I read an article on CNN about the germiest tourist attractions in the world. 400,000 people kissed the Blamey stone in Ireland last year and Oscar Wilde fans who visit his tomb in Paris leave Wilde lipstick marks on it. There is no sign in these places saying they are disinfected daily and they're ok to kiss. The tourist authorities wouldn't want to make people self-conscious about it but how do we know they clean them every day? This article made me self-conscious, not just about tourist spots. In Greece, it's the custom to kiss religious icons in a church. I was forced to do it when I was little. I didn't like it because I believed I was the anti-Christ. Now I know I'm not (I can't even delete the memory of the kiss how could I have been the chosen one?) but seeing other people's lip-prints on the glass is still disgusting to me. Can someone convince me that those hairy/oily Greek priests clean the icons before they ask people to kiss them??
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Mr and Mrs. God
For me, one of the most interesting aspects of the Abrahamic religions is that all three were created by members of the male gender. I think this goes a long way toward explaining why it was written that Men are created in the image of God (who -- surprise, surprise -- also happens to be a fella) and why woman was created From a man, not independently. By utilizing the literary devise of woman's being be borne from part of the male body (his rib), it placed the fairer sex in an eternally submissive position.
I've often thought about how these three religions might have been different If Women, not men, were the drivers behind their creation. For starters, I seriously doubt there would be one singular Heavenly Father.
Women tend to be the ones in a family that try to bring everyone together (utilizing the stereotypical mothering function), so my guess is that a woman-infused religious system would have created a heavenly couple, Mr and Mrs. God or the Heavenly Father and Mother.
Since women, not men, bring new life into the world via the womb, it's hard for me to imagine a woman-infused religion creating the tragic figure of Jesus dying on the cross to save the world from sin.
Most of the mothers I know would throw themselves in front of a bus in order to save their child EVEN if that child happens to be a rapist or a murderer. It's just the maternal instinct to want to shield your child from harm.
Anyway, this is all merely my own conjecture. What's yours?
http://www.thinkaloo.com
I've often thought about how these three religions might have been different If Women, not men, were the drivers behind their creation. For starters, I seriously doubt there would be one singular Heavenly Father.
Women tend to be the ones in a family that try to bring everyone together (utilizing the stereotypical mothering function), so my guess is that a woman-infused religious system would have created a heavenly couple, Mr and Mrs. God or the Heavenly Father and Mother.
Since women, not men, bring new life into the world via the womb, it's hard for me to imagine a woman-infused religion creating the tragic figure of Jesus dying on the cross to save the world from sin.
Most of the mothers I know would throw themselves in front of a bus in order to save their child EVEN if that child happens to be a rapist or a murderer. It's just the maternal instinct to want to shield your child from harm.
Anyway, this is all merely my own conjecture. What's yours?
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Monday, May 25, 2009
What's your view on suicide?
In the movie 7 Pounds Will Smith feels responsible for causing a car accident that cost 7 people their lives. He decides to put an end to his life but not before he chooses 7 people to donate his organs to and save their lives. If you take your life away in order to give life to another person isn't it an act of sacrifice similar to Jesus' crucifiction to save mankind from its sins? Why is the right to end one's life only God's privilege and a sin when humans do it? Shouldn't suicide in order to save other people's lives considered a deeply religious act precisely because it's an act of sacrifice?
http://www.thinkaloo.com
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Are you in favor or against people marrying online?
The idea is to give people the extra option to marry online if they want to. Make online civil marriages as legally binding as the ones performed at the mayor's office. It's becoming all the more common to meet people online and spend hours chatting on the net and form real relationships, so why not give people the option to marry online if they want to? The benefits are reduced costs, faster planning and an opportunity for new virtual-wedding businesses to develop. We could describe these web weddings in one word 'Webdings'.
Webdings will probably result in an increase in cross-border weddings. To prevent fake international marriages done for immigration purposes only, the couple will have to submit to the authorities of the country they wish to reside a chronological resume of their online relationship which will have to have a duration of at least a couple of years.
I think it is an interesting concept and the public debate about it should start online.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Webdings will probably result in an increase in cross-border weddings. To prevent fake international marriages done for immigration purposes only, the couple will have to submit to the authorities of the country they wish to reside a chronological resume of their online relationship which will have to have a duration of at least a couple of years.
I think it is an interesting concept and the public debate about it should start online.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Adult toys for religious people
Don't religions implicitly ban use of adult toys in sexual intercourse? How about allowing their use for married couples who don't cheat? This is probably a very unusual thought but in an age where sexual temptations everywhere make it hard for people to stay loyal to their married partner, religions that preach monogamy and ban adultery could consider give their blessing to marital-only use of adult toys and accessories. That would certainly please the faithful and reward their loyalty, don't you think? :P
http://www.thinkaloo.com
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Monday, April 20, 2009
Multiple Resurrections
I came to the island of Lefkada to spend Easter weekend. The traditional church ceremony was the funniest I have been to in many years. Fireworks lit the sky at 11:15pm, 45 minutes earlier!! A granny asked me if Christ's Resurrection had happened. I told her with a very serious face that in this church they resurrect Christ one hour earlier because the priest has to go to another church soon after.
