with all due respect to Don H, if this statement is true, then wouldn't all forms of Protestantism be "pagan"? Also, wouldn't any Christian church based on the canonical Bible be "pagan", since the canon was established by the Catholic Church? Furthermore, wouldn't the only Christianities that do not qualify as "pagan" be those that the Catholic Church deemed "heresies"?
2007-10-17 02:43:24 · 15 answers · asked by metanoia 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Looks like we agree.
My point was that so much of what became Christianity was borrowed from pagan practices. The Jesus movement was subverted by Paul, Constantine and many others and turned into a tool.
Paul was perhaps the most influential person when it came to the blending of pagan practices into Christianity. The whole blood sacrifices, Jesus died for your sins idea was lifted right from Mithran theology. Paul simple supercharged it with guilt by saying that the son of God was sacrificed and it was our fault. This clever twist on the Mithran blood sacrifice idea gives the impression that God has a reason to hate us and we need to be forgiven for this grievous atrocity.
Jesus never taught any of this, although careful but clumsy revision of scripture pretends that he did.
Just a little research will show anyone who cares that All forms of Christianity/Catholicism are pagan based.
Love and blessings Don
2007-10-17 02:47:01 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 5⤋
It's astounding the spectacular ignorance that ersatz Christians display about Catholicism.
Catholics do not worship the Pope. Catholics do not worship saints. Catholics do not pray to statues. Period.
To "pray" means to "ask". If I ask you to pray for me, I have prayed to you. I have given you a request, which is the definition of prayer. It is archaic English, and many people have seemed to change the meaning of the word "pray" to "worship". They are different.
When Catholics "pray" to saints, it does not imply worship. It is merely a request of the saint to pray on their behalf, exactly as if one asks another person to pray for them. Few Christians I know would not ask their friends to pray for a sick child. That is exactly what Catholics are asking for when praying to a saint.
I challenge anyone to show me where in the Bible it says that we can ask others to pray for us, but that this excludes anyone who has gone before us. Do you believe that once we have died, we are no longer to care for those who remain? Do you believe that once we die, we are no longer entitled to pray to God? If we can still pray, is it wrong to pray for those on Earth? Do our ears suddenly become deaf to those we love on Earth?
If you wish to speak against a faith, it's, in my opinion, best to do so from a position of knowledge rather than supposition and ignorance.
I agree with you that if the Catholic church has Pagan roots, then the Bible must as well.
In fact, much of the Bible is a recapitulation of Pagan tales. The tale of Jesus is a remembrance of earlier Egyptian myth, and many tales from other early cultures are represented as well.
Still, a religion can have some root in an earlier form, without being that form. By definition, a Pagan faith is one that is either A: non Judeo-Christian-Muslim, or B: polytheistic in nature. (There are other definitions, but these are the main ones). Mormonism would be considered Pagan by definition B, but not by definition A. Catholicism is not Pagan by either.
If Paganism were decided by having been derived from a previous Pagan faith in any way, however small, then all of Christianity would be considered Pagan. By the same reasoning, I would be considered Native American because my Great or Great-Great grandmother was. It is part of my heritage, but a minority part. Paganism may be a small part of the heritage of Christianity, but the vast majority of what Christianity teaches is based on what Christ (or Paul) taught.
Christ taught a new religion; that is what Christians follow.
2007-10-17 03:10:15 · answer #2 · answered by Deirdre H 7 · 4⤊ 2⤋
What you say is true because the protestants broke away and thus is a branch of catholicism.
Where that makes them pagan - I'm not sure, I will ask my pagan friends. However I think not because pagan belief is very different from any of the Christian sects.
2007-10-17 02:49:08 · answer #3 · answered by Freethinking Liberal 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
I'm starting to think I asked a dopey question. I find that I don't really care if Christianity is paganism or not. Thinking about it, it just seems like semantics. The Romans just kept some of their pagan stuff when Constantine converted them all. End of story.
2007-10-17 03:02:06 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 3⤋
Jews are Israelites of the tribe of Judah and Israelites are one of the branches of the descendants of Abraham. Muslims claim descent from Abraham through Ishmael (I think). Except for the fuzziness of your details your basic concept that all three are Abrahamic is accurate.
2016-04-09 12:15:59 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not true. The first Christians were JEWS. All Jews. Read a Bible and find out. Jews gave us the Bible. Jewish Christians that believed fundamentalist doctrine (the only truly biblical doctrine)
Catholics are a Babylonian pagan cult that started 300 years later with Constantine the pagan.
2007-10-17 02:49:54 · answer #6 · answered by Chris 4 · 1⤊ 7⤋
all forms of Christianity are pagan in their foundation. Christianity stole and assimilated rituals, beliefs,and holidays/festivals from countless religions for centuries...
2007-10-17 02:55:39 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
It wins my vote as the broadest and most erroneous sweeping generalization I've yet seen on R&S.
2007-10-17 03:04:41 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Paul massacred the Christian religion. Anyone who actually STUDIES the history of Christianity can see that. Christians today are not Christians.
2007-10-17 02:51:15 · answer #9 · answered by ~Heathen Princess~ 7 · 4⤊ 3⤋
The Bible as we know it has survived in its present form through the grace of GOD, Jesus Christ. Praise the LORD.
2007-10-17 02:50:58 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