What goes around comes around, I guess: Sometimes I think there are a finite number of topics that the human race interests itself in. Each rechewing of an old cud is greeted as a "discovery." The other day -- I can't remember if it was serious or tongue in cheek -- there was a news segment that noted the slightly-flabby, average-Joe male body type as the new version of "sexy." No more washboard abs ... it was the ordinary schlub who lit fires.
I guess anything that gets elevated is bound to get boring.
And then there was the Jon Stewart interview with Reza Aslan on the topic of religion, a topic that interests me. Aslan noted -- as a means of touting a new book, I think -- that religion depended on what people brought to it. He spoke in the au courant hurry-up staccato of a Twitter culture ... as if his points might be lopped off if he didn't cram them all in.
Around the turn of the 20th century, the Vedanta Hindu Sri Ramakrishna (an avatar in some eyes) once invited a student to take a holy text and place it in a locked and shuttered room for two days. After two days, the student was instructed to return, unlock the room and see if anything within the room had changed.
I guess it's just easier to elevate religion and pretend that it is the lord and master than it is to shoulder the responsibility of being the lord and master who chooses a religion. This confused and confusing reversal might be written off as a small human foible if it were not that so much fucking blood and unkindness didn't flow as a result of it.
I thought the point that we insert our beliefs into scripture rather than draw them from it was well made.
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