Xtian Assumptions

[Swatopluk]

Ancient Cypriotic vase painters seem to have taken some shrooms given the results.
Or some expressionists got hold of a time machine and deposited those vases as a joke.

[Opsa]

Oh Pieces, I just love that mushroom dance!

As for wacky images, creative people can easily achieve them without pharmaceutical help. Children can come up with wonderfully weird creatures, too. It's just that many of us get trained away from imagining what is not real. Drugs sometimes loosen that grip, but they are not necessary for some of us.

Disney, though... what a druggie!   

[pieces o nine]

Disney, though... what a druggie!   

Of the notion that the imagination displayed in Disney's animated films was drug-induced, animator Art Babbit, who drew the dancing mushrooms in "The Nutcracker Suite" portion of Fantasia  said;  "Yes, it is true. I myself was addicted to Ex-lax and Feenamint."

[Opsa]

Ya gotta love him!

Actually, having been in the animation business, most animators I knew were more prone to alcohol. Animation is extremely detail-oriented work and you need to loosen up the ol' retentive area after a while.

[pieces o nine]

^  which is why all the Gothic saint statuary is so lacking in ... animation?

Absolutely no looseness allowed in this group!

[Aggie]

Actually, having been in the animation business, most animators I knew were more prone to alcohol. Animation is extremely detail-oriented work and you need to loosen up the ol' retentive area after a while.

Hence the laxative abuse.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Hey, there's a lobster in that cathedral!

[pieces o nine]

Hey, there's a lobster in that cathedral!

"Will you pray a little faster?" said a saint swathed in a veil,
      "There's a bishop close behind us, and he's treading on my tail.
            See how eagerly the lobsters and the lambs of god advance!
                  They are waiting on the mullions—will you come and join the dance?
            Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
      Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?

"You can really have no notion how delightful it will be
      When they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea!"
            But the monk replied, "Too far, too far!" and gave a look askance—
                  Said he thanked the lady kindly, but he would not join the dance.
            Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance.
      Would not, could not, would not, could not, could not join the dance.

"What matters it how far we go?" his blessed friend replied.
      "There is Another Shore, you know, upon the Other Side.
            The further off from England the nearer is to France—
                  Then turn not pale, beloved grail, but come and join the dance.
            Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
      Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?

[Sibling DavidH]

^  

[pieces o nine]

Thank you, DavidH.   


Also, I had meant to acknowledge this very fine joke!   

Actually, having been in the animation business, most animators I knew were more prone to alcohol. Animation is extremely detail-oriented work and you need to loosen up the ol' retentive area after a while.

Hence the laxative abuse.

[Opsa]

Too much brilliance going on in here! I need my anti-glare sunglasses.

[Roland Deschain]

In answer to the OP, it is a disease of certain people to make certain assumptions. Such is the human condition. I would have politely said that I was not a Christian (maybe "I'm a godless heathen" or "I deny Jeebus" would work well), and that the only requirement I wish for my daughter's future relationships is her happiness; nothing more, nothing less. If I was feeling especially naughty, I may have taken a leaf out of Pieces' book, and mentioned something about Paganism or Satanism (not LaVeyan (sp.) ), but then I have a nicely evil streak in me.

There are so many people like this, who think that they're being nice when they say things like this, as to them it's the height of achievement. No wonder there are so many issues in our society, when the most a woman is expected to achieve is to marry a rich Christian (shouldn't that be an anathema to a Christian, what with the camels and eyes of needles?). The same is true when dealing with loss and bereavement, especially of a child. They think they're saying something nice, such as "God will look after her in Heaven" or "God has a plan for us all" (does that last one negate free will?), when what they really mean is, "I have no idea what to say, so i'll use the same tired old platitudes in the hope that you agree with me". It may not be meant to offend, but it's definitely a "them and us" attitude.

To cover the shrooms (lol), St John was definitely on something when he wrote or dictated that book. I'm surprised it was kept in, especially when you realise that there were people back then who were prescient enough to know what would happen. Then again, considering how many conflicting things there are in the Bible, and not just between the OT and the NT, it's not surprising at all.

There's nothing wrong with writing books that are obviously influenced by drug intake (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Naked Lunch come to mind), but to pass one off as a religious text shows true self-delusion. Unfortunately, hallucinogenics have a long history with "helping" humankind commune with the gods, from tribes in the jungles of South America, to European shamans, to mad old men sitting alone in caves in the middle eastern desert. What St John did was nothing but one of the oldest pastimes of our race (apart from prostitution), and we are unfortunate enough to be having to deal with the decision made over 1500 years ago to base [part of] an entire religion on it.

I've never truly understood the rationale behind wanting the world to end. It's almost as if the people who enthuse over it cannot deal with the current one.

[Swatopluk]

You should read some of the stuff that did not get into the (generally accepted) bible. St.John is by no means the worst.
I'd say bad fan fiction (even prawnographic*) was very alive then already.
In one of the more notorious (that heavily influenced Roman Catholic Mariological thought) there is an attempted vaginal inspection of Mary to check her virginity after the birth of Christ (who got less born but beamed) with nasty consequences for the (female) inspector. In another text pre-teen Jesus kills other kids to demonstrate his resurrection skills afterwards (and has other Frankensteinian habits too).

*You know, the OT did not make prawn an abomination for nothing

[Roland Deschain]

That's what should have been included in the Bible. That's the Jesus who kicked buttock. Also, what's with exams for virginity? Some men have a real fetish for it. I've read excerpts here and there of different non-canonical texts, but nothing in its entirety (where it exists). I really must do that soon.

Keeping slightly on-topic, i've often wondered about Judas Iscariot. Why is he hated, and assumed to be evil (touched by the devil), so to speak? He was only doing what he was destined to do (no free will again?) so that we could all be "saved". If he hadn't have done that, we would all be damned. When I learnt of a gospel of Judas, and read some of the stuff from it, it said pretty much what i'd been thinking.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Same reason people hated Jews for so long?

You should read some of the stuff that did not get into the (generally accepted) bible. St.John is by no means the worst.
I'd say bad fan fiction (even prawnographic*) was very alive then already.
In one of the more notorious (that heavily influenced Roman Catholic Mariological thought) there is an attempted vaginal inspection of Mary to check her virginity after the birth of Christ (who got less born but beamed) with nasty consequences for the (female) inspector. In another text pre-teen Jesus kills other kids to demonstrate his resurrection skills afterwards (and has other Frankensteinian habits too).

*You know, the OT did not make prawn an abomination for nothing

Ok, clearly I need to take a bit to read more than the Gospel of Thomas because what.the.hell.

There are so many people like this, who think that they're being nice when they say things like this, as to them it's the height of achievement. No wonder there are so many issues in our society, when the most a woman is expected to achieve is to marry a rich Christian (shouldn't that be an anathema to a Christian, what with the camels and eyes of needles?).

Prosperity Gospel. Appeals to innate monkey nature by offering the proverbial free lunch and the opportunity to climb the social ladder (believe in our version of Jesus and don't question it, and God will reward ye with money/social esteem).

I've never truly understood the rationale behind wanting the world to end. It's almost as if the people who enthuse over it cannot deal with the current one.

It's a strange, confusing, alarming, sometimes painful place and they don't have the guts or will to make the best of it by giving their lives their own meaning. Instead, they'd rather wail about the world being that way, how unfair it is, and how they deserve better. And the vision of the afterlife offered by select varieties of Christianity is what they think they deserve.