On Friday, September 5, 2003, 4:34:16 PM, Jason Clifford wrote:
>> Then you've got a couple of other major deities such as the Virgin Mary
>> (especially revered in Catholicism) and Satan, and a host of minor gods
>> who they usually name "saints".
JC> Neither is a God. Mary is human and that's it. She is revered as an
JC> example (as are the saints).
JC> Satan is just a messanger whose gone "off message". His name, Satan, means
JC> accuser and that's basically what he does according to Christian teaching
JC> - he accuses us before ourselves and God.
If he / she / it is worshipped, then regardless of what name they're
given, I still maintain it's a god. If a devout christian walks into a
church and kneels at the foot of a statue of Mary and crosses him/herself,
then that to me is a worship of that particular god.
If you send a prayer for salvation to "Jesus, Mary, and all the saints",
you're hedging your bets -- if one of those gods won't save you, at least
there's a chance one of the others is will.
Viewed from the outside, Christianity is an extremely polytheistic
religion, regardless of the claims of its followers.
--
Iain | PGP mail preferred: pubkey @ www.deepsea.f9.co.uk/misc/iain.asc
($=,$,)=split m$"13/$,qq;13"13/tl\.rnh r HITtahkPctacriAneeeusaoJ;;
for(@[EMAIL PROTECTED] m,,,$,){$..=$$[$=];$$=$=[$=];[EMAIL PROTECTED];[EMAIL PROTECTED]
]eq$$&&$=>=$?;$==$?;for(@$)[EMAIL PROTECTED] eq$_;;last if!$@;$=++}}print$..$/
