On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:30:09 -0700, Ben Goren <ben@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>Dubh Ghall wrote:
>
> > Ben Goren wrote:
> >
> >> Your only other intellectually honest option is to claim that
> >> Osiris, Mithra, Bacchus, Jesus, Adonis, Dionysus, and the like
> >> aren't gods either, because /they're/ only representations of
> >> mystical fairy-tale beings that don't actually exist no matter
> >> how much you believe in them. And while there's a great deal of
> >> truth to that approach, it's an extremely counter-productive
> >> one from a linguistic perspective. Tell somebody that Zeus
> >> isn't a god, and they'll wonder what you've been smoking.
> >
> > Well almost.
> >
> > I was raised a xtian, so obviously Jesus would not have been
> > included in that list.
> >
> > However, it is only the statues that are not gods.
> >
> > It was not statues of Zeus, Hera, Apollo, etc, that lived on
> > Olympus, it was the gods them selves.
>
>That's the case of the ancient Greeks; they created statues that
>were representations of gods and knew full well that those statues
>were mere representations -- caricatures, if you will, but done
>with dignity instead of humor.
>
>But that's not the case of innumerable other religions, where the
>objects they created (and still create to this day) were not
>representations of gods, but the actual gods themselves.
I think that as Mark suggested, it is fat from simple.
>
>As somebody who grew up Christian yourself, you should be very
>well familiar with an excellent example of that: the Golden
>Calf. To those who made and wor****ped it, it really /was/ a living
>and powerful god. The purpose of the story, of course, is to
>illustrate the error of their ways, but it also does an excellent
>job of illustrating how a statue can be an actual god, instead of
>merely a representation of one.
Sliding away a bit.
That golden calf thing, has had me wondering for many years now.
When I first learned the story, making golden calves, was what sinners
did, and I thought no more about it.
Later, when I had read a little more, I began to wonder, was there
maybe a link between the golden calf, and the bull of Mitra?
>
>Put yourself in the mind of those who made and wor****ped the Calf,
Mmm
That is easier said, than done.
>and not of those telling the story, and you'll understand.
>
>Cheers,
>
>b&
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