# Recommended research topic.



## Solomon Tan (Nov 22, 2011)

Good day to all you cool people,

I had been doing some researches on religions, and cultures of different lands. So far, I am reading up on biblical stuffs as I'm a christian.. and i did a bit of reading up on islamic religions.. Also the culture of ancient japan and a bit of china history..

Any one dabble into those or had good and interesting topics to read up as to improve the imaginative minds?


----------



## Ravana (Nov 22, 2011)

Yeah. Everyone else. 

Which is, actually, a completely serious answer, from me. More specifically–and especially if you're interested in separating "religion" from "mythology"–start with Hinduism, since that's the one major polytheistically-based religion still going today; follow up with it offshoot, Buddhism (and possibly Jainism). As still-living religions, the amount and accessibility of material will be far greater than that of even such comparatively well-documented ancient religions such as those of the Greeks, Scandinavians, or Egyptians.

If you see no separation between religion and mythology, or don't care about one… then "everyone else." The more obscure, the better, if you're looking for variety rather than similarity. Some of the cultures contacted late in history by Europeans had their faiths well documented (as opposed to suppressed), and many are still in existence, albeit in small ways: the Araucanians, various Polynesian island populations, the Nenets and other Samoyedic peoples all spring to mind–just to name three that are about as geographically separated as possible. 

Sadly, many major past cultures are known only minimally, in spite of having been found in the historical period, because writing the knowledge down wasn't a priority of the people who found them (most of the Americas), or in spite of leaving their own written records, as a result of few of those records surviving the depredations of time (the Hittites, for example).

If you want the premier example of an "info-dump" as regards mythologies, look up Turner and Coulter's _Dictionary of Ancient Deities_. What it lacks in depth, it more than makes up in scope–it contains about four times as many entries as any similar book. Even with many of these being cross-references, it's still far and away the most comprehensive and inclusive reference of its sort. Not only that, it's reasonably cheap. That'll give you more "starting points" than you'll be able to pursue in half a lifetime… unless that ends up being what you devote your life to pursuing. Possibly even then.


----------



## Devor (Nov 22, 2011)

Solomon Tan said:


> I had been doing some researches on religions, and cultures of different lands. So far, I am reading up on biblical stuffs as I'm a christian..



Most Protestants aren't aware that the book of Wisdom, in the Catholic Bible, talks extensively about idolatry, its causes and effects.  If you're taking that approach you should read through it.


----------



## Sparkie (Nov 23, 2011)

Not to be ignored are religions that combine ideas from different faiths in order to create something new, pure, and\or unified.  Sikhism, for example, shares traits with Hinduisim and Islam.  There's another one, I forget what it's called, that uses the teachings of Confucius as well as Taoist and Buddist concepts.
Beliefs can (and do) splinter and grow, and sometimes they die out.  But I feel that all are worth learning about.


----------



## Solomon Tan (Nov 23, 2011)

Yeah, Catholic bible is very different from the christian bible and I believe I'll read it one of these days.. I got many things to read.. just no time to do all quickly.. 

Belief systems are often created by man and how they live at that period of time. Although I believe that most people believe that there is a superior being, a God or greater force beyond our understanding, we humans just goes on creating things that allows us to understand them. Well, that makes a lot of divisions.. 

I am interested in learning about history as well and perhaps how religions affect history or how it started..


----------



## Devor (Nov 23, 2011)

Solomon Tan said:


> Yeah, Catholic bible is very different from the christian bible and I believe I'll read it one of these days.. I got many things to read.. just no time to do all quickly..



You might be thinking of the Catechism.  The Catholic Bible is the same Bible with about six books which Martin Luther dropped from the Bible during the Protestant Reformation.  He took issue with something in the book of Maccabees, but he couldn't justify tossing Maccabees without tossing all six books.  St. Jerome had originally left them out of the Bible about a thousand years earlier because a Jewish assembly after the death of Christ, responding to the rise of Christianity, declared that they were too Christian to leave in the Bible.  They were written in Greek.  But since one group of Jews didn't consider them part of the Bible, Jerome wasn't sure.  He changed his mind within his lifetime, but that became Luther's claim for leaving them out.  They actually still appeared in most Protestant bibles until about the King James Version.  "Wisdom," in fact, has a very orthodox view of Christianity, even for Protestants, and if you read through some of the prophecies you'll probably find yourself wondering why it's not in your Bible.

