"Cult of Mary"

Quote: FrGamble

All these similar myths and stories from so many different religions, cultures, and conceptions of God.

You shouldn't make too much of this. After all, there are many other similarities between unconnected human civilizations. For example:

the existence of a nobility
the existence of a clergy
the prevalence of slavery
the prevalence of conquest
the use of a medium of exchange (money)
the existence of representational art and musical art
the existence of a royal class even above the nobility

And many more.

So, some god was also handling that? Or perhaps it was Marx's dialectic preparing the way for Socialism? Or is it that people are very much people all over the world, and cultural differences only go so far?

Quote:

Then comes Jesus Christ and the train stops.

I'm sure Islam and the Baha'i religions would disagree most strongly.

Quote: FrGamble

You must excuse what might seem shocking for you to hear but Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all these desires and dreams

What's shocking is that Jesus was talking
mostly to and about his own people, the
Jews. They still don't believe he's the
Messiah, why should we. I know a couple
of older Jewish men and they laugh about
Jesus, they think it's a joke. And Jesus was
a Jew.

Quote: Nareed

Quote:
Then comes Jesus Christ and the train stops.

I'm sure Islam and the Baha'i religions would disagree most strongly.

I thought the same thing. Islam came much
later and is a force to be reckoned with. They
use the Bible also, and believe Jesus was a
messenger of god, but not the Messiah. They
believe Muhammad is the final messenger.
Islam is just one of the 3000 offshoots
of Christianity.

Quote: Nareed

I'm sure Islam and the Baha'i religions would disagree most strongly.

As far as I know they have no conception of the incarnation, virgin birth, or loving sacrifice to free us from sin which were present in most of the history before Christianity. The fact that they are not found in religions after Christianity gives more credence to my point and insulates me from Nareed's very fine comment about the other similarities in cultures.

Quote: FrGamble

The fact that they are not found in religions after Christianity gives more credence to my point [..]

Or exposes you as a hidebound reactionary ;)

Quote:

[..]and insulates me from Nareed's very fine comment about the other similarities in cultures.

How so? Whatever latter developments in religion, cultural similarities remain.

Quote: FrGamble

As far as I know they have no conception of the incarnation, virgin birth, or loving sacrifice

Islam believes in the virgin birth,
the miracles, but not that Jesus
is a savior. They don't even believe
he was crucified.

Very true, thanks for pointing that out. As I mentioned a while ago you might be able to make a case that Islam is the Arianism heresy reborn. Arius said that Jesus is a really great prophet, but He is not God.

If the Church is in trouble financially, why
doesn't the Vatican go back to selling
relics again. It did from 700 AD till the
1960's and was a major source of income.

The most treasured were body parts from
the saints. A sliver of bone, a bit of skin.
There's even a shop in NYC that sells
nothing but antique relics, all with the
red Vatican seal. Not authentic without
that. People would take the relics to
mass with them and pray to them, like
pagans do with idols. If you had money
you could even buy a splinter from the
cross and pray to it.

This was big business for the church,
selling idols. Many feel it's time has
come again.

Mark Twain said the Vatican has sold enough
wood from the cross to build a fleet of Noah's
Arks. He didn't think much of organized religion.

There are even relics of Mary.

"Mary’s assumption into heaven meant that she left behind no physical body on earth. Her cult developed slowly in late antiquity and the early middles ages because there were no bodily remains for her cult to focus around. In the Christian East, her cult centered on images and clothing relics, but these had not yet made their way into Western Europe. Mary’s relics gained prominence in the twelfth century. Clothing relics,such as veils, shrouds, and tunics, as well as cloth carrying traces of breast milk and birth fluids were the primary relics attributed to Mary."

http://sites.tufts.edu/textilerelics/2011/02/08/marian-relics/