#religious studies rambling

[menlove]

christianity is insane to me bc in like 90% of academic discourse on ✨why is it so violent✨ they blame it on monotheism as a whole and claim monotheism is inherently violent and intolerant and all that is a rant for another day but

I'm constantly just sitting here like

[points at the roman empire]

[nikoisme]

So our professor was talking about guardian angels and stuff during religious class and the way he described it sounded fun. Like,, i have this buddy that tags along with me until death. Makes a disappointed face every time i mess up. Swats at the devil to keep him away from me. Probably keeps me from tripping on a rock and dying. My wingman perhaps. And we travel through heaven and hell for 40 days after my death before i go in front of god or something. Will they hold my hand. Like,, will they coach me and hype me up before the judgement like "you got this" and give me a thumbs up. "God here's the human i've been assigned to watch over" and presenting me all like "don't mess this up".

I don't think my priest would be at all happy with this interpretation LOL

[crazycatsiren]

In case you're wondering, other Abrahamic religions include: Samaritanism, Druze, Yarsanism, Baha'i, Rastafari. These are just off the top of my head so I'm sure these aren't all of them.

[twoheadedoddity]

John Gaius and the Gospel of John

Ok. Here we go. I've spent the last little bit annotating my copies of tlt in detail, and I've been focusing a lot on the biblical references— especially John's confession chapters in NtN. I'm essentially cross-referencing the verses alluded to in the chapter titles with the actual content of the chapters, and recording some thoughts/observations. Not entirely groundbreaking, but I want to be thorough.

I'm building off of posts by @todd-queen here and here; go read these posts because they exploded my brain. The cipher. wow.

Please bear with me and if you read nothing else, read the entry for the final chapter.

Side note: I'm mostly using the New Revised Standard Version (the one I'm most familiar with) and sometimes the New International Version.

John 20:8

"Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed." (NRSV)

This is the big one—as has been previously pointed out, the fact that Muir got this verse to fit as the first numbers of the cipher AND be so relevant melts my brain. Immediately, connotations of Harrow breaking into the tomb at 10 (the first person to ever so do), seeing Alecto, and wanting to live. She saw and believed.

This chapter consists of John setting up the context for the cryo project, the Earth dying, all that. The main link is how the verse fits with Harrow's story.

John 5:20

"The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished." (NRSV)

John and his crew are trying to buy time amid the projects getting shut down. Their power gets shut down anyway, and miraculously, the bodies that John touches don't decay. This verse speaks to both the first pieces of John's powers and foreshadows the more drastic "miracles" that will come later.

John 15:23

"Whoever hates me hates my Father also." (NRSV)

The crew realizes the link between John, his eyes changing, and the intact corpses. They try to experiment to see if anything will bring about changes in the bodies. Nothing does. He names them Titania and Ulysses. He moves the corpses' hands from across the room for the first time. Not really much to link the content of the verse to the content of the chapter here if you ask me?

John 5:18

"For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God." (NIV)

The crew wrestles with the implications of what John can do—in a way, the idea that John could be chosen in some capacity, or that John can now play at being God. This is also the chapter where they decide to stream on the internet; so, you could maybe say that the verse foreshadows the ways they'll be targeted due to John's actions.

John 8:1

"While Jesus went to the Mount of Olives." (NRSV)

The verse, in context, comes right before Jesus demonstrates to a group how none of them are without sin, and shows mercy/forgiveness to a woman that others were wanting punished.

As for Jod—his little necromancy twitch streamer gig starts to take off. People start coming to him for help or healing or miracles. His words, he's "playing Jesus." Obvious parallels to the sections (such as the above verse and those that follow it) where Jesus is teaching folks and performing miracles. Interestingly, Cristabel intervenes, telling John he's wearing himself too thin and that he's making the same mistakes as Jesus by never turning people down. So John sets a limit to one hour of miracles a day.

The cult really gets going. The authorities turn up. The choice is get taken down or do something drastic. John chooses something drastic—COW WALL. Cow wall scares everyone into leaving the cult alone for a bit. I think, in a lot of ways, this is the chapter that was foreshadowed by the previous chapter's verse, if we really want to draw parallels that far?

John 19:18

"There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them." (NRSV)

John mostly talks about the politics of the FTL program—more funding stuff, the way cryo was dropped, the inconcistencies with the program, the trillionaires rushing ahead with stuff. I'll be honest, I only vaguely grasp the corporate-funding-technology-science-and-capitalism side of John's story. But I don't think there's any link here.

