What's So Great About Outlandish Stories?

So there are some claims that the tomb of Jesus has been dug up. This is going to be presented by James Cameron on the Discovery Channel, so I'm probably going to laugh my ass off since other "historical" ventures by this man would in no way be accepted by the scientific community. Anyways, I looked into how some Christians were swallowing this, since the theory has been around for a good while that Jesus was not resurrected. One of the most startling things that I found is this at a site fully devoted to Jesus being resurrected:

The importance of Christ's resurrection will be seen when we consider that if he rose the gospel is true, and if he rose not it is false. His resurrection from the dead makes it manifest that his sacrifice was accepted.

So, if Jesus was did not come back from his tomb, then f*ck everything. This is the one thing that made Jesus who he was. Not the really smart stuff that he said, not the way he lived his life, not his level of spirituality, but this one event. Are the things that are natural not enough to believe that a smart guy is smart? Is myth all that is really important? If that's the case, I am deeply saddened. And about him rising being proof of the sacrifice being accepted...did every sacrifice ever made come back to life? And what about all those people scattered throughout the Bible that were risen from the dead or ascended into Heaven before they died? What makes them not the "only begotten son of God" or another "Messiah"?

If the myth is all important, then today's generations are no better than the ones Jesus taught to. All they wanted were signs and miracles, so many didn't care about what he was talking about. So many Christians claim other religions are frivolous and have no real basis in fact, but if these myths and magic tricks are all that Christianity is truly concerned about.... And it's been the same throughout the millennia. People don't marvel nearly as much at those who have been enlightened (regardless of religion) or have devoted their lives to Jesus' actual teachings (as far as I know, Franciscan monks do a very good job of this, even if they were founded by a pothead (that's what St. Francis acted like in this movie we watched in Core 4)) as they do to "miracles" of Jesus or Mary (She wasn't that great. God could have chosen any virgin, get over it. And she had more kids, she wasn't the "forever virgin" goddess of Christianity.) appearing on some stupid piece of garlic bread. Guess what? Stuff like this happen a lot in nature and coincidence. Abe Lincoln appears a lot too...as do cats that look like Hitler. My point is that people are putting too much stock into the coincidental and in myth rather than the morals and lessons that are taught.

And going back to the whole Mary thing...why did he have to be born of a virgin? If that makes him special, then there are a lot of reptile messiahs we've been ignoring. It's just something else that the writers of the gospels went back and wrote down so that more people would believe in the "prophesies" and more readily accept their view on what Christianity should be. Good ol' Mark was one of the few gospel writers that didn't preoccupy himself as much as the rest with backing up Jesus' divinity and whatnot with prophesies. He wrote down what was (after a few decades, so some of it is sure to be shady), not so much what "should have" happened.






Never a frown with Golden Brown

Dante in Core

I'm in a course this semester where all we do is read and discuss the Divine Comedy by Dante. It's probably the best course I've ever taken. It's simply amazing.

With that said, we read bits and pieces of the Inferno for Core today, and I was utterly disappointed. First off, the translation they had us read was horrible. There were outdated words thrown everywhere, some parts didn't make sense, and they put actions and parts to the wrong characters! Then we just skip and jump all over Hell. We read the opening to the 3rd level, skipped to the first two rings of the 7th level. Screw the hoarders and wasters, the wrathful, the heretics, and those violent against God and nature! For our next reading, we just skip to the second ring of the 9th level! The 8th level and all of its bolgias are amazing, and Core said f*ck it. Don't read what happens to people that buy their way into church and political power, don't read what happens to pimps, don't read what happens to Mohammed. GRUMBLE! Oh, it gets better. F*ck Purgatory. It's not even touched. Nor is most of Heaven. We go directly from climbing down the shanks of Satan to the absolute last canto of the epic, where Dante sees God. All in all, we skipped 82 cantos. 82% of one of the greatest works of the human mind. I am thoroughly pissed at the readings they gave us.
And then in discussion, we didn't discuss it. "Who's in the second level? What's their punishment?" That was it. We didn't talk about the contrapassos and how they uncover the true nature of the sins. We didn't talk about how this was not a literal journey of Dante, but an emotional journey through sin and looking at the nature of it and learning the lessons each canto is dripping with. This is terrible, and I can't help but think the rest of our translations are horrible as well and that's why people have a hard time getting anything out of them.











stars.

I'M BORED!

It's really weird how the world fits together sometimes. Oh well. here's a "How many movies have you seen, lol!!!1!" thing.

I usually despise these things. Why? Because they almost always have the crappiest movies and a ton that I would never give a chance (seriously, White Chicks?!?). I've seen hundreds of movies, and really good ones, that no one knows, at least not this generation. Where the hell are the good movies in all of these lists? I'm making a list of my own, dammit. And if you know any GOOD movies that I don't have on here, please add them. I'm only going up to 300, but feel free to put anything I may have missed. But your deity help you if I find White Chicks on here.

