geno0823 ([info]geno0823) wrote in [info]backtothefanfic,
@ 2007-11-16 22:48:00
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Alternative Christmas Challenge
This Christmas, Marty and Doc do go back to witness the birth of Jesus Christ. Does hilarity ensue? It's all up to you!

If anyone actually manages to write this, I'll be seriously impressed.

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[info]icepiegon23
2007-11-17 04:30 am UTC (link)
You do know that Doc and Marty aren't even going to travel to that as it would cause a major time paradox and destroy the universe in the process. For the record thats a very touchy subject and not that i'm offending you but how many people actually know about the story behind the virgin Mary giving birth to jesus?

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[info]bttf4444
2007-11-17 04:44 am UTC (link)
That's exactly why I mentioned it'd be best to not touch it. My own personal religious views are somewhat eccentric. I'm not an Evangelical Christian, but I'm certainly not an atheist, either. My beliefs lean towards towards Integrational Polytheism, which is a belief that all the gods ever described exist. I don't wish to offend Christians, atheists, or people of any other religious or philisophical persuasion. Simply put, I'm a "pieces of the puzzle" type of person - when it comes to religion. I can each religion can be true to some extent - even, dare I say it, Theistic Satanism.

Anyway, this isn't really the right place to be discussing religion - but I'm just explaining why this may not be a good idea. I have read a good time travel story awhile back about someone going back to witness the birth of Christ. I don't remember what that book was, though. It was through mystical means, though - not a manmade time machine.

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[info]iamadoughnut
2007-11-17 04:53 am UTC (link)
But Jesus was an actual person and the time and place he was born, lived, and died in aren't abstractions... it's history, same as any other era, and a damn interesting time to study.

I would doff my hat to anyone who tried this and did a halfway passable job. I would only caution against it because it would be so difficult from a historical standpoint.

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[info]bttf4444
2007-11-17 04:59 am UTC (link)
Right, I know Jesus is an actual person. While Jesus is most commonly associated with Christianity, he also plays a role in other religions - including Hinduism and Buddhism (both of which predate Christianity). I do think Jesus was something more than just a regular person - and I do believe he performed miracles. Is he a messiah, a prophet, or something else, though? Maybe he's all of them! I agree that it would be interesting to learn more about the era, and what really happened.

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[info]iamadoughnut
2007-11-17 05:21 am UTC (link)
Okay, uh, in Hindu... well, it's more like the story of Jesus bears an incredible similarity to that of Krishna, written centuries (or even millenia) before the approximate time Jesus is thought to have been alive. And the philosophies of Jesus and Buddha would seem to be in major conflict.

But he is, of course, a major part of Islam.

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[info]iamadoughnut
2007-11-17 04:46 am UTC (link)
From my understanding of Flemish pre-Renaissance artwork, god came in as a dove or a wind or something through an open window and knocked her up through the ear while some naughty angel hung around and peeped at the scene.

(And Marty and Doc totally asked The Doctor if they could go, and the Doctor was all:

Hellz yeah! And bring me back a present!

So you see, everything is cool.)

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[info]icepiegon23
2007-11-17 04:47 am UTC (link)
Aiyyieah! What was Doctor Who thinking?

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[info]iamadoughnut
2007-11-17 04:54 am UTC (link)
Uh... that if you don't step on any butterflies or kill your granddad, you don't change much at all in the whole space-time continuum thing?

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[info]kleenexwoman
2007-11-17 09:24 am UTC (link)
but how many people actually know about the story behind the virgin Mary giving birth to jesus?
Are you suggesting that this story is some sort of super-esoteric knowledge known to only a few very select historians or something? Because I do not think that is the case.

You do know that Doc and Marty aren't even going to travel to that as it would cause a major time paradox and destroy the universe in the process.
Right, just like they cause major time paradoxes and destroy the universe every single time they use the DeLorean, ever.

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[info]drworm
2007-11-17 09:39 am UTC (link)
I lol'd. :D :D :D

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[info]icepiegon23
2007-11-17 04:57 pm UTC (link)
I know that but i was just informing you about that already.

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[info]scifitwin
2007-11-18 03:27 am UTC (link)
your information is disinformation! fnord! fnord! you spread lies! moocow! are you looking through a scanner, darkly? or through a glass, blindly? is your window stained with LIES? the black iron prison surrounds you!

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[info]icepiegon23
2007-11-18 03:28 am UTC (link)
Well don't blame me buddy but your hostility is the sign of a weak intellect.

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[info]scifitwin
2007-11-18 03:38 am UTC (link)
Your methods are stupid! Your progress has been stupid! Your intelligence is stupid! Be gone with you! I've had enough of your nonsense from your smelly mouth filled with...corn!

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[info]doc_elite
2007-12-21 09:08 am UTC (link)
Hostility is not a sign of a weak intellect. Bad spelling is.

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[info]bttf4444
2007-11-17 07:15 pm UTC (link)
Right, the laws of time travel are actually pretty lax in BTTF. I don't think I'd really do that great on this challenge - but if anyone else wants to try, more power to them. I really don't want to offend people of any religious persuation. Atheists will insist that nothing special happened that day (that it was a day like any other), while Conservative Christians will insist that it's the most glorious day in the world - and they may also find the idea of travelling to that important day through non-mystical means to be blasphemous. In that link I gave to [info]anivad, I think all of these deities (including Jesus) could very well exist. The parallels are very interesting.

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[info]anivad
2007-11-17 05:05 am UTC (link)
First they'd have to figure out what day it was that Jesus was born, because it definitely wasn't 25th December 1AD.

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[info]bttf4444
2007-11-17 05:33 am UTC (link)
It's my understanding that the most common belief is spring of 4BC. Yeah, even figuring out the day of his birth would be a hard task. There are deities of other religions that were said to be born in December 25, though.

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[info]icepiegon23
2007-11-17 04:58 pm UTC (link)
that would explain why that date is christmas.

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[info]bttf4444
2007-11-17 05:46 pm UTC (link)
Don't want to offend any Christians by saying this - but, the fact is, Christmas was originally a Pagan holiday. Yule, Solstice, and Saternalia also all take place around that year.

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Here's a chart of comparisons between Jesus and other deities...
[info]bttf4444
2007-11-17 05:37 am UTC (link)
http://paganizingfaithofyeshua.netfirms.com/parallels_chart.htm

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[info]ms_treesap
2007-11-17 11:39 am UTC (link)
(N00b here)

You know what? I'm very, very tempted to write this. My historical knowledge of the time is made of fail, though. And I don't have the time to research.

Would something cracky (and hopefully inoffensive) do?

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[info]geno0823
2007-11-17 11:49 am UTC (link)
Crack would be perfect. :)

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[info]icepiegon23
2007-11-17 05:49 pm UTC (link)
Right let's hope that a time paradox doesn't occur buddy.

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[info]ms_treesap
2007-11-17 07:06 pm UTC (link)
Ah, them pesky paradoxes :)

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[info]bttf4444
2007-11-17 07:06 pm UTC (link)
Actually, I've read a good time travel story where that was done. It was through the use of mystical means. Anything, I don't think God (Yahweh, or whatever) would allow mankind to mess with such an important event.

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[info]geno0823
2007-11-17 11:49 pm UTC (link)
Seriously, why would it cause a time paradox? I just do not understand your reasoning.

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[info]drworm
2007-11-17 10:00 pm UTC (link)
Try reading Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal if you haven't already. It's a fun substitute for doing actual scholarly research, which tends not to make great fiction anyway.

(No, not that Biff.)

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[info]ms_treesap
2007-11-17 10:16 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for the tip; I looked at the Amazon reviews, and it seems like the sort of thing I'd buy :)

(No, not that Biff.)

Oh Noez! Biff was Judas! And the guy who gave the Buddha some dodgy food!And...

[/only joking]

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[info]kleenexwoman
2007-11-17 11:53 pm UTC (link)
Seconded; it's a great book, and Christopher Moore really did his research. It's what got me interested in that time period in the first place. It's also a great comedic take on some of the ideas of the Gnostic/heretic gospels.

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[info]ms_treesap
2007-11-18 12:13 am UTC (link)
Mmm, I love comedic history retellings. Terry Jones (ex-Python) has done some excellent ones for TV looking at medieval times.

I have a book about the Gnostic Gospels, but it's not with me at the moment. The idea that chunks of ideology that the Church disagreed with was cut out is very intriguing.

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[info]ms_treesap
2007-12-23 01:07 pm UTC (link)
Which I obviously did not do :( Sorry, [info]geno0823!

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