Conversion

[Fish and Bread]

Well, after much reflection and consideration, I have decided to announce my conversion to paganism.

Though we claim a long ancestory for Christianity, there is no religion older than paganism. Our earliest tribal ancestors worshipped many gods and the Greeks and Romans conquered the known world with the grace of their gods long before Judiasm was anything more than a small unknown tribal religion. Even the native americans, having evolved culturally independent of the western world, came independently to the natural conclusion that is so evident in nature -- there are many divine spirits, each with their own role and duty in the supernatural pantheon.

One need only look at what happened to the world after the spread of monotheism. It collapsed the Roman Empire when it became it's official religion and people who previously had reached new heights of luxury and technology fell into astere lifestyles and general barbarism. Even as civilization was rebuilt, we became a dreary repressed people, never having any fun. And then, in the middle east, the lone eurasisan enclave of the true religion of paganism, came the rise of Islam and subjegation of women. Then these repressed monotheists, clearly not having enough fun in their lives, decided to attack one another and torture and kill people. What horrible things monothesim has wrought.

So, with that said, I must now place myself in the camp of those who follow Zeus and Apollo and all the great gods of our ancestors, whom we've suffered so much for turning away from.

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April Fools! :)

[Yahweh Nissi]

Very good - you fooled me :sorry:

[SirTimothy]

HAHAHA! Brilliant. I read the first two sentences and thought... no... no... then I guessed!

[Lilium]

You had me when I saw the preview...but when I opened the thread and the lines of ... and I scrolled down and read the last line :P

[Lel]

Well, I knew it was a joke from the first sentence....but then again that's not a surprise is it? :D

[Eby]

:eek: Haha - you had me fooled for a bit! :D

[PaladinValer]

Nice try, but I'm been on my toes all day.

[svdbygrace]

:cry:Not funny! :P I was getting ready to send you a PM.:blush: ^_^ btw... I just noticed everyone's eyewear! lol.

[PaladinValer]

**picks svdbygrace's nose**

:P

[Torah613]

You had me fooled to the line about Zeus and Apollo. That sounded so cheesy and fake it wasnt' even funny--however it was downright hilarious!

Joe Zollars

[Fish and Bread]

I find it kind of interesting that the Zeus and Apollo tipped a lot of people off. Is it kind of expected that a modern pagan would worship new gods and not the old ones? If so, what accounts for that thinking?

[Torah613]

well all the pagans I know of would not have started by mentioning two MALE deities. ;)

Joe Zollars

[Torah613]

not to mention your average neo-pagan is not likely to pick two deities from the same tradition, if they even go with the mainline historical pagan traditions.

Joe Zollars

[Fish and Bread]

I think this is actually kind of illustrative of why I've never actually considered neo-paganism really worth looking into, even though I've gone through periods of intense spiritual seeking. The modern incarnations of it aren't ground in any sense of history or even any rational explanation for why they're the way they are. People seem to literally just make up gods, without claiming any special revelation, and make up their own beliefs individually. It's almost as if there's a winking acknowledgement that they don't really believe in it and they're just doing it to pass some time and see if they can make themselves feel better about the world. I kind of include wiccans in that category as well, though they claim a history that, um, just didn't happen according to historians -- and their moral beliefs are almost 180 degree opposites those of historic witches.

It's ultimately religion as a reflection of self and, in the end, that means you're simply worshipping yourself, and people are really flawed by their nature human beings. So it leads no where good fast.

The major religions all have some sort of a moral center to strive towards that's independent of the whims of the individual believer. This is true of Christianity, Judiasm, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism alike. Now, these religions from a secular point of view could all be thought to be reflections of a historic society or societies, which is in and of itself, perhaps no better than religion as a reflection of the individual, but it seems as though there's at least a chance of some deep truth or insight into the world. Paganism doesn't really seem to offer that, at least in it's modern incarnations.

[erin74]

ok - you had me going - cause for us april fools was yesterday even when you posted - so it didn't even occur to me.

then I though.... nah - he's just having a stab at someone.... then I scrolled down!

[svdbygrace]

**picks svdbygrace's nose**

:P

:doh: I am so glad those things are gone! :clap: :D

[karen freeinchristman]

You had me going for a few sentences, but if I had read it yesterday I might have been fooled for even longer!

Good one, John! :D

[DeoJuvante]

You raise some good points. I think I'll consider converting myself.

(Actually, I spoiled it for myself by scrolling down before reading it)

[AngCath]

you had me going!

[gtsecc]

I didn't buy it for a second.
I knwo what the Call of Christ upon the heart feels like, and it cannot be ignored. :)