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felassan · 4 years

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So the Chantry is kinda all pervasive amongst humans in Thedas, but it's only been going for ~1000 years, what do we know of pre/non Andrastian religion amongst humans and other folk?

oohh, great question

Some of this stuff is more like philosophy or religion-adjacent, but it’s worth going into on the subject of the query.

(Note: terms like “shaman” and “animism” are coming from in-universe sources/quotes)

The dwarves don’t worship a god, but they venerate The Stone and have been doing so for over 2000 years. They believe themselves to be the Children of the Stone, which they refer to as “she”. She shelters them, supports them and offers them the most priceless gifts of the earth. Most non-surface dwarves really don’t want to lose their connection to the Stone, their innate Stone-sense. They also practise something akin to ancestor worship. Worthy dwarves are thought to return to the Stone’s embrace in death and become Ancestors. The Ancestors guide the dwarves and speak with the voice of the Provings. Genetivi writes that “for guidance in spiritual matters”, the dwarves turn to their Ancestors. Dwarves may ask the Ancestors to guard or protect them or their loved ones. They also seek to honor and follow in the footsteps of their Paragons. Paragons are believed to have joined with the Stone in life and are essentially elite role models. They’re elected by the Assembly after a great invention, act of valor or other notable action or trait, mostly posthumously. Paragons are set above the ancestors and even kings. If living a Paragon has ‘living Ancestor’ status. There’s some overlap in these concepts; dwarves are said to practise living ancestor worship by way of naming Paragons.

The dwarves of Kal-Sharok have lived for many years in isolation and consequently some of their religious and associated practises have somewhat diverged. They don’t recognize the Paragons of Orzammar, and their own Paragons are selected based on promised deeds, as opposed to ones already undertaken. The Sha-Brytol defend and revere the Titans. They later come to both love and fear Valta due to her restored Titan-connection. Meanwhile, some Surface dwarves still cleave to the Stone. Others are Andrastian or non-religious. Brother Burkel in DAO was an Andrastian Surface dwarf who wished to open a Chantry in Orzammar. I wonder if dwarven beliefs before their sundering from the Titans were centered around the Titans, as their beliefs now are around the Stone (which is like, the same thing, but also not).

The big-Q Qunari follow the Qun. “Qunari” means “People of the Qun”. The Qun is a school of thought and set of teachings based on the writings and philosophies of its founder, Ashkaari Koslun, in the Tome of Koslun. “The Qun” is the philosophical text Koslun wrote, and it’s noted to be “a philosophy” which “does not allow for the existence of religions”. Qunari society is essentially based on the Qun. Notably, it’s not an atheistic belief system (“not” isn’t a typo here, I think it’s something DG once said. not sure how this fits together). Humans, elves and dwarves can convert to and embrace the Qun, whereupon they become known as Viddathari - like Tallis, or Gatt. It’s possible for Viddathari to become Arishok, Arigena or Ariqun. The Ariqun is the leader of the Qunari priesthood and Tamassrans and the Ben-Hassrath are branches of it. Members of the horned race born outside of the Qun - who have never known it - are considered Vashoth (grey - Genetivi’s interview with a Vashoth goat herder is insightful here), and Qunari of any race who intentionally leave or abandon the Qun are Tal-Vashoth (true grey). To be Tal-Vashoth is to rebel against the Qun’s principles.

Many Rivaini people have converted to the Qun, especially in Kont-aar, which is a Qunari settlement on the mainland. Many native Seherons have also converted to the Qun. City Elves are notably likely to convert due to their unfair lot and mistreatment in human society. The original native inhabitants of Par Vollen, the Fex, have been assimilated into the Qun. Before that, the Fex were probably the “people of Par Vollen” who built the vast cities and great distinctive pyramids on the island which are now ruins. These pyramids don’t seem to be tombs, and due to their design may be scientific in purpose (observatories). They could instead potentially have been of religious significance. Those people used to have temples, upon which they made stylized painted carvings depicting tall horned figures in positions of authority and respect: “What were these horned figures to the ancients of Par Vollen? Priests, ritualistically crowned? Heroes? Gods, perhaps? We may never know the truth. But when the Qunari arrived from the sea, horned and carrying the word of the Qun, perhaps instead of conquerors, the people of Par Vollen saw an old legend returning to them.” This seems to be the reason why the Fex were assimilated so easily and without resistance.

Before the foundation of the Qun, the people who preceded the Qunari - “kossith” isn’t quite right as a term for them, for several reasons - prayed to animist gods. World of Thedas says “they were wild then, devoted to a chaos that kept them from greatness”. When “the Qun became law, the temples kossith built to honor their animist gods were destroyed, and their priests were reeducated or driven into exile”.

The main elven religion can probably be roughly split into three categories: the ancient religion, in which the Evanuris were worshipped as god-kings by ancient elves in Elvhenan and which probably still has some relevance for the few remaning ancient elves today (see Abelas and co); the modern Dalish faith, involving the Dalish elves’ conception of the pantheon as the Creators and how they relate that to their way of life; and those among the City Elves who still keep to the old ways or seem to adhere to both them and Andrastianism, and more broadly speaking, the City Elves’ practising of those cultural rituals that they do remember, and of their own unique traditions. The deities are Mythal, Elgar’nan, June, Andruil, Sylaise, Dirthamen, Falon’Din, Ghilan’nain and sometimes Fen’Harel. A lot has been said on elfy stuff of this kind, so I won’t get much into it.

Notably, Ameridan, an elf from the Dales (as in the historical Dalish kingdom), revered both the elven pantheon and the Maker. For him, was this syncretism? In the Dales historically, each elven ‘Creator’ god had a High Keeper and a temple. In the modern day most City Elves are Andrastian, although Andrastianism for several reasons is more distant as a concept to many City Elves compared to how it is for the average human. Some City Elves seem to believe in the Creators or in a combination of both the Creators and the Maker - the Widower in the Hinterlands and his spouse for example kept to the old ways as they could, and he can say to the Inquisitor “Falon’Din guide your steps - or the Maker, as you like”.

There is also still elven worship of the Forgotten Ones, the other half of the elven pantheon. Named Forgotten Ones are Daern’thal, Anaris, Geldauran and sometimes Fen’Harel, but there are others. In the time of the Dales, worship of these beings was persecuted, but secret worship of these gods did continue through til the modern day. “Some fear that these dark beings are less forgotten than most believe, and that a terrible few have strayed deeply into darkness in their quest for vengeance against the shemlen. If these are true and secretive cults do indeed hide among the elves, then such lost souls have torn out their hearts and forsaken all that it means to be Dalish in return for the keys to a twisted and terrible strength”. The elves in the Tirashan are implied to follow gods other than the traditional Dalish Creators, and to wear brilliant crimson vallaslin of these gods. In The Last Court they set upon Seraultine soldiers, and instead of calling out to the Creators for aid, they were calling out to no gods the soldiers had ever heard of before, “offering us up. Like pigs on a platter.” It’s probable that the gods these elves worship are the Forgotten Ones, and it could be that sacrifice is part of their belief system (though it should be noted the recounting of that event was told by a human they’d attacked [bias, fear?]).

The Scaled Ones (a reptilian underground race) seem to have/have had their own religion. Details are thin, but they’ve been observed practising at a golden altar fashioned in the shape of a fire. “On the tip of each flame hung the corpses of those we’d lost. [...] They’d been drained of blood, leaving only bone wrapped in grey skin. A robed Scaled One stood before the altar. Its voice was different from the others: softer, almost feminine. It chanted and raised a basin of blood towards the altar. The other Scaled Ones bowed low. The robed Scaled One produced fire from its palm and mouth and ignited the blood.”

Humanity is very varied. In Andrastianism, you have the main big split, which is the Imperial / ‘black’ Chantry in Tevinter vs the southern / ‘white’ Chantry. Some of the differences between the two variants are covered here. You also have various Andrastian... splinter groups, off-shoots, or cults. This isn’t surprising given that Andrastianism itself was originally a cult known as the Cult of the Maker. After what happened to Andraste, there were many cults, and the Cult of the Maker was oppressed. It just ended up happening to get lucky and became the one which subsumed or supplanted most of the others in the end, thanks to Kordillus. The mainstream Chantry today considers all such alternative practises and beliefs heretical. Many of these beliefs however pre-date the Chantry.

The Inquisitor can encounter the Blades of Hessarian cult. They believe that they serve Andraste and were chosen to bring her judgement upon the weak and corrupt, and that they originate from Trefir, who was a slave of the Archon that Andraste supposedly met.

My favorite offshoot: the Cult of [the] Masked Andraste, in Serault. They worship a huntress-aspect of Andraste unique to Serault, and their sigil is the bow. Their shrine to Masked Andraste stands in the Applewoods, where she’s depicted with a bow. This cult is neither entirely permitted nor entirely forbidden. Yayy, heterodoxy! They hold secret woodland rites linked to nature, so that “The Masked Andraste will quench its hunger”, and their leader is none other than the Elegant Abbess of the Abbey of the Bans.

The Order of Fiery Promise’s adherents are called Promisers. They believe that the end of the world is coming and also that it’s necessary. They once tried to destroy all Astrariums in order to fulfill their destiny, and they want Thedas to be cleansed with fire to that it can be reborn as a paradise. They’ve resurfaced several times throughout history, and originate in a time long ago when several cults dedicated to Andraste were each trying to become ‘The One’.

The Hero of Ferelden encounters the Disciples of Andraste, led by Father Kolgrim, father of the Haven Chantry. Originally pledged to keep the Temple of Sacred Ashes, by 9:30 they believed a High dragon to be Andraste reincarnated and cared for its eggs and dragonlings. This cult preceded the Chantry and kept itself well-hidden until the modern day. Its leader figures were men. They no longer revere the Maker and instead revere Andraste herself. In DAI, Tamar is a surviving member of this cult.

The Daughters of Song were wiped out by Emperor Drakon during his crusade. They were a hedonistic cult comprised of both women and men whose hedonism was their way of celebrating Andraste’s holy union with the Maker. Their stronghold was in an Orlesian village.

Related to this stuff, there was also the Empty Ones, who are fascinating but harder to classify. They were a small and short-lived cult based out of Nevarra which worshipped the Blight itself and by extension darkspawn. Their belief was that the Blight was the Maker’s tool by which he intended to end all creation, as the world was beyond redemption. They saw the darkspawn as his prophets and wanted to return to the Void. They were wiped out in the Second Blight.

Within the mainstream southern Chantry, mention can also be made of Nevarran practises and beliefs, which are like.. gothic Andrastianism with some distinctive features and bells on? They hold ancestral pageants and don’t burn their dead like other Andrastians. They have a unique relationship with magic and death, unique beliefs about what happens to dead souls and how that interacts with spirits and the Fade, and a unique preoccupation with mummification, necromancy and crypts. The Mortalitasi perform mysterious macabre rites and are often rumored to be a death cult.

Outside of Andrastianism, in Tevinter, worship of the Old Gods occurred thousands of years ago and still persists in secret parts of Tevinter society today. The Old Gods are Dumat, Lusacan, Razikale, Toth, Urthemiel, Andoral and Zazikel. It’s speculated that there may have been an eigthth Old God who was struck from the records. In the days of the ancient Imperium, most citizens worshipped them, and there were associated temples and holidays, and a High Priest and priesthood of each. The true nature of the Old Gods is unknown - demons, spirits, Great dragons, something else? - but they’re the sleeping dragon-shaped beings that become Archdemons if the darkspawn find and Taint them. They used to communicate directly with their worshippers and the influence of Old God worship on Tevinter society is still evident today with how their culture views dragons as the ultimate symbol of power and how dragons are featured heavily in much of their art, architecture, etc. There are still some Old God cults in more modern times:

the Blood Band is an Old God cult led by Fallstick. They hate templars and don’t view blood magic as being inherently evil.

the Last Moon are/were a cult dedicated to Lusacan. Early in the Dragon Age, they abducted and ritualistically murdered several people. Their goal at that time was to cause the start of a terrible battle, in order to cover Thedas in “a night that will never end” (Lusacan being the Dragon of Night).

Magister Aurelian Titus also led a cult. Titus wanted to return all of the Imperium to the worship of the Old Gods. He tried to use the Dreamer abilities of himself and his cult, bolstered by the Magrallen artifact, in order to brainwash Thedosians. He had a vision of a restored Tevinter where slaves knew their place and the Chant of Light and the Qun were both purged from peoples’ minds. He said “The old gods. The dragon gods. We shall become them”.

there’s also a tale of a group of Old God cultists who departed mainland Thedas on a trio of ships in the late Storm Age to try and reach the mysterious uninhabited land of Amaranth, across the eastern ocean. Their expedition was supposedly never heard from again

The Venatori are also arguably a cult, although not precisely of the Old Gods exactly but of one of the original High Priests of the Old Gods, the Conductor, who we know as Corypheus. They’re the nationalist supremacists that we all.. know and don’t love. They see/saw Corypheus as the Elder One and a deity, essentially, and want to restore the glory of Tevinter. They revered him and believed he’d turn them into god-kings when he became a proper god. Although routed by the Inquisitor in DAI, they’re not gone. Venatori remnant loyalists crop up in Tevinter Nights. One prominent loyalist tries to release a demon sealed under Minrathous in a ritual attempt to bring about “Minrathous’ return”. It was thought that the demon is so powerful that only a god (like Corypheus) could summon it. There’s more on what they’ve recently been up to here (TN spoilers for lots of things, not just the Venatori, at link).

In the universe there have also been several dragon cults throughout history. This isn’t surprising given the prevalence of dragons in the setting and the Imperium’s Old God worship. After the First Blight, many desperate Imperial citizens turned to the worship of real dragons to replace the Old Gods (who had failed them). “A dragon, after all, was a god-figure that they could see: It was there, as real as the Archdemon itself.” Old God worship was as widespread as the Imperium, and so this sort of belief could have easily spread. There are however also reports of dragon cults in places which never worshipped the Old Gods or heard of them. Members of a dragon cult live in the same lair as a High dragon, defending its young. In exchange the dragon lets them kill some of them and drink their blood, which confers benefits on them like increased strength (sounds like Reaver abilities, basically). Scholars aren’t sure how these mutually beneficial relationships begin. Nevarran dragon hunters reported mad rants and tales of godhood from such cultists. Kolgrim’s Disciples of Andraste Andrastian-offshoot cult (see above) is one such dragon cult. Interestingly, it’s a cool example of intersection and socio-religious crossover/spectrum-type stuff (? don’t know how to explain what I mean here in words) like we see in our world. It’s like a Venn diagram or something that goes: Old God worship -> dragon cults -> Kolgrim’s Andrastian dragon cult -> Andrastianism.

Now, Andrastianism and Old God worship aside, in Rivain, the people are pantheists who believe in something called the Natural Order. Rivaini royalty is officially Andrastian, but the Chantry doesn’t have much authority in the country outside of the capital. In the Natural Order, it’s held that the universe and their god are the same. Rivaini people also traditionally place great value on their seers. These wise women are elders and hedge mages that communicate with spirits and allow themselves to be possessed, which reminds me of a similar practise seen in the Avvar. These traditions date back millennia.

The Avvar still worship the old gods of the Alamarri. Their pantheon includes Sigfrost, Uvolla, Imhar the Clever, the Lady of the Skies, Korth the Mountain Father, Hakkon Wintersbreath, Rilla of the Fireside, Bjorn Reed-beard and dozens of animal gods never revealed to outsiders. Codex entries refer to worship of the Lady of the Skies as “the Avvar Sky Cult” and “the Cult of the Sky”. The Avvarian pantheon is complex, including both legendary mortals who ‘ascended’ to the heavens and spirits. It varies somewhat between groups, as each group has its own legendary heroes, but they all follow the main three (Korth, the Lady, Hakkon). They believe in an afterlife and that some people are destined to be reborn. Avvar shamans are mages called augurs. Augurs are believed to interface between their clan and the spirits, receive counsel from the spirits, conduct rites so that spirits can speak through them, appease some and deal with other troublesome ones. They also interpret omens. Like Rivaini seers they at times allow themselves to be possessed.

The Jaws of Hakkon were a cult of Avvar who had eschewed all the other gods in the Avvar pantheon in favor solely of Hakkon. Adherents are called Hakkonites. They first formed during the Second Blight, when they summoned their spirit-god Hakkon and bound him in the form of a dragon, wanting him to cause destruction in the lowlands for not helping during the Blight. They resurfaced in the Dragon Age when Gurd Harofsen forswore the other gods, having been enraged at the other gods for allowing the Blight to affect his hold and at lowlanders for refusing to aid the Avvar. The Inquisitor routes this second attempt to set the dragon on the lowlands.

Said category of “Alamarri” refers to the following human tribes: Avvar, Clayne (the precursors of modern Fereldans), and the Chasind. When the Alamarri tribes crossed the Frostback Mountains and settled in the lands that would eventually become known as Ferelden, they were fleeing something. Alamarri tribal legend says they were running from a “shadow goddess” (a demon?), but modern scholars believe they were fleeing some kind of natural disaster.

The Chasind Wilders today, like the Avvar, are also not Andrastian. They worship animist gods that an Andrastian refers to as “brutal” (likely biased). Their communities are led by shamans. The Chasind celebrate and respect the Witches of the Wilds, in particular Flemeth. They fashion some of their weapons in the shapes of animals in order to confuse their gods; if they happen to kill someone beloved by their gods, they might blame these ‘animals’ instead. They also traditionally personify the seasons as female warriors, bearing the typical attributes of renewal and death, and having animal heads. “Winter is of note for its brutality, as it is tied to their rumored custom of killing those who flee battle.” The gods the Chasind worship may or may not be the same ones as the Avvarian gods. Or maybe there’s overlap.

The Agadi live far to the south beyond the Chasind. The Chasind word for them, Agadi, means “exile”. Genetivi was harshly corrected by the Chasind when he asked if these people were Chasind. He concludes that they were expelled from the forests by the Chasind and have since splintered off into their own culture in the sunless lands. Bad blood lingers between them and the Chasind. Since they seem to have split off from the Chasind, it’s possible that these people worship the same gods as the Chasind, perhaps with some differing customs, or else their culture has diverged far enough that they have their own completely distinct belief system and deities.

