Hubris from Revelation: the Social Engineering of Ultimate Truths [Monday, Period 2]

[atreideslioness]

It was another Monday, the start of another semester, and Ghanima was sitting on her desk as the students filed in, feet kicking lightly against its front.

The moment the bell rang, her eyes snapped from the door to the children seated around the room. "Good afternoon and welcome," she said in a clear voice that carried effortlessly. "This is Hubris from Revelation, and I am Lady Ghanima Atreides. Those of you have not taken one of my classes before may address me as Miss Atreides, Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or some variation thereof. Preferably not Lady Atreides as that is technically my grandmother, but I will answer to it if you are not comfortable with another title."

"If you are in the wrong class, please feel free to leave at this time. For those of you whom I have had in class before," she smiled suddenly, looking far less severe. "Welcome back."

"First, we will start by defining religion, or at least attempting to," Ghanima said, hopping off her desk and grabbing the stack of syllabi and passing them out as she walked up and down the rows. "A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendent quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, God or gods, or ultimate truth. It may be expressed through prayer, ritual, meditation, music and art, among other things. It may focus on specific supernatural, metaphysical, and moral claims about reality, the cosmos and/or human nature, which may yield a set of religious laws, ethics, and a particular lifestyle. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and religious experience."

"For this class, will be be looking at some of the religions of this planet and time period, since trying to incorporate every religion of every universe is a bit daunting, even for me."

"Now, since most religions do believe in some sort of divine being, today we're putting your fate, and faith, in whatever god or gods you may worship," she said, returning to her desk and holding up a bronze bowl. "Those of you who would like to be a TA please put your name in here by the end of class today. But first, I see new faces."

"So why don't we do the usual first-day introductions? Thrilling, I know, but necessary for our new students. I would like your name, class, and what, if any, religion you follow and why. We don't need a theological lecture, even something as simple as 'I like it' would suffice just fine."


[OCD UP! TA positions are already filled via the Gods of the RNG and will be announced IC next week, but feel free to toss your name in the bowl anyway. Please be sure to check the syllabus for all IC/OOC information regarding the class. Offer void where prohibited, see store for details.]

Comments

Sign-In #1

[atreideslioness]

Devotedly!

Re: Sign-In #1

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

Chuck Bass

During the Lecture

[atreideslioness]

Take notes, pass notes, wonder what you've gotten yourself into...

Re: During the Lecture

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

What was he thinking when he signed up for a Monday morning class? He must've been high. Oh well, at least the subject was interesting to him.

Re: During the Lecture

[solo_sword]

Jaina actually was wondering what she'd gotten herself into, in fact. This sort of thing was definitely more Jacen's thing than hers, but it'd be interesting, and she was sure somewhere down the line she could end up needing it...

Re: During the Lecture

[furnaceface]

Jonothon grabbed himself a seat somewhere near the back of the classroom, as far from the attention of other students as he could possibly get. For as much as he was coming to realize that people could handle certain differences, he wasn't a big fan of being within easy view, either.

Re: During the Lecture

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

Religion. Jonas knew the word, he even knew the dictionary given meaning but he didn't know what it really meant. There hadn't been a predefined word for what he'd practiced in the Community besides Sameness. Comparing what he knew of Sameness to what the professor had just said showed him that they didn't really match up.

He wrote quickly though, scrawling words here and there, circling the ones that made no sense (and were probably spelled wrong) and underlining the ones that did. He'd have to deal with those later.

Re: During the Lecture

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

Savannah was taking notes as she listened to the lecture.

Re: During the Lecture

[likethegun]

Summer workshops were nice, but oh, how Sam had missed taking deep classes.

Re: During the Lecture

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri had her chin propped on one hand as she listened intently. This wasn't going to be all that useful to her in terms of being a Jedi, but it could prove to be useful as far as getting more insight on the Yuuzhan Vong religion that she really, really wished she didn't know as well as she did.

Re: During the Lecture

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

Fiona hadn't known much about the class when she'd looked it up, but now she was starting to wonder if this was a good idea.

Re: During the Lecture

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

Another class with Lady Ghanima, another chance for Zayne to get used to getting notes into his datapad as quickly as possible. This week was relatively light, but that just meant it was a good warmup.

Introductions & Discussion

[atreideslioness]

"I suppose it's only fair that I go first," Ghanima continued. "My family has a rather...unusual relationship with religion. My father was revered as the Lisan al-Gaib, the Mahdi, a figure out of religious legend. My aunt Alia was viewed as a living goddess because of her gifts. My grandmother and step-mother were both trained by the Bene Gesserit, a key social, religious and political force in my universe. Politics and religion are so tightly entwined in the Imperium at this point, that it may be impossible to separate the two completely."

"I myself do not follow any of the faiths of the Imperium religiously as a result, for I find it hard to have faith in that which I can manipulate. I do, however, occasionally follow some of the religious traditions of my mother's people, as they have a special place in my heart, even if I do not share their faith."

"Next."

[Feel free to tag off each other and chat. Ghanima wants to promote curiosity today.]

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

Ah, Chuck loved the first week of classes. Introductions everywhere.

