Hello,
I am rather interested in other people's opinions on these terms. Seeing that most people in the world tend to follow where they are led, and I want their opinions (if not their explanations) I will try to explain myself clearly but objectively.
Throughout the history of the world there are a variety of common threads. Certain stories occur over and over again. Mythology often chronicles the evolution of stories over time. For example, a Hurrian (c. 2500bc) myth influenced Hittite myths which influenced Roman myths which influenced Christian myths. Check out Wikipedia.org if you want more information on this.
For those of you who do not believe there are common threads in history, who believe everything is random and that nothing matters - well I included a poll option for you, but feel free to read the rest of this and laugh heartily at me.
To me, it seems like there are always tales of a select few (the gods of olympus, all pantheons) ruling the many. Foreign rules coming in and taking the place over, revolutionizing technology and culture and then moving on. Common threads coming and going.
As I see it, there are only a few options. I would like you to first vote:
Bullshit: Nothing is going on and it's just random action. People are fucked up machines and just run in circles around each other. Life appeared at random. Humanity evolved from monkeys and eventually the world will end in the heat death of the universe. Nihilism.
Meaningful: Life is meaningful. Something or someone created us for a purpose on this world. There are all sorts of strange things and influences going on, and no one really has any idea of the REAL truth and what is going on. If you selected this, then I would appreciate your selecting which of the following are the MOST important influence on humanity. Whatever humanity means to you - christianity, mathematics, buddhism, confucianism, shintoism, materialism, pussy, whatever.
1) Immortals (Many)- These are people who have thrown the shackles of mortality off. Through trickery or sheer force of will alone, they have counteracted the impact of aging on their body. They have been around for thousands of years. The greek gods of olympus were such immmortals, come from time immemorial, learning and growing and influencing humanity. These are the statistical outliers, the freaks of nature, one in a billion shots, chameleons, people always behind the scenes, moving the machinery of the world. This is their world and we live in it. Vampire beliefs would fit here. The basic idea is there is a whole CULTURE of immortals running things behind the scenes.
2) Immortals (Few) - Immortality is attainable, but hard to come by. Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Difficult. Here is an example, which is fiction that I am making up on the spot. Three thousand years ago, there were say fortynine people that got together and figured out the secrets of immortality. They realized that humanity as a whole cannot be taught these techniques, they are too wrapped up in the everyday affairs of life. So, they went about trying to influence, revolutionize where possible - and above all not get killed! We are talking about reality here people, not a science fiction novel. These are people that have stopped aging through some means or other, a technically possible feat - but if their bodies take enough damage, say beheading.... they are dead just like everyone else. As time goes by, they find fewer and fewer disciples as the world turns against them - they sneak messages into religious literature, myths, traditions, technology but the conditions that allowed them to become immortal are fading. Maybe a plant is no longer available, the climate of the earth changed, they required at least 7 people and the gradual attrition of life wore them down to 6, whatever. They are dying. Maybe they are dead. However, it is possible to become immortal, they did basically create our society, but we are too weak to learn from them and it is becoming a lost art. All myths and religions stem speak in a symbolic language based on a dying group of immortals. That is the main idea of this post anyway, I want to see if you guys think this is possible or not. If so, please post anything you have to say about it! I definitely have an opinion but I feel this post is long enough.
3) Avatars - This would be Jesus or Mohammad or the various avatars of Vishnu. Basically, the idea is that God his own self comes down and inhabits or impregnates one of us, and this divine being proceed to jam on some task like founding a religion.
4) Prophets - These are people who speak to god, or see the future, or do something supernatural. For example, in the old testament Moses spoke to god through the burning bush, and so was a prophet as opposed to Jesus who was an avatar.
5) Geniuses - There is no immortality or supernatural nature. Human beings learn from each other psychologically, and the common threads in human behaviour stem from the fact that we are basically the same. After all, supposedly all humans evolved from the same group of 1000 people (look for population bottleneck on wikipedia for details on this) and even if we did not, then we are close enough. Every now and then someone comes along with exceptional abilities and revolutionizes a field. For example, Einstien or Isaac Newton. People that choose this category would believe that Jesus or Mohammed were religious geniuses, not prophets or avatars.
So, what do you think? I voted so you can see my results but I don't really want to write anymore.
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For those that know, no explanation is necessary. For those that do not know, no explanation may suffice.
-someone smarter than me
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