by PRIYANTHA HETTIGE
Pagans! The word summons up images in the mind of wild, uncouth tribesmen. But who exactly are Pagans? And what do we really know about those whom the Christians designate as pagan’?
All the old, Middle-Eastern religions such as Mithras, Attis, Adonis, Osiris, and Dionysus worshippers and the present day Hindus, Confucionists, Buddhists, Daoists, etc., are all lumped together as ‘pagans’ by Christians.
These are not members of one of the three ‘Abrahamic’ religions (i.e., Jewish, Christian or Muslim) and so, are called ‘Pagans’. These religions do not accept the Bible as the revelation of Almighty God and his works, and so, are labelled ‘pagan’, those of the countryside – not the smart, civilized set, who live in towns.
Naturally in English, there are no pagan equivalent terms used for those mono-theists religions based on the ‘Abrahamic’ or ‘God of the Book’ (= Gobbledigook) source of beliefs.
It is an established fact that both the Greek and Roman civilizations in the centuries before the arrival of Christianity were advanced in democracy, debate, drama, mathematics, philosophy and had a high level of culture. But even these people were termed ‘pagan’ – from the countryside – not from the smart city set! But nowadays, the Christian influenced world press and Christian-controlled school history books, all manipulate unsuspecting people into thinking that Pagans are inferior to Christianity! But it is not difficult to show the reader that, in fact, quite the reverse is true – an ignorance that works greatly to the reader’s own detriment.
Pagan Religions: Tolerant and Friendly to All
The chief and outstanding features common to all the different ‘Non-Abrahamic’ or ‘Pagan’ religions to be found around the world are their tolerance towards others and respect for their natural environment.
To become a Pagan is easy: to attend a pagan meeting perhaps once in a lifetime. There are no entry rituals, no baptismal and no demands to follow rigid rules and belief in dogmas. Newcomers to Buddhism, for example, are invited to come, look and try it for themselves.
This is in stark contrast to the pressure on Christians to save Pagan souls – demands to come, believe and baptise or be damned to hell-fire everlasting! Which, in fact, is just the start of much manipulation and control based on fear and arising from ignorance and lack of critical thinking. In contrast, the Pagan individual can follow the practices or give them up at any time. Entry and exits are without penalty. There is no compunction: no courts where trials for sinners or heresy are held and death penalty commanded.
This was compatible and consistent with the fairly relaxed, stress free rural and village communities around the word which depended entirely on the seasons, soil fertility, crops and other aspects of agriculture to survive.
This Pagan tolerance is extended to relations with other religions too. Priests of one community do not have the desire to go out and impose their ideas on their neighbours nor do they have the ambition to go out in conquest and subjugate and convert more and more people to their way of thinking – as if theirs is the one and only true belief.
There is and never has been, any cunning plans to undermine a whole culture and replace it with your own. Pagan gods are not for export! Pagan religions, above all, were always and still are, humane and tolerant to all. (With the famous exception of the Hindus and their ‘untouchables’ tribal caste prejudice.)
Rituals were only as supplication to the gods, and for example certainly not done to teach onlookers at a human burning, a nasty lesson about heresy*, hell fire and damnation!
(* A derogatory term used by the dominant Abrahamic group in power and applied to dissidents who do not think in the correct way. The more recent meaning is free-thinkers‘ – free of the Bible’s demands!)
Evolution of Pagan Religions
All religions evolved from simple ‘Animism,’ where a person is most at ease with his own understanding of his environment.
The term ‘animism should never be used in any derogatory sense, as these practices were simply the first ideas developed from their surroundings – the original superstitious ‘religion’ arising from the absence of scientific knowledge – a simple ignorance.
Early mankind saw the sun, the moon, mountains, trees and rocks; they heard thunder and saw lightning strike trees. They thought spirits were in everything.
They thought of nature as something as animate, alive – with a spirit or personality in it, so that outstanding rocks, large trees, rivers and mountains, each had a personality or a spirit in possession. (Not so different from what researchers into the development of life on planet earth find today.)
Animists worshipped the sun as Lord and Giver of Life, the moon was Lord of All Stars and the seasons were as life itself – endless repeating renewal of life and death. Some things they viewed as threatening – thunder they thought was the Gods arguing and expressing their rage with strikes of lightening, their sword of punishment. This is what we call ‘animism’.
These simple people survived with its help and they belonged to it all. (A long way from the Biblical idea of it given to humans by God for our use and exploitation.)
Much later, thoughts of magicians and their magic powers were added to early religion. They thought they could manipulate the powers of nature to the magician’s advantage. (e.g., the destruction of his enemies!)