John 5:1

"Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals." (NIV)

^ He goes up for a festival (the KJV uses the word feast, so I keep rotating that word in my brain too) and in the next verses encounters sick people in a pool. He heals one of them.

John faces no consequences for Cow Wall and other crimes. If nothing else, his influence grows. He and his crew have a barbeque and talk about their plans.

At the barbeque, big bright lights go off in my brain that point to the word feast in the KJV. This literally isn't anything. Like I don't think it's a very meaningful connection to make here. But my brain keeps going "I connected the dots!" I didn't connect shit "I connected them!!"

John gets approached by an important organization and he agrees to help them. So now he's remotely controlling the corpse of a big world leader to fool the world into thinking he's alive, in exchange for a lot of money and a city-destroying weapon. Great. Comparison between Jesus' miracles of healing and John's necromantic reanimation "miracles."

"Could you give him a permanent pulse? Could you make it so he bleeds if he gets hurt? Could you fix any current degradation to his corpse? Could he talk, if we wanted him to?" (NtN 271-272). This is a quote that @/todd-queen pulled from the text, and it fits really well.

John 3:20

"For all that do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed." (NRSV)

More FTL stuff. The nomination for that. John finds out that the plans that were progressing for FTL and the evacuations were dubious at best—just trying to make it look like progress. John is furious, and decides to lean into the necromancer-cult-leader-twitch-streamer act even more, gaining even more sway.

I think something could be said for the verse—being all about evildoers hiding and preventing their deeds from being exposed—can be linked to the trillionaires lying and covering up the ways they are interfering with the FTL project/evacuation plans. And how John tries to expose them. I'd be able to give a more concrete argument if I understood the FTL plotline better but for some reason I struggle so bad with it.

@/todd-queen also links it with this quote, about how John and his crew hide the nuke, intending to never let it see the light of day. Which is also a good connection imo. "We kept laughing that it came with a manual. I think we were scared of what would happen if we stopped laughing. We pulled up the floor and put a safe beneath the lino and swore we were never going to use it." (NtN 279).

John 9:22

"His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue." (NIV)

John grows in power. People come to join. It becomes an international sort of crisis. The first violent exchange occurs, and John uses the energy burst from the deaths to commit atrocities. One could link the verse to the various authorities coming after John and arresting anyone trying to join his cult. John certainly would. I hate him so much.

John 1:20

"He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, 'I am not the Messiah.'" (NRSV)

The chapter where everything goes to shit. FTL accelerating their escape attempt to mere days and then hours away. The attempted coup with G1deon and the nuke. John's crew is convinced this is the end; Cassiopeia and Nigella getting married. John reveals that he also has the corpse puppet ready to start a nuclear armageddon, as a backup threat to prevent FTL. Everything goes to shit at the cult compound. Cristabel shoots herself to make John figure out how to work with the soul. Everyone kills everyone else and John starts the apocalypse. Becomes God using the collective souls of the population and that of the earth. Obtains perfect lyctorhood with the earth, creating Alecto. The order of events for the actual nuclear apocalypse are unclear, because John is self-contradicting and a liar.

The actual contents of the chapter are... a lot. All over the place. But it's the most raw and visceral part of John's confession, which kind of fits nicely with this particular verse—given that it's from the section about John's (the Baptist, like, from-the-bible John) confession.

While I haven't covered the alternate ARC chapter numbers, I need to point out that this chapter is John 1:9 in the ARC. "The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world." (NIV). Seems pretty fitting for the chapter where he becomes God and begins the process that will become the resurrection, right?

John 5:4

This verse doesn't exist in the NSRV and many other versions, because in recent translations scholars think this verse wasn't part of the original. It is:

"From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had." (NIV)

The first connection, of course, is John picking and choosing who to bring back. Healing, resurrection. Yeah.

In this chapter John answers some of Harrow's questions. It's hard to tell which bits he lies about, exactly, but Harrow knows that he's full of shit. She decides to find the truth, and find God—probably not John in the end because he's a horrid lying sham—and walks into the River.

Right. Ok. Now back to this verse not being accepted as part of the bible anymore. On one hand, many of the Christian sources explaining its removal talk about how older, more accurate manuscripts do not contain this verse, so it's more accurate for more recent translations to remove it. Interesting. A chapter where Jod is clearly falsifying information being named after a verse that is supposedly not genuine. Tamsyn Muir your game is incredible.

