why are paegans portrayed as bad people even though they existed before jesus?

Question

for example the ancient greeks----paegans believed in gods who represent different elements. I love their way of believeing in many gods since it makes lots of sense. But I am also a strict christian who fears God. But guess what, our proof is very abstract. Does that make me less of a christian??/answers???

Hey MC Hummer....your roman quote made my day!!!!

Answer 1

Christianity bullied its way into its position of supremacy. It did this by belittling anyone who thought differently.

There are still a lot of pagans in the world, most of whom are very good and positive people. Good luck on your journey and I hope, wherever it takes you, it brings you peace.

Answer 2

If you believe in Jesus Christ you are Christian, regardless of what else you believe.

Prior to Nicea and Carthage (two very important Catholic Councils that determined the creed and the canon respectively) there were Christian groups that believed in more than one god. One group even had 365 gods -- one for each day of the year.

Regardless, Christianity as we understand it is unlikely to be accurate. While I am an Episcopalian myself, my partner is Wiccan/neo-pagan. The theology makes just as much sense.

When you say you are strict Christian I presume you mean some sort of evangelical, who bases your belief on the Bible. That's just plain silly.

While we have none of the autographs of the Bible, the early manuscripts we do have have and that are known to be genuine, by the most conservative estimates, have 200,000 differences between the wording in them, and while many are not meaningful, some completely change the doctrine of the church. (Ehrman, Bart, Ph.D.; Misquoting Jesus: The story behind who changed the Bible and Why; Harper Collins, 2006 -- p. 89). less conservative estimates range up to about 400,000 -- and there are programmers now endeavoring to write a program that will be able to count the exact number of variances.

And that's only the start of the difficulties for the Bible. If you only use the Textus Receptus (Received Text) as it is printed in modern Bibles then you are looking at enormous problems anyway -- in fact insurmountable ones. The World does not have corners (Isaiah 11:12), nor does it sit on pillars (I Samuel 2:8), nor water (Psalms 24:1-2). God did not establish a solid dome over the earth (that's what firmament literally means) and he does not have a palace on top of it from which angels can come and go up Jacob's ladder -- which might be reached by the tower of babel -- and where he keeps "treasuries" of hail and snow (Job 38: 22-23). For the sake of all that is decent, you can't even harmonize the 1st and 2nd chapters of Genesis with each other, say nothing of being able to defend the Biblical creation as scientifically factual. That's no surprise though, as the Bible tells us that beetles have four legs (Leviticus 11: 21-23) and that rabbits chew their cuds (Deuteronomy 14:7). It says that pi is 3, not 3.14 (I Kings 7:23 and 2 Chronicles 4:2) and that the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the world and grows into a tree [neither of which are true] (Matthew 13: 31-32). It is hardly a font of rational thought or scientific accuracy. Furthermore these errors only scratch the surface. Try harmonizing accounts in Joshua and the telling of the same tales in timeline in Judges sometime. If you can you are more proficient than any theologian I've ever met, and I've met a few.

Late bronze age men created the OT and early iron age ones the NT. It is not surprising therefore that God cannot lead Israel to defeat Iron chariots after promising he would (Judges 1:19), and it is not surprising that the flight of Israel from the god Chemosh, after the king of a city the Jews were beseiging and that God had promised them they would overthrow The King of the city offered his own son to Chemosh as a human sacrifice, resulting in Chemosh driving the Israelites away (2 Kings 3: 19-27) -- further it is not surprising that no punishment is mentioned -- the Israelites were still sacrificing their own children, as is evidenced in several places, but most graphically in Judges 11:30-39

The long and short of it is, the Bible is a mythic book, written by bronze and iron age men who were recording primarily oral legends in written form. In any realistic sense it is drivel. You can see, just in the passages I noted above from 2 Kings -- the last vestiges of polytheism fading away. Chemosh was supposed to get power from human sacrifice, just as Jehovah did -- and that power allowed him to turn the table against Israel, despite the fact that God was with Israel.

Read the verses, read the context -- to all the things I've suggested, calm your breathing and thinking and ask yourself if this is really the God of the Universe you are reading about -- or a tribal deity, which has now evolved into the one we worship. I think you will find biblegod sadly lacking -- something the liturgical churches have been saying for hundreds of years. If you find yourself unwilling to even look -- ask yourself why? Are you willing to sacrifice the truth, in order to maintain a comfortable myth for yourself?

And if you want a chuckle, read the second, and theoretically final version of the ten commandments. They are in Exodus 34: 10-26. That is the covenant Yahweh actually made with Israel. No seething here.

