Your favourite ancient relgion

Originally posted by Achilles Originally posted by Vivek Sharma How many of these faiths survive to this day in some form or the other. Just curious. Norse mythology/religion survives in the form of Asatru (Norse heathanism, the old way, Odins way, etc..). Some people put Asatru in the same category as Neo-paganism and Wicca, but as a follower of Asatru i feel differently

Good. What is its philosophy ?
BTW Asatru means Friend in Our languages.

Basicaly Vivek We beleive in the Norse Gods, Odin, Thor, Tyr, Hoder, Njord, Baldur, etc.... Also that Ragnorok(the final battle between the gods and Loki, his children and the giants, where all will be destroyed excpet for 2 of Odins son's, 2 of Thor's sons, and 2 humans) will come after Loki causes Baldur to throw the Mistletoe dart at Baldur, thus killing him. I also belive in Valhalla(Odin's hall where the worthy dead will feast and train for Ragnorok), Asgard(land of the gods), Niflheim(land of the dead). Jotunheim(land of the giants), and afew other worlds

If you would like any more information, just ask.

Originally posted by Aelfgifu Originally posted by Vikingrage Norse for sure. The Havamal is filled with great advice and the message it sends from the stories of its Mythology is great. Its also Warriors religion. Fight all day and Drink all night.   Yeah, but there is not much in it for women, is there? I see no fun in spending eternity filling the cups of drunken louts with mead, and I cont sing so the Walkure job is out of the question.

Norse paganism? What's that? We can't say. The situation with the primary sources here is so ambiguous you can hardly base a religious conviction on it. What we "know" has been handed handed down to us through sources written down by Christian authors hundreds of years after the Christianisation, based on oral traditions and perhaps partly the authors' imagination, then transcripted for hundreds of years, changing a bit from one manuscript to the next, to what is today the modern translations of these. It's quite a journey, think there's anything left of Old Norse religion by the end of it? There might be, but no scholars today claim we can reconstruct the entire religious corpus, the most critical of them claim we have salvaged some scraps at best.

This might offend some of those Neo-Paganists who believe in this with the best intentions, but to me saying you're a Neo-Paganists just tells me you've never heard the word "source criticism" or read a scholarly work on the pagan Norse religion.

I've seen many Neo-Paganists entering my Uni, studying Old Norse religion, but not a single one who finished his/her studies and still called himself/herself a Neo-Paganist afterwards.
    

Edited by Reginmund - 28-Oct-2006 at 08:06

And what works do you base this claim on? I hope this is not just your intuitive reasoning speaking.

I have studied this topic for over three years at my Uni, I have read many of the primary sources and the secondary literature treating them, in addition to this I regularly meet with the leading scholars in the field and I wouldn't expect a single one of them to agree with what you just wrote, not even the most positivist ones. Yes, Old Norse paganism is well documented, very well documented, that's not the issue, the issue is to what extent we can rely on these documents. Look up "source criticism", it's the first thing you learn when studying Old Norse religion on university level.

The theory that the study of shamanistic religions is the key to understanding Old Norse religion is just one disputed theory among many, it certainly doesn't make any clear picture appear.

And no, we don't dismiss any source because the content might be brutal to our eyes, at least we don't do that here, it would be ridiculous.

Again you apply the Latin American situation to the one in Europa and elsewhere, no matter how badly it fits. If I attempted to prove anything about Old Norse paganism by referring to Aztec practices I'd be given some raised eyebrows to say the least. I'm afraid you're the very epitome of a naive positivist.

I'll go for aboriginial religion too, but its not really ancient I suppose. Mainly because its neo-agnosticism with a few supersitians added. No bother, no fuss, just look after the land. Land is important

How ancient is ancient?

Originally posted by Hellios Isn't Hinduism the oldest & most peaceful organized religion?

peaceful? Organised?!?!

What do you mean "aboriginal religion" is not ancient?

Well its still practiced in many aboriginal communities in Australia. The remote areas were never christianized, and the more colonised regions have often still managed to retain some of their traditions. There are places in Australia where europeans didn't reach until the 1960's. They teach the basics of the religion to students in Primary School - at least they did 10 years ago.

On top of that colonization only started 200 years ago, so even in areas where the aboriginal religions have been lost (or the aborigines were wiped out), I don't think you can call it ancient.

Omar, is your current signature a serious question, or is it some kind of koan?

Omar, is your current signature a serious question, or is it some kind of koan?   It it's literal, it's easily answered. Water is sometimes lighter than air.

No, its not a serious question. Its making fun of the drought. There was a quote similar to it in 'the Last Continent', I can't remember it exactly