| Jul 20, 2008 @ 9:15 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity
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sail_dancer
Posts: 10,206
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Loreli,
We got those kids coming and going....first we take away prayer, as it might impose on another (horsepoo), then we take away Halloween because it's sacriligous. Nobody has taken prayer away from anyone. If everyone in this country believed in prayer, it would be allowed at public institutions. Since people that do not believe also have rights in this country, it is wrong to place them in an awkward position by starting any public event with a prayer. As for children, there is no law against parents and children starting off their day with a prayer before they leave in the morning.
The treatment of Halloween and Christmas is another thing. This is something that christianity decided, Since they want everyone to believe that christmas is a christian established holiday, they push christmas and even have the gaul to say "Put christ back into christmas". Because christianity sees Halloween as a pagan holiday associated with witchcraft, it places a ban on it. Any distress caused by this can only be blamed on christianity's rediculous dogmatic rules.
Peace
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| Jul 20, 2008 @ 9:37 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity |
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Loreli
Posts: 25,807
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Sail-
I was talking about prayer in the schools.
It is MY humble opinion that, if a student wishes to pray before their meal, somebody shouldn't sue because their child was harshly affected. If someone wishes to turn to Mecca at certain times, let them. Same for other peaceful methods of worship. If people don't believe, they don't have to.
The saddest thing I have witnessed is taking away Christmas programs. I would have rather seen them combine religions, and if somebody didn't like that, they should be excused.
That's just my opinion. Nothing like going to a winter festival and hearing the Lion King theme! I was offended....what if I didn't like that movie? 
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| Jul 20, 2008 @ 9:46 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity
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sail_dancer
Posts: 10,206
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Loreli,
I was talking about prayer in the schools.
It is MY humble opinion that, if a student wishes to pray before their meal, somebody shouldn't sue because their child was harshly affected. If someone wishes to turn to Mecca at certain times, let them. Same for other peaceful methods of worship. If people don't believe, they don't have to. As far as I know, there are not restrictions on a child saying a "silent" prayer to their god prior to lunch. The school can't conduct a public prayer but a silent prayer is allowed as long as a teacher doesn't initiate it. If your child wants to say a private prayer nothing is stopping him/her from doing so.
The saddest thing I have witnessed is taking away Christmas programs. I would have rather seen them combine religions, and if somebody didn't like that, they should be excused. I agree with you on that one, as long as all religions have equal rights. That would include "satanists".
Peace
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| Jul 20, 2008 @ 9:47 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity |
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j_goose
Posts: 3,119
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Out here, the Christmas programs are "holiday" programs.
Jewish, african, christian, and silly christmas songs and skits are preformed by the children.
I haven't seen anyone sue or stop a child fom praying before they eat lunch. I DO agree with not allwong prayer before the school day begins. There isn't a place for that.
Christmas, baptism, halloween, easter, even advent are pagan rituals and celebrations. Prayer rituals are also not origional to Christianity. Neither is lighting a candle for the dead.
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| Jul 20, 2008 @ 10:26 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity
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EternalFlame
Posts: 4,156
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OK....sorry I'm late! Holy crap that was a lot to catch up on!
Former Christian here, that has been educated to the truth! 
Not just former Christian...I'm also a Recovering Jehovah's Witness. It's a 12-step program but I'm stuck on Step 8, Making Amends. I just can't remember all those people I pissed off when I knocked on their doors! 
Anyway...while we're having fun investigating Pagan origins of Christian beliefs, shall we investigate Satan a bit? I mean, after all, he was a Pagan GOD long before Christianity reared it's ugly head and decided to make him their "devil"
Satan has many appearances, depending on the source. Satan is often depicted with horns protruding from his head. This is derived from the Pagan celebrations in which they often would don antlers. As Christians believed Pagans to be unholy, they are believed to have used the Pagan depiction of the Horned God to form their portrayal of Satan.
Source: Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. ISBN 0192854496.
If you really research the subject you will find that Christians CREATED Satan as we know him today. So think of the irony! If it wasn't for Christians, we wouldn't have Satanists!
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| Jul 20, 2008 @ 10:42 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity |
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j_goose
Posts: 3,119
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I love talking to JW's......
Here's your usless information for the day.
The founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses was once jailed for selling "Magic Wheat" that had curing properties.
Oh and he sold an elixer made of Chloride of Zinc as a cure for cancer. But it sent quite a few to an even earlier grave.
Great guy......
Glad you saw the light.....
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| Jul 20, 2008 @ 11:08 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity
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LaughTillYaPuke
Posts: 1,821
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EF is talking about the "horned God" in pagan religions. (Don't you love how that image was snapped up upon by the christians as their "evil" symbol?) Cernunnos and Pan became merged to create this "horned god."
Then when the church absorbed this Horn god" as their most evil symbol, this also allowed them to cast the pagans as witches.
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| Jul 20, 2008 @ 11:27 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity |
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hammertime
Posts: 14,071
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 commentary...
Damn good thread  but it was Saturday night  and I guess I was busy too join the fun.   I'm going to have to return and read all the cool stuff. I do hope we can have more people join R&S who have many different perspectives on their own spiritualities. So far we got a few Buddhists, at least one Taoist. We had one Muslim, she's been away.. If every religion, faith and philosophy can get represented we can have a nice balanced forum. I'm glad we have Lance who does represent Christianity in a far more sane light than we've seen in the past. Uab seems to be a cool dude too. We should get some pagans in here. Some exist on the site. We should have some Hindus, Shamans, etc. in here too.
