Temprorary Physical Bodies

So one of the things that Hinduism seems to share with more monotheistic religions is the idea that the most important part of our being is not our physical bodies, but our spiritual selves. While this seems an obvious point, there is something odd about how this idea is brought across. With Hinduism, the idea is that the physical body is simply a clothing-like shell for our Self. However, in Christianity, the physical body is more like a one-shot vehicle to transport the soul from the physical world into either Heaven or Hell (or Purgatory, but I'm not sure how that one works). One of the defining points of religion seems to be the idea that our lives here in this world are only of importance because of what this life means for the spiritual side of existence, not the physical side.

What I am curious to know is, what does this say about the world of the here and now?
The betterment of the spiritual self is all well and good, but what do these religions have to say about making the physical world a better place. It just seems that, since it is viewed as something transient, the physical world is devalued by religions. Isn't the physical world we are in worth taking care of as well? That isn't really brought up much in religion. I wonder why that is.

Immortality, Boon or Bane?

As was mentioned in class, while in many religions the end goal of the spiritual journey is something on par with eternal life in some kind of paradise, Hinduism effectively already has eternal life, and wants to be rid of it. What I find interesting about the difference is how it mirrors those who want to attain immortality, and those who already have it, in fiction.

As a general rule, those who once sought immortality (and then obtained it) generally end up thinking that it is really more of a curse than anything else, usually for reasons such as seeing friends age and die, or watching the world around them change while they stay the same. Perhaps it says something about how people always want what they cannot have: Many times those who have an immortal or eternal life would do almost anything to be rid of it, and those who do not have such a life would trade almost anything for one.

So it seems that whether an eternal life is good thing or a bad one depends on your point of view.
Thoughts?

Links for those interested

Sorry about not putting these links in the previous post as I said I would.
For the descriptions of the five colors of Magic: the Gathering, see here:

White: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr57
Blue: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr84
Black: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr109
Red: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr133
Green: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr43

All links go directly to the Magic the Gathering website "Daily MtG", where you can find just about anything you would want to know for Magic.

As for Tvtropes, the link is: www.tvtropes.org

That's it on links for me, take a look if you are interested.

Adios,
-Kaz

Introductory Post

Hello readers,

For an introduction, there isn't too much to say. I have a tendency to view life and philosophical stand-points through the lens of the Magic the Gathering 5-color scheme. It works pretty well for me at least, those interested can find a very good description of the colors themselves, as well as what happens when they interact in the link at the end of this post. I also tend to compare various world-views to fictional counter-parts. For me, it is about translating what I see into something I understand. Other than MtG, my other main way of analyzing the world is TvTropes.org. It is basically a list of archetypes and writing conventions, but it can be used to look at life quite well (or at least compare things in writing) because of all the common ideas.

So yeah, this blog might get a bit odd as far as the references at times, but I will try to leave most of the unknown jargon out of it.

Adios,
-Kaz