Facts, Dreams, Maybe a Little Exaggeration

"You're making it up! That's not true, son.

I swear I saw it. 

I swear the ants were playing basketball! "

This is a part of our conversations with Timuçin at the university. 

Timuçin would then explain everything that happened in great detail, from how ants hold the basketball, to how they throw it into the hoop, to how they outsmart each other while doing so, to how there was even a scoreboard, as if everything was very sincere and real. 

And under oath. 

When we would ask him if there were spectators to make fun of him, he would say of course, that there were spectators, that he wasn't joking, that what he was seeing was a match. 

And he'd go on to say that there was no such thing as a match without spectators.

Of course we were joking around in those days, but now that I think about it, we used to go and sit on the grass during free classes in the spring or summer at university. We would literally lay on the grass.

If Timuçin had watched how ants carried things between two anthills close to each other during a class one day, he might have added something from his own inner imagination and told it to us as a story.

We would even make fun of him, but every now and then we would ask him to tell us again and again how those ants were playing basketball. He would tell us with the same excitement every time.

Maybe he was making fun of us as he saw our reaction.

Isn't that possible? Yes, he was probably making fun of us.

Although he would swear up and down to make us believe it. It was as if he really believed in his heart that ants were playing basketball.

***

Some people have a habit of daydreaming all the time. 

Dreaming is not a bad thing, by the way. In fact, reality begins with dreams.

But perhaps we all have the habit of exaggerating things a bit. 

Dreaming and exaggerating are different things, of course.

I know people who I am sure at least embellish a little when they tell me something.

In fact, we also call such people "pleasant conversationalists".

So I think there is nothing wrong with embellishing the conversation a little during a conversation.

Especially if the subject you are talking about is a trivial subject, let him tell it. Just passing the time.

***

But today I don't plan to write an article directly about dreams or dreaming. 

I also love writing about dreams, but let's add a little bit of the unknown, maybe a little bit of our fears to those dreams today, and let's continue with this article.

"In the beginning there was only disorder, and the god, alone in the midst of this disorder, was just sleeping. 

But after a while he felt lonely and decided to create people with whom he could live on this land. He took some clay and kneaded it into the first people. "

***

Why did Allah create Adam and Eve? 

Not just to have servants. He probably didn't intend to do a social experiment. 

Let's see if they pick the apple.

Let's see if they sin.

What do you think? Why did Allah create us?

***

I really don't know why God created us!

But according to what I have read, He created Adam first. Then He created Eve from Adam's rib so that Adam would not be alone, right? So that Adam would not be alone and Eve would keep him company.

As far as I know, he put them in paradise.

How nice, eat, drink, sleep, everything is free. And no one asks for money! 

And they gave you Eve to keep you company so you wouldn't be bored, and by God, Eve is a beautiful woman!

What more do you want, man!

But when Eve plucked the forbidden apple and gave it to Adam, the apple bite got stuck in Adam's throat! 

That's why some people have that protrusion in their throat that moves up and down as they swallow! The English call it Adam's apple.

Well, I don't have one, so don't I come from Adam and Eve?

Forget about where and how we came from. Those are deep topics if we go there. 

Anyway, the issue right now is not how you and I descended from Adam and Eve.

In short, they were expelled from paradise because of their impudence, isn't that the story?

There are fig leaves in the story, but figs are not the subject now. 

Anyway, these are things that probably wouldn't even fill a fig seed, but that's what is written in the holy religious books.

***

The part of the above paragraphs that ends with "God took some clay and kneaded it into the first humans" is the creation story of humanity from Chinese mythology!

The following part about Adam and Eve is the creation story we all know from the three main monotheistic religions that originated in the Middle East, which we call the Abrahamic religions. Although there are some nuances in all three religions, it is more or less the same story.

In fact, how similar are the stories, right? 

I mean the creation story in China and the creation story in Middle Eastern religions are similar.

For example, in both of them, soil was used as the dough for human beings.

One is in China, almost on the other side of the world, a story from who knows how many thousands of years ago. 

The other is in the Middle East, in the known cradle of humanity and civilization. 

The roots of this creation story in sacred religious books may go back many thousands of years.

After all, there are similar stories even in clay tablets from the Sumerians. Even the story of the Flood is mentioned in the clay tablets.

***

It seems that when human beings could not solve some natural phenomena, they felt the need to make a reference to a divine power, or maybe we should say divine powers in the beginning. 

The gods are doing it!

He may have made some additions, some exaggerations in his narratives, perhaps under the influence of some fear. 

In fact, it would be wrong to say that he made these additions consciously; he may have hallucinated some things at the time of the horrible event mixed with fear. 

The story may have undergone some changes while being passed from ear to ear.

Imagine a lightning strike and the tree catches fire! What could be the force that does this? How can this happen if a whole tree burns to the ground?

You can't do anything to the tree even if you try, but a lightning bolt comes from the heavens and burns it down in an instant.

The gods! The wrath of the gods!  

Maybe the person next to you, an acquaintance, for example, is walking in the mountains, and if lightning strikes them, they turn black before your eyes!

Imagine witnessing such an event that you cannot make any sense of! It is a very horrible event!

