INDIA, September 4, 2020 (Swarajyamag by George Thundiparambil): The spiritual reversal that is evident in the rebuilding of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya perhaps physically signals the redemption of the human evolutionary process that had come to stagnate with the advent of the Abrahamic faiths. Ever since Abram and Sarai set foot in the Promised Land and subsequently changed their names to Abraham and Sarah, the concept of spirituality assumed a course of aggression that culminated in the physical destruction of many ancient cultures that had gone before them. History and myth intersected with the advent of Christianity and the symbolic subjugation of Canaan and its idol-worshipping polytheists became concretely entrenched in the real historical trajectory of Abraham’s spiritual descendants — the Christians and the Muslims. These two derivative faiths ploughed a path of destruction of ancient pagan temples and the forcible conversion of cultures all over the earth.
For most people with a Western orientation, the term pagan evokes an innately derogatory sense. Currently, this term is rarely used by common people, but when used it doesn’t fail to connote an uncivilized quality in human behavior. Pagans were simply those of the human species who were not Jews, Christians or Muslims and hence do not acknowledge the God of Abraham as the sole God or the exclusive source of Divinity.
It may be pertinent to quote here an expert in polytheism, an exceptional Western scholar, Dr. Edward Butler, in order to understand the hatred for the pagan that still exists in the typical Western psyche (collective unconscious) despite the apparent disappearance of the old fanatic Christian zeal from public sphere: “The intolerance toward Hinduism is rooted in fear and loathing of polytheism. Polytheism was not simply left behind in the West, it did not die of natural causes; in fact, it didn’t die at all, because the Gods are still here. Christendom has been fighting its war against them for two millennia now, and it grows tired. This is why when Europeans came into contact with actually existing polytheisms in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania in the early modern era, it set off a frenzy of destruction, subjugation and inhumanity. The old enemy was back.”
Part I of this lengthy and very interesting article can be read at “source” above and Part II and III are included here:
Part II: https://swarajyamag.com/politics/reawakening-of-pagan-india-and-the-challenge-it-can-pose-to-abrahamic-worldviews-part-ii
Part III: https://swarajyamag.com/politics/reawakening-of-pagan-india-and-the-challenge-it-can-pose-to-abrahamic-worldviews-part-iii