From: julie@pascal.org   
      
   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?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)