What is the same...?

[KC Destroyer of Worlds]

I see a lot of finding out the differences between Pagan religions and Christianity.

It's very easy to look at something and see what separates us from it. It's a hell of a lot harder to look at something at see what makes it similar.

I think it would be interesting to find out what the similarities are.

**Sorry forgot to mention one myself:

High holidays.

Yuletide > Christmas
Easter > Eoster

Anything else**

[RaptorGTA]

What ya mean...like similarities in traditions?

example. How prayers are like spells?
or praying to different saints is like centering on a certain deities for certain things to happen?

Honestly i dont see too many difference between them. The main one is catholicism is mostly not having a real personal relationship with the higher power, feeling bad for things you have done, asking for forgiveness to not be damned for all times.

[Sekushi Cho]

Well, there are a lot of rather subtle similarities, especially in the ritual. One of my personal favorite similarities is how during the preparation of the eucharist, a bell is rung to invoke the holy spirit into the bread and the wine, sorta like we use a bell to invoke the Goddess/God.

Colors hold similar meanings in Christianity: purple is used during Lent to symbolize royalty and power, red is used during certain holy days to represent passion and the holy spirit, white is used as a symbol of grace and divinity.

Mary was impregnated by the holy spirit in order to give birth to Jesus, who was himself supposedly God made man. She is refered to as the mother of God. While not exactly the same thing, as Mary herself is not considered equal to God, though she is considered divine, it does bear slight resemblance to the process of the Wheel of the Year and the cycle of the Goddess birthing the God, raising Him, being impregnated by Him only or the process to repeat once more.

The tools of Christianity are also similar. Water is used for blessing and purifying, fire is used to represent the holy spirit, incense are used to cense the air just as in paganism, though they are used less often, and earth is used to remind followers that they are from the earth and they will return to the earth when they die, specifically on Ash Wednesday. There is also a chalice used for the wine, which is seen as a sacrifice/gift to God along with the bread.

I'll take a bit more time to think of other similarities, but these are some of the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Edit: I might also add that these are examples from my experience attending mass at an Episcopalian church. By no means to I intend to imply that all denominations of Christianity follow these examples, because they don't.

[Darth Brooks]

Just a quick list:

Halloween, Easter, and Christmas should be pretty obvious.

Jesus - Dying and Rising savior figure, similar (though not identical) to earlier versions thereof; the idea that worshiping such a God can cause the soul to continue in a beautified state after death, like a seed growing into a plant

Mary - often pointed out as the closest thing to a Divine Feminine

Devil - descended from many pre-Judaic notions of a dark adversarial figure that subverts the chief God's creation; seven-headed dragon in Revelation is similar to Greek Hydra and other variations of the Middle/Near Eastern chaos dragon concept

Angels & Demons - similar to Greek agathodaimones and kakodaimones

Saints - also similar to agathodaimones

Communion/Mass - similar to many pre-Christian mystery traditions in which a Dying-and-Rising God figure is ceremonially "eaten" in the form of bread (or something else that comes from agriculture) and some kind of intoxicant

Virgin birth - lots of pagan traditions believed in gods or demigods being born of mortal women

Baptism and Exorcism - lots of pre-Chrisitan religions practiced both

Fish - some of Jesus' disciples were fishermen, he made them "fishers of men," and fish shows up a few different times in the New Testament; previously, fish had been an important Typhonian Hermetic symbol, inherited from the original Set cult in Egypt; and similar to how the Ichthys Fish (symbol of Christianity) contains the name of Jesus, the Typhonian fish contained the phallus of Osiris (i.e., swallowed it). Because of the Typhonian association fish were considered taboo in many of the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri that were contemporary of early Christianity

Divine right of kings - Christian rulers, just like pagan rulers, believed they received their authority directly from the Divine

Platonic philosophy - Influenced Thomas Aquinas and other important Christian theologians in history

Also, can't quite remember which thread it was, but somebody pointed out that many Christians today hold afterlife beliefs that are similar to Greek pagan ideas; e.g., Christians were originally supposed to believe in a physical resurrection and they wouldn't be accepted into heaven until the Day of Judgment, but nowadays it's a popular Christian belief that people go to heaven as soon as they die, which was an idea held by pagan religions contemporary to early Christianity, and which the early Christians criticized.

And probably the most important:

Blood Libel - Christians were popularly accused in Rome of cannibalizing infants and practicing obscene rites; previously, similar accusations had been made against the Jews by Greeks and Egyptians; Christians later made similar accusations against "witches" during the European witch hysterias; a partly religious, partly secular equivalent was targeted toward innocent day care workers, contemporary pagans, and other occultists in the 1980's.

I'm sure somebody else can probably think of more.

[Darth Brooks]

Five more:

Yahweh/Jehovah - possibly descended from Mesopotamian El, similar to Marduk, Baal, Set, and other Middle/Near Eastern gods who slew primordial chaos dragons (in Yahweh's case, Leviathan), either to protect the universe from the monster, or to create the universe from its remains

Armageddon - similar to Zoroastrian eschatology, which proposed a Day of Final Judgment, and to other pagan eschatologies which account for a future endtime event which will signal the rebirth of the world or the creation of a new one, such as Ragnarok

Burial practices - Many pagan cultures also buried their dead, as opposed to cremation

Monotheism - to my knowledge, first proposed by Akhenaten and the cult of Aten in Egypt

Patriarchy - quite a few pre-Christian pagan cultures were very patriarchal and male-dominated

[coyoger]

I think it would be interesting to find out what the similarities are.


For the most part Christians have one main god, but are not apposed to beleiving in god as a "father", a son, and a holy ghost/spirit.

