Today, in a symbolic act, Iranians set fire to the flags of Israel and the United States, as well as an obelisk and a statue of Baal—which they described as a symbol of Satan—in various cities across Iran in response to the release of the Epstein documents.
I feel like I don’t understand what the message being sent here is. Are they mad that the Epstein files got released? Mad about what’s in them? Something else?
Blood Marines are stored in the Baals.
I love that at some point the SG-1 writers must have asked themselves “what if a Goa’uld had rizz?” And thus Ba’al was born.
Baal isn’t Satan - that’s just ignorant.
Does this mean they sculpted dozens of statues and shipped them around the country to burn some gas on them? Old Hadad is making a come back
No, that’s just monotheism. All “pagan” gods are Satan to these mouth breathers.
Also, building a statue of Baal and then burning it is just standard Baal-worship.
I was about to say, Baal heavily approves of this action
i wonder how long we stop pretending w this jesus guy and cut out the middle man to go straight to worshipping baal again. lol
Exactly. That’s how sacrifice worked. You burned shit to give it to the gods. These guys just gave Baal a really nice statue of Satan to put in his living room.
I’d totally have this be a valid form of worship if I were a god. Especially if they cook hot dogs and marshmallows over it
Please link a source next time, lots of ignorant replies in this thread due to the lack of one explaining the Baal thing.
Why were ‘Baal’ statues burned at Iran’s revolution anniversary rallies?
It’s a reference to Epstein.
This is like the worst source possible for this event from the worst Israel and American backed news agency about Iran possible!!!
Yeah. But at least it’s a source that one can analyse and criticise. To be honest I literally just googled it and picked the first link because I’ve only read about this in telegram channels. And still, that was more effort than OP put in.
based tbh
Western Mainstream Media: look at these 5 iranians we found who want the US to bomb Iran and install the Shah
- Iranians burning US and Israeli flags
Western Mainstream Media: check out these AI slop videos of Jared kushners plans for gaza
Say what you want, but their effigy-burning commitment is absolutely top notch.
They build a fucking statue that any Baal-worshiper would be thrilled to have in their home and then burn it.
That statue is awesome. Blows Banksy’s picture-shredder out of the water.
I’m just wondering if they contracted the statue out to some artist without sharing their plans.
“You did what with it? Dude, that took me fifteen fucking months. MY WIFE LEFT ME!!!”
It’s a pretty random bunch of things to burn though. My guess is they had this stuff lying around for a while and they needed to make room for something else
Burning a statue of Baal is metal as fuck. Set flame to the dying and rising god Baal, let his ashes bring strong harvests and renewal 🤘
I really wish he and his wife could have made it through the ordeal. They held a lot of promise.
I’m just wondering if they contracted the statue out to some artist without sharing their plans.
I think the first part is a safe assumption, but I can I can’t imagine any reason for secrecy. It may have been state or community or corporate funding.
At least it wasn’t AI
Good reminder for all those who were calling on U.S intervention just some weeks ago
If I learned anything from Burning Man it’s that, in order to burn something in effigy, you first need to construct a combustible effigy.
Israel and US flag fit that description
… Now I wanna know why there was a statue of Baal on the street in iran. Like, is there a Baal worshipping segment of the population? Was it some ancient statue? An art piece? Ragebait? I have so many questions.
They built the statues specifically to burn them down for this symbolic act, they are not stone statues. I answered this to our other friend who asked as well🙏🏻
Oh that explains it, thank you! I wonder why Baal was singled out instead of just building a statue of satan himself? There’s a cultural aspect here I’m missing.
Baal looks a lot like Baphomet in that photo.
I was assuming it was based off later depictions of Baal Hammon (the ram) but blending the two for dramatic effect would also make sense.
Yes.
Baal is actually in the Bible of Christians and Hebrews
Yeah, but… why go after baal for being satanic, instead of going after satan directly? I don’t quite understand why baal is taking the spotlight when you could have simply made a statue of satan, but I’m sure there’s a reason.
Baal simply means “Lord,” or “master,” as I stated earlier.
… You did? I’m sorry, I didn’t see where you mentioned that.