The indigenous Seherons who haven’t converted to the Qun appear to have their own beliefs. Their legends speak of their heroes who “learned at the feet of elves”. The Fog Warriors, who are native Seherons, have Fog Dancers who recite their legends of old and keep the songs of their people alive. They talk of an ancient calamity known as the “Curse of Nahar”. It’s not a stretch to say they likely have their own religion.

Elsewhere in modern known Thedas, we have no real idea about the religious beliefs of the following groups:

The Orth people: they practise facial scarification, perhaps this practise is partially religious in basis (like Dalish vallaslin)

Historically, the pre-Chantry religion of the Clayne would have either been the Avvarian faith or something similar to it. The Planasene were a farming tribe that formed the basis of most of humanity in Nevarra and the Free Marches. They had a strong culture of animist worship. The Neromenian tribes originally worshipped fallen heroes reborn as dragons. When the Old Gods taught the Dreamers of these tribes magic, these Dreamers became the priests and kings of their people. Through those Dreamers as their leaders, they began to worship the Dreamers’ gods, also as dragons. This seems to be the origin of Old God Worship (Tevinter being an offshoot of the Neromenians which eventually absorbed them and Qarinus to form the Imperium). Also, early peoples such as the Neromenians had a fascination with all objects in the sky, the Sun and Moon especially. The people of Barindur perished after their High King turned away an envoy from the High Priest of the Old God Dumat; legends say that the priest called upon his god to punish the King, and after some months Barindur was lost (after being encased following volcanic eruption is the mundane explanation). From this we could possibly infer either that the Barindur people worshipped the Old Gods and then rejected them or that they rejected them from the outset, and in either scenario were punished by them for this (or believed to be).

We have no real idea about the religious beliefs of the following historical groups:

The Daefads

The Inghirsh

The Yothandi

The Ciriane

Outside of modern Thedas, today, there’s very little to no cause to believe that the Chant of Light has reached the following groups (due to the fact that serious attempts at exploration beyond the known world has usually been thwarted by Blights, Qunari dreadnoughts, pirates etc), and in turn very little to nothing is known about their religious beliefs:

The Parladians: their witches cast powerful spells like cloaking magic. The Rivaini peoples’ origins are the island chains in the Boeric ocean, and the Parladian witches are reminiscent of Rivaini seers. Going by this and the fact that Rivaini people have been practising their beliefs involving the seers for millennia, it’s not a stretch to wonder if the Parladian religion is similar to Rivaini beliefs (pantheism, the Natural Order etc)

The Voshai: we know that they’re reverent somehow towards dwarves and that dwarves hold a place of profound power of some kind in their society

The Executors: we know they’re concerned about one god-like figure at least, the Dread Wolf

That’s everything I can think of rn ◕‿◕

(didn’t get too much into the specific details of each belief system because especially in the major cases you could easily write whole other posts on each one)

#dragon age #bioware #mj replies #underthehedge #video games #tevinter nights #tevinter nights spoilers #tevinter nights spoiler #spoiler #spoilers #solas #long post #longpost #mj meta

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antialiasis · 3 years

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Worldbuilding June (Pokémon edition), Days 8-12

Whoops forgot to post these for a couple of days, too busy with a load of Things as always.

8. Who rules in your world?

TQftL never brings up government, but each region has its own human government, generally just standard representative democracies similar to what we have in the modern world. Ouen has an elected parliament and president. It's a fairly utopian world with little scarcity and politics play kind of a background role - they keep things running, they have some different parties, but there's low polarization and usually they work pretty smoothly together and have little conflict. The situation in other regions is similar - movement is very free and conflict between them is rare and minor in the grand scheme of things.

QftLverse Pokémon, once again, have their own societies and are not subject to human rule except in a limited way while they're with a trainer, as per the Agreement, an all-encompassing contract dictating how the relationship between humans and Pokémon should work. Different Pokémon species govern themselves differently, but their societies are generally based on smaller self-governing groups. The Scyther society has a single leader, who is meant to be the simply strongest in the swarm, and anyone can challenge them to a duel to the death to take their place at any time.

The Morphicverse is once again close to Earth, with different countries having different modes of government. The Poké-USA's politicical climate resembles the actual USA's political climate in ~2007, but if I ever wrote references to the current president I wouldn't make him an outright Bush expy or anything, beyond being from the conservative one of the two highly polarized parties.

9. What religions and myths/legends exist in your world?

The QftLverse's human society is basically post-religious. Legendary Pokémon are revered, but not worshipped - people don't pray to them, ascribe natural phenomena to them, expect them to watch over them personally, perform symbolic rituals associated with them, etc. That said, humans do have myths concerning them - not always accurate ones. The story describes the human myth behind one set of legendaries early on before the reality much later turns out to have been fairly different, for instance.

QftLverse Pokémon have their own myths, legends, religions and beliefs. The Scyther society explored in the spin-offs has a bit of a vague mythology going on explaining the sun, moon, stars and clouds, but it's not very important to them, more of a just-so story. Meanwhile, they live by a system of ethics known as the Code that they consider sacred and all-important, though it doesn't have a godly figure behind it as the source of it, only a philosophy. Other Pokémon might variously have straight-up religion (whether worshipping legendary Pokémon or something else), be entirely areligious, or something in between; most will have myths and legends in some form, though.

The Morphicverse has a form of Christianity, which is functionally a lot like ours; this also means they had a version of Judaism. Other specific religions don't come up, but they'd at the very least be as varied as real-world religions. Like in real life, there are many sects and variants, and as many individual interpretations of faiths as there are people. The villain cult in particular has fringe views that in no way resemble the mainstream. And like in real life, many people nominally believe but don't really practice their religion, and many are agnostic or atheist.

Legendary Pokémon in the Morphicverse are cryptids - there are myths and legends about them, and people think they're neat, write fiction and make movies about them all the time, but in the modern day, actually-for-real believing that they exist out there ranges from mildly eccentric to entirely unthinkable. Worship of legendary Pokémon exists, but in the way that modern neo-Paganism does. It's not remotely mainstream, generally seen as a weird hippie thing, and the notion of Arceus appearing in the flesh one day and declaring he created the universe is about as fantastical to most people as the notion of the Norse pantheon doing the same in our world.

10. What traditions are observed in your world?

QftLverse human traditions are mostly just secular holidays - commemorations of important days in the region's history, etc. It's tradition for most children to go out on a Pokémon journey the spring after they turn ten years old, and participate in a First-Timers' League in the autumn if they manage to stick it out for the whole journey and collect all the badges - there are kids who don't, but it's rare for them to not want to, and other kids may see them as no fun.

Every year in Green Town, there is a Pokémon Festival originally built around the legendary Pokémon Chaletwo's yearly brief visit to the outskirts of the city (which may or may not be ditched in the next revision); it hosts a number of Pokémon-themed events over several days. One of them is a starter Pokémon giveaway, where most kids go to get official starter Pokémon, who have specifically volunteered and been trained to work with beginning trainers - though many kids have had Pokémon as pets/partners since they were young and journey with them instead, or their parents otherwise get them a Pokémon who's up for a beginning trainer. (Many Pokémon kind of like the idea of journeying with a beginning trainer, in the way that many people like the idea of getting a kitten rather than an adult cat - just something special about having been with them from the start. Though getting a starter who's actually been trained to deal with kids is recommended over just finding any random enthusiastic Pokémon.)

Pokémon have all kinds of different traditions. The Scyther society as explored in the spin-offs has a number of traditions and rituals, including a sort of blood baptism of new hatchlings, the leader of the swarm teaching all the adolescent Scyther about the Code, and First Prey, where each of the adolescents is sent out to hunt prey on their own for the first time, with a male and female witness following, so they can prove their ability to kill and to feed themselves. Afterwards, they're expected to publicly offer a symbolic piece of the meat of their first prey to some members of the swarm, and doing so signals respect; you don't technically have to, but in practice everyone always offers it to the leader and not doing so would be taken as outright disrespect.

The Morphicverse is once again culturally similar to the real world and has mostly similar sorts of traditions. Pokémon training is less culturally ingrained there, but still a very common hobby for kids.

11. What are some ways people communicate with pokémon in your world, or pokémon with each other?

In the QftLverse, humans learn to understand Pokémon speech as a mandatory subject at school. Pokémon inherently understand human speech, but they speak anime-style, usually in syllables of their species' name (which is what the species are named after). They share one language, which is not based on exactly what the syllables are but the tone and the way they're combined, hence why it works regardless of the species.

In the current version of the fic, this is pure handwave worldbuilding: it's established that it happens at school at the beginning, and then we just move on to the story, where every human simply understands what Pokémon are saying at all times. In the next revision I'd give a bit more proper worldbuilding attention to it - let the language barrier be a little more present, humans vary in exactly how good they are at it (luckily it's already the main character's best subject at school), and otherwise treat it less like it's just an excuse to act like Pokémon speak English.

In the Morphicverse, Pokémon do communicate but they don't do complex communication - instead, it's closer to the sort of communication most animals do in the real world. They can express how they're feeling, draw attention to something interesting, sound the alarm about something scary, ask another Pokémon to follow, and can do this in a somewhat more efficient and intelligent way than most animals generally do. But one way or another, they don't communicate complicated abstract ideas, neither to humans nor to one another. Pokémon don't automatically understand human speech here, though they're very quick learners when it comes to commands, and they can pick up a fair amount just by being around humans, allowing them to get the gist of basic statements and requests without being explicitly taught them, though anything abstract would still be entirely lost on them. You could tell a Pokémon you've lived with for years "I lost my hat, can you help me find it" and they'll go look for your hat, but they'd be lost if you tried to ask them for anything much more complicated than that.

12. What is the gym circuit or adventuring organization like in your world?

In the QftLverse, gyms are meant to be taken on in a specific order and gym leaders are accordingly expected to keep their Pokémon below a certain level. To be officially sanctioned by the League, a gym needs to have a theme - usually a type, although Rick got away with a legendary theme because he gets away with everything because he is hypnotizing League officials with his Mewtwo super-clone I was twelve years old. Every year there's a First-Timers' League in the autumn in each region, where new trainers who have collected all eight badges of their region face off (except for the bit where I somehow made a guy who'd been training for years be part of it without thinking about it properly). There's also a global Old-Timers' League for more experienced trainers, which crowns a world champion; this doesn't involve badges and is just a tournament. Trainers are advised to stick to official routes, while Pokémon who want a trainer seek out the routes and others avoid them; going off-route has the potential to lead to run-ins with Pokémon who are more hostile to humans. It's not forbidden but it's drilled into kids' heads that you're not supposed to.

The Morphicverse's gym circuit is not too dissimilar to that, but gym leaders are expected to carry a variety of Pokémon teams to take on challengers of different skill levels, who can take on the gyms of their circuit in any order. Kid trainers are strictly meant to travel only along official routes, which are thoroughly monitored to be safe, and often take public trainer transportation; when they're eighteen they can get an adult trainer license with which they can take their Pokémon anywhere they like, at their own risk. Mostly kids do it as a hobby, and many young children dream of being professional trainers, but only a fraction are actually good enough to make money off it, so most either quit it after a few summers on realizing it's not for them (they might release their Pokémon or keep them as pets, depending on how high-maintenance they are), or continue to do it as a side hobby. There exist college-level training schools for those who really want to dedicate their lives to it, but by that point in time most people will have dropped their pro trainer dreams.

#tqftl #morphic #worldbuilding june #pokemon

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thatsacult · 4 years

Audio

Some people just don't want kids, and often find they're questioned, mistrusted, or even hated for it. The childfree subreddit has become a digital home for 142,000 of them.

Can the internet be a place of respite for people being pestered by their broody parents? Or are they longing for a childfree, separatist world that isolates and misunderstands parents?

Written and edited by: Helen McCarthy www.twitter.com/helenlmccarthy

Music by: Antti Luode www.anttismusic.blogspot.co.uk

Thanks to all the episode contributors.

EPISODE 1 - CHILDFREE SOURCES:

SUBREDDITS r/childfree https://www.reddit.com/r/childfree/ "Discussion and links of interest to childfree individuals".

r/antinatalism https://www.reddit.com/r/antinatalism/ "Antinatalism is a philosophical position that assigns a negative value to birth, standing in opposition to natalism".

r/AskParents https://www.reddit.com/r/AskParents/ "A Subreddit devoted to the asking of questions to parents".

r/AntiChildFree https://www.reddit.com/r/AntiChildFree/ Subreddit opposing r/childfree.

r/Fencesitter https://www.reddit.com/r/Fencesitter/ "A place to ask questions, share experiences and offer support to those who are on the fence about having kids".

TWITTER @childfree_not_4 https://twitter.com/childfree_not_4 "Interested in childfree, teamnokids, voluntary childlessness, antinatalism, MGTOW, tubal ligation, vasectomy, overpopulation, nihilism, pessimism, hedonism"

@ChildfreeChick https://twitter.com/ChildFreeChick "Childfree Atheist"

FACEBOOK Childfree Humor https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeHumor/?ref=br_rs "For people who don't care much for kids and want to have a laugh about it".

The Advocacy for Anti-Procreation https://www.facebook.com/advocacy.anti.procreation/ Supporting: ChildFree, Adoption/Fostering/Respite Care, Assisted Dying, Nihilism, Animals, Birth Control, Choice, & Environmental topics... it's time we reduced our carbon footprint".

STFU Parents https://www.facebook.com/STFUParents/ "You used to be fun. Now you have a baby".

Childfree Chicks Confidential (closed group) https://www.facebook.com/groups/childfreechicksconfidential/?ref=br_rs "We are a diverse group with childfree & childless women & men".

we're {not} having a baby https://www.facebook.com/WereNotHavingABaby/ "we’re {not} having a baby! is the brainchild of Amy & Lance Blackstone, a childfree couple, married since 1995".

Cheerfully Childfree https://www.facebook.com/CheerfullyChildfree/ "A sanctuary to consider, become, and remain Childfree without the backlash of breeders who can't accept us for who we choose to be".

Elder Orphans (closed group) https://www.facebook.com/groups/elderorphans/ "The group is restricted to individuals over 55 who live without a spouse".

CHILDFREE SITES & BLOGS The Childfree Life http://thechildfreelife.com/ "A safe haven in a baby-crazed world".

The Rinky Dink Life http://therinkydinklife.com/ Site created by Brittany Brolley for childfree women and "DINK couples (dual income & no kids)".

TLFW http://tlfw.co.uk/ "Lifestyle network for childfree women".

Why No Kids http://whynokids.com/ "We're childfree and happy. You could be too!" 

Childfree Woman by Karin Rahbek http://www.childfreewoman.com/ "How to gain respect and acceptance".

Nonparents.com https://www.nonparents.com/ "For people without children by circumstance or choice".

Jesse Nichols' blog - Why I choose to be childfree https://medium.com/jesse-nichols-blog/why-i-choose-to-be-child-free-7282bd75a38c "An open letter to family and friends".

Childfree is Not a Dirty Word http://notadirtyword.com/ "Connect with childfree adults from around the globe. We do life, laughter and tears. Whether childless by chance or by choice, you are welcome here".

PRESS & ARTICLES Inside the growing movement of women who wish they’d never had children, Sarah Treleaven, Elle UK. 15 Dec 2016. http://www.elleuk.com/life-and-culture/culture/longform/a33037/i-regret-having-kids/

Having It All Without Having Children, Lauren Sandler, TIME. 12 Aug 2013. http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2148636-1,00.html

12 Women Discuss Whether They Regret Their Decisions Around Motherhood, Sara Coughlin, Refinery 29. 29 April 2017. http://www.refinery29.uk/being-a-mom-regrets-reddit-stories?utm_r29_redirect=us

Adults Who Choose Not to Have Kids Inspire Moral Outrage, Study Finds, Julia Layton, Health: How Stuff Works. 17 March 2017. https://bit.ly/2PxLUpO

Parenthood as a Moral Imperative? Moral Outrage and the Stigmatization of Voluntarily Childfree Women and Men, Leslie Ashburn-Nardo, Springer Science+Business Media. 11 March 2016 https://bit.ly/33BzIwx

Huge demand for Baby-Free Zones, William Jordan, YouGov. 27 Aug 2013. https://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/08/27/four-five-want-child-free-zone-planes/

Childless couples 'on track to be Australia's most common family type', Stephanie Corsetti, ABC News Australia. 15 May 2017. https://ab.co/3fIUNYa

'Shut the f**k up, parents': Meet the (childless) woman behind vicious baby blog that has the mommy set up in arms, Daily Mail. 4 Oct 2012. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.html The Very Sad Childfree Life, Robert Barron, Real Clear Religion. 9 Sep 2013. http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2013/09/09/the_very_sad_childfree_life.html

Meet the 20-Somethings Who Want To Be Sterilized, Catherine Pearson, Huffington Post. 24 Oct 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/female-sterilization-young-women_n_5882000

Judgement of Child-Free People is Real - And Now There's Science to Prove It, J.R. Thorpe, Bustle. 3 Mar 2017 https://www.bustle.com/p/judgement-of-child-free-people-is-real-now-theres-science-to-prove-it-41787

No kids allowed: Is Britain becoming an anti-child society? Kerry Potter, The Telegraph. 31 Aug 2017. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/family/no-kids-allowed-is-britain-becoming-an-anti-child-society/

Midlife Ramblings: What I Don’t Get About My Childless/Childfree Young Friends, Ann Brenoff, Huffington Post. 9 Feb 2013. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-brenoff/childless-to-my-childless-friends_b_2616049.html

I used to judge childfree women, Eleanor Tucker, The Guardian. 8 Nov 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/08/i-used-to-judge-childfree-women

The Outrage Against Childfree Women Is Real — And Needs To Stop, Therese Shechter and Amy Blackstone, Bust. http://bust.com/feminism/19421-moral-outrage-childfree.html

Silent bodies: Childfree women's gendered and embodied experiences, Helen Peterson and Kristina Engwall, European Journal of Women's Studies. 2013. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259975667_Silent_bodies_Childfree_women's_gendered_and_embodied_experiences

Study Finds People Are Morally Outraged by Those Who Decide Not to Have Kids, Kimberly Lawson, Broadly. 2 Mar 2017. https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/a3wvgp/study-finds-people-are-morally-outraged-by-those-who-decide-not-to-have-kids

How to Decide Whether to Have Children, Olga Khazan, The Atlantic. 22 May 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/05/how-people-decide-whether-to-have-children/527520/

Our Planet Is So F****d That Some Women Are Choosing to Not Have Kids, Linda Yang, Broadly. 14 Dec 2016. https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/59mb5d/our-planet-is-so-fucked-that-some-women-are-choosing-to-not-have-kids

'Why I'd BAN children from cafes and restaurants.' This incendiary view will either make you cheer or want to tip spaghetti hoops over the author's head, Janet Street-Porter, Daily Mail. 23 Nov 2015. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3331117/Why-d-BAN-children-cafes-restaurants-incendiary-view-make-cheer-want-tip-spaghetti-hoops-author-s-head-writes-Janet-Street-Porter.html

Father was 'sexting' as son was dying in hot car, Eliott C. McLaughlin and Dana Ford, CNN. 7 Jan 2015. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/03/justice/georgia-hot-car-toddler-death/

How the rise of childless women could change the face of Britain: Rampant infidelity. A struggling economy. Meltdown for the NHS. And shorter life expectancies, Maureen Brookbanks, Daily Mail. 14 Jan 2016. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3398484/How-rise-childless-women-change-face-Britain-Rampant-infidelity-struggling-economy-Meltdown-NHS-shorter-life-expectancies.html

Why do childless people hate kids so much? Jennifer Wilde, Baby Centre Blog. 7 Dec 2011. https://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/why-do-childless-people-hate-kids-so-much/comment-page-2/

The ChildFREE (Hate) Movement: Childless By Choice, Alan Thomas, Imperfect Parent. http://www.imperfectparent.com/articles/the-childfree-hate-movement-childless-by-choice/

I fought a four-year battle with the NHS to be sterilised at 30 - and won, Holly Brockwell, The Telegraph. 24 March 2016. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/i-fought-a-four-year-battle-with-the-nhs-to-be-sterilised-at-30/

BOOKS Violence Goes to the Internet: Avoiding the Snare of the Net, Evan M. Axelrod, 2009.

Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet, Lorne L. Dawson, Douglas E. Cowan, 2013.

VIDEOS Why do people join cults? TED-Ed on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TEDEducation/videos/1623132447699955/

MISCELLANEOUS Rational Wiki - Childfree Movement https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Childfree_movement

Pregnant Pause podcast https://www.pregnantpausepodcast.com/

Ann Davidman - Motherhood Clarity Mentor http://motherhoodisitforme.com

Is the Child Free movement anti-feminist? Mumsnet forum, 27 Apr 2011. https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/1202284-Is-the-Child-Free-movement-anti-feminist

To be dead jealous of childless couples sometimes? What do you miss? Mumsnet forum, 29 Sep 2008. https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/616638-to-be-dead-jealous-of-childless-couples-sometimes-what-do

The Anti Child Free Blog http://anti-child-free.blogspot.co.uk/

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everyaccentthesame · 4 years

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What is it to be a Dragon?

(This post contains some musings I’ve written to give me mental inspiration for a ‘Tyranny of Dragons’ campaign I plan to run. I wanted to get into the head of a Dragon, and understand what would be required to compel such a being.)

What is it to be a Dragon? To the two-legged smallfolk that cower in fear or desperately flee from the winged behemoths, terrors of the skies, dragons might as well be gods. Many have fallen to worship such beasts- Dragon cults, entire religions dedicated to one or more of these incredible creatures have sprung up across the ages. It has been remarked by many sages and observers, not least among the Dragonkind themselves, that should they so choose, Dragons could claim dominion of the lands, natural lords of the material plane. That they do not is something every mortal should be thankful for. Dragons make for terrible kings. Why they do not requires a deeper understanding of their nature.

What is it to be a Dragon? Imagine, if you will, being entirely self-sufficient. On your own, through the strength of your talons and the terrifying assault of your breath, you can provide yourself with any food you need, relying on no-one. Your thick hide protects you from the elements. Your wings give you mastery of the air, no far-off land or ocean is barred to you. Spears break against your skin, armour melts, swords shatter, men die when you exhale. The natural world is yours, no mortal creature, barring your own kin, can match you, can claim mastery over you. Imagine all this power, all this freedom. Imagine it not being enough.

What is it to be a Dragon? All Dragons hoard. Even the ones that the smallfolk mistake for being ‘good’. Some hoard wealth, great mountains of it. Some hoard knowledge, guarding grand repositories of it jealously. Some hoard history, hiding away ancient relics of great significance. Some hoard magic. Some hoard friends. Some hoard subjects. Some hoard slaves. How each Dragon hoards is unique. Some common trends appear based on the Dragon’s hue, but there is no clear rule. One might favour coins minted in a certain kingdom. One might like scholars trained in the art of combat. Another might favour the paintings of a certain artist and her apprentices. One thing is clear however- Dragons hoard what others create. They desire what beautiful things mortals create, because in truth, Dragons can only create one thing of any significance. Destruction.

What is it to be a Dragon? All Dragons are alone. A Dragon is fiercely independent, and indeed, they can supply all their base needs on their own. But this has another consequence. Save for those rare incidences where a Dragon might cohabitate with a chosen mate, Dragons are intensely solitary creatures. There is good reason for this, unlike more fragile creatures, Dragons do not need the support of a community to survive. Indeed, the only real threat to an individual Dragon, are other Dragons. This is an oversimplification of course- many things can kill a Dragon, and many things have. But from a Dragons perspective, such creatures are usually easily avoided, lacking powerful Draconic wings, or if the Dragon misjudges the capability of a foe, easily fled from. When a Dragon does die to a mortal or monster, others of its kind view this as an aberration- that creature must have suffered from some flaw that they did not. Weakness, stupidity, slowness- the arrogant draconic minds dismiss any possibility that they might share these traits with the deceased. The only thing a Dragon fears are other Dragons.

What is it to be a Dragon? By default, Dragons are Atheists, by the D&D definition of the word. They know that the Gods exist, they just don’t respect them. A Dragon has no need for prayer, or divine intervention. The Dragons don’t need the Gods, and usually the Gods can’t affect them, residing in planes far from the prime material, so the Dragons simply ignore them. This does, however leave us with a question: If the Dragons do not worship the divine, why are there gods of Dragonkind? Tiamat and Bahumut, alongside other, more obscure deities, claim to be gods of the draconic pantheon, yet few Dragons indeed worship them, and such Deities have turned to the mortal races as their emissaries and agents in the world. Dragons respect the strength of the Draconic gods, as they would the strength of another drake, but long ago abandoned them, when their Empire fell in a millennia long war. It is telling, perhaps, that the Dragons were the ones to abandon their gods, rather than the other way round.

What is it to be a Dragon? Dragons are proud. They exult in their raw physical and magical power over others. A Dragon might destroy a townhouse with a beat of its wings because it wishes to demonstrate that it can. Another might incinerate a Forest because it enjoys the thermals that such an activity creates. A Dragon might dominate a town because it enjoys the terrified mewling of the subservient folk or save a town from a marauding group of monsters because it desires their applause and adulation. Many ‘benevolent’ Dragons, even metallics, act as they do not due to any moral compulsion, but because they enjoy the praise that is heaped upon them for their acts. Some Dragons even seek to gain worshippers, believing that it is only right that they, the most powerful and deserving of beings, receive treatment normally reserved only for gods.

What is it to be a Dragon? Dragons possess within them the spark of the divine. Most never realize this, and never cultivate it, but under the right circumstances, these creatures can enter the ranks of the gods. Most famously in Toril, Tchazzar ascended to become a god-like entity, ruling over a city state and with designs upon a nation. Perhaps the draconic gods are just particularly powerful examples of their kind, and this, perhaps is why Dragons don’t worship them. A dragon does not seek to submit itself to another, it seeks to rule.

What is it to be a Dragon? Dragons do not share power. A Dragon is not content to exist in a subservient state. They seek to either be left alone, or to rule. When Draconic empires have existed, Dragons have competed for power and influence, acknowledging no-one among themselves as King or Queen. Unable to rule over each other without significant risk (a dragon that appears subservient is merely waiting for a moment to strike and claim its authority), Dragons that wish to rule, rule over humanoids.

What is it to be a Dragon? Dragons are smart. Some act as if they are little more than beasts, it is true, but such creatures typically do so by choice, spurning what they view as the ‘pathetic trappings of civilisations’ and embracing their feral side- the barbarians of dragonkind. They are smart enough to recognize their shortcomings as a species- though they rarely reflect on how they can apply to this analysis to themselves. Instead they have developed ways of working with other members of species without risking conflict. Ancient games that simulate conflict, such as the Xorvintaal, allow dragons to use the lives of others in games of intrigue and open warfare to settle disputes, without coming into open conflict themselves.

What is it to be a Dragon? Dragons have life-spans far longer than most humanoids, exceeding even that of the elves. The lives of most creatures appear short and inconsequential to them. When dealing with smallfolk Dragons tend to focus more on lineages or organisations than individuals, which become replaced so easily. It takes an exceptional humanoid to be remembered as an individual by a Dragon, much less respected. Dragons slumber for long-periods, guarding their hoards for many years as their bodies and abilities grow and develop, letting the rise and fall of nations and empires pass them by. A Dragon might not care for the individuals of a local township or city, but care deeply for the place itself, even if only for the entertainment and treasure it provides it. A Dragon may come to know a human family well, as it treats with successive generations of individuals, even if it fails to really distinguish the different family members from one another.

What is it to be a Dragon? Dragons are vulnerable. Dragons are the arrogant lords of the world. They are beings of blistering power and fury. They cannot create, but they can influence the rise and fall of nations, they can compel others to craft great works in their names. Yet for every Dragon of legend, there seems to be a Dragon slayer. A Dragon might be mighty, might be arrogant, but they know these legends too. And they fear death. So, a smart Dragon avoids causing undue trouble, and ensures its subjects or neighbours, while kept fearful of it, do not feel unduly burdened by its presence. Similarly, they avoid provoking more powerful Dragons, and may even make displays of respect or subservience to them. There is no true hierarchy amongst Dragons, but they do respect strength, and theoretically a might Drake, godlike in power, or even a god brought to the mortal plane, could compel them to serve, if only through fear.

It would take an exceptional humanoid to gain a Dragons respect. Think then, on what it would take for one to gain a Dragon’s service. Bribery, perhaps, could work, for a time. Magical compulsion is always an option, though risky- dragons have a ‘legendary resistance’ to spells such as Dominate Monster. Gaining a Dragon’s fear is perhaps the most difficult, and most reliable option then. Consider the Cult of the Dragon. Consider their leader. What could they have done to gain the allegiance of so many great drakes? What power could they wield? What wealth do they command? What promises have they made, and which can they keep?

What sort of being could a Dragon fear?

#tyranny of dragons #dragon #dragons #d&d #dnd #d&d5e #dnd5e #tiamat #the rise of tiamat #hoard of the dragon queen #everyaccentthesame

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dextersjournal · 4 years

Text

Death and Consequences

Thursday, 11 June 2020

My cousins’ grandmother passed away last week.

Given the nature of our relation, one might expect Ma Audrey to not have been very close to our family. On the contrary; she lived in the same building as my cousins, who live just across the park opposite my house. So she was like a second grandmother to me growing up. She would look after my cousins while their parents were at work, so when I would go visit in my youth, we were all in her care.

When I continued to visit my cousins as we got older, she wouldn’t be as present because we no longer needed a babysitter. Still, we (my brother and I) would always make a point of greeting her as we passed the stable-door at the back of her house.

Sadly, the visits became less frequent, due to our lives just generally becoming less busy, but also due to family politics, which I shan’t go into.

Guilt and Memories

My cousin sent me a message on WhatsApp on Thursday, 4 June, to let me know Ma Audrey had passed. I can’t remember what I was busy with, but I was out of the house. I responded with my sympathies when I found the time.

I acknowledged the sadness, but I didn’t feel particularly sad. People might put it down to shock, but I’m not sure that’s what it is. I didn’t like this. Ma Audrey deserves to be mourned, I felt.

I hadn’t seen Ma Audrey very often in recent years. We would usually see each other at family events at least, but those were few and far between as of late. The last time I saw her was Christmas 2019, where she remarked that she doesn’t really see our family anymore. The last time I was in her house was to store some of the desserts in her fridge.

The problem, I think, is that I don’t have many memories of Ma Audrey, not that I can think of offhand, anyway. Not that she or my interactions with her weren’t memorable, but I actually don’t remember much of that period in my life without prompting. To think I would spend so much time there. I feel awful about it.

That’s why I ultimately decided to attend the funeral. I was hesitant at first, given that it would be a gathering of people, but I decided that I would regret it if I didn’t. (Also, thankfully, the physical distancing went pretty well.) I wanted to hear others’ reflections, hoping it would prompt some residual memories. Thankfully, it did.

The Funeral

This was the first funeral I’d attended since my great-aunt Gwen passed away in 2005. I was 10. That was my first funeral where I was cognizant of the events (my paternal grandfather passed away when I was 3). Aunty Gwen’s funeral made me hyper-aware of mortality and I was so afraid of losing my biological grandmother for at least a year after that. Thankfully, my grandmother is alive and well having lived 15 more years, despite a heart problem for which he had successful surgery in 2012.

At the time of writing, South Africa is in Level 3 Lockdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Places of worship have been given governmental permission to reopen, a decision I’ve been very critical of. But thankfully it meant we could host a funeral. Unlike a standard church service, it would be a more controlled environment as people had to stipulate beforehand whether they would be attending.

When I was told of Ma Audrey’s passing, I wasn’t sure that there would be a funeral. I wouldn’t have been surprised if there hadn’t been one, given the circumstances. If there hadn’t been a funeral, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it; given my worldview (read: atheism), I don’t think it’s necessary. Funerals are for the living, not for the dead.

But Ma Audrey was a Catholic woman. We used to go to the same church, back when I did go to church (more on that later). So it is fitting that she would be ‘sent off’ in that way.

At the door of the church, we had our temperatures taken, our hands sanitised, and we were asked via individual questions whether we had any COVID-19 symptoms. The casket was in the foyer; closed. I’d had a slight hope that it would be open so I could see her face in person one last time. (My eyes started welling up during that last sentence.)

The funeral was essentially a standard Catholic Mass, but with the priest testifying about Ma Audrey instead of the usual sermon, and a Wikipedia-esque eulogy read by my older cousin. I admittedly haven’t been to many funerals, but it felt a bit…impersonal. Almost cursory.

The Church

I’m going to go off on a slight tangent here. The funeral was the first time I stepped foot in my old church since Christmas 2008, almost 12 years ago. It was slightly smaller than I remember. Some things had changed; some things had stayed the same.

The PA speakers were the same set that I remember, but the mezzanine where the “Music Ministry” were usually stationed had been extended. No longer did they have an overhead projector; they now had a projector overhead.

The Stations of the Cross portraits detailing the Passion of Jesus were still in the same place. The Seven Sacraments were depicted high on the church walls behind the altar. My eyes traced the path form Jesus’ fingers turning into wheat stalks and then rejoining his body as my mind wandered away from the Bible readings much as it had done in my youth.

It was interesting that being in this building did not evoke any nostalgia. For people who only know me since I became a heathen, that might make sense, but I was actually very involved in the church; I was a reader and a singer in the aforementioned Music Ministry. My departure from the church actually had nothing to do with unbelief; that only came years later.

The Death

Ma Audrey had suffered from cancer. She had been diagnosed with bowel/rectal cancer years ago, but then eventually went into remission. She was later diagnosed with lymphoma as well.

My mother called my uncle, Ma Audrey’s son, on the day of her passing to give her condolences. According to him, Ma Audrey looked and seemed fine, but she requested to go to the hospice. He said she refused to continue to take her medication and that she had told him she wanted to die.

When I first heard this, I was glad. I was glad she died on her own terms. It felt like a boss move, like in S02E12 of Grace and Frankie. “Good for Audrey,” I’d said. My younger cousin, who was with her when she died, explained to me after the funeral that it had been more a case that she was tired of suffering and tired of having to rely on others just to live. Being given better context on the circumstances of her decision made it more heart breaking, but no less dignified.

She passed with her remaining child and youngest granddaughter by her side.

Suspension of Disbelief

After the gospel reading, the priest testified about how the church was Ma Audrey’s second home. She had been a part of the soup kitchen, and the Music Ministry at some point as well. She had been part of the committee that would volunteer to clean the church on Fridays for the weekend Masses. Even when she was unable to participate, she would still go to the church on Fridays for the company.

When my family would still attend church, we would offer Ma Audrey lifts. After we’d stopped going to church, we’d still see her making her way across the field on her way to Mass. Like when passing her stable door, we’d be sure to greet her, shouting and waving from our front porch. She was persistent in trying to get us to go back to church, even after my own (Anglican) grandmother had long given up.

Being away from church for so long, I no longer knew the hymns, nor the recitations or responses. From an outsider perspective, the ceremony seems very cult-y; people dressed in robes; mass recitations; ceremonial eating (even if you don’t consider the supposed transubstantiation, which is another story); and the additional pomp and circumstance of altar servicers carrying large candles and a wooded cross on a large stick.

I wasn’t sure whether or not to participate in the recitations. I decided not to, for the most part. Only at the end of the priest’s testimony where he blessed Ma Audrey (in spirit) and her casket, did I join in saying “Amen”.

But still – sitting, standing, kneeling in that church – the jaded, cynical atheist in me was at the forefront at the beginning of the procession, internally scoffing at the same rituals in which I once partook.

