The story starts with Edward and Alphonse. Their Father left them and their Mother died, but due to both the children being talented in Alchemy, the art of realigning/shaping matter they gather the plan to transmutate/create their dead mother to be reunited again. However the transmutation of Humans is strictly forbidden and they instantly find out why. Both are sucked separately into a different realm where they meet a being that introduces itself as Pic related
This is the first link we get to Christianity. On one side God doesn seem to have a proper name himself, merely designations people gave to him >13Then Moses asked God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ What should I tell them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15God also told Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered in every generation
and as Christ proclaims >6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Other parts relate as well >4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. So the notion of God being all and being the truth fits right into the Christian view.
The Truth then opens a gate (with a version of the Tree of Life being on it) that sucks Edward and Alphonse in (you see this happening to Ed while Als experience is not shown) and shows both the truth. Ed wakes up missing his leg, which is the price Ed paid for the amount of "truth" he saw while Al disappeared completely. With his last strength Ed then can bind Als soul into a suit of armour which costs him his arm. This is our introduction to the principle of equivalent exchange, the governing rule in the world of Alchemy, you cant create stuff out of thin air, for everything you take you must give something of equal value. Ed saw the truth and gave his leg, Al saw even more and paid with his whole body.
This kicks off our heroes journey in an effort to get their old bodies back. They start off as the typical Atheist, thinking all they need is science/alchemy and themselves. Their view gets reaffirmed when they come across a town where a priest is tricking people into believing he can do miracles when he uses a philosophers stone, one that apparently avoids the rule of equivalent exchange and enables you to create things out of nothing.
This seems to be a clear case of being anti religion so far, God crippling 2 kids for trying to get their mother back and a fake prophet performing false miracles, but the very next Episode is about an alchemist, about which we found out he got his license by creating a talking Chimera, a hybrid creature. The way he accomplished this it is later revealed was by fusing his own wife with an animal 2 years earlier, and then doing the same with his daughter in an effort to not lose his license. And as if that wasn't bad enough the Chimera his wife got turned into only ever said one thing: "Kill me", and stopped eating until it starved to death. So obviously FMA doesn't want to paint religion as bad and science as good, but embraces the corruption in either dogma.
>actual discussion on Yea Forums I'd say it's more of generic deity than Christian, particularly the part with arbitrary limb=soul costs and stuff like Mustang's eyes being taken despite his non-consent to Human Transmutation. If anything, that'd be more Judaic than Christian, since OT God had been more prone to "messing around". Of particular note is the made-in-His-image thing that seems reversed, Truth taking form of the visitor instead.
David Ward
well, there is to be the case to be made that christianity is but one view on the most high, the source of everything, which is described by quite a few different cultures, some personify it (christianity in example) others just say its a basic ruleset which happens to govern the world without sentience. wanted to go into that in a bit, but this itself is a theme in FMA too, that we only see part of the whole truth, and this leads to our conclusion to say "the (material) world is the truth/God" and worship this then, others see a different bit of the whole and get to the conclusion the truth/God is sentient, the truth being a reflection of our own perspective.
Also OT is not detached from the NT, they play into another and Jesus confirms he comes from the same that send the old prophets. if interested, this post goes into the seeming idiological gap between OT and NT archive.4plebs.org/pol/thread/211169901/#211172997 and the thread as a whole is some stuff on christianity and its teachings.
Xavier Butler
FMA actually follows a buddhist philosophy.
Charles Bell
>So obviously FMA doesn't want to paint religion as bad and science as good, but embraces the corruption in either dogma. That's one thing I liked about this series and it will continue to be one of my favorite shounen works.
The two then figure their best bet is to gather a Philosophers Stone to get their bodies back, still trying to solve their problems with alchemy/science, but they quickly find out the way to create such a stone requires an entire country to be sacrificed and all the souls to be bound into the stone which grands its power.
