# Where did this "Moon god" nonsense come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 15, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111 "2015-05-15T15:30:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/141 "2015-05-19T02:21:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I have to admit I can’t understand how people can see that every other religion is just a bunch of make-believe and superstition while blindly believing that their religion is divinely revealed truth. I think, based on my observations, that it’s not really about “truth”, it’s about belonging. At a fundamental level (so to speak), it’s tribalism. Belief in the tribe’s version of “truth” is a requirement for membership, and the desire to belong is strong enough in many people that they will undergo all sorts of mental contortions–twisted logic, ignoring inconvenient facts, demonizing people with opposed viewpoints, and more–in order to comply with that requirement. Think of it like a club. You endure hazing rituals, memorize a bunch of code phrases, and learn the secret handshake, so you can be in this club. Even if the stuff you’re doing is uncomfortable and looks silly to outsiders, you do it anyway, because it’s required in order to stay in the club. You’ve been in the club since you were a kid, and the club is where all your friends are. If you don’t follow the rules, you’ll have to leave, and your friends may not be your friends anymore. You’ll have to make new friends, and that’s risky–what if no one else likes you? What if there are bad people out there who will trick and hurt you, like the Grand Poobah of the club says? Who will you hang out with and talk about the game? Who will help you move? So you put on the robe, tape the duck to your head, and plaster a smile on your face, because it’s all perfectly normal…in the club. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/142 "2015-05-19T02:34:45Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > . . . So you put on the robe, tape the duck to your head, and plaster a smile on your face . . . “I was talking to the duck!” ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/143 "2015-05-19T02:57:54Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > You do know that cats consider not worshiping them to be grounds for peeing on your pillow and leaving the less tasty half of a mouse in your shoes, right? She couldn’t catch a mouse to save her life. Some birds were sitting on a fence and she whined at me like I was supposed to catch them for her. The birds laughed at her. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/144 "2015-05-19T03:18:21Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > Yes, he - BigT - is wrong. I said so earlier. The SDMB should make this a macro. :T or something for “BigT spouts off authoritatively about something he doesn’t have the faintest idea about” ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/145 "2015-05-19T03:43:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I have to admit I can’t understand how people can see that every other religion is just a bunch of make-believe and superstition while blindly believing that their religion is divinely revealed truth. > > How exactly do you determine the difference? What is it that lets you know that Jesus performing miracles and rose from the dead is true but Rama rescuing Sita from Ravana is just a story? > > And don’t religious people ever find it suspicious that the religion they believe is true almost always happens to be the religion they were raised in as a child? > > Do people ever think _“The reason I’m a devout Baptist is because I happened to be born in Little Rock. If I had been born in Mumbai, I’d be a devout Hindu and I’d believe that religion just as fully as I now believe in the American Baptist Association.”_? Or do devout people not think that? Do they feel that even if they had been born in India or Nigeria or Mongolia, they would still have found the exact same religion they have now and be a devoted member of that religion? The answer is that they don’t do any of these things even for a second, and if they do, they’re punished emotionally by their church for demonstrating ‘doubt’. The more kind hearted feel sorry for those born into the wrong cultures (and might spare a moment to feel sad over all those ignorant heathens landing in hell), but the important idea is that their religion is either all true, or they have wasted their lives, and their community, family and emotional lives have to be abandoned. That’s a pretty strong motivator to stick with the party line. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/146 "2015-05-19T03:49:08Z")
> [@andros](#): > > 😕 It was taken entirely at face value. It was just astoundingly dumb. And silly. And wrong. But it’s only wrong and dumb and silly if you have not already built your world view, family structure and understanding of right and wrong around those ideas. [This](http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-the-sunk-cost-fallacy-makes-you-act-stupid.html) is one of the most powerful factors in why people - regardless of how ‘smart’ they might be - are compelled to stay attached to wrong ideas. Hence, it was actually answering the question posed by the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/147 "2015-05-19T04:53:17Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Ironic that you link to a song by [the famous Muslim jihadist Yusuf Islam, once barred from entering the U.S.A.](http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/12/questions-remain-over-cat-stevens-connections-to-jihad-terror) :eek: [Even more ironic that you call him something he isn’t now and wasn’t then](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens#Denial_of_entry_into_the_United_States). ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/148 "2015-05-19T11:30:03Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Viking gods drank mead. There are probably some Protestant churches in Norway or Sweden that were built on former Viking sacred sites, so maybe the Protestant Christian god drinks mead as well. Most old Christian (Catholic) churches in Europe - and by old I’m talking VIIth to Xth century, back when Christendom really became a Thing - are actually built on older pagan necropolises. No sense wasting perfectly serviceable holiness, is there ? 😃 [QUOTE=Ukulele Ike] I would worship the FUCK out of the Moon. I think it would be “goddess,” though. Everyone knows the Sun is a guy, the Moon is a chick. [/QUOTE] Tell that to the Japanese :). Amaterasu Oomikami, i.e. the Sun, is a chick. Tsukuyomi-no-mikoto, her brother the Moon, is a dude. And a bit of a violent shithead, which is why they don’t talk any more. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/149 "2015-05-19T11:43:13Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Tell that to the Japanese :). Amaterasu Oomikami, i.e. the Sun, is a chick. Tsukuyomi-no-mikoto, her brother the Moon, is a dude. And a bit of a violent shithead, which is why they don’t talk any more. In the Hindu pantheon, both the Sun (Surya) and the Moon (Chandra) are male. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/150 "2015-05-19T11:46:46Z")