"I'm Chuck Bass and I'm a senior." He was just as surprised as you were that he made it this far. "And um...I guess I'm Christian. With the whole God from the Bible type of thing. Yeah. That religion."

Really, 'whatever religion the scruffy angel at the church is' would have been a more accurate description since that was the extent of Chuck's experience with religion. Probably would have sounded weird, however.

"And I follow it because, I don't know, I guess I agree with a whole bunch of it." Hot. Scruffy. Angel.

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"My name is Aravis," she said, smiling a little despite her curiosity towards the subject matter. "This is my senior year. I have a similarly strange relationship with the faith of my people, Professor -- I am said to have descended from the god Tash, who is worshipped devotedly through Calormen. However, I have not found Tash to be either reliable or merciful as a god, and have since come face-to-face with Aslan, the leader of the free North. It is his teachings that I follow, and no other."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[furnaceface]

Right, then, Jonothon. Square your shoulders and talk to the class. Right into their bloody heads. Because they'd all appreciate that so very much, right?

Not as though he had much of a choice, considering.

//I'm Jonothon Starsmore. Junior. And not particularly religious.//

Short and simple, yes. He'd been raised in a largely Anglican corner of the world, but expanding on that meant that he'd be doing more of that talking-into-people's-minds thing. Not a fan, at the moment.

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[iamnotallgirl]

Jill shifted nervously. "I'm Jill McTeague and I'm a senior. And, uh, I'm not actually very religious. I guess you'd call me 'nonpracticing?' But my dad's, like, totally into meditation and, like mystic...things. I don't know if he's actually...got a particular belief system behind it. I guess I should probably ask."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[solo_sword]

"I'm Jaina Solo, and I'm finally a senior, so I can stop showing up in your classes soon," she said. "This feels like a chance to get a lot of explanations out at once, so, I'm a Jedi. And from a family full of them. I follow it because when you get powers from a higher power you tend to believe in it, and think if you're given those powers, you should use them in the best way possible." Forget that she was almost evil. That was Machiavellian reasoning.

She almost added that she was thought to be the incarnation of a Yuuzhan Vong goddess due to propaganda instigated by her, but she wasn't so much for announcing that in a class full of people she didn't know. At least while there was a war still on. Old training died hard.

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[trigons_child]

"My name is Raven, though I also am called Rachel Roth," Raven said. "I am a sophomore. My home, Azarath, was created by a demi-goddess known as Azar, who also became its spiritual leader. We have no name for our religion, but it embraces peace and calmness of emotions. The original people who settled there expelled all their darkest passions through a magical ritual, and after that all strong emotions began to fade away. Azar eventually transcended to another plane of existence, but her people still pray to her for guidance and for strength to control their emotions."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

"My name is Helen Haras-Uquara and I am a junior. To someone of my world, my name would tell you that I follow the ways of Uquar and that I am actually one of the Hands of Uquar," she explained. "Religion isn't really a choice on my world, but in any case, because I manifested the Hand of Uquar as a baby, I was raised by the priests of my world."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[weetuskenraider]

"Tahiri Veila," she said, "junior so you just might be stuck with me another year, Professor Atreides, and the Jedi part of Jaina's explanation goes for me too, except that I don't come from a family full of them." She'd just been sort of adopted by said family, but this way she wasn't talking too much at everyone, okay?

"I . . ." She hesitated. "Besides the Jedi thing, I sort of ended up knowing a lot about a really different culture's religion. Really, really different. I -- don't follow it, but I want to understand more about it."

She hesitated again, and the next part of what she said was really directed toward two people in the room. "I serve the Force, as a Jedi. That's not a question."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[endsthegame]

"Ender Wiggin," Ender said, smoothly, "Sophomore. My parents were Catholic and Mormon - although not both at the same time - but my civilisation has repressed the practice of religion for quite some time now; so you could consider me an atheist by sheer feat of nurture. So far, I've run into little reason to change that. I choose to put some faith in myself, when possible."

Or in his guilt. Same difference, really.

"Which is not to say my judgement is infallible," he added, wryly. "But I find it's worthwhile to at least make an effort to keep your convictions malleable when dealing with other people."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[bitten_notshy]

"Hello," Jack said, glancing around at his fellow students. This was the first time he'd ever talked about his faith in front of this many people; an old urge, irrelevant in this time, to avoid the question of his religion almost kept him from answering the question. "I'm Jack Priest. Senior."

He paused to make a final decision before going on.

"I'm a Jew. Which isn't terribly popular in my corner of the world, but it's what I was born into and my guardian helped me hold onto it. I follow it because" -- Because Sebastian made him? Once that had been true, but now -- "Because who wouldn't want to be one of God's chosen, and because I didn't keep much of my birth family. I may as well respect their God."

Talk to the Teacher

[atreideslioness]

She's around, both before and after class.

Re: Talk to the Teacher

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

Savannah did put her name into the bowl on her way out of class.

OOC

[atreideslioness]

No world ending at the start of the term!

Just a heads up -- work is going to be insane today, as my boss is back from three weeks overseas. Woe. So replies from me may be slow/non-existent until 6:00 CST.

Re: OOC

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin shall be missing his first class due to plague. Groveling at Ghani's feet for forgiveness upon return?