Converse02

Check out this website on a documentary called
I Still Worship Zeus.

http://www.istillworshipzeus.com/

Funny in Greece , you can worship Jesus but you can't worship the original 12 Greek gods.

BlackZero

Millenia AND End of Century. WHat does it have to do with them? Here is a starting point. Eschatology. I see you are wise in the ways of Wikkipedia. That might be a good beginning. There you will (hopefully) find that among various Semitic AND European people and their descendants surges in religious pre-occupation are not uncommon right around the end of a century and beginning of the new one beginning with belief that the time of Christ's deaths and then prominently around 200 AD then 500 AD, eclipsed by the great hysteria before 1000 AD.

Closer to OUR time in America there was a HUGE surge of religious revivalism at the turn of the 19th century among protestants probably in reaction to the values of the Enlightenment. The evangelical tradition arguably has its roots strongly in the religious activism near the turn of that century.

Close to the end of the 19th and a bit into the 20th Century American Christian Fundamentalism was born out of the evangelical tradition in response to ideas like Evolution

Now towards the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st the rise of reconstructed faiths, along with resurgence of fundamentalist christianity and Islam continues the trend.

It is all about perspective. Basically my position is in our culture the turn of the century often has surges in religious activity with the millenium being particular focal points.

Well, as I am talking about this phenomenon in regards to cultures that use OUR dating system it is perhaps significant. Your examples, while certainly handy as a good refresher of specific dates for me, has little to do with the fact that most Americans, Europeans and I am almost certain the people petitioning for Zeus recognition are strongly influenced by these themes in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. So if the last of the dodos has a calendar that says the year 3000 is AD 2007 it has little bearing on us.

Doesn't it seem a little odd that Greek and Norse mythology where, in the good old fashioned Bullfinch sense of the word, seen primarily as stories with VERY few people worshipping them some time ago. Yet now the number of people worshipping them has grown. The number of people worshipping older gods or going back to older gods has grown. The 90s saw a surge and the first half of this decade has continued the surge. Not just here and Europe but worldwide.

Islam, Hindutva, Christianity, Germanic Tribalism even the increase of Buddhism are select examples. Coincidentally, their rise goes hand in hand with the end of the previous century AND millenium and the start of the new. I personally feel that the patterns are quite clear.

Now a disclaimer: I am not saying that I believe all these things are all bad. There are aspects to these revivals that are GOOD. The question is does the good outweigh the bad? To varying degrees I say no, in the long run the bad will outweigh the good, but THAT is not the subject of this thread and deserves its own specific treatment.

BlackZero

credoconsolans

No one ever said it had to be the Egyptian people who revived their ancient religion.

Many other people worship the ancient Egyptian pantheon.

Well, black luckily, the Greek/Roman gods were never intended to be role models. They were simply separate entities that needed to be placated.

In a Christian world, you are part of god and when you die, you return to him in heaven or are destroyed in hell.

In the ancient Graeco-Romano world, when you're dead, you're just a dead human spirit or shade. You don't turn into a god or are part of any god. You're just a dead human shade in the Underworld while the gods are still romping happily in the living world.

aupmanyav

How can a part of God be destroyed in hell? Won't it be better to be a shade rather than a part of God and suffer eternally in hell (most people would go there except a few fortunate)?

CaliNORML

Any religion beyond duality I am alll for.

I am tired of only being told there is 2 male "God" both of fire. Where is the blue of compassion in all of this red aggression? Where is the woman of the Blues? The Ocean and the water, the deep ocean of our tears and wombs used to put out this aggressive male red "god of fire" duality we are now faced with? It only seems to breed the want of more and more aggression, in our boys as we lose them to war.

Even Aries and Mars yeilded to a woman, a Venus of the sea. We are stuck in one view of a quarter circle and the more fierce we see one "god of fire" AKA Satan or a Wrathfull angry "God" the more we see the other as the same. It is time for religion to move towards a duality in fourths man and woman, water and fire, if it ever can hope to reach the unity it claims to want.

KMS

BlackZero

A salient point. But let me ask you a question. What do you mean by luckily the G/R gods were never intended to be role models? I think I know what you probably mean but my reasons for why this is a good thing may not be the same as yours.

Now there is something I want to clarify from an earlier post because it may be misconstrued.

The statement ]'VERY few people worshiping them some time ago'. By 'some time ago' I am not speaking of the time period when these beliefs thrived because at one point they obviously did. What I am talking about is our time specifically when christian influence kept the pressure on people to see these faiths as myths and stories. VERY few people 'kept the faith' so to speak but during this century PARTICULARILY the latter twenty years their numbers have risen.

BlackZero

Chili

Mary is blue. She is the water Jesus walked on and the sea that Peter dove into to built his church. The problem is that Mary is very eclectic and won't be forced into submission (only the devil will prostitude anything into existence).

We have the four quarters, Adam and Eve are man and woman during involution and Christ and Mary are fire and water (in that order) during evolution. We call them second Adam and second Eve for that reason = same person now seen in a different light.

Mary was also there in the begining and was taken from man to be the [one and only] preservation of man and cannot be duplicated in Christendom.

MRM

Well - I doubt that this has anything to do with the round number 2000 - why should a pagan care about the christian calender ?

And of course think about what would have happend to a pagan a few decades or centuries ago - if someone worshipped the old gods 300 years ago - the burning stack would have waited for him.

Even some decades ago I guess it would have been a problem ( maybe with finding a job f.e. ) - christanity was still strong and dominant, he would have been an outsider mobbed by the others.

Today there are far more people who simply would not care if their neighbour starts worshipping Zeus I guess. At least here in central europe christanity has lost a lot of influence.

Other points may be globalisation - I guess at least for some pagans their religion is somehow an religous anti globalisation statement. Most pagan religions are more regional, while the big religions are more global.

Then the internet - if you are attracted by ancient gods like norse or greek - it is much easier to find others who are attached to them too. Was much harder to do so even 20 years ago. And if there are others who worship them too - then I think it is easier to stick with them for such people.

I think there are better arguments why the number of pagans is on the rise in the last few years then just the round number 2000.

credoconsolans

Luckily for any worshipper who thought to look to the Divine for emulation. It was obvious they were not there to set a standard for human behavior. To think oneself as a god or to try to emulate the gods was hubris for the Greeks.

BlackZero

Here is the thing though. Very little of Judaism or Islam is about 'acting the way god acts.' These laws that are set down are for People not God. The only place where God mimicry rears its head on a consistent level is with Jesus who walked in man's footsteps according to the myth.

As for 'Hubris' its always been a source of amusement for me how the Greek Gods always punished humans for trying to 'be like them' or 'compete with them'. Bellerephon flying to Olympus is an example. Not a surprise that children who slew their father and the Titans (not unjustifiably) would worry about mortals trying to surpass them. Thats what they did.

And of course nothing was worse than actually BESTING one of the gods. As bad as it was to strive to better them, nothing was worse than actually succeeding, as Arachne found out. From a story perspective I prefer the Aesir to the Greek gods. They didn't butt into human affairs and were generally more dignified. Knowing that your doom was at hand yet living on is a very admirable behavior.


BlackZero