But during the priest’s testimony, I thought less of the church and more of what the church meant to Ma Audrey; I felt I should reserve my cynicism out of respect for her, not the church.

During one of the hymns, I decided to interpret the lyrics to be about her instead of God.

But you are always close to me Following all my ways May I be always close to you Following all your ways, Lord

Strange thing to do for someone who doesn’t believe in an afterlife, huh? The thing is, I know one of the purposes of religion is consolation. So no, when it comes down to it, I don’t believe Ma Audrey – or anyone – is up there or out there, but sometimes it’s nice to think that she is.

There was a moment, whilst the priest was blessing the casket, that I actually wished God existed – not the god of the Bible, but a god worthy of Audrey and her worship.

The Dénoument

After the funeral, my brother and I went over to speak to our cousins. It was here my younger cousin explained to me the afore-mentioned circumstances around her grandmother’s decision to die. This conversation only took a couple of minutes until it was interrupted by a flash of lightning then, a few seconds later, a mighty crack of thunder.

We all parted ways and, almost as soon as my brother and I got into his car, so began the hardest hail storm any one of us could remember. Almost like a fanfare from God Himself, if you believe in such things.

#deathandconsequences #death #dexicola #dextersjournal #ma audrey #death and consequences #mourning #funeral #religion #catholic #church #cancer

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ariadnelives · 5 years

Text

Chapter 21 -- The Dossier

[Missed earlier chapters? Go catch up here! Otherwise, welcome back! Oh, and make sure to join our discord server! Chapter can also be found @ ao3”]

“So, before we start, what did we end up doing with the, uh,” Ariadne asked as the crew filed into the briefing room, “gift from our new friend?”

“The what?” Sweettalk asked.

“The head,” Sasha replied.

“Ah,” Sweettalk said, “don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to, boss.”

“Noted,” Ariadne conceded, “Spacebreather, would you care to catch the crew up on what we learned from Prescott’s dossier?”

Spacebreather nodded. “Our target is The Zealot, and we now know his true name to be Dr. C. Alexander Simon. Archival photos of him match up with the photo we received from La Pesadilla, and our friend ViLaz.” Spacebreather jerked her head in the general direction of a visibly distraught ViLaz. “Much of this information concerns ViLaz directly, so for the sake of her privacy, we will only be sharing details which she has agreed to disclose publicly. Everything else will be kept absolutely need-to-know.”

ViLaz seemed barely able to hold herself together. Tears were welling up in her eyes, which would have come as a surprise to anyone who was paying close attention to her eyes, since one of them was synthetic and no longer should have had the ability to produce tears.

Spacebreather continued, “ViLaz has been raised to believe that Dr. Simon is her biological father. Technically this is true, but not in the sense you’d expect. He is, in fact, her sole biological donor. According to Prescott’s dossier, ViLaz is one of three genetic identicals produced from Dr. Simon’s DNA.”

“So, she’s a clone?” Taryn called out.

Spacebreather wiggled her hand noncommittally. “See, that’s what I said too, I don’t really understand it, but… Ariadne?”

“Well, yes and no,” Ariadne explained. “For lack of a better term, the process used to create them could be described as ‘cloning,’ but it’s important to note that she while her DNA was taken from Dr. Simon, she does not seem to be genetically identical to Dr. Simon himself.”

ViLaz flinched at this.

Ariadne continued, “Prescott’s intel tells us that Dr. Simon’s area of expertise before his theories were discredited and the controversy surrounding his experiment forced him to retire in disgrace was the search for a way to induce biological immortality in humans or, failing that, maintain continuity of consciousness.”

Spacebreather restrained herself from smiling. “And when you finally get her to translate that from nerd, what you basically get is that he wanted to either find a way to make you live forever, or to put your brain in a new body.”

Sweettalk’s hand shot up.

Spacebreather pointed at her. “Not a classroom, ask your question.”

“That doesn’t sound all that controversial, I mean,” she said, “That just sounds like basic medical stuff. Sasha’s whole shtick is cheating death, right?”

“The concept is not what was controversial. The methods, on the other hand…” Ariadne began, glancing over to ViLaz, who was silently crying and hoped no one would notice. Everyone collectively decided to pretend they didn’t, and Ariadne continued, “he was spearheading a project that would allow a dying person to save their consciousness and memories to computer, and then, using the indoctrination tech we learned about from La Pesadilla, eventually download that mind into a new body. In order for the transplant to take, the body would have to be a close blood relative, and it wouldn’t do any good to have the new body die from the same thing as the old one, so the goal of the experiment was to create a genetically engineered clone designed to withstand whatever killed them the last time.”

“Rumor has it, Dr. Simon is not well,” Spacebreather said flatly, “some kind of terminal genetic condition that killed his father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather, and all of his relatives born with a Y-chromosome, in their 40s. Based on ViLaz’s recollection, that’s about how old our Zealot would be right around now. Our belief is that he continued his experiments after he was forced to retire, hoping to create a new host body that wouldn’t fall ill like his original body.”

“Hoping to create, as our Dossier calls it,” Ariadne paused, “a Viable Lazarus.”

The crowd murmured in shock and, again, collectively pretended to not notice ViLaz crying.

“Dear lord,” Sasha whispered, “ViLaz, I’m so—”

“Don’t call me that!” She spat back.

“I’m sorry,” Sasha said quietly, and backed off.

“My visions of the Red God always told me that I was to be his vessel in the material world,” ViLaz explained, wiping her tears off on her sleeve, “he said that my father’s body was too weak and infirm, and that he needed a strong healthy vessel to carry his word to the people.”

“Jesus Christ,” Ariadne said, “the whole time you knew you were being used as an… an organ farm?!”

“The Red God told me I was to be his prophet,” ViLaz replied. “It just all seems a little too coincidental, if the Red God spent all those years telling me to give up control of my body, and now I find out my father created me as a host for himself. It’s… blasphemous that he would use an ancient and beautiful religion just to manipulate people like this.”

There was a fairly stunned silence through the entire hall, which is more or less to be expected whenever someone’s religious beliefs, or lack thereof, suddenly become a central fixture in a conversation where they were not expected. Of course, in most situations, it would simply be a matter of opinion, and most people would simply let it slide rather than get into a theological debate that no one could ever possibly definitively win.

Ariadne had two reasons for not letting this particular statement slide. The first was that she was a very passionate Atheist, and unfortunately had a rather nasty habit of being somewhat condescending when discussing it, especially towards those who still subscribed to the religion she practiced as a young girl. The second, and the much more important reason was that ViLaz’ statement about her religious beliefs was objectively, factually incorrect.

“V— Sugar …” Ariadne caught herself before using the name that would remind ViLaz of her father’s machinations, and knelt down to meet her gaze, “first of all, people have been using religion to manipulate people since the first caveman found a rock to worship. Second, I hate to break this to you, but the Red God cul— church— is not an ancient religion.”

ViLaz looked confused and upset. “What?”

“The earliest written references to it are in the last few years,” Ariadne said, “most of the scripture we’ve gathered just seems like watered down Christian Dogma, we think that’s why he had all those Church documents and artifacts. He was studying the growth of an effective religion so that he could pervert it to his own ends. His servants just told you it was an ancient religion to put the pressure on to do what he wants.”

Something dropped within ViLaz, as though she’d just looked at her entire world from a distance only to realize it was nothing more than a rubber balloon floating five feet in front of her face.

“The Red God really was just him all along, wasn’t he?”

Ariadne sensed that she had perhaps been too blunt, and quickly tried to turn the conversation around. “Come on, let’s get you to the library. Fastwing?”

“Yeah boss?” Alicia asked from somewhere near the end of the crowd.

“Take… our young friend to the library, find her a really good book, read it with her, and help her pick out a new name. I think there’s a lot more to her than just a Viable Lazarus, and I think she deserves a name that captures that.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Alicia said, and walked up to ViLaz. “Come on, babe, let’s get you a nice cocoa too.”

“Cocoa?” She asked as she was ushered out the door.

“Oh man,” Alicia said, “your day is about to get so much better.”

Once they were out of the room, Spacebreather continued the briefing. “The cult, the whole religious aspect, was just a front to get more test subjects. From what ViLaz has been telling us, right now he can only permanently take over one of the clones’ bodies if they consent to the transfer. But, there’s a reason why everybody who goes into the Life Centers seems to come out a suddenly devout missionary.”

Ariadne picked up here, sensing that Pilar didn’t like describing the more technical aspects of the dossier. “With the data Prescott gave us, our best guess is that the Suffering Test they administer at their life center uses the same tech from the Immersion Pods. It overwrites people’s personalities entirely and turns them into mindless zombies who live only to serve the cult. He shows them some horrible vision of the hell they’re going to, and they’re so scared they sign up for the conditioning. I’m assuming that’s how he got the Acolytes to raise ViLaz the way they did, so during our assault on their compound, let’s try to remember that it’s generally unethical to kill the mind-controlled.”

“We think he probably appropriated the name Ariadne for his prophet character in order to capitalize on our legend,” Spacebreather explained, “he probably figured there was no real Ariadne and that it was just some name punk kids gave when they were arrested, and decided that claiming to have the Real Ariadne would bring in lots of new curious people that he could subject to his brainwashing.”

Sweettalk, having taken her earlier admonishment to heart for the first time ever, spoke without raising her hand. “This is all really nice to know, but Prescott promised a Silver Bullet. How does any of this help us take him down?”

“The implants in the clones’ heads are linked to a master unit directly controlled by Dr. Simon. It’s how he was able to make ViLaz see the Red God and—” Ariadne paused for a moment and considered the ramifications of telling a partial truth, then decided to give only the information her crew absolutely needed to know, “It’s how we’re going to find him. All we have to do is reactivate the implant and with a little clever hacking thanks to yours truly, we should be able to pinpoint the other implants it’s linked to and reveal the true location of their compound. We’re going to need time to prepare, and a much larger strike force than we had at the casino. Deathsbane, I’d feel safer if you picked out an apprentice and started showing her the ropes, we’re going to need a medic on the ground and another on call in the ship with Fastwing.”

“Sasha will remain in the ship, her apprentice can join us in the assault.” Pilar said flatly.

“I thought we were past this,” Ariadne sighed, “we got kidnapped and she got arrested last time you—”

“And last time we let her go planetside with us, someone died.”

Sasha turned bright red, which Sweettalk noticed and felt a near-compulsive urge to defend her. “Nobody that mattered! And besides, you can’t possibly blame her for—”

“Do me a favor and shut your goddamn mouth, Sweettalk,” Spacebreather said.

Sweettalk was taken aback, but stood up and tried to stretch to Pilar’s height. “What did you just say to me?”

Sasha was somewhat stressed. Her sister was wrong, but she still didn’t want to see her get punched, especially not when she already held such a grudge against Sweettalk as it was.

Ariadne desperately wanted to keep the peace, so she attempted reason again. “Remember what Beam said—”

Pilar swung around to face Ariadne and held up her index finger to cut her off. “I… Said… No… End of discussion.”

Spacebreather then stormed out of the room, leaving everyone too stunned to respond.

Sasha stood up. “Thank you for standing up for me,” she said to Sweettalk and started walking toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Sweettalk asked.

“I’m finally standing up for myself.”

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urfavmurtad · 5 years

Note

Hello! Thanks to your blog I've been reading more about Islam (I'm an atheist without a muslim background) and rn I'm very interested in the different branches - Ibadis & Shiites, wacky sufi sects, 'extreme' shiite sects, etc. My Sunni friends like talking about Islam with me and they like hearing about Christianity for example, but as soon as I mention those branches even liberal muslims kind of give me the stink-eye. Is sectarianism (?) really considered worse than not being a muslim at all?

Oh man anon, this message made me so happy. The “wacky” sects are my favorite. Did you read about the Life of Brian-esque one in which people believed that Ali was meant to be the real prophet, and Mohammed just ended up getting the job by mistake? Can u imagine!! Allah sends Gabriel to earth to go find the next prophet and tells him to go to a certain house in Mecca. Gabriel rings the doorbell and Mohammed, clad in a brown thobe, answers the door.

“…hi,” Gabriel says by way of introduction, awkwardly. “So, um. Does a prophet live here, by any chance? Allah told me he’s been giving someone in this house some calls, and he sent me here to speak to that person.”

“YES!” Mohammed yells, punching the air. “YES, it’s me! I’m the prophet! I knew it!!” He begins jumping around. “Those assholes! They had me doubting myself, but I knew, I knew I was the real deal! Oh, wait until that asshole uncle of mine gets a load of this, I can’t wait to tell him to eat shit on Allah’s behalf.”

“Um,” replies Gabriel, meekly, “are you… quite sure?” He looks down at the Prophet Cheat Sheet that Allah gave him, specifying that the next prophet is “a young boy of the Quraysh tribe living at 436 Brick Lane, Mecca, Hijaz. He’ll be the one dressed in brown. You are instructed to tell him to be all-loving and perform miracles to gain the people’s trust and support”.

“I am sure, bud,” Mohammed says, still jubilant. “I��ve never been surer of anything. So, what’s the first step, like–are we gonna just go smash some idols, or should I get up on a platform and tell people their asses are gonna be fried if they don’t stop the polytheist shit, or what?” He grins.

Gabriel stammers: “O-oh, well, the first step. Um. It’s just. I was–I was just expecting someone younger, I guess? Allah told me he’s ‘young’. But it’s fine. Maybe Allah meant young at heart or something, and you’re–you’re certainly energetic. So, hi, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Gabriel, and I’ll be giving you revelations from now on.”

“See?!” Mohammed shouts into the house. “SEE!!! Khadija–come here, baby, see, I told you the doctor was wrong when he called it a ‘psychotic break’, I really did see an angel in the cave that day! ‘Ooo you’re just plagiarizing the Bible, you stupid dipshit’. Well WHO’S THE DIPSHIT NOW, BUDDY? WHO’S THE DIPSHIT NOW?!”

Several people have come forward from inside the house to gawk at the ranting Mohammed. Gabriel peers over Mohammed’s shoulder to get a look at them. Among the women and girls gathered there, there are two male inhabitants of the house. One is dressed in beige. The other…. is dressed in brown.

“Oh no,” he whispers to himself.

“Hey kids, guess whose daddy and/or cousin just became an official prophet?” Mohammed informs them. “You guys ready to join a cult?”

“…do we get stuff?”, the one dressed in beige asks.

“Of course! Allah will give you whatever you want and make anyone you hate miserable!”

“Yay!” the children cheer in unison.

“Oh no,” Gabriel whispers again.

And that is how Islam was created, according to an apparently-real group of people.

And yes, many people believe that being the wrong sort of Muslim (or, well… they consider them not Muslims at all) is one of the most terrible things in the world, because it combines disbelief with a false claim to the religion. Many Muslims believe that non-Muslims are just ignorant of The Truth and would be Muslim if they knew about its glory and miracles etc. That is due to the concept of fitra, meaning the idea that everyone is born with the proper religious inclination and is only led astray by their disbelieving parents (thus why converts call themselves “reverts”). So they’re regarded, generally speaking, as tragically wrong hellbound people who must be saved from The Fire by “dawah”/Islamic missionaries.

It’s different when the “disbeliever” in question actually has read the Quran and has been raised in the religion, but still has a vastly different take on the religion. Non-Muslims sometimes boil differences between Islamic sects down to trivial things; when it comes to the Shia in particular, people tend to view the debate over Mohammed’s succession as a political thing that has nothing to do with the religion itself. But it does. Shia people have their own theological principles related to the imams that many Sunnis consider heretical, whereas some Shia people consider Sunnis’ refusal to acknowledge the imams as heretical. Both stem from how intertwined empire and faith were in the first generations of Islam. Mohammed wasn’t just a prophet; he was the theocratic leader of a state. If one believes that this state was Allah’s will (as basically all Muslims do), it follows that Allah guided the successes of that state even after Mohammed’s death, into and beyond the conquests of the Middle East and North Africa. So the question of who people were supposed to pledge allegiance to becomes not just a political question, but a religious one.

Incidentally, I’m gearing up for a big series of posts on this era of Islamic history, in which I give my hot take on which of these assholes was right. That’s my gift to the ummah this Ramadan season.

#ask #anon #adventures in sectarianism

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ridgid62 · 6 years

Text

How to get to heaven - what are the ideas from the different religions?

By gotquestions.org

There appear to be five major categories regarding how to get to heaven in the world’s religions. Most believe that hard work and wisdom will lead to ultimate fulfillment, whether that is unity with god (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Baha’i) or freedom and independence (Scientology, Jainism). Others, like Unitarianism and Wicca, teach the afterlife is whatever you want it to be, and salvation is a non-issue because the sin nature doesn’t exist. A few believe either the afterlife doesn’t exist or it’s too unknowable to consider.

Derivatives of the worship of the Christian-Judeo God generally hold that faith in God and/or Jesus and the accomplishment of various deeds, including baptism or door-to-door evangelism, will ensure the worshiper will go to heaven. Only Christianity teaches that salvation is a free gift of God through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9), and no amount of work or effort is necessary or possible to get to heaven.

Atheism: Most atheists believe there is no heaven—no afterlife at all. Upon death, people simply cease to exist. Others attempt to define the afterlife using quantum mechanics and other scientific methods.

Baha’i: Like many other religions, Baha’i doesn’t teach that man was born with a sin nature or that man needs saving from evil. Man simply needs saving from his erroneous beliefs of how the world works and how he is to interact with the world. God sent messengers to explain to people how to come to this knowledge: Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and Baha’u’llah. These prophets progressively revealed the nature of God to the world. Upon death, a person’s soul continues its spiritual journey, perhaps through the states known as heaven and hell, until it comes to a final resting point, united with god.

Buddhism: Buddhism also believes that heaven, or “Nirvana,” is to be rejoined in spirit with god. Reaching Nirvana, a transcendental, blissful, spiritual state, requires following the Eightfold Path. This includes understanding the universe, and acting, speaking, and living in the right manner and with the right intentions. Mastering these and the other of the eight paths will return a worshipper’s spirit to god.

