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Christian Mary, is a Goddess. Just because they assign her the role she has doesn't mean it's true. She's no less a God than "God." Do you know how many people pray to Mary? Tons and tons, equal or as many as "God," which proves the point that she is as powerful as her male counterparts.
I've read posts by people that pray to Mary saying they pray to her to intervene with God on their behalf. In other words, they are sending their prayers to Mary so that she can pass them on to God the next time she sees him. They seem to understand that she doesn't hold the powers that can make their prayers come true, but that she can act as an intermediary on their behalf and that she has some influence with him. So in that sense, I don't think she is seen as an equivalent.
Most pre-Christian European societies were illiterate. When they emitted their last gasps under Christian rule, they may have been fortunate enough to have had monks or other Christians document a sliver of their existence in writing.
These documentarians were males with a Christian worldview and thus only recorded the myths and gods of interest to them. Those that were relatable in their male-dominated worldview.
For example, in the Norse myths, the female goddesses only appear in stories that are focused on male gods, but there still exist list of names of their goddesses, just no myths to describe their roles or personalities.
This gives the impression that the pantheon of the Norse peoples was filled out with males when in reality there were many goddesses, many with their own fully developed cults.
Most pre-Christian European societies were illiterate. When they emitted their last gasps under Christian rule, they may have been fortunate enough to have had monks or other Christians document a sliver of their existence in writing.
These documentarians were males with a Christian worldview and thus only recorded the myths and gods of interest to them. Those that were relatable in their male-dominated worldview.
For example, in the Norse myths, the female goddesses only appear in stories that are focused on male gods, but there still exist list of names of their goddesses, just no myths to describe their roles or personalities.
This gives the impression that the pantheon of the Norse peoples was filled out with males when in reality there were many goddesses, many with their own fully developed cults.
There are five other inhabited continents, all with surviving non-abrahamic religions. What we can see from that experience is that religion is in many ways an aspect of culture, and people interpret religion in a way that mirrors the social order of the people who create it. What we find is crazy diverse. In Australia, for example, the women have secret women gods that they worships in mysteries secret from the men, and the men have secret male gods they worship in secret from the women. But they're not really gods in the traditional sense, they're often more like totemic earth ancestors from an Australian theological concept called Dreamtime. In others, there are both genders but the men call the shots and are the focus of the stories, because that gives the category "male" more prestige and reinforces the patriarchal social order through divine right. Using the divine to legitimize power structures is common throughout the world. Sometimes the worldview espoused reinforces the legitimacy of the king, sometimes it justifies the caste system (India, pre-war Japan), and sometimes it justifies keeping women subservient. Those with power reject worldviews they don't like, that make them feel uncomfortable and like they're living wrong, and they have the power to make sure their vision becomes the most widely adopted because they hold all the cards. So it's natural some religions end up like that.
It should be noted, this doesn't always happen. Especially in simpler societies, the divine is often genderless or takes the form of animals, or dead ancestors. It doesn't have to look like the religions that are most familiar to us.
I've read posts by people that pray to Mary saying they pray to her to intervene with God on their behalf. In other words, they are sending their prayers to Mary so that she can pass them on to God the next time she sees him. They seem to understand that she doesn't hold the powers that can make their prayers come true, but that she can act as an intermediary on their behalf and that she has some influence with him. So in that sense, I don't think she is seen as an equivalent.
But, if they don't say or send out the thought of Mary as intermediary, then she becomes the God/Goddess.
Some of them are. Most are not. A lot are like tantrumming dummy spitting bullies expecting to get their way in everything.
Last edited by Ceist; 10-25-2012 at 03:58 AM..
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