Religious Icons & Idols are Racist.

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'This Little Light of Mine
Gonna Let it Shine'
We aRe One of
God Amazing
How Different
Now Reality Will
Be Now When Waves
See Who Ocean Is My God
THere Are So Many Ways So Many
Metaphors So Many Waves of This Truth iN Life
When So
Many
Colors Become
A Living Christmas
Tree That Gives and
Shares Its Light For Free
Doing Least Harm to the Rest
of Nature Seeing Ocean Fearless As Waves Do Free i am

Amen, sister!  Preach it!

Hehe; 'People' who 'Look Like me' Are Not 'Ridiculous'.

But on a More Serious Note:

What is the Color of Love?

Humans, Dogs, And
Other Mammals
That Nurture
Each Other May
All Be Described As
Colors of Love; But What
About A Grain of Sand; Where
Does Love Stand Without A Grain of Sand; Perhaps
A Wave; God Yes, As Big As A Blue Whale of Love too For
Mountains Of Love GroW iN Oceans Majestic God as Love Swimming Freer to be i Am;
i am Just Running Across 'This Bay on a Bridge Depicted Here'; A Blue Whale's Love
Comes Closer to SPaN It...
But it's True This is
76 Pounds Ago;
38 Years Ago;
At 22; Now
At 60,
i am 3 Times
Stronger And How
Will i Measure Now, A Dance; A Song;
Soul of my Life in Colors of Love; only by
SMiLeS, only By Smiles, at least that will be seen now...

Does Love Breathe?
How Does 'God' See?

At Least to me;
i Don't See Different Colors of 'Love';
Dog, Cat, Whale; THeiR Love is All The Same 'God' to me;
Yes, The Grains of Sand that Hold Up Mountains of Love And
Waves As Whales Are All Part of the Same 'Ocean' We Do too...

This is What Metaphors of Words And Poetry are; An Opportunity
to See How All of Existence Fits together as Art, DarK Thru LiGHT;
Then, What Better Way to Enjoy; to Give Great Thanks And Praise And Worship 'It' 'All'...

As Far As Human Goes; As Far As Science Even Shows Now; It is the Love That ComeS And
GoeS And ReTurns
That is the
True Savior
of All of Us
in Empathy, Sympathy,
Compassion, And Worship of this Breath, All Living Now...

Separation of Church And State; Allow Some of Us the Opportunity for a Larger View Than Old...

As Well As Traditions of Limited Colors of Both God as Love One too; Separate From the Others...

i Am Not Afraid of Other Colors as I realize

it takes Many to Paint 'A Picture'

More than Black And White...

It's Also Worth Noting that Sharks
Have Been around 450,000,000 Years; Longer Than Trees;
So Much Longer than Dragonflies and Roaches Living Here too;
Some Species of Sharks Actually Reproduce by 'Virgin Birth';
And By God Some of these Mother's of God Do Have Blue eyes too..

As Far as i can Can Will See A Soul
Open to New Experiences
Is A Greatest
Love oF All
That
Leads to Creativity...
Always Coming NoW in More than one Color..

Chinese Christians painted Christ as a Chinese gentleman.

Centuries ago Christ was painted as the same race as the local people.It wasnt racist.

Arguably today the Christ you see in every painting everywhere in the USA is a blue eyed guy with auburn hair could be called "racist" because today we all know better, and know he couldnt have looked like that. Always auburn hair.

Obviously he must have had olive skin, and must have looked like Arabs and Middle Eastern Jews of Levant of today.

That's largely what I think of it, too.

In Poland, Jesus is typically depicted with Mediterranean look - dark wavy hair, brown eyes, yellowish skin. This look exists among the locals but not very commonly.
Thinking of "why?", I came to a conclusion that there may be a factor of "where did Christianity came from to a given location?" Here, the answer is: Rome and Byzantium. In America, the answer is: Europe.
I don't think it explains everything but it may be another contributing factor.

Last edited by magz on 18 Jul 2020, 3:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

True in principle, but I wonder if the intentions of those who made these pictures were racist. Considering how limited travel and photographs were well until 1900's, it was likely that often the artists did not know what people in other countries actually looked like. Their style was realistic enough to require a pretty detailed knowledge. So it was probably easier to work with "material at hand"-that is.
They might also have been thinking about relatability. Had they painted non-European looking people (as would have been correct), uneducated laymen would have remembered how exotic Jesus and the saints looked instead of the message. Or, even worse, made religion that ruled their lives strictly, look like a strange, imported product. Which, of course it actually was.

"If ox had gods, those gods would look like ox", some ancient philosopher whose name I can't remember, said. I think this rings true.

I'm glad that now humanity has reached the point where the racism inherent in this kind of thinking can be addressed...but I don't think that we can judge ancient people from our own privileged viewpoint. They were products of their time and culture, as are we...

Don't forget Buddha. He's usually depicted as Oriental, since Buddhism flourished in China. In reality, he was actually sub-continental Indian.

For most of history humans lived in regional isolation. Didnt know what people looked like in distant lands. And they would believe tall tales told by travelers (like how there is a race of folks 2 thousand miles away who have no heads, and have their faces in their chests).

That is interesting how Christ does actually look Mediterranean in ancient Icons in Russia and in eastern Europe. Even in Mags' Catholic Poland he looks like that even though that is a characteristic of Eastern Orthodox iconography more than in Catholic iconography.

Back in the dark ages Ireland became a center of missionaries going out and converting barbarians to Christianity. It might be that countries that were converted by missionaries from Rome, or from Byzantium, imagine Christ to look Mediterranean. And it may not be a coincidence that in north west european countries (like Germany) that were Christianized by Irish monks - that "God" tends to look more Irish than Meditterranean. And that maybe where the US habit of painting Christ with that look came from. Just a guess.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 18 Jul 2020, 4:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

Thats also true.