Probably because I stated it after your posts, my fault, entirely, I should have linked you. https://kbin.earth/m/worldnews@lemmy.ml/t/2396552/-/comment/11212850
More on things you may find interesting
https://kbin.earth/m/worldnews@lemmy.ml/t/2396552/Iranians-set-fire-to-the-flags-of-Israel-and-the/comment/11213043#entry-comment-11213043
https://kbin.earth/m/worldnews@lemmy.ml/t/2396552/-/comment/11216059
It’s taken me several years to get all this stuff, and we’re just not taught it. Christianity has it’s own political agenda, largely began to validate Constantine’s conquests, evolved over time to support European’s and USA’s.
And Judaism began as Abraham leaving either Babylon or Chelsea, choosing to worship one of their many gods, and conquer and colonize, and so on since Summer and before.
Muslims don’t generally don’t have a representation of what Satan looks like, Baal is an idol, already has a shape
Not an unreasonable explanation, thank you!
Because Baal is actually in the religious texts
If you’re going for textual literalism sure fair enough, but what’s confusing me is that they then go outside the bounds of that to invoke satan anyways. And aside from that, it’s not like (figures that you can reasonably call a satan/devil analog if you dont want to start a fight) aren’t in the Torah, Koran and Bible - why not build a statue of Iblis, the progenitor of devils? And why describe Baal as a symbol of satan instead of just going after satan directly, since that means you already believe satan exists?
I guess I’m just trying to figure out the symbolism here. Burning the flags is pretty clear, but the statue and the obelisk seem more like they’re an act aimed at worshiping false idols (what Baal is primarily used for in the various texts) which… is that what they’re accusing the US/Israel of? Because that seems like a largely semantic question given they’re all worshiping the same god, and just burning a satan-analog would be a much clearer message about opposition to evil than the sorta abstract concept presented by Baal in any of the texts.
Iranians set fire to the flags of Israel and the United States, as well as an obelisk and a statue of Baal which they described as a symbol of Satan in response to release of the Epstein documents.
These bingo wins are getting way too specific …
How is this a real event that got to world news?
(I’m not disputing anything, just the combination of events that lead to this.)Missiles and anti-Israeli chants: Iran marks the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution
One of the most striking scenes involved protesters setting fire to a sculpture representing Baal, an ancient Canaanite deity often invoked as a symbol of evil. The figure was depicted with a Star of David and an image of U.S. President Donald Trump, as crowds chanted “Death to Israel.”
Why did they have an obelisk and a statue of Baal?
Obelisk and statue of Baal are both associated with satanism, Obelisk is way more famous and way more used, Baal is a god representing high corruption and requiring child sacrifice from it’s worshippers (even in bible). Jeffery Epstien also named his bank accound Baal which was seen in the Epstien Files.
This is way off.
Baal was just a normal local god for a long time. Actually several different gods, as the word just means God, but one was most famous. He was associated with weather and fertility. There’s absolutely no evidence for human sacrifices. The Romans were more tolerant than the abrahamic religions. When they build the largest temple complex ever outside Rome in the city of Baalbek in Lebanon, they allowed the locals to worship Baal in the huge entrance hall to the Jupiter temple. The intolerant monotheistic religions invented all the bad stuff about him to gain influence. Today, you can get tours and visit jazz concerts in the temples, if Israel is not currently bombing the site of the irreplaceable world cultural heritage, which they did of course.
But my question is, what are they doing there? Who built them and for what purpose? I’m assuming this is in Iran. Those don’t look like ruins, Baal was never worshiped in Iran to my knowledge, that Obelisk is decorated with hieroglyphs which aren’t Iranian.
They built them to burn them down for this symbolic act
That’s a level of petty I can get behind! Built specifically to destroy.
Ah, ok
…they aren’t stone buildings
I thought it was something that was made before the protest. I didn’t think the protestors would make a statue and an obelisk just for a demonstration.
It’s not a spontaneous protest. It’s an organized commemoration of the Sha (a comprador of US empire) being overthrown 47 years ago.
Reasons.
