Where does the idea come from that European paganism was purely aesthetic and that actual belief in the divine was introduced by Christian’s? Is this just modern atheist cope or is their truth to it?
Bump
>>17414684Modern atheist cope
>>17414684>Is this just modern atheist cope or is their truth to it?Neither, it's a christian cope
>>17415167I thought Christian’s think pagans worshipped demons though
>>17415172Christians do, yes, but he was talking about neochristians who are trying to justify their atheism.
>>17414684Who says this?
>>17414684I've never heard this before
Pagan belief and Abrahamic belief are two very different things. For pagans, gods and their activities were just a fact of life, natural phenomena and moral principles were just understood to operate under divine logic, it wasn't something you really consciously thought about. The more philosophically inclined pagans would not think of the gods as being literal gigachads living in the sky, although commoners might conceive of it that way without issue, and it wasn't considered relevant.
>>17414684>paganism was purely aestheticI've never heard of this.
>>17415921Plato lore says the planets are literally the bodies of gods.
>>17415939In other words, he didn't think of them as anthropomorphic figures but as cosmic forces represented by lights.
>>17414684Belief was mostly optional in paganism, especially in regards to what you believe in and who you worship. As long as you weren't a full blown atheist no one cared. The faith didn't dictate your entire life. That's why you'll find a lot of irreligious people in antiquity but after Christianity takes hold you have wait until the enlightenment to find people comfortably expressing their scepticism towards religion.
Reminder there were literal atheists in Ancient Greece.
>>17415941No, Plato literally believed the Gods had spherical bodies because the sphere was the perfect shape.
>>17416350In other words, he didn't think of them as anthropomorphic figures but as cosmic forces represented by light orbs.
