Re:Iceland to build first temple to Norse gods since Viking age
by gaius on Tuesday February 03, 2015 @02:36PM
(#8992729)
Consider the ancient Greeks and Romans... There was no Book of Zeus that the priest would read from every Sunday, the gods were useful metaphors for repeating patterns in history and human nature, and they didn't really care what you actually believed. Then along came the Christians and it wasn't enough for them, that you participated in the public rituals, you had to believe too. The Romans were perfectly happy to let people they conquered or otherwise incorporated into the Empire to do as they pleased, exchanging gods and legends willy-nilly. Judaism was fine with the Romans. That put the Christians and the Romans on a collision course. So I see this as a return to the old ways.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Iceland to build first temple to Norse gods since Viking age
by dragonwriter on Tuesday February 03, 2015 @02:49PM
(#8992818)
Actually, what put the Christians and Romans on a collision course is not that Christians believed in a God that cared about belief as opposed to participation in public rituals, but that Christians believed rather strongly in a God that cared about participation in public rituals, and, particularly, that Christian belief conflicted with participation in the public rituals of the Roman state religion, which while it might not care about belief, did care very much about everyone subject to it participating in its public ritual.