"Legend of Korra", Eastern Views, T.V & Ethics: What Can Christians learn from Anime?

[Zoness]

Fantastic and interesting article about both the resurgence and "opening up" of Shintoism in Japan: History in the making: An unprecedented visit to Ise Jingu, Japan’s holiest shrine, to see it rebuilt under the beliefs of the Shinto religion - Asia - World - The Independent

Thoughts?

 

[Gxg (G²)]

The Legend of Korra Season 3 Episode 1, 2 & 3 Review-- Korra VS 4 Element Masters & Zuko Returns! - YouTube

 

[awitch]

Yay!!!
Just saw the first three eps (already up on watchcartoononline.com)

It's great to see the show again and very exciting seeing Zuko again.
(Elevator scene was my favorite)

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Yay!!!
Just saw the first three eps (already up on watchcartoononline.com)

It's great to see the show again and very exciting seeing Zuko again.
(Elevator scene was my favorite)

The elevator scene was pretty hilarious...

And indeed, the first three episodes are amazing...

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Fantastic and interesting article about both the resurgence and "opening up" of Shintoism in Japan: History inÂ[bless and do not curse]the making: An unprecedented visit to Ise Jingu, Japan’s holiest shrine, to see it rebuilt under the beliefs of the Shinto religion - Asia - World - The Independent

Thoughts?

Interesting to hear. Why were you interested in it?

 

[gord44]

Fantastic and interesting article about both the resurgence and "opening up" of Shintoism in Japan: History inÂ[bless and do not curse]the making: An unprecedented visit to Ise Jingu, Japan’s holiest shrine, to see it rebuilt under the beliefs of the Shinto religion - Asia - World - The Independent

Thoughts?

Cool. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Zoness]

Interesting to hear. Why were you interested in it?

I have a particular interest in Shinto and shared it since there is a tangential relationship to the thread.

Shinto has always fascinated me of all the eastern religions.

Cool. Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome!

 

[Gxg (G²)]

I have a particular interest in Shinto and shared it since there is a tangential relationship to the thread.

Shinto has always fascinated me of all the eastern religions.

What aspect of Shinto stood out to you on the matter as it concerns fascination?

 

[Zoness]

What aspect of Shinto stood out to you on the matter as it concerns fascination?

I was writing a paragraph response but I think a list works better

* Shinto does not have a hard belief system; many Shinto believers can be theist or atheist
* It does not enforce dualism or arbitrary lists of moral rules
* I have a fascination with animism
* Generally speaking, Shinto is a nature-revering religion which I respect a lot and struggle to find in many other religions
* It reminds me of Western paganism
* It has cool shrines and stories

That sounds about right.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Yay!!!
Just saw the first three eps (already up on watchcartoononline.com)

Can't say enough how much these villians are truly amazing...

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[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZLVk2c0ksU

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[awitch]

Having the villains team up is pretty old hat, but given the creativity flood from the series, I'm not really worried.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Having the villains team up is pretty old hat, but given the creativity flood from the series, I'm not really worried.

I am hoping the villans don't become stereotypical - and that they actually are shown to have a very powerful point that can be recognized by the Avatar and the audience.

On the side, I do love Darkwing Duck and Nega Duck was classic with the Fearsome 5.

 

[awitch]

I am hoping the villans don't become stereotypical - and that they actually are shown to have a very powerful point that can be recognized by the Avatar and the audience.

On the side, I do love Darkwing Duck and Nega Duck was classic with the Fearsome 5.

The Fearsome Five is probably my favorite of the bad guy team up. Anyone who watched the series was very much familiar with the characters and their back stories, and their grudge against Darkwing. We don't really have that yet in Korra; they don't have any prior contact with Korra yet and only 10 episodes to fill in their stories.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

The Fearsome Five is probably my favorite of the bad guy team up. Anyone who watched the series was very much familiar with the characters and their back stories, and their grudge against Darkwing. We don't really have that yet in Korra; they don't have any prior contact with Korra yet and only 10 episodes to fill in their stories.

I do hope that they don't rush it - and seeing that there is a season 4 coming out, it'd be good not to rush the backstory of the villans for this season. Give some teasers and motivation and then build up - there's a lot of potential.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

I was writing a paragraph response but I think a list works better

* Shinto does not have a hard belief system; many Shinto believers can be theist or atheist
* It does not enforce dualism or arbitrary lists of moral rules
* I have a fascination with animism
* Generally speaking, Shinto is a nature-revering religion which I respect a lot and struggle to find in many other religions
* It reminds me of Western paganism
* It has cool shrines and stories

That sounds about right.