Chinese Religion: Chinese Religion is not an organized church, but an amalgamation of different religions and beliefs including Taoism and Buddhism. Upon death, worshipers are judged. The good are sent either to a Buddhist paradise or a Tao dwelling place. The bad are sent to hell for a period of time and then reincarnated.

Christianity: Christianity is the only religion that teaches man can do nothing to earn or pay his way into heaven. Man, a slave to the sin nature he was born with, must completely rely on the grace of God in applying Jesus Christ’s sacrifice to the sins of the believer. People are saved by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. Upon death, the spirits of Christians go to heaven, while the spirits of unbelievers go to a temporary holding place called hell. At the final judgment, unbelievers are separated from God for eternity in the lake of fire.

Confucianism: Confucianism concentrates on appropriate behavior in life, not a future heaven. The afterlife is unknowable, so all effort should be made to make this life the best it can be, to honor ancestors, and to respect elders.

Eastern Orthodox: Orthodoxy is a Christian-Judeo derivative that reinterprets key Scripture verses in such a way that works become essential to reach heaven. Orthodoxy teaches that faith in Jesus is necessary for salvation, but where Christianity teaches that becoming more Christlike is the result of Christ’s influence in a believer’s life, Orthodoxy teaches that it is a part of the salvation process. If that process (called theosis) is not performed appropriately, a worshiper can lose his/her salvation. After death, the devout live in an intermediate state where this theosis can be completed. Those who have belief but did not accomplish sufficient progress in theosis are sent to a temporary “direful condition” and will go to hell unless the living devout pray and complete acts of mercy on their behalf. After final judgment, the devout are sent to heaven and the others to hell. Heaven and hell are not locations, but reactions to being in the presence of God, as there is nowhere that He is not present. For Christ-followers, God’s presence is paradise, but for the unsaved, being with God is eternal torment.

Hinduism: Hinduism is similar to Buddhism in some ways. Salvation (or moksha) is reached when the worshiper is freed from the cycle of reincarnation, and his spirit becomes one with god. One becomes free by ridding oneself of bad karma—the effect of evil action or evil intent. This can be done in three different ways: through selfless devotion to and service of a particular god, through understanding the nature of the universe, or by mastering the actions needed to fully appease the gods.

In Hinduism, with over a million different gods, there are differences of opinion regarding the nature of salvation. The Advaita school teaches salvation occurs when one can strip away the false self and make the soul indistinguishable from that of god. The dualist insists that one’s soul always retains its own identity even as it is joined with god.

Islam: Islam is a take-off on the Christian/Judeo God. Muslims believe salvation comes to those who obey Allah sufficiently that good deeds outweigh the bad. Muslims hope that repeating what Muhammad did and said will be enough to get to heaven, but they also recite extra prayers, fast, go on pilgrimages, and perform good works in hope of tipping the scales. Martyrdom in service to Allah is the only work guaranteed to send a worshiper to paradise.

Jainism: Jainism came to be in India about the same time as Hinduism and is very similar. One must hold the right belief, have the right knowledge, and act in the right manner. Only then can a soul be cleansed of karma. But in Jainism, there is no creator. There is no higher god to reach or lend aid. Salvation is man as master of his own destiny, liberated and perfect, filled with infinite perception, knowledge, bliss, and power.

Jehovah’s Witnesses: The teachings of the Watchtower Society lead us to categorize the Jehovah’s Witnesses as a cult of Christianity that misinterprets the book of Revelation. Similar to Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses teach different levels of heaven. The anointed are 144,000 who receive salvation by the blood of Christ and will rule with Him in paradise. They are the bride of Christ. For all others, Jesus’ sacrifice only freed them from Adam’s curse of original sin, and “faith” is merely the opportunity to earn their way to heaven. They must learn about Kingdom history, keep the laws of Jehovah, and be loyal to “God’s government”—the 144,000 leaders, 9,000 of whom are currently on the earth. They must also spread the news about the Kingdom, including door-to-door proselytizing. Upon death, they will be resurrected during the millennial kingdom where they must continue a devout life. Only afterwards are they given the opportunity to formally accept Christ and live for eternity under the rule of the 144,000.

Judaism: Jews believe that, as individuals and as a nation, they can be reconciled to God. Through sin (individually or collectively) they can lose their salvation, but they can also earn it back through repentance, good deeds, and a life of devotion.

Mormonism: Mormons believe their religion to be a derivative of Judeo/Christianity, but their reliance on extra-grace works belies this. They also have a different view of heaven. To reach the second heaven under “general salvation,” one must accept Christ (either in this life or the next) and be baptized or be baptized by proxy through a living relative. To reach the highest heaven, one must believe in God and Jesus, repent of sins, be baptized in the church, be a member of the LDS church, receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, obey the Mormon “Word of Wisdom” and all God’s commandments, and complete certain temple rituals including marriage. This “individual salvation” leads to the worshiper and his/her spouse becoming gods and giving birth to spirit children who return to Earth as the souls of the living.

Roman Catholicism: Roman Catholics originally believed only those in the Roman Catholic Church could be saved. Joining the church was a long process of classes, rituals, and baptism. People who had already been baptized but were not members of the Roman Catholic Church had different requirements and may even already be considered Christians. Baptism is “normatively” required for salvation, but this can include “baptism of blood” (i.e.: martyrdom) or “baptism of desire” (wanting to be baptized really badly). From the catechism: “Those who die for the faith, those who are catechumens, and all those who, without knowing of the Church but acting under the inspiration of grace, seek God sincerely and strive to fulfill his will, are saved even if they have not been baptized.” Despite the changes through the years, baptism (or the desire for baptism) is still required for salvation.

According to Catholicism, upon death, the souls of those who rejected Christ are sent to hell. The souls of those who accepted Christ and performed sufficient acts to be purified of sin go to heaven. Those who died in faith but did not complete the steps to be purified are sent to purgatory where they undergo temporary, painful punishment until their souls are cleansed. Purification by torment may be lessened by suffering during life and the offerings and prayers of others on the sinner’s behalf. Once purification is complete, the soul may go to heaven.

Scientology: Scientology is similar to Eastern religions in that salvation is achieved through knowledge of self and the universe. The “thetan” (Scientology’s answer to the soul) travels through several different lifetimes, attempting to expel painful and traumatic images that cause a person to act fearfully and irrationally. Once a Scientologist is “cleared” of these harmful images and becomes an “operating thetan,” he/she is able to control thought, life, matter, energy, space, and time.

Shinto: The afterlife in Shinto was originally a dire, Hades-like realm. Matters of the afterlife have now been transferred to Buddhism. This salvation is dependent on penance and avoiding impurity or pollution of the soul. Then one’s soul can join those of its ancestors.

Sikhism: Sikhism was created in reaction to the conflict between Hinduism and Islam, and carries on many of Hinduism’s influences—although Sikhs are monotheistic. “Evil” is merely human selfishness. Salvation is attained by living an honest life and meditating on god. If good works are performed sufficiently, the worshipper is released from the cycle of reincarnation and becomes one with god.

Taoism: Like several other Eastern religions (Shinto, Chinese folk religions, Sikhism), Taoism adopted many of its afterlife principles from Buddhism. Initially, Taoists didn’t concern themselves with worries of the afterlife and, instead, concentrated on creating a utopian society. Salvation was reached by aligning with the cosmos and receiving aid from supernatural immortals who resided on mountains, islands, and other places on Earth. The result was immortality. Eventually, Taoists abandoned the quest for immortality and took on the afterlife teachings of Buddhism.

Unitarian-Universalism: Unitarians are allowed to and encouraged to believe anything they like about the afterlife and how to get there. Although, in general, they believe people should seek enlightenment in this life and not worry too much about the afterlife.

Wicca: Wiccans believe many different things about the afterlife, but most seem to agree that there is no need for salvation. People either live in harmony with the Goddess by caring for her physical manifestation—the earth—or they don’t, and their bad karma is returned to them three-fold. Some believe souls are reincarnated until they learn all their life lessons and become one with the Goddess. Some are so committed to following one’s individual path that they believe individuals determine what will happen when they die; if worshippers think they’re going to be reincarnated or sent to hell or joined with the goddess, they will be. Others refuse to contemplate the afterlife at all. Either way, they don’t believe in sin or anything they need saving from.

Zoroastrianism: Zoroastrianism may be the first religion that stated that the afterlife was dependent upon one’s actions in life. There is no reincarnation, just a simple judgment four days after death. After a sufficient amount of time in hell, however, even the condemned can go to heaven. To be judged righteous, one can use knowledge or devotion, but the most effective way is through action.

Want to learn the truth about going to heaven?

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loststargrazer-blog · 3 years

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What Good Is Religion after the Lies?

Religion has a great grip on mankind, even though it is obscure, contradictory, full of re- or mis- interpretations. The inconvenient bits are often not discussed except when they come back into fashion after a crackpot fundamentalist revival. There are mysteries, and rebirths, and after lives, enlightenment, earthly torments, love, repudiation, judgements, forgiveness, and damnation. The whole crazy ferris wheel of lies is not going away and barely ever seems to be slowing down. Humans love this stuff. In the same way you have painkillers and heroin, so you have philosophy and religion. There is nothing better than religion for the euphoria of cult psychology, bad metaphysics, and misguided moral righteousness. Even before Christ, if you take a philosopher like Epicurus (who died in 270BC), it is clear that religion is a human failing, but nevertheless, despite being obviously nonsense, religion has permeated just about every society on earth quite completely. So what is it about religion that persists beyond the lies?

I suggest that much religion is based upon an analysis of the good. In blog 2 I looked at the meta-ethics of the good. Previously I have said good is what you want within the context of the greater self, but perhaps not all wants are equal. We have shifted the emphasis from what you should do to what you want to do, but this is incomplete. We can consider what we want to want, for example if I am hungry I want to eat chips, but I want to want salad. I want to want health, but perhaps I want to want to want something like contentment. This moving backwards may have more steps; they may not be consistent; but at the end is your most general and basic narrative want - this want is a prime good. Your prime good motivates your wants with normative statements, with all the little things you should do and want. It is your internal voice that carries the concerns of ethics into the domain of instincts and ways you navigate the world - so into the real you. Religion then, like the stories described in the previous blog 16, effects what you want to want. So religion is effective as a narrative, and, like a narrative, religion does not have to be true to function.

Now we have moved beyond the introduction, let us consider wants a little more. We can divide wants up, first by who has the wants and later by the types of wants. I don't think all the types of want are best discussed as philosophy, or religion for that matter. I would say that philosophy should cover what we should want (or want to want to want), while what others should want is covered by religion. This contrasts with what we actually want, which is psychology, and what others want, which is sociology; or contrasted with how we should get what we want, which is self-help, and how others should get what they want, which might be politics. The reason I think philosophy is so personal on this topic is that the discussion of the good in practice uses personally meaningful truths (see my blog 10 on truth); so philosophy is a bit limited structurally in what it can say about other people's notion of the good.

We can divide wants up by their type. Psychology has created things like Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This has focused on security, hungers, and prestige by putting wants into this list by priority. In reality, due to different narratives (including about the greater self), it is possible to challenge this ordered list. So a brave soldier might risk his security for prestige, or for the perceived good of the greater self with a local focus, like saving the lives of his comrades. Religion usually expresses views about what others should want and how these wants mesh together. For example, for security, protect others, particularly the weak and those in authority. For hungers, generally try to control them rather than be controlled by them. And for prestige, put religion and modesty first. This is a standard narrative, but can we redefine the debate?

While the religious narrative is not destructible, we can add narratives and instincts to it. Some common ones are the importance of helping others, or creating art, or preparing for death, or even becoming an important person. Different narratives might challenge the religious one, but perhaps more often they complement it, or even just blend together in a confused neural soup. The updated narrative may function as the new normal without much underpinnings or need for consistency. Even secular morality has much confused religious debate about concepts such as 'fairness'. Considering the religious narrative behaviour we can see two things. One is that you cannot falsify religion, you can only change it. Falsifying in this sense means proving religion logically wrong by providing a single counter example to reject the whole edifice. Secondly, as the religious narrative is expandable, it covers everything you could want to have views or direction or precedent on.

So religion is the narrative which covers topics beyond science, or even most literature. As religion is not science, to ask what is after the lies misses the point of religion. It is also impolite as religion maintains as part of its mystique an aura of ancient truth and validity, handed down on dusty parchments from the arcane words of mysterious prophets. Religion is the theatre production in the philosophical mind, and you probably cannot get rid of it, even by booing. Religion is a narrative about a narrative, itself, and with it an insinuation that it can solve all issues, desires, problems. There is no magic, but if there was, and it was organised, it would be religion. Religion lives within the fabrications of the hyper real (see my earlier blog 11 on the real); so its magic is tangible within experience. Religion is the lies that shapes your truth, your wants, your sense of the good. As religion manifests, it shapes your notion of the good so it cannot be just lies, even if factually incorrect. The more incredible religion is, the more symbolic it becomes of a deeper personal truth.

This narrative view of religion is post-atheism. I call myself a Secular Animist, and this is a form of post-atheism. There are ancient strands of post-atheism, even within some early strands of thinking in Buddhism and Hinduism, although it died out significantly from the 10th century until surprisingly recently. I am not really expecting too much interest in Secular Animism, but I do think post-atheism could be the way of the future. For post-atheism to flourish, there needs to be an exchange, a swap between theists and the rest. In order to create a harmonious social contract, atheists, agnostics, etc. would need to accept the realness within the hyper real of the personal truths of the religious narrative (see my blogs 10 and 11 on truth and the real); while the religious would need to accept that their religion is personal rather than absolute, also that their narrative is and should be open to change as society develops, including absorbing other narratives, for example like equality and feminism.

The idea of a social contract comes from Rousseau and normally it is a society wide political agreement enforced by the government. Having a wider post-atheist discussion of the good (or fair) within a society would be helpful if it lead to consensus and a healing of society. Less good would be claims that personal narratives were absolute truth and values, as this has totalitarian overtones and tends to sow discord. Discord is quite common at the moment, so the media and politicians should be discouraged where possible from too much conflicting narrative and instead focus on the solutions to regulatory and social problems that might fit within many narratives' themes (see blog 9 on capitalism for an example). Constitutionally, a clear division between the state and religions, with specific and influential dialogue, would be most helpful for calm post-atheist narrative management. Narrative management should reduce religious and sectarian conflict; so post-atheism could help religious communities work together better.

* * *

Now we can return to what we want, and to discuss what we should want and do want in contrast. I have compiled a list of wants, this list is probably incomplete and I am not going to define the items, but please consider the following for further discussion: Winning, money, power, pleasing authority, prepare for death, make the world a better place, help people, security, celebrity, to destroy things, pleasure, environmentalism, & experience love. It we consider these items, I reject that there is any intrinsic hierarchy or order to them, for example money leads to power, power leads to money, pleasing authority can also lead to money, helping people can lead to power etc. The wants are unstructured, so how we think about the wants may also have strange associations or ordering based on our personal experiences and narratives. So why do we have strong views on the good?

If wants are so chaotic, then it must be our personal narratives that are orderly for us to have an organised sense of what is good: How does this come about? I suggest that, along with the narratives we are exposed to, there is a pragmatic experience of whether approaches are rewarded in the real world. Of course, if for example a parent carries a particular narrative value system, this could be imposed both as a narrative explained to the child and what works with them as controller of the social environment. As social animals we fill niches in our environment, for example if winning is prioritised over caring in our environment, this may bring forward a competitive streak. Another child may not be practising winning at games as a social role, but may be more focused on expressing care and helping. Both of these may lead to a measure of success, as may other behaviours, especially in complex social environments. What we want may be a circular self-reinforcing system like a neural net that both categorises and trains itself at the same time, it gets trained with rewards, but often a success is judged a success because it is similar to a previous success.

What we should want then, and so what is good, may depend on who we are and our role in our social niche within the greater self. Consider the following matrix:

Matrix Spiritual Materialistic

Helpful Saintly Caring

Selfish Philosopher Winner

As a society we need winners; we need people to be caring. The example of saints may not be bad, and even the philosophical can be useful if they become the thinkers in society. So there is no one 'should want'; there is no justified moral totalitarianism and we still have avoided nihilism (the sense there are no values). There are lots of values.

* * *

I shall make a few concluding remarks. The values we hold are our religion, even if we are atheist or humanist. Our views on topics beyond science are likewise often religious depending on the topic. The narratives we hold, including our religious ones, define us. Narratives can be amended with difficulty. The 'should wants' or 'wants to want to want' we have are the good, and these goods are hyper real, but the goods are not each comparable without a personal narrative to interpret them by association.

Our final conclusion is that the good is real, but personal, very personal, and may be at the root of your personality. Your religion is a necessary part of that personality. So, what good is religion after the lies? Your religion makes you, and makes you function, despite the sometimes obvious lies.

#meta-ethics #ethics #philosophy #religion #religious #post-atheism #narrative #philosophical #analytical #postmodernism #nihilism #theism #psychology of religion

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ashfaqqahmad · 5 years

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Faith Versus Logic

Religion and logic cannot run together

This is a matter of all kinds of possibilities… Now let’s come to reality. We consider the religion to be the best which we are born in and a person born in a Muslim religion feels that he is born in the ‘right’ religion while a person born in a Hindu religion feels that he is born in the ‘right’ religion and all other religions and their followers are wrong. The mentality of the people imprisoned in different enclosures starts with ‘Our own is superior’ and ends at the same. There is a large number of such people in the world and the funny thing is that due to their blind devotion and blind faith, they would easily accept all kinds of illogical arguments. Just think despite being equipped with all kinds of education they give their seal of acceptance to such irrational things.

How did humans start their journey on earth

Today, if we say anything irrational beyond the faith of a religious person, he applies a little mind and dismisses it. But if the other people around him say the same irrational thing, then pressure keeps on mounting him to accept that irrational thing and maybe at some point, he may give his acceptance to that irrational thing….This is a centuries-old pattern of all religions. When a child is born, his parents start feeding him with all kinds of irrational things related to religion. As he grows a little older rest of the people in the house, relatives say the same irrational things to him, he reaches school and college, then he finds the same people there who repeat all the same things and then he goes to the job, here too the people there are repeating the same things and he grasps those things even in his subconscious so much that he cannot deny those things even in his dreams.

