Heathen Superstitions

[SallyF]

Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions that Today Live Among the Indians Native to this New Spain, 1629

"The Treatise of Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón is one of the most important surviving documents of early colonial Mexico. It was written in 1629 as an aid to Roman Catholic churchmen in their efforts to root out the vestiges of pre-Columbian Aztec religious beliefs and practices. ... With great care and attention to detail Ruiz de Alarcón collected and recorded Aztec religious practices and incantations that had survived a century of Spanish domination (sometimes in his zeal extracting information from his informants through force and guile)." https://books.google.com.au/books/about ... edir_esc=y

Paying particular attention to the belief that Jesus was a human sacrifice to assuage the anger of the mythological Jehovah god (of whom there is no evidence offered other than belief and human writings) and that Christians pretend to eat the meat and drink the blood of the human sacrifice: is Christianity also full of "heathen superstition" ...?

[Elijah John]

Paying particular attention to the belief that Jesus was a human sacrifice to assuage the anger of the mythological Jehovah god (of whom there is no evidence offered other than belief and human writings) and that Christians pretend to eat the meat and drink the blood of the human sacrifice: is Christianity also full of "heathen superstition" ...?

I would say that yes, it is. At least that blood-atonement aspect of it. But I doubt the real Jesus, the historical Jesus, the very Jewish Jesus preached his own blood as a literal means of atonement.

Jesus did not ever tie "the blood" to forgiveness during his ministry. Jesus only preached repentance and the mercy of the Father.

Jesus repeated the words of the prophet Hosea when he said "I desire mercy and not sacrifice."

It's Paul and his disciples who interpret Jesus martyrdom as a blood atonement, and what really amounts to a human sacrifice to the Father, who does not need nor does He desire appeasement, only contrition. (Jer. 7.21-24, Psalm 50.8-15, Psalm 51.15-17, etc.)

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 2 by Elijah John]

There are verses that display God's bloodthirsty nature as well.

• Leviticus 17:11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

Of course when God himself was going to pass through Egypt to "strike down every firstborn of both people and animals", it wasn't contrition that the Israelites splattered on their doorframes to appease their bloodthirsty God. It was the blood of innocent lambs.


When John exclaimed, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!", the connection was clear to those who knew that God required blood to avoid his wrath back in the days of captivity in Egypt. Ignoring these clear teachings will not remove the blood stains that permeate the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.



Tcg

[SallyF]

Christians have long regarded the cuckoo-like religion they believe is their own to be the "only (albeit evidence-free and fantasy-filled) truth" and the cultures of others as "pagan" and "heathen" and other pejorative, supremacist terms … cloaked in lovingkindness, of course.


To wit:

Magazine editors and writers predicated their identity on there being heathen in the world and
stood ready to track “superstition� in the interest of alerting supporters to the presence of the
unevangelized. The predominant narratives between the first magazine issues and the outbreak
of civil war in 1861 cast several changing complexions of the foreign, moving from expectations
of the “heathen� as ethnically distinct and religiously inferior to threatening rivals capable of
colluding with state powers. Whether adjusting for tepid results among Native Americans and
Jews, or factoring degrees of conversion among Islanders and West Africans, or appropriating
native assistants in Burman church planting, or crafting diplomatic strategies among the
Chinese, writers and editors perpetuated a willingness to believe in heathen inferiority no
matter the situation. https://davidgolding.com/personal/asset ... n-2016.pdf

In my opinion - based on the absence of evidence for Christian fantasy being anything other than fantasy, and the barbaric, pretend blood-drinking and human sacrifice to appease a god and so forth - Christianity is just as heathen and superstitious as the religions Christianity decries.

[SallyF]

I am far from being the only one who considers Christianity to be full of heathen superstition.

Heres's an extract from a hefty list …

Much of Traditional Christian religion is technically, ‘SUPERSTITION’ : Whereas properly conducted afterlife investigations are SCIENTIFIC and EMPIRICAL.
Here, read for yourself the outrageous 'beliefs without evidence' held by traditional Christians themselves.
SUPERSTITION 1. During a Christian service a wafer is turned into the body of ‘God’/Jesus and this Archbishop believes he is eating the body of Jesus!! To the objective observer that is 'cannibalism' – a Christian ritual based on Pagan beliefs.