Having this option now scratched from their possibilities they are basically too busy fighting off a vast conspiracy that plans to sacrifice the world in order for the bad guy to overthrow God. This bad guy is a Homunculus, a Human created in a bottle, or in this case more like a soul, artificially created/dragged from the realm beyond. This is the closest we get to Satan in FMA. He taught the humans alchemy and was respected in return, much like the fallen angels, who also came from the realm beyond, taught humans all kinds of things to corrupt us, and most notably Satan, the serpent in Eden with the fruit of knowledge. He tricks the country into performing a ritual that kills the country but in return gives the Homunculus's a body, and out of something like gratitude Hohenheim, who becomes the father of Ed and Al several centuries later, is given a philosophers stone too.
The Homunculus strips his different desires from him, the 7 deadly sins which become Homunculus on their own and from then on is called "Father". So here our equivalent of Satan already tries to imitate God by calling himself father, just like Satan wants to be God all the time, and is the origin of the 7 deadly sins like the serpent created all sin.
In the end Father is dragged in front of truth, proclaiming that he did nothing wrong and just wanted to learn the truth and become perfect, and asks how anything about that would be wrong, still blind to his own failures. The answer Truth gives on what he did wrong is "You did not believe in yourself"
Al sacrifices then his body to give Ed his arm back which he lost so he can transmute and defeat Father. Then Ed goes back to gate himself a last time bargaining to get the body of his brother back. When asked what he wants to sacrifice this time he points at the gate of truth and saying he wouldn't need it anymore as he has inside himself all he needs. To which Truth smiles and states its the correct answer.
So what is the message behind this? The entire problem Ed and Al had started when they tried to play God by creating a human, and the whole time they are stuck while still trying to solve the problems with knowledge and science/alchemy, basically gnosticism in an effort to overcome God by overcoming fate (bringing back the dead) much like Father tried to do (literally take over Gods place). Scar even proclaims that alchemist are blasphemers as they unrightfully try to do Gods job with their alchemy by giving things new shapes that God didn't intent.
How did the serpent tempt Eve again? >5“For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
"You will be like God". The promise of becoming/overcoming God through acquiring knowledge, like Father, like Ed and Al. This is a sign of Pride, thinking you can just take Gods place, and God doesn't like that. >5Everyone who is proud in heart is detestable to the LORD; be assured that he will not go unpunished. And humbles those that are full of pride >12For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
And what does Truth do? As Father put it >“The truth can be such a cruel thing. The two brothers who wanted to feel their mother warmth once more. Their attempt to bring the dead back to life cost one of them the leg on which he stood as well as the only family he had left. The other lost his entire body to have it replaced by a suit of armour that could feel nothing. >The woman who sought to bring back her only baby was given the body that never again will bare children >The man who looked to change his nation had his eyesight taken from him and now he can no longer see his future. >Humans who would dare to play God must pay a steep price for their arrogance. That is the way of the universe, the natural order imposed by the very thing you claim to worship. That is truth" In other words, Truth humbles the prideful and arrogant.
So why was it important to believe in yourself? To explain this we first need to look into an earlier part of the story, when Ed and Al were left on that island for their training, trying to figure out what does "all is one, one is all" means. They find out that it refers to the circle of life. The principle of Alchemy is that you turn something into its base elements to then rearrange it to give it a new shape. Destruction and then creation (Shivas dance of creation). And our heroes find out that the entire world runs on that principle, the Rabbit gets eaten by the fox, the fox eventually dies and he or its excrements become the grass and plants and those get eaten by the rabbit becoming it again. By these means all is one, and one is all. Previously it was stated that the circles in Alchemy are needed as that is what gives energy to transmutationcircles, but as our heroes found out they incorporate that energy giving circle through their own existence in the circle of life. That is probably the reason how Ed and his Sensei could trans mutate without drawing circles, as they realised they are the circles themselves that give the energy.
Not only that, but the Philosophers Stone meant to make one all powerful is powered by souls, the very same ones everyone has inside them.
