Isn't everything pagan?

by zack 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  zack

  The WTS has threaded a theology together based mostly on what not to do. Many of the 'what nots" are justified

  by saying they are rooted in pagan beliesfs. But if everything not Jewish and not Christian is pagan, and the Jews and

  the Christians were such small societies, isn't everything really at some point pagan? Were not these cultures that existed

  for thousands of years independent of and parallel to--- sometimes older than--- Jewry and Christianity? And are their traditions and

  practices inherently wrong?
• 

  Elsewhere

  Isn't everything pagan?

  Yes.

  You should read a book called "The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You to Read". It outlines how every story in the bible are pagan stories that have been changed up a bit and retold.

  The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You to Read by Tim C. Leedom ( Paperback - Sep 1, 2001)
• 

  SPAZnik

  Yes, I agree everything is "pagan". ( If you really wanna label it. )
• 

  grey matters

  I heard an interesting comment the other day:

  "Anthropologists believe that all religiosity reduces to anthropology".

  Religiosity is dependent on history, culture, and other contextual influences. Spiritual values remain constant, however.
• 

  jwfacts

  Exactly. Use of the 'pagan' argument is just a cop out to justifying banning something. Everything can be found to be pagan somewhere. You can't eat beef because Hindu's worship cows.Where does it stop.

  A good example is the cross, the Watchtower says crosses are pagan and that Jesus died on a stake. Yet a stake is older and more pagan, being the revered Phallus. The idea of Jesus dieing on a stake mimics the ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna. Inanna descended into the nether world. There she was turned into a corpse by the seven judges and “the corpse was hung from a stake” for three days and nights. After this she was resurrected by the instructions of Enki, the god of fertility. (The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell, 1973.)

  Likewise the Watchtower is pagan, as seen in the following images.
• 

  zack

  Elsewhere:

  Thanks for the reference. I have enjoyed your posts all this time while I "lurked"--- (I didn't know I was a lurker 'til you guys told me)

  Anyway,

  Thanks
• 

  stillajwexelder

  Virtually everything to do with weddings is pagan
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  free2beme

  The belief in what Jesus Christ is and his origin in virgin birth is also Pagan, wonder if they will clean that one out.
• 

  choosing life

  Doesn't even the Bible say there is nothing new under the sun? Of course everything is pagan, if you consider that the oldest religions are neither Christian or Jewish. Didn't the Israelites do a lot of things like other people that lived around them? Head coverings, harvest festivals, sacrifices to their god,etc.

  I always understood it was the intention of an act that determined its morality, not whether someone else had engaged in the same act. I haven't seen any other religion except the dubs that makes such a fuss about things being pagan. And then they pick and choose which pagan things are ok and which are not.
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  vomit

  Job in the bible is Pagan and he has a whole book, he celebrated birthdays, was not even Jewish and never converted.