It is not easy to get out of the religious morass in such a situation and if someone comes out of it then it is obvious that he somewhere decided on this whole pattern… the criterion of thinking, questioning, finding answers, reasoning every religious story… and this is the brainstorm that results in a person going beyond theism to reality.

As a Muslim, if you want to jump into this brainstorm, come with me and think, understand what can be true… Meditate in the things that are inherently complicated and question yourself, if not anyone else.

Is the Omnipresence of God proved by this story?

First of all, come on a story of ‘Soor e Bakra’ of the Quran… that tells how God created Adam and asked all the angels including the Iblees to prostrate him, but the Iblees refused and as a result, his recognition as a ‘devil’ took place- if we think of this story in a slightly symbolic way, it will become something like this…

Where did religion come from and how logical from the point of view of science?

Suppose you are a celebrity of the types of Ambani – You have a mansion built in 100 acres, which has arrangements like a rest house for the guests, a park and a swimming pool. At the same time, you are also known as a religious teacher and you have claimed that you not only know what is on the people’s minds but what will happen in the future is also in your knowledge.

You have two sons – one day you call both sons in front of all the servants of the house and tell the eldest son and the servants to call ‘Papa’ to the younger son… Here, it may not be important for the elder son or servants to assume or say ‘Papa’, the obedience to your order is important—

But the elder son is not convinced to say ‘Papa’ to his own father’s son and his younger brother – while the rest of the servants consider the younger son to be ‘Papa’ without much hesitation, the elder son flatly refuses and you become upset and declare your eldest son a ‘Kuputra’ and decide a ‘Prison Punishment’ for him.

You have a computer, in which you have collected all the necessary information and you have told everyone at home that they may touch or use anything in the house use but do not disturb this computer. Now ‘Kuputra’ turned elder son instigated the younger that he opened the computer and saw what was inside.

On knowing this, you were filled with unlimited anger and you expelled both ‘Kuputra’ and ‘Suputra’ son out of the mansion saying they have to stay in the rest house outside the mansion from now-on — for a certain time and then they will get an entry back to the mansion.

what possibilities are there in the universe outside our planet

Since the younger son had apologized, you have assured him that all his children have to do certain things – for that not only will they get an entry back to the mansion, but they will also be awarded by nice gifts. Along that gave the elder son a chance that besides he will go to jail, he can seduce as many of his younger brother’s children — and take all of them to the jail with him.

Why does God always need to show beneficence?

Now they start living there, but you repeatedly impose gratitude by telling the younger son and his children that look, we built this house for you – this park, a pool full of water… this LCD, cable, Miniplex, arranged Veg and Non-veg dishes – gave items like Raymond, Reid & Taylor’s clothes, Roland Watches, Ray-ban glasses, Nike shoes.

Now some confusion arises here – the first question mark will be on your knowledge that you did not know, what would be the reaction of the elder son on your call, because if you knew, you would not say anything which is disregarded or you would not be so angry that you would declare your elder son a ‘Kuputra’ for disobeying you.

The second complication is that on your call, the denial of the elder son to call the younger son as ’Papa’ was a sudden incident, which could be avoided by the confession and a little bending of the elder son — that is why your show of beneficence to the younger son for the rest house and the facilities there, will be proved a lie … Suppose elder son would have called him ‘Papa’, these things were meaningless. Then this dialogue for the already made things, “we made it for you” — will automatically be rejected.

The third complication is that under one possibility, assume that you knew everything and whatever you did was done knowingly, then the title of ‘Kuputra’ to a son, to punish both the sons by expelling from the mansion and the jail sentence for Kuputra and the children of the younger son who came under seduction is too much for them.

Obviously, if you apply this story to yourself, then you will not digest this behaviour from yourself but in the name of religion, you accept this story very easily.

Now if you ask such questions to the likes of a religious person or Maulana etc., then the first possibility would be that you can be given the title of a Kafir, Munafik or Atheist which is the most common custom among Muslims, because there is no permission to think about or ask such questions in Islam. Well… let’s talk about this charge because this one word ‘Atheist’ too, creates a lot of confusion.

What should the meaning of an atheist?

There is a person who calls himself an atheist, whom you also categorize as an atheist… not only he keeps ridiculing the established God and the beliefs attached to them – but also keeps on humiliating those who believe in them, then he cannot be an atheist, because in order to ridicule he is accepting the very existence of God – If he is accepting the existence of God, then he is not fulfilling the first condition of being an atheist. An Atheist is the one who has no faith… And if there is no faith, how can one ridicule anything.

If God is there then how can it be from the point of view of science

Now, when such a person comes to the fore, the first thing believers expect from him to tell that how will he be married – how will he be cremated after death because the rites associated with them represent some religion.

It actually is a kind of foolishness that you are seeking rituals from someone who has no faith – means you are expecting him to decide on any ritual for marriage or funeral and the people with similar ideology should do everything according to them. Then even atheism will become a separate cult.

If the man decides the faith, then what is the meaning of being an atheist? Atheism is personal thinking, a personal lifestyle, not any cult. If I say that I am an atheist, there will never be a condition that my wife should also be an atheist or that my parents should also be atheists. I may not have faith in any rituals for marriage, but if my partner does have one then why should I have problems with her faith?

You do a ‘Nikah’, do marry by taking circles around the fire, do a court marriage – what difference does it make? The one, who has to maintain the relationship will maintain it without these rituals, as they used to do before the practice of marriage took place and those who don’t want to, will not even do it despite these religious rituals. Millions of divorces in the world are witness to this logic.

How to write a book in Microsoft word

As far as rituals of the funeral after death are concerned, as soon as I stop breathing, my consciousness is over – what difference does it make to me whether I was burnt, buried, fed to eagles or given to medical students…

It matters to those who care about life after death. What difference does it make to those who don’t have faith in this thing? Here too, it matters to people around those who die that how will they perform the cremation according to their faith, then why should I mind to their faith?

The wife of an atheist can be a theist – her parents can be theists.

Click here to read the next part of this article

इस लेख को हिंदी में पढ़ने के लिये यहाँ क्लिक करें

#relgion and science #faith vs fact #faith vs logic #athiesm #agnoticism

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a-broader-sensibility-blog · 7 years

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This godawful blue website is getting on my nerves so much; it has become a repository for all of the internalized misogyny that teenage girls absorb in this pornified culture of sexualized violence and double standards. And it has turned this terrible hatred, this self-hatred, into a religion.

When I see so many young women in their teens and twenties sending messages to other women saying, “You’re filthy/stinky/crusty/your pussy smells bad/brush your teeth/your hair is ugly/your brows are uneven/take a shower,” I can’t help but think of the complicit and compliant women who would go out to watch heretics and witches being burned at the stake as a form of entertainment. When I hear young people (but mostly young women) repeat nonsense mantras like a broken record, mantras they are unable to coherently explain without appeals to authority and ad hominem (ad femina, actually) attacks, I think of smug, holier-than-thou religious fanatics who take personal pleasure in hunting down the insufficiently pious. When scientific facts are denied or deliberately misconstrued, but personal, inner feelings are held up as absolute truth, I think of religious people who will not accept the fact of evolution because it goes against the narrative they prefer.

I am an atheist who attended a very religious elementary school. I decided I no longer believed in God or any religious texts at the age of eleven or twelve, and I’ve never gone back. I firmly believe that all religions are anti-women, and when I say “all religions,” I don’t only mean religions based on belief in any gods. I mean I reject cult-like practices of coercive control, new age pseudoscience, commercial products packaged in the language of anti-capitalist alternative medicine and political dogmas that demand utter, 100% agreement on all issues from any adherents.

I am seeing a lot of troubling evidence that ‘liberal feminist’ pro-genderists are falling into the old patterns of religious and cult-like beliefs and behaviour. If you want to know whether your political beliefs are pseudo-religious, there’s a pretty simple test. How does your group treat apostates (former believers) versus people who never were a part of your group? Violent religions and cults direct the worst of their fiery outrage to apostates—this is true of Islam, of Scientology, of extreme political groups and of all cults, by definition. Most radical feminists are former liberal feminists, and we get a hugely disproportionate amount of hatred, scorn, violent threads, and disgusting and demeaning insults compared with misogynists and sexists who were never liberal feminists at all. De-transitioned women are subjected to social ostracism, and are accused of never having been “truly trans.” All of us radfems on the internet who are open about our beliefs have gotten some truly terrible messages of hatred, some of which advocate violence and most of which use misogynistic language. We are the apostates of liberal feminism, the women who have committed the terrible wrong of using our brains to apply logic and critical thinking to libfem doctrine, and who disagree with some (perhaps not all) of your beliefs.

If you are a liberal feminist, please ask yourself why you despise radically feminist lesbians who want to maintain personal boundaries more than the men who actually commit violence against gender-nonconforming people of both sexes. Please consider whether criticizing women’s political beliefs on the basis of whether or not they moisturize correctly or have perfectly plucked eyebrows is actually a feminist mode of discourse. Ask yourself whether your complete dismissal of the concerns of feminist women over the age of forty is possibly the kind of ageist sexism that you claim to oppose. Consider that assuming every radical feminist is a lesbian with hairy legs is just straight up homophobia, full-stop. Go to an actual medical professional and ask them whether identifying a person’s sex by looking at their face and body is a 50/50 guessing game, or a pretty accurate means of determining biological sex. Get off the damn internet and read a book, get a job, learn some basic critical thinking skills, experience the real world and then come back here and tell me and the other feminists who embrace radical systemic change that

lol i hope someone rapes your white ass with a knife and puts acid on your dirty terf face and you die a slow painful death you deserve

#radical feminism #atheism #critical thinking #radfem #apostasy #apostates #cults #liberal feminism #libfem #genderists #misogyny #violent threats #libfem cult

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the1975hqs · 7 years

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The Flask, a 17th-century former coaching inn at the top of Highgate Hill in north London, has seen its share of poetic outsider figures. Dick Turpin purportedly hid out in the stables. Byron, Shelley and Keats dropped by after visiting the opium-addicted local resident Coleridge. Now Matt Healy, leader of the pop interlopers the 1975 and cutting a Byronic dash himself with a wayward thatch of curls and rose-painted leather jacket and jeans, is in the Flask’s cellar-like back room.

He’s explaining how the Wilmslow band’s heavy presence at this year’s Brit awards — nominations for best British group and album of the year, plus a live appearance — is proof that rank outsiders can upset the mainstream.

“It’s an important moment for us because we’re a subversive act to have broken through on such a level that the Brits would want us to perform,” says Healy, 27, staring intensely over the weathered wooden table. “I’m not from the Brits’ world. I shouldn’t be there and everyone needs to know that. I couldn’t get arrested until I was 23.” He thinks about this for a moment. “Actually, I did get arrested when I was 23, but you know what I mean. I suffer massively from impostor syndrome.”

A cynic might point out that as far as impostors go Healy is an unusually well-connected one. His mother is Denise Welch, alumna ofCoronation Street and Loose Women, and his father is the actor Tim Healy of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

“I answered the phone to Harold Pinter once,” Matt Healy offers. “My parents did make following a creative pursuit seem like a viable life choice, but Coronation Street doesn’t buy you currency in rock’n’roll. It’s a curse, actually. When people say my parents bought my connections I think: ‘Yeah, the best person to get you a record deal is Curly Watts. Mention Gail Tilsley to Universal Records and you’ve got a No 1 album in America.’ ”

Forming the band during lunch breaks at Wilmslow High School in 2002 when they were only 13, Healy, guitarist Adam Hann, bassist Ross MacDonald and drummer George Daniel went under a variety of names before settling on the 1975. They vowed to reflect a young, internet-bred generation’s relationship with music where there are no guilty pleasures any more, just an endless world of choices from which to cherry-pick. This approach — of combining everything from shiny pop and gothic introspection to overblown stadium rock, and aligning it all to the terminal oversharer Healy’s emotionally wrought lyrics — led to such glorious moments as playing a concert in Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, to an audience of one.

Full interview under the cut

“We were a band with an identity crisis,” Healy says. “I was going around telling people we were the ambassadors of a generation who approach music in a non-linear way, who don’t think in terms of genre. The only problem was nobody was interested.”

Gradually, word got out. The 1975’s self-named debut from 2013 was a hit. When the preposterously titled I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It went to No 1 in 2016, the 1975 became Britain’s biggest cult band. Now here we are on a rainy January lunchtime and the wildly entertaining Healy is grappling with his conflicted feelings on stardom.

“Can you even be a rock star today?” he asks, talking as much to himself as to me. “The only way I can be a rock star is to be a humble egomaniac. I am saying: love me, with no top on, in a pair of leather trousers, but that obnoxiousness comes with genuine fragility and fear because it’s important for people to feel personally addressed when it comes to art. I’d rather talk about a part of myself that I have a profound distaste for than paint myself in a good way.”

What part of himself does he have a distaste for? “I’m constantly apologising for being pretentious and egotistical,” he says. “And I don’t like it that I can’t have platonic relationships with women. I don’t know why that is. I don’t sexualise women and I’m not misogynistic, but perhaps I’m such an atheist that the closest I can get to divinity is the feeling you have when a woman likes you . . .” He puts his hands over his mouth. “Oh no! This is all going a bit Ron Burgundy!”

Healy does tend to let his mouth run away from him in a way not dissimilar to Will Ferrell’s portentous character in Anchorman. In an interview with The Times in 2014 he pondered on whether he might actually be the Messiah. Last year he got into hot water after recalling Taylor Swift coming to one of the 1975’s concerts. Reflecting on the hysteria surrounding her, he wondered if it would be emasculating to be her boyfriend. The celebrity blogger Perez Hilton picked up on it and interpreted it as an insult against Swift. It also started a rumour that Healy was Swift’s boyfriend.

“Imagine what it is like being Taylor Swift,” says Healy now. “A guy you met for five minutes gets so badgered by questions about you, he inevitably says something that can be misheard as a shade. It made me realise how mental her world is.”

Healy is like your loudest, silliest friend who became famous by mistake and is still working out what you’re meant to do. When he tells of sharing a Saturday Night Live green room with Larry David, Ben Stiller and Bernie Sanders or recalls Dolly Parton calling him a cutie, you sense his awe.

“Mate, I’m just a snot-nosed teenager from Wilmslow and I’ve taken that world with me. The guy who used to do our merchandise is now my assistant, but I can’t call him my assistant because it’s Dan from maths who I used to sit next to. I’d like to say that backstage is like a meeting of Ginsberg, Blake and Lennon. Actually it’s more like The Inbetweeners with us playing Fifa and calling each other dickheads. Put me in a room with famous people and I’m rubbish. When David Byrne was in the dressing room next to ours I was the most uncool person in the world. I was lingering by the door, waiting for David Byrne to come out. Then he appears just as I’m opening a bag of Haribo, I’m shocked, they split open and go everywhere, he walks past me without saying anything and I’m just a dick with a bag of sweets.”

Then there are the fans, who are for the most part teenage girls who identify deeply with Healy while also finding him extremely attractive. “I do take my artistic responsibility seriously because with some of my fans it gets heavy,” he says, looking serious for a moment. “Someone sent me razor blades she tried to kill herself with. She was giving them to me to make sure she never did it again. Kids draw me all the time. I used to have my own emotional baggage. Now I have to buy a suitcase on every tour just for all the emotional baggage I get sent.”

Is that a burden? “No because I totally get it. Fundamentally what people want is human connection. Regardless of religion, or whether the world will come to an end, or what worlds may have come before, the only thing that will actually, definitely happen is interaction with another human being.”

All of this fed into I Like It When You Sleep . . . , its title an expression of Healy’s desire to make an album as over the top and emotionally unchained as possible. The funky, Prince-like Love Me is his response to becoming an icon of sorts; Ugh! is an expression of disgust at his former cocaine excess; The Ballad of Me and My Brain is a depiction of being driven insane by fame; and Loving Someone is a celebration of companionship that has become something of an anthem for the LGBT community. Healy says the album is the product of a band facing up to the crisis of finding themselves, after years of indifference, very popular indeed.

“We freaked out!” says Healy, excitedly, of their sudden success. “We spent ten years in my dad’s garage without anyone caring who we were. Nobody would sign us, so our manager formed a label and signed us for 20 quid in his kitchen, while making pasta and pesto. And then it happened. We were on tour for two years, suddenly it was time to make the second album and we didn’t know if we could do it. George had a breakdown and had to get help. And what was there to write about? I knew I couldn’t release a single called God, Aren’t Threesomes a Nightmare?”

He considers this. “Not that I was having threesomes, but nobody else was sharing our experiences so I had to go deep. What are the fundamentals? Fear, religion, struggles with addiction, my relationship with my mother, dealing with death . . . And I can’t change who I am. When it comes down to it I’m a gaunt, insecure person who is writing about being young and doing drugs.”

You can’t help but like him. He may be completely self-obsessed, but at least he has the grace to acknowledge it. (“I don’t think I’m Marc Bolan, but I like the fact that you might think that I think I’m Marc Bolan.”) And there’s something generous about the way he wants to give you everything he has to offer, whether you are a fan watching him preen on the stages of the world or a journalist wondering if, after an hour and a half of non-stop chat, he might feel like stopping soon. He is a rock star born in an age when being a rock star without a degree of irony is no longer viable.

“I started out in a band because it made me happy,” he concludes. “Then all this stuff happened, I got scared and I didn’t know why I was doing it any more until I remembered: because it makes me happy! This is my life. I would be selling flowers on Brent Cross roundabout if it weren’t for the 1975.”

