So I was reading about this Constantine dude and apparently he sacked them pagan temples because he loved Jesus so much, or whatever. And, that’s just a datum cuz’ lots of the world’s biggest religions spread via colonization, conquering, and subjugation of peoples and their native belief systems.
I guess, if you’re an adherent to a certain religion I’m not sure what the mental gymnastics are like when you realize it was foisted upon your ancestors, like it - "Oh man I’m soooooo glad my peoples got conquered and converted to (insert religion here) upon penalty of death to believe in the correct God(s), otherwise I’d be a pagan heathen today!
Dude, that’s messed up. I think we should all go back to being pagans unless, I guess said religion was really your people’s religion in the first place.
Even the word pagan was intended to be derogatory. I was an embarassing age when I made the connection that all the Greek/Roman Gods were just a subset of the Pagan catchall.
There’s some thought that monotheism spurred the scientific revolution because it made people find unifying theories as opposed to thinking that different gods had different ways of making the world work. One deity, one way the world works, more incentive for scientists to figure that out.
That could all be wrong, of course. But it is an argument against paganism.
I personally think that morality is stronger with religions other than pagan. It seems people feel more comfortable following something other than the golden rule when there are multiple gods and you might have one god who’s okay with cruelty and you feel like as long as it’s okay with one, you can do it. Notwithstanding that many monotheistic people killed to get their way, which I believe was wrong.
In any case, adopting paganism because you believe your distant ancestors followed it is not that strong of an argument. But I can understand not wanting to follow a religion forced on your immediate ancestors. That’s why Islam became more popular with Black Americans and specifically Malcolm X.
You realize, of course, that someone unfamiliar with Christianity could make a similarly-flawed statement by observing that people can feel more comfortable misbehaving just because they can say a prayer and perhaps recite a few Hail Mary’s and receive forgiveness from their misdeeds.
Most, if not all, religions have something equivalent to the Golden Rule, although the framing / details will obviously vary to fit with the religion’s cultural framing and/or worldview.
luckily my own faith believes that if you specifically do something and have in mind that it will be forgiven, then it is not forgiven. also, that if you wrong someone else you must get their forgiveness as well, not just G-d’s.
but in any case, can you not receive forgiveness from pagan gods? I don’t know, not being pagan. so this argument is invalid if you can.
Do pagan religions really all have the golden rule? My readings of Greek/Roman stories made it seem not so.
Part of the challenge in answering that question is that it begs the question of how one defines “religion”.
The concept definitely exists in ancient Greek philosophy, and we can assume that it was a component of Greek morality. However, it’s not something that would have been codified in a body of canon law or a definitive religious text because (AFAIK) those don’t really exist in ancient Greek religious practice.
from what i have read, the pre christian greco roman world did not really have anything like what we call religion.
philosophy was concerned with ethics. it was also very elitist.
religious rites were everywhere in a way that is difficult for us to imagine but were not concerned with the goodness of a person.
it was very “tolerant” as long as you worshiped the emperor as a god and acknowledged your worth came from what you could contribute to the city state, or perhaps to the empire.
i think it is too easy to confuse the real ancient pagan religions with the christianized re-imagined versions that helped stand up the renaissance and its humanism.
I think this is making my point, which is that paganism does not cause people to try to live according to the Golden Rule. At least as far as I’m aware.
In fairness you keep making big, negative conclusions but then caveating the entire thing away. Surely the fairest conclusion is ignorance of the subject?
Aristotle says that perfect friendship is “made up of men who are good and alike in virtue; for each alike wishes well to each other… they are good in themselves”
you value your friend in virtue the same as you value yourself. however, this is supposed to be with somebody as virtuous as you are.
through cicero this probably influenced the statements of monastic and also courtly love in the 11th century.
however, it seems to me to hardly be the charitable love (agape) taught through christianity, in which jesus loves everyone, which by definition are people with less virtues than he has.