My first girlfriend turned into the moon. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/151 "2015-05-19T12:14:57Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > My first girlfriend turned into the moon. Wolverine ?! ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/152 "2015-05-19T13:10:32Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > [Even more ironic that you call him something he isn’t now and wasn’t then](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens#Denial_of_entry_into_the_United_States). I love Cat Stevens; some of his songs have a special place in my heart. His denied entry was absurd. I need to start using more of the i’m-being-sarcastic icon. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/153 "2015-05-19T14:58:01Z")
> [@Junior\_Spaceman](#): > > But it’s only wrong and dumb and silly if you have not already built your world view, family structure and understanding of right and wrong around those ideas. [This](http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-the-sunk-cost-fallacy-makes-you-act-stupid.html) is one of the most powerful factors in why people - regardless of how ‘smart’ they might be - are compelled to stay attached to wrong ideas. > > Hence, it was actually answering the question posed by the OP. I get what you’re saying. And IRL I have a great deal of patience for individual cultural paradigms, however naïve or inaccurate. It’s my job, actually. But here? Not so much. AFAIC, “Catholics worship Mary and nothing they can say will convince me otherwise” is in direct opposition to the cause of fighting ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/154 "2015-05-19T15:57:41Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > “I was talking to the duck!” “What duck?” ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/155 "2015-05-19T16:23:19Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Ironic that you link to a song by [the famous Muslim jihadist Yusuf Islam, once barred from entering the U.S.A.](http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/12/questions-remain-over-cat-stevens-connections-to-jihad-terror) :eek: Probably because I didn’t really give a shit who sang it. The song just popped into my head and I thought I would use it to make a little joke along the theme of the thread. The Ayatollah himself could have sang it and I still would have posted it. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/156 "2015-05-19T16:30:53Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > “I was talking to the duck!” > [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > “What duck?” ``` M R Ducks M R Not M R Too C M Wangs L I B...M R Ducks ``` > [@Alessan](#): > > My first girlfriend turned into the moon. Was [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Zappa) your first girlfriend? ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/157 "2015-05-19T20:53:02Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Wolverine ?! Sokka. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/158 "2015-05-20T01:50:52Z")
> [@Junior\_Spaceman](#): > > I think that it’s a pity that the post above, which actually gave the clearest possible answer to the question of the OP, was not taken at face value. If we consider that there are two general ‘types’ of religion - (a) those that believe that they and only they hold the truth and worship correctly, and (b) those that believe that there are many paths to ‘truth’ - then it is obvious for those in camp (a) why every other religion has to be attacked (either through rhetoric or by literal violence). Every religion has the right to piss on every other religion, and the adherents have the right to either get angry about it or ignore it. So it’s OK for him (or her) to rhetorically attack other people’s religious views, which could include ridiculing them, but it’s not OK for us to do the same with someone’s ideas about other religions? Believing that only you worship God (or whatever) in the right way is one thing. Having wrong ideas about other people’s religious beliefs or practices is another. The latter is just ignorance, and we’re here to fight that. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/159 "2015-05-20T22:56:10Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > So it’s OK for him (or her) to rhetorically attack other people’s religious views, which could include ridiculing them, but it’s not OK for us to do the same with someone’s ideas about other religions? > > Believing that only you worship God (or whatever) in the right way is one thing. Having wrong ideas about other people’s religious beliefs or practices is another. The latter is just ignorance, and we’re here to fight that. I think we might be talking at cross purposes. As an atheist with a religious background, the concept that two different religions can argue over whether they are worshipping “the same god” is a bewildering one, particularly when it’s the incorporeal J-C-M god. The only way to understand the question is to listen to how followers of those faiths discuss it, and the quote that I first referenced is a wonderful and honest example. Because religions each set their own ‘rules’ for how they understand their god as well as all other competing/‘false’ gods, it isn’t realistic to call these rules ‘wrong’ - ‘stupid’ might be ok, but not ‘wrong’. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111/160 "2015-05-20T23:24:04Z")
> [@Junior\_Spaceman](#): > > it isn’t realistic to call these rules ‘wrong’ - ‘stupid’ might be ok, but not ‘wrong’. Cross-purposes indeed. What’s wrong–as in factually incorrect–is the claim that Catholics worship Mary. As an atheist with a religious background, I find it pretty clear that they–as a body–do not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-moon-god-nonsense-come-from/720111.md?page=9)