Re: Religion and Holidays, were Socialism (WAS: Re: Why Can't We Just Not Talk Politics?

On Mon, Dec 22, 2003 at 05:49:50PM -0800, Costentin Cornomorus wrote:
> Well, the Telerani are in the middle of the
> Metranes, which marks the virgin birth of Metras
> in a cave. Some also mark the virgin birth of
> Yeshue in a cave...
Suspiciously familiar. :)  What's the environment of the Telerani?

Thanks for the info, btw.

> >  since the culture I'm dealing with was
> > separated from the rest of the planet long
> > before any of the current major religions existed
>
> That's a long time. How were they separated?
Abducted by aliens, of course.  (Happens all the time, right?)
Sometime back when the various dialects of P-I-E were still
mutually comprehensible.

> There is a difference! "Real" religions might
> best be left for elsewhere; constructed religions
> and especially as they pertain to conlanging is
> fair game here.
Although many concultures are set in the real world and therefore
participate in real religions . . . at which point the line can
start to blur.

> Could look at Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism and
> how they grew and spread. Very little Christian
> influence there.
For all its differences from the Judeo-Christian/Islam tradition,
Buddhism is still a "modern" religion; it is centered on the
spiritual teachings of a lone prophet, and is concerned with the behavior
of its adherents rather than the actions of otherworldly spirits
or deities.

> Who 's to say? It is curious to note that all of
> our big religions that fit your bill cropped up
> in the Middle East: Aten in Egypt; Yahweh amongst
> the Israelites; Ahura Mazda in Persia.
It seems as though most of the major world-shaking
religions started in that particular corner of the
world, yes.  Even Buddha was from thereabouts, was he
not?

> Such religions did not
> occur in the West - Rome was fond of Mystery
> religions and Mithraism - nor in the East.
Note that Mithraism *also* began in the Middle East. :)

> Could be. Ecumenism between Asatru, Mithraists
> and devotees of Isis could be interesting!
Ah, Isis.  (Pause for pleasant memories of Saturday mornings
watching Joanna Cameron)     Sorry, what were we talking about?
Ah, religion.  Right.

> If you can get some prophet type to convince
> people of the Truth of his vision (i.e., figures
> like Akenaten, Moses, Mohammed, Smith) then who
> knows how rapidly such a religion could develop
> and spread! It really would be interesting to
> note what was particular to the Middle East that
> such religions cropped up in the first place.
I've always figured it was the lack of interesting scenery. :)

-Mark

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