Have you noticed that all of the groups of people who were untouched by the bible : Ancient civilations such as egyptians, Greeks etc, and Native Americans, Africans, Australian Aboriginals, all have belief systems very similar to the pagan based faiths we see today?
That divided by seas, isolated from each other, they all came to pretty much the same conclusions?
I have been studying the Pagan Faiths for some time now and i have seen the simalarities in them.
What are your thoughts on this?
Thank you!
Ariel
2007-07-06 03:53:43 · 17 answers · asked by *~Ariel Brigalow Moondust~* 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Kellonor? Obviously i have offended you somewhere... how about telling me about it in an email? You seem to be watching and answering all of my questions for some reason?
YOUR NOT A STALKER ARE YOU????
LOL!!!!
2007-07-06 08:11:05 · update #1
I, too, have noticed several similarities. However it is hard for people who rely strictly on the bible to accept that there is something other then what they have as their basic core beliefs. Whether it be real or imagined....there was life before the bible and most definately life after wards...
Acceptance is the answer...Willingness is the key
And last but not least....Tolerance
Bless Them All!
Blessings Ariel
)o(
Trinity
2007-07-06 13:27:39 · answer #1 · answered by trinity 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Dear Ariel,
This is a very interesting subject to me.I teach ESL and have sometimes pondered why we have differences in languages. The clear answer there is that the combination of time apart, distance, and NEED create the need for different words. For example, if you live in a place where mangoes do not grow, you don't have a words for them because you don't need to.
Apply this train of thought to homo sapiens development of spiritual ideas and practices. Did these isolated societies, with different languages which developed over many years, actually have very similar spiritual practices to each other, even though there was little or no contact? You are saying yes, and they are similar to what Pagans today practice.
Presuming that this is so, that other parts of isolated societies are dissimilar but spiritual beliefs are very similar, perhaps this leads us to think that the NEED is common among all homo sapiens. The words we use are different, but the need to find something greater than ourselves, the need to find out where we came from and what happens after we die, the need to feel that we are being love and protected by an extended parent figure who we may please by good deed, ......all these needs may be the common thread that results in homo sapiens resolute and determined desire to create gods and goddesses.
Christianity has its own brand of this formula, most spiritual paths have some scenario in which elements of this analysis could apply.
This is my off the top of my head offering...
Ciao,
Lady Morgana )0(
2007-07-06 22:27:19 · answer #2 · answered by Lady Morgana 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I had to think on this one. Oh by the way I do answer a lot of your questions but it is because I get an email from yahoo telling me people in my contact list answered a questioned. Hope you don't think I am a stalker LOL.
I think it is because we as humans for some reason have it built in us to want to believe in Deity. We use religion to explain things that have no explanation, so when humans try and understand things we feel it is one or more deities at work and I believe this is why all religions are similar.
The Hebrews spent 400 years in Egypt as slaves and their religion especially after Christianity was formed resembles a lot of Egyptian religious myths if you want to call them myths.
BB
2007-07-07 17:44:21 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you've been studying for so long, you should be well beyond such a juvenile question.
Humans have always looked beyond and above themselves for answers.
Some believe all humans originated from somewhere around Africa, and eventually migrated to various points of the globe and gradually developed into the separate races. If that's true, then we all have common origins, so any similarities are not at all remarkable.
2007-07-06 13:53:44 · answer #4 · answered by Kellenor 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
A few examples of similarities would have been helpful.
Have you ever read Joseph Campbell?
This was exactly his thesis, and he explicated what he saw as the threads that run through them all, relating the "major" religions to those threads as well.
I never read him myself, but watched a series of interviews Bill Moyers did with him a couple of decades ago.
Also, the myths in Watership Down (a book about bunnies, yes, bunnies) were influenced by Campbell's work.
To my mind, it's psychological, that is, mythology satisfies human needs, and, given that we're all one species, there are going to be a lot of similarities in structures among mythologies.
2007-07-06 13:35:21 · answer #5 · answered by tehabwa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
People from all times and in all places have looked to god(s) to explain the unexplanable in nature and humanity. Certain figures, such as the sun and moon, or the lover and trickster, are universal and each culture has named them as such.
That being said, most pagan religions today are reconstructed from those old belief systems. They are not truly "passed down" from ye olden days to the present, but are recreated from what we do know from mythology, anthropology, and history.
2007-07-06 10:58:58 · answer #6 · answered by awitelin_tsta 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
besides all being victims of bloodthirsty christians, the beliefs and practices of all of these "pagans" (a very misused word) varied greatly. It could be easily argued that some of these religions are closer to christianity than any are to each other. Since Christianity borrows liberally from pagan religions, it is no wonder why.
"Studying pagan faiths" involves some level of objectivity. What you are doing is looking for what you want to see and ignoring facts.
2007-07-06 10:59:52 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
I totally agree
I have studied dream interp and through doing so have seen the similarities in the way indigenous people think in regards to the spiritual
and what is lovely is , that people are getting back to these roots , back to nature , back to old ways
before everything got so complicated
2007-07-06 11:07:59 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
God gave us all a sense of right and wrong. Many peoples looking into the Sky's wondered where we came or if there was a creator. Many choose we are all god including paganism.
We are told to spread the gospel of Jesus to others so they would know the truth and be set free.
And the Egyptians were very much a part of the bible.
†
2007-07-06 11:01:09 · answer #9 · answered by Jeanmarie 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋
All faiths are similar in that they create a larger reality for humans to live in and build relationships between humans and god/s. Because faiths grew out of each other many motifs and images are repeated in geographically seperate mythologies. Some themes are so important they surface in every culture.
2007-07-06 10:57:42 · answer #10 · answered by Tree of Jesse 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