Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
The evolution of Hell.
Right, where to begin?
I write this now as a partial rebuttal to a "discussion" that occurred within a post on a friends status update on bookface.
At this moment in time it's really hard for me to actually come up with a definitive counter-argument as the person of which I am opposed keeps changing the argument.
Originally it was that Hell was not a Christian concept, then that it was not a world of fire and brimstone, and then the argument turned into Hell not being a world of torture and in a separate thread a reference to the discussion was made which the aforementioned opponent states that "Hell does not appear in early Christian texts" (This thread has since been deleted so I can't make reference to it any more)
Also, the opposition made comment that, and quote: "reading into them as would a fundamentalist would, which they shouldn't be read into at all.", the "them" in said quote are passages from the King James Bible which clearly indicate Hell as being a place of fire and torture.
To be quite fair, I'm no theologist, I don't spend my days studying Biblical literature to try and unearth all the different ways in which one can interpret the passages so I'm bound to look at it from a fundamentalist view.
Also, I want to add that even todays scholars may be interpreting the texts wrong so it is hard to see the true meaning behind them if several meanings can exist within a single passage.
On top of this, One should NOT read into the Bible anyway, it was never designed to be the be all and end all of moral scripture, it's (to me) a set of fables that try and encourage a decent moral framework, much like modern day fairy tales are used. In addition to entertaining, they educate, sadly people look too deep into them and take nothing away from it but a one sided and often prejudiced opinion.
Instead of trying to argue my point against someone who is too blind and ignorant to accept what it presented to him, instead I am simply going to look at the evolution of the concept of Hell.
I'm going to start as far back as I possibly can with this, which in my opinion is the grandfather of modern western religion... Greek Mythology.
There are many reasons as to why I believe that (One namely being the image of God looking like Zues who became Jupiter under Roman beliefs which the Christian faiths amalgamated into their own system as they have done with countless other religions) but first we're going to look at Hades.
Now, Hades as a place was neither a place of fire or eternal torment, it was gloomy depressing underworld similar to what the majority of modern scholars believe purgatory to be like. Now Hades actually has nothing to do with Hell, but remember this post because I shall be referring back to it later.
Now then, the real reason I bring the Greek mythology into play is because of Tartarus, another gloomy underworld world that WAS a place of punishment, but I want to note that the inhabitants of Tartarus were rarely dead, they were very much alive for the most part. Their lives prolonged unnaturally so that them may suffer eternally (Think of Prometheus having his innards pecked out each day)
Now from here we move into the Roman mythologies of old, which are basically the Greek myths with different names.
It is here that Tartarus became a fiery world of punishment as it is surrounded by the flaming river Phlegethon and triple walls to prevent sinners from escaping from it, meaning it is more a place for the dead than those who wrong the Gods to receive their punishment.
The wronging of God theme actually carries over into Biblical scripture as does Tartarus itself when the archangel Uriel is placed in charge of Tarturus and 200 fallen angels that are imprisoned there (Book of Enoch 20:2)
From the concept of Tartarus, Gehenna is born and Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. (This is the Roman Catholic view)
I could bring into play Sheol, the underworld of Hebrew faith, which was referenced in the the discussion, but after looking into it I feel it has no weight within the topic as it mirrors more Sumerian and Babylonian trains of thought, as was the way at the time.
Back to Gehenna though, and keeping in line with Hebrew thought, Gehenna is a Hellenised version of the Hebrew Hinnom, which is both a name and a place in the Levant. It was here that King Ahaz burnt his children in fire, and made other profane offerings.
Often this valley is referred to as the valley of “the sons of Hinnom,” or Ben-Hinnom in Hebrew. References to Gehenna, then, generally allude to the fires of profane sacrificial practices.
The implication is that someone who is burned in Gehenna is being offered up to some other God — or to no God.
This is the word most commonly used in the New Testament as “hell.” Note that in ancient Judaism, even in the Hellenised Judaism of the 1st century, the crime of King Ahaz was still regarded with some horror — thus, the name of Gehenna was treated with trepidation and fear.
So with the amalgamation of Roman and Hebrew ideals placed within Christianity, the concept of Hell as a place of fire and torment was born.
Now, do you remember I mentioned Hades? Well to some Biblical scholars and interpretation, it is believed that Jesus descended into Hades to free all the souls that were bound there and ultimately ending the reign of the old gods.
