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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thormagni" data-source="post: 2645439" data-attributes="member: 13637">Long post here, sorry about that.Just to clarify my point about symbolism and allegory and people's reaction to the same: I think most people are immune to symbolism in the sense that they do NOT RECOGNIZE it is symbolism. Especially at the fundamentalist level of an expression of faith. For example, the book of Genesis in the Old Testament clearly has two creation stories, expressed one right after the other. The two are not compatible in timeline, order or details. A more liberal theology (such as mainstream Catholicism) recognizes that the two stories are allegories, meant not to be taken literally. However, the fundamentalist perspective is to believe that both are equally literal and true. How can two things that are opposed both be true? Cognitive dissonance sets in. The normal answer is that the two opposing stories are both equally true because GOD SAYS SO.Recognizing allegory and symbolism as such requires a sort of sophisticated mechanism for thought-processing that many, probably most, people just don't have. And while I agree that a literal reading of a myth or belief does little to answer OUR questions on the great issues of existence, I think for many people, perhaps most, all THEY need is the dogmatic answer that puts an end to the discussion. They desparately want someone to tell them something they can believe in. And they accept that answer at face value and that is enough for them.As for the fluidity of previous religious beliefs: I think it is a mistake to set up modern man as a completely different creature from previous generations, in either a positive or negative sense. I personally think modern religious beliefs are just as fluid as previous religious beliefs, only since it is happening around us every day, we don't recognize it is happening. Let me use Christianity as an example. One of the bedrock beliefs for many fundamentalist and evangelical Christians is the belief in a Rapture and the End Times: an armageddon where true believers will be whisked away to heaven in body and nonbelievers will be left to suffer on Earth until Christ returns. For fundamentalists, this is a core belief. Yet, it has not been a core belief for 2,000 years of Christianity. Instead, it was created almost entirely within the last 200 years. The largest denomination of Christianity, Catholics, views this is a heresy. Yet, many modern American Catholics are accepting the belief in a Rapture even though it is not being taught in their churches. In fact, if you were to ask most American Christians if they believe in the Rapture, I suspect a vast number (if not a majority) would say yes. They are adopting a new religious belief that did not even exist 250 years ago, which I think we can agree would be a mere eyeblink in an archaeological time frame. Does that mean that they are not devout in their beliefs? Or that these folks do not sincerely believe that the world is coming to an end and there will be a Rapture? Of course they believe it. This is not just some story for them, it is a fact of their existence.The fastest growing sect of Christianity is Mormonism, which also did not even exist 250 years ago. You have this entirely new church rising up from its foothold in the West and spreading across the country, co-opting Christian themes with a new gospel. Do Mormons not really believe in Joseph Smith and Jesus? Of course they believe.And even within the last 50 years, you have sects like Scientology pop up. Tom Cruise believes in alien spirits and mental pollution and such. There is no question in my mind. If a future archaelogist were picking over the remains of our society today, how much common ground would they find between the local Catholic, Methodist, Episcopalian, Community and Mormon churches? Would these be one monolithic "Christian" institution? Would our beliefs as a society appear set in stone, or fluid?Yet, the majority of the people who attend each of those churches fervently and sincerely believe that they are receiving the actual literal truth and accepting it as such. Even within our own lifetime, people are quite capable of holding one set of religious beliefs for many years and then suddenly switching to another set of religous beliefs. And they hold the second set just as literally true as they hold the first set. For example, my co-worker grew up as a Catholic, yet within the last 10 years became an evangelical. The two sets of beliefs are NOT compatible, yet he is a fervent believer in his new beliefs and I have no doubt that he was a fervent believer in his previous beliefs.Really, just look at the current conflicts between fundamentalists and science. The biggest fundamentalists knocks against science are that science doesn't claim to have all the answers, that those answers it does have are subject to change and that those answers contradict the literal truth of the fundamentalists' religious doctrine.</blockquote>

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