Blog post #5 on World's mythology vs. Christian mythology

There are many stories in the Bible that are related or have some similarities with stories from other religions, legends, and myths. I will examine two of the more prominent examples; did the Bible borrow its flood narrative from other myths and legends?

I would like to write about the account of the fall of mankind that was mentioned in the Genesis, and if I recall it right, there was a Greek legend, that of Pandora’s box, whose details differ so dramatically from the biblical account of the fall, that one might never suspect a relationship. However, people may actually connect it to the same historical event. Both stories tell how the very first woman unleashed sin, sickness, and suffering upon the world, which had been, up to that point, an “Edenic” paradise. Both stories end with the emergence of hope, hope in a promised Redeemer in the case of Genesis, and “hope” as a thing having been released from the box at the very end of the Pandora legend.

Like the world’s copious flood legends, Pandora's Box demonstrates how the Bible might parallel pagan myths at times simply because they all speak of a historical core truth that has over the years manifested itself in ancient histories, as in the case of the Bible, and in poetic allegories, as in the case of Pandora, whose story was told in many different ways by the Greeks but whose core truth remained fairly constant.

The similarities do not point to one account copying from the other, but to the fact that both stories point back to the same historical event.

Finally, there are cases of borrowing, but in these cases the Bible was the source, not the pagan myths, despite pseudo-academic claims to the contrary. Consider the case of Sargon’s birth. Legend has it that Sargon was placed in a reed basket and sent down the river by his mother. “Aqqi”, who then adopted him as his own son, and rescued him. That sounds a lot like the story of Moses in Exodus two. And Sargon lived about eight hundred years before Moses was born. So the Moses baby was sent down the river only to be rescued and adopted, so in my opinion, this story must have been borrowed from Sargon, right?

In poetic traditions, originality is not the most valuable thing; it is the symbolism that most matters. I will leave it up to the readers to decide what is to be believed.

Blog Post #4 Story about the "TRUTH"

This time I am going to write about the story that best describes the problems of truth in religion. Truth can be tricky and not always in the shape of reality, especially if you decide to stick with your own.

This is how the story goes…

A wise old man decided to tell the story to a man who was carious about life. 

The old man started by saying: “One day robbers kidnaped five year old boy and burned the village in which he lived. When the father returned, he saw the house remains in flames and instantly start running toward it to see if his little boy was anywhere around. Horrified by the sight, he came across something that looked as the burnt corpses of a small body. Convinced that it was his son, he collected the ash remains and put it in a small bag so he can carry it with him everywhere he goes. 

One day, however, his real son escaped from the bandits and returned home. He knocked on the father's door.

A father who is still crying and carrying a bag of ashes with him, asked:

"Who's there?"

"Dad, it's me, your son. Open the door. "

The father thought that some village boy was playing with him. He shouted GO AWAY, and continued to cry. The boy kept knocking, but his father did not open the door convinced that his real son is dead. After a while, the boy was gone. Father and son have never seen each other again.

At the end of this story wise man added to a carious man:

"If you keep too much of what you consider the truth, when the truth itself comes to your door, you will not be able to recognize it."

This is an excellent example of religious blindness and stubbornness. Some people are so sure about their own versions of truth, so when the real one comes, it goes away. 

Blog post #3, Chapel “Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini"

This time I will write about my visit of “Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini chapel”, or in translation (Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins). This church is located in Rome, Italy. It reminded me of Vedic traditions in a way, mainly because of what are you about to read.  

This church is most famous as a depository for the bones of the dead, known as the Capuchin Crypt, in which is displayed the bones of over four thousands dead monks, collected between early 14th and 17th century. 

“The crypt is located just under the church near St. Peter square. Cardinal Antonio Barberini, who was a member of the Capuchin order, ordered the remains of thousands of dead monks to be transferred from the monk graveyard called ‘Via dei Lucchesi’ to the crypt. The bones were arranged along the walls, and the friars began to bury their own dead here, as well as the bodies of poor Romans, whose tomb was under the floor of the present Mass chapel. Here the Capuchins would come to pray and reflect each evening before retiring for the night.

The underground crypt is divided into five chapels, lit only by dim natural light seeping in through cracks, and candles of which some are located on top of the skull of a dead monk. The crypt walls are decorated with the remains of buried monks (their bones). Some of the skeletons are intact and for the most part are used to create elaborate ornamental designs.

The crypt originated at a period of a rich and creative cult for their dead; great spiritual masters meditated and preached with a skull in hand.

A plaque in one of the chapels reads, in three languages, ‘What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you shall be.’ This is a memento mori.”