posted
One of my assignments for my Intro to Near Eastern Civilizations class is to write the beginning of a belief text. (The other option was write the beginning of an epic, but I thought belief text would be more fun). I thought this could make for an interesting discussion here.
What, in your opinion, do you think qualifies a belief text as such? Can anyone write one? Does it need some sort of validation?
I think that if someone believes in and worships the deity as prescribed in the text, it becomes something more than if it's something I'm merely writing for class. Mine is based on pirates, partially inspired by today being International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
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posted
Well, the Flying Spaghetti Monster letter would seem to be a belief text (although I'm pretty sure no one actually believes it...)
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I was almost tempted to write something based on the Flying Spaghetti Monster and have His Noodly Appendage come and smite those not believing.
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posted
What a fun assignment! I would think a belief text just has to explain a way of seeing the world and a way to live in it. That could include something explicitly religious having to do with a god. Or it could just be a set of beliefs. I don't think Tao Te Ching says anything about a God, it's just a way of seeing the world. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)
Are you going to post it here when you finish? I'd love to see it. Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Seems to me that it'd be best to start at the beginning. I'd love to hear the Piratist account of creation.
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Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Bill Gates all die at the same time. They find themselves at the pearly gates, and they're told that they're going to have to have an interview with God before it's decided where they go.
Clinton goes in, and God says, "Bill Clinton, what do you believe?"
Clinton says, "Ah b'lieve in peace in the Middle East."
God likes this and gives him a ticket for Heaven.
Gore goes in, and God says, "Al Gore, what do you believe?"
Gore says, "I believe in the environment."
God likes this as well, and gives him a ticket for Heaven.
Gates goes in, and God says, "Bill Gates, what do you believe?"
Gates clears his throat and says, "I believe you're in my chair."
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posted
I had to write a Myth back when I was in college, for a class on World Mythology. I took this time to develop a sort of backstory for a Work which I was then (and am still) developing. It's slightly out of date now, but I still sort of enjoy it as it stands.
--
From the Bai'D'Shynaar (The Book Of Knowledge)
1.
Before there was anything, there were the Essences. When language came into being, the first term used to refer to them was only The-Five-In-Unity, or, in the archaic tongue, the Niyuth. The Niyuth were always in harmony; One would not act without the consent of the others. There was no contention, and no jealousy, for such things had never before existed. There were none other than the Niyuth, so therefore none existed who were greater, and there were none among the Niyuth strived to become greater. They were, and they were content in being.
And it came to pass that it came upon the Niyuth the desire to create, to Make where once was Nothing. Without much effort, the floating Rock came into being.
One of the Niyuth looked at the rock, and raised up jagged peaks in some areas, and small mounds in others.
Another created Water, and dispersed it across the world.
Another surrounded the rock with an expanse of Air.
Another created objects that would grow and breath the air, and dispersed them across the Rock.
Another divided the Creation to into a well balanced and beautiful World.
The Rock was now the complete personification of Unity - so that now became the Rock's name. Unity. Aiya.
And the Niyuth looked down upon Aiya, and were well pleased. However, the desire came upon the Niyuth to share their creation with others. Knowing that there were no others to share this creation with led them to the desire to create others with whom they could share this wonderful Aiya with.
Knowing none but one as unified as the Niyuth could begin to appreciate the perfection of Aiya, the Niyuth agreed that the New Creation must be unified as well. Each would focus his essence into a single creation.
The Niyuth who would thereafter be called Nerai focused in the essence of Being, or Life.
The Niyuth who would thereafter be called Heiren focused in the essence of Strength and Might.
The Niyuth who would thereafter be called Shynaar focused in the essence of Knowledge of all things.
The Niyuth who would thereafter be called Collai focused in the essence of distinction between Unity and Disunity, or Justice.
The Niyuth who would thereafter be called Kailori focused in the essence of the Love of all Being and Unity - or Compassion.
And so it was that the Niyuth created the first of Their Children, the M'Niya. And in order to have another of it's kind with whom to share his joy, The M'Niya was given a companion, identical in essence, but different in body. The two were of a kind.
And the M'Niya loved their Aiya, and thanked the Niyuth for it, and for their own being. And it came to pass that they wished others with whom they could share it with. The Niyuth then gave their M'Niya the ability to Create; the extent of their Creation was only insofar as they could not create any other Being that was not of their own kind. M'Niya could only bear more M'Niya. And while both types of M'Niya would revel in and share the Creation, only the second type, different in body from the first, would bring the New Life into the world.
