Hollywood and History

[RSaba]

Erthona,

Thanks for the heads-up, next time I'll keep my nose sharpened before delving in further.

RSaba

[rowens]

@Rowens: I was more just pointing out the discrepancy between society/media/culture's portrayal of Satan as opposed to who he is in myth and scripture. You're right, though- doesn't mean he isn't important. I just mean that Satan isn't a little red man with horns and a pitchfork, just an angel who followed one word of God and broke another. So "Satanic" would refer to a text that is centred around Satan, who is not a character in the Bible at all. "Satanic" means something completely different nowadays.

What you say is true, though society and culture are comprised of myth and scripture; and media, for good or bad and both, is what circulates these myths and keeps them alive and relevant. The neurotic Jewish mind had little need for the Devil to keep it in conflict throughout the Hebrew Bible, and when a small group of psychotic persons started wandering too far from the tribe and getting mixed up with the goyim distinctions had to be made. One could say that the Old Testament is a beautiful display of the neurotic mind at work, while the New Testament, with its monsters and devil, is a lovely expression of the psychotic. But, then again, one could say lots of things, and they probably will.

[Erthona]

Dore did more to corrupt the Bible and Christianity than Mohamed. Then Dante and Milton finished the job. Thank Allah for that. Of course Paul did more to fuck up the religion before it was even started than anyone. He should have stayed killing Christians, he would have done less damage.



dale

[rowens]

It's like the movie Groundhog Day. Paul kept reliving the same day till he got everything going his way. By the time he was back in our history the Gospels had already been written and he ended up having close to the last word.

[RSaba]

That's so true- the New Testament definitely has more doom and gloom and fear-raising than the Old Testament. It's interesting, since religion has actually been steadily progressing away from the whole "everyone is a sinner" threat ever since Luther's 95 Theses. Religion is weird... can't be ignored, though, since so much of history revolves around it.

[Erthona]

Well that's because of the salvation thing, you had to have something that you are being saved from.


dale

[RSaba]

That's true! It's like they needed a "bad cop" for the "good cop, bad cop" routine, and Satan took the job.

[rowens]

Everyone is a sinner. If you were born without sin and if you never sinned you would have little chance of having a soul. That's what trips people up when it comes to mentally retarded people. Christianity sticks with its Old Testament struggles to deal with such things.

I like movies about demons and demonic possession and influence. Most of the time the movies are boring, but they have moments. As long as you take the narrative seriously, no matter how poorly written or acted or directed or how ridiculous it seems, you can get something out of such a movie.