What if pre-Conversion pagan societies were RIGHT?

Question

How will Christians explain to their ancestors their having abandoned the tribal gods and folkways?

Shouldn't indigenous religions that succeeded for 30K years be seen as superior to foreign ones that have been absolute disasters for the single millennium or so they've been adopted?

Answer 1

It's all down to being lazy and irresponsible. In pagan cultures, you word was the law and your deeds were set in stone, they made or broke your reputation and you as a person. You had to carefully build your reputation and live a very virtuous life if you wanted to get to a heroic afterlife. You had to be noble and fearless.
If you did something wrong, you had to pay for it with anger of the Gods and being cast to the edge of society by other people.

Now, enter christianity: "sin all you want, as long as you feel sorry and say our daddy is the big boss, you can still all be forgiven and get the big lolly pop in the sky after you die."
Now all a sudden all those rejects, oath breakers, marginallised people were flocking to a god that promised everything that the "good" members of society would have, for the exact same price. All sins are automatically forgiven. Wasn't that SOOOO cool for the cowards?

What would they think? "Gee, and here I thought I found a short cut. Obviously the gothar were right. I should have joined my chieftan as he blood-eagled that priest...."

Answer 2

Much of the problem with this is that most of the Christians who are so judgemental of our beliefs are also living under the misconception that the world is only 6 thousand years old and that therefore Judaism is the first religion. This then leads to them claiming the antiquity of their religion. The fact that they do not believe in the existence of the world prior to this allows them to claim that everything we believe is fake including the history of our Gods.
As for what will take place when they arrive in the after life, I'm sure the ancestors will be very angry, hurt and upset by those who have continually called them Satan Worshippers by constantly attacking their faith. The reason that they don't have any concern however is that we are not constantly preaching that if they choose not to believe that there are consequences. They constantly throw hell at us as a way to scare you into believing, but we know that hell does not exist. We don't have a hell that they can feel threatened with, not would we ever use something like that as the most important thing to us is the idea of living a moral life.
Great Question.
Blessed Be.

Answer 3

I have a high respect for the indigenous peoples of the world. Their religions are naturalistic on the whole but you can't knock that if you want to be fair to your own different religion. What I see as important is mutual respect. That can be achieved when a serious student of an indigenous religion finds a leader of that religion who is willing to teach it for the purpose of understanding because conversion may not be the goal always. In this way they both must accept each other. I'm not sure that indigenous religions, pagan societies or such were more successful than what we have now but they deserve everyone's utmost respect.

Answer 4

Pre-Christian societies and faith have absolutely as much validity as what followed them. I might add, too, that Christianity was more greatly influenced by Paganism than some Christians are willing to admit.

The validating factor in any given belief system is the apllied faith. Faith is the catalyst and active vehicle for changing belief from an adjective to a verb. Whatever one's belief, it is the foundation of faith that brings it value and allows it its life-affirming qualities.

What all religions can promise, without argument, is a life filled with, and illuminated by, faith. As far as the positive and/or negative actions inspired by that faith, they are completely the responsibility of the practitioners themselves. Religious belief is a tool, one might say, and has in its own right no positive or negative qualities, per se; it is the use to which that belief is put by its adherents that acquires positive and negative qualities.

Religion's potential, and it's limitations, are in the hands of the men who believe in it.

Answer 5

Boar, I think that rather than look at ANY of this in terms of superiority or inferiority, we ought to simply explain (to the monotheist evangelizers) that for folks like us, it would be as unnatural as breathing ammonia to be other than we are.

But equally, to be like us would be just as unnatural for some of them.

This is the great challenge, I think, in coming to terms with religious difference. We are very different people, pantheists, polytheists and monotheists.

For me, there is no way I could have stayed a Christian. The pull of Nature's Gods was too strong for me to ignore, and so I forged ahead, with no guidance, no books, no teachers.

Others hear the call of Christianity, or Judaism or Islam, and for them to deny that would harm them as much as it would have harmed me to stay a Christian.

I do think, though, that if we lived in a society that, like Imperial Rome, was a truly free marketplace of religious ideas, that there would be more people able to understand that the call they hear is from ancestral voices and older ways of worship and connection.

Answer 6

Well, a lot of Christian customs are really coopted Pagan customs. I mean, the Christmas tree is a pagan symbol. Christmas itself was originally a pagan festival (Jesus was NOT born in December). Easter is named for a Pagan goddess. In fact, the Easter egg is a pagan symbol.

I don't believe any religion should be superior to another, as all are inherently flawed.

Answer 7

Boy, your right on track! That is why I am Pagan and Proud! I was raised in the Catholic church by my mother but woke up and saw the light. I returned to the beginning for my answers and have been happy ever since! I went back to my roots in the teachings of old Ireland and found my truth.

Blessed Be!

Answer 8

I always wonder...
Christians tried to wipe the Gods out, burned down their culture and those brave enough to not change their ways. They changed lore and truths yet....
The Gods still call their blood lines and those people still respond. Who's "all mighty" then? The Gods that still survive since the dawn of time? Or the bully that tried to wipe them out?
Something to think about *walks away whistling innocently.

Answer 9

They'll dodge it, try to explain it away with some bible verse but never actually get to a point. It's always that way with them.

Makes me even more happy I follow my peoples traditions.

Answer 10

Good point but you won't get a straight answer from any Christians as I doubt any have considered this.