Cristianity And The Crimes Against Pagans Essay, Research Paper
Cristianity and the crimes against pagansWhen I started this report I knew that paganism existed as a religion beforeChristianity. I suspected that if Christianity developed after paganism then it wouldhave adopted some of the paganistic practices to attract followers. From myprevious studies I knew there had been some form of propaganda against thepagan religion. Through out my life, my personal feelings toward the ChristianChurch, specifically the Catholic Church, were those of distrust. The ChristianBible also left much to be desired. For example, Christians are not supposed toworship any graven image (implying an idol or a symbol) yet they pray to a cross.According to the Christian bible, the old testament, God giveth and God takethaway. Yet in the new testament God gives and the devil takes away. (3) Which isa contradiction of terms.There were several reasons why I felt I had to write this paper. In fact, therewere so many that I could not list them all without boring you. I will howeverdiscuss them all to one extent or another. The first and foremost reason was thefact that the Christian religion refuses to accept where its roots came from and stillslanders the source of its roots, paganism. Secondly, the Christian church hasperformed some of history’s most inhumane acts. Although the church hasapologized for some of its atrocities it continues to persecute people to this day.The church has stolen rituals and symbols and claimed them for their own whilecalling those from whom they stole the symbols from as evil. Christians havecalled pagans Satan worshipers because they did not take the time to find out thatto be pagan means to worship two or more gods and not one (i.e. God or Satan) . Tothis day Christians still refuse to admit they were and still are wrong aboutpaganism. The third reason is that the Christian religion tells people that if you donot believe in my god then you are evil and wrong. Finally, I personally have beentold that as long as you are not Christian (from the Catholic church specifically)then you are welcome in their church but you are not allowed to take part in theEucharist. During my discussion with Subject #1, he began explaining aboutJoseph and Mary, Jesus’ mother and father. He told me that not only wasJoseph a carpenter, as all know , but also a missionary. therefore, heexplained, Mary was called “the Virgin Mary” because she was the wife of amissionary not because she was a virgin. The wife of any missionary wascalled a vestal virgin. During the time of Joseph’s absences she was apracticed virgin. However, when she was with her husband they had sexualintercourse. Yet because Joseph was a missionary Mary was considered avirgin through the divine intervention of god. When Jesus started to preachhe was a philosopher, He did not speak about how the Jewish or RomanCatholic Religion should be run. Jesus’ speeches were a release for thepeople from the occupying Romans and the harsh Jewish temples. The newtestament was Jesus’ philosophy. In fact there are no original copiesbecause King James rewrote the new testament as he thought it should be. The Roman Catholic Church knows of the changes but refuses toacknowledge them. While continuing my discussion with subject #1, he disclosed themain reasons why he gravitated toward the pagan way of life. As a child hewas told to worship God and anything you want just ask from God and hewill give it to you. He felt that was selfish. Then he finally learned what thepentagram meant. Then he felt the need to learn more. He got curious andstarted to think on his own. To be pagan according to Subject #1 means tobe open to others about how you feel. He did not like the Church telling himthat he should control how he feels. As soon as he figured out how he felthe became a pagan. The pagan church, to him, is a church of free thinking.He told me that you must not just live you have to be open or you are notreally alive. The church told him to control his feelings. He did not agreewith this. That is when he became pagan. However, he told me something ofinterest, there could not be a pagan church because all pagans believesomewhat differently because the pagan religion allows free thinking. Intoday’s society persecution still exists. As an example Subject #1 wasaccepted by his friends in the church but shunned by the adults. He hasnever been attacked by someone but he has been verbally assaulted.Jehovah Witnesses tell him he is going to hell and they try to force him tochange his ways. Pagans vs. Satanic cults. In the Satanic church they sacrifice avirgin by sodomizing her with a wafer that is stolen from a church. Inpaganism nothing like that has ever occurred. The Satanic church is areversal of Christianity and they are being anarchical. The Christian Churchattacks the satanic groups because in the public eye they are pagans anduse this one group out of 200 and say they are all evil.Christianity and