Eywa as a new "real" god

[Alwin]

I'm not saying that i want to create a new religion. I'm sorry if you misundertood me. I'm only saying that "eywarism" is applicable on many prehistoric-likely religions we have.

First thing: Eywa means Gaia that is all the animals and plants on the world (our world or Pandora).

Ancient cultures believed that earth was an entity with powers and wishes, a "sketch" of a modern god.

I personally believe in a thing like that. I believe that earth is our mother, we have only one and we have to love and protect her.

Monotheist religions tell their god in many ways: God, Allah, Javeh and many more... so... why Eywacan't be a real god? A real god here, in Earth.

We all in this community love the Avatar world and I hope someone but me is searching a  religion which fills his wonders, answer his question and give him a reason to go ahead in life (ok, I am a teenager, I do strange things and don't like my parents' religion).

I thought some rules for this new pseudo-religion:
1- You will always apologize when you walk on any kind of plant.
2- You will always apologize before you eat any kind of meat.
3- You will always thank for everything you get from the nature.
4- You will always try to help your world (recycle, get public transport, etc).
5- ...

Finished! sorry for my orrible English... I'll glad to know your opinions.

[Tìng Eywatikìte'e]

No.

No,no,no,no,no.

I'm sorry. But we are not starting a new religion. We have talked about this before. Eywa is a made-up name by James Cameron. If you want to worship the Mother Earth, then call her that, or the Goddess, or one of the hundreds of other religions we have on Earth that worship in the same manner you describe.

But please do not start a new religions. We have enough on this Earth as it is. This is not what this site wants to be associated with.

[Swok Txon]

Don't turn this into Jedi-ism lol (which is considered an official religion here in Australia...its in the national census!)

Now i understand what you mean and i follow you BUT starting a new religion from a movie isn't the smartest move

It could bring bad press onto JC etc. and people may just get freaked out

sure i understand that what your saying is that Eywa is just another interpretation of Gaia on another planet

so maybe if you didn't go around calling it Eywa...

but thats just my opinion, i am sure plenty disagree with me lol

[Alwin]

sure i understand that what your saying is that Eywa is just another interpretation of Gaia on another planet

I'm not saying that i want to create a new religion. I'm sorry if you misundertood me. I'm only saying that "eywarism" is applicable on many prehistoric-likely religions we have.

[Swok Txon]

that is indeed

a very valid and true point and quite interesting at that

[Jman]

I also found this very interesting because I too thought about "what if people started to worship Eywa."  Now personally, just so you know where I am coming from, I am not a religious person in any respect.  However I do respect all religions and find all of them absolutely fascinating.  Now I don't want to offend anyone but what if people started to worship Eywa?  I think this would be quite fascinating because all previous religions--to my knowledge--are based out of text.  This religion however would be based off of film instead of a book.  I wonder if there are any religions that are based off a film?

[Zalorticus]

There is really nothing to create. As you said, we have Gaia. If you want, you can start calling Gaia Eywa. Names really don't matter. Many religions have the same gods with different names. For example: Greeks and Romans, God and Allah, Mother Nature and Gaia.

[Eywayä Kato]

Monotheist religions tell their god in many ways: God, Allah, Javeh and many more... so... why Eywacan't be a real god? A real god here, in Earth.

Well, there's a school of though (you'll run into it a lot of you study magic, particularly chaos magic) that all gods are equally valid, including those which are blatantly made-up like Eywa.  Let us assume that there is some absolute deity, just to make this simpler.  Our tiny human minds can't wrap our minds around it anyway so there's not much point trying to conceive of this god in literal and accurate way.  The most useful thing we could do then is conceive of this god in a way that we can really connect to and is meaningful to us, even if it is made up.  Since we can't accurately conceive of God, any deity we come up with will be nothing more than a metaphor that we use to try reach it in some way.

So while this may not be a valid religion, which requires much more structure and whatnot, the worship of or spiritual practices centered around Eywa are entirely valid.

I can see why the group as a whole doesn't really want a religion associated with them.  Besides the whole obsessive-fan geek-out factor, many people are quite happy with their religion (or lack thereof).

However, I personally have a great spiritual appreciation for Eywa and am quite happy to have finally found an Earth-deity that I can actually identify with.  I've done a good deal of religious study (as well as magical study, if you're particularly interested in that sort of thing) and I'd be more than happy to develop and exchange practices and ideas for a spirituality based around Eywa.

Eywa gnahu - and I mean that. 

[Kaltxì Palulukan!]

ROFL on the very concept of JC as a "new messiah!"



Oh, wait . . .  What an insane idea!

(runs for the exit)

[Skxawng Hawnuyu]

I'm only saying that "eywarism" is applicable on many prehistoric-likely religions we have.

I agree on that, i get your point... i never thought you were trying to create a new religion.

[Tìng Eywatikìte'e]

Okay, that makes me feel a bit better. Creating a new god out of thin air is a great way of drawing bad press to us. There is liking something, and respecting the idea of it, and then there is crossing the line.

I personally believe calling Gaia or Mother Earth Eywa as crossing the line, as there really isn't a point to it. They're essentially the same thing, so why would you want to isolate yourself instead of join in on a faith that has been around since humans started having religion?

Of course this is just my opinion, but I'd like us to stay far away from the creepy obsessive fan bases I've seen before. This is how scientology was formed >.>

[A. A. Aaron]

This is starting to raise some serious concerns with me. I understand that there are a lot of people here who are on a personal journey to find some truth in their lives, some reason or something greater than themselves. The concept of Eywa fills that void for some people and I can understand that. But let's think about it for a minute - Cameron took some concepts from nature-centered faiths and tribal peoples and added some 'spice' to it by throwing in some science-based ideas. (Okay, so the Na'vi believe in a nature-deity that is made up of all life energy, and science can prove the concept behind it with what is essentially a nerve-conduction test that proves in no uncertain terms the interconnectivity on Pandora.)
He then made up a name for this deity.
As much as I see people denying that they're forming a religion here, I think that it is something that is on a lot of peoples minds. I cannot agree with Tìng Eywatikìte'e strongly enough here. If you feel that a 'religion' centered around a nature-deity is 'the way', then by all means study those faiths and live your life according to the edicts thereof. But please don't try and form a faith around a concept from a movie.

[Swok Txon]

A.A. Aaron

That is not what he is saying

he is saying Eywa is another representation of Gaia, just shed in a different light

he doesn't mean to "create" a new religion, he means to believe in Gaia but a Gaia in a different light

At least, that is what i understand it by

[Tìng Eywatikìte'e]

I think it's the title of this topic that has people worried. It clearly says a "new real god" which implies using it in a new religion.

Using a different name for a god almost always leads to a new cult (Here cult meaning the worship of a certain god/person, not meant to be taken negatively). I'll use the example someone else used with the Greeks and Romans. Yes they essentially worshiped many of the same gods, but they still formed different meanings over time. Look at Aphrodite and Venus, they are the same goddess but for the Greeks she is the goddess of lust and love, while for the Romans she has the extra layer of being a maternal figure as she was the mother of the mythical founder of Rome, Aeneas.

Even if you say you're using the name to refer to the same goddess, other people may interpret it differently and over time something new will most definitely be formed from that. I think we should avoid it. On Earth let's us her Earthly names.

[A. A. Aaron]

A.A. Aaron

That is not what he is saying

he is saying Eywa is another representation of Gaia, just shed in a different light

he doesn't mean to "create" a new religion, he means to believe in Gaia but a Gaia in a different light

At least, that is what i understand it by

I'm sure that his intentions are good and that any misunderstanding may just be due to the fact that English isn't his native language, but when you read:
"why Eywacan't be a real god? A real god here, in Earth."
and
"I thought some rules for this new pseudo-religion:"
what comes to mind?
The bold-type-underlined-for-effect disclaimer not withstanding, it certainly reads like a case for a movie-based religion.
Anyway, I'll take him at his word.

[Jman]

I agree with all of you that together we should not be creating a religion because it does bring bad press.  However, I don't see what would be wrong with taking a deity from a movie and creating a religion around it.   While I would not be participating in such a thing (religion is not my thing) I think it is near the same process as other religions because other religions were created by a prophet having a vision then gathering a following.  Then the ideas were put down in a book.  Or in the case of Mormonism a book was found and a religious sect was created around it.  I could definitely imagine that some people will be worshiping Eywa somewhere.  Now I know religion is a touchy subject, and I think the author made it clear that this was purely a discussion on a "what if" scenario.  

Edit: after reading A.A. Aaron's post, hmmmmmmmmmmmm there were rules on that first post huh?  Okay well I am still taking it as a "what if" scenario.  

[Tìng Eywatikìte'e]

Yes religions are based on prophets, but I highly doubt that James Cameron wanted us to make something from it.  In fact if we did start a religion from this he would probably want to put as much distance between us and him as possible.

[A. A. Aaron]

I agree with all of you that together we should not be creating a religion because it does bring bad press.  However, I don't see what would be wrong with taking a deity from a movie and creating a religion around it.   While I would not be participating in such a thing (religion is not my thing) I think it is near the same process as other religions because other religions were created by a prophet having a vision then gathering a following.  Then the ideas were put down in a book.  Or in the case of Mormonism a book was found and a religious sect was created around it.

You know, you make a good point there. Who knows how many religions were started because of strange, intense dreams? Or just a 'good idea' someone had.

[Tìng Eywatikìte'e]

We're getting on some shaky ground here with how religions start. We wouldn't want to offend some actually religious people here.

Anyway, once again, this argument is a little shaky since Cameron is the creator or "prophet" of the idea and he obviously doesn't want a religion formed around this.

We have the Goddess here on Earth. There is absolutely no need to rename her to follow a movie. Read about the faith of following her, it's pretty much the exact same as the film. No need to rename and start something new and draw a lot of negative press. It'll scare away a lot of people who just want to learn a cool new language.

[kintìomum]

I totally agree on that Tìng!
I was kinda interested in different religions (call it open-mindedness) although I was raised in a fairly straight catholic surrounding.
Now, meanwhile my own religion starts to... lose it's appealing look and I'm looking around on other things people center their minds on.
There is a lot of similarities in Eywa and the believ in Mother Gaia, so I really advise people to first take a serious look into existing and rather widespread religions before creating new ones.
Why? First, the mentioned bad press, second the fact that new religions always get in some kind of conflict with the established ones. And just following a set of mind is in no way worth the hassle...