paganism linked to Christianity?

Question

immortal technique refers to Christianity to having paganism in it. which would make sense because constantine was a pagan before he converted to Christianity and vowed never to convert to Christianity and did so.

do you know of any links?

or anything that would make an argument?

Answer 1

Babefirstclass, one point of consideration please, to your EXELLENT response.
Not Ground hog day but Imbolic was the hijacked celebration.
Candlemas is observed on February 2 Its formal name is either the festival of the Purification of the Virgin or The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in The Temple. Under Mosaic law, a mother who had given birth to a man-child was considered unclean for seven days; moreover she was to remain for three and thirty days "in the blood of her purification.
It took the Christians 500 years after the death of Christ to canonize selected ancient works and date events so as to correspond with celebrations that pre-dated that birth by a thousand generations. Note for instance the similarities of a prophet, virgin birth, taught with his twelve disciples, died a violent death and three days later arose from his cave crypt. That legend/cult of Mirtha pre-dates Jesus birth by over 400 years. Even back then I imagine that story got around.

Answer 2

There is evidence to suggest that elements of Jesus' life were copied from other saviors/god-men/heroes.

Examination of historical Jesus vs. what's represented in the modern Bible is often provocative, perhaps even considered "blasphemous" by conservative Christians (even works of fiction like the Da Vinci Code seem to provoke a sharp and angry response). This topic has been studied, the question is worth asking and some of the parallels are quite interesting.

Current thinking suggests that in order to compete with the many pagan and other religions that existed in the Mediterranean, Christianity would have had to describe Jesus in terms that matched or surpassed the local myths, stories and legends. The authors of the gospels may well have picked up themes from other sources and added them to their writings in order to make Christianity more credible to a largely Greek/Pagan world.

One interesting site below - I am sure there are many others. special. Good Luck

Answer 3

A Triad of gods is common in most ancient religions, (trinity), the bible clearly has beliefs taken from ancient Egypt. Anyone that reads the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian texts that predate the oldest written portion of the bible by 3000 years can clearly see the similarities. The epic of Gilgamesh (the flood), The seven tablets of creation. The Chaldean account of the tower of Babel. Many scholars state that the origin of many of the OT stories in the bible along with most other religions and mythologies stem from the Sumerian gods and mythologies.

Scholars have said that these ancient stories were passed on orally for thousands of years before being written down again by the biblical authors and the stories have changed over time to the current cultures and beliefs, but the similarities still exist and cannot be coincidental. check out the www.sacred-texts.com web site under ancient near east, and try reading the Egyptian book of the dead for the other references from Egypt.

Answer 4

Christmas and Easter were originally pagan holidays, celebrated much like they are today... gifts, candy (chocolate!!!), eggs (whether boiled or "deviled")... During that transition, when Christianity was fighting to become a recognized, LEGAL religion in Rome, they took up worshipping beside pagans and soon ended up with many of the local pagan customs... such as believing that God becomes a man and dies to save his people.

And it's my understanding that Constantine didn't convert till his deathbed... which was normal during those times, because when you converted, you were baptized... and they believed that baptism was the "washing away of sins" (instead of the repentance)... so when they were baptized, they (the converts) normally waited till the end of their life to do it. Weird custom, compared to the pagans baptizing people as a form of initiation into the Mystery Religions.

And the answer that shows Pagans are against being normal, I find it really strange that we use pagan concepts and names for almost everything in life. Months, Days of the Week, names of the Planets... wedding rings, birthday candles... Yeah, we are so against being normal ROFL

Answer 5

The basis of Christianity was to "compete" with Paganism, which was, and actually still is, big rivals in the religious aspect. Reason being, all the similarities between the two, and how items, people and dieties have just been renamed.

For example: The christian calender has the markings of the Equinoxes and the Solstices. For one, they are not just to mark the changing of the seasons and moons. These were Pagan holidays back in the day. The Autumn Equinox was a day to, not only sow crops, but to give thanks for the "bounty of the feast", and then came Thanksgiving, which did not com into play until AFTER the United States was birthed. This was due to people "abusing", actually USING,the power of freedom and turning away from Christianity well after the Mayflower landed.

The Spring equinox was to cite the gods for blessings of the crops planted, which is really interesting. They sang praise to the goddess Astarte, which gave birth to the Christian holiday Easter, and the name of the holiday actually has multiple meanings. In the bible, there is a passage that says something about turning to the east and wroshiping god, where the sun rises. This came from turning to the east and worshiping Astarte, and this godess' name turned into "Estier", which, when translated in olde English, became "Easter". This passage in the bible goes on to explain the condemnation of this day and the commandment of celebrating the Passover. http://godkind.org/pagan-holidays.html

The origin of the Pasch [Easter] eggs is just as clear [as the origin of Easter]. The ancient druids bore an egg, as the sacred emblem of their order. In the Dionysiaca, or mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. The Hindu fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden color. The people of Japan make their sacred egg to have been brazen. In China, at this hour, dyed or painted eggs are used on sacred festivals, even as in this country [England]. In ancient times eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians.

