From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   J.Pascal wrote:   
   > On Saturday, July 4, 2015 at 7:02:14 AM UTC-6, William Vetter wrote:   
   >> John W Kennedy wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> The last I heard, perhaps as early as 10,000 BC, a small number of cats   
   >>> (five  or six females and an unknown number of males) realized that human   
   >>> neolithic  grain stores attracted mice, etc., and that Egyptian cat-worship   
   >>> was an  effect, not a cause.   
   >>>   
   >> Since you guys come after me, and there is not so much activity   
   >> here....   
   >>   
   >> There was never any "cat-worship" in Egypt.  This is a myth that was   
   >> created by 3rd Century Christian writers, either in their ignorance of   
   >> the pagan religions, or to intentionally slur them.  The cats   
   >> themselves were never worshipped.  In religion involving Bastet or her   
   >> Romanized forms Isis/Bubastis, the cats were throught to _embody the   
   >> qualities_ of the ailouromorphic gods, particularly fertility and   
   >> motherhood, and were regarded as sacred, protected and cultivated   
   >> around the temples, and sometimes sacrificed, mummified and buried.   
   >   
   > I suppose it's sort of nit-picky but lots of people use words like   
   > "worshiped" to mean things other than "this thing is a deity."  It's sort of   
   > like an argument between protestants and catholics... "you worship Mary",   
   > "no, we don't", "really, what would you call that then?", "not worship," "How   
   > can it not be worship to have a shrine for her?"  "But it's not *worship*",   
   > "but you have a shrine", "It's not the same", "you pray to her"... "It's.   
   > Not. The. Same"... etc. etc.   
   >   
   > I don't imagine that having sacred cats who embody the qualities of gods is   
   > trackable precisely to the monotheistic religions, but is it impossible to   
   > worship *small* gods or god-fragments?   
      
   Some people regard the Voodoo loa as Christian saints, not gods.   
      
   The mummified cats were sold to pilgrims who came to Bubastis, for them   
   to participate in some ritual and entomb them.  It was a business.   
   Cats were bred to be mummified and sold.  X-ray analysis of mummies   
   show that many of them were Felis Chaus, the jungle cat, another   
   species somewhat larger than Felis Lybica, caught for the purpose.   
   Further, one specimen was shown to be a fraud, being five bones from a   
   human hand wrapped to form a body, with a cat's skull stuck on top.   
      
   Additionally, there were a variety of other animals involved with other   
   Egyptian deities mummified, ibises and so on.   
   The above refers to Journal of Acheological Science, *8*, (1981), 185.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)