Some dynamics with Shinto can be debated, as it concerns the aspect of Dualism since it has been seen as being present in certain cases.

 

[Zoness]

Some dynamics with Shinto can be debated, as it concerns the aspect of Dualism since it has been seen as being present in certain cases.

My list had a strong bias to be a contrast to Christianity specifically. I feel that Christianity has the inverse (or maybe 'negation' is a better word) of these things.


After I get current on NO GAME NO LIFE I will catch up on Korra.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

My list had a strong bias to be a contrast to Christianity specifically. I feel that Christianity has the inverse (or maybe 'negation' is a better word) of these things.

Seeing the list, no offense - but I didn't really see where it was the case that it was truly a contrast in the full sense of the word.

This was your list:

* Shinto does not have a hard belief system; many Shinto believers can be theist or atheist
* It does not enforce dualism or arbitrary lists of moral rules
* I have a fascination with animism
* Generally speaking, Shinto is a nature-revering religion which I respect a lot and struggle to find in many other religions
* It reminds me of Western paganism
* It has cool shrines and stories​

Outside of the fact that with Shinto one can be either a theist or an atheist - and having it remind you of Western Paganism - here are some thoughts and some general observations...

• There were multiple points where Shinto was very much forced onto the populace itself - by pain of death. This is not really out of the ordinary - it happened during WWII and earlier, with the enforcement of worship in the Shinto Shrines being a big deal. It's hard to ignore when there was a program of mandatory Shinto shrine worship with the penalty of imprisonment, torture, and likely death for those who disobey. Koreans were forced to worship at Shinto shrines beginning in 1935 (with Shinto being associated with the Emperor and worship of him, who claims descent from the deity of Ise) and there were previous times emperors would do the same. We also have the Japanese warrior monks who literally fought in regards to the principles of Shinto with violence to others who did not get in line.
  
• There are some excellent historical reads on the matter that helps to bring home the issue - as seen in Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949-1603 - Page 42 (by Stephen Turnbul - an excellent historian on Japanese culture) - with the pdf on the book found here...and Alien Rule - Michael Hechter - Google Books and Religion in the Military Worldwide - Google Books and If I Perish - Esther Ahn Kim - Google Books

• 
  * Generally speaking, Christianity has always been centered on revering God's creation and seeing our treatment of it as an expression of who He Is. Fancis Schaeffer said it best when he wrote the following in Pollution and the Death of Man: 'If I love the Lover, I love what the Lover has made'." Most people speak of Christianity not being about revering nature - but I've yet to see someone actually deal with examining the ways believers in the early church were strong on the matter...most assume that what they see with American/Western Christianity to be the representation - and thus, there's no true research.
  

• 
  * Christianity - ESPECIALLY Eastern Christianity - has an extensive history of amazing shrines and stories to go with it. That's something that Shinto alone will never have the patent on
  
  
  Church Of The Holy Sepulcher & Christian Shrines in Jerusalem - YouTube
  St.Thomas Orthodox Church ( Meenadom Valiya Palli) Consecration of the Holy Shrines - YouTube​
  
  There was actually an excellent discussion thread on the issue - should you wish to investigate it - entitled ITT: post pictures of church buildings

• Animism was never absent from Christianity and the spiritual world that existed during its development. For animists assume that the seen world is related to the unseen world - an interaction exists between the divine and the human, the sacred and the profane, the holy and the secular. And the influences of God, gods, spirits, and ancestors affect the living. If you remove Animism (i.e. reality as 'spiritual': animate, intentional and in relation), then you get dualism, with spirit restricted to the mind in the context of a dead, insensible, mechanical, atomic universe.
  
  The fullness of Christianity includes animism - and historically, from the end of the Middle Ages animism was progressively, relentlessly subtracted from life...nd from Christianity: the impulse was secular, Christianity merely went along with it.. Christianity STILL remains after the subtraction of living-ness from the universe, but Christianity remains in a lifeless and mechanical universe. Christianity without its animistic fullness remains fully effectual but becomes purely salvific. For without the animistic universe this worldly life becomes merely a preparation for the next: A life in a dead universe awaiting death.
  
