Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) X-Mas vs. Christmas

I don't think he did, but... I haven't read much of the Bible.

The life of brian.........

I'm pretty sure the jews killed him, but I've just payed attention enough to get decent grades in middle eastern class.

Did you shoose that class yourself? If you didn't, did you get equal education in other religions as well? What do you think of this? Just curious.

Übereil

No, your forced to.

Not really. Well, its a private school, guess they can tell you what you need to learn. The school has all Christians and Athiests anyways.

IMO = In my opinion.
IMHO = In my humble opinion.

I want to start talking about some of the origins of Christian and Catholic symbols, but I really don't feel like starting more controversy. I recommend reading The Da Vinci Code. It's an amazing book and gives you the answers you asked for above in a very good story.

Private school? I know they exist, but as a Swede they're kind of like a myth. After all, here in Sweden ALL schools ar owned by the state.

And just wondering, are your parents rich or something? I sort of get that kind of impression...

Übereil

A fun read certainly, but.... Brown throws in a lot of alleged "fact", a good deal of which is highly speculative at best; his historical research is less than inspiring; and much of his source material is drawn directly from some very popular not-quite-mainstream books. He mentions several of the books in his text (I think they were in Teabing's library...).

None of this stuff is new (except perhaps to the best seller lists), and since he's writing a work of fiction, he mixes and matches to suit the book, not to support any one theory.

For information, I wouldn't rely too heavily on this one; for an entertaining story, it fits the bill just fine.

BTW, today is Epiphany in the Western rite, which ends the "twelve days of Christmas". It is also Christmas for some Eastern rite churches, so: [color:"orange"]Warmest good wishes to Egin and to all others who celebrate the Orthodox Christmas. [/color]

I agree; read it for the story. It does give you a different perspective on things though. I must agree that there is an awful lot of coincidence between religions.

I walked past a Catholic cathederal in Melbourne recently and was stunned to see distinctly Pagan symbols carved into the marble out the front. I'd be very curious to find out what they meant to the Church.

Well aren't they all just a little bit of the truth?

They exist. Almost all of them here are owned by the state, so they're all packed full, and you don't learn as much.

Why do you get that impression?

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

to each his/her own. i'm talking about opinions, of course. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

well Gal, christians who know their facts don't blame jews for putting jesus to death. in fact, christianity will not be possible had that not happen. i'm not saying i'm glad that it happened. but it did.

how it went, at least in the bible, is that jesus was implicated by the jewish religious bigshots for being deviant (or at least that's what they believed) & therefore reducing their influence over the people. so they handed him to the romans who were the rulers of israel at the time. jews at the time had no more national pride (other than that they're jewish) so romans were invaders turned rulers turned benefactors in their eyes.

so with 'respect' for the rules & laws, the romans got jesus as prisoner to be punished. according to roman laws, he's just a dude with his own religion thing so no laws were broken. pontius pilate (the governer in israel at the time) intended to hand him back to the jewish religious officials but they screamed for what they called justice to be meted out. pilate, fearful of conflict among the people (the romans just managed to own the place without more uneconomical conflicts to worry about) & not wanting some bad reviews to go back to rome about his mismanagement over something so trivial, washed his hands (this is the origin of that phrase) over the whole thing & let the jewish people (or rather the mob roused by the jewish religious officials) decide over the matter. so the decision ultimately went back to the jews & the jews decided it was better to have the serial criminal released rather than jesus.


& there u have it & i hope it's clear enough, Gal.

as for womble's view of the romans twisting the facts, i guess it's plausible in a way.

& about the christian symbol of the crucifix, we use it to remind ourselves what jesus had to go through for our salvation. & with that in mind, we will always be grateful & blessed. well there's more but i guess that's enough for now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

& as for celibacy, it's the decision of roman catholic church, so it's not from the time of jesus. in fact, most of jesus's closest disciples, called apostles, had wives & real jobs. saint paul, who before was a prosecutor of christians then turned to an active christian, was a cobbler by day & preacher by night.

edit: rince, u're right. Da Vinci Code was a fun read, nevertheless it's based on circumstancial evidence & i think the author was sued for stealing other people's research materials to write this book, hence its popularity.

If you look at the history of early Christian movements you will find some interesting historical facts. For example, there were sects of Christians who believed that in order to follow the teachings of Jesus you had to be Jewish.

I bet they 'dissapeared' quickly. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

@ Janggut
Great explanation you did there!! Thanks man!! It's finally clear to me, I never had such a clear view on Christianity as I do today. But, even when I was baptisted, did my communion when I was 12 and got married before a priest, I'm not really a believer in Jesus and God etc... I only believe what I see, when I see a tsunami hitting thousands of families, or millions of people are getting sick or children are born dead, than I aske myself, where is that dude that calls himself God???
I know some of us on the forum may be strong believers but nothing can make a bigger impact than a real life miracle. I hope I don't step on anyone's toes but I hope that we each can have our own opinion about things that we don't have real proof of. Maybe I'm just an atheïst, with a curious nature...

I just read this. Pretty fascinating stuff Jang. Since the bible is pretty much the only historical document from that day I guess we have to believe it.

Not sure how many times it has been re-written though. Meh... I'm just a cynic, ignore me.

"From a certain point of view", as Obi-Wan said..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

@ womble
History is not about facts.... its about the perspective of the writer.

@ galadriel
You may find some reason as to why bad things happen, i have uploaded a powerpoint presentation i received a couple of years ago.... it had a right of truth to me, so i kept it.. Where is God when bad things happen

Can't say it didn't made me think, but still, doesn't make me in to a better Christian though. Maybe in to a better person, there is always room for improvement.
But (and now I will be the pain in the a$$) were was God before? When his son died? No , don't bother explaining that to me, otherwise this forum will turn into a very heavy one. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shhh.gif" alt="" />

I never said i can explain anything.... something i dont want to understand....

I grew up christian, but i cant call myself that anymore... christians are reputed to be very narrow minded (its like THAT, and no argument allowed)... i cant be narrow minded, i tried and failed miserably... so my religion has expanded to include much more than just the bible (make no mistake, the bible is still a foundation in my life), but i cannot exclude the koran, i cant exclude budist teachings, there are loads of religions i cannot exclude in my life. (i cant become a budist EVER though... the food is just EEEEEWWWWWWWW)

I believe that in essence, most religions(of good nature - not talking evil here) have the same basic core. Men then went and added rules to the religion according to their point of view.... and its those rules that i cant accept.

In essence, i follow good, i believe in a higher power of the same good nature. I believe he HAS the power to make everything better. I also accept that there is evil, but i do not follow it. I take the good from every religion and accept it, but i deny the rules any value in my life.

I think there are a lot more people that feel the way i do.... christian rules are just too narrow minded, they restrict too much and dont allow for anybody to THINK and make up his/her own mind.... its black and white, between 2 lines.... most my life i dont live between those lines, how can i keep to rules designed for a life i dont have????

But as to my previous post, i do believe that god has the power we allow it to have in our lives. Other religions teach this, i dont think there is a difference in truth. You dont need to be a christian to have God in your heart... You only need to walk the right path.

I loved the phrase out of matrix (IIRC) "THere is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path." Most religions KNOW the path, it doesnt mean they walk it...

Well said, Lady Rain <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />
I believe you have to interprete the bible like you want to. Maybe every story is different for everyone. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I agree, every story will be different. every person values something different in life.

But i feel that most people, regardless of religion, still walk the same path, even if their religions have different names for their destination.

People aren't bad people even if they do bad things occasionally.