Kitterman's list of movies.

(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Monty Python's Life of Brian
(x) Monty Python's the Meaning of Life
(x) Wet Hot American Summer
(x) Clerks
(x) Clerks 2
(x) Mallrats
( ) Chasing Amy
(x) Dogma
(x) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Total: 9/10

(x) Hot Shots!
(x) Hot Shots! Part Deux
(x) Rat Race
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Office Space
(x) Death to Smoochy
(x) Start the Revolution Without Me
(x) Weekend at Bernie's
(x) Weekend at Bernie's 2
(x) Monsters, Inc.
Total: 19/20

(x) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
(x) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
(x) Cannibal! the Musical
(x) Orgazmo
(x) BASEketball
(x) South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
(x) Team America: World Police
( ) The Producers (original)
(x) The Producers (newer)
(x) Blazing Saddles
Total: 28/30

(x) Young Frankenstein
( ) Silent Movie
(x) High Anxiety
(x) History of the World: Part I
(x) Spaceballs
(x) Robin Hood: Men in Tights
(x) Dracula: Dead and Loving It
(x) 2001: a Space Travesty
(x) The 40 Year Old Virgin
(x) Accepted
Total: 37/40

(x) 8MM
(x) Boondock Saints
(x) Memento
(x) Donnie Darko
(x) Matchstick Men
(x) Constantine
(x) Signs
(x) Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
(x) Snatch
(x) Reservoir Dogs
Total: 47/50

(x) Pulp Fiction
(x) Jackie Brown
(x) Kill Bill: Volume 1
(x) Kill Bill: Volume 2
(x) Evil Dead
(x) Evil Dead II
(x) Bruce Campbell Vs. the Army of Darkness
( ) Night of the Living Dead
(x) Dawn of the Dead (original)
(x) Dawn of the Dead (new)
Total: 56/60

(x) Day of the Dead
( ) Land of the Dead
(x) Shaun of the Dead
( ) The Hills Have Eyes (original)
(x) The Hills Have Eyes (new)
(x) Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Total: 64/70

(x) Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
(x) The Hobbit
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) The Animatrix
(x) X-Men
Total: 73/80

(x) X-Men 2
(x) X-Men 3
( ) Rushmore
(x) The Royal Tenenbaums
(x) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
(x) The Legend of 1900
(x) Fight Club
(x) Amadeus
( ) The Amityville Horror (original)
(x) The Amityville Horror (new)
Total: 81/90

(x) Apocalypse Now
( ) The Godfather
( ) The Godfather II
( ) The Godfather III
( ) Rocky
( ) Rocky II
( ) Rocky III
( ) Rocky IV
( ) Rocky V
( ) Rocky Balboa
Total: 82/100

(x) Splash
(x) Dragnet
(x) Big
(x) Turner and Hooch
(x) Joe Versus the Volcano
(x) A League of Their Own
(x) Sleepless in Seattle
(x) Philadelphia
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Apollo 13
Total: 92/110

(x) Toy Story
(x) Toy Story 2
(x) The Green Mile
(x) Castaway
( ) Road to Perdition
(x) Catch Me if You Can
(x) The Ladykillers
(x) The Terminal
(x) Cars
(x) The Da Vinci Code
Total: 101/120

(x) Fargo
(x) O Brother, Where Art Thou?
(x) Birthday Girl
(x) Bodies, Rest and Motion
( ) Requiem for a Dream
(x) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation Kazakhstan
(x) The Butterfly Effect
( ) The Butterfly Effect 2
(x) The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
(x) Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin- the Untold Story
Total: 109/130

(x) House of 1,000 Corpses
(x) The Devil's Rejects
(x) Doom
(x) Ferris Bueller's Day Off
(x) Back to School
( ) Revenge of the Nerds
( ) Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise
( ) Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation
( ) Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love
( ) Porky's
Total: 114/140

(x) Hannibal Rising
( ) Manhunter
(x) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
(x) Haute Tension (High Tension in English)
(x) Haunted Honeymoon
(x) Hostel
(x) Saw
(x) Saw II
Total: 122/150

(x) Saw III
(x) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2
(x) In the Mouth of Madness
(x) The Island
( ) It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
(x) Kung Fu Hustle
(x) Lost and Delirious
(x) May
(x) A Midsummer Night's Dream (any movie version)
Total: 130/160

(x) The Minus Man
(x) Monster
(x) Mr. and Mrs. Smith
(x) One Hour Photo
( ) Man of the Year
(x) Patch Adams
(x) Mrs. Doubtfire
( ) Tootsie
(x) Moscow on the Hudson
( ) Good Morning Vietnam
Total: 137/170

