Well, Rev I do like the Homer smilie thing ->....... ~(_8o(|). !!!
But seriously, in 2000 years very little except some very brief archived material will be available of our times of today. The people of the time will have little opportunity of distinguishing reality from fiction. When some researcher goes through the archives he may conclude that this character must have been real or at least based on a real person for him to be so popular. The cartoon series is popular but who is to say a movie will not follow like it has with The Hulk. I am sure there a few Homer look-alikes about!
Compare that with the Christian Era of 2000 years ago. The earliest books regarding Jesus are scant and when they did appear much later they are awash with forgeries and interpolations. A small, arbitrary number of these writings appear in the NT canon. The gospels are placed first but were not written until the second century. They are no more factual than The Hulk or Superman stories of our time...or even poor Homer! The apostle Paul does not even mention one of Jesus 'miracles' not even the ressurrection of Lazarus when arguing about the ressurrection in 1Cor 15. He never refers to the 'Lords Prayer' or Jesus parables or illustrations. How could such a personality so consuming as Jesus be so absent from Pauls thoughts and teachings. Situations create beliefs, in 70 CE the Jewish-Roman conflict created the backdrop for a saviour figure. In Roman history later, the same figure was adopted. The incredible events of the early 190's in Rome brought deep changes. In 193, no
less than three emperors were killed - Commodus, Pertinax and Julianus, and no less than Three Civil Wars took place over two years with Severus defeating Julianus, Niger, and Albinus to win the Roman Throne, immediately followed by a Parthian War. Just prior to these events, it was probable that the Emperor Commodus had gone mad, calling himself Hercules Reincarnated. The solid civil world that Romans knew swiftly melted down.
Following 9/11, many dubs felt their world had melted down and ran back to the meetings and the WTS received a much needed boost to its flagging fortunes. No doubt a number turned to the WTS fictions for hope. The unbelievable became believable again.
In 2000 years what will remain of our social history? We have more chance through technology of preserving some things but even so it will be hard to distinguish reality from fiction.
ISP
