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My understanding is that this kind of assimilation of religion is known as "syncreticism" (which I learned from Crusader Kings) and happens often in history, fo

My understanding is that this kind of assimilation of religion is known as "syncreticism" (which I learned from Crusader Kings) and happens often in history, for example Christianity adopting aspects of pagan religions (i.e. Thursday = Thor's Day) or when the Greeks ruled Egypt and invented interpretations of the Egyptian gods in the form of their own (Ptolemy's Egypt, which I learned about from Assassin's Creed)

thaumasiotes 4y ago
> for example Christianity adopting aspects of pagan religions (i.e. Thursday = Thor's Day) Is this something that ever happened? There are many documented cases of Christians railing against the names of the days of the week. They just didn't have the power to change them. When Christians did get to name the days of the week, in China, they named them "one", "two", "three", "four", "five", "six", and "day of worship".
- codeflo 4y ago
  Weren’t both Easter and Christmas non-Christian holidays originally?
  - gumby 4y ago
    Yes, most religions have a midwinter festival of rebirth (e.g. Sol Invictus -- the sun gets weak but is reborn) and a spring fertility festival. I find it odd that the Christians reversed them though: easter is a death/rebirth festival (hence the bunnies, chicks, lambs etc -- people want their fertility symbols at that time) which would make more sense in the midwinter and their god's birth festival is in the middle of winter for some reason.
    - rsynnott 4y ago
      In early Christianity, Easter was _by far_ the more significant holiday (Christians didn't even celebrate Christmas until a few centuries AD) so Christmas probably got whatever slot was left. Interestingly, in Islam, Jesus is usually considered to have been born in the Spring or Summer.
  - wl 4y ago
    No and no. https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/ https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJq70tf0AsY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJq70tf0AsY
    - thaumasiotes 4y ago
      The only source that discusses the name of Easter tells us that the holiday is named after the pagan goddess it honors, so "no" may be a little strong.
      - wl 4y ago
        The name "Easter" is an outlier. It's Πάσχα ("Pascha") in Greek, Pasqua in Italian, Pâques in French, Pascua in Spanish, Pasen in Dutch, Påske in Norwegian. It's only in German ("Ostern") and English we name the festival after the old month name ("Esoturmonath") it tended to occur in. The Venerable Bede says the month was named after the goddess Eōstre. That's the sum of the information we have on the goddess. That doesn't make Easter an originally pagan holiday.
- ithkuil 4y ago
  Nunday, Oneday, Twoday, tweblesday, foursday, fiveday, Sixurday https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_rule https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_rule
- inglor_cz 4y ago
  German "Mittwoch" (the middle of the week) was constructed precisely to remove Wotan/Odin's from the calendar.
anon8245 4y ago
Several years ago I watched this interesting documentary about how Christianity had incorporated stories into their religions. Stories that we think of as "Christian", such as the star of Bethlehem, the 3 wise men and other stories from the life of Jesus, were based on stories that predated the birth of Jesus. I think we underestimate how different people were compared to what we are used to today. When we tell a story today, we base it on facts. People back then might have a different view. They essentially re-used mythology and these stories to "prove" the credibility of Jesus. Basically confirming that he must be the "one", because these holy events have also happened to him.
- FredPret 4y ago
  Kind of makes sense: they used symbolic logic, where everything was a symbol for some higher thing, and the two highest things were the good (god) and the bad (satan). So you can reason out a whole system of thought based purely on a couple of known symbols, even if they are completely unconnected in time and space. (Eg, there were three wise men and god is a trinity therefore it fits) Cause-and-effect thinking came along later, with the Enlightenment, and relies on facts. Some people are still caught up in symbolic thinking to this day.
heavenlyblue 4y ago
Greek religion didn't come from nothing either: proto-Greek society was simply following certain gods that they considered important for them (fish-god/soil-god), and then when one area managed to invade another area they reconciled their religious allegiance by assuming the god of the invader was simply "stronger" than the other one.

thaumasiotes 4y ago

> for example Christianity adopting aspects of pagan religions (i.e. Thursday = Thor's Day) Is this something that ever happened? There are many documented cases of Christians railing against the names of the days of the week. They just didn't have the power to change them. When Christians did get to name the days of the week, in China, they named them "one", "two", "three", "four", "five", "six", and "day of worship".

codeflo 4y ago
Weren’t both Easter and Christmas non-Christian holidays originally?
- gumby 4y ago
  Yes, most religions have a midwinter festival of rebirth (e.g. Sol Invictus -- the sun gets weak but is reborn) and a spring fertility festival. I find it odd that the Christians reversed them though: easter is a death/rebirth festival (hence the bunnies, chicks, lambs etc -- people want their fertility symbols at that time) which would make more sense in the midwinter and their god's birth festival is in the middle of winter for some reason.
  - rsynnott 4y ago
    In early Christianity, Easter was _by far_ the more significant holiday (Christians didn't even celebrate Christmas until a few centuries AD) so Christmas probably got whatever slot was left. Interestingly, in Islam, Jesus is usually considered to have been born in the Spring or Summer.
- wl 4y ago
  No and no. https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/ https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJq70tf0AsY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJq70tf0AsY
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    The only source that discusses the name of Easter tells us that the holiday is named after the pagan goddess it honors, so "no" may be a little strong.
    - wl 4y ago
      The name "Easter" is an outlier. It's Πάσχα ("Pascha") in Greek, Pasqua in Italian, Pâques in French, Pascua in Spanish, Pasen in Dutch, Påske in Norwegian. It's only in German ("Ostern") and English we name the festival after the old month name ("Esoturmonath") it tended to occur in. The Venerable Bede says the month was named after the goddess Eōstre. That's the sum of the information we have on the goddess. That doesn't make Easter an originally pagan holiday.
ithkuil 4y ago
Nunday, Oneday, Twoday, tweblesday, foursday, fiveday, Sixurday https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_rule https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_rule
inglor_cz 4y ago
German "Mittwoch" (the middle of the week) was constructed precisely to remove Wotan/Odin's from the calendar.

anon8245 4y ago

Several years ago I watched this interesting documentary about how Christianity had incorporated stories into their religions. Stories that we think of as "Christian", such as the star of Bethlehem, the 3 wise men and other stories from the life of Jesus, were based on stories that predated the birth of Jesus. I think we underestimate how different people were compared to what we are used to today. When we tell a story today, we base it on facts. People back then might have a different view. They essentially re-used mythology and these stories to "prove" the credibility of Jesus. Basically confirming that he must be the "one", because these holy events have also happened to him.

FredPret 4y ago
Kind of makes sense: they used symbolic logic, where everything was a symbol for some higher thing, and the two highest things were the good (god) and the bad (satan). So you can reason out a whole system of thought based purely on a couple of known symbols, even if they are completely unconnected in time and space. (Eg, there were three wise men and god is a trinity therefore it fits) Cause-and-effect thinking came along later, with the Enlightenment, and relies on facts. Some people are still caught up in symbolic thinking to this day.

heavenlyblue 4y ago

Greek religion didn't come from nothing either: proto-Greek society was simply following certain gods that they considered important for them (fish-god/soil-god), and then when one area managed to invade another area they reconciled their religious allegiance by assuming the god of the invader was simply "stronger" than the other one.