#interview #matty healy #the 1975 #the times

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surge42-blog · 7 years

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Do What Thou Wilt: A sermon by Ab-Soul

Ab-Soul's Do What Thou Wilt album is perhaps one of his most controversial offerings. Soul having called it a love story and female appreciation album, it baffles many listeners when they listen to the album because it seems as if Soulo is throwing too many concepts all over the place.....or is he? After a random listening of the album I picked up a something out of nowhere. EVANGELISM The album starts out aggressive as it kicks off with RAW(backwards). Soul starts out by evangelizing listeners as the Carson native raps "another Baptism by Pastor Black Lip". What is he evangelizing them from? Well it's answer in hook which goes "we don't wanna hear that whack shit no more",which could be directed towards his contemporaries who rap about money,hoes,clothes,drugs dealing, and glorifying the gang life. The "battlemongers"(haters) called him a reject as he puts considering how much negativity he's gained from his previous album "These Days...",but Soul doesn't allow this to deter him. Then comes the most notorious part of the sing,which is a jab at Jay Electronica who was featured with Kendrick over the controversial Control track. It should be noted that there has been tension between Kenny and Jay after the chain of events set off by Lamar's verse. Ab protests that "it hurts when an O.G who was supposed to be a G.O.D is standing next to King Kunta(Lamar) feeling like Tobi",he means that it saddens him to see a respected artist as Electronica shows signs of having an inferiority complex for a song verse that was not really supposed to have bothered him...or anyone for that matter. This song is called RAW(backwards) which is WAR,not physical but rather a war of words,Soul's preachings are a weapon to fight against the problem he is yet to elaborate on. "Cause we don't die, we just multiply,divide and conquer": Ab-Soul's fan base or rather converts keep growing despite any hindrances (These Days...). He warns listeners that "the truth is scary" and that they must brace themselves for his teachings and making the listener anxious. "Wicked as Aleister Crowley" is a line Soul has used time and time again...not to be misinterpreted by any means,he is comparing himself to Crowley because Soul has cult following of fans similar to how Crowley had a cult following of converts. The next song Braille comes in with a wonderful Bas feature. But why Braille? Braille is a writing system used by the blind in place of normal alphabets,it is an unusual alphabet system for the normal seeing person which makes sense as I continue to explain. The song begins with the hook "Try saying something new,ain't nothing new to say, everything been did each and every which way" in reference to the wack shit that Soul spoke of: the repetitive songs about money,fame,women etc. But he continues "you ain't never seen it done like this" meaning Soul is about to bring something new to the masses,something out of the ordinary kinda like making non-blind people read Braille..am I right? The song doesn't seem all that 'new' as you listening to it,Soul uses a generic flow,and raps about the same things he just called wack("we went from Pentos to Benzos" along with the braggadocio that ccomes with hip-hop), although he does keep his witty lines accompanied by Bas' killer verse. This song seems more like a parody of today's music really...until the end of course. The beat becomes distorted and Ab raps "What the tongue can't taste,what the eyes can't see,what the ears can't hear",it's about his subject matter of the album,stating to the evangelized listener that it makes no sense or better yet,it is unfathomable. Huey Knew THEN begins to play its sinister instrumental. This song is about the financial prosperity of the black man as Soul begins with a rendition of The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air theme. Will Smith on the show portrays a young man from his low income lifestyle in Philadelphia moving to a neighborhood of wealth. Soul raps "I gotta shoot a fuckin' free throw to make my point". A longstanding stereotype about the black man is that the only way a black man can make it out of poverty is through basketball. Now onto Huey, the man who the song is named after. He was a civil rights activist fighting for the equality of the black man in order give him a chance to prosper but the system has been designed to keep the black man from achieving: the guns and drugs prevalent in black neighborhoods which lead to gang wars and the likes. Black out is used as a metaphor for death,black out being a minor sleeping state which is considered the cousin of Death which is in turn reaffirmed by the reference of the pale white horse. Telling white lies refers to the underhandedband shady dealings of gangbanging which also leads to the demise of the black man. "White lives matter when I black out" means white people become the topic of discussion in the death of a black man(such as the case of Trayvon Martin). Soul talks about "looking for shortcut to be an icon" but later says he's only doing it for the money,but not in a condescending way,he means he's doing it to make a living for himself as a black man with limited opportunity. And then the line "your 16 is pint sized to me" is referring to the rappers he addresses in RAW(backwards) and Braille meaning that their raps are meaningless to him,and furthermore lack true meaning to him. In the first three songs of the album Soul directs our attention away from these unnamed rappers and directs us towards him instead. This is the evangelism phase of the album. But wait...there's more. Huey was part of the Vanguard and it is a known fact that women were not allowed to join in. This sets the stage for the next song. THE SERMON Now that Ab-Soul has converted you and baptized you into his religion, he begins his sermon to the new and old converts(fans). He begins his song Threatening Nature with "this time around we're taking atheists to church,serving serpents with sermons with curse words". He talks to not only the nonbelievers of God but also the sinners using his profanity filled raps. Soul says his heart pumps the same blood as Jehovah's son or rather Joseph meaning Jesus. White people have long used religion to paint other races as inferior,but this statement by Soul challenges such a notion firstly because Jesus was a human like anyone else and on top of that he wasn't even white to begin with,this is continuing the theme of racial equality from the previous track. He challenges (threatens) the norm(nature) that he is white. Soul then switches the focus from race to something else...gender. He says "coming with lies to tell fairies(women) out of nowhere to help my selfish desires(sex)",Soul talks about how he deceived women into sleeping with him. "My life is about the vices(sin)" no explanation needed. Then he opens the first book of the bible and takes us to the garden if Eden. He talks about Adam,"If Eve never ate that apple he'd be mad sad",apple in this sense refers to Adam's sexual organs(the forbidden fruit),"and would've never pulled the leaves off of Eve and seen all that ass like a true man",Soul details how men use women as sex objects by using the example of himself and Adam and he says its "10 times harder fighting temptation". Men are tempted to feed their primal urges to have sex with women,but he is by no means defending men. Soul criticizes men by telling them that they bow down to pray to a man they don't understand (God) and get on one knee to propose to women(getting married without understanding the true meaning or purpose of marriage). Oh I love this part,"in grade school I learned about HIStory but what about HER story,did anybody ask?". In history women are not represented as much as they should and thus are overlooked in most cases. If it's not about the founding FATHERS,JFK,the first man on the moon, Martin Luther King,or Obama then it's rarely about women. "Tryna flower Queen Elizabeth",in a male run world it seems that in most cases the female power(Queen Elizabeth) is always shut down and dismantled(deflower). Soul says Genesis is the genealogy of Isis. With all that is going on around the world I can bet all my money that we all thought about the terrorist group ISIS...you know I'm right. But I think Soul is referring to the Egyptian goddess worshipped as the ideal MOTHER and WIFE. Isis is held in high regard and using her to symbolize Eve says a lot. "The chicken came before the egg"...uhm,hold that thought for now I'll explain that later. Soul goes back to HIStory when he talks about his ancestors picking cotton to their liberation from slavery today(Huey Knew) but we were so focussed on everything else that we forgot about speaking out on sexism because "the black man could vote before the women could". We sing hymns in church but what about the hers Soul asks with his witty wordplay. "Hilary Clinton tryna get ahead in the senate",Hilary was so close to making history as America's first female president the most powerful spot in the world,something that seemed like a dream at first but the fact that she didn't become president proves Soul's point even more on how the female power is always shut down. Soul says "getting head and I'm sinning"(female sex object theme). Men don't want to see a woman in power,they rather they cook,clean,pleasure them in bed...such a travesty don't you think? TESTIMONY OF THE PRIEST In mid-sermon, Ab-Soul takes a moment to talk about his sins as a man. The beginning of his testimony starts with Womanogany. In the song Soulo uses the imagery of Aphrodite (goddess of love,beauty,pleasure,and procreation) and her son Eros (god of desire,erotic love, attraction,and affection) and how they play tug of war with him. Aphrodite symbolizes genuine love while Eros symbolizes lust and thus Soul struggles between forming a genuine relationship with a woman and sleeping with a woman just for the sake of sleeping with her. This theme echoes throughout the hook that goes "I LIKE girls that's in LOVE with me". Soul manipulates women's attraction to him to please his sexual desires and confirms this when he says "gave her morning wood and rolled my wood in the morning" (one night stand). ScHoolboy Q's part on the hook "From the womb to the tomb nigga,keep that womb in that tomb nigga" is about some of the women aborting their babies(from the womb to the tomb) after Soul defiled them. A SINNER'S PRAYER The testimony continues as Soul details his calls for God's favor (an invocation) in the next song. Soul has been womanogamous(slept with so many women) and worries that his behavior might harm him as he symbolizes pussy as destructive and dangerous (Sexually Transmitted Infections). "That's why the wealthy need welfare",many affluent(wealthy) men have used their money for sexual favors and like Soul they fear for their health. In the hook Soul raps "He is I and I am Him" meaning he is a God...or rather God the Son(Jesus), symbolism he used heavily in "These Days...",and he also raps "I pray to Lord my soul's a G,if I O.D before I awake,I pray I ressurect on the third day". If you look closely at that line Ab is spelling out the word GOD,and also with the ressurection part he is praying it the Lord that he reaches a state of godliness and righteousness before he dies. Soul continues comparing himself to Jesus as people talk about him at barbershops and white kids wanting his autograph, his fame is spreading just like that of Christ, and like Christ he too is challenging the norms of his time. This prayer to God as I said is for Soul to be righteous and flee his sinful nature(sex). But like any recovering sinner he stumbles too as he says "Come suck Jesus'(Ab-Soul's) penis on Venus (desire)" going back to treating women as objects of sexual fulfilment. This is also relates to how women would want to satisfy Jesus in anyway they can(story of Mary Magdalene),the only difference her is that unlike Jesus who didn't seek sexual pleasure, Soul did. The Crowley and Jesus references go hand in hand because they also thought Jesus was spreading an evil doctrine although he was trying to enlighten people. Soul talks about "faith without the 'h' ",it is fait(fate) which is destiny...our destiny to go to "where the arc of the covenant is still" (Heaven). FELLOW SINNERS We move on from the struggling Ab-Soul and focus on his peers on Wifey vs. WiFi. This song is about Soul's friend,Riley. On verse 1 Riley gets arrested for possession of drugsdrugs and we hear the cell doors close on him. The hook is Riley reprimanding his girl(Wifey) for complain about missing her calls when he has to deal with matters of doing time in prison. In verse two Riley complains to Soul about his(Riley's) mother always arguing to him(most likely about his mistakes which lead him into prison), and calls her devil which Soul reacts to by telling Riley to "chill" and Riley continues to insult his mother(misogyny theme) by correlating the word "MOM" to it's corresponding numbers on the dial pad (666). Then we move on to Riley on the inside of prison,portrayed by BR3. This details Riley's survival on the inside of prison and somehow making many to send to his mother. He asks "why did I have to lose the case?" and continues "I feel like Biggie when he lost faith". Riley's life has been controlled by the system because of the life he chose(drug dealing,banging,etc). He has lost faith in having a better future and lost faith in God (although he reaped what he sowed). His life has spiraled and to top things off he suspects his girl is having sexual relations with other men. Riley chose the thug life which is about the masculinity that comes with street cred,and machismo which is evident in his disrespect of his mother and girlfriend. There's a Boondocks reference here. Huey the older brother is the activist fighting for civil rights of black men and Riley the younger brother is the one with an affinity for the thug life. But even with this difference they share one thing in common....they forget about the women. Riley aught to repent from his sinful ways like Soul but he doesn't. IT'S A SINNER'S WORLD Riley is saddened that he had to lose his case. But some sinners were luckier than Riley who are able to elude the clutches of prison. They are better off because they don't allow the system to send them off to every black man's perceived destiny (prison) so they beat the case like runaway slaves fleeing from their oppressors. But they're oblivious to the fact that their actions contribute to the control system. Straight Crooked sheds more light on the situation on people like Riley. "A prisoner's best asset is his liability (lie ability)",the criminals who beat their cases in the court room lied their way out of their situations and misleading the law enforcement (don't snitch). Ab calls the government a Muppet show or rather a joke of a system which is used to keep the black man from succeeding. Huey tries to break this system to give the black man equal opportunity to financially prosper but in failing to do so people like Riley resort to criminal activity to try and financial prosperity. All the efforts seem to be in vain. DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER Portishead In The Morning begins with Soul reviving his Jesus reference by calling himself a demigod (half human half god). Soul tells us he's "the brightest silver lining" and urges the converts at the service to not "make me take my light back". This sentence relates to one of Soul's lines "You can have all my shine I'll give you the light" as in the phrase "shed light"(knowledge/information). Like Jesus he tries to spread a message and urges listeners to withhold this knowledge which has been withheld from them by the system (forbidden knowledge). He asks congregants if they view him as man carrying a message(prophet) or think this is just Soul using a gimmick for financial gain(profit). They acknowledge his intellect but they tell him to dumb it down to gain greater appeal from the masses. Ab-Soul tests the male listeners in his sermon by asking a trick question: "Do you really wanna go to Heaven? Ain't no bitches mentioned". There are no female figures mentioned to be in heaven, all Angels that have been mentioned have been male, God is male,cherubs have various body parts with the head of a man. Soul paints a picture of divine sausage fest but the question is used to test the hearts of men, would they rather go to heaven or go to hell to fornicate as much as they want to. He references his song from Control System "Bohemian Grove" which is about the club of the same name which rejected women from joining, which it has been criticized for being misogynistic. In a way Soul's question is also sarcastic because he knows women are allowed in heaven(I ain't sexist,I'm inviting sisters too) so why doesn't the Grove do the same? Soul grabs the attention of atheists when he says the devil is a creation and not a creator and quotes the scientific law "energy is not created nor destroyed". God is energy because he is the uncreated creator. He uses science to prove the existence of God to the atheist converts. Describing the devil in an opposite way makes him less powerful and godlike and making him more inferior (Soul is not a satanist guys remember that). Soul ends with "God gotta be a thot". Let me explain, this song comes after two songs about sinners and criminals who have no problem in disrespecting women so this is where Soul addresses the misogynists in the room because God gave birth to Adam, thus making him a lifegiver meaning God is a female in that sense so by disrespecting the females you're nalso disrespecting God too. THOT is a term of disrespect for women so therefore if men call women thots(that.hoe.over.there) then you're pretty much calling God a that too....I hope you understood what I meant in that explanation. So when Soulo talks about the blood from your brain and beat rushing elsewhere (penis) and can't think and can't run(function) which is pretty much how men are when they are around these so called thots,they get horny and let their instincts drive them without thinking about what is it they are doing(which is defiling women),so this is Soul sort of asking you "you defile women,do you want to defile God too now?"(obviously the answer from the congregants at Soul's funeral should be no). Soul is teaching them a harsh lesson here to respect women. THE TRUTH IS SCARY Ab-Soul pretty much dropped a bombshell in the previous track which made way for the scary truth he spoke of earlier in the album which is God's A Girl...but it's more of a question from the congregants "Reverend are you really saying God's A Girl?". Some might think Soul contradicts himself,"you shit on us for calling women thots but you call them bitches",but Soul has stated in an interview with Soul that nowadays the term "bitch" is more of a term of endearment, kinda how men calk each other dawgs(dogs) so the female equivalent would be bitch. God's A Girl? is a second testimony by Soul. He starts by saying "you got me crying with a hard dick,I love you so much that I hate this shit",Ab trying to keep to his promise to refrain from his sexual urges says he cares about women that he hates the fact he has this urges in the first place, but then Soul reverts to sin when he says "come have sex with Jesus(Ab-Soul)" and "do your job" followed by a woman moaning during sex. He now uses women as sex objects again and being misogynistic again by telling the woman to do her job(sex). He thought he learned from his mistakes on Womanogamy but failed as he gives in to temptation. He shows the men he addressed in the previous song that "I too am not perfect so don't feel too ashamed when you also slip up". Soul raps "all I got is Goddess,I'm a heroine addict"......Soul becomes womanogamous again. The song pauses as Soul has a conversation and in the background we hear SZA's chorus on God's Reign...you do the math. In the second part of song,Soulo fell off way hard as he talks about going to rehab and the possibility that he might relapse(Soul's repentance and return to sin). He winds up acting like the rappers he addressed in RAW(backwards) as Soul raps about the "wack shit" too such as indulging in alcohol with peers,trying live recklessly like a rock star, getting fellatio in an expensive car and bragging about having more money than certain individuals. Towards the end Soulo contemplates his actions. "On the mountain top about to cry cause it gets so lonely up here",like any rise to fame it gets lonely at the top,he has the money but not the happiness. "Is anyone out there? Can anybody hear me?" is where he references his song from Longterm 2 of the same name where he raps about selling his soul and "Am I the next Shakur or an attention whore"...this is what Soul became,"I could save you with quotes"...this is what Soul needs to be again. This is the point of the song where he gets sense knocked into him and he realizes how much he's fallen and scrutinizes the world around him which is the "generation of complacency (self satisfaction)",the same world he became a part of for a moment. Soul vows to better himself to do the right thing when he puts his "right hand in the Bible with you". In his testimonies he has just revealed to us his demons and vows to try his best to change for the better and to leave his life of self satisfaction and misogyny. Now Jesus (Ab-Soul) goes back to his mission of trying to teach listeners. He raps "my ancestors came on a mother ship so I had to take it farther(father)". A child is born of the mother and lives under the rules and guidance of the father,Soul's ancestor(Adam) came on a mother ship(given birth by God) and lived under the rules of his father(also God). The song title is a question of whether God is a girl or not but the way Soulo puts it he is saying "Yes,God is a girl....but...he's also a man,so he's both" meaning God is equally male and female. This is a powerful revelation from Soul because what this teaches us is that even by divine law men and women are equal(the whole point of feminism). TAKE THE TRUTH AND EAT IT And Now You Know the scary truth Soul was hinting at in the beginning,the theory that the chicken(mother) came before the egg(child). At this point Soul knowing that this is a lot for you take in tells you to "try to relax". This track serves as a revision as Soul rreprises the line "I'm just a youngin' Del Amo"(Huey Knew),"cups with ices"(alcohol from God's A Girl?). Soul talks about being "miseducated, misled,misinterpreted, misunderstood, mistaken,misjudged" and a misfit causing mischieve. Majority of these words pretty much mean "I had things all wrong" and noting the "mis-" prefixes Soul is saying not only did he have women all wrong but also that he was doing them wrong. When he said "all you feminists should be on my dick for this shit" he meant they aught to be Stans (dickriders) for coming with a such a powerful and elaborate means of promoting feminism. Soul says he would change out the 'y' in mystery with an 'i' meaning that he is now figuring out women and what they want...which is to be treated as equals. He references the Bohemian Grove song intro. Thus reminding us of the objective of gender equality. Soul alludes to his conception in the womb as he talks about meiosis and mitosis (cell division) and floating through a body of water(sperm swimming in uterus) and says "And you know why I love my momma so much" is because his mother gave him life(God's A Girl) which hints the hook of the next song. At the end of the song Soul takes a misogynistic pledge which is basically a summary of his old self and also clarifying to the male listeners on what constitutes to misogyny. THE PAIN OF THE PRESENT D.R.U.G.S is a call for help from Soul. Soul talks about his personal and emotional issues and the pain he tries to take away with drugs. Mac sings "I can't help myself I think I need some help" but the only help present to Ab is his drugs which have become his crutches. Towards the end he says "Aderall Admiral give Danny credit",Aderall Admiral is a song by Danny Brown about the drug Aderall. It should be noted that at one point in time Danny went onto Twitter to vent about his internal pain telling people that he doesn't do drugs because it's cool,he does drugs becausenhe has problems in his life and Danny has hinted at suicidal tendencies on his song "30". Soul referencing Danny in such a way tells us that behind the calm shades lies a broken man as we see in the album cover. He openly asks us his "brethren" to alleviate his pain. Ab-Soul has been using the Jesus symbolism throughout the album,so this moment on D.R.U.G.S is reminiscent of Jesus crying during prayer asking God to free him from the suffering he'll endure during his trial and crucifixion. This is the moment in the Bible where Jesus shows that he too is human with fear and pain. Soul is human too with problems like anyone else even though he keeps his composure in the public eye. In the music video for this song Soul calls to check up on his mom(God) and says he'll be coming home soon. But in Soul's background we can see Jerusalem as he says he's coming home(Heaven). This means souls will be crucified for our sins(album art of These Days...) and ascend to heaven. Don't Ruin Us God Said is lyrical reference to Lupe Fiasco's song "They.Ressurect.Over.New" which Soul is featured on. This means Soul will die and rise again (his song Stigmata) into something new and transformed....or rather reincarnated(which is the theme of T.R.O.N) this could also be hinting at Andy Weir's short story called The Egg where God says we are all one entity living out different incarnations of ourselves also giving a secondary meaning to Ab-Soul's line "he is I and I am him,they ain't me and I ain't them" meaning we are all different incarnations but we are one. This theme of unity ties in with the feministic theme of the album of male and female equality or in spirit science terms: unity of male energy(logic and analytical thinking) and female energy (creativity and abstract thought),unity of yin and yang to find peace and thus reach nirvana, a place of no suffering. This is the penultimate conclusion of Tetsuo & Youth which life,death,reincarnation("proceed to the next level") and finally Nirvana. Tetsuo & Youth is the game and Do What Thou Wilt is our instruction manual to get us to nirvana. TRIBUTE TO THE DEAD Evil Genius is a memorial service of Alori Joh(Ab's deceased girlfriend). He gathers longtime Alori Joh collaborator and friend Javonté for the ceremony. Soul first talks about himself as the misunderstood "evil" genius although his motives are good and talks about how Alori would help Soul as a partner in crime and calls her an evil genius too because she understood Ab and his motives. In the hook Soul references the song "Let You Shine" by Alori which he referenced on "The Book Of Soul' too,plus he even samples the song on Evil Genius but the song is distorted and gives it a ghostly feel. The last time Alori was heard was on Section.80 and Control System and so this is like Alori's ghost ressurecting and Teedra Moses' voice which is eerily similar to Joh's indeed makes it seem like she is rising from the grave. On D.R.U.G.S,Soul has a void in his heart which only Joh would've been able to fill and thus Soul realizes even more how alone he is and starts to break down. A BISHOP'S TEARS On Lonely Soul reiterates how much he is misunderstood as he baffles people like the Baphomet. The Baphomet anatomy is all over the place and is confusing and misunderstood by onlookers but in the madness there is meaning,kinda like Soul's lyricism,but the only person who understood Soul is dead and gone and he feels out of place. He sulks in this song telling people to "Leave me (a)lone". He goes back to his crutch,drugs[lavender(purple kush) and pastel green(chronic)]. When he is asked "What happens after Control System?" he replies "the system controls me". The loss of Alori hit Soul so hard and it heavily accounts for his reckless nature in his testimonies stated above and how the depression he felt made him even more vulnerable to the system and sinning. He says "a coward killed my brother Georgiano and his momma"(the thug life/Riley). The loved ones around him are dying and adds on to his depression. The only person who could help was Alori. Soul is the male energy which is destructive in the absence of the female energy (Alori),emphasizing the importance of a woman in a man's life. Soul is the Black Lip Pastor and Alori was his priestess. Alori made "The Love Religion",an album full of live songs dedicated to Soul. In the absence of the priestess,The Black Lip Pastor now takes over The Love Religion and is about to minister to us what the law of this religion is....."Love is the law,love the only law" as SZA sings. Soul gains his composure at this point of the sermon. Ab revisits the past and in a way "The Law" can be seen as a bonus track for "The Love Religion". He talks about getting money to feed his female(Alori). "We are divided to restore the balance" and remember the song by Alori "Happy Medium ft. Ab-Soul" where the couple is engaged in argument(divided) and they make up after Soul says "You know I'm tryna make your family my in-laws". The song is nicely completed by Rhapsody as she says "we took him(men) to heaven where those golds and arcs are at" as a cherry on top to what Soul has been saying throughout the album in the importance of women in the lives of men and reaffirming that male energy cannot function without female energy. THE END OF THE SERMON YMF is Soul rapping up the sermon. The hook basically means that Soul is a sinner like everyone else and in a way states that we need love to get through life. Love for each other not only as blacks and whites,natives and foreigners, but also as men and women. "Another portions of the big picture that you'll leave out of the portrait that you will paint for me",Soul is the portrait,and the woman in his life is destined to finish the portrait and finally make Soul to be whole. God is love God is peace God is a man God is a girl Women are the missing piece of men needed to bring peace into their lives and as such should be treated with respect. Soul is a Young Mind Fuck who is misunderstood, waiting for a woman who'll understand him so Soul can be at peace in this lifetime and reach a state of Nirvana. At the end of the song God in His female personification brings light into this surround by darkness. I'm not sure if I'm 100% correct but one thing is for certain.... DWTW will go down in history as one of Soul's most powerful albums.

