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The Roman Christians from the fourth century set about destroying the Pagan culture that had given us Classical and Hellenistic Antiquity. The Dark Ages resulted. Public libraries had their Pagan books replaced by Christian books. Christians closed Pagan temples and academies. In Alexandria, Pagans locked themselves inside the temple of the god Serapis. Christians sieged and captured the building, demolished it, burnt its famous library and profaned its images. Christians try to deny it. Since this vandalism started the Dark Ages, it is difficult to prove. Yet the holes in Christianity were filled with adaptations from Paganism. Pagan rites and ideas were received into the Church. Every important church festival coincides with an ancient solar or Pagan festival. Pagan gods were made saints. In a few hundred years, only the topmost levels of the clergycould read and write. The seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries have left a scanty literature. Europe sank into ignorance and superstition. Defenders of Christianity maintain Christians kept alive learning in the Dark Ages. Why then were they so dark for so long.
Quick Fact Details:
- Formed: Since the religious traditions that contemporary Paganisms draw on and seek to restore are ancient, the early 20th century date reflects only the revival of the practices and the communities that are sustained by them.
- Origin: The diversity of Pagan traditions includes myths, histories, and lore from a wide variety of pre-Christian sources, including northern Europeans as well as those of ancient Mediterranean communities.
- Followers: The diversity of Pagan traditions has made a comprehensive census nearly impossible. Practioners also point out that social discrimination against Paganism has kept many from practicing openly.
Paganism represents a wide variety of traditions that emphasize reverence for nature and a revival of ancient polytheistic and animistic religious practices. Some modern forms of Paganism have their roots in 19th century C.E. European nationalism (including the British Order of Druids), but most contemporary Pagan groups trace their immediate organizational roots to the 1960s, and have an emphasis on archetypal psychology and a spiritual interest in nature. Paganism is not a traditional religionper se because it does not have any official doctrine, but it does have some common characteristics joining the great variety of traditions. One of the common beliefs is the divine presence in nature and the reverence of the natural order in life. Spiritual growth is related to the cycles of the Earth and great emphasis is placed on ecological concerns. Monotheism is almost universally rejected within Paganism and most Pagan traditions are particularly interested in the revival of ancient polytheist religious traditions including the Norse (northern Europe) and Celtic (Britain) traditions. Many Pagan traditions are intentionally reconstructionist in that they aim to revive many of the lost rituals of the ancient traditions, including holy days and seasonal celebrations. Besides Nature, many Pagans also worship a variety of gods and goddesses, including spirits which can represent national and local heroes as well as deceased family members. In this sense, many Pagans try to honor their ancestry and ancestors. Some Pagan traditions include ritual magic, but this practice is not universal.
What a great religion:
As a postmodern religious tradition inspired by ancient fertility practices, Paganism generally celebrates freedom and diversity in regard to human sexuality and gender.
Pagans vary widely in their understanding of deities or spirits, although most revere the natural world as both good and spiritually enchanted.
Generally speaking, Pagans see both the foundation and the purpose of humanity as embedded in the physical environment. Humans are not "given" nature and purpose so much as they create it.
While Paganism offers no consensus vision for the common good, many adherents believe in caring for the environment and creating a non-sexist, non-homophobic society.
Suffering and harm are natural aspects of life; therefore, Paganism aims for pragmatic and virtuous ways to respond to these unavoidable realities.
Pagans regard death as simply part of life, and therefore nothing to be feared. Beyond death lies either some form of paradise or reincarnation (or both).
Cycles of the sun and moon establish a sense of sacred time for Pagans, while some ancient fertility or agricultural festivals are still celebrated today.
WORSHIP NATURE.
Don't worship a martyr.
The love of money is the root of all evil. I believe this.
Advertising is full of subliminal messages and no matter what is being sold, sex is usually being used to do it, either with half naked people or suggestive words and images of other things.
People don't really need much, so that's why all these subversive tactics are used to get people to buy, so basically sex is shoved in people's face all day, every day.
Most religions tell people to wait to have sex until they get married. Which is fucking impossible. Even without the constant barrage of nudity and whatever everyplace you look.
People are constantly buying stuff either in hopes they are going to be desirable enough to get laid, or because they need to be distracted from the depressing fact that they aren't getting laid.
People are led to believe it's okay to want money, to steal it and lie to get it and step on other people in order to get more and more and more, and people who don't care about money are thought to be lazy or freakish or unambitious. If you can't get your shit together or have interests that are not high-income generators, you're a loser in this society, no matter how good of a person you are.
On the other hand, sex, a normal and natural desire, is vilified in a million different ways. You'll get a disease, wait til marriage, be pure, just say no. People are supposed to repress a completely normal sex drive, which is brought on by biological, irrepressible hormonal surges, for ten years or so, until you find "the one?" Seriously? mightn't you just pick anyone, due to extreme frustration? Sounds like a real gamble.
On top of that, why is it so well known boys can't control themselves, but girls should be able to? No, sorry, girls want it, too. Just as much, maybe more.
So NOW what is the number one criminal enterprise? (well, it's in the top three): Sex trafficking. Imagine being kidnapped and forced into this life. It's killing young girls and boys every single day. They get aids, they get all kinds of diseases, they get murdered and beat up and basically raped many times a day and night.
Why is this such a lucrative business?
Could it be that if religions didn't make girls feel like freaks for wanting to have sex, and everyone treated sex like a normal activity that people engage in at some point usually during their teenage years.
You've got girls who want to do it but they have to say no or everyone will call them a whore. Boys are then tricked into thinking girls don't actually want sex, and they never learn to do it right, either.
Since everyone is lying to each other from day one, effective communication never really happens, but everyone still wants to get laid. Men go out and by sex from kidnapped teenage girls. My unofficial survey of married women says there's not a lot of sex going on there, possibly because the guy never learned to do it right or because he thinks his wife is a whore if she initiates sex or because they are good Catholics and right of the bat had a million kids who are now in the way of any and all sex. Everybody loses out, but especially females.
Teach girls that sex is a normal activity. Teach boys to respect girls, even if the girls have sex with them. This is, after all, what keeps the human race going. There's nothing wrong with loving one another. There's something very wrong with trying to teach people that affection is a sin.
I'm convinced that jealousy between couples is caused by religious teachings, because at church, even thoughts are sins. Thinking something is supposedly as bad as doing it. Anyone trying to control their boyfriend or girlfriend, right down to what goes on inside their mind, is destined for unhappiness and, possibly, prison.
Also, teaching one person forever and ever til death do you part is desirable and attainable: Wrong. No it's not. The only people who stayed together in the past did it because they had no choice, because of their religion. They hated each other and were bored silly almost instantly. After twenty years of monogamy, they were praying for death.
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