Isn’t there evidence that the Canaanite gods El and Ba’al were merged into Yahweh, who remains to this day the Christian god and the Islamic Allah? These people are burning their own god
Edit: My Lemmy client is messing up and won’t let me respond to comments. Just wanted to add that yeah, the Muslim Allah is the same Abrahamic God that Christians and Jews worship. In fact, the name “Allah” is directly derived from the god “El”:
The majority of scholars consider[Allah] to be derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- and ilāh “deity, god” to al-lāh meaning “the deity, the God.” Originally, ʾilāh was used as an epithet for the West Semitic creator god ʾIlu (the Ugaritic version of El), before being adopted as the proper name itself for this god
El, Ba’al, Yahweh, God, and Allah are all wrapped up in each other
It’s likely better to think of baal and yahweh as effectively the same deity for rival regional clans. Many psalms etc in the Bible are directly plagiarized from baal.
Saying that polytheism and monotheism are actually the same thing and therefore they’re burning their own god is quite a large stretch.
I didn’t say that. Yahweh used to be a part of a polytheistic religion and over time became the only god. That doesn’t make polytheism and monotheism the same thing, but it does make Allah and God the same god as the Yahweh from the original polytheistic religion.
Linguistically they seem to use a word for “God” but that is about where the similarities seem to end. A quick search shows your theory being a prominent Quota answer which usually isn’t a great indicator of truthfulness, but also it claims Baal and Yahweh being two entirely different polytheistic gods and then Yahweh winning out over time (at least according to some rando on Quota). So even following that line they aren’t the same and Iran isn’t “burning their own God.”
YHWH was originally the Caanite desert warrior and storm God, according to YouTube Esoterica, run by Dr. Justin Sledge, who is Jewish and has excellent deep-dive videos on that channel. These are subjects deeply interesting to me as I started my own faith and have had to turn increasingly to Judaism and the suppressed books taken from the same Dead Sea scrolls as Gnosticism, found at Qum Ran, and included in the Ethiopian Bible, which you can find in English, also on YouTube and elsewhere online, with digging.
Basically, the Council of Nicea worked for Constantine, who had a political interest in regular people not getting ideas to violently uprise against his authority, much like slavers giving slaves a different version of the Bible than the slavers read.
It’s been quite an enlightening, years-long journey, learning how much words or phrases were mistranslated from Aramaic to Greek and Latin, deliberately, or from misunderstanding, which were then mistranslated again, into English. Multiple scribes with their own biases and fallibities, as were, I would imagine, Jewish scribes before them, in addition to how tales change from one telling to the next, for multiple generations. The person to whom you are replying is probably closer to correct than incorrect, and quora, like Reddit and Lemmy, can get things right, wrong, or an amalgamation, according to their own writers’ understandings and biases. Here, I’ve cited my sources so it’s a rather fascinating and winding journey, if you’re ever inclined to go digging. I’m saying this as someone who regularly disagrees with the person to whom you replied here as often as I’ve agreed with you, so it’s not that I’m choosing their side based on personal feelings, for whatever that’s worth or not.
Thanks for the context. It was also iffy because it gives credence to the implication that Iran is burning Ba’al because he represents Yaweh and therefore Zionists can say “Iran is antisemitic”.
I did a little more research and found a Reddit thread where everyone really just seems to make random stuff up https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateReligion/comments/hu3gvu/yahweh_and_baal_the_same_deity/
But even there the seeming most sensible comment says that Baal and Yaweh were two different deities.
In ancient times Baal is a term for various deities in the West Semitic (Syrian and Levantine) area and means Lord, master, owner, husband, king or god. Baal was a title that could be used for any god. Baal is usually referred to as the supreme god of the local pantheon. He is usually a god of mountains, weather and fertility. The Babylonian weather god Adad was often equated with Baal.
In the Bible, the term Baal is used synonymously as a name for a number of local deities, but the Hebrew word Baal also appears in the Bible in its non-religious meaning Lord, owner or husband.
According to the biblical account, the Israelites came into contact with the cult of Baal during the desert migration (Dtn 25:3). In the narratives a sharp contrast is usually emphasized. On the other hand, names containing Baal show that in the early days of Israel, the worship of JHWH and Baal was not perceived as a contrast: Saul named his first son Jonathan (YH gave), another Ishbaal (man of Baal). David named one son Adoniah: My Lord is YH), another Beeljada (Baal has recognized, 1 Chr 14:7).