This brings me back to some Occultism Supposedly (I was told a couple of times) all occult schools lead to the conclusion that all these symbols and rituals are useless and merely your own mindset is what is important, your believe that it will happen.
>22“Have faith in God,” Jesus said to them. 23“Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
So what matters is the faith, that it will happen and the lack of doubt. Thus the rituals are meant to insert a sense of rationality, "I do x which causes y" instead of "I hope for x and God will provide" and as such they are merely a tool to lead people away from God, exclude God from the equation and ultimately separating him from yourself.
God gave us everything we need, we already are the most precious to him. And its when Ed realises this, and forsakes his gate (with the tree of life on it, which itself is a symbol/path for ascension, mainly through gnosis/knowledge) that we got our happy end.
I'm not going to read this blogpost but it is very obvious how FMA:B's points had certain very christian messages in it ( the ending especially of "humble withdrawal" and acceptance of personal sacrifice ) have a bumpy
Asher Carter
Also take a look at this part youtube.com/watch?v=ERFftPN4dP0 Ling states the pose Ed takes when transmuting is almost as if he is praying, and i do believe this this is another hint to what I just mentioned
Another theme with truth is that he is displayed as a white silhouette, a blank slate basically, appearing with those things that were taken from you, in case of Ed his leg and arm. What does this mean? I would say that it means that truth is just there, and its up to us what to make out of this truth. The truth we find reflects our own nature as it opens up to different truths than others may find. People get a glimpse of truth and it can make them go crazy, desperate or make them gain hope again depending on what the person does with the truth. Also remember back at how Truth introduced himself. Different bits of truth lead to different conclusions. For some the bit of truth leads them to the conclusion that the world is all there is, making him the Universe or the World, others see a different bit of the truth and realise there is a sentient God, and he is You. The truth thus is inside all of us (ever wondered why meditation is meant to bring knowledge? because it was inside us all along), and as such the truth is us, and as such is displayed as a reflection of our self.
So as a summary, Ed and Al start off as the typical know it all atheist thinking that science and knowledge can solve all their problem, until they are shown step by step that the science they worship is just as corrupted as the religion they mock and things become resolved when they stop relying on knowledge, alchemy, gnosis or anything like that, and start to embrace and rely on the things God gave them.
Nigga, get the fuck out of here with your blogposting.
Aiden Reyes
I also think that thematically speaking, Father, Hoenheim and Ed represent a Holy Trinity of sorts. While Father is not the traditional Christian God of all humanity, he is the God of the Homunculi and a being that some of the upper echelons of the military believe will bring them salvation.
Hoenheim as the Holy Spirit, not only from all the souls he had communion with, but also from all the years he spent wandering the world, helping and meeting people.
Ed as the Son, is apparent for what I think would be obvious reasons - but also for the sacrifice he makes in his Door Of Truth. In the same way that Jesus need not have given his life that day, so too did Ed not need to sacrifice his alchemical ability. And like Jesus, Ed returns to Earth, for all purposes, unchanged.
Some bit of symbolism I picked up: The transmutation circles always require 5 points to make the circle work, the number 5 is generally associated, so I believe, with the spirit. In example in Alchemy the classical elements were Fire, Earth, Water and Air for the material world with the 5th being the spirit. In the bible its the 5th day on which the first animals are created, where something with spirit inhabits the earth.
So the way things are transmuted are through the spirit. And I believe this fits the bible as well: >1In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Now imagining that "in the beginning was the word" actually meant "thought" or "concepts" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos than it pretty much fits i believe. Whatever we do, there is first the thought in our mind to do so. You are thirsty so you first think about getting water, your spirit initiates the first step and makes your body than "change" the reality to the desired outcome. Much like in the beginning God thought about something to be created which then was created. We do transmutate things through our spirit all the time, just usually we let our body do the work.
interesting take, however i wouldnt really take it like that. for once the trinity would be something positive, father obviously is not. we could go into the unholy trinity he could resemble a counter version. In that sense it maybe is that Hohenheim is the father, father is the son as he was the creation and the other homunculy, the 7 deadly sins are the unholy spirit, the sins corrupting the spirit. Considering that Hohenheim is the Father to both, Father, the closest resemblence to Satan we have, and Edward, like God created Satan and Jesus, this maybe fit after all, with the unholy son trying to sacrifice the world forhimself instead of the other way around.