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lefilmdujour · 4 years

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Another 500th movie celebration

My Tumblr just reached the 1000 movies mark, so I figured it’s time I write something about my last 2 and a half years of movie viewings and recommend 50 more movies out of the ones I’ve seen since the last 500th movie celebration.

Times have been strange in the last couple of years, and my movie habits have reflected it. There have been times when watching films was all I would do, but there have also been moments of complete disconnection from the medium. I went from watching several movies every day to spending months avoiding anything to do with sitting through a movie.

Part of it had to do with the space I share with my demons, but mostly there has been a change of pace. My laptop died, it took me months to get another one only to also die on me. On the other hand, an enormous chunk of my viewings have been in cinemas or squats, which is a very positive change but led me to watch more recent films in detriment of classics or ancient underappreciated gems. I also got my first TV in over a decade this month, and my very first Netflix account last week, so I may be exploring streaming a bit more, although so far I am not finding the experience at all satisfying. All pointless excuses since I went through 500+ movies in a little over two years, which is not bad at all.

It was hard to pick only 50 movies this time, and the list would have probably looked a little different if I did it tomorrow. Regardless, here are 50 movies I recommend, and why. Random order, all deserving of love and attention.

Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff) - This movie is unfairly ignored in the best comic book adaptation lists out there on the internet. The opening scene is memorable, the soundtrack is a lesson in early Blues, and the characters are quirky and well written.

Hate (Mathieu Kassovitz) - An absolute classic about the class system in France and its tendency to end up in riots. Beautiful shot and highly quotable. Saw it a few times, the last of them with a live score from Asian Dub Foundation. One of the greats.

Audition (Takashi Miike) - Whenever I’m asked about my favorite horror movie, I tend to fall back on this one. Audition is very slow, starting out soft but with an underlying tension that builds until the absolutely gut-wrenching finale that makes us question our own sanity. Brilliant subversion of the “hear, don’t see” rule, just the though of some of the sounds used in the most graphic scenes still send shivers down my spine.

Kedi (Ceyda Torun) - A Turkish documentary about street cats, what’s there not to like?

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook) - The third in the loosely-connected Vengeance trilogy by Park Chan-wook, and my favorite of the bunch, especially the Fade to Black and White edition, in which the movie very gradually loses color as the violence grows. A visual masterpiece.

Paterson (Jim Jarmusch) - The poetry of routine. Adam Driver is one hell of an actor.

Love Me If You Dare (Yann Samuell) - Two people that obviously love each other but are not mature enough to follow it through. Frustrating. Beautiful. Made me sob.

The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel) - I am realizing that a good part of this list deals with frustration. A group of people finds themselves unable to leave a party for no apparent reason. Buñuel is a genious in surrealism, I have yet to watch most of his Mexican period.

The Mutants (Teresa Villaverde) - Kids on the run from themselves. Strong visuals, very moving interactions at times. A hard but very rewarding watch. Teresa Villaverde’s entire filmography also gets a seal of approval.

Bad Education (Pedro Almodóvar) - A movie about sexuality and problematic relationships, taken to unbelievable extremes.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu) - The adventures of Mr. Lazarescu as he struggles to find help for the sudden pain he feels and ends up being passed on from hospital to hospital. Felt very real. Sold as a comedy, but I found it terrifying.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos) - A classic greek tragedy brought to the modern age. My favorite Lanthimos film, ranking slightly below Dogtooth. The deadpan acting and the unnerving sound serves as wonderful misdirection.

It’s Such a Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeldt) - Three shorts stitched together to create a confusing, philosophical, absurd, funny and deep masterpiece. The animation skills of Don Hertzfeldt needs more recognition.

Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu) - A movie so good it didn’t even had an English name. Three tales of love, violence and loss, all linked by a dog.

Endless Poetry (Alejandro Jodorowsky) - Jodorowsky’s romanticized auto-biography, played by his own sons.Bohemian and poetic.

The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer) - Show this movie to someone who refuses to watch silent movies. The acting is so impactful and emotional, and the use of close ups was highly unusual for the time. A 90-plus years old masterpiece.

Everything is Illuminated (Liev Schreiber) - Sunflowers.

Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan) - I have a soft spot for war movies, as to remind myself how brutal people can be to their fellow man and how meaningless the concept of nations truly is. This movie in particular achieves greatness due to its usage of sound, the best I’ve heard in recent memory.

Vagabond (Agnès Varda) - Be careful of what you wish for yourself, you may end up frozen and miserable in a ditch (spoilers for literally the first few seconds of the film).

Stroszek (Werner Herzog) - I know Herzog mostly through his documentaries. His voice brings me the feeling of a deranged grandpa sharing stories of a reality tainted by dementia. I have yet to explore his fiction work in-depth, and this has been my starting point. Stroszek is bleak and desperate but humor still shines through it at times. Ian Curtis allegedly hung himself after watching it. Not sure if this story is real, but it once more feeds into the Herzog myth.

HyperNormalization (Adam Curtis) - Put together through found footage and newscasts, HyperNormalization is an unforgiving study on how we got to where we currently are. Fake becomes real. Trust is an abandoned concept. “They've undermined our confidence in the news that we are reading/And they make us fight each other with our faces buried deep inside our phones”, as AJJ sings in Normalization Blues. Which you should also check out.

Chicken with Plums (Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud) - A man decides to die, so he goes to bed and waits. An apparent simple plot that uncovers a world of beauty and poetry, as life passes slowly through the man’s eyes.

The Florida Project (Sam Baker) - William Dafoe was born to play the role of a motel manager. He is so natural in his role that I think he would actually be great in that job. The rest of the movie is great too, but his performance is the highlight for me.

Lucky (John Carroll Lynch) - Speaking of great performances, Lucky is Harry Dean Stanton’s final movie and a great send off. IMDB describes it best: “The spiritual journey of a ninety-year-old atheist.“

Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders) - More Harry Dean Stanton. The desert plays a more than decorative role in this wonderful movie, representing the emptiness that comes from estrangement. A story about reunion and all that can come from it.

On Chesil Beach (Dominic Cooke) - I sometimes cry in movies, but this one shook me to the core. A play on expectations and reactions and their devastating impact on relationships. We all fuck up sometimes. Try not to fuck up like these characters did, not on that level, you will never be able to make up for it.

The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson) - An absolute classic. A movie about the concept of family.

No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers) - Murder mysteries and bad haircuts.

Dawson City: Frozen Time (Bill Morrison) - I highly recommend this documentary for anyone who professes their love for cinema. The story of how hundreds of lost silent movies were preserved though sheer luck and human stupidity. Seeing these damaged frames coming back to life is truly magical.

Mandy (Panos Cosmatos) - Some films turn into cult experiences through the years, some selected few are already born that way. Mandy is a psychedelic freak-out and Nicholas Cage fits like a glove in its weirdness. If you didn’t catch it while in cinemas, you’re already missing out on the full experience. Mandy is filled with film grain, which adds to the hallucinogenic experience with its continuous movement, a feature that does not translate when transferred to a digital medium.

City of God (Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund) - A masterpiece of Brazilian cinema, very meaningful and relatable if you grew up in a similar environment. One of the most quotable films in my memory, something that gets lost in translation if you don’t speak Portuguese. My Tumblr is mostly pictures because I “só sei lê só as figura”.

Loro (Paolo Sorrentino) - On the topic of languages, I watched this Italian movie with Dutch subtitles, by mistake. It is actually an interesting exercise, watching something without fully grasping every word and letting your mind patch the pieces together to make a coherent narrative. Impressive cinematography, amazing script. I learned a lot about corruption, not everyone has a price. I also learned I can speak Italian now.

Roma (Alfonso Cuarón) - Beautiful shot, every frame of it can be turned into a picture. Roma is about the meaning of family, seen from the eyes of someone who will never be part of it. A lot of people considered this movie boring and pointless. These people probably have maids at home.

Bad Times at the El Royale (Drew Goddard) - Engaging heist movie, well developed characters, amazing soundtrack.

Melancholia (Lars von Trier) - The World is coming to an end and the date and time has been announced. How would you react to these news? Would it matter?

Climax (Gaspar Noé) - A very scary experience, equal parts trippy and evil like all Gaspar Noé’s movies. A dark ballet that that shocks and confuses the senses. Dante’s Inferno.

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold) - A strong story about ambitions, neglect and survival. Katie Jarvis is very realistic in her performance, a little too much judging by her history after the movie.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour) - An Iranian feminist movie about vampirism and records. Watched it with live score from The Black Heart Rebellion for extra cool points.

Another Day of Life (Raul de la Fuente & Damian Nenow) - Based on Ryszard Kapuściński‘s autobiography, Another Day of Life consists of rotoscopic animation sprinkled with interviews. A look at the Cold War in the African continent, and an important watch for everyone, especially Portuguese and Angolan nationals.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino) - Rich in dialogues and paced very slowly until the insane climax, this is probably the best Tarantino film after Pulp Fiction. Filled to the brim with cinematic references, it’s a delight to all film nerds. Looking forward for an Bud Spencer/Terrence Hill film adaption with Leonardo Dicaprio and Brad Pitt after this.

The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine) - Google’s top voted tags: Boring. Mindless. Cringe-Worthy. Forgettable. Slow. Illogical. Looks like this movie didn’t resonate well with the audiences, but then again Harmony Korine’s stuff is not for the masses. I personally think this is one of his best movies, a true exercise on nihilism. The main character is lovable and detestable in equal parts, and every action is pointless. Such is life, the only meaning it has is attributed by yourself.

The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky) - A man reflects on his life. Memories tend to get fuzzy, conflicting and confusing. More like a poem than a narrative. A dreamy masterpiece.

The Spirit of the Beehive (Víctor Erice) - The most charming child of this list, she couldn’t memorize the names of the characters she interacted with so they were changed to the names of the actual actors. The innocence of childhood in dark times.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson) - A series of absurd vignettes connected by a pair of novelty items salesmen and their struggle to bring a smile to a grey World. Slow, but humorous and delightful. An unconventional and memorable ride.

Man Bites Dog (Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel & Benoît Poelvoorde) - Fake documentary about a serial killer. Heavy, gruesome and hard to watch, despite the false sense of humor in some scenes.A glimpse at the darkness of human nature.

Tangerine (Sean Baker) - Shot with cell phones. A story about love, gender and friendship. Funny, sad, touching.

The Guilty (Gustav Möller) - Focused on a shift of an emergency dispatcher, the camera focuses only on his face and phone interactions with the callers.A very effective thriller, its setting leads us to create our own narratives just to subvert them at the most unexpected times.

Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski) - Loosely inspired in Pawlikowski’s parents, Cold War is a beautiful love story set against impossible odds. Powerful and heartbreaking.

Parasite (Bong Joon-ho) - Poor family scams rich family. Rich family takes advantage of poor family. Everybody feeds off of everyone. Drama/Comedy/Thriller/Horror/Romance about control, delivered in a masterclass on cinematic rhythm. Best film of its year for me.

The Straight Story (David Lynch) - More than the fact that this movie is radically different than the remaining Lynch work, The Straight Story is a wonderful exercise in pacing and storytelling. Mr. Straight’s stories allow us to fill in the blanks with our imagination, and their impact in him is also felt in us. An underappreciated gem in its apparent simplicity.

Thank you very much for reading.

#yay me #Movie Recommendation

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