Favorite story
What is your favorite story from a religious text? Favorite myths are welcome too
My favorite would have to be where God made a bet with satan.
My favorite would have to be where God made a bet with satan.
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Your thread made me realize I don't really like any.
1. Every story I "would" like, I dislike the "point behind" or the religion which made it.
2. Many of the stories are not written with styles/mechanics I enjoy reading.
3. There is always some "See? This is why The Gods declared us right!" message.
It isn't that I don't have appreciation of them just because they are in a religious text - but the stories I actually like - religious texts plagiarized various stories and customs, and in some cases I do like the pre-plagiarized version. In some cases, I would like it more if it were re-written to remove the "moral at the end of the story" or removed certain hand-waving "God-did-it" writing mechanics.
1. Every story I "would" like, I dislike the "point behind" or the religion which made it.
2. Many of the stories are not written with styles/mechanics I enjoy reading.
3. There is always some "See? This is why The Gods declared us right!" message.
It isn't that I don't have appreciation of them just because they are in a religious text - but the stories I actually like - religious texts plagiarized various stories and customs, and in some cases I do like the pre-plagiarized version. In some cases, I would like it more if it were re-written to remove the "moral at the end of the story" or removed certain hand-waving "God-did-it" writing mechanics.
when the great eagle swallows the universe
When Muhammad has Allah's daughter Al-‘Uzzá (one of the chief Goddesses) killed. While being disturbing, the way it is described suggests that it is the real deal, so I always got a cheap giggle out of that.
As Khalid entered the temple, he was faced by an unusual naked dark woman who stood in his way and wailed. Khalid did not stop to decide whether this devious woman was there to seduce him or to protect the idol, so he drew his sword in the name of Allah and with one powerful stroke the woman was cut in two. He then smashed the idol, and returning to Makkah, gave the Prophet an account of what he had seen and done. Then the Prophet said, "Yes, that was Uzza; and never again shall she be worshipped in your land.
As Khalid entered the temple, he was faced by an unusual naked dark woman who stood in his way and wailed. Khalid did not stop to decide whether this devious woman was there to seduce him or to protect the idol, so he drew his sword in the name of Allah and with one powerful stroke the woman was cut in two. He then smashed the idol, and returning to Makkah, gave the Prophet an account of what he had seen and done. Then the Prophet said, "Yes, that was Uzza; and never again shall she be worshipped in your land.
My favorite religious story is the Bible. My favorite mythological works are Greek and Egyptian.
Bible = *Stories
I shouldn't have read so much religious text, because I don't know where to begin!
Christianity
The Bible Samson is quite fun, if not terrible. A man who committed multiple sins about to be punished for those crimes decided to pray to god & all is forgiven.
Nordic (I read it from a Penguin 'Sagas and Myths of the Northmen' ISBN 0141026413) ((The book was in simple English, it was a torment to read & wikipedia check tells me it's not accurate so I'm pretty sure there will be some Scandinavians correcting me.))
The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki
-The king was cursed because he boned an elf girl but failed to kept the promise he gave her because he forgot about her.
-The prince who was cursed to become a werebear confessed everything to his lover before he was hunted down & killed by his own father (can't remember the name, not gonna bother looking up in the book either) predestined all of his sons to fulfill a specific destiny, 1 of them exacted justice & eventually died honourably in battle.
The Volsung Saga
-Incest aside, the last surviving Volsung dude was a bad ass & I got to respect the Volsung girl for willingly die along with her husband who was the 1 to kill her father & all her brothers in the first place. She has bigger balls than her brother! if she had any, of course.
Not from the book: I've heard Freya whored herself to the 4 dwarfs for a necklace.
Irish
Cú Chulainn's death
Didn't actually heard of the entire story, though. But that's quite a badass way to die.
1001 Nights
I admired Scheherazade for her ingenuity in dealing with her situation.
Malaysia
Mahsuri
A famous legend, might also because it's 2 centuries ago & it kind of sort of happened. I'm not sure if human can actually bleeds white though. But the moral of the story is, don't be jealous to anybody.
China
3 Kingdoms (Romanticized)
So much deception, so hard to catch up, but very entertaining. The battle of Red Cliff, Guanyu vs 7 warlords, CaoCao's cunning, Zhuge Liang vs Suma Yi (that time Zhuge Liang played a music instrument on top of the wall & Sima Yi just ran away is just precious!)
Journey to the West
Why not?
