(November 13, 2014 at 11:44 am)Drich Wrote:(November 13, 2014 at 9:21 am)Brian37 Wrote: Missing the point and proving my point.
No one is arguing the Catholic god as their fans interpret him as being polytheistic.
What we are arguing is the behavior of praying to multiple icons stems from polytheism. The reason is that back in that time early Christianity was literally competing with polytheism. That is why you have a three headed/entity that is one. On top of praying to Mary and Saints. Just like the Greeks and Romans, prayed to more than one god.
The trinity motif is actually NOT unique to Christianity or Catholics. The divine family of the Ancient Egyptians was three headed too. Rey or "Ra" the head god was the top deity, and under him was Osirus and Horus. And they also had that trinity in Judgement of the dead where all three sat in judgment of humans.
Even today in Mormonism you have Joseph Smith and Jesus sitting in final Judgment.
Catholics pray to Marry, and Jesus and Saints just like the Egyptians prayed to the Sun, to Osirus and Horus.
How about you consider that humans make up religions and the only reason that any religion exists is because humans compete to create new ones and get their ideas from prior and surrounding religions.
Yes the Catholic god as the followers view it IS monotheistic. But the act of praying to different icons within the religion stems from the reality at that time that they were competing with polytheism.
You may have gone off on this tangent, but the OP Specifically asks the question I just answered.
No I have not. You are simply ignoring factual reality. Christianity did not magically pop out of nothing. It was at that time surrounded by other polytheism. It was prior to Constantine popularizing it for political gain, a minority. Typical tactic in business as well is to look at surrounding products and adapt their motifs to compete.
The fact still remains that Catholics worship multiple icons and pray to them. The reason they started that is to compete with the multiple gods in polytheism. The only thing they did was popularize the idea of one god, but that does not change that they still pray to multiple icons.
It also does not change that there WERE prior motifs and stories as ideas that came out of polytheism. Savior gods, judgment of the dead, curing illness, female purity, all ideas that existed in prior polytheism.
Not even the Hebrews which Christianity came from is original. The name "Yahweh" came from Canaanite polytheism. In that polytheism he was a lesser god in a "divine family" under the top god "El".
There is nothing original about any religion. Humans invent them from prior and surrounding ideas. Mormanism and Scientology started like that too. Smith was a con man, and L Ron Hubbard was a Si Fi writer but both took the ideas of Christianity to start their new religions.
All religions are concoctions stemming from prior and surrounding competing clubs. There is no god of any kind causing humans to compete for his love. There are merely humans falling for them and making new ones. In 10,000 years it is very unlikely even if any of the big three were to still exist, that they would look anything like what humans see today, and it is more likely that they will die out and be replaced with other god/s and or religions.
