[Quranic Reflection]: The Aten.

[Rev. Rye]

If the surviving Great Hymn to Aten is any indication, Aten is represented by the sun and its rays because, for all intents and purposes, Atenism is just literal sun worship.

Thou appearest beautifully on the horizon of heaven,
Thou living Aton, the beginning of life!
When thou art risen on the eastern horizon,
Thou hast filled every land with thy beauty.
Thou art gracious, great, glistening, and high over every land;
Thy rays encompass the lands to the limit of all that thou hast made:
As thou art Re, thou reachest to the end of them;
(Thou) subduest them (for) thy beloved son.
Though thou art far away, thy rays are on earth;
Though thou art in their faces, no one knows thy going.

When thou settest in the western horizon,
The land is in darkness, in the manner of death.
They sleep in a room, with heads wrapped up,
Nor sees one eye the other.
All their goods which are under their heads might be stolen,
(But) they would not perceive (it).
Every lion is come forth from his den;
All creeping things, they sting.
Darkness is a shroud, and the earth is in stillness,
For he who made them rests in his horizon.

There's no need to give the Aten a form that's basically a human body with the head of an ibis or jackal or whatever because, well, it's the fucking sun and not some sort of middleman who controls the sun. It’s not even the typical Muslim glorified calligraphy, because their equivalent (in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics) would look like a reed, a circle, a half-circle and a squiggly line, and not exactly what they’re supposed to be representing.

And, of course, when I was a Christian, I was taught that God was omnipresent, too, so it’s not like Islam and Atenism are even that unique.