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

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

[atreideslioness]

"Is it the religion you were raised with, or one you found on your own?" Ghanima asked curiously.

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

[atreideslioness]

"I have found that gods of any stripe are rarely merciful," Ghanima said dryly. "One could argue that such emotions would limit what should be limitless, but that's more of a theological debate."

"Does Calormen then follow the idea of a 'divine right to rule?'" she asked. "Many cultures where people can count their lineage from a divine being often use those bloodlines to define social status."

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

[solo_sword]

Jaina had had plenty of people talk into her head before, so it didn't even bother her. Still, she was interested that anyone here was doing it, which would be why she'd give him the glance equivalent of an "oh hey."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[trigons_child]

Raven was startled by the voice in her head. She'd communicated telepathically before; it just was unexpected. She looked around and settled on the scarred boy with the wrapped face as the likely person who had spoken in that way. "Was that you?" she asked him.

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."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Hello, my name is Jonas and I'm what's called a junior," he said even if that didn't make a lot of sense to him. He was sixteen, hardly a junior but he thought denoting himself by number (and age really meant nothing once you'd been Assigned anyway) might make himself seem even more out of place.

"I-I don't really know what religion is, to be honest," he continued. "I know what the word means but the Community didn't allow anything that matched the words you just spoke to be taught. It was against the rules. We had Elders and a Speaker but they spent their time observing and forming committees."

Even still, after the years he'd been gone, the thought of the Elders and their committees made him smile some.

"I guess, I don't know at all what religion is," he admitted, almost sheepish. "Or how it works. Or why it works. I wasn't allowed to know."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

"I'm Savannah Levine and I'm a senior. For several years I had a love hate relationship with religion in general, but as I get older and study more, I guess the best way to describe my religious leanings would be as an eclectic. I study other religions so I have a better understanding of them and so I don't accidentally insult anyone with my lack of knowledge." She paused. "However, the Fates and I still have a very interesting relationship."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[vanillajello]

"Kate Gregson, junior," Kate said when it was her turn. "I guess I'm an atheist. We're not big on religion in my family... Well, that's not exactly true, there's this -- this aunt who's really religious, but otherwise I guess we're all pretty much non-believers. It doesn't come up much. We celebrate Christmas though, but not as a religious thing."

She hadn't realized she was nervous until she felt like she was going to ramble, and promptly shut up. She knew the feeling was a combination of having completely missed introductions at the beginning of the previous term, and the whole 'Leto's sister is now my teacher' thing suddenly weirding her out more than she had expected it to.

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[momslilassassin]

"I'm Ben Skywalker, and a sophomore, so you can look forward to three more years of me in your classes, Master Atreides," he said with a little smile. "And like Tahiri and Jaina, I'm a Jedi. I serve the will of the Force, which is what we call the energy that binds the universe together. We don't think it's sentient, though. Dad says that calling it the will of the Force is just a nice way of saying we don't really know how it works."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[likethegun]

"I'm Sam Winchester, and I'm a senior," he said. "I'm...well, I would call myself a devout Christian. I go to church, and I pray every day, and all of that. But I know that there are other religions that work too. I've seen them first hand. I just don't know if they'd work for me."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"Fiona Post," she said, quickly to get it over with, like pulling of a bandage.

"Sophmore. And I... believe in gods and angels but don't have any kind of religion. I find the whole thing strange, really."

Said the goddess.

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena was asking herself, for the hundredth time, why she had signed up for this class, when she didn't know a damn thing about religion and was going to look like an idiot in front of everyone. She should have stuck to the classes about punching people instead of trying to get philosophical.

"Elena, senior," she said, straightening her back as she stood up. "I don't have any experience with religion. There's an abandoned church near where I grew up; it's the only place for miles around that can grow flowers. But no one goes to the church any more. I don't even know what faith it was for."

She paused, unsure about the rest. "I learned meditation," she added, "while studying martial arts, but it wasn't religious in nature. At least ... it wasn't taught to us in that capacity, but most of the exercises were Wutaiian, and I'm not sure if it was originally devotional, for them."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[likethestore.livejournal.com]

"I'm K-Mart and I'm a sophomore." She shrugged. "And I'm not any religion. Hell, half the time I don't even believe in a God. Any God who'd let the world be overrun by a virus that turns people into zombies either doesn't exist or isn't worth believing in."

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"I'm Zayne Carrick, a senior, and I'm yet another Jedi," Zayne said. "I follow the Jedi path because it gives me a chance to use my talents to help people."

For a given value of 'talent,' at least. And 'help.' And neglecting any 'accidental destruction of property.'

Re: Introductions & Discussion

[noteviltwin.livejournal.com]

"I'm Andy Gallagher," Andy said. "I'm a sophmore. As for religion, well, I was raised Anglican, but I don't know if you'd say I follow it. I've done some reading on other ones and there seems to be something to say about all of them."