14 minus 1
XIII
By Alex Ness
March 24, 2024
THIS WEEK'S SUBJECT IS...Brand new displays of SYMBOLS and repeated statements of baloney that I was told and shown about 30-40 Pagan symbols that are all Right wing or Nazi symbols. I am not going to repeat or show the baloney show, but it is baloney. When Pagans were persecuted by the Holy Roman Empire and other Christian organizations, as well as simply Christian Churches, it surely felt righteous to do so, for the Pagans first persecuted the Jews and then the Christians. The Christian Church when made the official faith of the Roman Empire, it was the pagans turn to be persecuted. Not because I agree, just that, it is the way people make themselves feel righteous, by hounding the very same people who had done the same to them.
So, umm, Alex are you a Pagan now or something? No. I remain a Christian. But I can say, pre-Christian Europe, that was Pagan, was no more evil or false than the new deities rising in opposition to Judaism or eventually Christendom. It is about power, not holiness. Laying claim to what symbols mean or represent is one's way to make evil, or dangerous, or taboo, the symbols that the previous sacred faith believed in.
While many pagans were good, moral, kind, creative, yes, there are now and certainly were pagans who worship evil, and hated other races. Some that'd act violent against believers of the new recognized faith. But try to remember, one, I doubt you are an expert in pagan symbolism, and I'd even bet, you don't even know all the symbols of your own faith, whatever faith that might be. I am not debating what religious belief is good or bad, holy or not. I am simply saying, the moment you declare others to be wrong, and you are not an expert, you are just blowing things out your ass and acting as if you are creating a masterpiece. But what you might have done, is encourage the very hate that you claim to be fighting. So yes, I am a Christian, no I am not a Pagan, but I promise, there will be people who attack others with knowledge (so to speak) of the symbols of pagans now being used as evidence for those attacks.
Who knew it, but I think people have a right to their own faith, without having the bigots of other religions or political views using false information to justify hate. And if you are an atheist saying all religion is false and idiotic, kiss my ass, that isn't the point here.
Perhaps you weren't aware, so I'll close with this, the Roman Empire was nearly free of all forms of RACISM. There were sub-Saharan African males who served as Centurians. The excellent cavalry of the Roman Legions were often men of Arab, Bedouin, and Numidean race/ethnicity who were all similar in race to Semitic and Hamitic people, including the Jews. After Emperor Caracalla passed a law, making every human living in the boundaries of the Roman empire a citizen, there were not only no political, ethnic or racial distinctions within the empire, now, they all had equal access to the rights of citizenship, well no, not the Jews.
I thought you said Rome didn't have racism? The Romans hated the Jews. The Romans persecuted Christians. Why? The Jews had rebelled against Roman authority, viciously. The Christians refused to offer sacrifice to the Pagan altars of the Roman Gods. It wasn't exactly racism, because Christians could be of many different races, and were.
For the Romans towards the Jews, it was their special and perhaps only deep felt racism, and it had far reaching consequences. After repeated revolts, the siege of Masada, and refusal of the Jews to submit to an unusually tolerant empire, the Romans not only disallowed the Jews to have their homeland, the Romans renamed what was Israel, Syriac Palestina. Meant to evoke the Philistines, the people of Goliath of Gath, long time enemies of the Jews. But the Philistines were at that time a dead race. Extinct. It was purely to punish Jews for rebelling and costing Rome time and blood trying to pacify the region.
I am not a Pagan. But I can say, anything someone tells you, any time someone says just who is evil and who is good, who is worth honoring or who is not, cock your eyebrow up, and say oh really? I'll need some facts for that.
Books to read. Some books about ROME to enlighten yourself
March 24, 2024
THIS WEEK'S SUBJECT IS...Brand new displays of SYMBOLS and repeated statements of baloney that I was told and shown about 30-40 Pagan symbols that are all Right wing or Nazi symbols. I am not going to repeat or show the baloney show, but it is baloney. When Pagans were persecuted by the Holy Roman Empire and other Christian organizations, as well as simply Christian Churches, it surely felt righteous to do so, for the Pagans first persecuted the Jews and then the Christians. The Christian Church when made the official faith of the Roman Empire, it was the pagans turn to be persecuted. Not because I agree, just that, it is the way people make themselves feel righteous, by hounding the very same people who had done the same to them.
So, umm, Alex are you a Pagan now or something? No. I remain a Christian. But I can say, pre-Christian Europe, that was Pagan, was no more evil or false than the new deities rising in opposition to Judaism or eventually Christendom. It is about power, not holiness. Laying claim to what symbols mean or represent is one's way to make evil, or dangerous, or taboo, the symbols that the previous sacred faith believed in.
While many pagans were good, moral, kind, creative, yes, there are now and certainly were pagans who worship evil, and hated other races. Some that'd act violent against believers of the new recognized faith. But try to remember, one, I doubt you are an expert in pagan symbolism, and I'd even bet, you don't even know all the symbols of your own faith, whatever faith that might be. I am not debating what religious belief is good or bad, holy or not. I am simply saying, the moment you declare others to be wrong, and you are not an expert, you are just blowing things out your ass and acting as if you are creating a masterpiece. But what you might have done, is encourage the very hate that you claim to be fighting. So yes, I am a Christian, no I am not a Pagan, but I promise, there will be people who attack others with knowledge (so to speak) of the symbols of pagans now being used as evidence for those attacks.
Who knew it, but I think people have a right to their own faith, without having the bigots of other religions or political views using false information to justify hate. And if you are an atheist saying all religion is false and idiotic, kiss my ass, that isn't the point here.
Perhaps you weren't aware, so I'll close with this, the Roman Empire was nearly free of all forms of RACISM. There were sub-Saharan African males who served as Centurians. The excellent cavalry of the Roman Legions were often men of Arab, Bedouin, and Numidean race/ethnicity who were all similar in race to Semitic and Hamitic people, including the Jews. After Emperor Caracalla passed a law, making every human living in the boundaries of the Roman empire a citizen, there were not only no political, ethnic or racial distinctions within the empire, now, they all had equal access to the rights of citizenship, well no, not the Jews.
I thought you said Rome didn't have racism? The Romans hated the Jews. The Romans persecuted Christians. Why? The Jews had rebelled against Roman authority, viciously. The Christians refused to offer sacrifice to the Pagan altars of the Roman Gods. It wasn't exactly racism, because Christians could be of many different races, and were.
For the Romans towards the Jews, it was their special and perhaps only deep felt racism, and it had far reaching consequences. After repeated revolts, the siege of Masada, and refusal of the Jews to submit to an unusually tolerant empire, the Romans not only disallowed the Jews to have their homeland, the Romans renamed what was Israel, Syriac Palestina. Meant to evoke the Philistines, the people of Goliath of Gath, long time enemies of the Jews. But the Philistines were at that time a dead race. Extinct. It was purely to punish Jews for rebelling and costing Rome time and blood trying to pacify the region.
I am not a Pagan. But I can say, anything someone tells you, any time someone says just who is evil and who is good, who is worth honoring or who is not, cock your eyebrow up, and say oh really? I'll need some facts for that.
Books to read. Some books about ROME to enlighten yourself
