Along with a few thousand others, he (Exsekias Trivoulides)is taking part in the Prometheia festival, which celebrates the ancient Greek hero Prometheus, who helped humans by stealing fire from the gods.
It's the most important annual festival for followers of The Return of the Hellenes — a movement trying to bring back the religion, values, philosophy and way of life of ancient Greece, more than 16 centuries after it was replaced by Christianity.
These people consider Greece to be a country under Christian occupation.
"People want to identify with something in the past — where they came from — so as to know where they are going," Trivoulides said. "If you don't know your past, you don't have a future.
"It's going back to the roots. It makes me feel the continuation through the millennia."
Well I am sure that the Greek Christian community is open minded and understanding enough to respect the idea of others embracing their heritage and returning to the roots of their culture.
In 2007, an official of the Orthodox Church described them as, "a handful of miserable resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion."
Or not. You know that is EXACTLY my opinion of Christianity.
Personally I love the idea of people discarding Christianity in favor of searching for the faith that it trampled beneath its feet, before usurping its festivals, holidays, and traditions and absorbing them like a giant religion gobbling amoeba.
To be honest there is NO more reason to put your faith in the God of Christianity than there was to place it with Athena, or Poseidon, or Aphrodite.
Besides there was a time BEFORE monotheism, when all societies believed in in polytheism. And before that in Animism and Spritism.
And yes that includes the Jews. For those who doubt that fact I suggest you watch this.
(Warning the video can shake the very foundation of a person's faith.)
Remember mythology is only religion that has been cast aside in favor of a shiny new system of faith.
Thanks fo rthe link. The movie was good.
ReplyDeleteZeitgeist is another one. I was shocked about all the other ancient religions who had a savior, a virgin birth and a crucifixion death.
They didn't teach me that in Catholic school.
Things that made me go - HHMMM!!
Gryphen, everything you say about doG and religion is true, but you're coming AWFULLY close to insulting the almighty Zeus and THAT is simply unacceptable. Don't forget that lighting bolts thrown by an angry Zeus can knock the wings off a fly or sink an entire island on a whim. You can not escape the wrath of Zeus!
ReplyDeleteRemember: the only TRUE gods are Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite and Dionysus, plus many, many others. Know them! Worship them! Obey them! Fear them! (and sacrifice a chicken to them once in a while, won't you?)
Mt. Olympus Rules!!
(fun fact: Beldar was the Greek god of pockets (and anchovies, also, too). For centuries, absent-minded Greeks who couldnt find their car keys would shout "BELDAR!, BELDAR!" as they patted their pockets furiously hoping to find them. Some do it still to this day.)
Look Beldar I am often accused of focusing on the Christian God when I criticize religion, so let me tell you a little something about this "Zeus" fellow, if in fact that is his real name.
DeleteHe was prone to incredible rages and temper tantrums. (I think he may have been bipolar.) He stole his father's kingdom, raped numerous women, or seduced them while in the form of a swan or bull. (How drunk does a woman have to get to get jiggy with a bull?)
He cheated on his wife Hera constantly and was a backward hermaphrodite who birthed Athena from his skull. In other words, eww!
Besides I have it on good authority, which I just pulled out of my ass, that those vaunted lightening bolts of his were really just sparklers from a fireworks stand.
Besides if Zeus had ever has any REAL power he never would have allowed his son to be portrayed by Kevin Sorbo.
I'm just saying.
@550AM
DeleteYou have crossed a red line, Mr Fancy Pants Librul Alaska blogger!!
The last time someone insulted Almighty Zeus was 79 A.D. and we all know how THAT turned out!
As we speak, your contemptuous comments are trundling towards Mt. Olympus atop the back of Mitchos, The Turtle-Faced God of Scrolls, Tablets & Wadded Up Scraps Of Paper, so your days are numbered, buddy boy! Figure about 6-8 weeks! (Yes, Ma & Pa McConnell named their handsomest child after this god)
Repentance is futile and your chance of surviving this calamity is very, very small, but I strongly recommend beg Zeus' forgiveness and make Chicken McNuggets - or the delicious Buffalo Wings at TGI Fridays on Tudor! - a frequent part of your diet if you have any hope of outliving this self-inflicted Greek tragedy!
(Kevin Sorba.... heh heh heh....)
Hail, Almighty Zeus!!! HAIL!!
I love being the little subversive pagan in the my Russian orthodox community. Earlier this year when the kids were all over playing with my kid I gave them a lesson about why Easter has chicks, rabbits and eggs. Just the other day they learned about the summer solstice revels. (I left out the sex part though.)
ReplyDeleteI am waiting for a parent to come and question me about these "stories" I'm telling the kids, but so far, no one has. Smiles.
Good for you!
DeleteOf course, your CHILDREN may not like the results as the other children are told not to associate with them, which is the usual tactic used by people who are ignorant and afraid.
I have found - as has Gryphen and a tremendous number of people - that the silent attacks are the ones primarily used.
My neighborhood "discovered" (No, I wasn't hiding it.) that I didn't believe in a god. I am always there to help them when a common call goes out, but I have yet to have anyone (except for my immediate neighbor) return the favor.
Will I stop helping them? No. I don't believe in acting that way.
BUT THEY DO!
I still believe that what you did was the right thing, though. Maybe one of those kids will actually wake up and LOOK at what they are taught. I wouldn't hold my breath, but one can hope.
Leland, I look at it as a win win situation. The kids want to play with my kid as we have the coolest yard with the coolest play forts and I'm always giving out the coolest snacks, and he's a pretty cool kid. If the parents get upset about anything I'm doing here, why they can keep their little darlings at home. If the kids stay away, that means quieter times for me here. But they won't stay away, though that one fundie family I was kinda hoping....
DeleteTED Talk from an Agnostic Jew, on Muhammad:
ReplyDeleteLesley Hazleton: The doubt essential to faith http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ORDQFh0Byw
When Lesley Hazleton was writing a biography of Muhammad, she was struck by something: The night he received the revelation of the Koran, according to early accounts, his first reaction was doubt, awe, even fear. And yet this experience became the bedrock of his belief. Hazleton calls for a new appreciation of doubt and questioning as the foundation of faith -- and an end to fundamentalism of all kinds.