Xavier Collins
??? > the truth
Logan Harris
I don't think Arakawa knows most of this stuff herself.
Jacob Carter
Wouldnt be surprised if that's the case. You'd be surprised by how many authors flat out admit the imagery/symbolism they put in their series is surface level at best
Nathaniel Gray
Also the back of Edwards Coat is pic related A serpent on a cross. >13No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.
In the story Moses has a staff that transformed into a serpent and back into the staff. What this bit does mean? No idea, but The son of Man was put on a cross and here we see the serpent crucified instead. The serpent in general is a symbol of knowledge (the serpent in Eden giving knowledge, or Quetzacoatl, the feathered serpent of knowledge) that gets killed here, displayed together with wings (ascension?) and a crown (God being King of Kings). The sacrifice of the gnosis, and probably the faith in its stead leading us to rise up to God.
Another small additional notes to the Anime: The principles of Equivalent Exchange is essentially Karma. In FMA this leads to a whole lot of misery, just like it would in this world since we all sin and are imperfect, but Christ came to free us of this Karma, of these sins. Also Equivalent Exchange is basically "For each action there is an equal but opposite reaction", Newtons 3rd law of motion. Newtons 2nd law can be expressed through f=ma, FMA, Fullmetal Alchemist.
Father could have cured Nina. This is a fact. In fact, if ed found a philosophers stone, He probably could have cured nina. Nina died for nothing.
Kayden Reed
FMA certainly opens itself up to a nominally Christian interpretation. However, the perspective on the divine it espouses is in my opinion very clearly pantheistic or possibly monist and is thus incompatible with the trinity. Like the happy science cult and most other Japanese attempts at borrowing objects from European and Christian canons, they fall into the theosophic trappings of Buddhism and are only able to syncretize them at a surface level.
OP I recommend laying off the adderall. Also if you're going to post an essay use pastebin like every other autist with a tremendous amount to say.
Truth is the only thing we can intuitively understand to necessarily exist. Even if nothing existed, then it would be true that nothing existed, hence truth exists. So non-existence is truly impossible. Then it can be said that Truth requires that there is something other than itself, “creating” existence with the aim to actualize all the truths within it. But its ultimate goal is to describe itself: Truth contains the truth of itself, so it must perceive itself. So Truth must somehow go beyond itself and see itself. This we see in the relationship between God and believers.
Everything is the movement toward Truth, the completion and “glorification” of God. There is no greater goal than this.
Noah Perry
Nina died because she was an abomination and an affront to humanity. Scar was doing God's justice.
Shou tucker should of had a worse death. I'm talking burned alive by mustang or something. Scar let him off easily
Dominic Watson
Forgot to mention: The talk about artificial wombs currently in the talks is basically Homunculus, a man created in a "flask"
Christianity itself is also pantheistic, everythin comes from God and thus is God. Its just that all of the universe and reality does not equal God as God is, while everything in this world is God, still from outside of this world. So pantheism is basically the same without admitting that the source is greater than all of the creation combined, and that it indeed has a will on its own. The trinity is still monotheistic as the trinity still makes up a single Godhead. I see this world like this: This whole world is like a dream of God, we are inside the dream thus everything we see around us is and is from God, the holy spirit, his conciousness that inhabits everything. Then there is the one who dreams it, the father who is from outside of this world and is the world. He got reincarnated into this world that is the son which would be the equivalent of you inside your dream in which you interact with the world inside your dream.
well put. just missing some emphasize on the truth actually having desire/consiousnes.
