What type of pagan are you? (Buddhism, souls, translation, hell)
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I actually consider the Roman historians to be the weakest evidence for anything substantive about pre-Christian European religion. However, the archaeological record presents us with sufficient evidence for ritual sacrifice, corroborating at least some of the historical record, as opposed to people who were simply executed.
Human sacrifice was widespread across so many cultures across the world that if the Celts did not practice it, it would make them the unusual outlier.
In the modern worldview, human sacrifice is considered a serious moral violation like slavery (which also existed in Celtic society, mind you), and no one wants to celebrate it; I certainly don't, but to ignore the eveidence and consider all suggestions as to its existence as slander is just wishful thinking or ignorance.
I don't suppose you want to hear about current scientific thought on Cannibalism in late-Paleolithic Europe, either.
I don't think we should be too distraught about human sacrifice. In Christianity, Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of God.
I actually consider the Roman historians to be the weakest evidence for anything substantive about pre-Christian European religion. However, the archaeological record presents us with sufficient evidence for ritual sacrifice, corroborating at least some of the historical record, as opposed to people who were simply executed.
Human sacrifice was widespread across so many cultures across the world that if the Celts did not practice it, it would make them the unusual outlier.
In the modern worldview, human sacrifice is considered a serious moral violation like slavery (which also existed in Celtic society, mind you), and no one wants to celebrate it; I certainly don't, but to ignore the eveidence and consider all suggestions as to its existence as slander is just wishful thinking or ignorance.
I don't suppose you want to hear about current scientific thought on Cannibalism in late-Paleolithic Europe, either.
Yes, some did practice human sacrifice in the past, but I was referring to the Celts/Druids of the time. I never read about Druids having slaves anything we ASSUME about the Druids in a reach. The Druids themselves believed in equal rights & that woman should hold office & they did they also believed that woman had the right to vote. The Druids were indeed different.
I agree that there there is a lack of definitive evidence of human sacrifice in pre-Christian Celtic society.
But there is plenty of circumstantial evidence. It is certain that people were ritually executed. We have the bodies. What is lacking is a solid connection to the Druid class. So the question is, who in pre-Christian Celtic society was responsible for the pattern of ritualistic human executions?
Most pre-Christain European societies gave women a much higher status than gynephobic Christian mores that replaced them; a fact that is irrelevant to the possible presence of human sacrifice.
Naw. I am a confused Pagan, raised Christian, still struggling through the mundane things in life, too distracted to focus on the spiritual to find the PROPER LABEL!!
Naw. I am a confused Pagan, raised Christian, still struggling through the mundane things in life, too distracted to focus on the spiritual to find the PROPER LABEL!!
Why do you need a label? Why not just quote Popeye? "I yam what I yam."
I'd be closest to the eclectic wiccan philosophy. I use the symbols, but tend to use candles and natural objects rather than symbols. I'll have a candle and a feather for wind, a candle and a piece of wood for earth, etc. I'm very drawn to the natural spiritual ideas too, and to me they are also symbols.
I suppose you'd call me a solitary, but I've enjoyed shareing ceremony when there was someone to do so. If not I can feel Her without it. For a long time I understood this without names and labels, but didn't tell anyone. When I got into science fiction fandom I discovered there were a lot like me. There are a lot of pagans who find a home in fandom since its doesn't make faith a dividing line.
But beyond the form I practice which works for me, I believe we live within free will. I believe there is a god/godess/natural power, whatever form one calls it, and through this we are all interlinked. Religion, as a man made thing, is a way of fitting the spiritual into a human frame. If doesn't matter if the words are true, if the connection to the god/goodess/spirit is there and real. The rest is what we add to make sense of it in our rational human minds.
My wish would be for those of faith (which I consider myself to be), of all outright faiths, were able to acknowledge that there is one spiritual force, and it is seen in many ways, and for those who find a pathway that leads them there, all are true and all are one. And we need to dismantle all the hatred which builds along the barriers built by those defending their way to reach spirit. They are simply ways of finding a path. All are true, and all are false at the same time. Call her the sacred rock or the sacred tree, or the sacred book of words these are symbols for something we seek and define in ways we can understand. We need to stop claiming the words in an ancient book, or the old story of a legend makes 'them' wrong.
And for those who do not believe, it is also a choice. They should not be told they are wrong either. Most who call themselves 'nonbelievers' also have some deeply held view of the universe and its nature which is close to spirit. We see things as we need to. Or not at all. But none of it is 'wrong'.
Religion should be like a social club, where we go to share *faith* with others who visualize like us, but should not be made into something more right than others.
Paganism is a catch-all umbrella term for everything not part of the Abrahamic faiths. The Romans were "pagans". The Greeks were "pagans". Several Native American religions are "pagan". What type of pagan are you? And why do you choose that pagan pathway? What attracts you to that branch of paganism?
I am a Germanic Heathen. I follow the gods and folkways of my Scandinavian and Germanic ancestors.
A Pagan is anyone that doesn't believe in the Bible. period. So basically anyone that's NOT a Bible believer is a Pagan.
No. Not period....
Technically and originally; that is incorrect.
Pagan come from Latin Paganus, which means civilian, country dweller, unlearned. So basically pagan is one that lives outside the city and/or has not had any education
It was not until much later that the 'unlearned' aspect came to mean the people who had not been told of the Christ, which just so happened to also be the people who lived outside of the populated areas.
So while Christianity has hijacked the word, it still means what it means originally.
It also was used as a derogitory term for military deserters during the time of the Roman Empire.
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