If there has to be religion, it should be personal, not institutional. Faith and spirituality should be based on your life experiences, not some one elses. It should not be force-fed. It should not be a pre-packaged commodity.
I have thought long and hard about reigion, probably moreso than most people, since renouncing my faith at 15 and trying to find a place where I fit in. While I have been at odds with Christianity for over a decade now and quite vocal about it at best. I do not hold it against anyone for their beliefs. I'm not going to kill or main Christians because I don't agree with their teachings and philosophy. Enough said. Rainy days always make me philosophic and introspective.