  As C.S Lewis noted best:
  
  
  Mere empiricists like Telesius or Bacon achieved nothing. What was fruitful in the thought of the new scientists was the bold use of mathematics in the construction of hypotheses, tested not by observation simply but by controlled observation of phenomena that could be precisely measured.
  
  On the practical side it was this that delivered Nature into our hands. And on our thoughts and emotions (which concern a literary historian more) it was destined to have profound effects. By reducing Nature to her mathematical elements, it substituted a mechanical for a genial or animistic conception of the universe. The world was emptied, first of her indwelling spirits, then of her occult sympathies and antipathies, finally of her colours, smells, and tastes. (...)
  
  The result was dualism rather than materialism. The mind, on whose ideal constructions the whole method depended, stood over against its object in ever sharper dissimilarity. Man with his new powers became rich like Midas but all that he touched had gone dead and cold. This process, slowly working, ensured during the next century the loss of the old mythical imagination: the conceit, and later the personified abstraction, takes its place.
  ​

• There IS a certain dynamic with dualism present in Shinto in the very fact that there is a formal, official and national cult existing alongside ill-assorted but enlightening an body of popular folk practices ...everyday faith practices existing beside the hidden/occult - more shared in Encyclopedia of the World's Religions - Google Books
  
  
  Also, there's an enforcement within it of dualistic monism, with the yin-yang principle. That is, it is in itself a unified whole..but also in respect to its yin-yang formative processes going on within it, dualistic - both are separate and yet interconnected...more discussed in The Spiritual Foundations of Aikido - William Gleason - Google Books
  
  As another said best in the three diagrams from Nahum Stiskin’s 1972 The Looking-Glass God (more shared in Stiskin’s Representation of Dualistic Monism « Unurthed ):
  
• 
  [*]

  “The principle of dualistic monism is based on the intuition common to all men that things, phenomena, and beings are in a dynamic state of change and that life is process. Plants, men, and ideas all bloom in their season and wither in their season. Day changes into night, and night returns to day; the seasons run their course; Time, the enumeration of this change, stops for no man. In daily life we find no constant. The course of this change, however, is not erratic. We find ourselves living in a world of extremes. From midnight to midday, from the heat of summer to the cold of winter, from joy to sadness, all movement is along a continuum from one extreme to its opposite. Judging from our experience, we deduce that the universe is constructed on a plan of polarity: beginning and end, male and female, expansion and contraction, ascent and descent, life and death. Process occurs as movement between these poles of the universe. Although at first view nature’s poles present themselves as opposite and mutually antagonistic, on closer inspection we realize that they are complimentary; one cannot exist with the other… If movement in either direction were to stop, life would cease… The universe and our knowledge of it are therefore constituted of the endless to-and-fro movement of life from any pole to its complimentary opposite…“Let us devise a practical language to use in discussing the structure and inner workings of polarity within the universe… that of yin and yang, derived from ancient China. But this is not to say we are simply expropriating that ancient philosophy as it was defined and used by Fu Hsi some five thousand years ago. We can and must redefine this terminology in such a way that modern man can make rational sense of it. This ancient principle of relativity is not a mysticism but a paradoxical logic of the universe." "Beings are in a dynamic state of change and life is process. In daily life we find no constant. Movement is a continuum from one extreme (pole) to its opposite. Process occurs as movement between these poles of the universe. The poles are complementary; one can't live without the other. The universe is constituted of an endless to-and-fro movement of life from any pole to its complementary opposite."

  ​

 

[Gxg (G²)]

After I get current on NO GAME NO LIFE I will catch up on Korra.

Let me know when you get caught up on Korra - as I think you'd like it. And the fourth episode of Season 3 is coming out this Friday...

 

[Zoness]

• There were multiple points where Shinto was very much forced onto the populace itself - by pain of death. This is not really out of the ordinary - it happened during WWII and earlier, with the enforcement of worship in the Shinto Shrines being a big deal. It's hard to ignore when there was a program of mandatory Shinto shrine worship with the penalty of imprisonment, torture, and likely death for those who disobey. Koreans were forced to worship at Shinto shrines beginning in 1935 (with Shinto being associated with the Emperor and worship of him, who claims descent from the deity of Ise) and there were previous times emperors would do the same. We also have the Japanese warrior monks who literally fought in regards to the principles of Shinto with violence to others who did not get in line.
  