(x) Dead Poets Society
(x) Hook
(x) Fern Gully
(x) Aladdin
(x) The Lion King
(x) Toys
(x) Jumaniji
( ) The Birdcage (original)
(x) The Birdcage (new)
(x) Jack
Total: 146/180

(x) Flubber
( ) Good Will Hunting
(x) What Dreams May Come
(x) Bicentennial Man
( ) Happy Feet
( ) March of the Penguins
(x) The Pink Panther (original)
(x) The Pink Panther (new)
(x) The Return of the Pink Panther
(x) The Pink Panther Strikes Again
Total: 153/190

(x) Schindler's List
(x) Seven
(x) Silent Hill
(x) Sin City
(x) The Sixth Sense
(x) Unbreakable
(x) The Village
( ) Lady in the Water
(x) Slither
(x) Snakes on a Plane
Total: 162/200

(x) Rodan
(x) Godzilla (any film that he's the star)
(x) The Sweetest Thing
(x) Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
(x) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
(x) Austin Powers: Goldmember
(x) A Night at the Roxbury
(x) Superstar
(x) Old School
(x) Elf
Total: 172/210

(x) Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy
(x) Wedding Crashers
( ) Stranger Than Fiction
(x) True Romance
(x) V for Vendetta
(x) Waiting
(x) Walk the Line
(x) What's Up, Tiger Lily?
(x) Zelig
( ) Bananas
Total: 180/220

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
(x) Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
(x) The Mask
(x) Dumb and Dumber
(x) Dumb and Dumberer
(x) Liar, Liar
(x) The Truman Show
(x) Bruce Almighty
(x) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Total: 190/230

(x) Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
(x) Being John Malkovich
(x) Batman Begins
(x) Batman
(x) Batman Returns
(x) Batman Forever
(x) Batman and Robin
( ) The Shawshank Redemption
(x) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
( ) Casablanca
Total: 198/240

(x) Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones: the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones: the Last Crusade
(x) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
( ) Psycho (original)
(x) Lawrence of Arabia
(x) It's a Wonderful Life
( ) American Beauty
(x) American History X
( ) The Man Who Knew Too Much
Total: 205/250

( ) Vertigo
(x) North by Northwest
(x) The Birds
(x) To Kill a Mockingbird
(x) Metropolis
( ) Hotel Rwanda
(x) The Shining
( ) Saving Private Ryan
(x) Singin' in the Rain
(x) Some Like it Hot
Total: 212/260

( ) 2001: a Space Odyssey
(x) The Wizard of Oz
( ) Full Metal Jacket
(x) Crash
(x) Back to the Future
(x) Back to the Future II
(x) Back to the Future III
(x) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
(x) Hero
(x) The Princess Bride
Total: 220/270

(x) The Graduate
(x) Gladiator
(x) The Day the Earth Stood Still
(x) Gone With the Wind
(x) Groundhog Day
(x) Ghostbusters
(x) Ghostbusters 2
( ) Trainspotting
( ) A Clockwork Orange
(x) The Grapes of Wrath
Total: 228/280

(x) Twelve Monkeys
(x) A Christmas Story
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
( ) Little Miss Sunshine
( ) Scarface
(x) The Omen (original)
( ) The Omen (new)
(x) All Quiet on the Western Front
(x) Planet of the Apes (original)
Total: 235/290

(x) Planet of the Apes (new)
( ) The Prestige
( ) The Big Lebowski
( ) Sling Blade
(x) Edward Scissor Hands
(x) The Nightmare Before Christmas
(x) Beetle Juice
(x) Mars Attacks!
( ) Big Fish
(x) Airplane!
Total: 241/300








You need a little one four five.

Random Things Keep Floating Through My Head

I loved the Qur'an's views on Jesus. Basically, Mohammed was saying Christians were reading into the gospels waaaaay too much, and I was thinking the exact same thing when reading them. There's even a cute scene between God and Jesus when God asks if Jesus has been prancing around going "I'm God's son, I'm the messiah," and Jesus says "no, that's stupid. You'd know it if I did, silly goose."

Would God ever ask any questions? If he's omnipotent, he would already know the answers. Maybe he's just twisted and likes to make us think we're sneaky.

I don't want it to snow. I liked that I could walk around in a t-shirt today (it got in the 30's!!!!). This stupid snow is just going to make it freaking cold again. Grumble.














We're chained.

Duh.

If you don't like this school, don't come here. The doors don't magically lock to keep you in. Just leave. I can pretty much guarantee you that whatever other school you choose would be cheaper than here. Either transfer or stop bitching.