Thursday, April 18, 2019

Rebuild Notre Dame-as a combined temple of the old & new religions

Recently, the Notre Dame suffered damages owing to a fire. It is going to be rebuilt. How should it be rebuilt?

Notre Dame used to be a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter. https://www.opindia.com/2019/04/the-history-of-the-notre-dame-from-a-pagan-temple-to-gothic-cathedral/

A sculpture of Vulcan, the Roman God of fire was discovered there. https://twitter.com/TrueIndology/status/1117873796625494016 http://indiafacts.org/notre-dame-christianity-and-the-genocide-of-gods-in-france/

Later, this was converted to a Church.

Many such old religions' sacred temples were converted to Churches throughout the world. Catherine Nixey's A Darkening Age documents such instances & has a picture of St.Apollonia destroying a temple.

In India, some notable examples are the SanThome (St.Thomas) church on the Marina beach, which was originally the Kapaleeshwarar Shivan Kovil. http://vedham.blogspot.com/2016/07/kabali-portuguese-rule.html The Velankanni church was originally the Vel Ilan Kanni Amman Kovil. The Vedapureeshwarar Shivan Kovil in Puducherry & the Koneshwarar Kovil in Sri Lanka were other notable demolitions. In many cases, the old primary worshipped deity would be buried under the newly rebuilt structure.

Now, what is the moral thing to do when rebuilding Notre Dame? It would send a powerful message of pluralism, tolerance & history if it were rebuilt as a temple to the old religions, the way it was originally built. It could have the Christian symbols as well, as a nod to its later history, but in a minor manner.

Will this happen? Only time will tell.

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