Pagans usually follow one main and several closly related deities.

Christians are always on about what would Jesus do? and seek the devin in yourself.

pagans follow a close path. Calling the gods/goddess to enter and guide their lives.

Ect.

[*oonagh*]

they all believe in divinity.

[Darth Brooks]

Here's one more for you.

Resisting Temptation - Satan tempts Jesus to worship him, in exchange for which Satan will give him all the kingdoms of the earth. In very similar fashion, Mara tempts the Buddha to give up his quest for enlightenment and become a universal king and establish an empire for himself. In both stories, the sage resists temptation, demonstrating a right-hand path or dakshinachara method of emancipating the soul from its own limitations. Asceticism is not exactly alien to paganism, either.

http://pagantheologies.pbwiki.com/Asceticism

[David19]

Just a quick list:

Halloween, Easter, and Christmas should be pretty obvious.

Jesus - Dying and Rising savior figure, similar (though not identical) to earlier versions thereof; the idea that worshiping such a God can cause the soul to continue in a beautified state after death, like a seed growing into a plant

Mary - often pointed out as the closest thing to a Divine Feminine

Devil - descended from many pre-Judaic notions of a dark adversarial figure that subverts the chief God's creation; seven-headed dragon in Revelation is similar to Greek Hydra and other variations of the Middle/Near Eastern chaos dragon concept

Angels & Demons - similar to Greek agathodaimones and kakodaimones

Saints - also similar to agathodaimones

Communion/Mass - similar to many pre-Christian mystery traditions in which a Dying-and-Rising God figure is ceremonially "eaten" in the form of bread (or something else that comes from agriculture) and some kind of intoxicant

Virgin birth - lots of pagan traditions believed in gods or demigods being born of mortal women

Baptism and Exorcism - lots of pre-Chrisitan religions practiced both

Fish - some of Jesus' disciples were fishermen, he made them "fishers of men," and fish shows up a few different times in the New Testament; previously, fish had been an important Typhonian Hermetic symbol, inherited from the original Set cult in Egypt; and similar to how the Ichthys Fish (symbol of Christianity) contains the name of Jesus, the Typhonian fish contained the phallus of Osiris (i.e., swallowed it). Because of the Typhonian association fish were considered taboo in many of the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri that were contemporary of early Christianity

Divine right of kings - Christian rulers, just like pagan rulers, believed they received their authority directly from the Divine

Platonic philosophy - Influenced Thomas Aquinas and other important Christian theologians in history

Also, can't quite remember which thread it was, but somebody pointed out that many Christians today hold afterlife beliefs that are similar to Greek pagan ideas; e.g., Christians were originally supposed to believe in a physical resurrection and they wouldn't be accepted into heaven until the Day of Judgment, but nowadays it's a popular Christian belief that people go to heaven as soon as they die, which was an idea held by pagan religions contemporary to early Christianity, and which the early Christians criticized.

And probably the most important:

Blood Libel - Christians were popularly accused in Rome of cannibalizing infants and practicing obscene rites; previously, similar accusations had been made against the Jews by Greeks and Egyptians; Christians later made similar accusations against "witches" during the European witch hysterias; a partly religious, partly secular equivalent was targeted toward innocent day care workers, contemporary pagans, and other occultists in the 1980's.

I'm sure somebody else can probably think of more.


Five more:

Yahweh/Jehovah - possibly descended from Mesopotamian El, similar to Marduk, Baal, Set, and other Middle/Near Eastern gods who slew primordial chaos dragons (in Yahweh's case, Leviathan), either to protect the universe from the monster, or to create the universe from its remains

Armageddon - similar to Zoroastrian eschatology, which proposed a Day of Final Judgment, and to other pagan eschatologies which account for a future endtime event which will signal the rebirth of the world or the creation of a new one, such as Ragnarok

Burial practices - Many pagan cultures also buried their dead, as opposed to cremation

Monotheism - to my knowledge, first proposed by Akhenaten and the cult of Aten in Egypt

Patriarchy - quite a few pre-Christian pagan cultures were very patriarchal and male-dominated

Very great list, DB, although, just something to add, I wouldn't say Christian Saints are the same as agathodaimones, I'd say Saints are more similar to Heroes, agathodaimons are more, if i'm not mistaken, similar to angels, or Guardian Angels.

Definitely great list, though :) :cheers: :thumbsup:.

[David19]

Here's one more for you.

Resisting Temptation - Satan tempts Jesus to worship him, in exchange for which Satan will give him all the kingdoms of the earth. In very similar fashion, Mara tempts the Buddha to give up his quest for enlightenment and become a universal king and establish an empire for himself. In both stories, the sage resists temptation, demonstrating a right-hand path or dakshinachara method of emancipating the soul from its own limitations. Asceticism is not exactly alien to paganism, either.

http://pagantheologies.pbwiki.com/Asceticism

That's very true, and asceticism definitely has a place in a lot of different cultures and religions.

[Darth Brooks]

Very great list, DB, although, just something to add, I wouldn't say Christian Saints are the same as agathodaimones, I'd say Saints are more similar to Heroes, agathodaimons are more, if i'm not mistaken, similar to angels, or Guardian Angels.

Definitely great list, though :) :cheers: :thumbsup:.

Point taken. :thumbsup:

[David19]

Point taken. :thumbsup:

Thanks, I just wanted to point that out :).

[KC Destroyer of Worlds]

I really appreciate you taking the time to learn me on some of this stuff. I am no knoledgable about pagan religions, and I kept hearing what the differences were, so I thought I'd ask was the similarities are.

Thanks!:thumbsup: