the Leviathan (Psalm 74:13-14; Job 41; Isaiah 27:1)

We all know of the Leviathan, if not here is a short introduction. its a sea creature which can be found within the bible it is usually portrayed as a swirling mass of either tentacles or as a massive serpent creature, which is immense in size and has the potential to destroy the earth. The reason I'm adding this mention of the leviathan is because here we have a biblical version of the beast known as Godzilla however the later has grown legs and learn to breathe nuclear fire. maybe within the post modern world where science has managed to remove most of what religious scripture has presented us with for century, god has now stated to use humanity by influencing humanity into creating beast that cannot yet be dismissed as science has no way to disprove weather a nuclear leak could cause mutations of the type that Godzilla is.



Another issue that exists is the problem of how can we be sure what the Leviathan is. This may seem like an obvious question to answer, all we have to do is look at the bible to get the answer. However what i mean here is, how can we no t be sure that the leviathan is not a representation of pollution itself a sea creature that ravages the ocean, much the same as we human being have done.



Maybe the Leviathan represents the pollution that we have caused through out the earth but most obviously within our oceans where fish of all kinds are disappearing faster then ever. The point I'm making is that we are the leviathan. and as the story of Godzilla goes we created him he represents the way we treat the world maybe the Leviathan was an early indication of how humanity would treat the earth. This may seem like a pointless and poor attempt at connecting religion and Godzilla, but if god exists outside of time then maybe the Leviathan was a warning of what could be, and with the creation of Godzilla in the 1950s during the height of fear relating to nuclear holocaust. It could be seen that Godzilla was just a reminder of the what might be.

The other way to look at it is that maybe god was showing what could happen if we carry on treating the world the way we are, perhaps god would send a creature like that of the Leviathan to put us back in our place and Godzilla was just a reminder of this.

They are not alone

So far all that has been looked at in this blog is to state that Godzilla is religious which is fine when considering that the blog is all about Godzilla, however i feel its time to address the question of what exactly religion is and how it works on a social, theological and personal level. This was touched upon in the post called the congregation, but this was not the most academic way of dealing with the idea of what can be considered as religious. To say that this will define religion would be a lie as this question has stumped some of the greatest thinkers to ever lived, but i shall attempt to answer the question anyway. Some argue that religion doesn’t really exist — there is only culture. Jonathan Z. Smith. I have to say that i agree with this comment. Although not quite so simply. I believe that there is religion and that with religion there are a number of set principles that are connected, these can differ from religion to religion for example by praying to god a Christian is a step closer to Salvation. And if a Buddhist meditates then they are closer to enlightenment. However i believe that although there are set rules, these are all subject to certain amount of personal interpretation, which in turn is affect by the time period and society we live in. I think that religion is a concept that can change while continuing to hold absolute truths; this may be a result of my own religious background and the fact that i have studied religion. “...while there is a staggering amount of data, phenomena, of human experiences and expressions that might be characterized in one culture or another, by one criterion or another, as religion — there is no data for religion. Religion is solely the creation of the scholar’s study. It is created for the scholar’s analytic purposes by his imaginative acts of comparison and generalization. Religion has no existence apart from the academy.” http://atheism.about.com/od/religiondefinition/a/definition.htm This comment is also true in that when religion was first apparent within society, there would have not been any form of labelling under the banner of "religion" this is a solely scholarly word to generalise a concept. However religion in practise is real there has always through out time been a hope to be better than that which we are, a hope of something more. This is clear in the concept of afterlife, there are said to be only a few definites in life, taxes and death, this shall look at the finite truth of the death of the physical. Humanity has always been fascinated with the afterlife examples of ways in which we have come up with ingenious ways to cheat death are the rituals that humans have invented to make the passage to the afterlife guaranteed. Egyptians are the most obvious in elaborate burial procedures. This was a cultural creation of treating the body delicately and precisely. The point that is being made here is that the concept of religion is built upon the unknown, and that the ritual, which is followed, is dictated by the culture with which a person lives. And it is these rituals that make a particular religion. For instance it’s Jesus that makes Christianity, but it’s the literal belief in the ritual of the body and blood of Christ that makes a person Catholic. So how does this relate to Godzilla, well if there is ritual with Godzilla then maybe it is the process of watching the films that make it religious in a cultural sense Godzilla is attacking all those things which we are trying to stop such as pollution, as it must be remembered that Godzilla was created through humanities poor treatment of the world around them. It is this that makes Godzilla religious.