The Middle-Eastern pagan religions were based in cities providing a focus for the surrounding population, living in harmony with other religions in the region. One religion was not practiced exclusively over a vast territory. Essentially, it was a patchwork quilt type of scene with no clear boundaries or thoughts of territorial possession. Wherever the Roman Army and their commanders went, they built temples to suit their religious (superstitious) needs – a temple to Mithras, mostly worshipped in Persia, has been found in London for use by Romans. Each religion had its own traditions, symbolic beliefs, gods and its own temples. It was all unhurried, leisurely, casual and human friendly – Pagan.
First Globalisation
One of the very first, contagious ideas to spread around the world – the first form of globalization, was the practice of making sacrifices to appease the gods. Sadly, some societies saw the need to appease the gods and they sacrificed birds, animals and even young people in troubled times. But human sacrifice was an offering by society to the many gods to help them and may be numbered in the low thousands around the world, counted over thousands of years compared with the horrific Christian Inquisition where about ten million Europeans were cruelly tortured to near death and then burned or otherwise killed in a single thousand year period termed the European ‘Dark Ages’!
Pagan Religions: the Benefits
Pagans viewed the world in simple terms: those things helpful to survive or bringing comfort were classed as ‘good’, but other things were only ‘bad’ if they caused anger or violence. This gave people a simple but pleasant outlook on life, creating harmony, less division.
This produced a broad spectrum of allowable behaviour, tolerance of human nature in society, resulting in equanimity and a positive outlook – an overall optimising of societies happiness faced with the problems of living.
This healthy view of life on earth produced well-adjusted people who were not easily agitated, uprooted and led off to war. They lived their lives well, being members of a group, or village all living and working together. The individual gained from the group and merged with it, so reinforcing his own security. Such societies all around the world had a clear definition of what ‘brought benefit to society’ and, it must be said, worked it for many thousands of years to the relative happiness of the group. And yet, these people were and still are derogatorily labelled as ‘Pagans’.
The concept of moral judgement was absent. They never developed a complex vocabulary with aggressive negative concepts such as sin (Sin is any action against the teachings of the Bible. That is, anything that the priests decided was against the rules set by the Almighty Bible-God), or original sin, eternal damnation, day of judgement, limbo, heretic, sex being evil, bastard, prostitute, pervert, pederast and so on. The point here is that guilt was never used as a weapon on others. (e.g., there is no such concept as ‘bastard’ in Buddhism and no corresponding insult.)
The Pagan religions of Europe, Asia and elsewhere are clearly not inferior to the ‘God-of-the-Book’ based religions with all their rules and regulations, but quite to the contrary, they suit humanity well, being based on an ages old harmonious relationship with the surrounding environment, being tolerant and relaxed which resulted in an optimal minimum of human suffering without the enforced imposition of written rules and regulations.
All Pagans had a real sense of being at home in their own city or town; they belonged there and did not look outside to foreign countries and to alien images; it made a satisfying whole. (- unlike today.)
An important point to make here is that Pagans are not easily manipulated to go to war unless stirred up by external threats or having a history of being subjected to threats and conflict. So, Pagan societies are not so useful to potential war-lords, empire builders, and robber barons who want power and to send armies to attack other communities for treasure. This aspect alone makes the strongest recommendation for paganism for all, universally – except for rulers such as Kings, Emperors and popes..
Complications: New Ideas for Gods
As mankind developed a better understanding of the world through reasoning, philosophy, and astronomy, our pagan practices changed to meet the challenges of the new ideas. Priests invented new gods and then, we worshipped them. For example, there are some new goddesses: the goddess of Love, goddess of Kindness, the goddess of Prosperity (Lakshmi) , who the Chinese admire so much, the goddess of Music and the Muses, and so on. Hinduism even has a goddess of Learning, and a god of Wisdom. Ganesh has the form of an elephant because he is the Lord who can overcome all obstructions.
Eucharist – Power from Eating Flesh and Blood
Long ago, primitive man had discovered that eating the heart and liver of animals gave him added strength, added powers. This developed into the custom of cannibalism, whereby the victor eats the heart and liver of his enemies to gain more strength – the power of a god!
From the idea of cannibalism for added powers evolved the practice of a mystical Eucharist – the symbolic eating of the flesh and blood of the particular god you respect and worship on the principle that you will acquire his strength and powers, too.
This idea was incorporated into the old magical and superstitious pagan religions and became the practice for followers of Osiris of Egypt, Dionysus of Greece, Mithras of Persia, Attis of Asia Minor, Adonis in Syria and Bacchus in Italy, and so on.