SUPERSTITON 2. Wine is turned into the ‘blood of God/Jesus’ – and this Christian thinks he is drinking the blood of Jesus/God during the service!!
SUPERSTITION 3. Pouring water over your head in Baptism removes ‘original sin’ (Information from the other-side informs us that is absolute nonsense!) http://www.victorzammit.com/articles/ar ... jensen.htm

And indeed, not one Christian on this site offers one scrap of any sort of evidence to back up their superstitions. And yet certain of them continue to behave as though they have.

[bjs]

[Replying to SallyF]

That depends.

If you actually mean the words you are writing then no, Christianity is clearly not superstition.

Superstition is defined as: noun, a widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event, or a practice based on such a belief.

So believing that sacrificing a person on a certain temple is what causes summer to return, or that certain dances cause it to rain, are examples of superstition.

There is little to nothing in Christianity that qualifies as superstition. (I can think of a few examples that someone who knows very little about Christianity might latch on to as superstition, but anyone knowledgeable about the religion would easily laugh off.)

On the other hand, if you just mean, “I don’t like it that people disagree with me! Calling Christianity a superstition is another way to insult Christians. Boo Christians!� Then sure, in that sense Christianity is a superstition.

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 1 by SallyF]

There is an old hymn I remember hearing as a child called, "Power in the Blood." It documents the level of superstitious belief concerning Jesus' blood popular in the Christian church. The following phrases are repeated many times in the song:

• There is power, power, wonder-working power
  In the blood of the Lamb
  There is power, power, wonder-working power
  In the precious blood of the Lamb

Magic blood.



Tcg

[Zzyzx]

.
[Replying to post 6 by bjs]

Much of Traditional Christian religion is technically, ‘SUPERSTITION’ : Whereas properly conducted afterlife investigations are SCIENTIFIC and EMPIRICAL.
Here, read for yourself the outrageous 'beliefs without evidence' held by traditional Christians themselves.

SUPERSTITION 1. During a Christian service a wafer is turned into the body of ‘God’/Jesus and this Archbishop believes he is eating the body of Jesus!! To the objective observer that is 'cannibalism' – a Christian ritual based on Pagan beliefs.

SUPERSTITON 2. Wine is turned into the ‘blood of God/Jesus’ – and this Christian thinks he is drinking the blood of Jesus/God during the service!!

Superstition is defined as: noun, a widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event, or a practice based on such a belief.

<Snip>

There is little to nothing in Christianity that qualifies as superstition. (I can think of a few examples that someone who knows very little about Christianity might latch on to as superstition, but anyone knowledgeable about the religion would easily laugh off.)

Here are other definitions of superstition:

a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/superstition

belief that is not based on human reason or scientific knowledge, but is connected with old ideas about magic, etc.: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... perstition

Superstition is belief in things that are not real or possible, for example magic.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/di ... perstition

Excessively credulous belief in and reverence for the supernatural.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/defin ... perstition

the belief that particular events happen in a way that cannot be explained by reason or science
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries. ... perstition


It appears as though believing that wafers and wine magically turn into body and blood after incantations by clergy WOULD clearly fit the above definitions.

How, exactly, can that be ‘laughed off’?

Could it be ‘laughed AT’?

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 1 by SallyF]


Here's another set of lyrics that celebrate the superstitious power of Jesus' blood. These are from a song called, "Are You Washed in the Blood?"

• Are you washed in the blood
  In the soul-cleansing blood of the lamb?
  Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?
  Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

This magic blood has the ability to cleanse the soul, whatever that may mean. Even more magical, if you wash your garments in this magic blood it turns them white.


Of course you can't really fault the songwriters or the singers, they're simply repeating what their Bible has taught them in Revelation 7.

• 13 Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?â€�
  
  14 I answered, “Sir, you know.�
  
  And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Tcg

[SallyF]

[Replying to post 1 by SallyF]

There is an old hymn I remember hearing as a child called, "Power in the Blood." It documents the level of superstitious belief concerning Jesus' blood popular in the Christian church. The following phrases are repeated many times in the song:

• There is power, power, wonder-working power
  In the blood of the Lamb
  There is power, power, wonder-working power
  In the precious blood of the Lamb

Magic blood.



Tcg

I sang that in Sunday school …!

Perhaps as I was colouring in pictures of Jesus dying on the cross for my sins:



Hope that helps you find some fun and meaningful
activities for you and your family!
God Bless!
~Jennifer
http://www.catholicinspired.com/2013/03 ... -plus.html

Yep, that sure is fun for the Christian kiddies, Jennifer …!

Christianity is nothing if not full of primitive, heathen, superstition.