This notion, if anything binds the beliefs of new and old into one over-arching narrative giving credence to the idea that Tartarus, a dungeon used by the gods of old became Hell... A prison to the sinners of today and the fallen angels who rose up against God in a rebellion and became demons.
There is so much more I can say and I'll even admit that there is a lot I have missed, but I'm not here to write a book on the subject, my intent was to show that this concept of Hell in some form has existed for a long while and rather than dying out with the rest of mythology, it has grown and evolved and will most likely be a concept open to discussion for many centuries to come.
I write this now as a partial rebuttal to a "discussion" that occurred within a post on a friends status update on bookface.
At this moment in time it's really hard for me to actually come up with a definitive counter-argument as the person of which I am opposed keeps changing the argument.
Originally it was that Hell was not a Christian concept, then that it was not a world of fire and brimstone, and then the argument turned into Hell not being a world of torture and in a separate thread a reference to the discussion was made which the aforementioned opponent states that "Hell does not appear in early Christian texts" (This thread has since been deleted so I can't make reference to it any more)
Also, the opposition made comment that, and quote: "reading into them as would a fundamentalist would, which they shouldn't be read into at all.", the "them" in said quote are passages from the King James Bible which clearly indicate Hell as being a place of fire and torture.
To be quite fair, I'm no theologist, I don't spend my days studying Biblical literature to try and unearth all the different ways in which one can interpret the passages so I'm bound to look at it from a fundamentalist view.
Also, I want to add that even todays scholars may be interpreting the texts wrong so it is hard to see the true meaning behind them if several meanings can exist within a single passage.
On top of this, One should NOT read into the Bible anyway, it was never designed to be the be all and end all of moral scripture, it's (to me) a set of fables that try and encourage a decent moral framework, much like modern day fairy tales are used. In addition to entertaining, they educate, sadly people look too deep into them and take nothing away from it but a one sided and often prejudiced opinion.
Instead of trying to argue my point against someone who is too blind and ignorant to accept what it presented to him, instead I am simply going to look at the evolution of the concept of Hell.
I'm going to start as far back as I possibly can with this, which in my opinion is the grandfather of modern western religion... Greek Mythology.
There are many reasons as to why I believe that (One namely being the image of God looking like Zues who became Jupiter under Roman beliefs which the Christian faiths amalgamated into their own system as they have done with countless other religions) but first we're going to look at Hades.
Now, Hades as a place was neither a place of fire or eternal torment, it was gloomy depressing underworld similar to what the majority of modern scholars believe purgatory to be like. Now Hades actually has nothing to do with Hell, but remember this post because I shall be referring back to it later.
Now then, the real reason I bring the Greek mythology into play is because of Tartarus, another gloomy underworld world that WAS a place of punishment, but I want to note that the inhabitants of Tartarus were rarely dead, they were very much alive for the most part. Their lives prolonged unnaturally so that them may suffer eternally (Think of Prometheus having his innards pecked out each day)
Now from here we move into the Roman mythologies of old, which are basically the Greek myths with different names.
It is here that Tartarus became a fiery world of punishment as it is surrounded by the flaming river Phlegethon and triple walls to prevent sinners from escaping from it, meaning it is more a place for the dead than those who wrong the Gods to receive their punishment.
The wronging of God theme actually carries over into Biblical scripture as does Tartarus itself when the archangel Uriel is placed in charge of Tarturus and 200 fallen angels that are imprisoned there (Book of Enoch 20:2)
From the concept of Tartarus, Gehenna is born and Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. (This is the Roman Catholic view)
I could bring into play Sheol, the underworld of Hebrew faith, which was referenced in the the discussion, but after looking into it I feel it has no weight within the topic as it mirrors more Sumerian and Babylonian trains of thought, as was the way at the time.
Back to Gehenna though, and keeping in line with Hebrew thought, Gehenna is a Hellenised version of the Hebrew Hinnom, which is both a name and a place in the Levant. It was here that King Ahaz burnt his children in fire, and made other profane offerings.
Often this valley is referred to as the valley of “the sons of Hinnom,” or Ben-Hinnom in Hebrew. References to Gehenna, then, generally allude to the fires of profane sacrificial practices.
The implication is that someone who is burned in Gehenna is being offered up to some other God — or to no God.
This is the word most commonly used in the New Testament as “hell.” Note that in ancient Judaism, even in the Hellenised Judaism of the 1st century, the crime of King Ahaz was still regarded with some horror — thus, the name of Gehenna was treated with trepidation and fear.
