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Jan. 30th, 2007 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badstarIf you haven't caught this yet, according to this professor, Concerning Hellenic pagans, it's just "pagan-lite" without blood sacrifices.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2007/01/paganism_withou.html
(I don't claim to be attempting to completely recreate the Ancient Hellenic religion. However, I don't think that the fact that I'm not performing animal sacrifice means that my belief in the gods is somehow diluted.
For the record, I am not opposed to animal sacrifice. I also do not believe that anyone who thinks it's okay to eat meat should be opposed to animal sacrifice. No, I'm not talking about the senseless torture and killings of people's cats and various other animals that crop up especially at Halloween time. )
Wow, after just one news article you manage to dismiss an entire religion. Not the kind of intelligence and understanding I would have expected from a scholar. For your information, the revival of ancient Hellenic polytheism has been going on for several decades both in Greece and the US and other areas of the world (though many would say that the forms it takes in Greece are very different from those in the states). We are developing a rich, devoted tradition based in the ancient but also adapted to the modern world. Most importantly, we believe in, worship and love the gods - which is what polytheism is about.
Yes, we understand that animal sacrifice was a large part of the ancient religion (though there were certainly plenty of people and groups who did not participate in it and yet still practiced the religion). But we are not living the same lives as they did. Most of us (just like every other modern person who buys their meat at the supermarket) do not have the expertise and experience to humanely slaughter our own animals. We do not live on farms, we live in apartments in cities - not exactly conducive to massive sacrificial rituals. So we make adjustments. Some people actually have performed sacrifice (humanely, and where the meat is mostly eaten by participants afterwards, just as in ancient times), but it is rare. Some people will leave a small portion of their meal, often including meat, for the gods, or burn it in a small fire or on a grill. Some people choose to just focus on bloodless offerings, or are vegetarians (both things that were present in ancient Greece). Our religion is not invalid because of this.
I'm sorry if this puts a crimp in your teaching style, having to actually learn about and respect this reconstructed religion, but if you approached it with a better attitude, you might find it interesting and enlightening to learn about how people are still being touched by the gods in our lives, and how we respond and build relationships with them.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2007/01/paganism_withou.html
(I don't claim to be attempting to completely recreate the Ancient Hellenic religion. However, I don't think that the fact that I'm not performing animal sacrifice means that my belief in the gods is somehow diluted.
For the record, I am not opposed to animal sacrifice. I also do not believe that anyone who thinks it's okay to eat meat should be opposed to animal sacrifice. No, I'm not talking about the senseless torture and killings of people's cats and various other animals that crop up especially at Halloween time. )
Wow, after just one news article you manage to dismiss an entire religion. Not the kind of intelligence and understanding I would have expected from a scholar. For your information, the revival of ancient Hellenic polytheism has been going on for several decades both in Greece and the US and other areas of the world (though many would say that the forms it takes in Greece are very different from those in the states). We are developing a rich, devoted tradition based in the ancient but also adapted to the modern world. Most importantly, we believe in, worship and love the gods - which is what polytheism is about.
Yes, we understand that animal sacrifice was a large part of the ancient religion (though there were certainly plenty of people and groups who did not participate in it and yet still practiced the religion). But we are not living the same lives as they did. Most of us (just like every other modern person who buys their meat at the supermarket) do not have the expertise and experience to humanely slaughter our own animals. We do not live on farms, we live in apartments in cities - not exactly conducive to massive sacrificial rituals. So we make adjustments. Some people actually have performed sacrifice (humanely, and where the meat is mostly eaten by participants afterwards, just as in ancient times), but it is rare. Some people will leave a small portion of their meal, often including meat, for the gods, or burn it in a small fire or on a grill. Some people choose to just focus on bloodless offerings, or are vegetarians (both things that were present in ancient Greece). Our religion is not invalid because of this.
I'm sorry if this puts a crimp in your teaching style, having to actually learn about and respect this reconstructed religion, but if you approached it with a better attitude, you might find it interesting and enlightening to learn about how people are still being touched by the gods in our lives, and how we respond and build relationships with them.
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Date: 2007-01-30 02:14 pm (UTC)My understanding is that, as a druid, your beliefs and practices are more celtic-derived than hellenic and as an ADF druid you don't claim to be authentically recreating preChristian druidic practice, but rather modifying and adapting to modern times... "your own druidism" as it were.
As such, his comments do not apply to your practices. He seems to be equating "paganism" with what Isaac Bonewitz would call "paleopaganism", and even more specifically paleopaganism in Europe. Under those guidelines, neopaganism could easily be called "pagan-lite". But that falls under the fallacy of assuming that modern (neo)pagans identify (or should identify) with paleopagans.
I dare say that much of what he said Isaac would agree with. If the folks who did the ritual at the Temple of Olympian Zeus claimed to be practicing the ancient Greek religion, then Isaac would say they were claiming to practice paleo-paganism, and failing miserably.
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Date: 2007-01-30 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 06:41 pm (UTC)What an ass.