Wtf's The Difference Anyway?

[-Demona-]

My mom and I were having a talk the other day about praying to or calling upon different gods and goddesses. I had mentioned that I consider gods and goddesses to be personified aspects of a greater, neutral force. Like a bookmark sticking in the page of a very big book, to help us know what page we're looking at.

 

She said she didn't like the idea of my recently writing a blessing that would evoke the Egyptian cat goddess Bast to bless our kittens, which were strays we picked up in December. I consider Bast not so much like an actual person, but a symbol in terms of the aspect of life she's said to preside over (the protection of domestic cats and their owners).

 

Mom told me she considers the goddess Bast a "lesser god" and an "abomination", completely missing the point that I don't believe in Bast as a literal physical being. When I pointed out that Christians evoke Jesus' name and that Catholics evoke the saints' names when they want Godly intervention, she told me that she never called upon the saints herself when she was Catholic. When I added that Bast's half-cat, half-woman status was no different than the demi-god she worships, she cried "it's not the same thing!"

 

I told her, "if a cat-woman is so impossible to identify with, how is it that one who's said to be wholly god and wholly human can be indentifiable? He doesn't even follow the laws of mathematical logic that govern our world, as a WHOLE of something and a WHOLE of another thing makes TWO things."

 

I then briefly pointed out to her that Jesus was not the first to be born of a virgin and to rise from the dead, and that the Egyptian mythos precedes him. She kept dodging my points though. It's amazing how someone so skilled with numbers, so capable with logic can shut their brain off so quickly when it comes to religion. And she even said that "worship" of an Egyptian deity is a step backward in soul development. That's mighty big talk from someone who puts so much stock in a 2000 year old fairy tale.

 

Don't get me wrong: I love my mom and we usually get along splendidly, but... aargh!

[Joyous1]

I was watching a show on one of the history channels last night, all about Nefertiti's temple. Apparently she worshipped a controversial god, so after her death her temple was utterly destroyed by the new pharoah and the priests of the dominant religion. They self-righteosly believed they were rooting out a false religion.

 

I found it fascinating as a new ex-C, to learn about two ancient religions within the same culture battling each other so viciously. Now both religions are essentially long dead, and we research them as archeology or anthropology. Yet the people who believed so long ago were certain they were right.

[Vixentrox]

We can only hope that Chistianity and Islam will become long dead religions.

[godlessgrrl]

Many Xians like to pretend that their religion doesn't have anything to do with other religions at all. It's total bunk, but I suppose it bolsters the sense of being special or unique or elite.

 

Xianity is just one of many religions with a lot of similarities. It has its differences - they all do - but it isn't an isolated thing by any means. Regardless of how vehemently people deny it.