Subject: Well, I was going back a bit...
Author:
Posted on: 2015-07-16 21:18:00 UTC
Specifically, to the innumerable wars fought between Christians and, well, everyone else. Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, both Americas, you name it, there's been a war justified via the Bible. Usually genocidal. While I admit that this is historical, one wonders how often they read the New Testament and its general message of "don't be a dick".
So, today I was messaging my friend and they stated they hate the Minions. Being the weird person I am I jokingly responded with:
'//sighs// Okay then. How about the dinosaurs from Jurassic World crossover with the Minions and then eat them.'
Now I'm writing a fanficiton about said crossover and I don't know how that even happened. Does it sound like a decent idea to anyone?
And what are some of the weirdest crossovers you guys have seen/created/heard?
Against his better judgement, Bertie Wooster sets out on his most perilous mission yet...
I did a Skulduggery Pleasant/Portal one once. And I'm currently working on a Calvin and Hobbes/Fairy Tail fic with a friend, which is turning out to be rather cool.
Apart from that... I've got the vaguest idea for a Bernice Summerfield/Artemis Fowl one, which is more obscure than weird, since it could easily work out.
"Welcome to Imladris I Haven't a Clue. We are all here at this council to discuss an ancient evil that has been awoken. A shadow long forgotten has risen again out of the distant past. If unstopped it will bring untold horror and destruction to all in Middle-earth.
"How can something so old cause so much suffering? Let's meet the teams."
"Éowyn's my sister." SLAP! "She's my daughter." SLAP! "She's my sister-daughter."
Legolas by Laura Palmer
Legolas was riding along the woods and one day he found a body whaped in plastic...
"Silly Songs with Erik" has Phantom of the Opera characters performing VeggieTales songs. And it is awesome. ^_^
~Neshomeh
Ah, VeggieTales. I love those cartoons. Lord of the Beans is hysterical. Y'know, I actually saw a LotR/VeggieTales and it was quite fun. The author had Bob and Larry perfectly. I read it when my standards of good fanfiction were still pretty low, though, so I won't link to it. I'm reading "Silly Songs with Erik" and it's great! XD
Welcome back from your sabbatical, I expect your doctoral thesis on evolutionary biology on my desk by Monday. =]
Can I, uh, can I ask for an extension on that, Professor? *gulps nervously*
But it's nice to be back and posting! And I'm working on my study— I've just been slowed down recently. I'll get back to it, because it's quite fascinating.
I'm glad to hear you're keeping up with it. This has happened in my sphere of consciousness before, and when it does, the party on what I will for lack of a better term call your side tend to find something that doesn't make sense to them (or is outdated research), cry "Aha! All evolutionary theory is without merit!", and go on as before, having learned nothing save some facts, which as learning goes is minor. The important thing about good science is that it teaches you how to think critically about things - and you can apply it to Biblical literature as well.
As an aside, Biblical literalism is very much an American phenomenon, and I'm not entirely certain why. One wagers it's down to the Baptists - a Southern acquaintance of mine described Baptist teaching as "If that's what the preacher man said, that's what the Bible done said." Though he may have been taking the mickey a little bit. =]
I'm not on the evolutionary books yet, but I'm curious about what I might find.
I'm not entirely sure why, either. As to the Baptists... Well, I currently attend a Baptist church, but I don't consider myself a Baptist. They're a bunch of very nice people, and they punch above their weight in helping the community as a whole. It is, however, an unfortunate trend in the church for people to simply believe what they're told about the Bible, and not actually read it themselves. I wish I could change it.
Is, is that genuinely a thing? I mean, it's your holy book, the one your co-religionists use to justify entire wars. You'd think sitting down to read the bloody thing'd be a bit higher up the to-do list.
It's a more modern thing, though; go back a few decades and the Bible was read fairly regularly. And the trend might not be present in all churches. I've only regularly attended two denominations, Nazarene and Baptist, so I can't speak for the others. Even within those, I haven't asked anyone, "Hey, how often did you read your Bible this week?"
Really, don't quote me on this; it's far from hard fact. It's mostly conjecture based on what I've seen and heard. I've only had hands-on experience with a sliver of Christianity in a small area of the United States; things could be entirely different just a few hundred miles away.
Out of curiosity, which wars are you referencing?
Specifically, to the innumerable wars fought between Christians and, well, everyone else. Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, both Americas, you name it, there's been a war justified via the Bible. Usually genocidal. While I admit that this is historical, one wonders how often they read the New Testament and its general message of "don't be a dick".
I'm really curious about this, because I hear about wars "justified by the Bible" all the time, but I rarely hear any names. I'd like to do some research on it, since I'm researching everything else. XD
And... yeah, that's basically the message. Barring Revelations, of course. It'd be quite interesting to see what passages are cited (if any) to justify a war.
Eg. colonial wars in Africa and Indonesia. Also, the annihilation of various Native American peoples, by both the Spanish and Portuguese colonists in the south and the Americans in the North.
As for specific passages, well, I don't rightly know. It's a general "our holy thing's better than your holy thing" kind of deal. =]
I'll look into them. I think it would be supremely difficult to actually justify a war using only the Bible, and I'd really like to know what different people have come up with over the years.
Oh, also, do you have any book recs for me on evidence for evolution? I only have... I think it's three evolutionary texts, counting The Origin, and the actual applicability of that one is debatable.
A good place to start would be The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester. It's not directly about evolution as such, but explains what the cutting edge, state-of-the art of Victorian science was just before Darwin published his work. It's also just a great book, and well worth reading for its own sake.
IMHO one of the best books about evolution is Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould. It was written in the 1990s so one or two specific details are a little bit out of date (especially about the Punctuated Equilibrium version of evolution) but it gives a wide overview of the whole picture. And there are lots and lots of examples of how scientists worked out exactly where different fossils fit into the tree of life.
If you really feel you have to read a Richard Dawkins, make it The Blind Watchmaker, one of his very early books when he was still writing proper science and not just indulging in gratuitous religion bashing.
And after Dawkins, you'll definitely need something from the religious evolutionists' perspective. Although its not a book, this webpage is a history of the split between creationism and religious evolutionism. (Warning: it's a very, very long page, and just when you think you've reached the end, you realise you've just started a new section.)
Hope those are useful.
And, ah, double thanks for warning me about Dawkins. These all look quite useful!
"The Bible says you have to be Christian, so all non-Christians must be converted at sword-point" was usually how it went. See: the Crusades, the Reconquista. There were also a whooole lot of wars justified by "you're the wrong sort of Christian"; the Spanish Armada, where Catholic Spain attacked newly-Protestant England, springs to mind.
Note: justified by. Not 'inspired by'. Most wars are started by someone wanting something the other side has. But it's amazing the number of ways they can convince you they should have it because because because.
hS
Humans are quite good at rationalizing absolutely everything they want to do.
...and now we're at the Crusades and human nature. XD I love the internet.
I think one of the strangest was a Star Wars x Code Lyoko x Star Trek. Nothing made any sense of that, and I am pretty sure the story counts as badfic as well.
Faker of the Rings (rated T), by Arashi Leonhart. Fate/ characters doing the plot of Lord of the Rings. Script format. Damn hilarious and highly recommended.
I'll go check that out once I'm finished writing.
And I really think that Crack Crossovers fits the subject a bit better.