Jan. 26

Each day, we read The Viking Daily and plan our activities. We always start with exercise, but then have to figure out the rest of the day. Minimally, Karla has Beginners Bridge and Choir. Minimally, I take a nap. Usually, we have music (guitar and singing) by Paolo at 5. We both look at education sessions and lectures on ports of call.

The education sessions have been very good. My favorite lecturer is Patrick Goodness. He attended seminary on the way to becoming a Catholic priest. However, he got diverted to comparative religions and cultivated an interest  in the cultures of the South Sea Islands. His particular skill is to educate on the peculiarities of the cultures in a variety of South Sea communities and then surprise us with a look at ourselves.The overall theme is that gods and myths help us to understand the transcendent and that yesterday’s religion is today’s myth.

He pointed out a number of these “strange” religions that had a creation myth, a great flood, virgin births (many on December 25), life after death, and even rising from the dead. There were main gods and sub-gods that were responsible for these things as well as the sun, the weather, crops, the after-life, etc. After getting the audience in the flow, he figuratively held up a mirror. We think of Catholicism, for example, as monotheistic. But, beyond God, Catholics have Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Mary, and thousands of Saints who assist believers in countless activities. There are even saints for the internet, arms dealers, gas station attendants, beer, and hangovers. He asks, “Are we really so different?”

Continuing with the theme, can you imagine a culture with a religion that features a talking snake, a man with a rib pulled out of him in order to produce a female, a world founded on incest, and where the first man lived to over 900 years of age…even with a rib injury. Or, a world in which an infallible pope places Galileo under house arrest for the rest of his life for claiming that the Earth revolves around the sun. Or, an attorney and sometimes Vice Presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, swearing that the Earth is only 6,000 and a few years old at the “Monkey Trials” about 100 years ago. 

Goodness gave a talk on cannibalism and described its variety of functions in society. Among other customs, it was sometimes common to eat a brave enemy to capture his spirit. Or, to eat a deceased relative to benefit from their virtues. After getting a variety of reactions, he switched to another strange culture. Catholics eat bread dipped in wine and say that it becomes a human body that they are consuming.. 

Claudia Hackbarth has given lectures on the evolution of Earth and the humans who have populated it. She points out that the earth is 4-6 billion years old. Relatively recently, in this time frame, human life started in Africa and over 100’s of thousands of years migrated into Europe and across Asia….and across the Bering Straits into America. This happened on a planet which is in a galaxy that is one of twenty million galaxies in a universe that is expanding. (Can you imagine how many gods would be necessary to handle all of this?) There are 6 billion earth like planets, with perhaps 300 million being habitable. Closer to home, there is very possibly a form of life on moons circling Jupiter and Saturn.

This travel can make one feel very small and insignificant. I am reminded of a 1950’s Twilight Zone episode in which the whole program featured a very evil ruler with strong control over his world. At the very end of the program 2 people were walking along a road. One pointed to the ground and asked the other, “Isn’t that something moving down there?” The other picked up the drop of water sized item to look at it. He wasn’t careful enough and the first person said, “Oh, you squashed it.” Served the ruler right. But, are we all living in drops of water relatively?

We’re a bit surprised that Viking allows all of this heresy, but it makes for a better trip. (Parenthetically, I add that we asked a lecturer in the Antarctic why she didn’t mention climate change in her remarks on melting ice and the impacts. She said Holland America wouldn’t “let her.”)