Of liars
I have a student who wishes to become a liar! Well, so it would seem since he expressed this desire once more this evening.
He was, of course getting 'liar' mixed up with another word. Can you guess which? Let me just say that some may say that the slip was quite Freudian in nature….
I did point out the error of his ways and we both had a good chuckle about it.
Religion
Just what is religion? Why does it exist and why are some of the main religions having problems these days with a loss in the number faithful? Recent world problems and personal problems have found me trying to develop a perspective on these questions.
In answer to my questions, I think that religion started as a means of explaining the inexplicable and then developed into a means of keeping members of society walking along a path that made them easier to control, and, to an extent, operated in the same way as all the laws, rules and regulations which keep us in order today. Whatever the reason, one thing seems to be true, the rules which go to make up the main religions of today were created many moons ago, when life was considerably different. Those who wrote all the fundamental texts lived in times remote from our own and now, or so it would seem, many of the standards and philosophies laid down would seem to be considered irrelevant by the majority in today's world. This is, in many ways, sad, but I believe it is inevitable. However, it is difficult to up date something which owes its origins to times so distant from our own. The Catholic church is finding conflicts with historical theological principles everywhere, from that bane of the Roman Catholic church, birth control, to Harry Potter. The Islamic faith is finding that its followers are having a hard time fitting the requirements of this religion with the pressures and temptations of today. However, as with the Christian faiths, there is no real leeway (for historical reasons) which could allow them to bring religious principles in line with today's society.
Attempts at creating new religions have been and are being made, but with relatively little overall effect and instead of embracing one of these new religions, many are abandoning religion completely, quite possibly in favour of other more interesting, for them, pastimes, such as watching TV or blogging, for instance. This is a shame, because some kind of faith, more closely related to our modern society, could well get us through the difficult period which we are facing.
What is needed is some world shaking event involving someone who exists today. Something which could either breathe new life into old gospels or which could lead to the creation of newer religious doctrines. In many ways we need a miracle - something that many can witness, due to the power of technology, but something so inexplicable that it would restore our faith in the distinctly high probability that incomprehensible forces do really exist and that respecting (popular word at the moment 'respect', although it seems to be misused) them or it, really would make the world and our lives better. The problem is that such an event would contend with a level of scientific knowledge which never existed when the those who wrote the bible, Koran or whatever, were around.
So, come on Great Being (or Beings) rattle our cages and restore our faith, and maybe a little fear that doing bad things here will lead to problems in any afterlife, should such a thing exist. Too many are now saying 'to hell with hell', let's live for the moment, or at least, pave the way for our offspring.
End of sermon.
Football and stuff
Is a little unclear at times just which is the main religion here in Italy: Catholicism or football. Certainly it would be true to say that much more TV time is devoted to the business/sport that is football than to the state religion. It would also be true to say that power games affect both.
Now you may have heard that the football world here in the living museum is being shaken to its very core by a match fixing/betting scandal which seems to involve one of the country's biggest football businesses, namely, Juventus. If you did not know, Juventus is a team based in Turin and just happens to be part of the Fiat family empire. The scandal has even affected the value of Fiat's stock, which is a measure of just how closely related people consider football to be to another 'real' business.
I had noticed during my time here that the results of certain football matches seemed rather predictable so it came as no great surprise to me when the lid came well and truly off this, er, can of balls. And the whole episode seems to have shaken the football world to its core. There is or rather was, an analytical football program here called 'Il processo di Biscardi', during which all recent football matches were analysed at a level of detail which would not shame those working in financial circles. Nope, I did not watch it. A) I'm not a great one for team sports and B) Football is not a sport, it's a business, pure and simple and business do not generally make great spectator sports. Anyway, the guy who ran the football program, one Aldo Biscardi decided that he no longer wanted to be involved and gave the impression of being somewhat disgusted with the goings on which have sullied the purity of the 'sport'. He should not have been so surprised; the amounts of money being 'played' with in the football world are stratospheric these days and where there is oodles of money, there are greedy people, often people who do not really need to make yet more of the stuff, but such people often sadly resort to unethical methods in their constant search for bigger bank accounts.
Yes, football is a religion, but the god to which the high priests pray is no benevolent being, but that necessary evil which rules the world nowadays - the great god in question is money. Sport and money do not good bedfellows make and I have my suspicions about other business sports such as Formula One and, one of my favourites, the 500cc motorcycling world championship. The predominance of certain manufacturers may not be down solely to technical superiority, although I, for one, hope that this is the case.
The world, meanwhile, goes hopping blindly on.
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Photos from Flickr
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