Please direct your attention to this reddit post. The verse could also have been removed to focus attention on Jesus' healing power rather than having an angel also be doing the same thing. The post puts it better than I can, go read it, but essentially: John is trying to focus the attention on himself—the idea that he's the source of the world's power.

Choosing John 5:4 for this final chapter of John's confessional was very, very deliberate. I would like to shake Tamsyn Muir's hand and also ask her oh so many questions.

Final thoughts: I definitely that the main purpose for the choices behind most of the verses were primarily to fit with the cipher. But, where possible, Muir would have wanted them to fit somewhat with the contents of the chapter.

However, where things were very, very deliberate, were the first and last of these chapters—20:8 and 5:4. There is no doubt in my mind that these verses were handpicked for how incredibly relevant they are.

A lot of what I've pointed out has been pointed out by other people as I've mentioned throughout this post. I'm glad to be bringing it all together and freaking out over it, even though I doubt I'm the first to do so.

[twelfth-dykector]

CROWLEY AS AN RE TEACHER!!!! CROWLEY AS AN RE TEACHER!!!! I REPEAT!!!!! CROWLEY AS AN RE TEACHER!!!!!

[yourbodymyarchive]

jon sims is simultaneously a christ-like figure and also an eve-like figure and isn't that crazy? jon wanted knowledge and he was willing to hurt himself by biting into the forbidden fruit, but he wanted to share that knowledge—at least, what he considered relevant to share with others—and it hurt everyone else, in so many ways, and he didn't even feel guilty about it. he doesn't understand that sometimes ignorance is okay. obsessed with knowing everything, obssessed with paying for it. he died and was resurrected and he came back wrong. people looked at him like he was everything the universe needed, like he was going to save them and change their world and give them fear and bread. it's too much for one man to take.

he bit into the apple. he thought it would feel better than being in the dark, but now he's just scared. all the time.

it was too late to make the sacrifice play, at the end. to end it all, so that no one would ever find themself in that beautiful garden again. the complexities of being human and wanting more, all the time.

[catliker49]

Hello again!! Very busy.. 2 weeks until I'm back to Normal! I am progressing on my animation slowly but steadily :o) And then we will back in business and I get to focus on Welcome Home again!! YAY!!!!!!! Ooh speaking of.. my pins came! And I am wearing them on my funny eyeball cardigan, hoohoo...

[styxxsyringe]

In one post you mention that you needed to make designs for wrath and gluttony (if I read it correctly I think they’re supposed to be parts of the assassins) and I was wondering who are the other deadly sins? (If the answer doesn’t contain spoilers that is, if it does then ig I’ll ask who’s your favorite assassin to draw so this ask isn’t mostly useless)

so there are 7 deadly sins in total, all ranked from least to most formidable/powerful/prolific/etc -

7. vivica de la crux aka envy

6. needles of the church (+ pins) aka sloth

5. dice demonné aka greed

4. lunette strikewhite aka pride

3. V.A. angel aka lust

2. gluttony

1. wrath

you'll notice that dice demonné hasn't been mentioned yet until this point! he's not a spoiler unlike the last two assassins (who are between designs, i've even been considering rebooting their concepts entirely or swapping around their ranking). he's one of the more lighthearted assassins so his sin is expressed pretty literally through a casino, where he's the high roller who makes and wins crazy bets and puts people into bankruptcy!

but, by day, he acts as a priest for the church, who has the same people he cheated the night before come to him confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness. he basically says "pay a tithe and god will forgive you" - when they can't pay any longer, he has them killed. usually it's enemies of the organisation who get put in this trap. (or sometimes in the middle of a game, he'll get pissed and have people killed regardless. witnesses are just given hush money.)

he has a cane to defend himself, but doesn't really fight on his own - he has his two sidekicks to fight for him, just like how needles has pins. (ignore how i forgot to draw kimberly's gun.....) they're nuns by day and casino girls at night!

(and my fav assassin to draw is probably vivica, though i have fun with all of them equally!)

[menlove]

what they don't tell u abt getting into academia is sometimes getting a huge pile of books from amazon about one very niche topic for free can feel like christmas

[soupedepates]

Y'all I am Christian.

Yeah shocking I know, I wear a rosary on the daily because it makes me feel protected and I have a Mary Magdalena medal and I begged my mother to buy me the new edition of the Jerusalem Bible (with historical annotations!!!!!! and translation notes!!!!!!!).

