• atro_city@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    The most baffling thing is once subjugated peoples now being the most ardent in their beliefs.

    • Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      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.

    • Rolando@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      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.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_South_America

  • gencha@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    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

    • kronisk @lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      But you can’t control people with that concept, because you can’t control the sun.

      Oh, so Akhenaten couldn’t control people?

        • kronisk @lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Well, Michelangelo got paid for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel as well. Who’s “they” and what’s your point?

          • rekorse@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            That people weren’t tricked into work. They were paid for it and likely held great pride in it.

            • kronisk @lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              I reacted to, paraphrased: “you can’t control people with sun worship”.

              During his reign, Akhenaten instated monotheistic worship of Aten - the sun disc - and did away with all other gods worshipped in Egypt at that time. Whether or not the workers who built his monuments were paid well I do not know - I suspect you have the Diary of Merer in mind, but remember that Khufu’s and Akhenaten’s respective reigns were more than a thousand years apart - as a pharaoh, Akhenaten could most certainly control people. And if you believe religion can be used as a means to control people, this is definitely a historic example of sun worship being used to this end, wouldn’t you agree?

    • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      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.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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        2 months ago

        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.

    • smayonak@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      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.

    • dellish@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Damn straight. I feel if we still worshipped nature maybe we’d take better care of it. Instead we have religions that propose we’re above nature, owners of the world, and we’re ripping it to shreds. Such a pity.

  • dumbass@leminal.space
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    2 months ago

    If I’m gonna worship a celestial body I can see with my eyes, its gonna be the moon! I hate day time, nighttime is where I get my best work done.

  • flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz
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    2 months ago

    Although they must have been surprised that the Sun kept rising after human sacrifices stopped

    Tap for spoiler

    Yes yes, I know nobody literally believed the sacrifices kept the sun rising, not even sure these are Aztecs in the picture. Can’t let that get in the way of a joke 🙂