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Very false. To begin with, the first few hundred years of Christianity saw them as the oppressed and not the oppressors. Oppression has absolutely nothing to do with what religion someone subscribes to. It has a great deal to do with the ruling class imposing their particular beliefs on those with less power. This is perpetrated by almost all religions or political theology that comes into power. Not all, but most.
As for Christianity stealing the appearance of Pan for Lucifer, this is also false (to an extent). Not once in the bible is the devil referred to as being ugly, horned, or cloven-hoofed. He was an angel of the highest order and so beautiful that you could hardly stand to look upon him. The reason that people attribute traits such as a bifurcated tail and red hue derives from peoples need to see things as absolutes. Evil must ugly. Good must be beautiful.
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(I quote the whole thing here just so that nothing's out of context, points are bolded)
Christians did indeed see themselves as the oppressed; and as time-tested tactics tell us, people who are acting in desperation are the easiest to control when a figure of 'stability' or 'leadership' takes the reigns. "Come children, we have exactly what you need." Using the very essential basics of moral conduct that religion teaches
at its foundation, and adding in a lot of extra hoo-ha, the whole resulting 'belief system' becomes something that followers cannot only just swallow, but are also more than willing to do so through its veil of 'good intention.'
So can we look at the ruling class on a quest for power? Could we consider that controlling man's mind is indeed absolute power? We look at history and all its accounts of man's 'leaders,' whether they are religious leaders or other social leaders and, exactly as you put it, the 'ideas' and 'beliefs' tend to have a way of working their way down through the ranks either through ways that are directly 'forceful' (believe or die).... or through less direct yet similarly effective ways which are to make the beliefs or ideas a 'social trend' ... so that they overtake the mind/individual by what's been termed 'tyranny of the majority;' the idea that what is
commonly accepted/socially acceptable is
right.
The Bible does not have to depict Satan. When this idea written of Satan in the Bible is 'elaborated upon' by religious leaders, the follower's minds do all the work in making the association. So then the critical question in response to this is then: why has the stereotype of Satan been the horned devil being that it has been for centuries... and where have we seen this figure before? This goes much deeper than 'black and white' terms of ugly vs beautiful that it may appear to be to you on the surface. Where did the depiction come from? How can absolute power be attained by letting other 'options' or 'belief systems' stay available to those you are trying to control? Look at modern times.... are we still seeing this today?
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The Pan/devil thing, like so much else, was probably derived from a socio-political campaign alienating and vilifying pagans.
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and also,
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Don't make the mistake of assuming people from history are simple minded caricatures of human beings. They have scandals and politics and commentary and machinations and popular culture just like we do.
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I think this fits well into the subject, because it's easy to see historical figures as two dimensional... we may have never known them personally, and without this personal firsthand experience things, in our
own perception tend to be unbased, as we have no real 'foundation' to base these people/thoughts/experiences upon. What I'm saying is that anything outside of our own perception and experience is not concrete unless we're willing to take secondhand information as evidence or proof without critical thought and
think we then know all about it.