Buddhism
Jataka
-Sudhana & Manohara is just a good love story. (If you are willing to overlook the Stockholm syndrome elements)
Life of the Buddha
-His bravery to defy the status quo that is Hinduism even if he failed in the end.
-His encounter with Angulimala the serial killer (although I think the 'mass murderer' is more fitting). Angulimala wanted to kill the Buddha, but no matter how fast he's trying to run, he just can't catch up the Buddha who is only walking. So he shouted to the Buddha to stop, the Buddha told him that he had stopped, but Angulimala hadn't. Confused, he asked the Buddha to elaborate. The Buddha said he had stop harming others, while Angulimala hadn't.
-A woman with her dead baby (can't remember the name). He begged the Buddha to save the baby, the Buddha told her to get some vegetable seeds from a household where nobody died by the sun set. She ran around town, knocking on every door, but she can't find any household where nobody died at all.
-This particular story is my favorite because dumb Christians love to use this story to insult Buddhism & extreme feminists use this story to attack Buddhism.
-The tale of Mahajanaka
Notable buddhists in ancient India
-Anathapindika: An ideal person all millionaires or billionaires should be. Sadly, the world of capitalism hates him.
-Sujata: She's an ideal Buddhist woman & ideal secular Buddhist. Feminists only cherrypick her tales to make Buddhism looks like a religion that sees women as nothing but submissive wives because making somebody look bad is fun for them or something.
Hinduism
Ramayana
-I only like Hanuman, I hate the rest even the story itself.
Ramakien
-The tale of Torapee. I like it because what it contributed to the culture. Being an ungrateful child is unacceptable in all accounts. That simply leaves a lot of room for abusive parents & children with low self esteem & self insecurities.
Parashurama, basically Rambo but with an axe.
Mahabharata (considered the longest epic in human history, and I'm not even half way through it)
-Bhishma: A good man who was trapped by his own curse. His death was somewhat liberating & sad at the same time.
-A tragic between Bhishma & Amba. This part also talks about homosexuality in ancient India, not directly but enough to tell you that people who thinks there is no such thing as homosexuals in the past are stupid.
-A sub story about the romance between Kacha & Devayani. Kind of a bittersweet, but it contains great teachings.
-Good people can be assholes but they are so full of themselves to know it.
-Bad people can be good but their notorious reputations makes most people overlook any of their good actions.
-Virtuous people (good or bad) will help anybody without asking for anything in return.
-Drama between Arjuna & Krishna during the Kurukshetra war.
-This drama spawned the Bhagavad Gita. I liked a song inspired by this event, it talks about upholding your duty, not a religious song, but a rock song.
-Arjuna, despite fighting for a just cause, doesn't want to fight anybody because he doesn't want to kill his cousins on the other side.
-Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu reveals the dharma of the Kshatriya to Arjuna, and the matters of upholding good. So pissed off by Arjuna being a wuss to the point he want to kill Bhishma by himself. (This is a famous scene)
-Bhishma, who simply just wanted to die but Arjuna is too much of a wuss to even face him in battle.
THIS IS TOO DAMN LONG!!!!!
Christianity
The Bible Samson is quite fun, if not terrible. A man who committed multiple sins about to be punished for those crimes decided to pray to god & all is forgiven.
Nordic (I read it from a Penguin 'Sagas and Myths of the Northmen' ISBN 0141026413) ((The book was in simple English, it was a torment to read & wikipedia check tells me it's not accurate so I'm pretty sure there will be some Scandinavians correcting me.))
The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki
-The king was cursed because he boned an elf girl but failed to kept the promise he gave her because he forgot about her.
-The prince who was cursed to become a werebear confessed everything to his lover before he was hunted down & killed by his own father (can't remember the name, not gonna bother looking up in the book either) predestined all of his sons to fulfill a specific destiny, 1 of them exacted justice & eventually died honourably in battle.
The Volsung Saga
-Incest aside, the last surviving Volsung dude was a bad ass & I got to respect the Volsung girl for willingly die along with her husband who was the 1 to kill her father & all her brothers in the first place. She has bigger balls than her brother! if she had any, of course.
Not from the book: I've heard Freya whored herself to the 4 dwarfs for a necklace.
Irish
Cú Chulainn's death
Didn't actually heard of the entire story, though. But that's quite a badass way to die.
1001 Nights
I admired Scheherazade for her ingenuity in dealing with her situation.
Malaysia
Mahsuri
A famous legend, might also because it's 2 centuries ago & it kind of sort of happened. I'm not sure if human can actually bleeds white though. But the moral of the story is, don't be jealous to anybody.
