Halloween's Pagan Themes Fill West's Faith Vacuum

Halloween's Pagan Themes Fill West's Faith Vacuum

www.bloomberg.com

There’s a reason for the pull of the pagan. In the U.S., we’ve been vigorously scrubbing our schools and other public spaces of traces of monotheistic religion for many decades now. Such scrubbing leaves a vacuum. The great self-deception of modern life is that nothing will be pulled into that vacuum. Half a century ago, the psychologist Carl Jung noted the heightened interest in UFOs, and concluded that the paranormal was “modern myth,” a replacement for religion.

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This journalist makes a startling revelation. We know the education system has been removing religion from the lives of our youth. Have you ever asked why?

You should. Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

The Bible often symbolizes governmental institutions as exotic beasts. In the book of Revelations it is not surprising the prophecy states the whole world will be worshiping the beast. It's a lot to chew on.

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reply to post by CodeRed3D

In the book of Revelations it is not surprising the prophecy states the whole world will be worshiping the beast.

Just one question...
How do you expect atheists to "worship" anything?

Originally posted by CodeRed3D


This journalist makes a startling revelation. We know the education system has been removing religion from the lives of our youth. Have you ever asked why?

You should. Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

The Bible often symbolizes governmental institutions as exotic beasts. In the book of Revelations it is not surprising the prophecy states the whole world will be worshiping the beast. It's a lot to chew on.

www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I find it ironic in the extreme you would say religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought and dialect. You do not know history.

CJ

I am perfectly fine with the removal of religion from schools. I do not want my kids being brain-washed about imaginary happenings from a 2000 year old novel. Religion has no place in the classroom.

Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

What

Hang on here, am I the only one who thinks it's the other way around?

reply to post by CodeRed3D


Well paganism was and is, a religion. The world was a pagan one for far longer than it has been a christian
one. It doesn't make much difference if one replaces the other, that's happened many times over in human history.

If I had to choose any religion to follow it would probably be paganism, I think generally it has less dogma and doctrine than other religions.

Personally I think people will make some progress when we start seeing things in terms of spirituality, not religion and the petty differences it encourages people to emphasise.

Of course if the NWO introduces a new kind of dogma to replace Christianity, then that will not be good.

Originally posted by CodeRed3D

You should. Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

Excuse me while I puke.


This thread smells so familiar... Yes... it reeks of Tipper Gore circa 1986! WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!

Originally posted by CodeRed3D


This journalist makes a startling revelation. We know the education system has been removing religion from the lives of our youth. Have you ever asked why?

You should. Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

The Bible often symbolizes governmental institutions as exotic beasts. In the book of Revelations it is not surprising the prophecy states the whole world will be worshiping the beast. It's a lot to chew on.

www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Let me get this straight:

you are advocating that more people are turning into paganism because religion is being removed from schools, then you quote the bible as saying that government institutions are exotic beasts.

So you are ok with the government institution exotic beast devil worshipers, teaching religion in schools?

Here is food for thought: how about Halloween is getting popular because of the rise of paganism?

How about people are tired of having a single secular male god shoved down their throats? YOu know how many covens are lead by former priests and ministers?

How about the concern over environment and people wanting to escape urban life and get to their roots?

Or people want a religion whose rules are not dictated by someone else, someone they did not choose to be a leader? That they can follow the morals and beliefs as they choose.

Or how about we are approaching a day and age where people can be more free to express religion without persecution?

Nice try though on an underhanded attempt to criminalize someone else's relgion so you can promote your agenda of putting Christianity back in school.

In much the same way the Tokugawa shogunate expelled the missionaries for teaching the Japanese peasants that there was only lord and it wasn’t the emperor, religion has been removed from the public space in the western world because those who control our public sphere today are tired of the competition.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Rights given by God can only be taken by God, but rights given by man ……..

I have seen a flying disk with my own eyes, perfectly silent, fly over my house.
Therefore UFOs are not a myth, it's an actual reality. This means that Jung was ignorant of the facts and made spurious assumptions based on the "void" in his brain. It's funny how wrong he actually was.

About Halloween, it is actually not religious originally although many religions have adopted variations of this 'harvest festival' tradition.

Just about every culture on Earth has a harvest festival of some fashion. This is human nature due to our seasons and weather issues in respect to agricultural limitations.

Sure, just about all of these cultures incorporated the harvest festivals into whatever religions they practice, and due to geography these festivals can differ greatly and can happen at different times of the year (however it does correspond to the harvest season in that region).

Read up on the history of the Harvest Festival. This stuff dates back to Egypt, etc.

The American tradition of "Halloween" which specifically includes 'trick-or-treating' and 'dressing in disguises', does indeed originate from a collection of various festivals.

Look up these potential precursors and you will probably realize that "Halloween" is a mix of various different traditions and festivals from different locations.

