(July 4, 2015 at 3:22 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: An Asian trinity! Oh, this goes way back. I will definitely study up on this and include it in any future essays on this subject.
Over the last few years, a lot of men have come forth about what was done to them by priest when they were altar boys. At first all the Church wanted to do is transfer the priest to another Church. It took so much public outrage to bring just a little bit of justice. Imagine if the Church still hade as much power as it used to have. I will be glad when Jesus goes the way of Zeus and Apollo—something people used to do.
Well I'm happy it helped
While it's not as often spoken about these days in light of the reforms of Swami Vivekananda, the guy who during the last century took all the native Indian cults he deemed "authentic" (and arguably more importantly the ones that would most titillate the wealthy British colonialists) and mashed them into the single form we would call Hinduism in the west today, India and the Dharmic mythos has it's own trinity of greater Gods known as the "Trimurti"; Brahman the Creator, Vishnu the Presever and Shiva the Destroyer. One could make a case these trinities all share a common inspiration but since the number three has a common perception of having a magical quality across primitive civilizations across the world, everything from Greeks (Artemis, Selene and Hecate, traditional Maiden, typical asiatic Mother Crone combo) to Shinto (Amaterasu, Susanoo and Tsukuyomi; representing Heaven, Earth and the Netherworld respectively) this seems rather unlikely. As for Christianity becoming extinct...Personal opinion here but I really can't feasably see it. It will change, given time I think maybe even two hundred years time the Catholic Church will be marrying divorcees, perhaps even gays who knows? It will mutate, but it wont die and for one reason, the one reason it actually beat all the pagan cults out of the water.
Compare Jesus to the civic pagan cult of Rome for instance. If you were a rich Roman male it was nothing short of delightful; it had few moral teachings, all of the stories literally dripped with sex and it openly advocated screwing everyone weaker than you for everything you could get, if they resisted? Beat the crap out of them like the Gods would do to you if you missed a sacrifice. For everyone else? It sucked to put it bluntly. Most of the temples wouldn't even accept offerings from the lower classes, that's why eastern cults like that of Hathor always did so well, she was a mother figure who accepted everyone. Even Isis to an extent, but because of her connection to magic (a tool of power) she quickly became the preserve of the super rich who could pay priests to preform elaborate rites.
Now Christianity on the other hand? "Love thy neighbor as yourself", "Give to the poor", "the first shall be last and the last shall be first", "I will love you until the end of days", "death has been destroyed with the resurrection of Christ"...All of these things have a very universal mass appeal, one that will always win the hearts of many across different levels of society.
Removing poverty and increasing education will cause attendance to take a hit, that I don't deny. But it will always hang around, social teachings may come and go but the central message of God loves you and death is not the end? That's something that will always hold on. Norway, Germany and Sweden may be highly irreligious nations but they're some of the biggest donators to the Lutheran/Catholic Churches on Earth (behind the US Germany-of-less-than-39%-Catholics-actually-believing-in-Catholicism is the single biggest donator to the Catholic Church). It'll be around for a while yet, we're seeing a period of denial but once it hops out of that we'll see a revival.