And M'Niya begat M'Niya begat M'Niya. Aiya was fully unified and was filled with Unified Children. The Rock and the Children living upon it were in Unity, and were Unity.
2. The M'Niya flourished. They loved Aiya, and traveled all around in order to appreciate all of it's wonder and beauty - but in love of Unity, all chose to live within close proximity to the rest of the M'Niya. The love of Unity was only surpassed by the love of having others to share their love of Unity with.
And the M'Niya worked together and created D’ragniyuth, The City of the Niyuth.
And as it was that the M'Niya entire lived together, D'ragniyuth extended far out in all directions. On what was once the Five Outskirts, a temple was built on each in Honor of each Essence of the Niyuth. Each were identical and equidistant from the exact center of D'ragniyuth, a wonderous mountain, on top of which was set the Grand Temple of Unity.
And the M'Niya communed with each other, and they communed with the Niyuth. All lived. All were Strong. All Knew. All lived in Compassion for each other. Justice was always met, for there was no contention. All of the Creation was equally beautiful – no one was better or worse off than anyone else. And there was great happiness and joy thorughout Aiya. For Joy is Unity, and Unity is Joy.
3. There came to be a young girl among the M’Niya who was especially grateful for life, and thanked Nerai for here very being every day. Nerai, pleased that the young girl would single out the pleasure of her Being, granted her a special gift – the gift of extreme beauty. Although young, there had never been anyone among all the M’Niya as beautiful as young Meyanora Kietoneka.
Now Meyanora was linked at birth to be Joined with Cian as co-creators. And when one is Linked, your Linked One must always take precedence above all others.
And it came to be that one day, when Meya was out in the field to play a game with her peers, a young male, by the name of Siaron, taking note of Meya’s newfound extraordinary beauty, decided to pick Meya to be his partner in the game over his Linked One, Fontarloa.
And in that moment, Cian was filled with a feeling none on Aiya had ever felt before – the intense desire to keep what was his from what appeared to be a threat.
And Siaron and Cian fought for Meya, and Cian was killed.
4. And when he saw this had happened, Collai became enraged, for because of Nerai’s gift of Beauty, The very essence of Unity was broken. Kailori then challenged Heiren, stating it hadn’t been for the overabundance of Strength in Siaron, Cian would not have been killed.
Heiren then turned on Kailori, stating that if Meya had not been so filled with the Love of Being, the gift would not have been given, and none of this would ever have happened. And Nerai challenged Collai, demanding to know why justice had not been met – if any had to die, it should have been Siaron, the one who began the conflict, and not Cian, the one trying to defend his Linked One.
5. As the Niyuth split apart in mind, also did the essences within the M’Niya – Separate clans began to form over the incident, each made up of those who held to the same reasoning as did a particular Niyuth. Unity began to shatter.
6. The only voice of reasoning both in the Heavens and on Aiya was Shynaar. He understood that it was not a fault of the Niyuth, or of the M’Niya entire, but of the mind of a single member of their own imperfect creation. What the other Niyuth didn’t see was that their own separation was also separating the unity of the their own Children. And what the Children didn’t know was that the farther apart the Niyuth got, the less stable their world would be. Already, the world was preparing to be ripped apart.
Upon seeing the first sign of this inevitable disaster, Shynaar, while his essence still remained in the majority of the Children, gave them a warning to get as far as they could from D’ragniyuth, the place on Aiya where the Essences were most unified. As most of the Children left, a huge earthquake hit, and huge jagged stakes of rock began ripping out from the ground, rising into the sky.
The beautiful City of the Niyuth was torn to pieces and raised up along with the newly formed mountains. The remained of Aiya suffered other changes as well, in degrees that varied.
7. Shynaar informed the Niyuth of this, that their disunity was killing their children. They regretted this, but they just couldn’t find it within themselves to put their differences behind them. While their separation decreased in speed and length, they still slowly drifted apart. They also resigned themselves to the fact that the Children were already too far separated themselves that nothing could be done to restore Unity.
Jealousy now being something that ran rampant among all of the Niyuth, each, apart from Shynaar, proclaimed that in order to avoid a takeover by any single Niyuth, that none would be allowed thence to make any contact or communication with the M’Niyuth. This grieved them all, but their anger and jealousy was stronger than their desire to see their Children prosper.
