RAAAAAAANTTTTTT!!!!

Pet

Crumbs! Living in London, it's easy to forget how seriously a lot of Americans take obviously nonsensical god business. I really don't think I know anyone who believes in people damning themselves to eternal suffering. Surely not even the few people I know who regard themselves as Christians would believe that.

iuventus

Nevertheless, the use of the phrase 'playing god' implies wrongdoing, or at least stepping into morally dangerous territory no matter how you feel about gods and religion, whereas playing Santa simply implies doing something kind or generous, despite the religious origins of the lore.

Pet

Yeah. I'm quite sure that the phrase 'playing god' has cropped up in more than one Frankenstein film. I don't think it's in the book. It might be interesting to know when the phrase 'playing god' was first coined.

Urban_Tribesman · Post edited by Urban_Tribesman at 2014-07-15 15:25:36

I am never surprised what some people believe Pet. Mrs UT once worked with several colleagues who were Christians and following a discussion regarding a TV program about Charles Darwin and natural selection, she was told in no uncertain terms that 'they' definatley were not descended from Apes. If you have beliefs like this, then you have to embrace the whole package; if there is God, then, by default, there has to be the Devil, hell and eternal damnation. You cannot cherry pick the parts you like and leave out the eternal damnation clause.
I, for one, think you get one shot at this thing called life; you make the best you can of it and then you are recycled like all the other matter in the universe. Close enough to God and eternal life for me.
As Moby once said, we are all made of stars!

iuventus

Funny thing: it isn't apes that we evolved from, but a far more primitive common ancestor.

Urban_Tribesman

iuventus said:
Funny thing: it isn't apes that we evolved from, but a far more primitive common ancestor.

So, Christians aren't scientists - unless they are Tom Cruise of course.
All the above said, I do love churches ! Always peaceful and tranquil places, irrespective of the religion being practiced there. Once, I was lucky enough to be in Istanbul and we visited the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia and both were completely fascinating places. Would highly recommend if you get the chance. We stayed at the Pera Palace and did the whole Agatha Christie thing. We are such romantics !

iuventus

Tom Cruise is about as far from Christian as one could possibly get.

Urban_Tribesman

He is not descended from Apes though; he is nowhere near tall enough.

iuventus

Chimps?

Urban_Tribesman

iuventus said:
Chimps?

Nah, Ewoks or Mogwai's.

Pet

After I last posted on this thread, I realised that I could check whether there's a reference to 'playing god' in the Frankenstein novel. I have the works of Mary Shelley on my Kindle. I did a search and, no, the novel doesn't use this phrase (or anything like). There is something similar in 'Lodore' (also known as 'The Beautiful Widow'), a much later novel. That reference is very interesting:

She inspired him with the wish to gift her angelic child with the worldly advantages which his wife must possess; to play a god-like part, and to lift into prosperity and happiness, one who seemed destined by fortune to struggle with adversity.

This seems to take playing 'a god-like part' as a good and benevolent thing -- in strong distinction with the way in which people now use the phrase 'playing god'.

iuventus

Regarding Lodore, 'play a god-like part' refers to his controlling nature in the fashion of Shaw's Higgins [Pygmalion]. When Lodore is unable to control his wife, he becomes dissatisfied and makes the same project of their daughter and shuts his wife out. He is definitely not a benevolent character.

Ponygurl · Post edited by Ponygurl at 2014-07-16 01:49:34

Well I guess God is Love to me. The Supreme Loving Energy. So maybe Genetic Modification is the opposite of love, Man does not "love" the lifeform as it is....so tries to change it. He wants perfection, superiority...ego driven creation. Why do some women have fake breast implants? It's because the original creation was not loved. Why does our government genetically change our food supply and inundate our food with pesticides and other chemicals? Because Nature is not loved, in turn..the population is not loved. The list goes on. Nature is already perfect in its design. The wild, overwhelming, magnificent, terrifying Wonder that is Nature itself. A massive, heaving, breathing food chain really..a balanced force. The endless cycles of life and death.

So back to the phrase "playing God"...Man "acts" as if he loves his altered creation, because in his mind his "ego" has improved upon it. Where as if he had truly "felt" love for the object itself to begin with....he wouldn't have changed it at all. God, being Love, is the highest power of acceptance. There is no need for change. Love that tastes critical is an ego driven emotion, not a Godly spiritual one. In those terms "playing God" is a recreation of that which is already perfect in design...so that Man might see his own reflection- his Ego.

iuventus · Post edited by iuventus at 2014-07-23 08:29:32

eh.

Monotheism just never worked. I used to think that it was a necessary illusion on the way to man's self discovery, but now I'm beginning to question that it served any purpose but to make us hate ourselves so much that we needed to search for a greater, more reasonable truth.

Besides, I'd rather play Jesus. He was kinda cool, and he always looked comfortable. Well, except for the lashing, the crown of thorns, the spikes through his wrists and ankles...

Pet

Ah, monotheism. What Apuleius called (at least in Robert Graves' translation) "the ridiculous and blasphemous cult of the only god".

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