Christian Young
>well put. just missing some emphasis on the truth actually having desire/consciousness Did the Mind exist before creation, or does it develop along with the creation? Or is it the case that the Mind has always been fully developed, that Truth has never not been truth, God has always been God, and that creation has always existed? But then why do we experience time?
Bentley Taylor
I believe God is existence itself, and this existence is conciouss. Time well, I believe because of Satan. Bible teaches that sin is the cause of death, and Satan brought sin into the world. Saturn (which I believe to be Satans equivalent) for the greek was Chronus, the ruler of time that ate his children, time being the cause of death and decay, sacrificing the future (children) for personal gain. Like Moloch and Baal also got human sacrifices while being Saturnian deities. You know about how its said time is just another spatial dimension, meaning that from another point of view time, and thus death does not exist, nor does motion (block universe theory) making the flow of time just an illusion like Satan is the deceiver.
Saturn generally is seen as the bringer of Karma as well which i went into in being a force bringing misery which Jesus freed us from.
Noah Martin
She did a lot of research on Alchemy and Hermeticism not sure how much of that would overlap with the abrahamic theology stuff OP is saying though.
Hunter Wilson
OP here, I believe the different schools all are different bits of the whole truth. A lot of themes are always reemerging across the world seemingly independently, and I believe the different teaching just focus on different parts. In example the pagan myths around the world are mostly occupied with keeping historical records. The eastern/buddhist schools are more centered on the self, how you should behave, what your position in the world is and such. The bible focuses on the relationship with the source and our salvation.
Some of the similarities are Jupiterian deities always BTFOing some evil guy (saturn in many cases) which usually is a serpent or does fight a serpent (sometimes connected to the evil guy) with thunder, which fits Michael who is described throwing Satan to earth like >18So He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
Also the serpent bringing knowledge (Quetzacoatl the feathered serpent) or the serpent in eden, or the bringer of knowledge causing the release of evil (Pandora opening the box due to Prometheus, like Eve eating the fruit because of the serpent)
Buddhist teaching for example are about rejection of this world and dissattachment, the same theme is found in the bible where the flesh is the source of our temptations, and how those chosen are not of this world, and how we should not love anything of this world.
Different bits of the same truth reflecting the focus the different cultures put playing into what i said in
Christian Reyes
I’m trying to wrap my brain around all of this. Maybe Adam and Eve were more angelic than commonly imagined, and that Satan offered them the knowledge of good and evil, which could only be granted by living in Earth. When Satan was banished from Heaven, he wasn’t sent to Hell, but to Earth, as we see in Job 1:
6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
Is Hell, then, reincarnation? If our souls are not pure enough to withstand God’s presence, then it would make sense that we would be sent back down to Earth to experience suffering even more.
But what exactly is Satan and why does God grant him existence? How are we to think of him other than an angel/demon that God created?
Zachary Baker
Is this the FMA thread? How come we don't get any shonens as good as FMA lately?
Owen Wright
Ok, but what did Jesus mean when he said that all who came before him were thieves and robbers? And that no one comes to the father but through him?
Ryder Sullivan
i believe Eden is a frontyard to heaven, already in the spiritual realm The overarching story I believe to be this: God creates Humans in his image, and he loves every one of them that is and will be. Satan, being basically a spoiled Child doesnt like us getting our fathers attention and thus tries to show him how lowly we are by corrupting us. He does this by bringing the fruit of knowledge of good and evil to us, which while likely intended for us eventually, we werent ready to eat yet as we were basically little babies in adult bodies. With the fruit now Eaten we had to learn of both, Good and Evil. We knew good from our father and from being in Eden, but what was missing is Evil. The best way to learn is to experience, thus we have to experience evil to learn of it, and we couldnt have evil in Paradise thus were send out, possibly falling from a spiritual state of existence into this mortal and material state. This world is sandbox/a tutorial so to speak. A containment reality where we can fuck around without being able to fuck up cosmically. Here we are meant to experience Evil, and Satan trying to corrupt us still is doing so by unleashing every plague he has up his sleeve onto us that we may fall from faith while simultaniously subverting what good and evil is. God loving and trusting us lets this happen since its the best way to learn of evil for us in the first place, and because he knows we will still praise God after everything. This is essentially the story of Job on a global scale. Basically we are meant to learn good choices, and what this good actually is
On Satans purpose, probably originally as a teacher (was giving knowledge after all), Lucifer, which then got pridefull and fucked up, and God dearly waits for him to repeant. Not really evil, just blinded by his own pride
Joshua Gutierrez
Yeah, Hohenheim is a reference to the mystic/alchemist Paracelsus
John Gonzalez
>what did Jesus mean when he said that all who came before him were thieves and robbers? where does he say that? i know he says those trying to enter a sheepfold secretly instead of the front gate are robbers and thieves, which i see as a hint against illegal immigration, but not about those before him.