• There are some excellent historical reads on the matter that helps to bring home the issue - as seen in Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949-1603 - Page 42 (by Stephen Turnbul - an excellent historian on Japanese culture)...and Alien Rule - Michael Hechter - Google Books and Religion in the Military Worldwide - Google Books and If I Perish - Esther Ahn Kim - Google Books

I concede this point.

• 
  * Generally speaking, Christianity has always been centered on revering God's creation and seeing our treatment of it as an expression of who He Is. Fancis Schaeffer said it best when he wrote the following in Pollution and the Death of Man: 'If I love the Lover, I love what the Lover has made'." Most people speak of Christianity not being about revering nature - but I've yet to see someone actually deal with examining the ways believers in the early church were strong on the matter...most assume that what they see with American/Western Christianity to be the representation - and thus, there's no true research.

• 
  
  I live in the midwestern United States where the culture is mostly evangelical Protestant. Catholics a large portion but they tend to be conservative Republicans which overwhelmingly seem to be against environmental issues. This is the context in which I operate, this is the social circumstance that I deal with Christians in. They reject and eschew the traditions of Christianity and most have never even heard of Eastern Orthodoxy. Since Baptists especially like to describe things as "of God" and "of the world" (meaning 'bad'), they see anything to do with the literal world as bad or at least pagan, which is still bad.
  
  I don't think Protestants (Evangelical ones especially) are changing course on this anytime soon and I don't know any Orthodox in person at all. So as someone who does revere nature, I think the lack of appreciation in Christian churches is a cultural gap between me and them.
  
  

  • 
    * Christianity - ESPECIALLY Eastern Christianity - has an extensive history of amazing shrines and stories to go with it. That's something that Shinto alone will never have the patent on
    

  
  That's true about the churches and stuff, Eastern Orthodox is definitely some of my favorite architecture. But like I've said, I don't know any Orthodox personally let alone have never been in an Orthodox church. I still think the Eastern designs of temples and shrines in various religions are awesome, too. All you get in Protestantism here is simple wooden buildings. Not that there is anything with cheap utilitarianism (I'd go that route too) its just a reflection of the austere culture.
  
  As far as stories remember that I grew up in Protestant churches that literally believed that basically nothing came before them; the Bible appeared out of thin air (in KJV English of course) and so we only read Biblical stories. The only thing about church history was about how evil the Catholics and Orthodox were. So basically after a year, you've heard it all. If it wasn't something from the Bible it was some obscure rambling about powerful local families in the past. Nothing a young kid like myself who was huge into D&D and fantasy. Long story short: religion is the boring version of fantasy novels. That's how I saw it from about fifth grade onward. Not to imply all religions are fake, I've never believed that but I was bored quickly.
  
  

  • Animism was never absent from Christianity and the spiritual world that existed during its development. For animists assume that the seen world is related to the unseen world - an interaction exists between the divine and the human, the sacred and the profane, the holy and the secular. And the influences of God, gods, spirits, and ancestors affect the living. If you remove Animism (i.e. reality as 'spiritual': animate, intentional and in relation), then you get dualism, with spirit restricted to the mind in the context of a dead, insensible, mechanical, atomic universe.
    
    The fullness of Christianity includes animism - and historically, from the end of the Middle Ages animism was progressively, relentlessly subtracted from life...nd from Christianity: the impulse was secular, Christianity merely went along with it.. Christianity STILL remains after the subtraction of living-ness from the universe, but Christianity remains in a lifeless and mechanical universe. Christianity without its animistic fullness remains fully effectual but becomes purely salvific. For without the animistic universe this worldly life becomes merely a preparation for the next: A life in a dead universe awaiting death.

  
  I'm not sure what that first link was trying to prove; all it said was that animistic cultures are Satanic and that good Christians need to eliminate them to plant the seed of the church.
  
  I don't know anyone who would describe Christianity as animistic. The closest denomination that comes might be Pentecostals or Charismatics with their strong emphasis on the holy spirit and they definitely would not use the term animistic to imply that nature has any value under God. Plus they wouldn't want the pagan connotations.
  
  

  • There IS a certain dynamic with dualism present in Shinto in the very fact that there is a formal, official and national cult existing alongside ill-assorted but enlightening an body of popular folk practices ...everyday faith practices existing beside the hidden/occult - more shared in Encyclopedia of the World's Religions - Google Books
    
    
    Also, there's an enforcement within it of dualistic monism, with the yin-yang principle. That is, it is in itself a unified whole..but also in respect to its yin-yang formative processes going on within it, dualistic - both are separate and yet interconnected...more discussed in The Spiritual Foundations of Aikido - William Gleason - Google Books
    
    As another said best in the three diagrams from Nahum Stiskin’s 1972 The Looking-Glass God (more shared in Stiskin’s Representation of Dualistic Monism « Unurthed ):
    
  • 
    [*]​

  
  No comment on this yet; too much information to go through in a meaningful amount of time.
  