China
3 Kingdoms (Romanticized)
So much deception, so hard to catch up, but very entertaining. The battle of Red Cliff, Guanyu vs 7 warlords, CaoCao's cunning, Zhuge Liang vs Suma Yi (that time Zhuge Liang played a music instrument on top of the wall & Sima Yi just ran away is just precious!)
Journey to the West
Why not?
Buddhism
Jataka
-Sudhana & Manohara is just a good love story. (If you are willing to overlook the Stockholm syndrome elements)
Life of the Buddha
-His bravery to defy the status quo that is Hinduism even if he failed in the end.
-His encounter with Angulimala the serial killer (although I think the 'mass murderer' is more fitting). Angulimala wanted to kill the Buddha, but no matter how fast he's trying to run, he just can't catch up the Buddha who is only walking. So he shouted to the Buddha to stop, the Buddha told him that he had stopped, but Angulimala hadn't. Confused, he asked the Buddha to elaborate. The Buddha said he had stop harming others, while Angulimala hadn't.
-A woman with her dead baby (can't remember the name). He begged the Buddha to save the baby, the Buddha told her to get some vegetable seeds from a household where nobody died by the sun set. She ran around town, knocking on every door, but she can't find any household where nobody died at all.
-This particular story is my favorite because dumb Christians love to use this story to insult Buddhism & extreme feminists use this story to attack Buddhism.
-The tale of Mahajanaka
Notable buddhists in ancient India
-Anathapindika: An ideal person all millionaires or billionaires should be. Sadly, the world of capitalism hates him.
-Sujata: She's an ideal Buddhist woman & ideal secular Buddhist. Feminists only cherrypick her tales to make Buddhism looks like a religion that sees women as nothing but submissive wives because making somebody look bad is fun for them or something.
Hinduism
Ramayana
-I only like Hanuman, I hate the rest even the story itself.
Ramakien
-The tale of Torapee. I like it because what it contributed to the culture. Being an ungrateful child is unacceptable in all accounts. That simply leaves a lot of room for abusive parents & children with low self esteem & self insecurities.
Parashurama, basically Rambo but with an axe.
Mahabharata (considered the longest epic in human history, and I'm not even half way through it)
-Bhishma: A good man who was trapped by his own curse. His death was somewhat liberating & sad at the same time.
-A tragic between Bhishma & Amba. This part also talks about homosexuality in ancient India, not directly but enough to tell you that people who thinks there is no such thing as homosexuals in the past are stupid.
-A sub story about the romance between Kacha & Devayani. Kind of a bittersweet, but it contains great teachings.
-Good people can be assholes but they are so full of themselves to know it.
-Bad people can be good but their notorious reputations makes most people overlook any of their good actions.
-Virtuous people (good or bad) will help anybody without asking for anything in return.
-Drama between Arjuna & Krishna during the Kurukshetra war.
-This drama spawned the Bhagavad Gita. I liked a song inspired by this event, it talks about upholding your duty, not a religious song, but a rock song.
-Arjuna, despite fighting for a just cause, doesn't want to fight anybody because he doesn't want to kill his cousins on the other side.
-Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu reveals the dharma of the Kshatriya to Arjuna, and the matters of upholding good. So pissed off by Arjuna being a wuss to the point he want to kill Bhishma by himself. (This is a famous scene)
-Bhishma, who simply just wanted to die but Arjuna is too much of a wuss to even face him in battle.
THIS IS TOO DAMN LONG!!!!!
The bears killing those kids lol
You bald?
If only.
The Phoenix. That legend will always be the most powerful to me.
The story of prophet Joseph
Joseph Smith?
Joseph. The prophet
Joseph Smith was a prophet.
apparently
apparently
Of what religion?
mormonism
Oh... I was talking about Abrahamic faiths. Judaism, Islam, Christianity and the like.
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Mine is when Harry met Fawkes
When two sisters argued who was more beautiful and when the one scratched the other's face Muhammad turned them into the Sun and Moon.
I shit you not.
I shit you not.
....link?
There is no English version.
The moon and sun didn't exist before Muhammad? Really?
The most hilarious thing that the text states that the sisters were compared to the luminaries.
However, it's not a religious text, but a fairytale so I guess it could be forgiven. I don't know why Muhammad suddenly popped up there.
However, it's not a religious text, but a fairytale so I guess it could be forgiven. I don't know why Muhammad suddenly popped up there.
It could be an older story they probably took and "islamified" to make it more agreeable.