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Iranians set fire to the flags of Israel and the United States, as well as an obelisk and a statue of Baal which they described as a symbol of Satan in response to release of the Epstein documents. (lemmy.ml)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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Today, in a symbolic act, Iranians set fire to the flags of Israel and the United States, as well as an obelisk and a statue of Baal—which they described as a symbol of Satan—in various cities across Iran in response to the release of the Epstein documents.

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[–] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

i went on a really fascinating rabbit hole when i read baal's role in the epstein files and learn that all abrahamic monotheism started out as polythesitic paganism based on the ancient mesopotomic pantheon of gods.

over time, they morphed into monotheism with a particular god as the supreme ruler and all of the other others were demoted to demigod/hero/prophet/noteable-figure status. baal was such a god and became synonymous with satan in what would eventually become the cristo-judiastic religions we know today.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 child)

    That's pretty interesting, if questionable. The major prophets of Abrahamic monotheism are pretty clearly men, with flaws and no major powers (Moses parted the sea and Jesus healed the sick but the former had to exile himself and lead his people through the desert and much suffering and the latter got captured and murdered by the Romans... Zeus wouldn't have gone through that, you know). Solomon was proud and very hedonistic in his youth, Moses killed a man, Job got angry at God... But yeah, before God guided people full-on, paganism was the law of the land. Or they had something more interesting and closer to the magnanimity, complete supremacy and non-anthropomorphic nature of God, like the cultures that worshipped the Sun. 🤷

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    The major prophets of Abrahamic monotheism are pretty clearly men, with flaws and no major powers

    that's another fascinating aspect about how these religions morphed in christianity, judiasm & islam that i learned.

    the gods slowly lose their god powers over the millennia and those powers are either re-attributed to the one god; that would later be the same god that the christians, jews & muslims worship today; or just disappear altogether. the end result is that you have one god with all of the powers and just regular people.

    it's a bit like how tolkien described middle earth or how greek/roman pantheon describe the ages going from heroes to men, with the old ages defined by powerful creatures like the titans and balrogs at the begging of history and then a slow degradation of power to the point of ordinary men and hobbits in the current age.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    Mmm. I appreciate the information and your politeness. The Christians are Trinitarians so idk if they count but fair enough. ✌️

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    the christian trinity is also fascinating; it's one of the most modern examples of this sort of god-powers-changing-hands phenomenon when i used tolkien and the greek/roman pantheon as examples.

    I appreciate the information and your politeness.

    you should consider changing primary instances if you're hit with rudeness so much that you felt the need to say this.

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