Their imperfect creations were now separated and damaged beyond repair. Even Nerai grieved for her people, but decided that it was too late, nothing could be done, so the Niyuth had no reason to combine again. Shynaar, being the most clever of the Niyuth, decided to try and make a pact with them - he asked them to agree to rejoin when the Children re-unify by themselves. The Niyuth, believing that this was not possible, agreed. Part of the pact was the agreement that Shynaar could be a one-time messenger, to alert the Children of this pact, and to try to get them to rejoin.
They knew it would be futile, but they granted him this one indulgence. Shynaar pleaded also that he would be allowed another visit to his People when signs of impending Unification began to appear on the horizon. This too was also agreed upon. Looking down on his Children, Shynaar noted no group of people that would properly receive his message, for they all shared their reasoning with one of the Niyuth, and their Clan names displayed what train of thought they lived by:, the Nerai, Collayi, the Heiren, and the Kailori.
However, The Fifth clan was different - they weren’t fueled with Passion, they were fueled by logic and reason. They called themselves the Shynaar’An - The Students of Knowledge.
And so Shynaar appeared to the Shynaar’An, and even to this day, none, save the descendents of the Shynaaran, know what was said. Some say a plan was given for the clan to set in motion. Some say he merely planned to take matters into his own hands, and that the Shynaaran were to watch and guide others in the correct direction.
8. To this day, wars continue between the clans. However, after centuries of contention, the Nerai and the Heiren combined to form the Empire of Nehren. Collai and Kailori likewise joined together to form the Collori Republic. The two nations still fight to this very day, fueled by a hatred for which they know longer even know the source thereof.
9. And the Shynaaran still remain, watching, and perhaps waiting. And those who remember the legends wonder if they are working towards the goal that will see the Return of the Council of Shynaar himself, that will lead to the reunification of Aiya and the M’Niyuth entire.
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quote:Originally posted by Jon Boy: Seems to me that it'd be best to start at the beginning. I'd love to hear the Piratist account of creation.
Mine doesn't really start with creation persay, but with the taking over of the pirate god Grog and his pirates over the evil god Bashar and his evil followers. I'm using pirate language and everything.
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It may seem a bit sophomoric, but since I was a sophomore when I wrote it, that's only to be expected.
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posted
That's pretty cool, I think I'd have difficulties if I tried to write something like that with the Bible as my guide.
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In the beginning there was bread. Sadly, there was nothing else, and the bread went stale. How it went stale, we don't know, because there wasn't any air yet. But then, how'd we get the bread either? Nobody knows.
Anyway, the world was basically this giant crouton for about, oh, 5 billion years. Or a week, take your pick. Then, BANG! nothing happened.
So we decided that bread alone is really lame and boring and started over.
This time, we made sure there was mold around. That really got things started.
And, that boys and girls, is why we're all here today.
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posted
In the beginning, there was Grog and he gave the pirates lots of rum to drink and booty to plunder.
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If I ever have time to not read course related materials again (ie, winter break), I'll check those out. I've read two books by Terry Pratchett and liked them both so another could be interesting.
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The Silmarillion is an absolutely great inspiration. I was listening to it about 3 years ago and was so moved and fired, I wrote this:
There was no beginning in Ehya. The river of time did not flow. In an eternal present dwelt Ehya— past, present, future—they were all nothing to him. Perfect was Ehya in his moment. All things he knew. But in that moment—it was an eternity ago, it was now, it will happen one day—Ehya ordered his thoughts according to his name, focusing his consciousness on a pinpoint. And along a line would that point move. Thus, time came to exist, according to his name, the name he knew himself to be. And in this new form, Ehya was content and he rejoiced. And Ehya went on to meditate on himself and on his purposes. And he reflected on himself, reflecting on his nature and his qualities. And so gradually there came to be reflections, even 70 reflections, lesser than himself and yet independent of himself, but still having some of his power and qualities. And these 70 he called Emanations and named each one for what he discovered them to be. And Ehya rejoiced in his children and shared his joy with them, for he found joy in other’s joy. And Ehya marveled at their perfection and at their personality, for they drew it from him. So Ehya went on to form still more that was in his purpose. Ehya now desired to create such that could not yet exist. A new existence Ehya would make possible, one in which, though of a different nature than Ehya and his emanations, all new creation would enjoy a kind of life even they did not. For Ehya loved new and different modes of life and existence, because no matter what nature a creature partook from, it had part of Ehya