World Without Christianity

When I was watching the Joan of Arc film, I noticed the immense power that the Catholic Church had over the lives of the people back then, and the state. If you stop to consider how immensely influential the Catholic Church had over the history of that time period, and by extension, Christianity, it's almost immeasurable.

There is a certain genre of fiction that I am particularly fond of: Alternate History. Basically, it's as its name implies, a narrative involving the history of the world if something in history had happened differently. For an example, take the lack of Christianity. Whoa. Needless to say, that change would be immense. I've been thinking about the incredible potential of such a change. 

While not going into how, the differences of such a world would be enoromous. For one thing, one could argue that the Roman Empire would not have been so weak against German invaders because of Christianity's weakening of traditional Roman military values with a focus of a kingdom in heaven. However, it could be said that Christianity, being a more advanced religion than most pagan ones, fulfills a certain internal need, so Roman religion might eventually evolve to involve these things. I would imagine that it evolve into something like the Greco-Roman Mystery Religions, especially the ones involving Dionysus and the Egytian Osiris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Religion

I would imagine that without any Christianity, there may not have been the Dark Ages for Europe, as the Roman Empire would have remained intact to an extent, and intellectual development could have continued as they had for the pas thousand years. That could have made the modern world extremely advanced. The defining feature, I think, though, of this Modern Roman society would be its morals. It would not have any concept of the Christian idea of 'love one another' or a 'kingdom in heaven'. It would have been extremely unequal and hedonistic (pleasure loving). All in all, it would be fascinating to see, I think.

Even more fascinating though, would be how the Germanic (and by extension, Norse) races would have developed without Christianity. I can think that a society that developed that already valued glory in battle and violence (remember Beowulf?) would have that same need to have a more advanced religion as the Romans. This could lead to some interesting scenarios. I think that perhaps the Germanic tribes would have eventually been unified into a Nazi-like state worship, emphasizing above all the the glory of dying for the nation (I could see a leader claiming to be Odin incarnate or something). Maybe instead it would be less organized and would resemble extremist Islam with the concept of Jihad. The morals of this society would be drastically different than it is in our society.

I am not sayin that my ideas definitively would happen. These are just my ideas. What do you think? What do you think would happen if there were no Christianity in the world? To the Romans? To the Germans? To the Middle Easterns? Feel free to speculate.

Evil: What is it?

After an interesting discussion through the comments on a post of Jack Loveland's on his blog, it brought me to an interesting question: how does one define evil? The closest one can definitively say about that is that evil is the opposite of good. 

Can one define evil? Some would say that good and evil is relative and depends on circumstances and the individuals concerned. Others would say that good and evil do not exist at all, being merely a flawed construct of our collective minds. Some of the more interesting ones I've heard include the utilitarian idea that evil is what does the most harm to the most people (as opposed to the most good to the most people), and, one that I've come up with, the idea that evil is what takes away one's free will. 

None of these definitions seem to 'hit the spot', for me to define what evil really is. What do you think?

Alan Watts

After realizing my comment on Jack's post was quite Dharmic in nature, I decided to share with you one of my favorite modern thinkers.

Alan Watts is mainly thought of as a presenter of Eastern Religion sto a Western Audience (Buddhism, Taoism, etc). As a member of the LDS Faith, often I am (wrongfully, I admit) paranoid to pro-atheist media (videos, articles, etc). Stumbling on one a video of a talk of his, I originally thought that that's what it was. But as I listened, I began to realize that, even though it defied traditional Western thought in a revisionist manner, it was religious. Not Christian, mind you, but extremely enlightening. Listening to this man's talks has brought a new type of thought to my mind and thinking (or at least given a name and reality to something already there.)

Also, Alan Watts died of alcohol poisoning, and had used hallucinogenic drugs in his lifetime, leading to a first impression of an 'unrighteous', 'immoral' person (perhaps one that had gone astray). But as I thought about it, I began to realize that this man has done much more good, at least for me, than most of the general authorities of the LDS Church (that may just be my relative lack of obsession over the Church compared to this). It really changed my opinion over what 'good' and 'doing good' is.

This is a (rather long) video of Watts talking about the nature of time. One of the main themes in everything he presents is that our perception of the world as made up of separate 'things' is flawed and that everything is just part of a whole. Don't be daunted by the video length (I would be). You can skip around if you want to.

American Mythology

I've been at KGM for a week, and, as is expected of one with observational skills above that of, say, a hamster, I have noticed that we do not say the pledge of allegiance or sing the national anthem regularly. I'm not saying that that's a BAD thing, no, quite the opposite. I made an interesting 'connection' recently, reading the section in the textbook on the rise of Rome and Christianity. It talked about how Christians refused to offer sacrifices to the gods in an act of treason. I also remember Mr. Matt (SS 11 Teacher) teaching our class that Greco-Roman gods weren't necessarily believed in as omnipotent beings, but more of personification of certain ideals, like the personification of a city, perhaps. So, in this sense, worshipping the gods was more of a kind of patriotism than of what is now considered religion. So, the Christians were refusing to be patriotic, and therefore, they were considered a threat to the integrity of their country.

That made me think. What is patriotism today but a form of worship? We (public schools more often than most) routinely chant incantations, or even prayers, toward an inanimate idol: the American Flag. We are told to respect the flag, not to drop the flag and are classified as terrorists (by some) if we burn the flag. All that for an inanimate object? Some would argue that the flag is a symbol of our country, and that disrespecting the flag is also disrespecting your country. This reminds me more than anything of the Greco-Roman belief system, only, instead of a 'person' symbolizing a nation or a city, it is an object, an idol. Patriotism, if anything, is the American religion. It surprises me that it is usually the most conservative Christians who support the idea of extreme patriotism. It is very ironic.

Speaking of an American religion, specifically an American mythology, there isn't only the pledge of allgience to speak of. The national anthem is nothing more than a ritual song to show our loyalty. Something I personally think is very profound is the idea of an American pantheon. Mr. K once said that America does have gods, in the sense of historical beings that embody the very spirit of a country and have been elevated to godlike satus. I am talking about the founding fathers. Yes, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and even Lincoln (who wasn't technically a founding father but is held in the same light) are our gods. We have our own parables and myths surrounding these characters (the chopping down of a certain cherry tree, for example), and they are constantly being adapted into our art. They are on our money (that perhaps being more of a property of a ruler rather than a diety), and even our cities are named after them.

Another possible choice for an American mythology would be none other than superheroes. While they do not have the same historical quality that the founding fathers do, they certainly embody many of our 'American values' and are filled with ethical problems resolved by our shining example of good. What is especially similar to this mythology and the Greeks and Norse is the sheer aamount of story known by (nearly) everyone. Our American mythos, really. Ask anyone who is Supermans girlfriend and they will (hopefullly) say Lois Lane. Where does Batman come from? Gotham, of course. Some of them even fit the typical archetypes of a pantheon. The all powerful main god: Superman. The epitome of patriotism (Athena for the Greeks): Captain America. Batman could even be considered the the god of the underworld if we want to stretch it that far.

Hope you've had some interesting insight into my opinions. Expect to see a lot more of that in the future.

P. S. After some feedback, I've decided to clarify that this is not my attempt to criticize the very concept of patriotism. Rather, it is my attempt to show religious influences in the most secular of societies.