the Salem witch trials. After the long discussiondescribed above I wanted to hear the pagans version of the Salem trials.He told me that in Salem there were witches but the witch trials resultedfrom a judge who did not like one person and was upset with how thecommunity was responding to the person. I inquired if it was related to thegirl having seizures. He responded by stating that seizures were common. The witch trial was about removing the people that the judge disliked. Hetold me that most people were just interested in a conspiracy. The questionsthat were asked during the trials were worded in a way that they could not beanswered correctly. I asked Subject #1 about animal and human sacrifices. He respondedby stating that people who did those things must have been mentally ill. Ithen asked him about the cult of Charles Manson. According to him andmany others, Charles Manson was a fanatic Christian. He then told me thatmost of Manson’s followers were not all there (mentally) or were followingwhat they thought was right because of what they were taught as children. Subject #1 feels that Manson was just being an Anarch. The next group discussed was the cult “Order of the Golden Dawn”.Our discussion centered on the reason why people thought this group ofpeople were evil. He thought it was because they were secretive. He told methat people were afraid of the Order of the Golden Dawn because they wereso secretive that they were doing something wrong. One rule they had wasthat you do not divulge secrets to those who are not initiated. This he feltcaused suspicion. The discussion turned to the rites Christianity took from paganism.He told me how the Eucharist is taken from a right called bread and ale.According to him people become Christians because they are afraid of theunknown. People stay Christian because it is methodical and it is poundedinto their head. They do not know about rituals and they do not know aboutpagans so they fear them. The reason people join Christianity overpaganism is two fold. One is peer pressure, the need to conform. Two,Pagans will not accept people who only wish to join to be with their friends,as opposed to those who truly believe paganism is the right path for them.The largest problem that he had with Christianity is the selfishness of oneGod. I then asked him why he felt Christianity is wrong. He replied by statingthat no one should be told this is the one way and that you must accept ourway of thinking and conform to one set of rituals. My Interview with Subject #2 started out by defining his religion. Hetold me he is a wiccan, a form of paganism. He told me that paganism mademore sense than any other religion. His only Christian experience was as achild. He became bored and felt that the service was too drawn out. Heagreed with Subject #1 when it came to the sacrifice of animals. Heexplained the difference of symbols between a Satanist and a pagan. Thepentagram is reversed of that of the Satanist. The difference was that thepagan pentagram had one point up where as the Satanist had two points up. The five points stand for air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. According to him,the Christians stole the cross. The depiction of Satan was taken from themale pagan god who was the god of the hunt. He mentioned that a Christianchoir stands in a semi-circle which was taken from paganism. He wasattracted to paganism for the following reasons. First, he believes in morethan one God. The belief that the power comes from you not from a divinepower of something. Subject #2 felt people join Christianity because it isexpected of them. Children follow their parents. He pointed out thatChristians are very pagan in that they pray to Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Iinquired if he had ever been persecuted. He stated that he had beenverbally abused by Christians and told buy them he was going to burn inhell. He mentioned that he has never been threatened by Satanists but hehas been threatened by Christians. (2)After my interviews I decided to turn to books. The question on mymind was that of what is the difference between a cult and a religion. Myinvestigation let me to the start of Christianity. According to the bookChristianity started like all cults. They discovered a new truth. The Churchsatisfied the needs of people that inspire a person to join a cult. The Churchsatisfied the need for supernatural and elaborate rituals. In fact the Churchfilled with its miracles, saints, and martyrdom allowed sects to flourish inside of the church. (4) I learned allot about Pagans and Christians. The one thing I learnedis there is no clear cut reason why people believe what they do. Howeverthere is one thing I learned. Above all else there is one thing that unites usall. Regardless of right or wrong. The one thing that makes us all human is
