The most baffling thing is once subjugated peoples now being the most ardent in their beliefs.
Thankfully this is changing with the new generation. Atheism is on the rise throughout Latin America. From 1996 to 2019 it went from 4% to 16%. I’ve been back to my birth country recently and it was like a whole other place from when I left in the 90s. The fact that so many young people have tattoos now, when growing up that was completely unacceptable.
In Latin America, the christian conquerers forced people to pray to their god. So people adapted by praying to their old gods in the guise of the new.
Catholicism was the only religion allowed in the colonial era; the indigenous were forced to abandon their beliefs, although many did not abandon it at all, for example, countries with predominantly Amerindian population such as Bolivia and Peru there is a syncretism between indigenous religions and the Catholic religion, that has occurred since colonial times. In Brazil or Colombia, Catholicism was mixed with certain African rituals.
I never understood the disdain for sun worshipping religions. Seems just as valid as any other.
As the source of all energy in the solar system, I’d say it’s the only valid deity.
That’s actually a great thought. Of all things, worshipping the sun has merit. But you can’t control people with that concept, because you can’t control the sun. People who want to find solitude in the things that actually matter, and are available to anyone, must be converted into sheep. And they literally call themselves that, as their Lord is their shepherd.
WTF
But think of all the things that puritans offer! Like working! And… Um. Uhh…
But you can’t control people with that concept, because you can’t control the sun.
Oh, so Akhenaten couldn’t control people?
Well, Michelangelo got paid for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel as well. Who’s “they” and what’s your point?
Jokes on the white dude, Jesus is a reskinned sun god.
December 25 literally the Day of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun, invented by Emperor Julian in an attempt to restore paganism to the Roman Empire in the early 300s.
Dec 25 only became accepted as the birth date of Jesus afterwards.
Can’t make it up.
tbf Julian was more of a neoplatonist rather than a sun cultist, and Dies Natalis Solis Invicti predates Julian. But yes, December 25 being ‘Christmas’ is absolutely part of the Christian exploitation of pre-existing pagan traditions to make conversion easier - as is Christmas’s relation to Saturnalia, a way cooler holiday than some dweeb being born in Bethlehem, smh.
Reskinned cultic Persian diety known as Mithras. Mithras was not related in any way to the Abrahamic god and it’s not known how the historical Jesus borrowed large elements from the Mithras legend other than plagiarism.
El is the name of an abrahamic storm god believed to be God. He was once a member of a Canaanite (and probably before then) pantheon but its clerics overthrew the old order and installed El as the sole god. Hilariously the clerics didn’t remove all references to El’s divine wife, Asherah, from the bible and you can still see references to her even today. Although most references are to the symbols of Ashera and not the goddess.
Religious scholars do backflips to try and explain why a pagan god exists in the bible and they can’t get around the most obvious answer that it’s a error and the name had been partially edited out of older versions of the bible.