in him, and each one reflected the myriad facets of Ehya in new and varied ways. And Ehya went on to present his vision to his Emanations and invited them to take part in its making, so that they would know, as he knew from before his first reflection, the joy of life and of making. And the first of his emanations, who was found to be Image/Malgo, proceeded to say, “Yes, great life giver and Father, yes great Ehya, I shall take part in your work, yes, even in the lowest thing.” For Malgo had seen Ehya’s wisdom and marveled at his foresight and power and love and kindness and the beauty of his work. And Malgo had come to know that Ehya was perfect in all things, and that if he would be happy, then he must imitate and follow Ehya, even unto the smallest thing. One by one, all 70 of His Emanations agreed with Malgo. But the two of them, Kavod and Kadod, Glory and Power, the Inexorable Ones, The Twins of Mightiness, had a darkness in their hearts. For even as they marveled at Ehya, at his power, love and wisdom, they marveled at those qualities in themselves, rejoicing that they reflected the great Ehya in those particular aspects. But their darkness was hidden even from themselves, as a seed of pride. Ehya had seen it, of course, but, as was his way, he wanted their choice as to what they would be. It was his hope that they would get the mastery of themselves. For Ehya knew that pride in one’s abilities was not evil in itself, but instead was merely joy in what one accomplished—the fruit of labor. The evil was in believing that ones abilities made one greater and better than others. And so Ehya hoped they would learn and see as he did, and for a while his hope bore fruit. When all the Emanations had joined themselves to Ehya’s purpose, at once Ehya began to toil. To each of his Emanations did Ehya delegate oversight and planning of a different aspect. There was mighty labor of mind in this work as each of them strove to harmonize with Ehya’s vision. Yet the toil also came from integrating their own personality and vision in to that original framework and into each other’s work. For Ehya’s vision was a purpose and a knowing of the general form and function. But there were many ways for that to be accomplished. So gradually there came into existence Gnos/The Pattern of Things. Gnos was the embodiment of their work, neither living thing, nor Emanation, yet a self-sustaining structure nonetheless. And Ehya was pleased, for a here-to-fore inconceivable thing had been done. What is more, the Emanations found great joy in their labors and dwelt in ever greater awe of Ehya, for his was the first whose mind had known how to reach this joy. But in Kavod and Kadod the seed within germinated, for mighty had been their labors in this work. Ehya went on to take an essence from each of them and from himself, and to combine them into one super-essence, and then breathed unity of form in it. For unlike himself or the Emanations, he closed the essences in on themselves so that their form was finite. So Ehya proceeded to cloth Gnos with the newly form super-essence. And the two merged, one into the other, until they were one, Gnos and Super-Essence, one together as a realm. And Ehya declared it to be Oaron/ The Temporal Closed State. And Ehya and his children rejoiced in what they had made and felt great joy at the works of their minds. So the Emanations sang to Ehya in praise for his great and wondrous works, his wisdom and foresight and power, and most of all, of his great love in allowing them the privilege to partake in his gifts. And even as they sang those last words, the seed took root in the hearts of Kavod and Kadod, for less and less did they view their partaking as a kind permission, but instead as a right deserved. And yet even at this point, hope shone, for Ehya spoke to them as the Great and Worthy Sons of a Great and Worthy Father, who loved their father and wanted to be like him in all ways. And the roots of pride began to shrivel up in the light and heat of Ehya’s love and power and pride in them. And they returned to Ehya in their heart. But still, even so, the seed remained for Kavod and Kadod to gain the mastery, if they would. Then Ehya took Oaron and poured his power into it until it was filled and it pulsed with promise. Then, together with his Emanations, He focused on Oaron-Suffused. And the pressure of their gaze was terrible to behold and unbearable to withstand, so that Oaron-Suffused nearly passed out of existence as it folded in on itself again and again and again. And so the moment had arrived when Oaron, pregnant with the power and vision of Ehya, was ready to bring forth light. For this great moment, when Universe was about to be given in light, Ehya, in the presence of all his children, summoned one to stand with him. And this one was Malgo, his Image. For though all, even Kavod and Kadod, had stood with him from the beginning, it was Malgo who was his perfect reflection in all things. Yes, even to the point that Kavod and Kadod loved Malgo scarcely less than Ehya himself. Malgo it was who had pledged even to serve in the most menial manner, so great was his desire to assist his Father even in the smallest thing. None of the Emanations had striven more mightily than Malgo. So Ehya bade Malgo to come forth and be at the ready. And after rejoicing with his children that the moment was at hand and that their shared vision and creation was about to come into existence, Ehya commanded Malgo to set Oaron free. “Let their be Universe”— And Universe was born in heat and light and power, as Oaron surged free, creating itself and its place, and it began to grow in power and in form....
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