But if Christianity is all about love thy neighbour, I am also a fucking vengeful virago. An angry bitch ready to fight. I love like a dog, I will come back after a beating, but if you betray me once too many time I'll retaliate.

I love people. Everyone is entitled to love. Hate is a poison that only tear us apart, distilled by the people in power (c'me on, yall can see political leaders LOVE using strawmen and scapegoats; that's Fascism 101).

That being said.

You're entitled to rage. A beaten dog will snap and bite its owner. And the Christ would put His hand on the dog's head and says, "you endured so much, but it will get better, you will know the beauty of love, and I love you so, so much".

Love thy neighbours means also support their rightful anger, because the world is bitter and unfair, and sometimes, until you can do otherwise, anger can fuel you until it gets a bit better, and you get to rest. Anger is survival. Clawing your way out of the black pit of abuse you're pushed in by tradition, family, institution, politics. Anger is fuel to indignation and to fight.

Anger will support you until you can finally rest and heal in peace.

Anger is just a moment, where you feel so far from Grace, yet It is here, and you can close your eyes, for angels are here for you. You're loved.

You may not believe in God. That's your right. That's not wrong. You're loved just as much.

You're so loved.

No matter what hateful speech preachers are spitting. We the queer, the trannies, the weirdoes, the unconventionnals, the odd-one-outs, the heretic, the witch, the impious, the rabid, the destroyed, the desperate. You're so, so, so loved. If not by God, it's by me, and the million persons like me with heart, and caring for their neighbours.

And loving thy neighbours is also fighting for happiness. Passiveness won't do nothing.

this is a call for action just as much as Jesus agitated Judea against Roman authority, the Son of Man is the first anarchist who made the world turn upside down.

We have a legacy to carry, don't we?

[unma]

poll about if people prefer writing physically or digitally and physical is winning. Cannot relate just thinking about it makes my hands hurt.

[oilith]

I'd REALLY like to study christianity and the imagery that comes with the different branches. Basically an enormous deep dive. It's something that interests me a lot, although i don't really believe in it myself. I'm already somewhat familiar with evangelical luterism (is that the way it's in english?) but catholic christianity interests me in particular. The extreme cases of religious belief are just something else

[tojisun]

one day i will find the will to write the headcanon banging in my head about military man simon riley x nun!reader, and their unwitting, if not one-sided, parallels with solomon’s song of songs—

but instead of two lovers writing to each other, it’s just simon’s worship brimming from his yearning heart, all of which are unreturned, and how it overflows, unsteady and turbulent but so deceptively innocent because of his eagerness.

“by night on my bed i sought him whom my soul loveth: i sought him, but i found him not.” — a testament of how simon can never have you.

[t0t411y-n0t-hum4n]

learning about religion through shit posts on Tumblr is so fun. like I do wish I had the energy to actually research but hello I didn't even know the Heavenly Mother was a thing until today?? And the church says not to worship her?? that's so weird but a little cool too??

tbh tho I like learning about religion in general even though I don't follow any religion myself. I think that a god does exist but not as any organized religion I've seen describes it so far

[sykoticmare]

01MTA01 010125 MEATBAG RAMBLINGS

I think cults are so fascinating.

And I’m not gonna join one— or make one or anything— I mean I’ve thought about it and put genuine time and effort into it, but I think it’s just a passion of mine. I’ve been interested in cults for half of my life because of my mother also being interested in them, so I know quite a bit. I guess I have been experiencing a little bit of religious psychosis recently due to my interest in cults which is kinda scary because it pushed me to even purchase necklaces with emblems from actual cults— and I was a cult member for Halloween.. am I losing it? maybe I’m taking in too much of this cult stuff and should take a break, but it is my special interest. my head is filled with all these stories from a certain media and it has a lot to do with fictional and real cults. funny story, actually, I gave my boyfriend a stuffed animal and he went ahead and made a shirt for it that said “cult member” on it and painted this one cults symbol on it.

lol.

I am not going crazy, nah, I’m just someone who has weird interests. I love to love weird things, and those things welcome me. don’t get me wrong tho, I think the people that run cults are horrible and take advantage of those who are vulnerable— but it’s the same as those who enjoy true crime. It’s just true crime with a little sprinkle of god’s tears.

Amirite or amirite?

01MTA01 010125 MEATBAG RAMBLINGS

[menlove]

have to do a paper focusing on modern religion instead of religious/cultural history i have suffered more than jesus