The congregation

The most common conception of a religion is that of a group of people meeting together so as to worship a God, higher being or even to celebrate Utopian idea, but there is far more that just the gathering of a large group of people who have a set of related ideals in common, If a Buddhist monk is alone with incense burning around them, then most people would respect the silence and the serenity that, that individual is trying to gain. This is an obvious way in which a person can worship alone. The question that has to be asked here is, does this make their individual form of worship less important or less worthy of the respect of outsiders, who are merely looking in on that particular moment, than that of a huge congregation all worshiping together. If it does have less religious importance, than the congregational worship, than on the same guide lines does a small congregation have less religious merit than that of a large one, this would still mean that the small congregation has more merit than the individual who worships alone, but has less than the large congregation. (the answer is 42) This all may seem to have absolutely no relevance towards the subject matter of Godzilla. However, i think it does as If Durkheim looked at how the whole community were all believing in a common set of values and rituals, then those who wish to follow the development are doing that which Durkheim so adamantly defines as religion. In this way then any activity that has a group working together can be considered religious.

Godzilla has a massive amount of followers all of whom anticipate the coming of the next film, who discuss the previous and who argue who was the best villan within the Godzilla genre, this can be seen in my opinion as a form of worship. They become intoxicated by news of a new villan who is bigger and harder than the next. They often discuss what is needed to be part of the Godzilla world. This has taken an even greater form in the development of the Godzilla games that are now available. 'Do you think any body out there goes online?Do you believe a soul exists on this planet That likes to play video games over the Internet ?Could there be some Atari faction friends that know about this old school game that plays on the 360?The XBOX 360 !This game is only for fighters. It needs courage and skill to win.We know what it's worth, to Save the Earth.' (http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10875982)
This is a direct quote from one of these web forums as is clear these are not just children who like to play the games they are challenging each other and discussing how to develop their skills within the game it has become a social and daily event they are part of an online Godzilla orientated community.

Is this the first conception of Godzilla?

I Pray for the Day

I pray for the day that the last three Japanese films are released. This is just one example of how people can use religious terminology to describe their feelings towards Godzilla, its true that when this was written there was probably no real religious intention towards the subject of Godzilla, however the use of the word to 'pray' is in the Christian sense of the word, to "commune" or "speak" to God, By praying for something it emphasises the importance of the subject. The subject matter becomes in someway divine and almost necessary to the person who is praying. If we look at Godzilla in a functionalist way there are many ways that the beast ticks many of the fundamentals that are important to a functionalist religion (http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/soc/religion/funct2.htm for more information)

Those who follow the story of Godzilla do so with a plethora of many different peoples from all walks of life, however it is the activity of sharing in something "normal" that can be seen as a functionalist religious activity. threw sharing their experiences the participant legitimise there whole belief system. It would be incorrect to state that all those who follow the Godzilla story believe that the monster exists in the physical sense, but for many, what the beast represents is far more real than any message held with in an existing religious text. A functionalists view is interdependent upon those who have similar ideas or feeling towards the subject. It is a an integrated set of values. Which in this case is that of Godzilla. As Durkheim said a functionalist religion is a 'Group Mind'. And “[Religion is a] unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.” Durkheim was not studying the affects of a cult classic, but the religions of Aboriginal culture. There is however many simularities betweemn the two very different subjects.

readhttp://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/soc/durkheim/durkw5.htm

Godzilla through the ages

The history of Godzilla

This first Godzilla Film 'Gojira' as he was first known was directed by Ishiro Honda and is believed to have been a reaction to the USA's use of the nuclear bomb. The monster was created to represent the nuclear treat that affected Japan and was a direct result of nuclear testing performed by the United States during the 50's. When in at Bikini Atoll, a Thermo Nuclear bomb code named Castle Bravo was tested on March 1, 1954. This led to the accidental contamination of a tuna fish trawler (Daigo Fukuryū Maru) that was covered in radio active fall out killing Kuboyama Aikichi, the boat's chief radioman.

This same test was also blamed for the adverse weather that was recorded at that time. For many Japanese felt they had become test subjects in something they had no control over. Godzilla was the creation of a nation that had been devastated by war, Japan was now policed by the USA and therefore needed a way to express the fears of the people this came in the form of Godzilla who, as a result of a later American version of the film, is now a house hold name through out the world and has gained a cult status with many followers. This blog shall also look at the development of Godzilla himself throughout the decades, the hope being that it shall show the cultural changes from Japans fear of the nuclear bomb through to the 90s ideas towards technology and the creation of 'Generation X'.

This blog will explore the ideas in more detail using, comparisons and parallels of other 'real' or 'traditional' religions. It will be possible to compare the adventures of Godzilla with those of the Greek myths, Biblical texts and Newage theories towards nature. This Blog also welcomes the interaction of those who read it and hopes for your input upon the subject. So this would consist of the first entry.

I will leave you with a question. Is it wrong to Compare Godzilla to Religions?