Syncretism

Good Day.

Today I shall be explaining something which most people do not realise about religion. Most people are likely to think that, when a religion colonises a country, it gets rid of all traces of previous religions. Right? Well, not quite. This is a demonstration of why this is not the case.

My most obvious example is Scandinavia. Picture yourself as a Christian missionary, sent to Oslo to found a church with nothing but a sack of beans (provisions) and a few fellow churchmen. Many people in the 21st century like to say that missionaries converted people by force. Well, here is a sample of Viking mythology:

• Odin- god of war strategy.
• Thor- god of fighting.
• Loki- another strategist.
• Bragi- wartime poet.
• Niord- god of the navy, and of wartime provisions.

Maybe I am stretching it a bit, but my point is that Scandinavia was very much centred on war.

It was about the fiercest, most powerful nation in Northern Europe, and its empire stretched from Greenland to Russia, passing through Scotland, Yorkshire, Normandy, and even Spain and Lombardy, plus one short glimpse of Manhattan. Each and every peasant in this hard land knew how to use a weapon, if only a pitchfork. So how on earth are you, a 'geekish' young priest (meaning you know how to read) , supposed to convert them by force?

So, how are you going to convert them? Firstly, you need to gain their trust. To do that, you need to know their beliefs and customs. So, you learn of the Norse mythology, and the knowledge turns out to be very useful...

The Christian God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and so on-right? Well, the Norse gods, along with most polytheistic gods, are not omnipotent- they are sinful, and their powers are limited, and many are mortal. So you use the Christian idea of angels; angels are messengers of God, right? So you say that the Pagan gods were in fact sent by God to 'prepare the way' for Christianity. The gods are in fact angels; messengers. That way, you haven't contradicted the pagans, but you have added to their store of knowledge (or so they feel). With the vikings, this was particularly effective, as the y believed that all their gods were to die one day, at the Ragnarok. The missionaries said that Ragnarok had already come, and that, once the gods had died, God had taken over the rule of the world.

With this wonderful tactic- agreeing with the native beliefs, yet getting your own religion across- many religions flourished. Islam, for example, made its way into Africa and Persia by agreeing with the native communities on certain counts- for example, Islam talks of Djinns, nature spirits which actually came from Persia. Various strands of Buddhism believe in various deities- Shinto Buddhism, for example, or Greater-Vehicle Buddhism- and they all say that the 'gods' are in fact a greater level of reincarnation, or creatures which help you reach Nirvana.

In conclusion, you deserve to be lied at if you believe that religions are always at each others' throats. This tactic of agreement is named Syncretism; I thought you may want to be aware of it, after that post on Buddhism I made.

Greatest respects,

Your friend,

JAFHR

Is Life an Illusion?

“The world is a stage and its men and women are merely its actors” William Shakespeare.

PWN - I believe that the world is in fact a video game, kinda like the Matrix.

JAFHR- What proof have you to state that the world is fake?

PWN - Ahm, well let’s not get bogged down in details here.

JAFHR- The French philosopher Descartes wrote that we cannot be sure of anything- “what if some evil genie was making me believe my hand is where it is?” He then realised that, in this world or another, two plus two will always equal four. Thus he set up the Cartesian School- a school of thinking which looks at things from a mathematical point of view. We can look at a circle, and be sure that it exists because it is possible to work out that it is a circle. We can now see that the world cannot be fake, for it is made up of maths.

PWN - Maths was built around the world, not the other way around.

JAFHR- Really? When you study circles, does the teacher bother about demonstrating that a perfect circle exists? As you said, let’s not get bogged down to details; a circle exists in theory, and a philosopher would argue that the world is a theory.

PWN - Could we get back to the point please?

JAFHR- Is this not the point?

PWN - Not really, can’t we just discuss the practical points of this before the philosophical implications?

JAFHR- What is this practical point, then?

PWN - Like... whether it would be possible to make a ‘dream world’. If you think of the improvements in video game graphics and immersion over the past ten years, is it not feasible, or even likely that in the future we will develop some kind of completely immersive game where we think the game is real. If that is the case, then it seems highly likely that we are already in the game. I’d like to point out now that I did not like the Matrix, but it is a good example of this.

JAFHR- Many theologians would say that the world is indeed a computer game, and the ‘Grand Engineer’ (in the words of Voltaire) is God.

PWN - That’s a very good point. If our world has been engineered, then does it matter?

JAFHR- It does not, however you would need to prove His existence.

PWN - Which is pretty much impossible. But if God is not necessarily perfect, then why doesn’t He blow stuff up and such, rather than act rather passively. Doesn’t He get bored? Or is that part of the human condition?

JAFHR- I think Christian, Jewish and Muslim theologies all agree that god is perfect, and, if you trust that he exists, you trust that he is perfect. In my memory, only one religion believes in a bad single god; a secretive tribe in an island off Mexico, the name of which escapes me. These people believed this because the conditions of the island were so dreadful; to them, he did indeed ‘blow stuff up’. This is possibly comparable to the game “Pocket God”, available on the Apple App store.

In most mythologies, there are many gods- they are like the many admins of this blog; there are some “good Gods” (me) and some “bad” gods (JHWW) who try to destroy what the good gods have made.In this scenario the bad gods are like enemy players in a Multi-player, or possibly the baddies in any respectable game. I personally believe that the gods are players just the same as we are, but that is another story. Whether we have a unique god or multiplayers, it is clear that, if the world is a computer game, it is clear that a certain someone has taken a great deal of care to make it so that we, the WoW players, could enjoy it in the fullest. If life is a computer game, does that make it any less real, then?

PWN - No,but onto a more practical point -  why would anyone want to convince us that we are in the real world when in fact we’re not? In the Matrix it’s because the real world is ruled by machines and they don’t want any humans messing up their stuff so they create this ‘Matrix’ thing, which is essentially a simulation of the year 2000 (the film is set in 2200 or something). Would they be exploiting us for money, or keeping us out of the way? Why not just drug or kill us?

JAFHR- If the 'Machines' you are talking about can be called gods-which by definition they are- then see my previous response to see why the gods do not "blow things up".I have just argued extensively that the world cannot be false - perhaps there is a bigger world out there,like at the end of every MIB film, but certainly nothing which we need to be aware of.

PWN - I suppose you are right. The bigger world is somewhat irrelevant if nothing we can do can allow us to experience it. On that note, I think we should end this discussion. Please leave your own opinion in the comments below.

JAFHR- Yes, indeed, good day.

-PWN-

-JAFHR-

Our Pantheon

Hello.

This is merely to clarify what I said in my last entry-I said something about'deities'.This might be the cause of some confusion.

When PWN,JHWW and I were setting up the idea for this blog,I had the idea to set this up as a pantheon-a group of gods.In many different cultures,there has been the idea of three main gods;we have decided to do things similarly. The three of us shall consist the 'Triad',or the three main gods;we shall also publish the views of a series of 'minor gods',or less frequent authors(We do not mean the phrase 'minor gods' as an insult, or in any way downgrading; some minor gods, such as the Greek goddess Hecate, turned out to be more important than the main gods).

Hoping you find this interesting,

-JAFHR-

Greetings

Greetings to all!

Throughout this blog you will know me as JAFHR, and of the three main deities of this blog (JHWW, PWN, and myself) you will find me the most deranged- my many hobbies include philosophy, researching mythology, and arguing- thus I am the patron of the many oddities featured herein. My entries shall include philosophical discussions, demonstrations of my archaic and arcane knowledge, poems and creative writing, and general weird sayings and ideas which I make it my aim to propagate.

Until next time, brave visitor of websites far remote...

-JAFHR-