And that noone comes to the father except through him is pretty obvious I would say. If you dont believe in Christ to be the son of God then you wont have a chance to get to God. We all are sinners, every sin is worthy of damnation. Christ, through his death, absolved us of our sin, but due to free will we first need to conciously decide to want to be saved by God, that is Jesus. If you dont want salvation your probably wont get, and to get it you must first ask and accept it. And since it was Jesus offering it to you its him you need to accept or you will be damned by your own sins from which you are now not absolved
Jack Collins
Well, shit. Interesting..
Nathaniel Lewis
John 10
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Bentley Lewis
ah, well, in that part i would say he refers to false prophets or messiahs. many of them came before and after christ. They are the ones seeking to kill and destroy for their own gain, but the ones who are of God didnt listen to them as from deep withing their hearts they recognize truth and justice >14Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15since they show that the work of the Law is written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or defending them. Its actually says that noone will have to tell you that the messiahs came, or who he is, since when someone has to tell you its already a lie/wrong > 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible. 25See, I have told you in advance. >26So if they tell you, ‘There He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. When the Messiahs comes YOU will know its him, if someone needs to tell you it will be the wrong one. Just as those sheeps that didnt listen to the thieves and robbers as they will just know their real shepher
Brayden Green
FMA: Pseudointellectuals: the series
John Phillips
>Christianity itself is also pantheistic Nigger what? Have you been paying attention in church? What the fuck kind of heretic are you?
>This whole world is like a dream of God, we are inside the dream thus everything we see around us is and is from God, the holy spirit, his conciousness that inhabits everything. Then there is the one who dreams it, the father who is from outside of this world and is the world. He got reincarnated into this world that is the son which would be the equivalent of you inside your dream in which you interact with the world inside your dream. The son cannot be a reincarnation of the father. He is a distinct person within the Godhead. What you are proposing is borderline Sabellianism.
>What the fuck kind of heretic are you? the one who reads the bible and doesnt rely on the word of men There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
>The son cannot be a reincarnation of the father. He is a distinct person within the Godhead. What you are proposing is borderline Sabellianism. yet Jesus says >30I and the Father are one. We could argue to which degree, just as we can argue to which degree the you in your dream is actually you, or is it something seperate. Do you always behave inside the dream as in real life?
Levi Roberts
To be fair there’s a lot that we can’t understand just by reading some ideas literally. When Jesus says he is the Son of God, that doesn’t mean Jesus is a biological son to God. We’re using human language, which no doubt distorts the pure meaning, to understand the basic concepts.
Thomas Cooper
self bump
Joseph Lopez
If you leave it to subjective interpretation, you can find anything you want in pretty much any work. I really doubt Arakawa knows all this stuff you're referencing.
Bentley Martin
nah
Luis Walker
>show about alchemy >it has alchemy references No shit. I'm talking about the whole christian mumbo jumbo.
