Aidonian's blog

 as I watched the latest YouTube video of aliakai over why are we afraid to be pagan, something hit me. While we can have discussions on the nature of the Gods, but there is a problem between revivalists and reconstructionists. As we see with revivalists like YSEE who claim to be a revival rather than reconstructing the polytheistic religion. I think the problem is that claiming to be revivalists than reconstructing is that you limit yourself. As a revivalist, you are limited within the framework that you put up for yourself instead of researching it yourself how the ancient Greeks did it and adapt it for modern day life. That YSEE claims that marriage is just between a man and a woman is an outdated concept. It’s based on an outdated notion that a man and a woman could only marry, but not people from the same sex. While the ancient Greeks or Romans didn’t have a problem with bisexuality or homosexuality, marriage was considered to carry on the name of the family. The family unit was very important to ancient societies. It was the only way to make sure that your population could grow. So there was a certain pressure to produce children. 

A lot of has changed over the last 2000 years that this is an outdated concept. Yet, many western countries are still centred around the family unit, which means that singles are left out.

As our society evolves, so does our religious believes. Many polytheists chose to keep their religion to themselves out of fear of being ridiculed or discriminated against. Why? Some scientists think that reconstructionists are just LARPing, not really being religious. Some even claimed that ancient Romans and Greeks didn’t believe, but were more cultists than anything else, that the action was more important than the believe. 

To that I say it’s bullshit. The ancient Romans and Greeks did believe in their Gods, but they knew that through their cults, order was maintained. In a world where science was just started out, you can’t blame people for holding the belief that through their religious actions as a whole, order in the world existed. So accusing them for not believing is a false accusation. The ancient Greeks and Romans did believe in their Gods. It looked just different than what we are used to in the west. 

While many polytheists back then were respectful of other religions, some weren’t. Judaism didn’t care much about other religions. They didn’t accept any other deity than their supreme god. Christianity took it a step further. Some offshoots of Christianity attacked temples and shrines which triggered a response. 

That response was local and not empire wide as many Christians would have you believe. By the time of Constantine who declared that Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire, there were around 150 different Christian sects and by that time there was a official bible that came out a century earlier with the council of Nicea. The conversion of Europe into Christianity was anything but peaceful. Temples were ransacked and destroyed, people were have to chose between their lives or converting. It wasn’t like that at first. At first, the higher positions in society and military were for Christians only, then they start to discriminate against polytheists and forced conversions followed later. 

Today we see that same, especially in USA where Christian zealots would go to pagan meetings and disrupt them. While freedom of religion exists in the west, in the end, it used as a weapon. For many freedom of religion that their religion should get the only freedom. 

Which is why so many people turn away from religion as they see it being used as a political instrument to gain power. Religion in itself is for the benefit of mankind, not a tool to oppress people.

Which is why so many polytheists chose to keep their faith private. While there are groups and organisations out there the goal is not become the dominant religion. The goal is to worship the Gods in peace. 

For me it’s clear that religion and state should be divided. They don’t mix and shouldn’t mix at all. There comes nothing but misery from doing that.