The Christian Church And Crimes Against Paganism Essays - Religion

The Christian Church And Crimes Against Paganism The Christian Church and crimes against Paganism 1 When I started this report I knew that paganism existed as a religion before Christianity. I suspected that if Christianity developed after paganism then it would have adopted some of the paganistic practices to attract followers. From my previous studies I knew there had been some form of propaganda against the pagan religion. Through out my life, my personal feelings toward the Christian Church, specifically the Catholic Church, were those of distrust. The Christian Bible also left much to be desired. For example, Christians are not supposed to worship 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 taketh away. Yet in the new testament God gives and the devil takes away. (3) Which is a contradiction of terms. 2 There were several reasons why I felt I had to write this paper. In fact, there were so many that I could not list them all without boring you. I will however discuss them all to one extent or another. The first and foremost reason was the fact that the Christian religion refuses to accept where its roots came from and still slanders the source of its roots, paganism. Secondly, the Christian church has performed some of history's most inhumane acts. Although the church has apologized 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 while calling those from whom they stole the symbols from as evil. Christians have called pagans Satan worshipers because they did not take the time to find out that to be pagan means to worship two or more gods and not one (i.e. God or Satan) . To this day Christians still refuse to admit they were and still are wrong about paganism. The third reason is that the Christian religion tells people that if you do not believe in my god then you are evil and wrong. Finally, I personally have been told 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 the Eucharist. 3 During my discussion with Subject #1, he began explaining about Joseph and Mary, Jesus' mother and father. He told me that not only was Joseph a carpenter, as all know , but also a missionary. therefore, he explained, Mary was called the Virgin Mary because she was the wife of a missionary not because she was a virgin. The wife of any missionary was called a vestal virgin. During the time of Joseph's absences she was a practiced virgin. However, when she was with her husband they had sexual intercourse. Yet because Joseph was a missionary Mary was considered a virgin through the divine intervention of god. When Jesus started to preach he was a philosopher, He did not speak about how the Jewish or Roman Catholic Religion should be run. Jesus' speeches were a release for the people from the occupying Romans and the harsh Jewish temples. The new testament was Jesus' philosophy. In fact there are no original copies because King James rewrote the new testament as he thought it should be. The Roman Catholic Church knows of the changes but refuses to acknowledge them. While continuing my discussion with subject #1, he disclosed the main reasons why he gravitated toward the pagan way of life. As a child he was told to worship God and anything you want just ask from God and he will give it to you. He felt that was selfish. Then he finally learned what the pentagram meant. Then he felt the need to learn more. He got curious and started to think on his own. To be pagan according to Subject #1 means to be open to others about how you feel. He did not like the Church telling him that he should control how he feels. As soon as he figured out how he felt he 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 not really alive. The church told him to control his feelings. He did not agree with this. That is when he became pagan. However, he told me something of interest, there could not be a