Joseph Young
You dont really need to know of the ancient teachings to incorporate them into your work. You could land at the same conclusion through sheer luck, or logic and effort, make stories about those then which then seem to mirror the ancient teachings. also as we said she did research at least alchemy/hermeticism, as for example the reference of Hohenheim to this guy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus so why not also christianity? Even more so since the christian themes for the most part are known across the world even among unbelievers. at the very least you cant deny she borrowed from christian theology and its philosophy. the 7 deadly sins, father clearly trying to immitate God starting with his name, the theme of Satan corrupting people through teachings, the cross with the serpent on Edwards back on the coat. its only a question how much of the depth was intended and how much was "coincidental"
Jace Cook
HxH has way better characters. Gon and Killua have a far better articulated relationship than the repetitive bromance of Edward and Alphonse, and the shifting dynamic of their friendship is subtle but phenomenal. The antagonists are leagues beyond FMA's. Sure, you have some like Hisoka who are just charismatic (like Bradley, nothing wrong with that), but Meruem, the Ryodan, and Pariston among others have believable philosophies in many ways, which is a hell of a lot more interesting than Father's "I want all the power ever because I'm lonely!" overdone crap. On top of this, most of the side characters feel like brief glimpses into real people with their own motive and goals outside of the main story, which results in a world that actually feels full and complex.
In the end, there's not a real comparison between them. HxH has flaws, but it's simply a better constructed story and a better series.
>implying the trinity is the word of men Yikes. And I suppose your Gnostic intuition is so much more trustworthy than centuries of doctrine and the results of the ecumenical councils.
>We could argue to which degree, just as we can argue to which degree the you in your dream is actually you, or is it something separate. Do you always behave inside the dream as in real life? Fuck off with this dream bullshit you psudo-Sabellius. Christ is a distinct person. If Christ was a different behavioral state, or "mode," as you posit, then you can interpret several scenes in the NT as God speaking to himself.
>Matthew 17:1-9 If the Son is just a dream state of the Father, why would the Father announce himself like this? It doesn't make sense for him to do this. He could just appear as the Father. Furthermore he distinguishes the Son from himself. >Matthew 27:45–46 If the Son is just the Father dreaming, then why does the Son ask why the Father had forsaken him? Even with your dreaming explanation this makes no sense. >Hebrews 9:14 Why would the Son offer his own blood to the Father if they're the same person? They have to be distinct persons for substitutionary atonement as a theory of salvation to be valid.
But your greatest offense of all is not posting proselytizing the miracle of FMA that is Winry Rockwell. This is a mortal sin and you must repent before death or be condemned to an eternity of shitty moeblob seasonal anime girls.
I think it's more of a question of how much depth you're willing to construct yourself.
Christopher Rogers
>Dude you cant transmute humans otherwise you will be sent to some other dimension controlled by an omnipotent douche who calls himself Truth for some reason, you pay a nice toll with your physical body and dont die apparently plus get the ability to do alchemy without faggy circles
So what happens if you try to make a corpse using pure elements?
Chase Roberts
>>implying the trinity is the word of men the interpretation of it is. the bible clearly says the father and the son are one still.
>then you can interpret several scenes in the NT as God speaking to himself. >what are monologues either way, i dont think its that important wether God and Jesus are a different conciousness. Both are perfect, thus both should have the same will and desires. etc. And its through the son that God interacted with this world in the flesh, wether by giving a new soul some task or by putting his own conciousness into a human body. We could make a case that they simply are "disconnected" much like we in our dreams often dont know about us dreaming becoming shit scared, similar to Jesus asking why he was forsaken, through this concious disconnect to his real self.
>But your greatest offense of all is not posting proselytizing the miracle of FMA that is Winry Rockwell. i cant deny that, and im truely sorry for that. pls noe moeblob animes.
James Bailey
Probably nothing, I think it's just the act of trying to transmute the soul part that causes Truth to go crazy. But I could be wrong, is a corpse that has never been alive "human"? It's more like a golem.
I want to lick her hairy, sweaty, sour armpits and have her grind her musky, hairy pussy and asshole into my face while beating me with a wrench and telling me how much money I owe her for making her take a train out into bumfuck nowhere