I think a lot of you would enjoy Joseph Campbell's work on mythology. He is the only person I know who, for me, was able to pull all the spiritualities of the world together and explain it in such simple terms but never watering down the beauty and expressions of each respective culture. We see common motifs world wide in very diverse cultures. Voodoo (Vodun) for example has a ritual of Birth, Death and Resurrection. Egyptians, of course, we know were very into this motif. The Native American has a myth involving a snake who tricks people. Isn't that interesting? When you learn all people are basically the same and just like you, you don't want to kill them anymore. Its too bad some of us were able to learn that lesson so late in history. Maybe there is hope for the future...
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| Jul 20, 2008 @ 11:39 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity
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Loreli
Posts: 25,807
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Invite THEM out to dinner, and let the rest of us "non-representers" talk here....
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| Jul 20, 2008 @ 1:07 PM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity |
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LaughTillYaPuke
Posts: 1,821
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When you learn all people are basically the same and just like you, you don't want to kill them anymore.
Love it!
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| Sep 18, 2008 @ 3:53 PM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity
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alogi
Posts: 1
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Does everyone know that the doctrine of the Triad or trinity was not an original concept in Christainity, and that over the first three centuries after the last Apostle died.This doctrine was still being debated and argued over.In the original church, Jews were the leaders of gentile churches, they were being set up by montheistic Jews, that did not accept the doctrine of trinity and only the onenes of God.For Jews then and even now know that it was a pagan concept.
Just becsuse one may believe in the fact that Jesus Messieh is the son of God does not mean that he is a seperate person from God the Father or Holy Spirit.
Trinity actaully puts limitations on the God that Jesus and hIs apostles preached about.
Shalom    
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| Sep 18, 2008 @ 3:56 PM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity |
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yashaenka
Posts: 10,289
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Read the thread Historical Jesus and the Trinity, Christ and Jesus is clearly defined for you in the original post.
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| Sep 18, 2008 @ 7:07 PM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity
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EternalFlame
Posts: 4,156
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Jews then and even now know that it was a pagan concept.
As do Jehovah's Witnesses, which is why they don't buy into the Trinity.
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| Sep 19, 2008 @ 11:48 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity |
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yashaenka
Posts: 10,289
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There is no Trinity to buy into, there is no scripture at all to support it's premise. It was created by Christians to get around the actual proof that Jesus and Christ are not the same person or deity.
They attempted to tie Jesus and Christ together to God using the spiritual invention called the holy Ghost. Boo  But anyone who knows the history of Pauline will just laugh at this feeble attempt.
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| Oct 19, 2009 @ 10:24 PM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity
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j_goose
Posts: 3,119
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Bump
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| Oct 20, 2009 @ 8:10 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity |
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yashaenka
Posts: 10,289
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A brief look at the history of paganism and how it still affects the world today. This site is very interesting as it goes back in time too an era long before 1AD.
Pagan History
This explains how paganism began in the earliest of times then moves forward.
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| Oct 20, 2009 @ 10:04 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity
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CPUfan
Posts: 7,987
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I posted this on another thread... It's a really interesting version of what Puritans thought was purely Pagan... Christmas Day !!
Puritan view of Christmas
Christmas was a target in the ideological warfare of the European Reformation.[1] Most Anabaptists, Quakers, Congregational and Presbyterian Puritans regarded the day as an abomination while Anglicans, Lutherans, the Dutch Reformed and other denominations embraced the holiday and joined Roman Catholics in celebrating it.[1][2] When the Church of England promoted the Feast of the Nativity as a major religious holiday, the Puritans attacked it as residual Papist idolatry.[1]
The Puritan community in New England heaped contempt upon the holiday, called it 'Foolstide',[3] and suppressed attempts to celebrate the day for several reasons. First, no holy days were sanctioned in Scripture,[1][4] and secondly, they saw men dishonoring the Lord by engaging in the most egregious and excessive behaviors during the Christmas season.[1][4] The Puritan also argued that December 25 was historical, and Jesus was more likely to have been born in September or October. They regarded the selection of the December date as an early Christian hijacking of a Roman festival,[1] and, in their view, to celebrate a December Christmas was to defile oneself by paying homage to a pagan custom.[1] The Puritan view prevailed in New England for almost two centuries.[4]
(from: "Christmas in Puritan New England", Wiki).
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| Nov 7, 2009 @ 11:28 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity |
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EternalFlame
Posts: 4,156
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CLICK HERE, and read the part 2 titled: II. How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25?
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| Nov 7, 2009 @ 11:45 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity
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ColdinWisconsin
Posts: 10,213
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Taken from EF's site. Thanks girl!
Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
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Can you say Ginger-bread man?!?!?
The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).
1. Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian veneer by the Church.
2. The Christian custom of “kissing under the mistletoe” is a later synthesis of the sexual license of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult.
3. In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). Later, this ritual expanded to include gift-giving among the general populace. The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavor by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas
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| Nov 7, 2009 @ 11:49 AM |
Pagan Practices in Modern Day Christianity |
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ColdinWisconsin
Posts: 10,213
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The legacy of St. Nick was VERY interesting I thought!
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