In our country, they say that fear interferes with everything, that's exactly what you would be like if you didn't know what and how.

After all, in our collective historical minds, even though we have lived in different cultures, it seems that many common issues have been mythologized. We have mythologized many things in a similar way.

From creation to Noah's flood, from many-headed gods to large, fertile mammalian goddesses, human beings have derived many common mythological stories.

When I say stories here, it is not because I am belittling the subject. Indeed, while many of them are passed from language to language, they have probably been, how shall I put it, embellished a little, a little mythologized.

There must be a reason for this, of course.

Human beings have encountered similar events, even if they have lived in different cultures and geographies.

Maybe that's why the stories are so similar, isn't it?

However, the fears of human beings about what happens after death and the need to find an explanation for the unknown, as much as they can, probably play a big role in all these legends.

Yes, we all want to believe that life must go on after death. Otherwise, what would be the point of living in this world, right?

***

The great flood definitely happened! That's why all cultures have the myth of the flood! 

Yes, there have been many floods, big and small. It still happens today! It continues to happen!

In fact, if we continue to treat the world so badly, I think there will be much worse ones in the near future.

There is a heaven! 

Of course there is, if we look around us, we are actually living in paradise. I wish we would treat this paradise world much better. At least not pollute it so much!

Adam and Eve existed too! 

I can't claim that they didn't! 

Of course everything had a beginning. 

But whether that beginning happened because God was bored, or whether it happened with a big bang, as predicted in the scientific world, believe me, I don't know the truth. First of all, I am not equipped to know that, and it is no longer possible to go back in time and look at whatever happened in the past.

Even if there is a direct witness to an event that happened in the past, as I have just written, human beings like to talk about it with a little bit of gloss. 

Maybe he thinks that it really happened at that moment because of the shock of the event.

So is it possible to know what is true and what is false, especially when it happened so many thousands of years ago?

But what do you believe in? 

Adam and Eve, or the big bang and evolution?

What does it matter what I believe? Everyone has their own world of belief.

Somehow we existed, so let's look at what we are going to do now.

Kutsal kitaplarda yazıyor ya ne yapacağımız!

Tamam da herkes kutsal kitaplara harfiyen uyuyor mu?

Hem birbirinin benzeri olsalar da İbrahimi dinlerde birbiri ile çelişen şeyler yok mu?

En azından Hıristiyanlara göre şarap içmek serbest, Müslümanlara göre ise damlası ile cehennemlik oluyorsun.

Bir sürü böyle çelişkili konu bulunur karşılaştırma yapılsa dinler arasında.

Onların kitapları sonradan insanlar tarafından yazılmış!

O da doğru ya, kim bilir kim ne düşünmüş de yazmış onca kutsal kitabı!

***

Ben tüm insanların inanç dünyasına saygılıyım. Kim neye inanırsa inansın.

* Evet, özünde her üç din de iyi bir insan olmayı tavsiye ediyor.

* Her üç dinin de günah işlersen günahlarının bedelini ahirette ödersin diye bir mantığı var.

Bence iyi bir insan olmak hepsinden önemlisi. Sen ben iyi insan olursak, dünya da iyi bir yer olur!

Gerçi Hristiyanlıkta günah çıkartma diye bir müessese de var, vicdanlarını rahatlatmak için insanlar günahlarını papaza anlatınca, papaz günahları siliyor bir anlamda Hristiyanlık inanışına göre.

Ondan sonra da sır diye sakladığın şey ortalığa yayılıveriyor belki de.

Düşünsenize, dedikoducu bir papazmış mesela kilisenin papazı.

Müslümanlıkta da aslında benzer bir şey var, tövbe edeceksin.

Bir tek farkı Müslümanlıkta senin ile Allah arasında hoca, şeyh ya da benzeri bir aracı yok! Tövbeni sen kendi başına yapıyorsun. Allah affeder mi, orasını da bilmiyorsun. Kul hakkı ise yediğin affetmeyeceği kesin!

Halbuki Hıristiyan papaz temizleyiveriyor günahları.

Hangisi doğru?

Bana soruyorsanız inanın bilmiyorum. Onca insan Hristiyan olarak doğuyor ve Hristiyan olarak ölüyor. Herhalde hepsi ne olursa olsun cehennemlik değiller.

***

Günah işlemeyenimiz mi var aslında, hepimiz bir şekilde günahkârız. Belki bilmeden bile günah işlediğimiz oluyordur.

"Var mı dünyada günah işlemeyen!

Kim senin yasanı çiğnemedi ki söyle,

Günahsız bir ömrün tadı ne ki söyle,

Yaptığım kötülüğü kötülükle ödetirsen sen,

Sen ile ben arasında ne fark kalır ki söyle."

Ömer Hayyam'dan dizeler bunlar.

"Zenginler fakirlere, tanrıdan başka hiçbir şey bırakmadı."

Bunu da Friedrich Nietzsche söylemiş.

Bugün de burada keselim isterseniz, daha derine girersek çıkamayacağız muhtemelen.

Hayallerle kalın, biraz hayalperestlikte hiçbir zarar yoktur. Abartmayın yeter.

Moskova'dan herkese sevgi ve saygılarımla