Buddhism was a rebel sect of Hindusim (kinda like how Christianity was originally a rogue sect of Judaism before the two parted ways). And dominated India. But by the time Buddhism had spread to east Asia it had been stomped out by reemergent Hinduism in its homeland of India. So today we think of Buddha as looking like that fat oriental guy in Chinese sculpture. But in ancient Indian depictions of the Buddha he is not only an Indian guy with round eyes and a projecting nose, but he either has an athletic physique, or he looks like a gaunt fasting ascetic. In Chinese culture fatness is linked to happiness and bliss. So in their culture it makes sense to portray Buddha as obese. That on top of the fact that he is shown as being of the local Chinese race.

The Muslims forbade any graven images. So as far as I know the issue of painting that religion's founder correctly is a non issue because you are fobidden to depict him at all.

"Chubby Laughing Buddha" is actually 'Budai', the Chinese
Version Achieving the 'Buddha State of Being' With
A Big Fresh 'Blow-Out' Breath of Spirit Wind 'Nirvana'...

Christians are a Bit More Selfish With Their 'Buddha' as they Believe He is the only One Who Will Achieve Heaven Now.

"The Laughing Buddha, or the Fat Buddha, was a Zen monk called Budai who lived in China around the 10th century, meaning about 1,600 years after historical Buddha. Budai was as a bold man with a big tummy, big smile, large ears, wearing a simple robe, prayer beads, and a large sack. 'The fat Buddhist monk' was known as a good-hearted, happy and content man of humorous personality, jolly nature, and eccentric lifestyle. Budai was nicknamed the Laughing Buddha because of his big smile and happiness he was spreading around him. Furthermore, Budai (the Laughing Buddha or the Fat Buddha) became a famous character of Chinese folktales.

This wandering monk used to go from town to town with all his possessions in a cloth sack hanging on his back. Due to his funny looks and a big smile, people gathered around him. He especially loved children and children loved him. In Buddhism, children are believed to have the nature of a god since they live in the present moment, often smiling and laughing, with no ego and no judgemental mind. Budai used to give sweets out of his bag to children and thought ‘the giving with joy’, and the philosophy of ‘the more you give, the more comes to you’.

Budai is often depicted with a bag he was wearing. Even his name Budai means ‘cloth sack’ in Chinese. But, Budai’s sack has also a symbolic meaning. It symbolizes troubles. And although it is easy to solve the problems of others, it’s never an easy task to solve your own problem. That’s because people get attached to their problems and identify themselves with their problems.

Budai teaches us to ‘keep our bags down’, to detach from our problems and laugh. In fact, laughter produces enzymes that change the chemistry of our brains, and when you detach from your problems and you can easily find the solution for them. Budai’s jolly spirit and laughter made people around him laugh too. And while they laughed, they achieved Nirvana. In short, Budai was a Zen master of laughter.

Budai taught laughter not only during his life but also in his death. When he died, he asked his disciples to cremate his body what wasn’t a tradition in at that time China. But before he died, he put firecrackers and fire rockets into his pockets. And when his disciples lit the fire to burn his body, a firework started. Budai was a Zen master of laughter even in his death.

Budai was believed to have achieved Buddahood and has become a Buddha.
He was said to be a reincarnation of Matreiya Buddha, the Buddha of a future age."

Oh By Another Way;
i'm A 60 Year-Old
'Naked Version' Who
Wears 'Stars' Not to offend
FOLKS TOO MUCH ON FACEBOOK hehe;
in Other Words, my Style of Whatever You
Wanna CaLL iT is Leaving No Part of Nature Out;
Let's Face It; 'Pan' (All/God) is First Thru Last Buddha, Christ,
Krishna; Yes, Us; Whatever ya Wanna Call A Greater Nature of Human Reborn Now
Wild Loving Naked Nature (God) Breathing Fearless Free As Most of Us have Just
Forgotten Who We Are Yet
We aRE A Most iGNoRaNT
Animal OF aLL NoW
Clothed and
Hidden
Under
Veils oF iGNorance
of Words And Other
Obfuscate Tools From Eyes
That See Again Wild And Loving Fearless Free;
In the Places Appropriate For NOT Wearing 'Stars';
i Much More Reflect the Original Pan And 'Egyptian Min' too;
Let's PuT iT this Way Folks Visit me All Around A Globe And Come Back Again to see me..

Trust me or Not; Forget me not; After i pass away my Soul PartY Does AS SPiRiT HeART continueS; hehe,
in EacH And Every Human Nature Way From Belly Laughs to 'Shadow Ledges Not Quiet Falling 'off'....

https://www.worldtravelconnector.com/sk ... -laughing/

^ Except for those last two paragraphs, I actually understood what you were saying this time!

Yeah, copy-pasting does that.

THAT was copypasta?  What a shame ... so concise ... so eloquent ... too bad he can't take any credit for it.

Shame...... the Catholic Church current has the image of gawd. Or at least his son .
The Shroud of Turin , has long since believed to be held as a genuine artifact .

( written purely as a subjective thought ). Possibly even a sarcastic response .

No one knows what Jesus actually looked like, but it may be a safe bet that He did NOT look Nordic.... only by the "faithful", who believe that their belief is proof enough of the validity of their belief.

The first mention of the Shroud dates from 1353 or 1357, and the first certain record dates from 1390 when Bishop Pierre d'Arcis wrote a memorandum to Pope Clement VII, stating that the Shroud was a forgery and that the artist had confessed.  Of course, this evidence has been ignored by the "faithful".

If given the authority to do so, the Shroud would be one of the first such "holy" relics I would put to the torch.