"Pulvis et umbra sumus," said Will, not looking at her as he spoke. "I believe we are dust and shadows."
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts

Friday, April 20, 2012

Q: Quetzalcoatl

I'm breaking two rules here. First, I'd decided to blog about Dutch words starting with the letters of the alphabet. Quetzalcoatl is not a Dutch word. Thing is, there are no Dutch words starting with 'q' that aren't derived from either Latin or French. Most of those words are exactly the same as their English counterparts, and none of them are particularly exciting to write about.
Second, I was supposed to post this yesterday, but I simply forgot. Therefore you get two consecutive posts from me today, isn't it EXCITING? x'D.

Anyway, since all this horrible stuff happened, I decided I wanted to write about something really cool.


This is my definition of really cool.

It is, unsurprisingly, Quetzalcoatl. In fact, until ten minutes ago, I had no idea what Quetzalcoatl was, but the name has been at the back of my mind for a while now. I wonder how that works, since I didn't even have an 'oh yeah that's what it was' moment when I found out the truth. But I digress.

Wikipedia tells me that Quetzalcoatl is a Mesoamerican god, "related to the gods of the wind, of Venus, of the dawn, of merchants and of arts, crafts and knowledge", according to the Aztecs. They were not the only ones to worship him, though. Many of the Mesoamerican peoples did.

It's name comes from the Nahuatl language and more or less means "feathered serpent". Hence the look. As I said before, IT'S REALLY COOL.

There you go, some more tidbits of random knowledge for you. :'D.


~Levyathan.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Actual content this time... sort of ;).

So, I've been having ((- these... weird thoughts lately. Like, is any of this for real? Or not? -)) this idea for a very serious post and stuff, but I just haven't really had the inclination to actually write. First World Problem if ever I heard one. Also very blatant Kingdom Hearts reference ftw.

Anyway, the point is that lately I've been wondering about the fact that so many people coexist in the same flap of space while being privy to such different urges and beliefs and ideals. It should be the most normal thing in the world these days and I've always regarded it as such, but now something has shaken my worldview pretty heavily. What brought this on? Nothing much actually, but it hit me pretty hard. I found out that a good friend of mine is a Jehova's witness. THAT'S WEIRD, DUDE. Especially because I've never given her religious persuasions any thought, and I've never noticed anything. Now, I don't think any different of her for it, I'd never be that petty, but I got kind of curious. The revelation made me aware of my own ignorance on the subject.

((WARNING: The following paragraph contains my personal religious opinions, and while I don't think it's quite offensive, all beliefs differ and there might be something there you don't agree with. ))

Because of this, I've started asking her a lot of random questions, and frankly I'm just kind of shocked by some of her answers. Now, I've decided to simply not ask certain things, because I don't want to give her grief for what she has every right to believe and I don't want to come across as derogatory, but I can only handle so much perceived nonsense. There are some things which, if she believes them, I simply don't want to know. I realize that I do not have all the answers, nor do I want to, I guess, but I just can't get my head around certain things. I am a scientist at heart, and I like to believe I am more of a realist than a cynic, and therefore I find it hard to believe that someone, somewhere, holds all the ropes. Either way, those things I can deal with, but I wouldn't want to know if she believes that the earth is only a thousand years old, for instance. I don't know. CANNOT. COMPUTE. And then there are the gaps of logic in the story as I was told it that I asked into not to expose the things she believes in as fraudulent nonsense so much as just to try and figure out how it is that she explains them for herself. I mean, supposedly, when you die, there's nothing, but then at the end of the world there is this final day or moment of Reckoning and everyone is somehow sent to this sort of promised land? I, honestly, don't quite know what I believe, and I think there is quite a bit of comfort in the thought that after this life we'll end up in a sort of paradise, but all I can think of when I hear that is... "What? But then, what would happen to the person if they die before the reckoning?" No real answer to that, apparently they might just stop existing in the meantime or something. And I guess that might be the reason that I just can't bring myself to consider those things. The bible is a book that is very, very old, has been translated so many times that things are quite probable to be lost in translation, and that is not even taking into account the in my opinion questionable validity of the events described in the book. While I have no trouble believing there was once a man who may or may not have been called Jesus or Iesu or whatever variety of the name, I can only say that people have a way of dragging things way out of proportion. After all, in medieval times, innocent people were burned at the stake or thrown into the moat with a cinderblock tied to their feet because superstitious people thought they were witches even though everyone now knows that magic is FAKEY FAKEY FAKE. The problem with stuff like that is that there is no proof. Everyone can suppose and perceive all they want, but I doubt we will ever get the answer in this lifetime.

So yeah, there goes my totally sucky-ass explanation of my religious views. I am actually really curious what moves you guys, if you feel like telling me. <33. :'DD.



Now, on to more trivial matters (but not really):

HOMESTUCK. x'DDDD. I've been told I'm going way too fast and there might just be some truth in it, yet I can't seem to stop obsessing.
I am now well into the story of the Trolls (I laughed really hard when Karkat was writing all those memos nobody cares about, and ended up playing a sort of romance counselor like what x'D) and I am finding out that all of them, no matter how bitchy or awful of repugnant, are really awesome and often quite adorable in their own way. And while I know Troll romance is insanely complicated (x'D. Let's be a horrible author and recap the entire explanation, YEAH!) I am starting to find myself shipping ridiculous things already. :'D. Way to go! I feel almost like Nepeta <33.

But I have to go now and delve deep into the horribly complicated world of Physics D:.

Until next time, me lovelies.


~Levyathan