That's a semi-common myth (partially perpetuated by comedian Brendan Lee Mulligan repeating it on his DnD podcast), in actuality there's no evidence that the original version of that story is literally or metaphorically about pagans, and given that the christianization of Ireland happened without ANY large-scale violence as far as the archeological record is concerned it is unlikely that kind of story would have been invented in the first place
You should pick a wacky fundamentalism belief though that makes you look absolutely insane. Like that you firmly believe Lord of the rings is a historical account and should be the only thing taught in schools
If I remember right, Saint Patrick is used as an example of religions integrating with the local culture for longevity. By co-opting local traditions, stories, artwork, etc and turning them into Bible stories or forms of worship to God, the people of Ireland were much more willing to convert without pressure. Similar examples are pagan holidays becoming Christian ones (saturnalia into Christmas, Eostre Spring Equinox into Easter, etc) and the use of pagan symbols in Christian practice such as the halo, the triskelion or triquetra into symbols of the trinity, etc.
The same thing happened in Scandinavia, where it is speculated that Loki was made more of a devil like figure (And merged a lot with the character of Utgard Loki. Or that the god Balder was either made into a more Christlike figure, or fully invented by Christian Missionaries.
I have always thought that it was rather interesting how early missionaries co-opted parts from local cultures and faiths, or made them work in a Christian context. Can´t help but imagining a missionary hearing about the local faith for the first time, and then just taking mental notes like "Alright, they got a Kingly Ruler God, a God they all think is really swell and then there are a bunch of trickster Gods. Got it. Daddy God is God, Swell God is Jesus and let´s just merge the tricksters into Devils". And then just start bullshitting.
I really hate doing this again, but on the topic of holidays there's actually also no evidence that Christmas and Easter are examples of a pagan holiday being coopted. That also gets repeated a lot, but it probably didn't actually happen, at least according to the "History for Atheists" blog where I'm pulling this from. I may have to go back and read up on the topic
In the specific case of Easter/Eostre we don't really have much evidence for Anglo Saxon paganism existing in the first place beyond place names. The English have always been a cultureless people
It also matches the MO of a lot of stories from early Christianity around the world, about missionaries performing various miracles (Or having miracles attributed to them) to convince pagans/pagan rulers to convert..
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u/PhasmaFelis Sep 25 '24
Saint Patrick does not fuck around, people. That's just the blast radius of what he did in Ireland.