Luther had much greater issues with the Epistle of James and the Gospel of Matthew, but they were too ingrained and none of the other reformers would let him throw them out.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Nov 23, 2011)

Hello, you should research about Norse religion and mythology!! I love that =)


----------



## Benjamin Clayborne (Nov 23, 2011)

Solomon Tan said:


> Belief systems are often created by man



"Often"?


----------



## OblivionJones (Nov 24, 2011)

I suggest Native American myths if you like your mythos with a good sense of humor. It's not uncommon to actually laugh aloud when reading them or, in my very fortunate case, having them told to you by a close friend's grandfather.


----------



## Solomon Tan (Dec 1, 2011)

Greek and Norse myth and cultures? Ok, I'll take a look and check them out.


----------



## Jess A (Dec 9, 2011)

If you have the time and the funds, I highly suggest travel as a means of 'research' on top of books, DVDs and interviews (etc). It's not for everyone, but it has certainly helped me. I did not visit these places specifically for research, but I took advantage whilst I was there. It is not only the scenery, the visual, 'feel' or scent of a place. It is a rich diversity in culture, religion and people...or simply a strange new climate and different ecosystems. Everything is new and fascinating. It broadens the mind. Travel can give you a lot of new topics to research as well once something interesting jumps out at you.


----------



## SeverinR (Dec 9, 2011)

Little Storm Cloud said:


> If you have the time and the funds, I highly suggest travel as a means of 'research' on top of books, DVDs and interviews (etc). It's not for everyone, but it has certainly helped me. I did not visit these places specifically for research, but I took advantage whilst I was there. It is not only the scenery, the visual, 'feel' or scent of a place. It is a rich diversity in culture, religion and people...or simply a strange new climate and different ecosystems. Everything is new and fascinating. It broadens the mind. Travel can give you a lot of new topics to research as well once something interesting jumps out at you.



Definately,
It doesn't have to be across the world either, just to a different culture.  Inspiration can come from anything.
Even a trip to a traveling museum.  Seeing/living it in person is infinately better then reading someone elses description or seeing someone else's picture.

Even more, if you can, live it rather then just watching it. Ride a horse, strap on armor, try primative camping.


----------



## quenchy (Dec 9, 2011)

Try slavic mythology / folklore and its blend with the othodox christian beliefs.
For example, the Bulgarians adopted christianity quite late - 9th century - and it was conducted with quite a bit of bloodshed - khan Boris needed the nobility and the population ot adopt christianity for his own political goals. So he forced the boyar - the bulgarian nobles - to adopt christianity. If anyone of them refused to do so, he and his clsest kinsmen were killed. The same was done with the rest of the population.
In school I was taught that this was a great step in the history of my people and that the majority of them happily accepted this.  I strongly believed this until I accidentally did my first research on the topic of Bulgarian folklore and its cohesion with the Orthodox beliefs.
The Bulgarian families had to adapt to the change so they never took to it with enthusiasm. The majority of beliefs and superstitions of the paganism remained strong but now they saw new life as part of the christian beliefs.
For example, the superstition that if you're good at gambling you have no luck with love. I was surprised to find out that this superstition dated back from late 3rd century AD. The only way to change this was to make a love spell but then you reverse your luck and you will start to lose poorly at gambling. But in the light of the christianity the way to change that is to use the thaumaturgical force of the matrimony - the Bulgarians believed that as the matrimony is a vow of love in the face of God, this means that it will undo all poor fate - and with none of the negative consequences of the reversed luck aused by the love spell cure. When you marry, you will always have a happy, good life with your wife and you will still continue to have a good luck when gambling. 
I believe that a great deal of these adaptations were crafted by the newly founded Bulgarian church to make the Christian religion more attractive to the people. But this is just my point of view as most of the authors remain quiet regarding this aspect of the creation / adaptation of myths.


----------



## Jess A (Dec 10, 2011)

SeverinR said:


> Definately,
> It doesn't have to be across the world either, just to a different culture.  Inspiration can come from anything.
> Even a trip to a traveling museum.  Seeing/living it in person is infinately better then reading someone elses description or seeing someone else's picture.
> 
> *Even more, if you can, live it rather then just watching it. Ride a horse, strap on armor, try primative camping*.



Absolutely. Immerse yourself.


----------

