this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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I'm into decolonization of Christianity, and one thing that's really interesting is how saints were used by conquered peoples to preserve their gods and cultural practices i.e. syncretism. That's one of the reasons Catholicism has remained more prominent than Protestantism in Latin America.
Catholicism outside of the Vatican is peganism and animism and ancestor worship with the labels scratched off.
And I'm mature enough in my atheism (really, post-atheist) to think that's actually really cool.
My Filipino wife gave me a whole different view of their Catholicism. She has a rosary in the car and rubs it for protection, believes in Jesus and heaven, all that, but isn't familiar with even the most well-known Bible stories and I have no idea if she's even been to Mass. To her, the bible simply isn't important in any way, and neither are the practices of the church. All very strange to my American senses, having been raised in a white-bread Presbyterian church.
I'm not a practitioner, but I've done a lot of reading on Voodoo.
African, Haitian, and New Orleans.
Often, at least in Haiti and New Orleans, Catholic saints are matched with a particular Loa (spirit, god, whatever you wanna call it)
This was due to Voodoo practitioners being killed for not being Christians in Haiti. Thus, they could worship Saint whoever visually, while still interacting with their own faith. It just traveled to the new world as people did.
The process is called Syncretism, and Voodoo is hardly the first or last instance of it happening.
As you mentioned, the church has done this too.
Easter? Eostre was a fertility deity associated with spring and rabbits.
Christmas? Yule.
It goes on.
What is "post-atheism"?
Recognizing that religion had an important place in the historical development of society (culture, government, labor, ownership, law, family, etc) and that being religious has a material basis that exists outside of our own ability to choose our beliefs.
Atheism isn't a choice. Theism isn't a choice. They are just products of our material conditions.
So, I don't try to convince anyone about atheism; I'm honestly somewhat jealous that religious people can still believe in anything.