So with the amalgamation of Roman and Hebrew ideals placed within Christianity, the concept of Hell as a place of fire and torment was born.
Now, do you remember I mentioned Hades? Well to some Biblical scholars and interpretation, it is believed that Jesus descended into Hades to free all the souls that were bound there and ultimately ending the reign of the old gods.
This notion, if anything binds the beliefs of new and old into one over-arching narrative giving credence to the idea that Tartarus, a dungeon used by the gods of old became Hell... A prison to the sinners of today and the fallen angels who rose up against God in a rebellion and became demons.
There is so much more I can say and I'll even admit that there is a lot I have missed, but I'm not here to write a book on the subject, my intent was to show that this concept of Hell in some form has existed for a long while and rather than dying out with the rest of mythology, it has grown and evolved and will most likely be a concept open to discussion for many centuries to come.
My top 5 most epic moments in gaming.
To be quite fair, I haven't really thought about this much, nor have I had to. Epic moments in gaming are something we've all experienced and are something we all remember as they fill your body with adreneline and make your palms sweaty.
Here, in no particular order, are the 5 gaming moments that made me say "Holy fuck, that was so fucking awesome!"
Mass Effect 2
The attack on the collectors ship.
Mass Effect 2 is one of those games that is epic all the way through, but once the Collectors have come on board the Normandy and kidnapped your crew you know it's time to fight back.
The whole battle consists of giving party members specific tasks while you make your way through the ship, taking down as many of the bipedal insectoids as you can.
This naturally follows an epic as hell scene where you cross the Omega 4 relay into uncharted space where the Normandy is tasked with navigating a debris field whilst fighting off drone ships.
Back to the fighting though, as you give your squad commands you're met with epic music that really makes you feel as it's do or die, it's not just a game anymore (This is more the case on the expert mode)
And then you finally see it, the Reaper. It's huge it's ready to harvest the human race and you're the only one who can stop it.
The music just gets more epic from here and as well as trying to take down the Reaper, there are more Collectors always joining the fight, you and your team struggle as ammo starts to run low and you're relying more and more on biotics to see you through the fight and then BOOM... It's all over, you finally killed it, after all that you got the bastard.
That's it, take a deep breath, you won... Now you can just sit back, watch the closing cutscene and and wait for Mass Effect 3.
The Suicide mission OST track, just try and tell me this doesn't get your blood pumping!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTsD2FjmLsw
Dragon Age: Origins
The fight for Denerim
Another epic game from Bioware, though it's not the battle itself that is epic, it's what comes before it.
You start in Redcliff, alongside Either Queen Anora or King Alistair (depending on who you pick to rule) and they're giving the speech before they march off to Denerim to defeat the darkspawn hoarde and defeat the Blight.
This speech is enough to send shivers down your spine as you watch the collective armies of the Redcliff soldiers, Orzammer dwarves, Elves/Werewolves and Mages/Templars marching towards Fereldans capital for the final battle.
You get there and all hell has broken loose, Darkspawn are slaughtering everyone at the city gates when you arrive and the massacre continues as you take the fight to them.
Once more blood has been spilt, you choose your party and everyone says there bit... Just in case you may not meet again and then as you run down the line of soldiers, they shout to you words of hope and encouragement, making you feel that win or lose, you're a true hero.
the battle speech made by King Alistair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyMiSsSfVo4
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
The final battle with Ocelot
This is another game filled with epic moments and it's hard to pcick one, but the final confrontation with Ocelot is just... Wow.
This is what the series has been building to, a one on one fight with the man who has hounded you for years. Now this is it, a fist fight.
No Metal Gears, no guns... Just fists, feet and occasionally your head.
For me, this fight was so emotionally charged that before the fight itself when Ocelot and Snake are duking it out, I almost cried (specifially at the scene where Ocelot is relentlessly pounding on Snakes face, I thought he was dead), the music is just perfect, the sunset setting makes it seem serene and beautiful, but after all the chaos that has ensued, you know that this sunset may just be your last. It's something I'll never forget.
Just watch this vid of the cutscene to see what I mean (skip it to about 3:40 for the fighting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I_fQCQpVBg
Resident Evil 4
The Village
Ah, Resident Evil, you've definitely had your ups and your downs, but this one moment is both epic and terrifying.
You enter the village not knowing exactly what to expect, you see the townspeople going about there lives and everything seems normal.
