stellar renegade
PEST that STEPs on PETS
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2009
- Messages
- 1,446
- MBTI Type
- ESTP
Well, thanks for your questions (I appreciate respect as long as it includes, or at least lends room for, a demand for honesty). Paul, a monster? omg. I'd like to see your reasoning for that. He seems like one of the most laid-back, freedom fighting, passionately loving people I have ever heard of.
Where to start? Should I start with pagan religions* seeming to revolve around ritual and imagery, where Christianity is based upon love and community with extreme adaptability in expression? Or should I start with pagan religions (at least the more urbanized versions, I guess) tending to be oppressive, whereas early Christianity was very liberating. Pagan religions often required for there to be a professional cleric who initiated ritual, whereas in Christianity everyone was encouraged to minister to each other (1 Cor. 14:26). Christianity revolved around community and the presence of God, whereas pagan religions revolved around various things such as sex, images (idols), the state or money. The faith of pagan religions were based on the arbitrary whims of corruptible gods, whereas Christianity is based on an absolute, irreverisible, inherent and inescapable law of love and equality which is said to come from an infinite God.
Which road should I go down with you? There are many other differences I could talk about as well, I'm sure.
*Keep in mind that the word 'pagan' resembles the word 'heathen' in that it used to refer to rural folk and came to mean anyone who didn't believe in a monotheistic faith after Christianity became a dominant faith in urban centers. The faith of the country folk differs in a few important ways from the faith of the urban "pagan" religions.
Where to start? Should I start with pagan religions* seeming to revolve around ritual and imagery, where Christianity is based upon love and community with extreme adaptability in expression? Or should I start with pagan religions (at least the more urbanized versions, I guess) tending to be oppressive, whereas early Christianity was very liberating. Pagan religions often required for there to be a professional cleric who initiated ritual, whereas in Christianity everyone was encouraged to minister to each other (1 Cor. 14:26). Christianity revolved around community and the presence of God, whereas pagan religions revolved around various things such as sex, images (idols), the state or money. The faith of pagan religions were based on the arbitrary whims of corruptible gods, whereas Christianity is based on an absolute, irreverisible, inherent and inescapable law of love and equality which is said to come from an infinite God.
Which road should I go down with you? There are many other differences I could talk about as well, I'm sure.
*Keep in mind that the word 'pagan' resembles the word 'heathen' in that it used to refer to rural folk and came to mean anyone who didn't believe in a monotheistic faith after Christianity became a dominant faith in urban centers. The faith of the country folk differs in a few important ways from the faith of the urban "pagan" religions.