<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->goddesses and stuff were dark? And if you look at the really ancient myths etc. this perception isn't really evident at all. But then I remember reading something else about how the whole black=evil and white=purity view has always been around in most cultures<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Goddesses and Gods come in all colours, at least they do in Hinduism (and possibly in many other pre-Christian religions)
What's more is that the same Goddesses and Gods come in different shades. Predictably, Christian schools in India teach their trusting charges that Hinduism has white Gods (Devas) and black demons (Asuras). Of course they tie this back into their pet Aryan Invasion Theory. In two ways this is wrong:
(1) Our Gods come in all colours: literal black and white (neither of which are the colours of any real human), blue (neelam) or shyam (blackish blue - names of MahaVishnu, Krishna and Rama and Shyama for Devi), green, pink and gold for different incarnations of the Godesses, purple/violet for the usual state of Shiva (but in other forms he can be other colours).
(2) Asuras are among the good Deities of the ancient Iranians, Devas are among the good Deities of the Indians. Asuras and Devas were meant to be the same colours, which span the whole spectrum as is common with the rest of the Hindu Gods. Even when Christian schools wrongly teach that Devas were white and Asuras are black, they show their ignorance in this field (as they do regularly in others): Iranians are whiter than Indians in general. Then why are they imagined as having worshipped exclusively black Gods? (In all likeliness, the Iranians didn't, based on the Hindu version of Asuras, the Iranians would have worshipped Gods of all colours and colourlessness like us - which included black.).
What's more is that the same Goddesses and Gods come in different shades. Predictably, Christian schools in India teach their trusting charges that Hinduism has white Gods (Devas) and black demons (Asuras). Of course they tie this back into their pet Aryan Invasion Theory. In two ways this is wrong:
(1) Our Gods come in all colours: literal black and white (neither of which are the colours of any real human), blue (neelam) or shyam (blackish blue - names of MahaVishnu, Krishna and Rama and Shyama for Devi), green, pink and gold for different incarnations of the Godesses, purple/violet for the usual state of Shiva (but in other forms he can be other colours).
(2) Asuras are among the good Deities of the ancient Iranians, Devas are among the good Deities of the Indians. Asuras and Devas were meant to be the same colours, which span the whole spectrum as is common with the rest of the Hindu Gods. Even when Christian schools wrongly teach that Devas were white and Asuras are black, they show their ignorance in this field (as they do regularly in others): Iranians are whiter than Indians in general. Then why are they imagined as having worshipped exclusively black Gods? (In all likeliness, the Iranians didn't, based on the Hindu version of Asuras, the Iranians would have worshipped Gods of all colours and colourlessness like us - which included black.).