Eggs and bunnie rabbits are not just an "Easter" thing. They reflect birth and renewal, so there were stories made up of rabbits bringing gifts and coloring eggs to keep children intrested in the Christian faith.

It's not specifically Christian or celebrated as intensely as the holidays mentioned, Groundhog Day is still part of the modern-day year. Candlemas (or Imbolc) is celebrated on February 2nd. Because spring is just starting to show itself at this time of year, there were various superstitions about predicting the weather, and how long it would be until the end of winter. The original idea was to watch for a hedgehog, but as people immigrated to North America, the tradition changed to a ground hog to suit local wildlife.

-The fact that Groundhog day shows the birth of Spring is completely sac-religious to Christians is never observed. This is actually praising the gods of Spring, which is a completely Pagan ideal.

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Why Were These Pagan Holidays and Festivals "Christianized"?

The Christianization of Pagan holidays began about the fourth century A.D. when the Roman Emperor Constantine, became (or feigned becoming) a Christian. In order to consolidate his rule, he incorporated the Pagan holidays and festivals into the church ritual - attracting the Pagans, but he gave the holidays and festivals new "Christian" names and identities - thus appeasing the Christians. Over the centuries, this practice has continued until the present time where we find the two systems, Paganism and Christianity, almost indistinguishable.

This is the Adversary's clever deception - Paganism dressed up in Christian clothes! It's still nothing more than Paganism, but the Christian churches have wholeheartedly embraced this deception.

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Constantine was a rather significant figure in the birth to today's Christianity. Those who say his "cult" have deficated the "true meaning" need to look further into his history. Most traditions known today were the ones he made significant when he became a Christian.

Answer 6

Firstly, I am assuming that you mean "pagan" in two senses: denoting the religions that populated Europe before Chrisitianity was disseminated, and in part to denote the current "pagan" spiritualities, which I believe are also called "earth-based" religions, like Wicca and that sort of thing.

There are definite links between paganism and Christianity, specifically in terms of ritual and non-scriptural bit and pieces. Roman Catholicism, and its belief in the intercession of saints and angels, is linked to the pantheistic beliefs of many "pagan"/naturalistic religions. An example is St Bridget - she never existed, but was "imported" into Roman Catholicism when the Irish would not let go of a beloved goddess named
Brigid.

Another great example which many of my Wicca friends identify is the RC love of Mary. This is, at least in my opinion, a definite leaning towards the "old", mother-goddess religions, and may have been popularised in communities who could not identify fully with a "father god" like Jehovah when Christianity was spreading, and needed a mother figure too.

Then, across all denominations that I know of, there's the feast days themselves: Christmas falls on or near the Winter Solstice, and Easter at the Vernal (Spring) Equinox - these dates were chosen to fit a pagan calendar. I believe that the idea at the time of Christian conversion was, let the pagans keep the holidays in case they get upset with this new state religion and revolt against us. Which I think was pretty smart of them.

Constantine indeed popularised many pagan symbols, especially colour symbolism, in what became today's Roman Catholicism. A side note: Constantine did not convert on his deathbed: in fact, he had a dream telling him to follow a cross in his next battle (he had had a bad run of luck on the battlefield). He gave it a try, had all his soldiers paint crosses on their shields, won the battle, and converted on the spot. I get the impression that he wasn't too sure what he was even converting to at the time.

If you compare Protestant movements like the Baptists and the Methodists (which sprang from Martin Luther's attempt to reform what he saw as a paganist version of Christianity [Roman Catholicism] rather than the real thing) to Roman Catholicism, many of the things that are different between the two reflect the "paganism" of Christianity. For example, Protestant movements avoid lots of bells and incense; the practice of praying to saints, Mary, and angels; the rich colours and use of precious metals in places of worship; the creation of "icons" as a prayer tool; the practice of keeping "saints' days" as a sort of birthday, which is reflected in the "pagan" practice of dedicating a child to a specific god or goddess at birth, or later in life.

Answer 7

I recall the 25th of December being chosen as Christmas because it coincided with a Pagan holiday, at a time when the Church was fighting with Paganism for converts. I can't recall many details, though.

Answer 8

This is common knowledge. As the church sought new converts it incorporated pagan customs and beliefs to make it more attractive. Christmas and Easter are to clear cut examples of this. Also the virgin birth and trinity clearly come from a host of pagan faiths.

Answer 9

One important link is that all Christians begin as pagans. That is, we all once rejected God and His truth. We all convert to Christianity from paganism (if paganism is simply defined as not being a Christian).

Answer 10

I don't currently have any links, however back when Christianity was trying to reach out to the pagans, they did take on some of their rituals, symbols etc. to help to convert them. I have always heard that that is why there are church steeples.