Interactive Religion [Tuesday, January 8]

[nojesusfreak.livejournal.com]

Biff was perched on a desk, feet kicking against the wood as the students filed in.

"Hello," he said, the accent to his English barely noticeable. "My name is Levi bar Alphaeus of Nazareth. Please call me Biff. Everyone does. Welcome to Interactive Religion. Today, in a shocking change of pace if I understand the radio correctly, we'll do introductions, and then talk about what you believe the purpose of religion to be."

He leaned forward, resting his hands on his jeans. "And don't believe you have to be all sunshine and light at me. I've seen both sides of religion: the power it has to transform lives and the blithering stupidity people will stoop to in order to preserve what they see as the status quo."

He grinned. "Hey, I still remember Latin. Cool." He pointed to a student at random. "You. Name, nickname if you have one--if not, I'll give you one--and what you think about religion. Oh, and I suppose I should mention this upfront. It seems that my best friend established a pretty major one around here about 2000 years ago: Christianity? But we'll get into that a little later."

Comments

Sign in (Jan 8)

[nojesusfreak.livejournal.com]

...

Re: Sign in (Jan 8)

[raspberryturk]

Reno

Re: Sign in (Jan 8)

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

Jamie Madrox

Listen to the lecture (Jan 8)

[nojesusfreak.livejournal.com]

Pass notes, boggle, wonder if Biff actually knew Jesus...

Re: Listen to the lecture (Jan 8)

[the_merriest]

Rikku folded her arms in a huff. Great. Yet another semester, yet another stupid freaking religion class she didn't sign up for. Fun.

Re: Listen to the lecture (Jan 8)

[raspberryturk]

First class of high school. Reno was obviously thrilled to be there, as could be evidenced by the fact that he was only barely paying attention. When he felt like it.

Re: Listen to the lecture (Jan 8)

[socksofcool.livejournal.com]

Seely stared at Biff slack-jawed.

A lot.

Re: Listen to the lecture (Jan 8)

[withoutverona]

Romeo's eyes got wide as he listened to the lecture. Was this man a blasphemer? He'd had over a decade of catechism and other religious instruction, and none of the priests had talked so about the Church. Though the "Jesus was my best friend" metaphor sounded familiar...

Re: Listen to the lecture (Jan 8)

[likethegun]

Sam stared at the teacher, and then stared a little more. He couldn't tell if the man was trying to be funny, or genuinely thought he was telling the truth.

Re: Listen to the lecture (Jan 8)

[ambassadorinara.livejournal.com]

Inara listened quietly to the lecture, and began to wonder how it felt to be best friends with someone who started a religion.

Answer the questions!

[nojesusfreak.livejournal.com]

Who are you? What is your nickname? What is your favorite color your take on religion?

Re: Answer the questions!

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"I'm Jamie Madrox. The multiple man. Religion is something your parents drag you to every Sunday and also so Jimmy Swaggart can sin on a rgular basis and still get tons of dough."

Re: Answer the questions!

[raspberryturk]

"Name's Reno, of the Turks. Been called a lot of things, but probably shouldn't repeat any of 'em here in class, yo." See, he could be thoughtful from time to time. "Don't really have any religion of my own, but I figured I'd take the class to see if I could figure out what makes those murderous cult-types tick."

Re: Answer the questions!

[the_merriest]

Rikku stood up, her mood slightly different from her usual cheery bounce. Slightly.

"Hiya! My name is Rikku. I don't have a nickname. I also don't have a Home, or a whole lot of relatives left, either. My take on religion is that it's the best form of mind-control people have come up with yet. Here are a bunch of rules we never bother explaining! Please don't question the rules, or you're an unbeliever and you have to go live with the Al Bhed. If you can find 'em. We burned their entire city down and now they all live on an airship that doesn't work very well, 'cause oh, right, technology's bad, too. Make sure you destroy yours and all the information you've got on it, and blow up some of the Al Bhed's, too. It's in the book. Don't ask questions, you filthy heathen. Let the Summoners run off and kill themselves some more, that's gonna fix everything, and if it doesn't, well, hey, at least we're still in power! So one of these days that damn airship is finally gonna stop working and I'm gonna be the only Al Bhed left and the last time I had to deal with religion it was when I killed a fake god and it sucked and I didn't sign up for this class and I don't want to buy whatever you're selling so can I go now?"

She sat back down in a huff, arms folded, glaring at the wall.

Rikku: possibly not big on religion.

Re: Answer the questions!

[socksofcool.livejournal.com]

"I'm Seely Booth...Catholic."

Then right back to the staring.

Re: Answer the questions!

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Karal Austreben." He smiled wryly at Biff as he went on to say, "And I'm a Sun-priest of Vkandis Sunlord, from the country of Karse."

Folding his hands in front of him, he bowed his head, thinking before he spoke. "Religion is what men create to understand and relate to their god," he finally said. "To communicate with Him, to know the unknowable. It is a tool, no different than fire or a sword, and can be turned to good or evil."

Re: Answer the questions!

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"I'm Aravis. Well, if you want full titles, I'm Lady Aravis of Anvard, or Aravis Tarkheena, but please don't call me anything but Aravis. It's irritating and unnecessary. And I think religion is a way to calm the masses and inflate the piousness those already having problems with their own entitlement." She smiled slightly. "Ask my father, and he'll tell you I'm descended straight from the god Tash, in fact."

She cleared her throat. "However, I do think that it does good, and that there are people of great faith out there." She may or may not have cast a cursory little glance towards Karal. "I'm just not one whose world particularly reflects that view."

Re: Answer the questions!

[future-champion.livejournal.com]

"I'm Neville Longbottom," Neville said, blinking at Biff. "I, um. Church of England? I mean. Religion is about which god you believe in. Isn't it?" he added, suddenly uncertain.

Re: Answer the questions!

[slr-mercury.livejournal.com]

"My name is Ami Mizuno, and i don't really have a nickname..." she paused to think of how to explain her religion "I am both Catholic and Shinto. If that makes sense."

Re: Answer the questions!

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"My name is Andrew Wells. I'm not particularly religious," he commented, "but I guess there is power behind it. I mean, a cross doesn't just burn a vampire because it's hot, right?"

Re: Answer the questions!

[withoutverona]

"I am Romeo Montague, and so I am usually called," the blond boy said, standing as he spoke. "I was raised in the Church; I believe it has the power to provide great comfort in moments of weakness or sorrow. I know not about other faiths."

Re: Answer the questions!

[likethegun]

"I'm Sam Winchester. I, uh, I guess Sam is a nickname, sort of. And I think religion is important. I mean, I think everyone should have something they believe in, no matter what religion it goes along with. Which kind of makes me different from a lot of Christians, I guess."

Talk to the TA!

[nojesusfreak.livejournal.com]

Poor Karal...

Re: Talk to the TA!

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Karal was here.

If he was rubbing his temple, it was because he was getting the strong feeling that this class was going to give him a headache on a regular basis.

Altra was sprawled under the desk, lying on Karal's feet.

[sleep soon, back around 4 EST]

Talk to Biff!

[nojesusfreak.livejournal.com]

He's totally, totally excited to be teaching. Giddy, even.

Though that could also be all of the coffee he had today.

Re: Talk to Biff!

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima slipped into classroom sometime before the period ended and leaned against the doorway, waiting for Biff to notice her.

If she appeared far too amused by the students and their boggling, well, that's her own business.

OOC

[nojesusfreak.livejournal.com]

I'm at work until 1PST, then I'll be around to pick up pings. Please talk among yourselves--I want this to be a talky kind of class.

Re: OOC

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the drive-by commenting, but you win at life for the PB. Seriously.