(July 4, 2015 at 7:41 pm)Metis Wrote: Well I'm happy it helpedIndian trinity? Damn.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.
Since the trinity is such a universal symbol, it must be rooted on universal human experience and phenomenon that is ubiquitous—whether it's three things that work together like mother-father-child and sun-moon-Earth or one thing that goes through three stages like your maiden-mother-crone.
Are you a student or scholar in this field? I have a master's in English, but you are taking me places where my studies did not go.
Can't see the end of Christianity? That's all right. We walk by faith not by sight.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.