How long did people worship Zeus? Was it longer than Christianity's 2000 years?

by pistolpete 9 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  pistolpete

  How long did people worship Zeus? Was it longer than Christianity's 2000 years?

  Most answers say this but they do vary.
  

  Quote; Well, the Greeks seem to have absorbed their pagan religion and pantheon from the Mycenaeans, who in turn may have gotten it from the Minoans, among others in the region. The Minoans were a Bronze Age civilization that flourished from the 27th century BC. Since the Romans took their religion from the Greeks and did not officially adopt Christianity until the early 4th century AD, we are talking about at least 3,000 years.

  So about 3000 years, give or take a few hundred years.

  My question;

  How long will people continue to believe that Jesus will one day come riding in a white horse to render judgment on the whole world?

  Will another human rise up and take the place of Jesus thus ending his reign as a God or Son of God depending on which Christian religion a person belongs to.

  You think perhaps another thousand years or less before people are finally forced to accept reality?

  I mean, people can only wait for so long-----a few thousands years perhaps----but not millions of years before they realize-----I guess we were wrong and he's not coming.

  https://me.me/i/skeleton-meme-templates-imgflip-d24d12981d1e43668a44360c6389436f
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  LoveUniHateExams

  How long did people worship Zeus? Was it longer than Christianity's 2000 years? - I don't know.

  But the polytheism and sun-worship of the Egyptians lasted longer than Christianity's 2,000 years.
  
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  Rocketman123

  My question;

  How long will people continue to believe that Jesus will one day come riding in a white horse to render judgment on the whole world?

  Christianity spread and was embraced for such a long time not just about the incoming day of judgment but also because of its core principles of love and respect toward one another and the hope of relief of pain and suffering and finally death.

  Kind of like teaching statues of social moral guidance, which at the end there was to be an award.

  What other god in human history provided these humanistic values to humanity ?.
  
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  FFGhost

  I mean, people can only wait for so long-----a few thousands years perhaps----but not millions of years before they realize-----I guess we were wrong and he's not coming.

  I have it on good authority that the Great Prophet Zarquon will not be late!
  
  
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  Anony Mous

  It depends on what you include under Zeus but yes, any deity before the Christian deity of Jesus has by definition had worshippers for a longer time.

  There are still worshippers of Zeus today (https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22972610) and there are still worshippers of Moloch, as Moloch became Yahweh, any Jew or old-testament Christian, by definition is a worshipper of old Canaanite gods.

  The Sumerian gods are probably the closest we can get to whatever our ancestors did pre-civilization of all those even but it's hard to pin down where the cults and stories started and ended, more pure worship of those deities (naturalistic/animalistic, obviously transformed over time) and religious cults can still be found with both Native American (their god creatures all resemble the earliest of Sumerian gods) and certain Asian tribes (myths of dragons with simultaneous bird, snake and cat features for example)
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  john.prestor

  Before Sumerian times, there's no writings, so it's difficult to know what people believed or practiced. There are much older depictions of hybrid beasts, as Anony Mous points out, which probably hint at some kind of mythology.
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  truth_b_known

  PistolPete:

  This is such a great topic. I think your second question is even better - how much longer will Christianity survive?

  I believe if Christianity is going to survive it has to evolve. One of my favorite philosophers stated that Christianity has to give up on the doctrine of Sola Scriptura and admit that the Bible teaches positive philosophies to be practiced and not be literally interpreted. Those days are coming to an end.

  We as a species have evolved in mind. We adopted rational thinking as early as 450 BCE. Christianity has to -

  • Accept the fact that the Earth and universe is much older than a few thousands years
  • Accept that humans evolved
  • Accept of the Bible is mostly an allegorical story and not historical
  • Accept Jesus was never resurrected and was not Yahweh's son nor God
  • Accept that we are born with perfection and happiness already within us
  • Accept that life is the greatest miracle of all and life on Earth is heaven
  • Accept that other religions are just as acceptable
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  OnTheWayOut

  The Greeks, many would argue, wrote of mythical gods and felt free to take liberties with the writing of their stories. It wasn't so much that they mixed history with lies, but they expected people who were able to read to know that the writings were philosophical allegory more so than literal truths.
  

  Somehow, along the way, after much of the Jews stories were written down, people forgot such a way of thinking and everything was assumed to be literal.
  
  I doubt there was much "worshipping" of the Greek gods. There were cults of worship that were literal, so that might have been a part of the later development of forgetting that it's just stories.
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  Anony Mous

  People have always worshipped. Even today, people (eg Ibram X Kendi) are inventing cults and religions, not necessarily with classic deities but definitely inventing a “higher ideal” to be strived after, declaring some form of original sin and declaring classes of priesthood and rituals of penance in order for this priest class to attain some power. And you too can get some of that power, some of that knowledge, if only you do what is prescribed and excise those who do not from your bubble of society.

  All religion follows this pattern, you find something that will be perpetually wrong with the human condition that nobody can fix and declare that you have the solution as long as you are put in power. And people have the innate desire for ritual and stability by forming groups and having an answer provided to the monsters in the abyss, and all forms of religion exploits that.

  It is why all religions have the same deity forms, it exploits the monsters we naturally fear (the snakes in the field, the birds in the sky and the big cats in the trees) to make us give up something to benefit someone else. And that can be quite good for a small group society, hence why most people accept religion, because it was beneficial to a society, we are here because our ancestors were hard wired believers, but can also be exploited by those who seek power, especially when the group grows large and the classes distance themselves from each other.
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  Disillusioned JW

  Consider also the Zoroastrian religion - it is still being practiced today. Worship of Ahura Mazda began well before the 1 century B.C.E and continues today. It is said that ancient Jews living in Persia got some ideas from that religion and that the Jewish Pharisees and 1 century C.E. Christians adopted those ideas. The ideas are said to include the following: that the one supreme God has a supernatural opposer who will eventually be defeated (in a battle between good and evil), the idea of light versus darkness, that there will be a day of judgement, that the people on the side of the supreme god will attain everlasting life and that there will be a resurrection of the dead, heaven and hell, angels and demons, and Paradise. See for example https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170406-this-obscure-religion-shaped-the-west .