  In summary, I think our differences are much more cultural than anything. You've had a lot more experience with Eastern Christianity where I've had none. I was never raised around any immigrant communities who brought it to town (like anyone really wants to immigrate to central Illinois LOL) and anything remotely 'Catholic' was viewed with suspicion. These things are only becoming apparently to me now as I realize many forms of Christianity exist.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

I concede this point.

Indeed..

I live in the midwestern United States where the culture is mostly evangelical Protestant. Catholics a large portion but they tend to be conservative Republicans which overwhelmingly seem to be against environmental issues. This is the context in which I operate, this is the social circumstance that I deal with Christians in. They reject and eschew the traditions of Christianity and most have never even heard of Eastern Orthodoxy.

I'd also wager many (if not most) of them have never heard of Oriental Orthodoxy or the Assyrian Church of the East, Greek Byzantine Catholic Church or the Melkite Greek Catholic Church...Chaldean Catholic Church, Chaldean Christians or a host of others IN addition to Eastern Orthodoxy.

But that's another issue. The point is, I'm aware of the midwestern context. I have family and friends there. And there are a number of Evangelical Protestant who have supported environmental concerns - it is NOT a rare occurrence.

If seeking to contrast one's version of an experience (labeling it as Christianity, as you did) with other systems, it makes sense that one must always conform to the right definitions before contrasting. The context one operates in can color a lot of things and I understand you speak based on what you've seen - but as what you saw isn't the whole of the matter, that should be considered before contrasting in wide speaking terms. And I say that having grown up with Evangelical culture and seeing vastly different.

Evangelical culture is a very VAST movement and there are plenty of groups with extensive focus on the matter of ecological stewardship. Shoot, they have groups ranging from the Evangelical Environmental Network (more here) or Julie Clawson of "Everyday Justice" (more at Everyday Justice » Environment )....Flourish Magazine (one of my favorites)

And I believe I brought up earlier (if I'm not mistake) the one that among the best source - entitled Sustainable Traditions: Home (here). Made up of people from around the country, especially those into farming and within the Mid West. There are a lot of Evangelicals who are Native American and the issue is not lost upon them.

There is an understanding, with regards to being a neighbor to others in our environmental choices, that God has called us since Genesis 1-2 to be others who are for GODLY Stewardship of our world….as one of the ways we reflect Him. Its sad to see as a whole, how its often the case that many believers consider issues of environmental concenrn (i.e. cleaning up Toxic waste, recycling, renewable engery sources, sustainable development, global warming, respecting nature via not abusing animals, etc) as “secular issues” rather than connected to the Heart of the Gospel. Most even go to the extreme of saying all concerned for the environment are simply “liberal tree huggers”, making it into a political issue alone of polarization rather than one of PRACTICALITY/Responsibility. Opponents dismiss ecological concerns as an excuse to worship the world itself instead of God or simply as a secular trend.

I don't think Protestants (Evangelical ones especially) are changing course on this anytime soon and I don't know any Orthodox in person at all. So as someone who does revere nature, I think the lack of appreciation in Christian churches is a cultural gap between me and them.[

I do say that one would have to be misinformed on A LOT of things that have actually happened within Evangelical culture if claiming they have not changed course on the matter - but that all goes back to where one may be limited in actual connection with the vastness of Evangelical culture.

As said before, there are plenty of individuals within Evangelical culture and Christian churches respecting nature - and one can't make absolute claims on them when they are limited in regards to how many they get to interact with.

People such as Jonathan Merrit have been speaking in representation of the extensive amount of others who are very reverent toward nature and stewardship - his book "Green Like God" being one prominent example amongst others. And for reference:

• Green Plus Christian Isn't New Math | Christianity Today

• Evangelical Christian perspectives on the environment « The GeoChristian

• Jonathan Merritt's Blog - Preaching Gone Green Part 1 - April 26, 2010 07:31

There is an opposite side of this as well, of course. For often people assume that to be opposite of the Evangelical image of not caring for the environment is to do as the Native Americans did in revering nature/never bringing any harm to it - a VERY bad caricature, of course, since even Native Americans and other groups revered nature and yet had no problem with killing of creatures for food/sustenance. From the Buffalo on the Plains to the Polar Bear (revered in Inuit/Eskimo culture ) - there were actually a lot of battles happening with Environmentalist/Animal Rights activists against polar bears being hunted for sport since they said it was "abuse" and yet the Natives were HIGHLY offended since the creature is revered in their culture but a part of how they survive).

