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blogging 2012-2013

What do the Doctor and Buddha have in common?

10/9/2012

15 Comments

 
Hello from no longer Fall break :/ Not that break was even that much of a break. I don’t have Thursday classes anyway, so really I just got Friday off. What ‘break’ I had wasn’t all that interesting. I mostly stayed home and pretended that I was going to get around to the long to-do list I made for myself (as if :P). I did, however, read two more books! I wrote up the summary-ish things last night, so you can check out the Etc. section if you feel so inclined.
Also not very interestingly, next semester’s class list went up yesterday, so I had some fun planning out what classes I wanted to take (is it weird that I have fun planning out my schedule?). Looks like I’m going to be getting up very early very often, but I couldn’t avoid 8
a.m. forever.
I almost didn’t have any Questions for this week (thanks for that, guys :P), but Anna Beth saved the day (somewhat unintentionally). And then Jill sort of joined her. But not really. So Anna Beth wins by default this week! Plus I did actually like her second Question.
I wonder if anyone’s actually going to get enough points before the year runs out. Anyway, here’s this week’s (rather bereft) Question Tuesday!

Anna Beth:
Why are there no questions?
Haha, now you have to write something random and interesting just like the rest of us try to do. Good luck ;)
… You realize by asking this question, you negated your following statement, right? :P
There are no questions because my friends don’t like me :(
Jk, everyone just seems to have forgotten, and I was too lazy to badger you guys about it :P
Actually, I stumbled upon this video, so my “question” is more of a prompt. Respond to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watchfeature=player_embedded&v=3Csjr8bXvPw#!
So,… that was kind of strange. If you didn’t watch the video (it’s a bit long), it was basically asserting that Doctor Who could be its own religion. So, my thoughts on that:
First of all, the religions it was citing weren’t all… religions. Buddhism, for example. Buddhism can be divided into two major forms. There are Buddhists who believe that Buddha is a god, and those who believe that he was just a wise man who taught people a lot of smart stuff. They have actual names, but I’m too lazy to try and remember them. Mahayana and Theravada, maybe? Anyway, the first form is Buddhism as a religion, while the second is merely Buddhism as a philosophy (there are actually people who combine Buddhism as a philosophy with their own actual religions, like Christian Buddhists and so forth). So, the Buddhism the video references, with Buddha as merely a teacher, is not actually a religion.
So, although Whovians get really excited and into Doctor Who, and they often can learn life lessons from it and stuff, I am failing to see how that makes it a religion. Now, that’s not to say that people couldn’t make it into one. Back to Buddhism, it in its earliest stages was just the philosophy, but over time some people started to consider Buddha as a god, turning the philosophy into a religion. People could do the same thing with Doctor Who if they really wanted to- start to believe that the Doctor is real and choose to worship him as some immortal deity and look to him for moral and ethical leadership.
But in this way, Doctor Who is in no way unique. People have been doing this since time began- like when the Israelites made Aaron construct a golden calf for them to worship. Even today, if we choose to put something above God and center our lives around it, we are creating our own deity, our own religion.
In summary, Doctor Who is not, in and of itself, a religion, though that is certainly not to say that people could not turn it into one if they felt so inclined. Anything could become the center of its own religion, it’s just a matter of the import people place on it in their lives. 

Jill:
Did anyone send you Questions this week?
Yup! No freeby points for you :P
 
So, that’s it for Question Tuesday! If you want a blog of my typical length, you’ll have to give me some actual Questions for next week. Unless, of course, you don’t like reading and prefer the brevity. Then I guess you shouldn’t ask me anything.

Love you guys!
Sara
15 Comments
Rachael
10/9/2012 07:03:41 am

Do you think Expect Squirrels will ever be completed?
Do you want to be in a flash mob?
Have you had Panda Express yet?

Reply
Sara
10/9/2012 01:35:31 pm

Questions!

Reply
Anna Beth
10/9/2012 10:47:47 am

Not weird at all. I LOVE planning my schedule!

About the Doctor Who question: I agree with everything you said. It's not necessarily a religion, but I think there is a degree of worship among the fandom. That's the same with any fandom, but I think it's especially easy to view the Doctor as a godlike figure, because there are a lot of religious parallels in the show. Like, A LOT of Christian imagery that I've noticed. A lot. Don't you think? You could even do a follow-up blog on that, if you wanted to.

Reply
Anna Beth
10/9/2012 03:40:44 pm

Err mer gerrrrrrrr! Wherrn er wer gernna wertch derktr wherr??!?

Reply
Sara
10/9/2012 10:49:39 pm

Well, on the bright side, we only have 2 episodes to watch- it's done until Christmas. I'll try to see about Saturday or something? I'll let u guys know

Reply
Anna Beth
10/10/2012 03:52:47 am

Can we go to Jackson's Orchard on Saturday and then afterward come over and watch Doctor Who???? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!

Sara
10/10/2012 08:00:26 am

I think that should work :) Yay!!!!

The Enlightened One
10/10/2012 05:14:56 am

I like Buddhism as a philosophy and I am leaning to the fact you can have ur own religion but still have the philosophy of Buddhism so yeah why not be Jewish Buddhist or Whatever. I mean I know everyone wants to be as jolly and fat as me.... Er wait that's Santa but I am peaceful and

Reply
The Enlightened One
10/10/2012 05:17:13 am

And wise and actually I m not fat caused j starved myself but the world is ignorant and that's why my 4 Noble Truths aim to end ignorance.

Sincerely,
Buddha

Reply
Sara
10/10/2012 07:57:24 am

Is it really ignorance your noble truths are aiming to end? I thought the point was that you shouldn't desire earthly things, because it causes you to waste your life away and make yourself and others miserable.
And I know you weren't fat :)

Reply
The Enlightened One
10/10/2012 08:08:22 am

Well my young grasshopper,
It is ignorance that my Four Noble Truths aim to end.
The desire to end Earthly desires and things is what my Eight Fold Path aims at.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha Gautama aka Buddha

Reply
Sara
10/10/2012 12:51:47 pm

1. Life stinks
2. Life stinks because we want stuff.
3. If we didn't want stuff life wouldn't stink
4. Don't want stuff

I don't understand how that translates to ending ignorance. Unless you mean ignorance about why life is so bad?

Reply
Sigmund Freud
10/14/2012 04:10:05 pm

Would you film a sex scene (in which you're only acting, not actually doing it) with a man of your choice for a million dollars if you were ensured that no one would ever see it?
Furthermore, would you do said sex scene and show it to your parents if it meant that all the babies on earth would die if you failed to do so? (Not all babies ever, just the ones on earth at the moment)

Reply
Sara
10/15/2012 10:39:37 am

Really? Really?!

Reply
Anna Beth
10/15/2012 12:53:17 pm

If you could change one thing about the American political system, what would it be?
Have you seen the Dalek in the Cherry Hall bathroom?
Why don't you watch Once Upon a Time?
What part of VidCon are you the most excited about?
What are you going to be for Halloween?

Reply



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