#religious studies rambling

[dykefaggotry]

christianity is insane to me bc in like 90% of academic discourse on ✨why is it so violent✨ they blame it on monotheism as a whole and claim monotheism is inherently violent and intolerant and all that is a rant for another day but

I'm constantly just sitting here like

[points at the roman empire]

#LIKE THERE'S YOUR FUCKING ANSWER #OR DID WE ALL FORGET ABT THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE????? #GOD...... #I've had to read so many works where they try to work out the puzzle of why christianity is so violent and I'm like #it's. it's literally the romans. it's literally. it's the romans #stop blaming the jews it's the romans #in fact most if not all of the violent stories of intolerance in the tanakh were not historical events #they were added at later times during exile when jews were Facing religious violence #so to claim it is inherently violent is insane to me like the Only instance we have #is the situation in israel and even then it doesn't necessarily have all that much to do w Judaism as like.... a creed #anyway I'm gonna stop rambling it's the religious studies major sorry #religious studies rambling

[cadaverkeys]

Henry Ossawa Tanner's depiction of the Annunciation will always be my absolute favourite but I really do think there is something so ethereal and endearing about his study before the official artwork was completed.

The way Mary sits with almost no visible features but you can still tell that her hands are clasped in prayer- the angel Gabriel manifesting as a single stroke of light as the paint and room seems to contort around him. Easily one of the all timers.

#rambles #i dont normally talk about stuff like this on main #but i mean. after the halo info post you guys are well aware that i study religious art for fun. #religion / #christianity /

[twelfth-dykector]

CROWLEY AS AN RE TEACHER!!!! CROWLEY AS AN RE TEACHER!!!! I REPEAT!!!!! CROWLEY AS AN RE TEACHER!!!!!

#re is religious education btw #like religious studies teacher #IMAGINE IT #i was thinking about what subjects they would teach and OH MY GOD #a history teacher would be cool too #because shes LIVED through it #she'd teach her class a completely different (right) version of history #but miracle it they'd all get decent marks or some shit i dont know #and azi would be an english teacher obviously #BUT CROWLEY WOULD ALSO GO ON LONG RANTS ABOUT SPACE MALARKY #everyone would be kinda scared of her but also adore her #im trying to make my thoughts about re teacher crowley coherent but im failing miserably #good omens #ineffable fandom #ineffable idiots #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #what other tags exist #ramblings

[yourbodymyarchive]

jon sims is simultaneously a christ-like figure and also an eve-like figure and isn't that crazy? jon wanted knowledge and he was willing to hurt himself by biting into the forbidden fruit, but he wanted to share that knowledge—at least, what he considered relevant to share with others—and it hurt everyone else, in so many ways, and he didn't even feel guilty about it. he doesn't understand that sometimes ignorance is okay. obsessed with knowing everything, obssessed with paying for it. he died and was resurrected and he came back wrong. people looked at him like he was everything the universe needed, like he was going to save them and change their world and give them fear and bread. it's too much for one man to take.

he bit into the apple. he thought it would feel better than being in the dark, but now he's just scared. all the time.

it was too late to make the sacrifice play, at the end. to end it all, so that no one would ever find themself in that beautiful garden again. the complexities of being human and wanting more, all the time.

#tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #i wax poetic about religion and tma and religious connections to tma #ramblings of an eye worshipper #can i tag this as bible study #bible study

[vampyrsm]

just found out apparently condoms are based on girth and not length, and that just makes so much sense

now with this new knowledge, i fully believe in the kirishima has to get custom made condoms headcanon

#— alex rambles #i honestly know nothing about condoms #we didn’t get sex ed in my school lol #it was a catholic school #we got extra religious studies instead

[tojisun]

one day i will find the will to write the headcanon banging in my head about military man simon riley x nun!reader, and their unwitting, if not one-sided, parallels with solomon’s song of songs—

but instead of two lovers writing to each other, it’s just simon’s worship brimming from his yearning heart, all of which are unreturned, and how it overflows, unsteady and turbulent but so deceptively innocent because of his eagerness.

“by night on my bed i sought him whom my soul loveth: i sought him, but i found him not.” — a testament of how simon can never have you.

#sun rambles #always wondered why sos was so… romantically laden #historical and scholarly reading noted how it was bc sos were letters between solomon and one of his wives #‘solomon’ as like some king. dunno if its The solomon #dunno how it got involved with the testaments #this is all based on one of my religious studies courses so im truly not well versed #with these types of dissecting but its so fascinating esp bc it was smthn i was never entertained with a proper answer growing up #nun!reader

[cookinguptales]

Thank you so much for the tarot reading you did for me a little while back 💜 i'm sorry it's taken me so long to say that! i do rather think you have prophetic gifts, by the way- it was spookily accurate and helped me a lot 🔮

No problem! I'm glad it was helpful to you!

I do tend to get at least one message like this every time I do a tarot night for my followers, and like... you are totally entitled to that belief! What do I know about psychic phenomena and prophecy anyway? lmao. Maybe I am psychic.