I'm reminded of the movie "Avatar" - The movie takes place on Pandora, a lush Earth-like moon of the planet Polyphemus, in the Alpha Centauri star system. Pandora is sacred to the Na'vi, and the Na'vi are interconnected to Pandora through a vast bio-botanical neural network that all Pandoran organisms are connected to. ...with it being seen that the planet itself is alive/the deity that they pray to. They live in a system that's akin to Panentheism - and everything is interconnected, even as it concerns the animals killed....or the ones that will kill you if you don't kill it (or escape from it ) first
http://www.christianforums.com/t7739082-4/#post63010029

When the movie "Avatar" (LOVE THAT MOVIE!!!! ) came out in 2009, I was aware of many in the Evangelical world decrying it as "demonic" or "exalting nature above people" - and yet no one paid attention to how others against the Evangelicals were doing just as much damage saying that to revere nature was to never harm it. They had the same concept of man being meant to take dominion over the planet - and yet they felt that it needed to be in harmony with nature as well and not wasteful.

Since Baptists especially like to describe things as "of God" and "of the world" (meaning 'bad'), they see anything to do with the literal world as bad or at least pagan, which is still bad.

Whenever Baptists describe things such as "Of God" or"of the world", the context is I John 2:15-17 ..1 Corinthians 2:12....1 Corinthians 5:10......Titus 2:12......Romans 12:2, Luke 9:25 ....Luke 12:30.......Matthew 13:22 ...and many others. All of it pertaining to one's MINDSET and actions (lifestyle).

Seriously, there are plenty of Baptists using the language of "Of God" and "Of the world" who have long spoken on how not all things pertaining to the literal world are a negative - be it with things concerning the elements, music, or physics and so many other things. Obviously we see some Baptists who assume the age-old fallacy dealt with that all things connected to the world (i.e. nature/secular culture) as "bad" - but that's far from the norm. In Holiness Pentecostal churches, that's where you'd see things more.....and sadly, with so much of the "End Times" obsession by many, there's a mindset that we're to "Escape" any responsibility to taking care of our world......something that other Evangelicals like N.T Wright have spoken on before and have been doing MUCH to address.

The main focus was on the issues of lifestyle and culture - this is especially the case with the Black Church when it comes to Evangelical culture. As I mentioned to you before, Black Evangelicals have NEVER seen it as "worldly" to address literal issues such as housing discrimination, gang violence, education or a host of other issues that were always interconnected with how to express concern for others.

It is a gross misunderstanding to assume that the use of terms like "Of God" and "Of the world" are about dealing solely with the literal world

That's true about the churches and stuff, Eastern Orthodox is definitely some of my favorite architecture. But like I've said, I don't know any Orthodox personally let alone have never been in an Orthodox church. I still think the Eastern designs of temples and shrines in various religions are awesome, too. All you get in Protestantism here is simple wooden buildings. Not that there is anything with cheap utilitarianism (I'd go that route too) its just a reflection of the austere culture.

Some wooden buildings can be quite impressive - from what I've seen. Seen some outside of the Eastern Christian world and other Eastern circles that are very impressive.....but yeah, Eastern design is quite stunning.

As far as stories remember that I grew up in Protestant churches that literally believed that basically nothing came before them; the Bible appeared out of thin air (in KJV English of course) and so we only read Biblical stories. The only thing about church history was about how evil the Catholics and Orthodox were. So basically after a year, you've heard it all. If it wasn't something from the Bible it was some obscure rambling about powerful local families in the past. Nothing a young kid like myself who was huge into D&D and fantasy. Long story short: religion is the boring version of fantasy novels. That's how I saw it from about fifth grade onward. Not to imply all religions are fake, I've never believed that but I was bored quickly.

Can definitely relate, as said before. It does get rather boring growing up with that - as amazing as Bible Stories are...and thankful we learned about Bible stories as well as other stories (i.e. Tall Tales, Mythological stories, fables, etc.) in the history of the world.