Origian

Hehehehe... I never realised art was 'illegal':

'Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth' - Deuteronomy 5:8

Seems all of those Christian artists over the centuries have been disobeying God....

ajm51987

Err I hate to play the "theist" but...

[commonfundyargument] You taking that out of context! [/commonfundyargument] (Im clever I know! )

my bible (i kept from when I was a fundie) says:

"You shal not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth" Deuteronomy 5:8

[ December 14, 2002: Message edited by: ajm51987 ]</p>

Origian

How on earth can an imperative be taken out of context? It is an instruction, and no matter the context it will stay as such.

Bible translation point noted though, your bible may say different things from mine - each bible version can support completely different viewpoints, but that is the problem with language and translation I suppose.

Devilnaut

The catholic church over the centuries has actually encouraged art and some of the greatest artists in history were pre-reformation catholics (da vinci, michaelangelo). The church had every opportunity to remove that passage from the text or alter it to say something different, yet they didn't seem to bother. I think this says something about your interpretation that the passage is "anti art".

Amos

The "image" referred to here is the 'idea' of salvation which can be believed to exist in heaven, on earth and in hell. Heaven is our subconscious mind, earth is our conscious mind and "the water under the earth" is to have placed some of heaven below the faculty of reason. It is because of this inverted subjugation that small c christans feel the urge to perform and earn their righteousness. From this inversion do/can they have intimations of immortality and will also have an appreciation for art but will never become the artist themselves. They will, in fact, reinforce the value of art as have-nots with an eye for artistic expression.

If the above is not true please tell me where Catholics place their idols in heaven? and how they carve their images in the water below the earth. In fact how would you know they have images in heaven if all you can see is images on earth and would never recognize those in the waters below the earth.

emphryio

Actually, "Don't make images of anything...in the water under the earth." Is that evidence they knew about the earth's magma core?

Anything in the water under the earth? How would anybody be expected to know what such images looked like?

And it would be absurd to expect they meant, "Don't paint pictures while in the water under the earth."

Hmmmm

[ December 15, 2002: Message edited by: emphryio ]</p>

emphryio

Nahh, the water is generally under the earth at least when the earth is thought of as mainly the earth surface.

But why not just say, "Don't make pictures?"
How long-winded.

[ December 15, 2002: Message edited by: emphryio ]</p>

emphryio

Amos you manage to make two different interpretations of this and neither one is the most obvious one.

Your second interpretation which you rightfully present as absurd:
But how about a third interpretation? Instead of catholics painting pictures while underwater, how about they paint pictures of fish? Instead of how do they place (or make, you should mean) their images in heaven, how about they paint pictures of birds?

How did you miss the most obvious interpretation and jump to such outlandish ones?

Are you being objective or just enjoying an exercise in creativity?

Amos

Well it is silly to think that the sky is heaven and water is under the earth.

emphryio

Maybe.