But personally, I believe that tarot has a high likelihood of speaking to us no matter what, if just because the archetypal nature of the cards means that they're dealing with problems that we all struggle with. We all have self-doubt, we all have complicated relationships with money, we all crave love of some kind. We all have trauma in our past and we all want to believe that this time, things could be okay.

One of the reasons I like tarot cards is because they are inanimate objects that we imbue with meaning. They were just playing cards, y'know? We're the ones that gave them power over us, and we did that by filling them with our own stories. We placed a mirror in those cards, and while mirrors can be used for scrying, they can also just be used to take a good hard look at ourselves.

If I say "oh, you've had money troubles in the past," who doesn't that apply to? Maybe I'm thinking about me, when we were homeless for a while when I was a kid. Maybe someone else is thinking about the money they lost to gambling last week. Maybe someone else, someone wildly wealthy, is thinking about a stock market crash that brought their five mansions down to two. Maybe a final person has just never had quite enough to make ends meet. God knows that describes a lot of people.

I like tarot because we can all look at the same spread and see something different. I see a story to tell to the best of my ability, and that's how I do readings. But for the people getting those readings, they're often looking into little mirrors and seeing how they reflect their own personal experiences.

Because, you know, we all see different things in the same mirror! That's how tarot works, I think. Maybe some people are a little better at reading things in that mirror and interpreting what they see there, but we all see something new and different and deeply, deeply personal when we look at those cards.

Love that for us.

#that's what I eventually ended up studying in college btw #the way people construct personalized belief systems and vernacular religion #I got into religious studies to make sense of the world after I got out of an abusive religious background #and people always ask me what religion I am now #and I always say... y'know... I don't know what I believe #I don't know if magic exists or ESP or the supernatural or any number of deities #I don't know if I fully believe anything anymore #but I do believe in the power of stories #how we tell them and why we tell them and the parts of us that we mix into them to bolster their power #stories can ease a broken heart or they can be used to launch a war #they can create a belief system or tear one apart #we tell stories to make meaning out of the senselessness around us but we use them to CREATE meaning too #and sometimes the meaning that we create can last for centuries #they can make a little pack of playing cards into something that I was forbidden to touch when I was a child #that I was too scared to even be in the room with until I was in college #and the stories I tell myself instead can reframe those cards as something lovely I can collect #that help me make sense of the world in all kinds of ways #by helping me understand the emotions at the root of our experiences #and the stories we tell to give voice to them #and make them material; a thing we can finally touch #idk I'm rambling a bit but! those are my thoughts on the matter!! #replies #tarot #tarot shenanigans

[soupedepates]

Did Mary, young Mary, terrified Mary, know that her love was the love of the Lord bestowed to humankind through her, a humble girl, too young to be a woman, when she looked for the first time at her newborn son?

How would she feel if she saw her love, her pure, powerful, tender maternal love, turnt into the most burning hatred toward your neighbour?

#religious discourse #religion #christianity #holy mary #religious ramblings #yes studying philosophy of religions is making me religious #ure gonna judge me? #what are u a catholic?

[twoheadedoddity]

ah, my greatest enemy. my own autism

#help help help my religious studies brain has activated but it is focusing on ANYTHING but my actual project #i need to be compiling a research archive about indigenous localized bhutanese religion #but i can only focus on gnostic christianity around the second and third centuries????? HELP #and neil gaiman's norse mythology and how I can apply his strategies to my own future projects with the latvian pantheon #these are NOT the things i shoulf be focusing on #someone kick me #rambles

[willowcrowned]

what they don’t tell you about judaism is that sometimes you’ll be doing netilat yadaim out of a massive novelty mug with #hophip and a rabbit on it in between episodes of d20 and you’ll be forced to reckon with the fact that your shabbat plans are to drive to get coffee and play video games on your electronic devices while you put up paintings and cook on your stove

#there is definitely a strand of the multiverse where I turned out properly religious #actually there’s still a good chance of it if I live somewhere with religious jews #but like. doing shalom aleichem alone in an apartment REALLY drives home how much of the practical part of Judaism #which is the only part I’ve really ever been interested in #is community-oriented #like Friday evening you go for mincha maariv and Kabbalat shabbat #and then you talk to all your friends after and bring a bunch of them home for dinner #the meal lasts hours and then you do birkat hamazon together #and then you go to sleep #Saturday you wake up and you go to schul and you go over to someone’s house for lunch after the service ends #and THAT takes at least two hours #and then you come home and have a nap or read #and by the time you’re finished it’s time for havdalah *with your family* #idk getting VERY rambly in these notes but it’s like #interesting to me the way that it’s becoming clear that what I like about the knowledge and the rituals isn’t only the knowledge and rituals #which I do! i love it! i wish I’d studied Talmud more when I was younger and the resources were there #but that like. the clarity only comes in the absence of something I didn’t even realize was important #will I still do Shabbat every Friday night even when I’m alone? yes! of course! #it’s a part of me and a part of my life #and most importantly it’s proof that I DID beat my sister in terms of observance despite what everyone always said #(everyone knows that petty grudges are the most integral parts of Judaism) #but like. hm. #it would be nice to do Shabbat with people #it would be nice to know that some people are like me #willow’s life

[p2ii]

Still thinking about when my sister called Julia from netlix's Carmen sandiego a female twink...