Then one of them sees you, fear grips you as he alerts his friends and you're forced to run into a house, barricading the door and hunting for supplies.
Then you hear it, a chainsaw... And then you see the psycho wielding it. Panic stricken you're forced out of your nest as they break down the barricade and you run, picking off whoever you can whenever you can.
You start to run low on ammunition and for every enemy you kill, two more seem to take there place, an endless swarm, always multiplying and getting closer.
After a while you're hands are sweaty, adreneline surges through you as you fight to keep your avatar alive, then out of nowhere church bells ring and the hoarde departs, leaving you alone in the village to breath a much needed sigh of relief.
A moment in gaming that's truly hard to forget.
Skip to about 5:00 for the ensuing madness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyVCeEVKG7M
Tomb Raider
The T-Rex
I'll never forget my first encounter with the T-Rex of the Lost Valley.
It was Christmas and I'd got myself a PSOne and several games, Nightmare Creatures, Doom, Porsche Challenge and Tomb Raider.
Tomb Raider was my favourite, I remember spending hours trying to beat the city of Vilcabamba level and then found myself in the lost valley.
I wandered through the cave structure, following the sound of a large underground waterfall leading into a pool below, naturally I dove off into the water and climbed out, quickly dispatching the three wolves that awaited me.
From there I climbed some rocks and up a set of... Well, larger rocks, picked up the medipack and that dropped down onto a grassy plain.
I thought it was odd, I was in the Peruvian mountains, the last two levels were snowy and now there is grass and jungle like vegetation?
I proceeded onwards to be ambushed by several raptors, I killed them in typical Croft fashion (By jumping about like a ninny)
I sighed with relief when they were all dead and moved on.
All of a sudden the ground shook to heavy footsteps and the music amped up and it strode into view... That big assed lizard (thanks Regina, I'll never look at a dinosaur the same way again)
The T-Rex was enormous and I actually screamed and paused the game to calm down once it roared at me and decided to come for me.
Once calmer (but still on a gamer high) I un-paused and went for it, I drew my guns and fired away, jumping backwards to try and avoid it, but it backed me into a corner.
Instinctively I tried to make a break for it and run past it, but it managed to catch me in it's mouth, shaking my body around like a dog with a chew toy before spitting my lifeless corpse onto the ground in a crumpled pixelated mess.
Epic and unbelievable... This has to be my most memorable and epic gaming moment ever.
It took me three days before I dared try that one again.
The T-Rex appearance, not scary now, but back then it was all WOAH!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgjdFlUtgHI
==========
Now I know there are hundreds of more epic moments in games out there, but this is my list and these are definitely the gaming moments that got my blood pumping.
I may do another with more epic moments, or just simply memorable moments, but for now, this will suffice
Here, in no particular order, are the 5 gaming moments that made me say "Holy fuck, that was so fucking awesome!"
Mass Effect 2
The attack on the collectors ship.
Mass Effect 2 is one of those games that is epic all the way through, but once the Collectors have come on board the Normandy and kidnapped your crew you know it's time to fight back.
The whole battle consists of giving party members specific tasks while you make your way through the ship, taking down as many of the bipedal insectoids as you can.
This naturally follows an epic as hell scene where you cross the Omega 4 relay into uncharted space where the Normandy is tasked with navigating a debris field whilst fighting off drone ships.
Back to the fighting though, as you give your squad commands you're met with epic music that really makes you feel as it's do or die, it's not just a game anymore (This is more the case on the expert mode)
And then you finally see it, the Reaper. It's huge it's ready to harvest the human race and you're the only one who can stop it.
The music just gets more epic from here and as well as trying to take down the Reaper, there are more Collectors always joining the fight, you and your team struggle as ammo starts to run low and you're relying more and more on biotics to see you through the fight and then BOOM... It's all over, you finally killed it, after all that you got the bastard.
That's it, take a deep breath, you won... Now you can just sit back, watch the closing cutscene and and wait for Mass Effect 3.
The Suicide mission OST track, just try and tell me this doesn't get your blood pumping!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTsD2FjmLsw
Dragon Age: Origins
The fight for Denerim
Another epic game from Bioware, though it's not the battle itself that is epic, it's what comes before it.
You start in Redcliff, alongside Either Queen Anora or King Alistair (depending on who you pick to rule) and they're giving the speech before they march off to Denerim to defeat the darkspawn hoarde and defeat the Blight.