She seemed disappointed and asked why, so I decided to laugh at this and made up a story about many priests in the island losing their jobs this year because of the bad economy so the ones with a job had to take their shifts or God would not forgive their slacking! The granny kept nodding her head. I don't know if she believed me but she kept nodding. I then looked around and watched others puzzled and confused rolling their eyes in front of their watches. The 45-minutes-premature fireworks were still lighting up the sky, I just had to burst out laughing nervously. I couldn't help it.
I decided to go inside the church as the spectacle outside was unbelievably surrealist and I couldn't control my laughs. Soon as I came in, some of the guys that were standing in the church yard outside, started taking turns exploding detonators. They were obsessive. No one would take a break and the blasts kept coming. Being inside the church it sounded as if a Panathinaikos-Olympiakos soccer game was going on outside. Or Gulf War 3. When some detonators would explode too close to the church's windows and blast out loud, all the little kids inside the church would scream and interrupt the priest. And oh man, the priest!
He was definitely a character on his own. He was chanting fast and in a low voice, he seemed in a hurry to go hide in a bunker or stop the ceremony and go out to scold the fire workers to stop it. Yeah right!
He kept interrupting the liturgy once every 2-3 minutes not to ask someone to go tell the kids to stop exploding the detonators but to ask the crowd to come closer and fill the space in front of him. Was he worried about some part of the church falling or something? Thank Christ I didn't have to wait long to figure out why he was in such a hurry.
The priest turned the lights off inside the church around 11:40pm, twenty minutes earlier than usual, then he appeared on stage like a rock star holding the holy flames and chanting out so loud now it was impossible to hear the explosions outside. He was a rustic paparokas live on stage, a rock-star priest. That's why he would gesture to people with his hands to make them come closer to him. He so desperately wanted to have the crowd fill in the space in front of him he wouldn't mind interrupting the liturgy to nudge people to come closer. What a funny guy!
He was like a stage director planning on making an impressive stage appearance for himself after the lights switched off! Could it be that he was secretly filming the ceremony too? He didn't seem to mind the detonators or the early launch of the fireworks at all!
At some point, however, he must have realized he hurried the whole thing too much. A premature resurrected Christ might have whispered it to him. 20 minutes to midnight. Everyone's looking at their watches again. The paparokas priest has to do something to patch it, so he did the most natural thing to him. He kept chanting the Christ Resurrected theme so many times over and over and over, I think this was the first Easter in my life I must have witnessed multiple resurrections of Christ.
What a weird little village church. Totally asynchronous and absolutely hilarious. After this, I don't want to spend Easter in Athens anymore. Local villages are so much more fun. So unpredictable and idiosyncratic!
http://www.thinkaloo.com
She seemed disappointed and asked why, so I decided to laugh at this and made up a story about many priests in the island losing their jobs this year because of the bad economy so the ones with a job had to take their shifts or God would not forgive their slacking! The granny kept nodding her head. I don't know if she believed me but she kept nodding. I then looked around and watched others puzzled and confused rolling their eyes in front of their watches. The 45-minutes-premature fireworks were still lighting up the sky, I just had to burst out laughing nervously. I couldn't help it.
I decided to go inside the church as the spectacle outside was unbelievably surrealist and I couldn't control my laughs. Soon as I came in, some of the guys that were standing in the church yard outside, started taking turns exploding detonators. They were obsessive. No one would take a break and the blasts kept coming. Being inside the church it sounded as if a Panathinaikos-Olympiakos soccer game was going on outside. Or Gulf War 3. When some detonators would explode too close to the church's windows and blast out loud, all the little kids inside the church would scream and interrupt the priest. And oh man, the priest!
He was definitely a character on his own. He was chanting fast and in a low voice, he seemed in a hurry to go hide in a bunker or stop the ceremony and go out to scold the fire workers to stop it. Yeah right!
He kept interrupting the liturgy once every 2-3 minutes not to ask someone to go tell the kids to stop exploding the detonators but to ask the crowd to come closer and fill the space in front of him. Was he worried about some part of the church falling or something? Thank Christ I didn't have to wait long to figure out why he was in such a hurry.