The Christian Gnostics also adopted this pagan idea of Eucharist. Later Paul incorporated this Eucharist into modern Christianity!
Satan
Zoroastrians believe that all events in this world are the interplay of the forces of Light and Darkness; the forces of good and evil. Evil is developed in the New Testament to the point where evil becomes characterized by a mythical Satan.
This was a crude and unimaginative stealing of the Pagan god, Pan. Pan was the harmless, much loved pagan God of Shepherds, but the Christians turned him into the depiction of the Devil – Satan – no less!
Death And Resurrection – Comes With A Warning!
Later, all the Middle Eastern pagan religions had at their core belief in a myth concerning a dying and resurrecting god-man derived from worshipping the god of Fertility and the Seasons (2) and this was incorporated into early Gnostic Christianity, too.
However, two eminent philosophers living around the fifth century BCE, ‘Xenophanes and Empedocles’ had ridiculed the practice of taking these gods and goddesses literally – humanising a resurrected Godman.” They understood the symbolism and viewed them as simply allegories of the human spiritual experience”! (3)
Early but Developing Societies
So, starting with primitive Animism, there are various developments and sophistications in the different pagan religions leading up to the well-developed Greek and Roman beliefs and practices. These were at a very high level of culture and thought – two great civilizations.
Leading to a Large Contrast Between Paganism and the Christians
The later Pagans of Rome and Greece, apart from their great philosophy, art and architecture, had high moral and legal standards such as respect for the elderly, treating relatives well, treating captives and slaves with understanding, and so on.
Both the Greeks and the Buddhists (in their Monk’s councils) developed and contributed to world civilizational ideas of democracy. These beneficial ideas were not incorporated into Christian practices.
On the contrary, Christians implemented ideas of harsh religious control by authority and had severe penalties for infringing or transgressing these rules. These ideas have been seized upon and used by right-wing dictators and politicians the world over since then.
It is wrong to say Abrahamic religions practiced tolerance. Voltaire was writing his protests and Napoleon and his armies were fighting Christianity with its cruelty and intolerance.
News of the butchery of innocent natives in Hispaniola (now the Caribbean land of Haiti and its surrounds) and even worse news from Mexico and South America made the whole of Europe shudder at the time.
In Hispaniola alone, eight million people, an ancient civilization of Native Peoples, were brutally butchered and exterminated in the search for gold.
Butchery of Buddhists
Remember what the Muslims did to pagan Buddhism in India!
Sura 9 Vs. 5 of the Koranic teachings gives:
‘But when the forbidden months
Are past, then fight and slay
The Pagans wherever you find them.
And seize them, beleaguer them and lie in wait for them!
Mohammed incites his followers to kill innocent people – and is highly esteemed for it! As a consequence millions of Buddhist were slain. Seven great universities including Nalanda University – the flagship of Buddhist culture and learning – were demolished in North India and all the books burned. A whole pagan civilization was brutalized – and seriously weakened.
Elsewhere, the Great Library of Alexandria (of books of learning, esp. Mathematics and Medicine) was destroyed and the books burned by Christian fanatics.
The Biblical an eye for an eye” punishment and destruction as ordered in Deuteronomy for the Jews but which the Christians also follow and obey.
E.G.: But these people that The Lord thy God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save nothing that breathes, but you shall utterly destroy them.”
Deuteronomy 10. Vs. 18 – Just one of many genocidal teachings.
So, Pagan laws were much more developed and humanistic compared with the crude Abrahamic religions. The Pagans, the Roman ‘Establishment’ of that time, were the very model of integrity, goodness and tolerance, but the Christians were far less so.
Pagan Poor Opinion of Christians
Ironically, the opinion of Paganism prevailing now among Christian society is similar to that held by Middle-Eastern Pagans of that time about Christianity!
In those days, the pagan world thought that Christians were the ultimate filth of the earth. The following quotation gives the Pagan opinion of Christians:
They were the ultimate filth,” a gang of … ignorant men and credulous women,” who with meetings at night, solemn fasts and in-human food,” … made up a hole-in-the-corner, shadow-loving crew.” Silent in public but clacking away in corners,” spitting on the (Pagan) gods and laughing (mocking) at holy things.” (14)
The Roots and the Construction of Christianity
Careful investigation by Freke and Gandy, two researchers who have worked to uncover the truth of this mysterious ‘Jesus’ are almost certain that early Jewish theologians created and developed this new religion, Christianity, based on a combination of both the old Mystical (pagan) and the old testament. They created a religion for others to use.
