Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonathan
If the kingdom doesn't exist, wouldn't that rather definitively place it in the "mythology" category alongside the Grecco-Roman, Egyptian, and other dead religions?
It isn't a matter of "bringing it down" to the level of other belief systems, they already occupy the same space in terms of mythological beliefs. What raises it above them? Government recognition? Hello Jedi. Living practitioners? Thor and Co. are doing just fine with Ásatrú, and you can't throw a rock through the window of a New Age Wiccan store without hitting a Bast sculpture.
It's all superstitious nonsense. It is all silly, it isn't a matter of associating a non-silly belief system with "silly" (ie Non-white apparently) ones to demean it, they are all inherently ridiculous, none deserving any more respect than any other.
That doesn't preclude pointing out particular arguments are flawed or otherwise discussing the root subjects.
|
The kingdom is gone, but the descendants are still around who are united by that tradition, crazy enough. There isn't exactly a Horus Defamation League. People who worship gods from dead religions aren't practicing the same religion, they might not even actually believe in gods. Some neopagans actually take a Jungian view, they don't actually believe Thor exists, they just think there are psychological benefits in having religious narratives that deal with archetypes, which are metaphors that we can apply to daily life. Raelians, like I said, hold up science and empiricism as the highest thing. Scientologists are a little iffy, I mean they don't come right out with the alien soul stuff, so I imagine there's practioners who believe themselves to be empricists, rational and logical. Superstition doesn't unite them all, and superstition isn't specifically religious.