Religion, Money and Politics

Religion, Money and Politics. The three things you shouldn't discuss at work.

I don't know where that little bit of advice actually came from by the way. I seem to remember it being something I was told once. It's actually pretty sound advice when you think about it. It really is the three topics bound to cause an argument if discussed at work. I'm sure there are others too. I can think of a few;
Whether or not your colleague's partners are shagable
How fat the new secretary is getting
How awful [insert colleague's favourite band here] are at singing
You get the drift...

Religion

Religion is something that fascinates me, one of my passions if you will. It's not that I'm an overly religious person myself, but mankind's need to constantly find something "else" out there intrigues me. It's been going on for centuries and the correlations are striking. Take for example the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. Catholics have some lovely imagery of these two in a pretty standard position. Baby on mummy's lap. Just one other example of where you can find this is in Ancient Egyptian Religion. Isis and Horus. Identical imagery. (Pictures nicked from Wikipedia of Mary here and Isis here.) What's also curious is Mary's often depicted with her Halo and Isis has a Sun Disk on her headdress. It's quite possible that the Christians were inspired by the Egyptians in some way, leading to these similarities. (There are other similarities, but I shan't bore you with too many in depth details!) There's a popular theory that Ramses The Great (Ramses II) was the Pharoh from the Bible. The History Channel once did a fabulous documentary on this, google it, it's well worth a watch and is pretty plausible. But what this means is that the two cultures knew of each other. We have countless sources to say so, including of course, the Bible itself. What is interesting is when common themes appear between cultures that did not know of each other. Cultures that are too far apart geographically and chronologically. One incredible general example is Polytheism. The belief in many Gods. Aztec Religion was Polytheist, so was Roman. The Romans most definately did not know the Aztecs! In nearly all Polytheist Ancient Religions we also find correlations in the individual Gods. Plagiarism was quite common in the Ancient world, indeed it still goes on today. But it's interesting how mankind gravitated towards these common themes even when the societies couldn't have been plagiarising because they didn't know of each other. A Mother Goddess. Very common. We have the Greek Gaia, Roman Demeter, Egyptin Isis, Mesopotamian Damgalnuna and many more. A Goddess who deals with Childbirth; Egyptian Tarawet, Roman Diana, Greek Artemis, Mesopotamian Innana. A 'King of the Gods' or Main God, Egyptian Amon, Greek Zeus, Roman Jupiter (Juno), Norse Odin. The list goes on. (Note to self: Carl Jung with his 'Archetypes' probably has a lot to say on this theme) Another interesting concept is that of there being one God, of whom all the other Gods are a 'part' or face. The Hindus have got this; Brahmin, and all the other Gods are parts of this main entity.
The 'Afterlife' is another fascinating subject. Most religions have some sort of concept of 'what's next'. Usually the two options are some kind of paradise, or reincarnation into another life. The Ancient Egyptians have a lovely one. It's called the Field of Reeds. It's a paradise, but the deceased is expected to do a certain amount of work in it. So the Egyptians came up with the idea of a 'Ushabti'. This is a little figure made in the (typically Egyptian, totally flattering) image of themselves and placed in the tomb. He has a little spell carved onto the bottom of him so that when the deceased are called to work he will reply "Here I am! Ushabti!" and come to life and trot off to do it for them! Curiously, the only place we find a proper 'Hell & Devil' combination is Christianity. The Devil, according to Christians, is Evil. No two ways about it, he tempts mankind away from God. Whereas in Egyptian Religion, their closest equivalent is Seth. He is not intrinsically Evil. He represents Chaos and is accepted as part of the natural order, not outside it. He also does not rule over any kind of Hell domain. There are judgments of sorts in other religions, but Hell doesn't seem to exist anywhere else. Using the Egyptians again as an example (I know the most about them!) their judgment was called The Weighing of the Heart. It's a symbolic test of how good a person has been in their life, if the heart weighed the same as a feather, they could go the the field of reeds. The feather symbolised the goddess Maat, Truth. If the heart was too heavy, it got chomped up by a nasty looking crocodile-cum-baboon creature, and the soul vanished into oblivion. Not Hell, just disappears from existence. So where did the Christians get this idea from? Early Christianity, it's rumoured, taught reincarnation. Don't know of the truth in that statement though. It's on my 'research at a later date' list! Another curious little correlation is how much the Devil looks like Pan of the Romans or Cernunnos of the Celts. Google the images and have a butchers. It's been said that when one religion wants power, the gods of the old religion become the devils of the new. Something to think about...

Money
Not so much of an interesting subject, I have enough of it to survive, but not enough to buy an RVF750!! Ah, we'd all like more money wouldn't we, but then once you have more money, you find more things to spend it on and discover you want even more money. The Cycle Goes On. As long as I have enough to eat and put petrol in the bike, all is well with the world. There's no sense wanting things you can't have. Money is overrated anyway. There are people in this world who live on the most appauling allowance. We don't. (By 'we' I mean the average 'westerner') All you really need to live is a roof over your head and sustenance. Anything you have on top of that is a bonus. By bearing that concept in mind, I'm more than happy with where I am.

Politics
Ah, another favourite subject! Only recently discovered, so I'm a bit of a novice.
I like the Conservatives.
I hate benefits.
Well, abuse of benefits anyway. It really winds me up how easily people abuse the system. I have known people on jobseekers for a number of years. Years! To find a bloody job! It's really not that hard. The jobs are out there if you're willing to work. Problem is, why would you bother when the government are happily handing out free money? Something needs to be done about that. However, my suggestions are largely useless. For example, I once suggested that after a maximum of 3 months on jobseekers the government should hand out mandatory sewer cleaner jobs for £3 an hour. Benefit frauds should also be given these jobs, and every £1 they steal should cost them 1 hour down there with a toothbrush. Yep, I think I'll leave the solution up to the people who know what they're talking about...