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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 15735
[Pagan]
Date Posted:
7/3/2006
3:46:40 pm EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 7,770
RSS: 15,956
Comments: 20
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Rise Of Paganism: The Counterfeit Rites
Author: Joshua Trevino Source: Brussels Journal (Belgium blog)
Title: RISE OF PAGANISM: THE COUNTERFEIT RITES
The South African Mail and Guardian reports that thousands of devotees of the Greek gods of antiquity are gathering in Athens to ape the half-remembered rites of millenia past. Unlike the prior revival, this one is not driven by any meaningful numbers of Hellenes, but by foreigners, most of whom hail from the secular West.
In the place of the authentic trappings of authentic faith, the new pagans must mimic the rites of a belief that is often demonstrably fake at best, and horribly consequential at worst. How long, for example, are the new Hellenic pagans going to refrain from re-creating the human sacrifice of Mycanaean times or the Dionysian rites? For all the ennobling mythos of Greek paganism, there’s a reason it was so readily abandoned for an alternative perceived as altogether more sensible, loving, and humane.
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Community Thoughts: There are 20 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Learn To Spell.. It's "mycenaean" Not "mycanaean". | Jul 4th. at 3:38:04 pm EDT
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Siara (Annapolis, Maryland) - Email Me
QUOTE: How long, for example, are the new Hellenic pagans going to refrain from re-creating the human sacrifice of Mycanaean times or the Dionysian rites?
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What a surprise that an author with such a deep understanding of ancient Mediterranian cultures should misspell the name of the culture in question. That's "mycenaean", not "mycanaean", Mr Idiot Author.
QUOTE: " For all the ennobling mythos of Greek paganism, there’s a reason it was so readily abandoned for an alternative perceived as altogether more sensible, loving, and humane."
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The reason it was so readily abandoned was a strong Roman mitiary.
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| Yeah Right | Jul 4th. at 1:21:16 pm EDT
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Feathercloak (Grand Junction, Colorado) - Email Me
And he isn't practicing his true religion because he doesn't stone kids in the street for being disrepectful to their parents and darnit, he just isn't burning heretics in the public square anymore! Darn fake Christians!
Give me a break.
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| Let Him Moan... | Jul 4th. at 9:51:15 am EDT
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Tigernach (Charlottesville, Virginia) - Email Me
I too would like to point out that most of us have no real desire to reconstruct the past. I think though that if you examine people's fears then it tells you alot about them. He is obviously deeply threatened by a bunch of people trying to revive the old Greek religion. He doesn't seem to be as threatened by the mainly Greek Orthodox government which has a rather long and recent record of human rights abuses. In my humble opinion, all religions shoud be cheering this new development. It means freedom of religion has finally come to Greece. Somehow though, the intellectual capacity of conservatives has declined to the point that they can't even understand why Religious freedom might be important.
For that matter, even if this guy were right, and we are all praticing a silly out-dated "counterfit" religion, then what does that say about Christianity? Certainly, if people are turning away from it, and towards a "counterfit" religion then perhaps that says something about how irrelevant Christianity has become. I think this is the true fear. It is far easier to pick on someone else than face your own faults. So, instead of writing about how mainstream Christianity has failed its worshipers and the environment, he picks on a bunch of people trying to seek better answers. Maybe he should listen to Jesus and think twice before he casts the first stone.
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| ..."demonstrably Fake?..... | Jul 3rd. at 11:24:49 pm EDT
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Richard Brownbear (North Wilkesboro, North Carolina) - Email Me
Based on who's teachings?
Bite my @$$ you filthy Judeo-Christian whore-monger! I've had it up to here (hand way above head) with your "Holier-than-thou" attitude!!!!!
Stop spreading your hate filled lies because I do not agree with your religion!
If you have to resort to baseless perversions YOU created about MY religion, then you must not have much of a base to start from!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hope you grow a brain............
Richard Brownbear
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| Do I Detect A Little Jealousy? | Jul 3rd. at 10:01:43 pm EDT
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
This article is about as biased as one can get. While it is true that there may be some that are there for less than honorable reasons-- the same could be said of many in the xtian camp. And as for rites being "counterfeit"- there aren't too many ancient Hellenes to teach the worshippers how the rites were actually performed these days- so winging it seems to be the norm. Somehow, I don't think Zeus and the rest of the Olympians will mind. After all, they are being welcomed back with open arms after a long hiatus, except by the Greek Orthodox Church and their supporters, now gnashing their teeth and complaining over the fact that the Pagans they thought wiped out and no longer existing actually came out to demand their old gods back- after enduring the darkness of the new god. And as for settling for the "dark delusions of the past" Actually, it is far better than the dark delusions of the present, under xtianity.
Give us back our joyous old gods. We've had enough of the one being shoved down our throats these days.
And - considering the number of ways the xtians perform their own rites- whose to say which ones are actually doing things right and which ones are making things up as they go along? Especially since many of those sects can agree with one another either?
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| Arrogant Much? | Jul 3rd. at 9:50:57 pm EDT
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Ursyl (Murrysville, Pennsylvania) - Email Me
"...the rites of a belief that is often demonstrably fake at best, and horribly consequential at worst."
Perhaps he should look a little deeper into his own faith. I've yet to see anything resembling proof of its beliefs.
Goose, gander, sauce anyone?
If demonstrably true is the criteria, he needs to apply it equally to his own if he wants to be taken seriously by intelligent people.
As for "horribly consequential", it doesn't take much research to find the horrid consequences of far too much of Christianity's history.
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| Hardly An Objective Article... | Jul 3rd. at 4:34:37 pm EDT
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Cyra (Lemoore, California) - Email Me
This article is hardly what I'd consider objective journalism, but then it is an excerpt from a blog.
Note the following statements:
"For a few, that means a fitful grasping for the dead predecessors of the Christian world."
Who but the author of this article would be so presumptuous as to define the entire world, as Christian? Surely that is only the author's (narrow) and uninformed, perception.
And:
"And "But with the demise of orthodoxy in Western societies, we see popular observers, who in earlier times might know better, conflate the dumb reflexes of infantile superstition with legitimate faith. "
Legitimate faith? Who decides what constitutes legitimacy of a faith? And yet, this author, expresses his opinions, as though they were established, provable, facts.
When reading items such as these, I have to remember to consider the source, and whether I really wish to accept that party's reality, as my own.
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