faith. Faith on one god two gods or science. Faith is the only thing thatseparates us from animals. So may the Gods of heaven and earth smile onus all. Period 5English IV09/16/96The Christian Church and crimes against Paganism1When I started this report I knew that paganism existed as a religion beforeChristianity. I suspected that if Christianity developed after paganism then it wouldhave adopted some of the paganistic practices to attract followers. From myprevious studies I knew there had been some form of propaganda against thepagan religion. Through out my life, my personal feelings toward the ChristianChurch, specifically the Catholic Church, were those of distrust. The ChristianBible also left much to be desired. For example, Christians are not supposed toworship any graven image (implying an idol or a symbol) yet they pray to a cross.According to the Christian bible, the old testament, God giveth and God takethaway. Yet in the new testament God gives and the devil takes away. (3) Which isa contradiction of terms. 2There were several reasons why I felt I had to write this paper. In fact, therewere so many that I could not list them all without boring you. I will howeverdiscuss them all to one extent or another. The first and foremost reason was thefact that the Christian religion refuses to accept where its roots came from and stillslanders the source of its roots, paganism. Secondly, the Christian church hasperformed some of history’s most inhumane acts. Although the church hasapologized for some of its atrocities it continues to persecute people to this day.The church has stolen rituals and symbols and claimed them for their own whilecalling those from whom they stole the symbols from as evil. Christians havecalled pagans Satan worshipers because they did not take the time to find out thatto be pagan means to worship two or more gods and not one (i.e. God or Satan) . Tothis day Christians still refuse to admit they were and still are wrong aboutpaganism. The third reason is that the Christian religion tells people that if you donot believe in my god then you are evil and wrong. Finally, I personally have beentold that as long as you are not Christian (from the Catholic church specifically)then you are welcome in their church but you are not allowed to take part in theEucharist. 3During my discussion with Subject #1, he began explaining aboutJoseph and Mary, Jesus’ mother and father. He told me that not only wasJoseph a carpenter, as all know , but also a missionary. therefore, heexplained, Mary was called “the Virgin Mary” because she was the wife of amissionary not because she was a virgin. The wife of any missionary wascalled a vestal virgin. During the time of Joseph’s absences she was apracticed virgin. However, when she was with her husband they had sexualintercourse. Yet because Joseph was a missionary Mary was considered avirgin through the divine intervention of god. When Jesus started to preachhe was a philosopher, He did not speak about how the Jewish or RomanCatholic Religion should be run. Jesus’ speeches were a release for thepeople from the occupying Romans and the harsh Jewish temples. The newtestament was Jesus’ philosophy. In fact there are no original copiesbecause King James rewrote the new testament as he thought it should be. The Roman Catholic Church knows of the changes but refuses toacknowledge them. While continuing my discussion with subject #1, he disclosed themain reasons why he gravitated toward the pagan way of life. As a child hewas told to worship God and anything you want just ask from God and hewill give it to you. He felt that was selfish. Then he finally learned what thepentagram meant. Then he felt the need to learn more. He got curious andstarted to think on his own. To be pagan according to Subject #1 means tobe open to others about how you feel. He did not like the Church telling himthat he should control how he feels. As soon as he figured out how he felthe became a pagan. The pagan church, to him, is a church of free thinking.He told me that you must not just live you have to be open or you are notreally alive. The church told him to control his feelings. He did not agreewith this. That is when he became pagan. However, he told me something ofinterest, there could not be a pagan church because all pagans believesomewhat differently because the pagan religion allows free thinking. Intoday’s society persecution still exists. As an example Subject #1 wasaccepted by his friends in the church but shunned by the adults. He hasnever been attacked by someone but he has been verbally assaulted.Jehovah Witnesses tell him he is going to hell and they try to force him tochange his ways. Pagans vs. Satanic cults. In the Satanic church they sacrifice avirgin by sodomizing her with a wafer that is stolen from a church. Inpaganism nothing like that has ever occurred. The Satanic church is areversal of Christianity and they are being anarchical. The Christian Churchattacks the satanic groups because in the public eye they are pagans anduse this one group out of 200 and say they are all evil.Christianity and the Salem