The Beauty of God - Greeks vs. Christians

I'm taking a psychology class this semester and we're taking a historical approach to understand where and how different thoughts came about. The other day in class we were discussing the ancient Greeks and the transition from a holistic approach of the world, to the medieval Christian dualistic approach.


Greeks viewed things from a holistic perspective - there isn't just this "thing" but there's also the "essence of this thing" and they are inseparably tied together just as they are tied to everything else in the world, for the things this thing is not, make this thing, this thing, and this essence what it is. Therefore, everything is bound together, part of everything else,.. all, one big whole. This included the Gods and Goddesses. Gods played amongst humans, delighted in toying with us, changing our destinies, some even slept with humans. The point is, Gods were among us,.. everywhere,... IN the essences of things.


When (Medieval) Christianity came along, Jesus' followers wrote gospels, and the Church determined with the council, which writings were acceptable. Gospels such as those according to Thomas & Phillip were denounced as being real & acceptable. Thomas & Phillip wrote of what Jesus said that was more holistic in nature. "Lift a rock and I am there, split a piece of wood and you will find me." Meaning, God can be found everywhere, all among us,.. more of those gospels indicate that one need only look WITHIN oneself for the Kingdom of God. (Upon reading a lot of these "banned" gospels one can see that self-enlightenment is the way of/to Heaven/God.)


But the medieval Christianity decision-makers couldn't have this. They wanted a Church for structure. Constantine wanted you to hear his words (his agenda of government) through the words of the Church. Christianity was declared the national religion and tons of people were slaughtered until everyone converted out of fear. Gnostics (the holistic approach people left over from the Greek line of thought), confirmed their beliefs due to the banned gospels, but went into hiding and were all but driven to extinction by the Church.


The Church taught, "no, no,... the essence of being and that thing there are two SEPARATE things. They're not bound together inseparably,.. God exists,.. THERE,... and we exist HERE... while he is among us,.. while we can hold him dear in our hearts and thoughts, he is not IN us as you suggest." This dualistic approach meant that there was a separation,... and it helped the Church establish a protocol that meant they could build churches and people would have to come to THEM to talk to God,... sure you could pray,.. but to really talk to God,.. to hear his voice,... you have to have the message mediated by these priests, and therefore, you must attend church services.


(If you're interested I can point you to places in the banned gospels that retell Jesus' words of "where" the Kingdom of God actually lies... - within oneself. I'm not really religious,.. more spiritual,... but they are pretty cool readings to think about.)


Then our professor told us he thought it was kindof ironic,.. that Christianity had people come into the churches,... huddle together in these shelters,.. close some huge oak doors behind them, shut off from the world,.. (notice the separation here?) ... and inside,.. INSIDE, huddled together,.. closed off from the world,... INSIDE the people learned about the glory and beauty of God. The ironic part is,.. when services are over,... the big oak doors open,.. people go outside,.. and OUTSIDE is where they behold the beauty and glory of God,... they can look up into the sky,.. at night see a wonderment of stars,.. in day see beautiful blue skies,... see white puffy clouds,.... the majesty of the heavens,.. etc.


That's about where that class ended.


So here I am,... huddled together in a classroom building, shut off from the world,... so I go outside,.. to a gorgeous day. I begin walking toward my office's building,.. and I look up into the sky,... it is absolutely amazing,.. white puffy clouds,.. amazing blue serenity above,..... and I think to myself,.. this.... THIS,.. is the beauty..... and just then,.... a bird shits on my head.


I couldn't make this shit up (pun intended). A bird SHAT on my head. No lie! Now, I don't know what kind of a SIGN that is,.. but thinking back its been cracking me up for over a week. I thought I'd share.