Posted on 01/24/2015 4:16:35 PM PST by ifinnegan
Here are artistic representations of two goddesses who are considered the Queen of Heaven and Goddesses.
The Buddhist/Taoist Kuan Yin (or Guan Yin) (觀音)
And
The Catholic depiction of Mary
Note the similarities in representation.
This relates to a thread last week on the leftover, or accretional pagan beliefs or rituals that are still present in the Catholic church.
The Goddess of Mercy is a universal idol/icon in pagan belief systems.
I may be wrong, but I am not anti-Catholic.
I appreciate, love and support my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ.
I appreciate the great good the Catholic church has done in the history of mankind and the great service they have provided in modern times, eg the Catholic charities, and hate how they are being attacked by the liberals and leftists.
I appreciate your thanks.
Wow...THAT didn’t take long to devolve into attacking each other. I was DEFENDING the Catholic description of Mary, dude. And I’m A BAPTIST coming to her defense! The devil is also very skilled at weakening the faith by turning Christians against each other. Shouldn’t we be busy standing together against REAL THREATS?
Thanks for your well considered and presented post.
I’m not sure I agree because in most pagan theologies the same is true of the mother goddess type - her status is also not necessarily granted by her for her.
Im not sure that Mary’s status is not partially explained in Catholic theology by her own merits.
I do think that distinction is an important one.
“The Mother Goddess is a universal pagan belief and the way Mary has been morphed in to another manifestation of this sort of idolatry is not surprising.”
Yes, but Mary has lasers that shoot from her hands!
While I am a protestant, I will note that some authorities suspect that the Chinese goddess is actually an accretion from early Christianity; and so, in this example, not the reverse.
““Real Christianity” is probably best defined in the Sermon on the Mount.”
Agreed.
“Nothing in there about torturing, burning, beheading and drowning “heretics”, or forbidding the people to have the Scriptures in their own language.”
Then why did Protestants so often do those things? Protestants tortured and burned and beheaded and drowned and smothered Catholics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_martyrs_of_the_English_Reformation
And why would Protestants leave the Mass as people wanted it in the language they wanted it in? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_Book_Rebellion
“The Roman Church tortured and murdered professing Christians just as vigorously as any emperor in the preexisting Roman Empire.”
No. That is a logical impossibility. That would take an empire and a massive standing army. The Church had neither.
“Whether you believe their profession was genuine or gave them a relationship with Christ is immaterial.”
What would be material would be heresy and the violence it causes.
“Now, as far as I can tell, the church in Europe hasn’t done anything like this for about 300 years.”
Actually, Protestants were allowing Catholics to starve to death during the potato famine if they did not renounce their Catholicism. That was only in 1848. Why were the Protestants so blood thirsty as to do that? I guess they knew nothing of the Beatitudes, right? That would have to be your explanation would it not?
“The biggest blow for freedom was struck by the Pilgrims when they left brutal Europe for the New World and started the movement that would give us genuine Freedom of Worship.”
That “brutal Europe” was actually Protestant England - that’s where the pilgrims were really fleeing from you know.
“Just your basic instincts: how many do you think this will convert?”
Convert to what?
This is all ready a discussion among Christians.
Non-Christians are encouraged to chip in as well.
To answer your question I think every person who reads this post will convert.
How’s that?
You make claims that prove the point that the waters of Bible-Christianity are so shallow that even a paper boat would not float.
By whom? If you are asserting she is viewed by Catholics as a goddess, you are either ignorant, or deliberately uttering calumnies. There really is no third choice, so which is it? Or perhaps you're referring to some outside of the Catholic church who view Mary as a goddess. Perhaps you've seen, "Mists of Avalon," one too many times (Hint: It's fiction).
"...Those are properties of a goddess."
That she has a role in God's plan makes her a goddess? That would make you and I goddesses as well; we all have a role in God's plan. Mary's role is a quite unique and special one, to be sure, but anybody reading the first chapter of Luke would know that. If Mary finds special favor with God, I suspect it's ok for the rest of us to view her the same way...
You are laboring under the false basis of Sola Scriptura. As you know, the bible did come into being like the ten commandments; God did not use His own divine finger to write them in one discrete moment of time. The books of the bible were written over time, using human instruments, and selected and compiled by the same men who you now contend cannot possibly be divinely preserved from teaching error — men who believed in the perpetual virginity and assumption of Mary.
“I may be wrong, but I am not anti-Catholic.”
You can claim that.
“I appreciate, love and support my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ.”
Yet you’re posting something that is clearly fallacious.
“I appreciate the great good the Catholic church has done in the history of mankind and the great service they have provided in modern times, eg the Catholic charities, and hate how they are being attacked by the liberals and leftists.”
Yet you attack Catholics too. And if you deny it, ask yourself why do you think Catholics are disagreeing with what you posted here.
Convert to what?
“Mary has lasers that shoot from her hands!”
Guan Yin has that water bottle instead of the thunder bolts which are more modern and western, and Guan Yin rides on the head of a dragon sometimes.
They both have their halos and stand barefoot on or in flowers.
“Wow...THAT didn’t take long to devolve into attacking each other.”
I didn’t attack you.
“I was DEFENDING the Catholic description of Mary, dude.”
And?
“And I’m A BAPTIST coming to her defense!”
Okay. I’m glad you did.
“The devil is also very skilled at weakening the faith by turning Christians against each other. Shouldn’t we be busy standing together against REAL THREATS?”
That’s exactly what I am doing.
While you are at it Muslims consider Fatima “Queen of Heaven”. I got into an argument with a muzzie over this. I said Mary was, he said Fatima was.
“While I am a protestant, I will note that some authorities suspect that the Chinese goddess is actually an accretion from early Christianity; and so, in this example, not the reverse.”
Interesting.
I would think it predates Christianity. I don’t know the Hindu analog of Guan Yin and I’d assume that one predates Christ.
I guess they will all convert to Buddhism.
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