Who are we? Where did we come from? How do we relate to each other, to nature and to the question of god.

It is no accident that Biblical themes are the foundation for so much of western art, music and literature and the source of so much discussion even in the modern day.

Yes, Abraham was a real person and Moses did write the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.

Originaly the torah was written as one single word, . . .

The bible is only useful if you read it properly which is the reason I started this topic.

One of the greatest useful things that has come from the text is the story of Jesus. I think many people agree how wonderful this story is because it was probably the first story of a merciful God who has the power to forgive anyone.

Just to fathom the idea and to think that someone somewhere came up with the story. Or better yet could there be a God with this trait? That God planned the arrival of Jesus and his story from the beginning?

Basically what I am talking about is the idea that if someone is to slap you in the face that you should turn the other cheek and let them hit you again. To think that this is a more favorable thing for mankind is pretty strange to most. Even when we slap God he turns the other cheek and lets us slap him again. He always forgives. So it is useful for teaching forgiveness.

Of course not everyone can see the story for what it is let alone put the act to practice. At least the story is there. Someone somewhere wrote it down.

Hmmm? Yes? Could you elaborate please?

The Buddha taught similar things but not only dealing with people but all sentient beings. The only difference is, the Buddha taught these things 500 years prior to Jesus or Christianity. So these supposed great teachings that always get attributed to Jesus and Christianity, well they weren't unique in any way for the time or for the lesson. Chances are these philosophies were around for a long time but since a majority of Christians are uneducated in other philosophies they assume their faith is unique.

A good story is often good to us because it shows us something general about human nature. A movie is usually considered shallow if it doesn't give us perspective on our real lives. What are your favorite movies? Why do you feel they are your favorites? If Shakespeare were alive today, I suspect he would be directing movies, or at least writing the scripts.

I read your garbageman parable. And that's a good example of narrative used to say something about reality. And history is a narrative that we consider true or partially true. In the same way myth tries to say something about our real lives. A good story is "news that stays news."

I see many movies, scriptures ..etc about general human behaviour, that doesn't really mean it's good, nor useful, it's only good and useful to me if it's explain/showed in an intelligent way.

I like StarWars IV-VI, they were really beautifully made, simple strong diaglogues and poetry, very thoughtful design of buildings, cloth, spacecrafts ..etc. "dusk is upon me, and soon night shall fall"
Specially that it was based on the thought of nobility and shivelry, you don't hear Luke swear and curse, he titulates bad people with respects ..etc. All other movies after that, I consider low moral, low ethics and puerile.

Ben Hur, strong movie, really deep feelings of hate, love and the whole spectrum of feelings.

The Shogun (1980) I found this TV series, gotesquely funny. It defyed every value we have in the west, splitting your gut open just because of minescule lost honor, wanting to get beheaded just because you are refused getting as job as samurai.
Everything was just ending in death before dishonor, death ...death ..and more death! In the west we would just shrug and life goes on, buisness as usual.

Terminator 2 cool movie, plausible scenario, cool fx. giving good inspiration for the future.

Rambo 1 ..at first I hated this movie, about some whiney solider, but only when I learned how to interpet the movie, I really liked it.
I was explained that he was a highly decorated soldier who was poorly treated, even though he has fought for his country and proven himself, by that I respected Sylvester Stallone for making the movie, and it was suddenly far better than any of those cheap ass action movies that I had regarded so highly for cheap explosions and shooting all over the place in urealistic I-can-shoot-30-bad-guys-before-they-shoot-me-in-10-sec!

Godfather 1+2 really showing the need of sharp minds to stay afloat in a cynically world, how cheap life is. How powerful a father figure is.

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You have excatly understood nothing of my garbageman parable. You are excatly what I try to eliminate by this story.

And what magnificent instruments of observation we possess in our senses! This nose, for example, of which no philosopher has yet spoken with reverence and gratitude, is actually the most delicate instrument so far at our disposal: it is able to detect minimal differences of motion which even a spectroscope cannot detect. Today we possess science precisely to the extent to which we have decided to accept the testimony of the senses -- to the extent to which we sharpen them further, arm them, and have learned to think them through. The rest is miscarriage and not-yet-science -- in other words, metaphysics, theology, psychology, epistemology -- or formal science, a doctrine of signs, such as logic and that applied logic which is called mathematics. In them reality is not encountered at all, not even as a problem -- no more than the question of the value of such a sign-convention as logic.