Okay, now before I start, let me first explain that what I'm about to talk about, I mean no offense if any is taken. I respect all manner of belief and I do not judge someone based on what they believe. Some of my best friends are of a variety of religions and frankly I think that just makes them even more special to me.
........
Now that I have affirmed the truth with my statement, let me explain why I had to state all that first. As you know I'm writing a story for a writing contest that needs to be no more than 4,000 words (which I still think is nuts, you can't have a good story in that little amount, but hey, it's their rules). So I'm writing about immortals, but they aren't your typical immortals. If I was to tell you what I mean I'd ruin the story and where is the fun in that?
Anyway, I was searching on the Internet and I found this site:
http://www.livescience.com/health/top10_immortals-1.html#comments
The list is interesting and humorous. I'm always up for a good laugh so of course I wanted to look through it and hopefully get a few research ideas....sadly I didn't get the ideas but I did get a lot of laughs.
If you get a chance, read through the comments. The extent that their discussion went through is priceless and very involved.
The question came up of whether Jesus Christ should have been #1 on the list. It seemed to me that the combatants were split. Yes, I say combatants because of the very nature of the comments. It was clear that half of them were die hard believers (nothing wrong with that as long as you don't try to shove it down my throat) while the other half were a mix of different faiths or clear atheists.
There are five sides to this argument. The first side are the clear believers. They say that because Jesus is Eternal, this makes him Immortal and therefore should be at the top of the list. The second side are the believers who are a bit more open to the differences between the words Eternal and Immortal. They say that because Jesus technically died and while yes he was resurrected and was risen up to live by God until it was time for his return, he wouldn't be considered Immortal in the sense that the word means to live on Earth forever. This is a more literal translation of the words than of the sense I think.
The third side is that Jesus was just a man who died and therefore can't be Immortal. Whether he was the son of God is a discussion for another day. I would classify these individuals as the ones that have faith in a variety of degrees, but also recognize that other people are welcome to their own belief structures.
The fourth side says "Hello, this is a list of fictional characters that are thought to be Immortal and if you think Jesus should be on the list then clearly you must think he's fictional!" Of course, it then gets pointed out that Noah's Grandfather was on the list who is an individual mentioned in the Old Testament.
The last side says very simply religion shouldn't be a part of this discussion because this is suppose to be for fun.
Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but reading their comments sure is fun for me. I've been giggling over and over at the back and forth going on between them. Some of the replies are just so fantasy driven that it makes your eyes pop open. I mean, hello! They mentioned PETER PAN on the list and an Elf from Lord of the Rings. Of course the person who wrote this list wasn't thinking from a religious standpoint and the mentioning of Methuselah was probably because they ran out of names as he's the only one with a religious backgrounds (unless you include the Greek Mythologies as a religious text then there is one other).
With that said, I have to admit that some of the comments that people have left do make a lot of sense. I especially like the one where some guy stated that Jesus was just a man and someone replied in response that either he was a man who was insane, or he really was the Son of God which means that the belief in him is proof that he must be just what he said. As a person who has had this very point used in a discussion about Jesus, I admit the validity of this.
On the other hand, some of the points made are so ridiculous that if you can't laugh at them as well I wish you could read them from my perspective.
Anyway, I just wanted to share the amusement of this site and for the record, I think the Road Runner should have been the first on the list followed very closely by Jerry the Mouse then by Wylie Coyote. I mean come on, those guys are still going strong even though they should be long gone.
Oh and don't forget Mickey Mouse!
