RE: Were other European religions better than Christianity?
December 26, 2011 at 11:13 pm
(This post was last modified: December 26, 2011 at 11:24 pm by Xavier.)
I think not. I think christianity did do good in putting an end to the violent gladiatorial fights, which were a means of sacrifice to roman gods.
The ancient greeks, gauls and germanic people often sacrificed humans, and suicide was seen by the germanic peoples as a shortcut to Valhalla.
Paganism, is not even a religion. It's a collective name for other religions beside today's world religions.
Not that I do not respect the ancient faiths, and also praise the recon movements for their accuracy and devotion.
However, things like...Wicca and Ecclecticism ring all "fluff" and "teen angst" to me.
What exactly do you have to gain by spreading such misinformation?
What, really? Do you feel better about yourself? I think this is young people's stuff. I've known atheists with whom I can have a conversation on religion without that person bringing up the inquisition card, or "bloody history" card. Like, people know how to be bloody without showing any religious reasons.
But most people simply disregard the secular reasons behind the inquisition and cite "they did it fo' jewsus". No, I do not think that it is as simple as that.
How is it misinformation?
The crusades, the ethnic cleansing of the Indians and the Inquisition were a direct extension of Christian theology, and in no way a perversion of it as modern Christians would like to believe.
The Bible says that people who don't worship the Judeo Christian should be put to death. Theres nothing in the theology of Norse Paganism or Hellenism which encourages religious wars. The idea that everyone else should follow your religion and you need to convert everyone else to it came from Judaism and Christianity.
Classical Rome and Greece had a relatively high level of religious freedom and were not opposed to learning and science like Christianity was.
Christianity put Europe into the Dark Ages and fought to keep us there as long as possible.
(December 26, 2011 at 11:13 am)Epimethean Wrote: Not to say that it didn't harm Europe; it certainly did. It is a plus and a minus. My main reasons for feeling any kindness toward the christians stems from their preservation of Classical literature, art and architecture. Do I think any other dominant religion would have done otherwise? Unlikely, but who knows.
Thats not true. They only preserved a very small number of pagan texts such as the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Platos writings etc
Any literature or science teaching which contradicted Christianity was banned and destroyed.
The Christians destroyed the majority of Classical literature and in the process destroyed masses of knowledge of chemistry, technology, philosophy, medicine, astronomy.
In the 4th and 5th centuries the Christian Roman Emperors destroyed Pagan temples throughout the Empire, and their statues and architecture.