#shes super religious and so doesn't 'support gay/trans' #but also rambled for 5 minuets about how she thinks carmen domtops her... #she also practically hcs aladdin (yea the guy from the disney movie alladin) as a pillow princess 😭. i want to study her #psii.txt

[dykefaggotry]

what they don't tell u abt getting into academia is sometimes getting a huge pile of books from amazon about one very niche topic for free can feel like christmas

#me like the sickos haha yesss comic as i get 10 books about the ugaritic texts monotheism and yahwism #religious studies rambling

[cagedchoices]

NAME ETYMOLOGY

Originating from the Hebrew word כֶּלֶב (kelev), Caleb is a name which loosely translated means "dog, dogged, faithful, or loyal." Reportedly, an alternative translation connects it to the Hebrew form כָּל (kal) and לֵב (lev), meaning "whole-hearted."

In the Old Testament, Caleb is the name of one of the 12 spies Moses sent to scout ahead into the land of Canaan before the Israelites were meant to enter. Of the 12 spies, 10 called to abort the mission, believing that taking the land would be impossible, for the Canaanites were many and strong and the Israelites were too weak to fight. Caleb and Joshua were the only two spies who believed the land could be conquered, having faith in God would allow them to prevail in their mission. The nonbelieving generation would get lost and perish in the desert wilderness for their lack of faith, and Caleb and Joshua alone would survive to enter the Promised Land.

Also interesting to note is that Caleb was chosen to represent the tribe of Judah, which would later become known as the line of kings. Rehoboam succeeded his father Solomon as the king of Israel, but his subjects eventually revolted against him because of high taxes. This led to the divison of the kingdom into Israel and Judah, with Rehoboam ruling over Judah.

Nichols, on the other hand, is a shortened version of Nicholas, a Medieval English form of the Greek name Νικόλαος (Nikolaos), meaning "to conquer" or "victory of the people." Derived from the Greek νίκη (nike) "victory" and λαός (laos) "people."

Caleb Nichols is first introduced to us with a particularly ambiguous background, one that led to a whole lot of people anticipating that he was secretly a robot all along. While I didn't agree with this, I did wonder, especially after looking into the etymology of his first and last name, if he would become a host later on, or have something to do with the Sublime.

The hosts who made it into this virtual world at the end of Westworld Season 2 were promised safety and freedom apart from humanity, and were not unlike the Israelites in the Exodus. Most of the ones who did not make it into the Sublime were permanently decommissioned and later destroyed, with only a select few being spared.

This is also paralleled with the concept of human outliers in season 3. Many outliers are killed outright, others are placed in cryogenic storage, and a select handful are successfully brainwashed and reconditioned to the point that they are allowed to reintegrate into society to a certain degree. Caleb, I think, serves as someone who was meant to potentially bridge these two worlds.

Instead of his existence ending at the moment he died, he gets brought back again and again as part of this immortality project. The reason we're given is that Charlotte-Dolores is bored and Caleb is the closest thing she has to a real adversary anymore and she is both repulsed by and yet so fascinated, even obsessed with him. He was the first human able to fully resist and fight off her mind control, and even though she has long since conquered the entire world, the answer to the question of "how did he do that?" still plagued her enough to want to bring him back close to 300 times over.

He doesn't have unwavering faith in a benevolent deity, but he does have unwavering faith and loyalty in love, in hope, in his family.

#big data compiles information on everybody — meta. #i don't know how this happened #one minute i'm just. whittling away at replies?? #then the next thing u know it's 2am i have 8 tabs of name meanings and old testament studies open and i'm rambling #tw religious themes

[spock-smokes-weed]

Even though I’m not Christian, I am oddly fascinated by the character of Jesus.

There’s just something about him that captures me.

#ramblings #jesus of nazareth #gonna make him into my tumblr meow meow just your wait #or I could just minor in religious studies like a normal person

[froggi-mushroom]

I think Descartes and Hume should fight

#not a reblog for once #froggi rambles #revising for religious studies rn knowing damn well I’m probably gonna fail

[vampyre-rat]

yes i went to an all girls catholic highschool. no i don’t remember anything i learned about religion. i was waaayyyy too busy discovering lesbianism and depression

#all i really remember from religious studies is #there was a schism in the church (i do NOT know how or why or when just that it was a Thing) #i remember learning abt indulgences (the church pinky promises youll get into heaven if you give them lots and lots of money) #i remember the black plague caused ppl to say ‘um no?? fuck the church??? fuck god??’ so that sucked for the church #um i vaguely remember the story of the pentacost #thats about it tho #didnt retain much else #rat rambles :3