The priest turned the lights off inside the church around 11:40pm, twenty minutes earlier than usual, then he appeared on stage like a rock star holding the holy flames and chanting out so loud now it was impossible to hear the explosions outside. He was a rustic paparokas live on stage, a rock-star priest. That's why he would gesture to people with his hands to make them come closer to him. He so desperately wanted to have the crowd fill in the space in front of him he wouldn't mind interrupting the liturgy to nudge people to come closer. What a funny guy!
He was like a stage director planning on making an impressive stage appearance for himself after the lights switched off! Could it be that he was secretly filming the ceremony too? He didn't seem to mind the detonators or the early launch of the fireworks at all!
At some point, however, he must have realized he hurried the whole thing too much. A premature resurrected Christ might have whispered it to him. 20 minutes to midnight. Everyone's looking at their watches again. The paparokas priest has to do something to patch it, so he did the most natural thing to him. He kept chanting the Christ Resurrected theme so many times over and over and over, I think this was the first Easter in my life I must have witnessed multiple resurrections of Christ.
What a weird little village church. Totally asynchronous and absolutely hilarious. After this, I don't want to spend Easter in Athens anymore. Local villages are so much more fun. So unpredictable and idiosyncratic!
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Sunday, April 12, 2009
The Catholic Church bans use of condoms
If you sprinkle holy water inside a condom and contraception didn't work, does the child have God's blessing? Can you avoid contracting HIV if you sprinkle your penis with holy water and not use the condom? I don't understand why the Catholic Church bans the use of condoms yet spends a lot of money to pay for HIV treatments. How much more guilty can they feel inside their hearts....
http://www.thinkaloo.com
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Friday, February 29, 2008
Why don't they make church seats more comfortable?
This thought was posted on Thinkaloo on 29 February 2008 by member cyteck89
Visit www.thinkaloo.com, our new online community where you can share your thoughts and knowledge, discuss your ideas, ask questions and meet smart people
---
If the Church wants people to stay to the end during longer ceremonies why don't they make seats more comfortable? I think that if seating at the Church was more anatomic people would come more often and stay longer. In addition to good artists that make beautiful religious icons, I think the Church should also hire better seat designers
What is the obsession with having church seats made from wood? If a big fire ever breaks out in a church all the seats will burn like wood in a fireplace
Visit www.thinkaloo.com, our new online community where you can share your thoughts and knowledge, discuss your ideas, ask questions and meet smart people
---
If the Church wants people to stay to the end during longer ceremonies why don't they make seats more comfortable? I think that if seating at the Church was more anatomic people would come more often and stay longer. In addition to good artists that make beautiful religious icons, I think the Church should also hire better seat designers
What is the obsession with having church seats made from wood? If a big fire ever breaks out in a church all the seats will burn like wood in a fireplace
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The word of God in a comic book?
This thought was posted on Thinkaloo on 21 February 2008 by member ben
Visit www.thinkaloo.com, our new online community where you can share your thoughts and knowledge, discuss your ideas, ask questions and meet smart people
---
A cartoon in Denmark on prophet Mohammed produces riots and protests among Muslims. The Catholic Church of England on the other hand uses cartoons called manga (a Japanese-style comic book) to recruit young people into priesthood. Not every Christian church uses cartoons for recruitment, but I think this might be an interesting new way to appeal to the religious sentiment of young people and bring them closer to the Church.
I think of it this way. The cover of which book would be more appealing to an 8-year old to open, take a look and read? A dark cover with a Cross and the world Bible on it? Or a colorful comic book with the Messiah in a cartoon figure on it?
If the way young people communicate has changed, shouldn't the Church also change the way it delivers God's message to them? There is certainly a lot of good argument against such kind of modernization by the Church but at the same time I think we need to be open to new ideas and ways the word of God can be delivered.
The manga might be a modern way but not the most appropriate. As long as it makes us think what the best way to deliver the message to young people is, I think it is a positive experiment. What do you think?
Visit www.thinkaloo.com, our new online community where you can share your thoughts and knowledge, discuss your ideas, ask questions and meet smart people
---
A cartoon in Denmark on prophet Mohammed produces riots and protests among Muslims. The Catholic Church of England on the other hand uses cartoons called manga (a Japanese-style comic book) to recruit young people into priesthood. Not every Christian church uses cartoons for recruitment, but I think this might be an interesting new way to appeal to the religious sentiment of young people and bring them closer to the Church.
I think of it this way. The cover of which book would be more appealing to an 8-year old to open, take a look and read? A dark cover with a Cross and the world Bible on it? Or a colorful comic book with the Messiah in a cartoon figure on it?
If the way young people communicate has changed, shouldn't the Church also change the way it delivers God's message to them? There is certainly a lot of good argument against such kind of modernization by the Church but at the same time I think we need to be open to new ideas and ways the word of God can be delivered.
The manga might be a modern way but not the most appropriate. As long as it makes us think what the best way to deliver the message to young people is, I think it is a positive experiment. What do you think?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