The Roman festival of the Goddess Pomona

Also check out the ancient Roman festival of the ancestors, "Parentalia"

Now mix all of this with the Celtic tradition of Samhain , throw in a few various historical developments during the late 1800s - early 1900s, a few things from other harvest festivals worldwide, some corporate greed/influence, and we have a good set of information to help us understand why we have a harvest festival and how it became the "Halloween" we know of today.

Remember that the USA is an immigrant nation with people from all cultures globally, and many of these groups have contributed in many ways to our modern holiday traditions.

I realize that most people want to assume it's a direct copy of Samhain, but this is certainly only a glimmer of the truth. In reality the truth typically turns out to be a deep mix of various factors that contributed and collectively formed today's world.

History is always very sophisticated and complex, and there is never a catch all solution. Answers are difficult to come by and there are many points of view and corresponding events that must be taken into consideration to get the bigger view of how the modern world coalesced into what we see today.

All of our holidays are Pagan in origin. I think the Church took everything from the Pagans.
Ceremonial sites,obviously all the solstice celebrations. For example, we have Easter or Ostara. The symbols are the egg and rabbit. Ever wonder why?
Those symbols represent going forth and multiplying birth and rebirth resurrection . Speaking of ressurection , between Dec.21st and the 24th the sun "dies" by seemingly stopping it's movement on the horizon.Then on the 25th the "Sun" is reborn and starts its movement again. Pagan.
Oh and of course there is Santa. Santa brought the scandanavians psychedelic mushrooms during the cold, shut in months of Dec and Jan . Most likely because they didn't have Xbox 360's ?
Also I see no shortage of Jesus in the United States. His popularity is intact.
It seems to me there are two Jesus's now. There is the Jesus that stands strong for the poor & disenfranchised.
He loves the persecuted and the meek. The second is modern Jesus. Modern Jesus rides shotgun in Rick Perry's black Cadillac Escalade, flipping off homeless people and telling the OWS people they are worthless dirty hippie's. Don't even get Modern Jesus started on minorities and "The Homos".
Will the real Jesus please stand up?
Will the real Jesus recognize his American flock?

Originally posted by CodeRed3D


This journalist makes a startling revelation. We know the education system has been removing religion from the lives of our youth. Have you ever asked why?

You should. Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

The Bible often symbolizes governmental institutions as exotic beasts. In the book of Revelations it is not surprising the prophecy states the whole world will be worshiping the beast. It's a lot to chew on.

www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

So what you are saying is... that paganism is rushing into the vacuum to the rescue? Right?

Originally posted by CodeRed3D

Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

I honestly had to read that sentence three times to make sure I read it right.

You can't be serious....

reply to post by muzzleflash


Nicely said muzzle, but....


Pagan is an umbrella term just like Christian is an umbrella turn. The Egyptian, Greek, Roman Gods are pagan gods. And their modern followers do consider themselves pagan.

Originally posted by nixie_nox

Here is food for thought: how about Halloween is getting popular because of the rise of paganism?

That's so absurd it's not even funny.

Halloween is popular today, and historically, because kids love trouble. The modern variation of this festival was clearly made popular by youths creating 'tricks' on people in their community, and dressing up to hide identity became commonplace.

The 'treats' were handed out to the ruffians in order to prevent them from vandalizing their property. This is in the historical record and can easily be proven.

1) Halloween is popular because kids love candy (more than trouble).
2) Halloween is popular because corporations can make huge profits and sell tons of merchandise.

Let's be realistic here please.

Halloween almost completely died out in the early 20th century, until companies realized they could market it better and make more money off of it.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by muzzleflash

 

Pagan is an umbrella term just like Christian is an umbrella turn. The Egyptian, Greek, Roman Gods are pagan gods. And their modern followers do consider themselves pagan.

Which definition?

The normal definition of :

1. An adherent of a polytheistic religion in antiquity, especially when viewed in contrast to an adherent of a monotheistic religion.

Notice they use the term "antiquity", which indicates ancient history.

Or are we using definition number 3 which is pejorative? :

3. Offensive
a. One who has no religion.
b. An adherent of a religion other than Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.

reply to post by muzzleflash


What about adults? My wife and I love Samhain almost as much as Christmas. We are in our 30's and totally decorate the house with pumpkins, tombstones, and everything "halloweenie". Some people simply resonate with the season and the Samhain is a pinnacle upon which a person can rest all their affection for it.

It's not about "candy" and "trouble". Even as a child, I loved it for the more esoteric feelings it gave me.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Your completely wrong on that. Halloween is the second largest grossing holiday after Christmas. The revenue has doubled just since 2005.

Why? Because of the adults. $210 million dollars MORE will be spent on adult halloween costumes then children just this year.

And that is just the costumes.