Baal was worshipped for centuries, especially in northern Israel (1 Kings 16:32); both the Elijah legends and the Book of Hosea polemicize against and call for monolatrous YHWH worship instead. Hosea 2:18 suggests that the word Baal (according to its original etymology) was previously used as a title for YHWH itself (which the prophet opposes for several reasons). Its worship in Northern Israel can be explained at least in part by the cultural and religious influence of Tyros.
The biggest connection people seem to find is that one is called “The Lord” and the other one “God” but it still all feels like a very large stretch to me. Thanks for your input though I don’t really feel like spending more time on this subject but I might check out the Youtube channel in the future.
You’re welcome, and thank you for that reddit post! It’s quite fascinating and largely aligns with my current understanding. Part of the reason for yhwh allowing the conquering and exiles of the Jewish people was for “whoring after other gods” and Baal was one of several. In this context, the “covenant” between yhwh and his people meant “marriage” so the Hebrews worshipping other gods was adultery, punishable by death, so conquering, exile, and occupation was indicative of G-d’s mercy on his people, because of his love and compassion.
If you do a deeper dive, some of the Hollywood movies begin to make more sense, and even deeper will change your understanding of the various names of G-d, akin to the Brahmans’ saying, “Brahma is one, the faces of Brahma are many.” Deeper still and you learn how modern Christianity also corrupted the common understanding of souls, the tree of life (and tree of death), the shattering of the vessels (mazel tov!) and so. much. more!
You are so stupid
👍
I’ve never heard that Baal was, not that he wasn’t, but Baal simply means “Lord,” or “master,” like Baal Shem Tov, for example. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Baal-Shem-Tov
I don’t really know about christians but for muslims, Allah was never a merge of other gods, so what you are saying is not correct when it comes to muslims.
Not true for christians either. There is the holy trinity, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit but they are seen as different expressions of the one god, not three gods merged into one.
The Trinity was originally considered polytheism by the Church.
I’m not that deeply versed into it, the “sun” analogy gets used a lot nowadays, but sabellius himself was excommunicated for supposedly opposing trinity or something idk I don’t really understand it tbh
Yes. As Christians we’re largely taught not to question or doubt. I’m hard-headed, and wanting to better understand my faith had changed it in irrevocable ways, over the years. Regardless of the faiths I’ve explored, I keep ending up at the same place, different vantage point, like climbing an eternal spiral staircase, and the ancient mystical symbol found on cave walls makes more sense, and clues us that these people were much more intelligent than we credit them. In short, lack of language/vocabulary != lack of intelligence, ability to think deeply. We just rely more heavily on different brain hemispheres. If we ever evolve to the place where the larger world populace uses both equally and simultaneously, I’ll daresay we will become “as gods,” able to eat from every tree in the metaphorical garden!
Oh I’ve been dialectical about my faith in many ways. I grew up in a majority muslim country so having to “defend” or rather explain my faith has been at the core of it from the very start. Synthesising two theses gives me great joy and so I definitely understand your point about having to irrevocably change it. Creationism, The bible as the word of god being the two largest, LGBTQ+ acceptance of course and some other ones likely. I’m currently on the Jesus was not a vegan bend. This one is pretty tough I’ve gotta say 😅
Literally chuckling, first sip of coffee barely swallowed in time to avoid spilling!
I’m currently on the Jesus was not a vegan bend. This one is pretty tough I’ve gotta say
Hard to say, but he celebrated Passover after the trumphal entry on the ass, and was welcomed and financed by enough people “of means,” that lamb was probably served. Additionally there are the five loaves and two fishes miracle, so I’m not sure. I lean toward agreement with you, although it’s possible he restrained from fish and lamb, himself, as we’re simply not told.
