Apocalypse
memories from the superman comics flood my head as I sit to watch Superman returns. Over 2 hours, I watch how superman is engulfed by emotional attachment with his father, how he has these enormous powers to stop a crashing jet plane, how he can stop fire from spreading using the wind and I stop for a moment and wonder, why should a movie like this made? What is the essense of super hero's in our lives?
The idea of having a super hero strikes me hard. He has to be someone who is strong, who has powers beyond the realm of man, symbolizes hope and eventually drives home the point that good always triumphs over evil. As I walk out of the movie, i realize, it wasn't a mythological movie i was watching, but a hollywood release meant for entertainment.
It pushes me to the times when the great epics and texts of hinduism were written. I seek parallels amongst the other civilizations that speak of the existence of great gods who control air and fire. I like to look at everything with a scientific approach, so I wonder, was it entertainment in a sense that the concept of god was introduced. Figures of immense power who could virtually do the impossible. Surely the stories from the holy texts kindle our imagination a great deal to recreate those times. To them we go, when we are in great pain, to them we go seeking solutions for our misery and to them we go in times of war and peace.
What justifies the creation of these great men and women we term as god? Did the cave man know god? Do the animals and plants worship and realize that there is a supream creator. Does the bacteria thankful that someone created it? Who are these Super Men? People who are never defeated and people who fight odds to success. Maybe there weren't many people to look up to and fear or role models. Maybe mankind required the existence of these powerful super humans who could justify the inquisitiveness of the mind.... how did energy originate? What is matter? Why should there be a universe, galaxies, humans ...Or, is the fact that we are not at a stage to completly define every aspect of the universe!
I wonder of the various Greek, Roman and Indian gods. Their powers are no different than Superman, Spiderman, Batman. Well ofcouse, I don't wish to undermine anyone's religious believes, but to me Lord Shiva, Lord Krishna, or Lord Vishnu represent just another super human figure. So was Appolo, Mars, Venus from the Roman Civilization.
No wonder, all the old civilizations regard the King as a direct descendant of God. Who better to serve this position than someone who commands the respect of people, and who has access to immense power and wealth.
In the modern world however, the greats of Valmiki (Ramayana) and Vyas (Mahabharata) are replaced by David S.Goyer (batman) and Brian Singer et.al. The religious texts over the years have become grounds for debate and much bickering. But the fundamental question is, Why do we need these super heros. Is it to make us feel a sense of comfort or due to the fact that, there aren't enough people to look up to? or they are somewhere out there, watching and waiting...
The idea of having a super hero strikes me hard. He has to be someone who is strong, who has powers beyond the realm of man, symbolizes hope and eventually drives home the point that good always triumphs over evil. As I walk out of the movie, i realize, it wasn't a mythological movie i was watching, but a hollywood release meant for entertainment.
It pushes me to the times when the great epics and texts of hinduism were written. I seek parallels amongst the other civilizations that speak of the existence of great gods who control air and fire. I like to look at everything with a scientific approach, so I wonder, was it entertainment in a sense that the concept of god was introduced. Figures of immense power who could virtually do the impossible. Surely the stories from the holy texts kindle our imagination a great deal to recreate those times. To them we go, when we are in great pain, to them we go seeking solutions for our misery and to them we go in times of war and peace.
What justifies the creation of these great men and women we term as god? Did the cave man know god? Do the animals and plants worship and realize that there is a supream creator. Does the bacteria thankful that someone created it? Who are these Super Men? People who are never defeated and people who fight odds to success. Maybe there weren't many people to look up to and fear or role models. Maybe mankind required the existence of these powerful super humans who could justify the inquisitiveness of the mind.... how did energy originate? What is matter? Why should there be a universe, galaxies, humans ...Or, is the fact that we are not at a stage to completly define every aspect of the universe!
I wonder of the various Greek, Roman and Indian gods. Their powers are no different than Superman, Spiderman, Batman. Well ofcouse, I don't wish to undermine anyone's religious believes, but to me Lord Shiva, Lord Krishna, or Lord Vishnu represent just another super human figure. So was Appolo, Mars, Venus from the Roman Civilization.
No wonder, all the old civilizations regard the King as a direct descendant of God. Who better to serve this position than someone who commands the respect of people, and who has access to immense power and wealth.
In the modern world however, the greats of Valmiki (Ramayana) and Vyas (Mahabharata) are replaced by David S.Goyer (batman) and Brian Singer et.al. The religious texts over the years have become grounds for debate and much bickering. But the fundamental question is, Why do we need these super heros. Is it to make us feel a sense of comfort or due to the fact that, there aren't enough people to look up to? or they are somewhere out there, watching and waiting...
posted by Ashwin at 3:05 AM
8 Comments:
Hey, I have written something about God on my blog, check out, it might be helpful. Also check God's Debris by Scott Adams.
Hmm...looked at the book. It aint too heavily priced. May take it along when i do those long flights :)
Try getting your hands on " the essence of christianity" by Ludwig Feuerbach.
Very interesting to say the least. though, a lot of people out there would not like to believe you that their Gods were created to entertain imaginations of a common man. But then God and Devil can be taken as just projections of good and evil and people could learn to live accepting that, no need to believe that theres an actual Morgan Freeman up there with magical powers...
Thanks for dropping by. If you look at all religions, they always talk of a time beyond the scope of humanity.
For example: adam and eve, in the garden of eden, the existence of hanuman in the ramayana, Noah's Ark has its mention in the Quran.
God seems to be this embodiment of these enormous powers, a person who commits no sin, no evil deed has he done, and so in that sense he is always detached from reality which is the common man.
Relgion never wanted to teach us, we could be like god, we could have powers to heal, to comfort, to help. So in effect constantly, we try to attain him.
Who were the barbarians, nomads, people without gods basically! Savages! As civilizations grew and settled, people wanted more structure and so it is perfectly ok to introduce a concept to define rules for that society.
I am not an atheist but i question the science of god and religion.
Hey, Redirected here by a comment on my journal (LJ-user:subtle_blues):). I'm guessing it was _your_ comment! :D
Nice post. When man made all his superheroes (read: Gods) he was soo naive that he had to inflict on them all of his own weaknesses.
All the killings, bloodshed, wrath, belittling of women that we read about in the holy scriptures can only have been man-designed!
-Keerthi
i totally agree with you. gods are our creations but the mere fact that they've been created speaks something of us as people.
i guess we need someone(thing) to believe in that stands for conviction that yes! at the end of the day things will get better. or if you want to put as escapist spin on it-since the universe is bigger than me and doesnt rely only on me to do the right thing, then i can get by if i let things slide a bit. let someone else take charge of them. it's like a mass scale passing the buck to the galactic ameba up there.
superheroes are a projection of everything we could be, ought to be but arent. usually for reasons known to ourselves best.
but it is nice to have the idea of someone ELSE coming in to clean up the messes i make. kind of makes me empowered to keep on living messily and do my own thing.
the flying housekeeper will come by soon...
Well to add a reverse spin on this post..what is god actually exists and is right now really pissed off with all of us for like picking on him...
Oh-ho...:))
there is no science of god. don't you know that god is everything ?
we should not casually discuss profound topics, man !
superman is a creation for us to look at awe. it is ideal for the movies.
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