In F451 Faber says:"Lord, how they've changed it in our "parlour" these days.Christ is one of the family now. I often wonder if God recognizes His own son the way we've dressed him up, or is it dressed him down?" Why is it that people use the word Christ, or God, or Jesus so much?

And that was before "Jesus Christ, Superstar." Zanna Hey, Zanna Ho, Zanna!

I think there are a lot of reasons people use these names so much.

Some use them in intentionally disrepectful and irreverent terms (comedy seems especially good at this -- especially stand-ups).

I think others use it for emphasis -- to try to get more emotional power out of an idea than they can generate without the use of an expletive or mis-use of God's name.

In others the ideas are weak, so let's claim God's authority (some televangelists who can't seem to say his name enough), or persons writing dialog, who lean on cursing or the over-using the Lord's name to create emotion where their writing skills have been unable to generate emotion without it.

In this case though, as in many others, I think Bradbury says this because he wants people to re-examine whether or not the religion we practice/believe is really "true" any more. Do we worship the same God that (in the case of Christ) the New Testament espouses? If not, the call to re-examine our thoughts is not disrespectul or irreverent, it is the truest form of religion -- an attempt to get beyond the cultural, historical, the prejudicial -- and to find the true nature of what (or who) lies under everything.

I remember the controversy Joan Osbourne's song generated with the line:

"What if God were one of us?
Just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home" (paraphrasing, as closely as I can)

A lot of people thought that song was irreverent and tried to bring God down to man's level. I felt like the question was thought-provoking. Again, an attempt to re-define our perspective on who God is/was. In the case of Joan Osbourne, I heard she was/is a lapsed catholic, so there may have been more barb in her lines than I see there. (At this point, heresay; I have no first-hand knowledge of her religious/philosophical beliefs.)

Christ used the name/idea of God/Father on many occasions in the New Testament to get the falsely -- but self-righteously religious people -- to re-examine their assumptions about truth, etc. Just because their traditions/beliefs were old did not mean that they were necessarily true.

Bradbury's writing is rich in allusion to religious themes. From Martian Chronicles to Something Wicked This Way Comes . . .

Additional thoughts. Your post name (IdontLIKEreading) reminds me of one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. In the first frame, Calvin hand his mom a book and says, "I read this library book you got me". She asks him what he thought of it. In the second frame he says, "It really made me see things differently. It's given me a lot to think about." In the third frame, his mom says, "I'm glad you enjoyed it". Calvin's closing response is: "It's complicating my life. Don't get me any more."

I think that is the way a lot of people approach thier lives. We inherent ideas and refuse to examine them. It is easier NOT to do the heavy lifting of challenging our own assumptions and beliefs. This is especially true for many in their religious views.

Interestingly, Paul, (a man who went through amazing religious re-examination)writing in the New Testament said this:

"When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. but when I became a man, I put away childish things" (I Corinthians 13:11)

Calvin's approach toward life, represented by many, leads to an intellectual stagnation that would preclude growth. Farenheit 451 argues, in part, that the free play of ideas is what allows us to become true persons. But there is risk in the free exchange of ideas.

Anyway . . .

[This message has been edited by Mr. Dark (edited 09-21-2002).]

Since this discussion has leaned slightly towards religion, I am inclined to open the door a tad further.

First, Ray is a Unitarian.

If Ray were asked if he is going to heaven when he dies, he would politely change the subject.

Ray is a dear, dear man whom God has given an enormous gift ...with all the trials and tribulations of having that talent blossom....

There has always been a discussion of if Lincoln was a Christian...or James Whitcomb Riley, or Robert Louis Stevenson. They write about Christ, they have the Spirit of God Himself moving thruout their life.

But there are people who can do amazing things, but never know the author of their love, personally.

(Read: The Machineries of Joy, the short story).

I remember Ray saying in an interview, I'm almost sure it was televised, that once he looked at his hands, and one hand was exactly like his mother's, the other like his father's, and "when you have that sort of immortality, who needs the other thing?" When asked about the nature of God, all he'll say is, "We're all one." I haven't seen anything in his interviews or works to indicate that he expects to survive death in any form recognizable either to himself or to any loved ones who have preceded him, though he doesn't entirely rule it out. There does seem to be a vague tendency towards reincarnation, but does not strongly promote even that. The other day Barbara Walters interviewed Christopher Reeve, who, when asked about God, said, "We should behave as if there is a God who is watching us," and quoted a motto on his wall, a quote from Abraham Lincoln saying, "When I do good, I feel good, When I do bad, I feel bad, and that's my religion."

what is unitarian??!!

Very basically,...
... the Unitarian Church does not believe that God became a man... in order to do what man could not do, that is... to fully please God... a basic, historic belief of Christianity.

It does not accept Original Sin and the "depravity" of the human condition. Many in the Unitarian Church believe Christianity is very intellectually limiting and emotionally restrictive. It was started somewhere in the mid 1500's.

Ray has stated in the past that he was a Unitarian. But how much he accepts and rejects... I am not aware...

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 09-22-2002).]