This speech is enough to send shivers down your spine as you watch the collective armies of the Redcliff soldiers, Orzammer dwarves, Elves/Werewolves and Mages/Templars marching towards Fereldans capital for the final battle.
You get there and all hell has broken loose, Darkspawn are slaughtering everyone at the city gates when you arrive and the massacre continues as you take the fight to them.
Once more blood has been spilt, you choose your party and everyone says there bit... Just in case you may not meet again and then as you run down the line of soldiers, they shout to you words of hope and encouragement, making you feel that win or lose, you're a true hero.
the battle speech made by King Alistair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyMiSsSfVo4
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
The final battle with Ocelot
This is another game filled with epic moments and it's hard to pcick one, but the final confrontation with Ocelot is just... Wow.
This is what the series has been building to, a one on one fight with the man who has hounded you for years. Now this is it, a fist fight.
No Metal Gears, no guns... Just fists, feet and occasionally your head.
For me, this fight was so emotionally charged that before the fight itself when Ocelot and Snake are duking it out, I almost cried (specifially at the scene where Ocelot is relentlessly pounding on Snakes face, I thought he was dead), the music is just perfect, the sunset setting makes it seem serene and beautiful, but after all the chaos that has ensued, you know that this sunset may just be your last. It's something I'll never forget.
Just watch this vid of the cutscene to see what I mean (skip it to about 3:40 for the fighting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I_fQCQpVBg
Resident Evil 4
The Village
Ah, Resident Evil, you've definitely had your ups and your downs, but this one moment is both epic and terrifying.
You enter the village not knowing exactly what to expect, you see the townspeople going about there lives and everything seems normal.
Then one of them sees you, fear grips you as he alerts his friends and you're forced to run into a house, barricading the door and hunting for supplies.
Then you hear it, a chainsaw... And then you see the psycho wielding it. Panic stricken you're forced out of your nest as they break down the barricade and you run, picking off whoever you can whenever you can.
You start to run low on ammunition and for every enemy you kill, two more seem to take there place, an endless swarm, always multiplying and getting closer.
After a while you're hands are sweaty, adreneline surges through you as you fight to keep your avatar alive, then out of nowhere church bells ring and the hoarde departs, leaving you alone in the village to breath a much needed sigh of relief.
A moment in gaming that's truly hard to forget.
Skip to about 5:00 for the ensuing madness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyVCeEVKG7M
Tomb Raider
The T-Rex
I'll never forget my first encounter with the T-Rex of the Lost Valley.
It was Christmas and I'd got myself a PSOne and several games, Nightmare Creatures, Doom, Porsche Challenge and Tomb Raider.
Tomb Raider was my favourite, I remember spending hours trying to beat the city of Vilcabamba level and then found myself in the lost valley.
I wandered through the cave structure, following the sound of a large underground waterfall leading into a pool below, naturally I dove off into the water and climbed out, quickly dispatching the three wolves that awaited me.
From there I climbed some rocks and up a set of... Well, larger rocks, picked up the medipack and that dropped down onto a grassy plain.
I thought it was odd, I was in the Peruvian mountains, the last two levels were snowy and now there is grass and jungle like vegetation?
I proceeded onwards to be ambushed by several raptors, I killed them in typical Croft fashion (By jumping about like a ninny)
I sighed with relief when they were all dead and moved on.
All of a sudden the ground shook to heavy footsteps and the music amped up and it strode into view... That big assed lizard (thanks Regina, I'll never look at a dinosaur the same way again)
The T-Rex was enormous and I actually screamed and paused the game to calm down once it roared at me and decided to come for me.
Once calmer (but still on a gamer high) I un-paused and went for it, I drew my guns and fired away, jumping backwards to try and avoid it, but it backed me into a corner.
Instinctively I tried to make a break for it and run past it, but it managed to catch me in it's mouth, shaking my body around like a dog with a chew toy before spitting my lifeless corpse onto the ground in a crumpled pixelated mess.
Epic and unbelievable... This has to be my most memorable and epic gaming moment ever.
It took me three days before I dared try that one again.
The T-Rex appearance, not scary now, but back then it was all WOAH!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgjdFlUtgHI
==========
Now I know there are hundreds of more epic moments in games out there, but this is my list and these are definitely the gaming moments that got my blood pumping.
I may do another with more epic moments, or just simply memorable moments, but for now, this will suffice
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