So if you want to believe in more gods, it won't hurt you any. As long as you believe in Christ you will be Christian -- and if by some chance you decide you prefer Paganism to Christianity -- I for one don't believe that you will be harmed by that decision either -- in this life or the next. The only claims against you will be made by those who are still biblio-idolators, a provably false book doesn't have any truth to offer, so there is no fear there.

Have a nice day.

Regards,

Reynolds Jones
Schenectady, NY
http://www.rebuff.org
[e-mail]

PS Note how quickly they turn to myths. Adam and Eve? *chuckle*

Answer 3

All things that were created were done so by Jesus. There is only one God. He is triune (3 part) but he is one. When man sinned, he got out of the fellowship of God. This allowed "other gods" to be made up and be worshiped.
Please study your Bible and find out for yourself.
Our proof isn't abstract. Look around. What was made by accident? Science points to a creator. For example the Big Bang Theory; This says that the universe started at some point. Genesis says " In the beginning, God created..."
I don't need any other proof. (by the way, i used to teach science). There are many more proofs in the Bible. Just check it out!

Answer 4

First of all Jesus is eternally existent, that means He was here before anything.
Second, it makes you less a christian if you believe in paganism. There is nothing wrong with studying in Greek gods, only if you begin to worship them.
Some believe the Greek gods were actually people who lived after the flood who may have been Noah or his children. They would have possessed comparatively great knowledge, and would have lived for a long time. They may seem like gods to normal people of that day. They may have Been accustomed to living at high altitudes while waters receded. But, no one really knows. There has always only been one God, many fake gods bot only one real one.

Answer 5

First off, Mark, not all pagans are Witches! And not all Witches are pagan!

Second, Why would anyone want to worship a god that they feared or a jelous god? Why would you want to commit to something that takes away your free will? If you choose to do what you want to do you are in constant fear that your god will strike you down and send you to hell.

I am pagan, I am Wiccan and I am a Witch. I am a good person that believes that everything on the earth is sacred. I do not worship satan because I do not believe in satan. I do not do black magic because I believe that whatever you put forth will return to you three fold. Don't want that kind of karma!

To the questionare, find whatever path suits you best. You are the only one that knows your own heart.

Check out the below website! It explores 10 things that Christains should know about Pagans. It's very good!

Blessed Be!

Answer 6

Because the victors write the history. There was a battle for centuries between the Catholic church and Pagans. The church tried to descredit or adopt pagan traditions.

but I agree, although I'm an atheist I like the Celtic pagan beliefs of worshipping nature. The world would be in a better state if we had kept those beliefs.

Answer 7

No, it makes you a logical Christian.

As a pagan myself, it's nice to hear such questions from a Christian, without either criticising paganism or compromising their own faith.

Look at it like this: pagans have many gods representing the divinity inherent in elements of nature. Christians believe in one god with three divine elements (father, son, holy spirit) as creator of all nature. Its arguable that pagans are simply using "ground stations" of prayer to augment and boost their signals of worship, whereas Christians are sending their worship direct the whole way to the Creative Ultimate.

As for why pagans are portrayed as bad people - they're the original enemy of Christians. When Christianity was first struggling to spread its word, it was almost alone in a pagan world, so to make converts, it had to associate pagan gods (eg Pan, the Horned God of Fertility) with devils, demons and so on. Hence the ongoing bad reputation of pagans among some Christian groups, who equate paganism with devil worship, when as you rightly say, it's to do with nature gods, and nothing to do with the devil, in whom most pagans don't believe.

Answer 8

Lot of gods existed before Jesus, but they did nothing. Their Gods were worthless idols. Whereas believing in Christ Jesus is real. Gods Prophecies are coming to pass as we live in revelation and no other idol can do such a thing.

Even the worlds calendar started with the birth of Christ. The messiah was prophecied by the phrophets of old and every word came to pass.

Many try to deceive and disprove the word of God never have and never will.

Have faith.

Answer 9

Pagan is a derogatory term made up by an elitist group to describe someone who thinks or has previously thought differently from them.

These thought police see their way as the only right way with all other possibilities being inferior.

Thinking like this allows them to have someone they can feel superior too, which makes them feel better about themselves.

Sad little people aren’t they.

Answer 10

"Pagan" comes from the Latin word "pagus", meaning "countryfolk". In the original sense, any and all religions that start in the countryside are "pagan". Guess where christianity began.

People always try to denigrate others' views, skins, ideas, etc. because without it, you can't justify hate and violence against such people.

"Away with these atheists!"
- An ancient Roman when ordering christians to be thrown to the lions

Answer 11

Pagans as a whole are/were believers in something other than belief in one God(Christianity and it pre-cursors)
Pagans tended towards beliefs in mother earth, ets, 'the Ghia-spirit'.
However, hollywood being what it is, often bandy's the word pagan around when referring to the devil, or evil cults, and this association i think unconmsiously applies to most people.