Quote:
Originally Posted by Espada
I doubt the hotel would be stupid enough to put an open bible on top of the table inside a room for guest to stay. Smart guest would know why and stupid guest would close it and keep it somewhere else... resulting in unpleasant encounters.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nono1973
No hotel staffs in any hotel would be stupid enough to open up the bible in the room,but i believe a "possessed" hotel staff or something supernatural will do that tho. Not all man/woman are strong-willed.
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Who is the "Smart guest"? And the "stupid guest"??
It has been a while I've been following this interesting bouncing of comments and replies about "open Bibles" in the room. It's very interesting for me (from a social/anthropological point of view) to notice that the holy book of Christians is perceived by some Chinese (supposedly Buddhist?) and by some citizens of a Muslim country as associated to "ghost possession" or similar superstitions.
Apparently, the movie "The Exorcist" and its successors has made a lot of trouble on the other side of the world (respective to USA, where it was shot).
My family is Christian, but I am not particularly involved with religious issues, so I observe all this from an objective point of view. I mean that an observant Christian would be offended by reading all this, but I just feel amazed. Imagine if some clueless Christian or Hindu would dare to write similar things about the Holy Book of another important monotheist religion!
(I don't even want to mention the name) What would happen? Better not to think about that.
As a pragmatic PhD engineer who trusts in Science, of course I think that ghosts and possessions are simply bulls**t. I am amazed to read all this. Come on! We are in 2015, not in the Middle Age! But certainly I do not expect I could convince anyone.
I just wish to reassure everyone (especially my friend above) about the source of those Bibles that we find in most hotels in ALL THE WORLD. It's not a group of fanatic exorcists who place them as evil seeds or as shields against ghosts.
Bibles are placed by a group of old-fashion integralist Christians, not Catholic, called "Gideons" and based somewhere in the USA, where they were born at the time of Far West, who spend a lot of money to buy Bibles and place them in the rooms of as many hotels they can reach worldwide. It's their way to do proselytism. I found their Bibles in all 5 continents. Amazing how pervasive they can be.
The hotel managers of Formosa, as of many other hotels, are not certainly Christians, but probably believe in the freedom of confession and think that allowing a Bible in the drawer of the table is a kind gesture towards the guests of Christian religion (I have no idea how many there could be in Batam, though). Personally, the first time I was surprised to find a Christian Bible in the drawer of a hotel in Indonesia ("Gideons also here??"). I would be not surprised, conversely, to find a copy of the Koran, since we are in a Muslim country and I expect that the majority of guests is Muslim. I respect the religion beliefs of everyone so I do not object.
I opened one of those Bibles one day in my room in Formosa, for my curiosity, and believe me the girl had a good time anyway, the dinner went well, and I did not have to call the Ghost Busters