I will encourage you he literally told the disciples not to take everything so literally, after the Sermon on the Mount, when asked why he taught in parables. My latest hypothesis is that in certain instances, “dead/death” referenced spiritually dead (eating from the tree of life, dead bury the dead), and the reason his teachings not being for those who didn’t understand the parables is because those people had hardened their hearts (empty cups), and hadn’t done the spiritual work (being spiritually alive) to understand. Wait until you start digging into Judaism and Jewish mystacism! 🤯 The soul is truly taught differently!
Anyway, best along your journey, may it ever bring you closer to union within yourself and the Divine.
Not canonically, but they mean historically and like sociologically.
The etymology of some words have previous origins, but that’s it. The concept of God in Islam (and all of Abrahamic monotheism) is very different from other religions (including the pagan religions of the time and Zoroastrianism), it’s way less bestial and/or anthropomorphic and local.
The etymology of some words have previous origins, but that’s it.
What are you basing this on? It’s pretty settled among historians that the Abrahamic God is Yahweh, who was previously a minor deity in the Canaanite pantheon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh
The concept of God in…all of Abrahamic monotheism…is very different from other religions (including the pagan religions of the time), it’s way less bestial and/or anthropomorphic and local.
Whoa. Super judgemental here, and also wrong.
Semitic polytheism transitioned into Abrahamic monotheism by way of Yahwism, a variety of Canaanite paganism centred on Yahweh, the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah. In this process, Yahweh was syncretized with El, the supreme god of the Canaanite pantheon, whose name “El” אל, or elah אלה is a word for “god” in Hebrew, cognate to Arabic ʼilāh إله, and its definitive pronoun form الله Allāh, “(The) God”.
i went on a really fascinating rabbit hole when i read baal’s role in the epstein files and learn that all abrahamic monotheism started out as polythesitic paganism based on the ancient mesopotomic pantheon of gods.
over time, they morphed into monotheism with a particular god as the supreme ruler and all of the other others were demoted to demigod/hero/prophet/noteable-figure status. baal was such a god and became synonymous with satan in what would eventually become the cristo-judiastic religions we know today.
i went on a really fascinating rabbit hole
Just posting to say that I initially read that as “i went on a really fascinating rabbi hole”
i’ve gone down a couple of rabbi holes in my time and each one thoroughly enjoyed it. lol
That’s pretty interesting, if questionable. The major prophets of Abrahamic monotheism are pretty clearly men, with flaws and no major powers (Moses parted the sea and Jesus healed the sick but the former had to exile himself and lead his people through the desert and much suffering and the latter got captured and murdered by the Romans… Zeus wouldn’t have gone through that, you know). Solomon was proud and very hedonistic in his youth, Moses killed a man, Job got angry at God… But yeah, before God guided people full-on, paganism was the law of the land. Or they had something more interesting and closer to the magnanimity, complete supremacy and non-anthropomorphic nature of God, like the cultures that worshipped the Sun. 🤷
The major prophets of Abrahamic monotheism are pretty clearly men, with flaws and no major powers
that’s another fascinating aspect about how these religions morphed in christianity, judiasm & islam that i learned.
the gods slowly lose their god powers over the millennia and those powers are either re-attributed to the one god; that would later be the same god that the christians, jews & muslims worship today; or just disappear altogether. the end result is that you have one god with all of the powers and just regular people.
it’s a bit like how tolkien described middle earth or how greek/roman pantheon describe the ages going from heroes to men, with the old ages defined by powerful creatures like the titans and balrogs at the begging of history and then a slow degradation of power to the point of ordinary men and hobbits in the current age.
Mmm. I appreciate the information and your politeness. The Christians are Trinitarians so idk if they count but fair enough. ✌️
Ok, but it doesn’t mean that one didn’t have massive influence on the formation of the other.
Religion are just belief stolen from other religion that stole it from other religion since the start of religion anyway
So in that way yes it’s true for muslim too
Yeah, but don’t you dare ask them why they have to walk counter-clockwise around a shrine with a meteor in it
Yeah but the guys who stole my religion were being guided by the real God!
a statue of Baal—which they described as a symbol of Satan
Cringe as fuck. “Satan” exist in a real manifestation in the form Capitalist Governments. You don’t need throw religion into it.
maybe they run out of banks and governments with Israeli and usa flags to burn instead lol
