Quote:
Originally Posted by Armistead
If you study history, you'll find pagan gods were created in mass to control people.
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If you study history, you will also find that the control Germanic Paganism exercised on its subjects was way less than the control the christian church had in the middle ages.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Armistead
Once government got involved, it pulled every pagan idea about hell and found a way to put it in the bible and it's been doctrine since.
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Pagan idea? I'm sorry to tell you but you obviously know nothing about Paganism. You may at the very least want to read the
wikipedia page about Hel before you make any wild claims.
And to quote from
another wikipedia page:
Quote:
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There is reason to assume that the ideas of Hel are coloured by Christian influences which taught that there was a realm of punishment which opposed the paradise
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Doesn't quite match with what you claim, does it?
Yes, the Pagan Hel has had influences on the christian Hell. But the ideas of Hell as a place of punishment are largely christian.
Quote:
Originally Posted by August
Because people who believe that there is nothing greater than themselves tend to be, in my experience, narcissistic, self centered and anti-social.
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Then you've clearly met the wrong atheists.
About 99% of my friends are atheists, and none of them is anything like what you perceive atheists to be.