World Religions, Wednesday, 2nd Period [10/4]]

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Feet up on the desk? Check.
Coffee cup? Check.
Appears to be dozing resting his eyes? Check and check.

The now-standard stack of handouts is waiting with the sign-in sheet. Written on the whiteboard are two definitions:

Monotheism - the doctrine or belief that there is only one God.
Polytheism - the doctrine of or belief in more than one god or in many gods.

After the class has filed in, Jesse opens his eyes and smiles at his students. "Mornin'. First things first - two weeks from now, we'll be startin' on 'the people of the book.' Judaism, then Islam, then Christianity. I'm also gonna give y'all a take home mid-term that will be due back the following week. For y'all playin' the home game that means week seven you take the test home, week eight you bring it back to me filled with sh- stuff that's gonna knock my socks off."

"Today's religion is confusin' to many people raised in most Western traditions - Hinduism¹. Hinduism is a monotheistic religion with multiple deities. Yes, you can do that, it's just hard to understand for those of us who are used to the idea of 'One and only one God.' Or maybe not. For you Christians here, what about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Three aspects of one God.

"Hinduism just takes that idea farther. All gods are aspects of the one god, the creator, Brahman. We can understand Brahman only through direct spiritual experience.

"The idea is that when we limited humans try to think on somethin' vast and formless and capable of creatin' the universe, we project human limitations upon it. We ain't doing it on purpose - we just can't help ourselves. We're weak and we're human and we just can't conceptualize infinity. Just tryin' to do it already limits it.

"Instead of telling practitioners this is a bad thing, Hinduism teaches that it's a necessary reality. You can't fight bein' human. Go with it. These personalized, humanized faces of the infinite allow us a conduit to Brahman. Somethin' we can wrap our minds around. Somethin' more personal that we can devote ourselves to."

What follows is an extensive lecture on the basics of Hinduism including the Vedas², kharma and dharma, various deities, practices, and a very brief discussion of the caste system as a cultural artifact.

After that fascinating and stimulating lecture during which absolutely no one falls asleep, (at least not that Jesse would notice, right?) Jesse looks the class over and nods to himself. These kids weren't half bad.

"Easy class discussion for you today. What specific gods would you have? If you had to break yourself down into component parts that needed to handle separate responsibilities, what would those be? Would you have a god of the heartbeat? A god of morning afters? An oh god of hangovers? A god you could pray to in order to keep yourself from sticking your foot in your mouth around the person you want to ask to homecoming?

"Split up and grab a partner. If anyone's left hangin' I'll be around to talk to you just ping me in the OOC thread, 'cause I just bet you wanna know your teacher's personal gods, huh?"

---

Handout links:
¹Hinduism at Wiki
²Vedas

Syllabus

Comments

Personal deities

[preacher-custer.livejournal.com]

Grab a partner and talk about what gods you'd have. Get creative. You realize this is almost better than Abbott and Costello for Jesse, right?

Re: Personal deities

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

Blair looked around for a partner and tried to decide if he should have a god for not sticking your foot in your mouth at homecoming and a god for not sticking your foot in your mouth the rest of the time or if one god could do both duties.

Re: Personal deities

[connernotconnor.livejournal.com]

If Conner -- no, if Conner's friends had any idea what Blair was thinking, they'd be in wholehearted agreement and probably would have gone through all manner of debasing rituals on a daily basis just to keep Conner from making tactless and/or embarrassing comments.

As it was, they were not in Fandom, much less this class, and remained in woeful ignorance of this notion of the Anti-Foot-In-Mouth god. Conner, however, was here.

"Hey, dude, got any good ideas?"

Re: Personal deities

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"I don't know if they're good ones or not. I'm thinking a general stupidity god would be helpful." Blair shrugged. "What are you thinking?"

Re: Personal deities

[connernotconnor.livejournal.com]

"Given my track record? How about a god of making sure you don't always start off on the wrong foot with girls?"

Re: Personal deities

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"Or if that doesn't work a god that can make the world swallow you if you muck things up." Blair grinned.

Re: Personal deities

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia was considering a god for really, really bad tarot card readings.

And one for doing silly things because you were bored.

Re: Personal deities

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

"Personal gods, huh?"

Re: Personal deities

[nadiathesaint]

"Apparently. Any ideas?"

Re: Personal deities

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

"Well, they should be made of neon, like in that song," Cally said.

Re: Personal deities

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia grinned. "So you'd have . . . a god of beer, for one,"

Re: Personal deities

[enginegirl.livejournal.com]

Kaylee decided there should be a god for keeping engines working properly. She considered other gods as she waited for someone to pair up with.

Re: Personal deities

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

"Hey."

Re: Personal deities

[enginegirl.livejournal.com]

"Hey Billy," Kaylee said. "Got any personal gods?"

[ooc: responses may be slow as I am studying for a real life test, woe]

Re: Personal deities

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

"Hmm, well, I think I'd have a god of action, for any fighting or exercising I do. and one of Serenity, for when I'm meditating. Nadia says I'm kind of a living embodiment of Yin and Yang, that seems to fit."

Re: Personal deities

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad was trying to think of some really good gods before he bothered partnering up with anyone. He wanted to say something at least remotely impressive.

Re: Personal deities

[stykera]

Stark looked around for a partner who wouldn't mind that the mun is going to be AFK until late tonight, woe while pondering the idea of gods for every thing.

He wondered if there was a god of being ridiculously emo that had been watching the island this weekend.

Re: Personal deities

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad 's mun will also have to go AFK til late tonight thought maybe he had something, finally, and sought out a partner.

"Hey," he said to Stark. New people were good. And a guy with a thing over his face was sure to be an interesting partner. "Need someone to work with?"

Re: Personal deities

[stykera]

"I do," Stark said, nodding. "Have you thought of gods to have?"

Re: Personal deities

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

"I have," Chad said, also nodding. "We need a god of cricket bats And, to accompany it, one to protect people from cricket bats."

So it wasn't brilliant. But cricket bats had been on his mind a lot lately. Thankfully, not literally.

Re: Personal deities

[stykera]

"Cricket bats?" Stark asked. "What are those? I think I need a god for masks. Or maybe people with one eye." He glanced over at Jesse as he said that. "Maybe both."

Re: Personal deities

[swerval_zero]

Zero looked around for a partner. Personally, she thought there should be a god of made-up words.

Re: Personal deities

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Gwynn glanced at Zero. "Need a partner?"

Re: Personal deities

[swerval_zero]

"Yeh," Zero said with a grin. "I guess I do."

Re: Personal deities

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Gwynn smiled. "I'm not sure if we met, but I'm Gwynn."