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Sobeh · 03-20-2006, 04:56 PM

Re: the similarities between Xianity and various paganisms....

One of my pet peeves is the common assumption that if anyone can come up with similarities between Xianity and another religion then it's the scandal of the millenium, and proves Xianity to be false. There is no such thing as a 'pure' religion. All religions, in all times, in all places, have fed off of and been inspired by religions and philosophies and cultures in surrounding areas. Pointing at the syncretisms in the founding and progress of Xianity with an "Ah-HA!" attitude shows a common, yet still unfortunate, lack of basic knowledge about religion in general.

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Okay: basically, Lucifer is a Latin translation of a Greek translation of a Hebrew word, while Satan is a Semitic word with various iterations (Hb: Satan, Ab: Shaitan, etc.). Satan might also be another name for Heilil Sheten and other similar names; see I Enoch for the story of fallen angels and such that's been much popularized by New Age works about the Enochian language as well as such movies as Fallen and Konstantine (depicting the Good vs. Evil war taking place on the mortal realm, a theme from Zoroastrian sources). "Devil" comes ultimately from the Greek, "Diabolos"; these different names are best thought of along the lines of "You Backstabbing, Lying, Wankbadger!" They each came into use at different times, for different reasons, and with the purpose of describing or relaying a different feeling, or perhaps the writer was being creative in language use, or they mistranslated a word, or translated a Semitic language into a Romantic language, or.... it's a **HUGE** field. 'What's the difference' takes more than a little bit of reading to properly 'grok'.

New Testament translations: Aramaic was likely the spoken language of the area and time Jesus lived and taught, but we have NO copies of New Testament texts written in Aramaic - the earliest ones are all Greek, which was the language of the Literati of the Roman Empire, and of anyone with an education, Jewish or not (those writers simply knew two or more languages, as did many writers, to varying degrees, which is another reason you see so many different words referring to the same concept or individual, and also the reason translations differ widely, as authors may have used different methods to convey their points).

I could go on, but you get my gist I hope.

03-20-2006, 04:56 PM	#126
Sobeh Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: couch-surfer Posts: 598	Re: the similarities between Xianity and various paganisms.... One of my pet peeves is the common assumption that if anyone can come up with similarities between Xianity and another religion then it's the scandal of the millenium, and proves Xianity to be false. There is no such thing as a 'pure' religion. All religions, in all times, in all places, have fed off of and been inspired by religions and philosophies and cultures in surrounding areas. Pointing at the syncretisms in the founding and progress of Xianity with an "Ah-HA!" attitude shows a common, yet still unfortunate, lack of basic knowledge about religion in general. --- Okay: basically, Lucifer is a Latin translation of a Greek translation of a Hebrew word, while Satan is a Semitic word with various iterations (Hb: Satan, Ab: Shaitan, etc.). Satan might also be another name for Heilil Sheten and other similar names; see I Enoch for the story of fallen angels and such that's been much popularized by New Age works about the Enochian language as well as such movies as Fallen and Konstantine (depicting the Good vs. Evil war taking place on the mortal realm, a theme from Zoroastrian sources). "Devil" comes ultimately from the Greek, "Diabolos"; these different names are best thought of along the lines of "You Backstabbing, Lying, Wankbadger!" They each came into use at different times, for different reasons, and with the purpose of describing or relaying a different feeling, or perhaps the writer was being creative in language use, or they mistranslated a word, or translated a Semitic language into a Romantic language, or.... it's a HUGE field. 'What's the difference' takes more than a little bit of reading to properly 'grok'. New Testament translations: Aramaic was likely the spoken language of the area and time Jesus lived and taught, but we have NO copies of New Testament texts written in Aramaic - the earliest ones are all Greek, which was the language of the Literati of the Roman Empire, and of anyone with an education, Jewish or not (those writers simply knew two or more languages, as did many writers, to varying degrees, which is another reason you see so many different words referring to the same concept or individual, and also the reason translations differ widely, as authors may have used different methods to convey their points). I could go on, but you get my gist I hope. __________________ The phrase "we (I) (you) simply must---" designates something that need not be done. "That goes without saying" is a red warning. "Of course" means you had best check it yourself. These small-change cliches and others like them, when read correctly, are reliable channel markers.