witch trials. After the long discussiondescribed above I wanted to hear the pagans version of the Salem trials.He told me that in Salem there were witches but the witch trials resultedfrom a judge who did not like one person and was upset with how thecommunity was responding to the person. I inquired if it was related to thegirl having seizures. He responded by stating that seizures were common. The witch trial was about removing the people that the judge disliked. Hetold me that most people were just interested in a conspiracy. The questionsthat were asked during the trials were worded in a way that they could not beanswered correctly. I asked Subject #1 about animal and human sacrifices. He respondedby stating that people who did those things must have been mentally ill. Ithen asked him about the cult of Charles Manson. According to him andmany others, Charles Manson was a fanatic Christian. He then told me thatmost of Manson’s followers were not all there (mentally) or were followingwhat they thought was right because of what they were taught as children. Subject #1 feels that Manson was just being an Anarch. The next group discussed was the cult “Order of the Golden Dawn”.Our discussion centered on the reason why people thought this group ofpeople were evil. He thought it was because they were secretive. He told methat people were afraid of the Order of the Golden Dawn because they wereso secretive that they were doing something wrong. One rule they had wasthat you do not divulge secrets to those who are not initiated. This he feltcaused suspicion. The discussion turned to the rites Christianity took from paganism.He told me how the Eucharist is taken from a right called bread and ale.According to him people become Christians because they are afraid of theunknown. People stay Christian because it is methodical and it is poundedinto their head. They do not know about rituals and they do not know aboutpagans so they fear them. The reason people join Christianity overpaganism is two fold. One is peer pressure, the need to conform. Two,Pagans will not accept people who only wish to join to be with their friends,as opposed to those who truly believe paganism is the right path for them.The largest problem that he had with Christianity is the selfishness of oneGod. I then asked him why he felt Christianity is wrong. He replied by statingthat no one should be told this is the one way and that you must accept ourway of thinking and conform to one set of rituals. My Interview with Subject #2 started out by defining his religion. Hetold me he is a wiccan, a form of paganism. He told me that paganism mademore sense than any other religion. His only Christian experience was as achild. He became bored and felt that the service was too drawn out. Heagreed with Subject #1 when it came to the sacrifice of animals. Heexplained the difference of symbols between a Satanist and a pagan. Thepentagram is reversed of that of the Satanist. The difference was that thepagan pentagram had one point up where as the Satanist had two points up. The five points stand for air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. According to him,the Christians stole the cross. The depiction of Satan was taken from themale pagan god who was the god of the hunt. He mentioned that a Christianchoir stands in a semi-circle which was taken from paganism. He wasattracted to paganism for the following reasons. First, he believes in morethan one God. The belief that the power comes from you not from a divinepower of something. Subject #2 felt people join Christianity because it isexpected of them. Children follow their parents. He pointed out thatChristians are very pagan in that they pray to Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Iinquired if he had ever been persecuted. He stated that he had beenverbally abused by Christians and told buy them he was going to burn inhell. He mentioned that he has never been threatened by Satanists but hehas been threatened by Christians. (2)After my interviews I decided to turn to books. The question on mymind was that of what is the difference between a cult and a religion. Myinvestigation let me to the start of Christianity. According to the bookChristianity started like all cults. They discovered a new truth. The Churchsatisfied the needs of people that inspire a person to join a cult. The Churchsatisfied the need for supernatural and elaborate rituals. In fact the Churchfilled with its miracles, saints, and martyrdom allowed sects to flourish inside of the church. (4) I learned allot about Pagans and Christians. The one thing I learnedis there is no clear cut reason why people believe what they do. Howeverthere is one thing I learned. Above all else there is one thing that unites usall. Regardless of right or wrong. The one thing that makes us all human isfaith. Faith on one god two gods or science. Faith is the only thing thatseparates us from animals. So may the Gods of heaven and earth smile onus all.