This Christianity developed into various sects with differing beliefs and practices. These sects grew and strengthened before the first millennium, in a world dominated by the pagan Roman Empire and its many religions.
The early Christian sects can be broadly categorized into two major groups- ‘Literalists’ and ‘Gnostics.’
The ‘Literalists’ were a minority who wished to take the Jesus story as a literal (truthful) account of historical events”(5) with these literal ideas later becoming Roman Catholicism” (6) in contrast to the practical and realistic –radically different Christians called ‘Gnostics’ (7) – the vast majority at that time, who understood and realized it all simply to be mystical symbolic ritual as Xenophanes and Empedoclese had explained.
Paul both founded and propagated the first Christianity – all ideas taken from practices used elsewhere, there was nothing new. He created a religion for others to use. It suited him to take the ‘Literalist’ interpretation and he took the myth of the Greek god Dionysus (The same god as the Egyptian Osiris) and renamed him Jesus – a mythical dying and resurrecting god man” (2) and then proclaimed he was a real person!
Paul incorporated into Christianity the observance of Saturdays and Easter as holy-days for observance. The Ten Commandments are adapted from the Code of Hammurabi of Babylon. He kept the Eucharist – the central Pagan sacrament where bread eaten turns into the body of the god being worshipped, and the wine being sipped turns into the blood of the god – also called transubstantiation, to get the strength of the god in order to reach salvation! (This is even practiced at Kataragama – a Sri Lankan Pagan site.)
Paul took all that Pagans believed in and practiced without any modifications. He added nothing new except to turn Dionysus into a real ‘Jesus’ but, of course, incorporated the Bible and its intolerant, inhuman doctrines.
Notably absent was his failure to take any human- friendly ideas of democracy or other civilized ideas of the time.
Paul knew the Pagan religions of the Mediterranean well of course and travellers, traders from India, would also have brought to the area news of Buddhism with its essentially rational, humanistic doctrines – but clearly those were rejected when developing his new religion. He introduced no new beneficial cultural ideas.
History shows all too painfully n that pagan religions can never withstand the aggression of the Abrahamic religions in any place around the world, in all of history. One stratagem much used by Christians to get acceptance of a target group, is to adopt their ideas and practices; to blurr the lines of difference and confuse the target population.
This helps enormously with acceptance of the new ideas by the target population in its transition to the new religion.
The Emperor Constantine
The greatest good fortune arrived for the Christians when Emperor Constantine summoned all the various ‘literalist’ schools of Christianity to Nicaea, Turkey in 325 CE.
Here, Constantine demanded that a common form of Christian belief and customs be agreed upon.
Although Constantine was a Pagan who worshipped Solus Invictus – the unconquerable power of the sun until conversion on his death bed, as the Emperor (whose wife was Christian), he made certain demands on the meeting.
He wanted a unified understanding of the basic beliefs and practices of Christianity. He also wanted the 25th December as the Birth of Christ and wanted a halo around the head of Christ in all icons and images as a sign of light. Most importantly, he wanted a hierarchical structure of authority, command and control – as in the Roman army! He also wanted Sunday for religious observance in honour of Solus Invictus.
Christianity Arrives by Vote
They voted on what beliefs and practices to include and what to exclude. The Vulgate Bible came into being by selecting the best from the hundreds of different versions of the same Biblical chapters and assembled them to compose their God of the Book.”
This collection of chapters was voted upon by the council and agreed to be the official, Universal” or Catholic Christianity – Christianity arrived by vote!
The Council then issued a proclamation that only these doctrines decided at Nicaea, were to be the true Catholic (Universal) Christian faith – all other teachings were declared heretical. (The heretics or non-accepters included the Nazarenes who claimed to be from Jesus’s own sect! Note: there were many Jesus” and Christs” at that time. Jesus was a common name. Christ was a common title.
Jesus of the Bible could have been an amalgam of four people and then fictionalised.))
Constantine had unwittingly given to all those in civil authority the first ideology used for manipulation and control for social and political purposes which, little modified after two thousand years, is still in use today, such is its usefulness to men of power.
The Takeover by Christians, Accompanied by their ‘Book’ Leading to the Abyss
The ancient Greeks and Romans who were normally tolerant Pagans, were furious at the cunning, devious actions of the Christians to promote their religion; taking over Pagan practices and calling them Christian and killing high priests and taking over shrines by force and calling them by Saint’s names.
But the arrival of Emperor Constantine and his policy of One God, One Religion; One Emperor, One Empire” was to be the fatal blow for Paganism and its practice around the Roman Empire.
(Original typed from notes given by Mr. Asanga Aryaratne. )
